And if you’re still looking for that special gift, Allium offers its Wine Shoppe, for unique, difficult to find wines at retail.

We are also excited to celebrate the holidays with you. It is a pleasure to share Christmas Eve with you. We’ll be serving some beautiful specials in addition to your regular favorites. And what better place to spend a comfortable, joyous evening–and let us take care of you!

And then we ring in the New Year with The Djangophiles, lively gypsy jazz, who brighten the night while you sit back and enjoy. We’ll entice you with special dishes, and with new favorites. A relaxed, fun evening close to home and close to friends and family.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays to All!

Pull out the straw hat for a special neighborhood dinner on August 28 at Stonegate and 19^th Street Farms with seven dishes prepared in the field, and wine poured by neighborhood winemakers Molly and Darrel Roby of Ribera Vineyards (our neighbors down the street).  You’re sure to work up a hearty appetite strolling through the farm, on a tour guided by expert lavender farmer, Sarah Bader, while sipping away on a tall glass of lavender lemonade, or cool, crisp Ribera Pinot Gris. The scent of fresh lavender, arugula, and greens ready your palate for Farmer Miles McCoy’s famous tomato tasting before you slowly make your way to the community tables in the field. There, you’ll relax over seven fresh courses, each crafted from ingredients harvested straight from the farm and prepared over the rustic barbeque fired up alongside the community tables. Nestling in for some good talk, you might languor in the lively gypsy notes of the Djangophiles strumming nearby. Or you might find themselves entertained by the chickens clucking along in the field– and feel the last of high summer in each bite of juicy, sweet heirloom tomato, as you talk late into the evening….and where my wife, Melissa & I hope to sit down and join you for a few stargazing moments.

~ Pascal

For the detail-minded:

Guests are invited to gather for the Farm Tour at 5:30, followed by Dinner in the Field at 6, where guests gather around community tables filled with family and friends. The cost is $45 per person excluding gratuity (cash gratuity encouraged onsite). Purchase tickets in advance through Allium Bistro at (503) 387-5604.

Finally, we get to recreate some of these memories this summer. Upcoming wine dinners, produce stalls steeped in the finest produce from 19th Street Farms, Neighborhood Dinners with our best local farms, and finally, planting and sharing a harvest with friends and fellow chefs at The Tilth Table.

The summer is shaping up to have all that summer has to offer–fresh, delicious food, good wine, laughter, community. We can’t wait to share it with you.

Saturdays: 19th street Farms Produce Row at Allium, 2:30-5:30

Sunday, June 24: Farm Dinner at Allium, 6:30-9:30

Sunday, July 17: Tilth Table at Luscher Farms, 9a-1p

Until then, get out and dig. Get out and dine!

-Pascal

Rain sideways and wind gusting along the Tualatin River, we all piled into the truck to head over to Stonegate Farm on Thursday–Pascal & Ian in t-shirts and chef’s clogs, and me, bundled up in a warm parka. Amazing how less than a mile from our front doors, lush farms hug the river, and produce some of the best provisions around, Stonegate Farm included for sure.  Sarah greeted us just outside the greenhouse with her contagious smile just as Miles and Carla bustled over from 19th Street Farms next door. Sarah’s been digging in this dirt since 2000, and just finished up a book–which we can’t wait to get our hands on. Who knew there could be 85 varieties of beautiful, fragrant lavender–all on one farm–not to mention the edible varieties which got Pascal dreaming up some wild lavender beurre blanc, or maybe some creamy ice cream smothered in lavender confiture, creme anglaise, and well…..more.

As we trudged through several months’ of fine, thick winter mud, Sarah pointed to the wild kiwi, clinging tightly to a downed trellis, and to the fields of burgeoning lavender. And much to all of our delight, we happened upon what could only be described as The Chicken Mansion, where several plump beauties pecked and hummed along. Squinting, we could envision the warmth of the sun’s rays and the lush, full trees of summer, when we will surely saunter back to Stonegate Farm and laze about the lavender fields and dream.

~ written by Melissa Chureau

Red Verjus Gastrique

1 liter red verjus

1 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

Combine verjus and vinegar in small saucepan and reduce by about 80 percent.  Turn off heat, add sugar, dizzolve, and store in small squirt bottle. Should yield about ½ cup. Use for toppings for ice cream, sorbet of fresh berries.

Verjus and Thyme Vinaigrette

1 cup white verjus       

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar   

½ cup oil blend       

1/3 cup virgin olive oil       

2 tablespoons chopped thyme   

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard   

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard       

1 egg yolk

* salt and pepper, to taste  

Combine all the ingredients in a blender. Pulse for 20 seconds then slowly add the oil until the mixture thickens. Serve over green salad.

What better way to celebrate the season than with good food, wine, and conversation! We are very excited to offer two Winter Neighborhood Dinners to whet your appetite and warm your soul.  We are very excited to partner with Oregon Tilth for our December Neighborhood Dinner, when The Farm Comes to Allium.

Vibrant, organic foods are tended, grown, and harvested year round at Luscher Farm, a beautiful agricultural park right in our own backyard.  It is here, and throughout the Portland Metro area, that Oregon Tilth and their partners host educational opportunities for aspiring urban farmers and gardeners, as well as providing a meaningful, ecological model and mission for students for all ages and pursuits.  Oregon Tilth is deeply committed to a biologically-sound agriculture and has built a non-profit devoted to organic certification, education, research, and advocacy.

Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun to learn and volunteer with Farmer Conner, Oregon Tilth’s demonstration site manager –who we’re excited to have with us when The Farm Comes to Allium.  We can’t wait to share with you the perfectly, sweetly pungent garlic and savory, creamy German butterballs that he’s provided for this local, farm to plate meal.  And you can dine knowing that 10% of the dinner’s proceeds go straight back to Oregon Tilth’s Education Center, empowering hands-on, garden-based education at Luscher Farm and beyond.

We hope you enjoy our little place as much as we are enjoying to get know all of you.  Please join us this Winter season as we partake of some of the best and most nourishing aspects in life–our food, our friends, our family, our community.

And don’t forget to check out Oregon Tilth and all the amazing opportunities there!

“The duck is the farmer’s bird, easily reared and fattened…The duck is the epicure’s bird also: one might say the gormandizer’s, but the phrase is hardly polite when they make a market for our fine, tender chicks and ducklings.” ~The Cultivator & Country Gentleman, Vol. 42, 1877.

For the fellow duck lovers out there, here’s a little recipe my wife, Melissa, loves. Hope you do too.

Ingredients – serves 4

4 duck breasts (6-8 ounces)

7 ounces of chanterelles or shitakes w/o stems, tom by hand, 3-4 pieces per mushroom cap

2 shallots julienned or chopped

½ tbsp chopped fresh thyme

1 ½ cups veal or vegetable stock

¼ c of balsamic vinegar or port wine

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp of heavy whipping cream

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Preparation

With a sharp knife, remove about US layer of fat from breast

Remove the duck tenderloin and discard tenderloin

Score the fat by making diagonal cuts along the fat

Salt & pepper both sides of each breast

In a skillet on the stove, pour approximately 3 tbsp olive oil

Place the duck, fat down, into the skillet

Turn flame to medium

Cook until the fat is light-brown in color (cooking only one side)

Then place the breast (still fat side down) in 400 degree oven

Cook for about 10-12 minutes

Remove pan from oven & place breast on plate to rest

In same sauté pan used to cook the breast, add chanterelles, shallots, and fresh th¡rme

Cook over medium fire for 1 minute

Deglaze with port wine or balsamic vinegar

Add veal or vegetable stock, cream, and honey

Add salt & pepper to taste

Cook over medium fire with 10 minutes

Slice duck breast on the bias-6-7 slices per breast

Place on plate, drizzle sauce and mushroom ragout over each breast

• This dish goes very well with polenta or mashed potatoes
• Also, any remaining duck fat can be saved and used later to add incredible flavor to breakfast eggs and/or potatoes!