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At triple “W,” we love Oregon hazelnuts. So last week, we had an over-the-top moment. Lucky us. We got the Oregon grower, Darlene Chambers (left hand side of the photo above), and renown cookbook author, Jan Roberts-Dominguez, together to talk hazelnuts and preview the new “Oregon Hazelnut Country” cookbook. Jan is a talent. She researched, wrote and designed the recipes/stories for this unique cookbook. She also included many of her beautiful watercolors sprinkled throughout the cookbook’s recipes and stories.
Interesting factoid: Oregon produces over 99% of the nation’s domestic crop of hazelnuts (also known as filberts).
We were lucky enough to have Jan sign the book and, to our surprise, she included in the cookbook the recipe for “Rogue River Salad”–and the story behind the recipe. See, about a year ago, triple “W” contacted Jan after seeing her recipe for Jan’s hazelnut caramels. We figured if she could create something that great with sugar, she might be able to improvise a unique hazelnut river salad–designed just for our lucky Rogue River guests. And that’s exactly what Jan did. Below is the fabulous recipe she created especially for Whitewater Warehouse’s lucky river guests but you’ll love it too–on or off the river.
Want to get your hands on this unique cookbook? You can order it through the Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board or directly off Jan’s own website. Price is $24.95 plus shipping. Want to read a longer review of Oregon Hazelnut Country before buying it? Click here for more information about the Oregon Hazelnut Country cookbook.
In our last post, we talked about the talented Jan Roberts-Dominguez. She is a noted food specialist and also a fine artist. We admired Jan’s work so much that we decided to give her a call and issue her a challenge. We asked her to create an outstanding river salad; made from fresh, local ingredients for our Whitewater Warehouse rafting, kayaking and hiking guests. Well, Jan responded and she delivered the goods! Here, in all its glory, is the recipe for Rogue River Salad. You can find this recipe in Jan’s upcoming hazelnut cookbook entitled “Oregon Hazelnut Country — The Food, The Drink, The Spirit.”
Rogue River Salad
Recipe makes 8 – 10 servings
5 large Anaheim chiles, roasted and peeled (see note)
1 large Walla Walla Sweet onion (or another variety of sweet onion)
2/3 cup pitted and halved Kalamata olives, drained
5 very ripe local tomatoes, cored and diced to measure about 3 cups
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
5 grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooled and chopped
3/4 cup coarsely chopped darkly roasted and skinned hazelnuts
2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
4 pieces top quality bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/3 cup red or white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
About 1 1/2 cups crumbled Rogue Creamery Oregon Blue (or other good quality blue cheese)
Crusty artisan bread, sliced
Remove the stems, seeds, and inner membranes from the roasted chiles, then chop.
When ready to serve the salad, combine the chopped chiles with the onion, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken, hazelnuts, bacon, and basil in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil.
Toss the salad mixture with enough of the vinaigrette to moisten thoroughly. Serve in individual bowls and top each serving with some of the blue cheese. Serve along with crusty slices of good artisan bread.
Note: to roast the Anaheim chiles, poke each chile once with a sharp knife to avoid explosions in the oven. Place the chiles on a baking sheet and broil until the skin has blistered and is fairly blackened on all sides. This takes about 6 – 8 minutes total time. Alternatively, you could roast them over a burner or on a grill. Just make sure the skin gets blistery and blackened in most spots all the way around. Remove from the heat and let cool. The skin will peel away very easily.
Recipe from “Oregon Hazelnut Country — The Food, The Drink, The Spirit,” by Jan Roberts-Dominguez. Copyright Jan Roberts-Dominguez, 2010
Again, our thanks to the wonderful Jan Roberts-Dominguez for taking the time, the thought, and the care to create this one-of-a-kind Rogue River Salad!
Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a multi-talented artist. A food writer who pairs her mouth-watering recipes with her beautiful, original watercolors and interesting prose, she is truly a multi-faceted artisan. Currently writing a new cookbook called, “Oregon Hazelnut Country — the Food, the Drink, the Spirit, ” Jan embodies today’s food lovers striving to use local sourced ingredients.
We recently asked Jan to create a Rogue River salad for our Whitewater Warehouse rafting, kayaking, and hiking guests to enjoy. She did exactly that for us. Here in her words, is a great story about her personal river travels and how that experience helped her to create this original salad for our Whitewater Warehouse guests. This is a long blog but worth the read…enjoy!
“Corvallis-based white water river guides, Joy Henkle and Bob Meister handed me a most delightful assignment. It began with a note: “We have a Rogue River rafting business that is based out of Corvallis and we are big foodies here. We grow a lot of the food we serve our guests in our Willamette Valley gardens. Also, we serve Oregon hazelnuts to our rafting guests each summer (we buy them direct from a local farmer), and get rave reviews.”
“We’re very interested in giving our guests the highest quality local foods, especially since many of them come from the California area and really appreciate our efforts to supply them with a top-notch Oregon food experience. We’re always looking for the ‘perfect’ river lunch salad. I make one with homemade pesto, but do you have any other ideas for great river salads?”
“This started me on a nostalgic jog down memory lane to my own ultimate river salad experience: The year was 1978. It was the first day into a 3-day white water rafting trip on the north folk of The American River in northern California. We’d beached the rafts for a break.
“What’s for lunch?” we paddlers wondered. The guide and his crew had set out cutting boards on a big fat log and were pulling fresh carrots, celery, green onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, and hard boiled eggs from their dry bags.
“Tuna salad sandwiches,” said our guide as he tumbled his pile of chopped veggies and egg into a huge pot. Out came the cans of tuna, some fresh mayonniase, and sliced olives. All of these ingredients combined into the most amazing tuna salad sandwich I have ever experienced.
“Now, I’m sure that ambiance had a bit to do with it, as well as a hearty appetite from a morning of paddling through class 3 rapids. But still, it was a dynamic combination of ingredients which I have always enjoyed.
“Composing a salad for the Henkle-Meister’s river adventures should definitely contain some serious Northwest specialties, I thought. So in went the hazelnuts, Walla Walla Sweets, and some smokey bacon from one of the region’s finest pork producers, Carlton Farms. As a nod to the river they’re running, a bit of Rogue Creamery’s Blue cheese as well.
“I patterned this salad after a salsa I created under similar circumstances: outdoors, on a camping trip in the Oregon coast range, with a bag full of sun-ripened tomatoes and a couple of luscious Walla Walla Sweet onions. My fellow campers were the official taste testers and Walla Walla Salsa Salsa was given thumbs up all around at Happy Hour.
“For the salad approach, I added chicken, basil, and hazelnuts, and Rogue Creamery Blue, of course! Maybe some day I’ll enjoy it alongside its namesake, after a day on the water. Bon Appetit, Joy. Thanks for the challenge!”
No, Jan, THANK YOU! Readers…look for the actual recipe that Jan created for us on our Friday, August 6th blog. We will also be featuring photos of the actual salad. You’ll also be able to find the recipe for the salad in her soon to be released cookbook, “OREGON HAZELNUT COUNTRY — The Food, The Drink, The Spirits”
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