During pre- and post-colonial times, cider was imbibed by all ages as a drink safer and more available than water, but also often subject to abuse, fueling the temperance movement and resulting in the chopping down of fields of apple trees. Thankfully, a few of these orchards have survived and the fruit from some of theses trees—heritage varieties with names like Wickson, Newtown Pippin and Tompkins King are once again being made into cider.

Supermarket apple varieties such as Red Delicious and Macintosh differ from their cider-making counterparts in that they are generally sweeter and have a texture more suitable for eating out of hand, unlike cider apples which are hard and tart. Even if you manage to take a bit of their rock-hard flesh, you’ll be sorry you did, due to mouth-puckering tartness and tannins.

Presses are used to extract the juice from cider apples, and yeast (natural and introduced) is added to activate the fermentation process. After bottling, the resulting lightly effervescent liquid pours somewhere between beer and wine, with a wide range of flavors and aromas—from crisp, tart and dry to a creamy mouthfeel with a strong sense of sweetness.

It was only a matter of time before regional culinary artisans would rediscover cider and foodies would follow. While more widely available and popular in British Columbia thanks to a more modern European cultural connect, cider has only recently become a trend in Oregon and Washington. Until the past couple years, you count the number of Northwest cider producers on one hand, yet today there’s more than a dozen on the market—and that number will grow as interest keeps pace.

Count us among the cider converts. there is a cider to match anyone’s palate: perry (cider made from pears), sparkling cider, super-sweet ice-cider and pommeau ( a cider distillate).

Cooking with cider

From an article by Peter Szymczak in our January/February 2012 issue of Northwest Palate magazine

Chef Gabriel Rucker of the Stumptown restaurants Le Pigeon and Little Bird was named Best Chef Northwest.  It was the second Beard award for the 32-year-old chef who continues to make headlines for his bold and inventive cuisine.

“I wasn’t prepared at all,” said Rucker who was among nearly two dozen chefs cooking at the gala and accepted the award in his chef’s coat. How is it to be a two-time Beard award winner within two years? Said Rucker:” That’s crazy stuff. I don’t even know.”

In 2011, Rucker was named Rising Star Chef of the Year, a national honor given to a chef 30 years old or younger.

Rucker scrambled to compose an acceptance speech as he walked to the stage at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall to claim his Beard medal.

He bested a formidable field of nominees: two Portland chefs (five-time nominee Cathy Whims of Nostrana and three-time nominee Naomi Pomeroy of Beast) and two Seattle chefs (Jason Franey of Canlis and Ethan Stowell of Staple & Fancy Mercantile).

In the cookbook category, Diane Morgan, who has penned 17 cookbooks, won a Beard for her book “Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 recipes” (Chronicle Books).

“I thought people weren’t going to ‘get’ roots,” said Morgan, adding it was “a really incredible experience” to win an award for a book she thought wasn’t even going to be understood.

In the Baking and Pastry category, Pastry Chef Ken Forkish of Ken’s Artisan Bakery took the prize for his book “Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza” (Ten Speed Press).

The Portland chef was also up for an award for the nation’s Best Pastry Chef. That award went to Brooks Headley of Del Posto in New York City.

Forkish, who has no agent, publicist and virtually no social media presence but for his bakery’s website, was glowing for days after receiving the honors. “This was the best weekend of my life,” said Forkish, joking that he “slept with James.” (He took his medal, imprinted with an image of James Beard, to bed the night of the awards.)

The Beard awards, held each year the first weekend and Monday in May, are a pivotal event in the culinary world with festivities that open with an awards dinner celebrating journalists, authors and broadcasters on Friday night. Excitement mounts as attendees gather for a Chefs’ Night Out party on the Sunday eve of the awards, this year held at The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English.

The culmination of the awards is the black-tie Monday night ceremony at Lincoln Center, complete with red carpet festivities beside the iconic fountain.  The event honors chefs, restaurateurs, designers, and food and beverage greats.

To learn more: 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards .

By Joan Cirillo

Joan Cirillo is an independent journalist and author based in Portland, Oregon and New York City.

For the home mixologist, the commercially available bitters can seem confusing: their individual flavors are unfamiliar, and they each taste different.  Get to know them better, and then get creative making your own.

Jamie Boudreau, Seattle mixologist, offers some advice. “Peach bitters work really well with bourbon, and grapefruit bitters work well with Pisco.  Peychaud’s works well with Scotch because the anise in the bitters goes hand-in-hand with the Scotch.” He has no favorite between the two most available orange bitters. “Regan’s Orange Bitters is a lot more bitter and spicy, while Fee Brothers are just a bright orange; they both have their place.”  And while the popular Angostura bitters can provide a subtle balance to drinks, he notes, the Fee aromatic bitters are more bold and spicy.

Angostura aromatic bitters are commonplace in state-run liquor stores and many grocery stores. Angostura’s new orange bitters  has now been added to the scene. Fee Brothers, Peychaud’s, and Regan’s bitters are somewhat less available but still can be found at better-stocked stores. Boudreau feels that all of the commercial bitters have good uses, and he encourages experimentation. “Every now and then I like just trying different bitters to see what happens . . . sometimes that magic thing happens when a drink becomes more than the sum of its parts.”

To find ingredients for making your own bitters, check out Tenzing Momo in Seattle’s Pike Place Market . In Portland, visit The Herb Shoppe at 2410 East Burnside Street . Vancouver, B.C., is home to an array of Asian herb stores, and it is best to enquire locally for sources of bitters ingredients.

From the March/April 2008 issue of Northwest Palate magazine

Photo credits: Cole Danehower; Cameron Nagel

Recipe: Spicy Honey Glaze

From an article by Susan G. Hauser  in the March/April 2008 issue of Northwest Palate magazine.

Lance Mayhew and Jenn Louis

“Jenn’s dish has a Mediterranean aspect to it,” says Mayhew, “so I wanted to reflect that in the cocktail by the use of an olive flavor, but I also wanted clean flavors that would play off the citrus side of the dish.”

Mayhew took as his starting point the Martini—a true, gin Martini, not one of the “500 Classic” ’tini corruptions commonly found at bars. “I wanted to have the olive in the Martini, but without the olive in the glass.” To do that he used a technique called “fat washing,” essentially transferring the flavor of a particular oil or fat to a base spirit, while allowing for the removal of the source of the accenting flavor from the spirit.

The result is a cocktail that offers a subtle olive nuance as well as a clean citrus twang—both of which complement key flavors in Louis’s dish.

Bartender Lance Mayhew with Chef Jenn Louis collaborated on a winter cocktail and food pairing.

“I think cocktails go beautifully with food,” says Chef Jenn Louis, co-owner with her bartender/food writer/husband David Welch of Lincoln Restaurant in Portland. “When cocktails are paired with our cuisine it gives us an extension and a continuity of what we’re serving that our diners really enjoy.”

“I wanted this dish to be warming for the winter, and to play off the citrus flavors that are available now,” said Louis. She also added Pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika) for a touch of spice.

Northwest Palate asked Louis to work with Portland’s Lance Mayhew on a cocktail and food collaboration that illustrates just how this still-emerging concept works. Louis is a regional chef who has helped pioneer the genre of cocktail and food pairing dinners, and whose focus on pure flavors of ingredients has made her new restaurant an instant hit. Mayhew has an international reputation as a leader in the craft cocktail arts, both for his detailed knowledge of classic, pre-Prohibition recipes, but also for his innovative techniques that are advancing the state-of-the-cocktail art.

Lance gives us The Milo Cocktail.

Recipe: Clams with Preserved Lemon, Garlic, Pimentón, and Parsley

Northwest Palate shares how to make butternut squash gnocchi with chef Sabrina Tinsley of Seattle’s Osteria la Spiga when she visited our Portland kitchen.

In Northwest Palate’s kitchen, we paired this dish with a  L’Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Sémillon. Pietro Borghesi, who oversees Osteria la Spiga’s wine list, declared it a good match, its bright fruit complementing but not overpowering the butternut squash. At the restaurant, he added, he might recommend the Kerner Abbazia di Novacella, a cool-climate white from Italy’s Alto Adige region. “Even if its minerality makes it a very fresh and dry wine,” said Borghesi, “the fruit is soft enough to accompany the sweetness of the butternut squash, and the sage in the sauce adds another layer to the experience.”

From the J/F 2008 issue of Northwest Palate with a story by Kathleen Bauer.

Photo credits: Matthew G. Monroe

The idea of wine appellations itself is ancient: Roman and Greek commentators noted how some places were better for winemaking than others. The French system of appellation d’origine contrôlée not only defines specific growing regions, but also growing techniques, standards, and wine quality.

The American system of AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), while loosely based on the French model, only defines specific geographies where grapes are grown; there is no element of wine quality or character explicitly involved in the process of AVA designation. All that is technically required for an AVA are that the area have a recognized historical name, the boundaries can be delineated on USGS maps, and that the climate, geology, and topography explicitly differ from surrounding areas. Even a history of grape growing is not a requirement.

Nevertheless, Northwest vintners take the intent of the AVA process to mean defining places whose climate and geology produce wines of distinctive character. And so it is with the Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley: this proposed appellation differs from other AVAs in its climate, soils, topography—and wines.

Because it is tucked up so close to the Cascade Range foothills, the area is one of the driest in the state and the air has low moisture content, helping keep rot and mildew away and enabling longer “hang time.” The soils are predominantly loamy silts, but there is interesting variability, more than in the nearby Wahluke Slope—including pockets of volcanic soils and areas of caliche, hardened calcium carbonate that is thought to impart a desirable minerality to wines.

The topography also can be variable. While the upland basin area of the AVA offers uniform gentle slopes, it also has lots of deep swales and basalt outcrops that challenge growers but also creates a variety of expression in the grapes. And deep changes of elevation along the western edge of the AVA, make for excellent air drainage that helps reduce frost risk and extend ripening.

All of these elements are technically required for AVA designation, but for wine lovers, the vital thing is that the they also result in wine character that is distinctive to the Ancient Lakes area: vibrant, minerally whites, and savory reds with healthy backbones.

Zak Melang, co-owner of Southland Whiskey Kitchen

The creation of Seattle-based restaurant entrepreneurs Zak Melang and Nathan Opper (who also run the mini-chain of Matador restaurants—4 in Washington, 2 in Oregon, and 1 in Idaho), the Southland Whiskey Kitchen is a Portland-riff on their recently opened Seattle ‘cue house Kickin’ Boot (in Ballard).

Barbecue is a kind of religion in some parts of this country, but in the Northwest it tends to be non-denominational. “I wouldn’t like to classify us by any particular regional style,” says Zak during a media preview dinner. “It’s a combination of everything we like. We toured the south extensively tasting different styles, from Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas—all those places.”

But when pressed, Zak admits “If we had to describe our style, I’d say it leans toward Texas.” Which makes sense, since the meats are all house smoked with mesquite wood, using a custom-built smoker from—where else?—Mesquite, Texas.

Sure enough! Southland Whiskey Kitchen’s custom-built smoker is from Mesquite, Texas.

“We do a dry rub and make our own sauces,” Zak adds, “so if you want to go North Carolina or Alabama, you can do it.”

The decor emphasizes a southern comfort ambience. Located in what used to be the Clear Creak Distillery building, heavy use of brick, steel, and reclaimed wood lends an air of rustic sophistication. Zak designed the interior of Southland Whisky Kitchen himself, and did the build out himself—like at all the other Opper Melang restaurants. He uses the company’s own wood and metal shop in Seattle to design and fabricate the finishings.

So why Portland?

“I just love this city,” says Zak, “particularly this neighborhood around Northwest 23rd. I lived here for awhile and I have lots of friends here, and when we opened the Matador here it was wildly successful. There’s a continuing demand for quality restaurant and bars here, and when this space became available I knew it was perfect for this concept.”

While the emphasis is on house-smoked barbecue, whiskey is not far behind. A chalkboard listing of all the available bourbons, ryes, Scotches and whiskey’s whets the whistle for a whiskey expedition: it includes everything from local Northwest whiskeys, to ancient Pappy Van Winkle—including some names completely new to me.

Executive Chef Tim Fuhrman (who opened both Portland City Grill and Portland Steak and Chop House) manages a diverse menu that includes small plates, sandwiches, salads, steaks and seafood, fried chicken, sides (15 of them), desserts, and—oh yeah—ribs and barbecue.

What’s a southern-inspired restaurant without biscuits?

At the preview dinner the spicy shrimp and grits were delectably creamy, smoky, and spicy, while the fried chicken leg was wonderfully moist with a crisp coating of goodness. The platter of mixed meats—pulled pork, brisket, and rib—was satisfying. I might have wished for a little more smoke flavor in the pulled pork and a touch more moisture in the brisket, but the rib was excellently flavored and fall-off-the-bone tender.

I enjoyed the saucing options. The HOUSE sauce is a runny tomato-based beauty that adds a subtle sweetness, the SWEET is more exotic with a tamarind and orange accent, the GOLD is a strong rendition of a North Carolina mustard sauce, the WHITE is the house take on a less frequently-encountered Alabama sauce, the SPICY is a piquant habanero-based sauce.

Interestingly, there is no Kansas City-style thick and dark, sweet/spicy tomato-y option. For those who balk at the possible spiciness of barbecue sauces, I would not be afraid to sample the Southland house sauces; they have very good flavor, but are not aggressive enough to pummel your palate. But since I prefer the punch, my favorite sauce was the house HOT sauce, also habanero based, with a potent enough kick of heat to widen your eyes, but not so killing as to overwhelm the spicy fruitiness of the peppers.

Other menu options include Louisiana catfish, a variety of steaks, hot links, barbecued chicken, burgers, fried catfish Po’boy, fried green tomatoes, seafood gumbo . . . you get the idea: plenty of choice!

Southland Whiskey Kitchen should be a welcome addition to the Portland scene, offering a friendly and cozy environment for sampling tasty Southern-inspired ‘cue.

Southland Whiskey Kitchen
1422 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR
503-224-2668

From a feature story by Kathleen Bauer in the September October 2009 issue of Northwest Palate.

Photos: Henry Ngan, Studio 3