Allium Bistrot

Dinner in the Vineyard at Apolloni Vineyards on September 23

September 1st, 2012

Apolloni Vineyards

Vineyard Tour with Wine Maker Alfredo at @ 5:30p
Reception at 6:00p | Dinner at 6:30p
$65.oo per person, includes gratuity | $70.oo per person, including gratuity & bus*

Dry leaves crunch underfoot. Scent of fall lingering in the evening air. Glass in hand of pinot with dark cherry earthiness tickling your tastebuds as you stroll through the vines at Apolloni Vineyards in preparation for a
7-course dinner paired with this vineyard’s best. Cozy up in your fall jacket under the stars if we are blessed with a late summer, or warm yourself with wine and food in the warmth of the barn. This is sure to be one of our best Dinners in the Vineyard.

Menu

Apolloni wine pairings with each course

Hor D’oeuvres
cured salmon, cucumber concasse, fennel cracker, verjus blanc
served at 5:30 pm, during tour

Sweet Onion Tart
parsley pâte brisée, camembert, wild arugula

19th St Heirloom Tomato Salad
purple basil, fig vinaigrette, fresh mozzarella

Braised Draper Valley Chicken
rosemary, picholine olives, confit garlic

Local Rainbow Chard
whole butter, sea salt

Charred Cascade Natural Flatiron
sweet potato gratin, piquillo pepper, persillade

Orchard Pie
Bonnie’s Farm pears and apples, clove crème anglaise

Purchase tickets in advance
Call to reserve 503 387 5604 or book online at
www.alliumoregon.com

*Wine Bus Departs Allium at 4:30
Leaves Vineyard at 9:30p
or wind over to Apolloni on your own

Vineyard is located at 14135 NW Timmerman Rd, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116

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‘Dinner in the Vineyard’ lures wine enthusiasts and food lovers with 7 dishes crafted by Allium’s Chef-Proprietor Pascal Chureau and paired with wines from 2011 Winery of the Year, Willamette Valley Vineyards.

July 19th, 2012

Summer in Oregon means indulging in local ingredients and drinking local wine on the site closest to where they were harvested. On August 11, 2012, Chef Pascal Chureau joins “2011 Winery of the Year” Willamette Valley Vineyards’ winemaker Don Crank for the first-ever winemaker dinner in the vineyard at WVV’s Tualatin Estate Vineyard in Forest Grove.

The dinner begins with a lazy stroll through the vineyard, led by winemaker Don Crank. As guests learn about the award-winning harvests, they sip a sweet sangria in the warmth of the late afternoon soon. Nearby, Chefs Pascal Chureau and Ian Ragsdale from Allium Bistro prepare seven delectable dishes, to pair perfectly with the wines of Tualatin Estate Vineyard.

Dishes include the tastes of summer, including a sweet heirloom tomato salad with truffle scented mozzarella, watermelon, and cucumber, followed by braised snapper with roasted fennel, saffron infused couscous with almonds, mint, and currant, and Carlton Farms Pork Rack with corn, succotash, Andouille sausage and thyme jus. Details of the menu can be found online at www.alliumoregon.com/menu.

The Details

Tickets may be purchased in advance only through Willamette Valley Vineyards at 503-588-9463. Dinner at Tualatin Estate Vineyard is all-inclusive, at $75 per person, including wine and gratuity. Guided Tour at 5:30pm. Reception at 6:00pm. Dinner in the vineyard starts promptly at 6:30pm. Dinner is at Tualatin Estate Vineyard: 10850 NW Seavey Road, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116 (note: not at Willamette Valley Vineyards).

About Willamette Valley Vineyards and Winemaker Don Crank

Willamette Valley Vineyards have been producing high-quality, sustainably grown Pinot Noir and other cool-climate varieties for more than twenty-seven years, earning the distinction as “One of America’s Great Pinot Noir Producers” by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Founder Jim Bernau believes wines taste better when made from naturally grown wine grapes.

Merging with WVV in 1997, Tualatin Estate Vineyard, established in 1973, is one of the oldest and most respected vineyard sites in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. TEV has been awarded the esteemed Governor’s Trophy, Oregon’s most prestigious wine award, two consecutive years in a row and is the only vineyard to have won the Best of Show for both the red and white categories at the London International Wine Competition in the same year.

Winemaker Don Crank started his first full-time job in the Oregon wine industry in 2002, serving as a cellar hand for Willamette Valley Vineyards. It wasn’t long before his talents and ambitions were recognized by winemaker, Forrest Klaffke. Along with Assistant Winemaker, Daniel Shepherd, Don carefully tends each bottle of pinot noir from field to bottle.

Both popular and elegant wines, Willamette Valley Vineyards wines have been served at the White House, the James Beard House and even been served on television’s Friends and Grimm.

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Happy Holidays

December 30th, 2011

The holidays are here, and we are reminded of all we have to be grateful for this year. We are truly happy to be a part of the neighborhood, and love how involved everyone is in this truly beautiful and caring community.

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!

Pascal Chureau, Allium

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Dine in the Field….It’s meant to be.

August 5th, 2011

Allium, Stonegate and 19^th Street Farms – Dinner in the Field

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.

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The Farm Comes to Allium this Summer

June 24th, 2011

Early summer. I remember being a kid out in the French countryside. My father used to take me out to our relatives’ farm, and we’d play in the hay in the barn, sneak some housemade boudin noir, and run around the farm. I loved picking out fresh eggs from the coop and seeing the first signs of life pushing their way up through the dirt. We used to yank those beauties straight from the earth and run them to my mother cooking in the kitchen. If I was lucky, she’d let me chop some vegetables as she prepared that Sunday’s family dinner, various pots simmering this way and that. Couldn’t really get any better than that. And I remember it at the beginning of each and every summer.

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

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The Lure of Lavender

March 13th, 2011

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

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Ver-Who? Verjus!

December 22nd, 2010

Chef Pascal recently sat down with local food and wine author, Kerry Newberry, to talk about the revived popularity of verjus, the traditional French non-alcoholic beverage “slipped into sauces and salad dressings and… used for deglazing, poaching, splashing into cocktails and to garnish desserts. “ What better time than the holidays to get your cuisiniere on, and give a new recipe a whirl. Check out these handy–and tasty–verjus recipes. And for more entertaining prose about verjus, check out Kerry Newberry’s article, Woo the Crew with Verjus, in Oregon Wine Press.

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.

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Oregon Tilth ~ The Farm Comes to Allium

November 6th, 2010

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!

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The duck is the epicure’s bird.

October 29th, 2010

“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!

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Ribera Vineyards ~Along our own shore

October 21st, 2010

….Ribera, local West Linn vineyards, joins Allium on October 24 for Allium’s Neighborhood Dinner

“Ribera” literally means “along the shore,” and where better than for Darrel & Molly Roby to plant their small vineyard just across from the Tualatin River! On weekends, nights, and early mornings, they grow and tend 4 clones of Pinot Noir and just enough Pinot Gris and Chardonnay to produce about 2 beautiful barrels of each per year. When they’re feeling adventurous, they also blend varietals from other grapes they purchase from the Valley, bringing their total production to about 1000 to 1200 cases each year. It’s definitely a family labor of love, and they strive to farm using sustainable practices, using organic methods and grapes from those doing the same.

Right now, Ribera Vineyards is excited as they are in full harvest after a truly interesting growing season. And they’re looking forward to tasting you on their pinot noir and pinot gris. Soon, they hope to have a tasting room so you can try even more of their beautiful wines, and turn the spotlight on West Linn and Northwestern Clackamas County as the best wine destination in the Willamette Valley and Oregon.

Allium is looking forward to sharing Ribera with you. Find out more at RiberaVineyards.com

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