Steak and Wasabi

My what a busy week!  Last week we attended two food /culinary events.  The first was the Fisher Farmer Chef Connection on Monday and the Edible Portland local hero awards on Wednesday.   Our wasabi was prepared by an amazing chef at each event.   At the Fisher Farmer Chef Connection, Chef Rachel Yang of her restaurant Joule in Seattle, a James Beard nominee for best new chef, made an Albacore Tuna Rice Bowl with Fresh Wasabi Gremolata dish for all 200 attendees.  At both events, we enjoyed the ultimate satisfaction a farmer can harvest; offering the product you’ve grown and producing smiles on the faces of the diners.  One of the diners commented to us that as a butcher and rancher he tasted the opportunity of using wasabi to enhance meat dishes such as steak and pork.

At the local hero awards, David Padberg was our hero once again.  He made a steak, wasabi, red onion construction drawn by a wasabi puree all in a hand-held lettuce leaf cup “dish”.   Of course it was amazing.  The common denominator here is wasabi paired with some form of steak (albacore and beef in these cases).  I realized that steak and wasabi have quite a bit in common.  The more I thought of this, the more I wanted to share this tasty combination.

Both steak and wasabi should rest for some time after preparation and prior to consumption.  Steak should rest for approximately 5-8 minutes after being removed from the heat.  According to Anthony Bourdain, don’t cut into steak, don’t serve it hot; do not touch the steak; walk away.  Let it be, let it be.  It will continue to cook and become juicier if left alone.   Wasabi should be ground, pressed tightly into a dish and let sit for several minutes before consuming.  The heat and flavor will change, become richer, more rounded, hotter and smoother if allowed to rest for a short time.

Wasabi is hydrohillic.  The heat and flavor evaporate after the rhizome is ground and exposed to air or water (the hydrogen in the air – thus ‘hydro’ phillic).  It likes some reactionary minutes (call it “cooking”) to generate more heat and flavor.*  Not surprisingly, the magic happens within 5-8 minutes after grating; the same time that the steak should rest.

This pairing is so good, I have not yet had steak – any steak - without wasabi since my first bite.  It’s amazing and I’m not just saying that as a wasabi farmer.  I’ve also tried it with albacore tuna steaks, pork loin and roast, turkey (both breast and deli slices, a la carte and in sandwiches), and roast beef.   With each accompaniment, the meat’s flavor was enhanced.

With this in mind, here are instructions for one of the culinary worlds’ great pairing.

1. Grate wasabi.
2. Pretend it’s playdough and compress with hand into ball or corner of bowl.
3. Wait – drink a glass of wine or sake or beer
4. Serve
5. Put the corner of your fork in wasabi, acquire as much as you like
6. Cut steak piece
7. (Optional) dip steak in soy sauce.  Do not put wasabi in soy sauce.  It will become cement and lose all flavor.
8. Kampai!

*This release only happens after the cell walls are broken.  In root form, the flavor and heat is retained for months as long as the rhizome is damp and cold.

The following is a list of Portland-area retailers that currently carry fresh wasabi.  They also sell steak – good steak and seafood.  The photos show how the rhizomes are sold.  You should be going now…..

• Uwajimaya in Beaverton 
• The Flying Fish Company (SE Hawthore)
• MASU (Downtown)  Ask for the "Chef's Choice" to get fresh wasabi
• New Seasons Market (Raleigh Hills, Seven Corners, Cedar Hills, and Fisher’s Landing)

The following photos show how the wasabi rhizome is displayed for purchase:

Wasabi 5 Ways To Sunday

When you think of wasabi what do you imagine?  For some of you it’s the Bud Light commercial that ran in the 90s that featured minivan man yelling the word Wuuuhhhhsssaaaaaaabiiiiiii and snorting.  Most likely it’s the hot, no-color-like-this-in-nature green, sinus-clearing paste that accompanies sushi. You may think of embarrassing nose drip on a date you’d rather forget.

You may think of your favorite sushi place.  This thought may be accompanied by a feeling of acute ignorance at the majority of menu items which force you to order the Dragon Rolls each and every time.

You may think of feeling like a true gaijin for not yet knowing how to master chopsticks.

If you are thinking any of these, you are not alone.  You have friends; or at least compatriots.  I am one of them.  Being a wasabi grower, I know much less about Japanese dining etiquette than I’d secretly prefer.

The following two facts will help you – dear reader – know a bit more about Japanese food than you know prior to reading this piece:

The “wasabi” provided for free at sushi restaurants is horseradish, food dye and binders.  It is hot, but relatively flavorless.

Real, fresh wasabi is used as a flavor-enhancer as well as to add a slight heat and is used akin to western dishes usage of salt and garlic.  It is not used solely for heat.   Really; not heat – flavor.   It’s not a palette cleanser.   Put just a bit on your sushi, steak, pork (or pork sandwich), noodle dish, mashed potatoes, or other recipes.  Often, wasabi will be placed between the fish and rice in sashimi.  This regulates the heat and releases more flavor as one chews.

Now, if your name is David Padberg and you are a European and Japanese trained chef, who has apprenticed himself on both continents - likely hauling water buckets before dawn, sweeping the kitchen between shifts, waxing on and waxing off to earn both his beret and his hakama, you might think to yourself the following:

• I could make a wasabi snowcone (called a granita) and scoop a bit onto an oyster to bring out the organic flavors of the meat.
• I could set a wasabi rhizome in the refrigerator for two months and use the chlorophyll-free shoots that grow from the top in a salad.  The shoots would concentrate flavor and heat virtually erupting  on the palette.
• I could make a puree for steak that would taste like an asparagus spear on the fork with a bite of steak.
• I could make ice cream and use the vegetal flavor of the wasabi to pair with a savory fruit.

Our good friend David Padberg; Chef De Cuisine at Park Kitchen created a five course, wasabi-centered dinner with plants we grew from wee little plantlings.  It was incredibly satisfying to experience a chef using our product.   Upon seeing that first dish, I finally felt our success was complete.  It was poignant and personal.  It was a tangible representation of our hard work.  It was as if our effort had been transformed by another’s creative hand and returned to us.  It was an honor.

I can’t thank David enough for the supper.  I am also appreciative of the restaurant’s staff for accommodating our five hour meal.  Lastly, I’m grateful for the end-of-meal late night conversation at the bar with his lovely.

The below is a list of the courses, photos and our meager attempts to describe what one should feel to truly understand.

Hors D’oeuvres Netarts  bay oyster.  Wasabi granita.  Roe:  The granita was sweet like natural shave ice.  The combination gave an ocean taste at the front of the mouth and a sweet flavor finishing.  The presentation on a bed of seaweed and polished rocks with a wasabi leaf was a masterpiece.

Appetizer: octopus sautéed in olive oil, wasabi jelly, tomatoes, cucumber, nori and wasabi leaves.  These wasabi leaves were grown without sunlight from an offshoot in the Chef’s refrigerator.  They are significantly hotter than green wasabi leaves.  The wasabi leaves provide a constant flavor, like a denominator which allows the transition for the other flavors to cycle through.  The wasabi becomes hotter in the mouth the more its chewerd providing a blast of flavor at the end like a full symphony sound.

The Fish Course. Wasabi aioli. Albacore. Grapes. Rice:   The aioli is the richest tasting aioli ever.  It meted the vinegar taste of aioli and gave it an earthy richness.  I'm dreaming of this on my next hamburger at the Bent Brick (hint hint nudge nudge).  The heat at the end provided a cacophony of flavors.  Rice was the first flavor followed by grape, then wasabi and fish to make a combine into a complete meal-like taste.  The sweet grapes lingered with the wasabi’s heat.

Main Course: Steak. Pedron peppers, chanterelles, beans.  Wasabi butter and leaf puree: The steak tasted like the cows ate honey and clover their entire lives.  The wasabi butter keeps the flavor from running away too quickly.  The beans are breaklike and when eaten with all the ingredients are like the best steak sandwich ever.  When separate, the butter wasabi enhances the steak flavor like ground pepper.

Dessert:  Plum tomatoe pecan crisp with basil/wasabi ice cream:  Makes the mouth tingle; it’s possible to feel the wasbi in the ice cream.  Perfectly balanced sweet and savory.

I hope you are as hungry reading this as I have been in writing.  You would be correct if you may have thought these dishes were astonishing their flavor and uniqueness.  It left this patron with the inevitable conclusion that this fella did not waste his novitiate sneaking calvados in the back room with the paysans.  He likely washed dishes with one hand and held food chemistry books with the other.   This meal was so good that I exited the table undecided as whether to exclaim, or not tell a single soul as to keep the secret unto myself for all eternity.    I chose the former…..

"Farmers", Bangs and Bucks

You are reading this as written from two certified "farmers".  Yes, the US Federal Government has made a "favorable determination" to our official status as "farmers".  Unfortunately, I completed the last census form with my occupation described as "planner" because "farmer" would have been way cooler.   (Jennifer's occupational entry was already nifty.  I described her as a  "smarty McSmart marine biologist and lovely, supportive bride".  This prompted a nice staffer from the US Census Bureau to phone me to clarify this occupation as it didn't fit any of their standard categories.   Plus, our relative young ages would have skewed the farmer data by reducing the "mean age" category a few years given the small 'n' - that's sample size for all you that didn't take Stats 351, 352, 353, 535 and 599.  I had to use the term, or the $8,000 I spent on those courses would have been unused as LiLo's breathalyzer.)   This determination means that the good folks at the Farm Services Agency (the financial branch of the US Dept. of Agriculture) will entertain a loan application from us!  Jennifer worked tirelessly on a loan application and submitted it last week.  The desired amount is much less than the originally-referenced dollar amount.  This is because we have the greatest friends on earth.  Two of them in particular are applying their lifetimes of construction innovation to design growing structures that essentially produce more "bang for the buck" (there's a pun in there I promise).  Essentially the design is to maximize growing space while reducing both material costs and construction/labor costs.  I've heard that the secret to business is "location; location and location".  That may have been true in a pre-world wide webinets context, but in today's fast-paced, high-output, 140-character conversation, outsourcing world, it's all about "maximizing margins", and, dare I say, personal relationships; Tweeter Be Damned; we love our peeps.

Tech Update

Frog Eyes is riding the bench on Team Low Tech.  We've got a Facebook Page, which, thanks to the best friends a farmer could ever have now has more "likes" than Primary School obligatory Valentine's Day cards I ever received.  The link is here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frog-Eyes-Wasabi/111319535640092 please friend us if you're a facebook user.  I'm still unsure how to "like" anybody else with a business facebook account.  It seems like a profile is needed.  So, for now, the Frog Eyes Facebook page will be passive and require you to ask it to slow dance.

Product Headline Update

Our good friend Lyf at The Flying Fish Company added our wasabi to the Fresh Marquee.  We are now "marquee fresh"; that can mean anything you like.  We've been delivering wasabi rhizome and leaves to this business weekly.  The leaves are great in salads, eggs and make a killer salmon wrap with a bit of creme fresh.  The Frog Eyes website has a few recipes that include wasabi leaves and stems.  I personally like the stems cut into bite-sized pieces and sauteed in olive oil for 10 minutes.  They taste like a combination of asparagus and bok choy.  I sprinkle a bit of salt on them and use this as an appetizer.  Crack a cold freshie and relax a bit before supper.

 

Last weekend, our good Friends at Uwajimaya hosted us at a wasabi demo.  I talked to Uwajimaya customers for several hours about wasabi.  Essentially, I was one of those overly-medicated perma-smile folks blocking the shopping aisle asking the good people if they'd like to try some new product.  However, I had something the other snake oil sellers don't: farm cred.  The spiel was: "would you like to try fresh, locally-grown wasabi?"  but then I added, "I'm the farmer" the customers' faces would light up and they'd become engaged; nearly 100% of the time.  Some of the most rewarding reactions are from Japanese natives who initially appear dismissive of  this big, tall, furry gaijin who says he's growing wasabi, which-can't-be-as-good-as-the-product-from-home, but then sample some of our fresh wasabi and see their faces beam, heads nod and (sometimes) bow.  My heart sings......

Frog Eyes Wasabi Facebook Link

Frog Eyes Wasabi Facebook Link