Welcome to the online home of The Red Rooster Grocery!  We work with dozens of local farmers, growers and food producers to bring a wide selection of Olympic Peninsula food to you.  If you like to eat – or cook – and want to enjoy the highest-quality, freshest ingredients then we invite you to stop by and learn more about what the Peninsula has to offer.

Remember – you are what you eat!!!

A comment from a friend inspired tonight’s meal, an easy and flexible main-course salad we call a “Modified Nicoise.”

The classic Salade Nicoise includes lettuce, various veggies, tuna and anchovies, a hard boiled egg and a vinaigrette dressing.  The best are found in various small coastal towns along the French Riveria, but with no vacation in sight we just put together our best Sequim Springtime version and imagined we were lunching in Eze, al fresco, being cooled by a nice breeze off the sparkling Mediterranean in the distance.

Our version of Salade Nicoise began with a base of washed and torn Romaine lettuce. To this we added some cubed red potato, cooked al dente; beautiful yellow tomatoes; chilled, cooked pieces of asparagus; sliced green onion; tuna (no anchovies;) and of course the dressing.

The variety of lettuce isn’t important, but we like Romaine for this purpose because the leaves are sturdy and stand up to the other heavy ingredients.  The chilled red potatoes are a key ingredient, lending both weight and texture contrast.  With their waxy (rather than fluffy) nature, red potatoes or fingerlings are best for this application.

Flexibility is one of the big perks of a dinner salad like this. No anchovies, or don’t like them? That’s OK. No potatoes? Try using white beans instead. No tuna? Then try some left-over steak, sliced sausage or even marinated tofu.  A complimentary combination of colors and textures, plus sufficient protein, is what you are after.

This type of salad best lends itself to a nice vinaigrette dressing.  The basic ingredients for a vinaigrette are oil and vinegar in equal parts, plus a touch of mustard which acts as an emulsifier.  By changing the variety of oil (cold-pressed, unrefined oils like grapeseed, hemp, walnut or avocado are best) and the variety of vinegar (balsamic, champagne and red wine are common), and then by adding flavoring to your liking (finely chopped shallots, garlic, fresh herbs) it is simple to create the perfect dressing for any salad.

Serve with some hearty warm bread and enjoy!

For some reason we rarely make casseroles. I’m not sure why they haven’t made it into the regular dinner rotation, especially since you typically get several meals out of a single effort, but for whatever reason they are a rare treat at our place.  That is why it was so fun to have a customer drop off a recipe for “Peppery Egg Noodle, Farmer’s Cheese & Cauliflower Gratin” – it inspired us to try something new while reminding us about a whole world of dishes we rarely consider.

As with most casseroles, this recipe is pretty simple.  I began by mixing 12 oz of “farm cheese” with  3/4 cup of heavy cream.  “Farm cheese” is typically a soft white cheese, so I used a combination of white cheeses we had in the fridge at home:  Fromage Blanc from the Mt. Townsend Creamery, a bit of old cream cheese and some grated Monterey Jack.  I mixed them well in a bowl, then added the heavy cream and mixed again to incorporate.  A food processor could also be used to mix the cheese(s) and the cream.  Mixing the heavy cream in with the cheese gave it a really neat texture – like very thick whipped cream. 

Next I finished “Martha-ing” (prepping) our ingredients.  One head of cauliflower got cut into small florettes.  A quarter cup of breadcrumbs was combined with a heaping tablespoon of freshly-chopped thyme.  Dried thyme will work as well, but the fresh leaves brought a beautiful element of color to the dish.  About 9 oz of egg noodles went into a boiling pot of salted water.  A cup of vegetable broth was prepared.

Once the ingredients were all together it was time to turn on the heat.  First I melted a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet, then added the bread crumbs and thyme plus a couple of grinds of salt and pepper.  I cooked this mixture, stirring all the while, just until the breadcrumbs began to take on a golden color (not more than 2-3 minutes) then quickly transferred the toasted crumbs to a small bowl for later use.

After wiping out the skillet, I melted another tablespoon of butter and added the cauliflower.  The florets were browned over medium-high heat until golden, then the stock was added and the cauliflower florets simmered for a few minutes until just tender.

By this time the noodles were cooked and ready to drain.  While the noodles were draining, I added the cheese mixture and the cauliflower (including cooking liquid) to the hot pasta bowl and stirred them together.  Then I added the hot drained noodles back in and stirred again until well-mixed.  Finally, I poured the whole mess into a buttered 9 x 13 pan, sprinkled the toasted bread crumbs over the top, and baked at 400 for about a half hour or until golden and bubbly.  The final step was to let the hot casserole sit for about five minutes before eating; a step you take with any baked dish to let the boiling liquids firm up a bit and distribute themselves evenly throughout the casserole.

We enjoyed this simple and warm vegetarian meal with a fresh Caesar salad, which provided a nice contrast of color and crunchy fresh flavor.  We always make our own Caesar dressing with an egg yolk, fresh chopped or pressed garlic, lemon juice, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and olive oil.  Mix together everything but the olive oil, then add the olive oil while whisking until smooth.  You can’t beat this simple dressing over some nice fresh romaine lettuce with a little grated Parmesan!

The best part?  We will be enjoying the meal all over again another night having already done the cooking.  The next best part?  This basic recipe can be easily altered to taste.  Like some spice?  Add a dash of cayenne, or saute some jalepeños with the cauliflower.  Want to add extra depth of flavor?  Try a dash of allspice.  Do you prefer more protein?  Chicken or tuna would fit in nicely.  Don’t have any egg noodles?  Why not try it with penne?  The possibilities are endless.

Here’s to more casseroles in our future, and in yours.

Sometimes you just feel like a hamburger. For us, those times often come after eating vegetarian for a few days!  These omnivores cannot live on tofu stir-fry alone.

Arugula Burger!

There are three vital parts to a good burger, beginning with the beef.  Of course we use our local grass-fed beef supplier, Clark Farms.  If you have not searched out a hormone and antibiotic free, grass-fed beef farmer in your area, I recommend you do so before making your next hamburger.  The beef tastes like…beef!  But not just beef…it tastes like really good beef!  You will immediately notice the difference in taste, as well as in texture. 

We make hamburgers the same way my step-father Kermit made his:  Shape the ground beef into patties, sprinkle with garlic salt and ground black pepper, then marinate in Worcestershire Sauce until ready to cook.  Simple perfection.  Sometimes we cook our burgers on the grill over indirect heat, but more often than not we just fry them up on the cast iron skillet.  If you trust your beef, then leave your burger somewhat pink in the middle.  This is especially important when using grass-fed meat, which can easily dry out when over-cooked.  Another burger hint is to make a small depression in the middle of each patty, which helps them cook evenly.

Almost as important as the beef is the bun.  Sometimes you’re in the mood for the classic…a soft potato bun.  Other times, a crusty roll or a ciabatta might be in order.  This evening we wanted to enjoy our burgers open-faced, so we used slices of sprouted whole grain bread.  We usually make our “open faced” buns Texas-toast style, which to us means coated on each side with a thin layer of butter or olive oil and toasted up on a skillet.  This style of preparation leaves the bread with great taste and the perfect texture for open faced sandwiches.

The third element to a burger is the dressing, and this is where anything goes.  Cheese?  Obligatory, and usually sharp cheddar or blue cheese at our place.  Avocado?  If we’ve got it.  Red onion?  Hell yes.  Bacon?  Only when we’re feeling particularly gluttonous.  Jimmy Buffet style?  Lettuce and tomato, Heintz 57 and French fried potatoes?  A big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer?  Good dog almighty, which way do I steer?

Tonight, however, we were not eating our cheeseburgers in paradise so we went another direction.  The primary “dressing” was baby arugula.  Wo-hoo!  Sounds exciting, no? 

Well, it did to us.  For people who grow greens and sell salad mixes for a living, we have eaten precious little arugula until recently.  What great flavor!  We topped our Texas toast with a big pile of fresh arugula, then layered the burger on top.  Protein, vegetable and starch all in one package.  The baby arugula lent a vibrant, almost-nutty flavor to the dish.  Older arugula tends to have a much sharper or peppery mustard-green flavor and is best in smaller doses (such as a part of a mixed green salad) but baby arugula may be used with abandon.

It may sound grandiose (and perhaps it is…I’ll leave that for you to decide) but so much of what is important in food and eating comes through in this burger.  First, quality and organic ingredients matter.  Do a beef taste-test for yourself.  Organically-grown leafy greens should be the norm, since this type of plant so readily absorbs pesticides.  Remember…you are eating the plant itself!  A small crumble or thin slice of quality local cheese packs enough flavor to go a long way.  A well-made bun or piece of bread elevates the meal.

Next, simple doesn’t always have to mean “the same.”  Want your burger to taste different than it usually does?  Then mix up the ingredients.  Use bread instead of a bun.  Use arugula instead of lettuce.  Try a different flavor of mustard.  Small changes can make for a significantly different experience.

Finally, food and eating can remind you of family and friends.  We remember Kermit with fondness and a smile every single time we prepare “his” hamburgers.  We make plans for our own food future, like one day trying to re-create his famous pepperoni-based spaghetti sauce.  We remember meals shared around the many tables at which we’ve sat over the years.

Not bad for a humble hamburger!  Happy eating to you all.

Sometimes a trio of tasty appetizers is all it takes for a great meal and making several small dishes is a fun way to utilize a variety of ingredients and flavors without getting too complicated.  The most complex dish in this trio is marinated shrimp and peppers, which is prepared a day ahead.

Smoked Black Cod, Beetkraut & Fromage Blanc

We particularly enjoy the appetizer dinner on Oscar Night.  Complimented by a bottle of Finn River artisan-style cider (which drinks like a beautiful dry champagne), a regular Sunday night in February becomes a gala event!  Tonight’s lineup began with our favorite new cracker bite which is pictured above.   Begin with a cracker of your choice, top with a schmear of Mount Townsend Creamery Fromage Blanc, dress with a small dollop of Midori Farms Beet Kraut and finish with a flake of smoked black cod. Small soft or toasty bread rounds can also be used. This combination of fluffy cheese, tart and bright kraut, and the silky, buttery smokiness of the black cod is really something – a taste explosion, as we like to say.

The “main” course was spot prawns (thank you Oyster Shoppe) done two ways; spicy and dilly.  Our favorite of the two paired the prawns with a heavy dose of bell peppers and a zingy marinade.  This recipe for “Party Peppers and Shrimp” is from Simply Classic, The Junior League of Seattle 1998 cookbook.  It takes a bit of preparation, but we felt it was well worth it.

Begin by peeling and deveining 1/2 lb shrimp and cooking them in boiling water for about two minutes, until just opaque.  Rinse in cold water and drain.

Cut 2 medium bell peppers (one red, one yellow for best color) in half and remove seeds.  Flatten halves and place skin side up on a cookie sheet.  Brush with olive oil and place on middle rack of oven.  Broil until skin is charred and blistered; remove from oven and place peppers in a paper sack to steam.  After about ten minutes, rub the skin off and cut the peppers into thin strips.

In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 cup plus 2 T oil, 2 T apple cider vinegar, 2 T tomato sauce, 1.5 t Tabasco, 1.5 t Worcestershire sauce, 3/4 t sugar, 1/2 t dry mustard and 1/4 t salt.  In a large bowl, mix together shrimp, peppers, 1/4 cup sliced red onion and 3/4 T capers.  Pour marinade over shrimp and peppers and set in the fridge for 8 hours, or overnight.

Serve shrimp and pepper mixture cold, with toasted bread rounds.  It is spicy and delicious!  Since it is made in advance, it’s perfect for easy entertaining.

The final “killer app” from our trio was a standard which we call “cheezy dip.”  It is flexible, warm and always tasty.  To make a basic cheezy dip you mix together cream cheese, sour cream and Parmesan cheese in approximately 3-2-1 proportions.  Add flavors to suit.  Cayenne, scallions, artichoke hearts, spinach, and bacon bits are good choices but don’t hesitate to be creative and add your own favorite herbs, seafood or substitute another cheese for the Parmesan.

Once your ingredients are mixed together, bake at 350′ in a ramekin until bubbly.  Serve with toasty bread rounds.  This warm and filling option was very complimentary to the cold and zingy shrimp and the crackers.  It is like a bit of comfort food to go along with the more vibrant flavors and textures in the other dishes.

Even if the show wasn’t quite up to snuff this year, and even though we hadn’t managed to see any of the films beforehand, we were well-fed throughout the evening.  Besides, you don’t have to see the movies to feel qualified commenting on the fashion choices of the stars on Oscar Night. 

Enjoy!

I believe I’ve blogged before about the eternal quest for a decent “new” stir-fry because we seem to get into flavor ruts with our cooking from time to time. For awhile we tasted our way around the fun flavored “sauce(s) in a jar” we carry at the store, but now those all taste the same to us as well so it was time for something new.

Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry

I discovered a simple beef and green bean recipe which we adapted a little and enjoyed very much.  At first glance, the recipe looked a bit too basic but the flavor base for the beef marinade is honey and white wine, ingredients I didn’t recall having used in a stir fry before.  Something new…wa-hoo!

Build the marinade by combining 1/4 cup soy sauce (we use Bragg Liquid Aminos in place of soy sauce in all applications) with 1/4 cup white wine, 1 T honey and 2 cloves minced garlic.  Marinate your pound of beef – Clark Farms fajita/stir fry meat of course! – in the fridge for at least one hour, preferably several.  If you don’t have access to Clark Farms beef, you can certainly use your favorite beef or other meat; just thin-slice the pieces for quick and even cooking.  Then, ponder a move to the Sequim area so that you too can enjoy incredible local meat while your inferior beef is marinating.  Thank you again Holly and Tom Clark!

The remaining ingredients are 2 cups of green beans, cut in half; 1 cup red onion, thinly sliced; 1 red or yellow bell pepper, sliced; a half-dozen crimini mushrooms, quartered; and about one tablespoon of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces.  Note:  I just learned a trick for peeling ginger…use a spoon!  The skin comes off very easily when you rub it with the edge of a spoon.  The cooking experience is always so much easier and more fun when you take time to “Martha” your ingredients (clean them, cut them, measure them and put them in small bowls) before cooking.  Others call this “prepping” but that doesn’t sound like fun.  We prefer to honor Martha…Stewart, of course.  We even call our array of small and medium-sized bowls “Martha bowls.”

Once your beef is marinated and your veggies prepared you are ready to go.  Begin by blanching your green beans in a pot of boiling water for about two minutes.  Drain, rinse under cold water and drain again.

Next heat about a tablespoon of your favorite oil – we usually use peanut or coconut for stir fries – and add the beef.  Reserve the marinade for later.  Cook the beef over medium-high heat for about two minutes, or until almost cooked through.  Remove the meat from your wok or pan and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the hot pan and add the onion and ginger.  After about a minute, add the mushrooms.  After about another minute, add the green beans and bell pepper.  Cook the veggies, stirring often, about three minutes or so, until just tender.

While the veggies are cooking, add 1 T of corn starch to the reserved marinade.  When veggies are just tender, add the beef and the reserved marinade back to the wok or pan and stir until sauce thickens, about a minute or so.  Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and serve over jasmine rice or rice noodles.

The flavor is delicate, but the honey and wine make for a very different flavor base than our typical effort.  We enjoyed the meal and were glad we resisted the temptation to add red pepper flakes, which we often do at the “saute aromatics” stage to help boost flavor.  The heat would have overpowered the delicate yet very enjoyable flavors of the marinade.

While this was specifically a green bean-focused recipe, there is no reason the basic marinade couldn’t be used for any combination of veggies.  Eat on!

Great news! Clark Farms, our local provider of grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef is now offering pork for sale by the individual cut.  The first round of pastured, drug-free local pork just arrived at the store so we took  home some rib chops to try.

Clark Farms Pork Chop

There are many ways to prepare pork chops, but we wanted to do as little as possible in order to really get a sense for the flavor. I rubbed wth chops with ground sea salt and ground black pepper and seared them on the stovetop in peanut oil.   Note:  When cooking in a stainless steel skillet, you know your meat is properly seared on the “down” side when it frees up from the pan bottom. If the meat is sticking, it isn’t browned yet.

We paired the chops with “risotto cakes” and greens. Risotto cakes are a great way to use left-over risotto. At their most simple, just place a large spoonful of risotto on a buttered skillet and brown on both sides over medium heat. They can be improved by coating with panko or being cooked more carefully, but we never bother because they are SO DARN TASTY done the easy way.  The leftover risotto was a batch made with butternut squash, and it was perfect as cakes.

The greens, a combination of swiss chard and lacinato kale, were chopped up and cooked in a small amount of vegetable broth until just tender. This is nearly always our favorite way to cook any variety of greens.

But I digress…back to the pork chops. They were simply fabulous. Wonderful, full pork flavor unlike I’ve had in many years. Sweet but not grassy. Tender. Perfectly-sized. I felt compelled to work the bone, a practice which has not interested me since childhood.  The three of us at the table all agreed – this was the best pork any of us recalled eating.

High praise for a simple, humble pork chop.  Thanks to Tom and Holly Clark for bringing yet another great local product to market; superior in every way to the alternative. There is no reason for anyone in Sequim to eat factory pork again.  We can hardly wait to try their chicken which we’ve heard will be coming to market mid-summer.  It’s a long time until July, but I’ve no doubt it will be well worth the wait!

Sometimes we cook fancy, sometimes simple.  This is a simple, flexible meal that comes together quickly and tastes delicious.

Uli's Sausage Sandwich

It all begins with the sausage.  As any visitor to The Red Rooster Grocery knows, we are fans of Uli’s Famous Sausage out of the Pike Place Market in Seattle and always keep a varied supply in the freezer.  Uli is a Master German Butcher who knows his sausage.  He sources quality meat, always seems to use just the right amount of seasoning and prefers a very fine, smooth grind.  You’ll find no chewy chunks in these links!

For this meal we began with his Italian Chicken Sausage.  We took them straight out of the freezer and placed them in a frying pan with some water (about a quarter inch.)  We then boiled the water off over medium heat, turning the links occasionally.  By the time the water was cooked off, the links were defrosted and partially-cooked.  We then gave them a nice even brown to finish them off.  You may add some oil to the pan if you wish (Uli’s links are on the lean side and won’t drip any fat.)

While the sausages were cooking in one pan, we sliced up an onion, a red bell pepper and some mushrooms and sauteed them in olive oil in a second pan.  For this recipie we like the onions to maintain just a bit of crunch, so they just need to cook about five minutes or so.  You can add seasonings and substitute other veggies according to taste – garlic is often a nice addition; a shallot can be used in place of the onion; spinach or greens add some nice color, flavor and nutrition to the end product.  A jalepeno or red pepper flakes can be added to spice things up.

While things were cooking on the stove we sliced a Bell Street Bakery ciabatta loaf length-wise, buttered the halves and placed them under the broiler until barely golden brown.  We took them out of the oven, spread a thin layer of pesto on each half (marinara is another good option here,) sliced the sausage in half length-wise, and placed the sliced link on the bread.  Then we covered the meat with some mozarella cheese and placed them back under the broiler until the cheese was melty.  Out of the oven, onto the plate, smother with the onion mixture, and viola…dinner is served.

A nice crunchy salad with a simple dressing finished things off this time.  Braised greens or steamed broccoli would also make nice vegetable sides for this meal.

Until next time, happy eating!

Remember that chicken from a few blogs ago? The one that became Chicken Parmigiana? Well, the carcass (sorry, vegetarian readers) became chicken soup last night.

Chicken Soup

Mike, our friend and newest member of “Team Rooster,” was nice enough to treat us to dinner this week.  We supplied him with a random selection of “leftovers” from the store; a few leeks too soft to sell, a sweet onion turning brown on the top, thyme and sage that just didn’t look their best, carrots, a few wrinkley jalepenos, and a bunch of celery that had been staying cold in the garage for the last week, waiting to become treats for our hens.

Sounds delicious, right?  And so it was!  Mike took all those “leftover” ingredients, removed the soft or brown parts, added them with the chicken carcass to a pot of salted water and simmered all afternoon. There was even a decent amount of meat still on the bird since it had been taken apart by an ameteur.  After simmering, he removed the meat from the bone and strained the liquid thus removing all the now-mushy vegetable ingredients, but none of the flavor.

After returning the strained stock and chicken meat back to the pot, he added brown rice and egg noodles to create the finished soup. It was great! The jalepenos give it some kick…not too much, but really nice. It also had a depth of color more like a vegetable broth. The brown rice was a wonderful addition and gave the soup some texture.

The soup was accompanied by a sliced avacado, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I have never eaten an avacado with these flavors before and really enjoyed the savory preparation.  And what would a meal of soup be without bread?  Mike prepared a Ciabatta loaf by rubbing it with olive oil and sprinkling with sea salt before being heating it up in the oven. Yum…love the sea-salt. A simple mixed green salad completed the dinner.

What a treat to be treated to dinner!  And, like most of what gets cooked around here, it was pretty simple. Chop up some old veggies, whatever is on hand. Boil with some protein until the flavors meld. Serve with sides simply dressed up, and viola…a special meal.

Thanks Mike!  We’re looking forward to your next home-cooked meal.   I think I recall hearing something about scratch tomato sauce – yummy!

Tonight we enjoyed a beautiful steelhead filet. After a quick rinse under cold water, I sprinkled it with applewood-smoked sea salt and ground black pepper, covered the filet with thinly-sliced green onions and finished with lemon slices. The fish went into a 425′ oven and about 15 minutes later, it was ready.

Steelhead with Smoked Salt

This was the first time we’ve used smoked salt.  We have been carrying four varieties at the store and finally decided to bring one home.  Normally I would have thought to pair the applewood “flavor” with a pork dish, but it sure matched up well with the steelhead.  Now we can’t wait to try the other kinds – hickory, alder and cherrywood.

We decided to make another rice pilaf to accompany the fish, having enjoyed our last effort so much. It seems  that the key pilaf ingredient is a fruit of some sort, so this time we thin-sliced a Honeycrisp apple and sauteed it in a little butter/olive oil mixture along with an equal amount of sliced onions, crimini mushrooms, about three tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger and later added some sliced almonds for a little crunch.  Meanwhile the rice was cooking away in the rice-cooker.  We used a pre-mix of organic brown rices that cook up with great flavor and texture, and we used the rice cooker to make one dry cup, which cooks up into enough for two people plus leftovers.   When the rice was done, I added it to the saute pan with about 1/2 cup chicken broth, heated it through until the liquid was absorbed. 

Once again, a simple mixed green salad finished things off. What an enjoyable meal! The smoked sea salt was really nice, lending a subtle smokey flavor without being overpowering. The fresh fish is so good, we really just try not to get in the way of its wonderful flavor. The pilaf turned out well too, and it was fun to experience a different way to use our new (old) favorite of apples and onions.

Cooking is easy – and fun – with a great palate of simple ingredients.  Cheers!