Portland Food Map

I've been playing around with Google Maps, and I started a map of food and drink places in Portland. Trina and I will update it with places we visit, Patrick at A Letter From Hen Waller (and owner of the Vélocouture group on flickr) will be filling in some N/NE Portland places, and Devin at Please Ask It Nicely is going to fill in some places on the West side of town.

Hopefully this will give you all some great ideas of where to go, and you can find places in parts of town you like or know well or are close to. Best of wishes for happy eating in Portland!


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Well, thank you!

We were just informed the other day that our blog has been chosen as one of the featured Portland food-related blogs on http://www.wherethelocalseat.com/. I have to say, we're a bit surprised (as we just do this because we love food), and honored. Thanks for picking us, and thanks to those of you that read our blog :) Hope you enjoy it and find something useful here!

chicken stock

Lately we've been making our own chicken stock, and it's been a wonderful discovery how delicious chicken stock can be :)

When we've made roasted or baked chickens, we've just saved the remains. Generally we stuff our bird with lemons, profuse amounts of garlic, and fresh herbs when we bake them. That gives us a great base to work from for the stock, but even with a more simply baked bird you get amazing results.

The method of preparation is pretty simple.

Making the stock:

1. Take a big pot, put in chicken remains, and fill with enough water to cover the chicken (or as much water as you want to make stock if you have a very large pot).
2. Put in chopped up veggies (we've been using carrots, celery and onions, but you can use anything)
3. Put in herbs/spices (we've been using whole peppercorns, bay leaves, and I think some rosemary, thyme and oregano, but again, you can use anything you like).
   
4. Turn up heat to medium and let pot simmer for about 3 hours

Straining and storing:

1. Remove the large pieces of veggies, herbs and chicken bits and bones.
   
2. Strain the rest through a colander lined with cheese cloth over a big bowl to make sure your stock is good and clear. If you don't mind getting some little bits and pieces in your stock, cheesecloth is not absolutely necessary.
   
3. Ladle stock into canning jars and close the lids while it's still hot. This will seal the jars as they cool.
   
4. Store in the refrigerator. When you are ready to use it, just pop the lid open, skim off the fat layer (or not, depending on your needs) and use in your recipe.

Tips:

Don't salt your stock. This way you have more control of the salt content in recipes you end up using the stock in later.

Don't chop up the veggies very small, large chunks help keep the stock more clear. Everything cut in half is sufficient. Also contain your fresh or dry herbs in a small muslin bag or doubled piece of cheese cloth so that they don't freely float around in the water. If you happen to be putting leek in, you can wrap them in one layer of the leek greens, tied with twine.

When straining the hot stock the fat will be melted and combined so you can't readily strain it out. Don't wait for it to cool and skim it off before canning it all up. The remaining fat in the stock will come to the top as it cools in the jars, providing another barrier to keep it fresh longer (functioning much like the wax layer at the top of homemade jam or preserves). Just skim it off before using if you so desire.