George Vandemark, the current USDA legume breeder and a faculty member at Washington State University, describes research into chickpeas. Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, are an important crop around the Palouse and Pullman, the main campus of WSU. The chickpea provides nitrogen for the soil as well as a high-protein crop. Most chickpeas are used for hummus or salads.
Recipes from Paradise Creek Brewery in Pullman, created by Chef Mike Hayton ’91
[Directions to Paradise Creek Brewery]
2 cups Hinrichs Trading Company garbanzo beans
⅛ cup olive oil
⅛ cup water
¾ cup sundried tomato with oil
3 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp cumin
1½ tbsp paprika
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp minced fresh parsley
salt & pepper to taste
In food processor, mix garbanzos, water, and oil until smooth and transfer to mixing bowl. Process garlic and sundried tomatoes until it turns into a nice paste. Add to garbanzos. Mix well … » More …
Joe Fugere opened Tutta Bella pizzeria in Columbia City in 2004. A veteran of several Northwest-based companies, including Starbucks and Taco Time, he decided it was time to go into business for himself and produce true traditional Naples-style pizza.
Today the south Seattle restaurant is filled with blond wood tables and bears sweet touches like parchment paper pendant lights and brick walls. Though it’s not yet 10 a.m., an applewood fire is burning in the oven and trays of sliced mushrooms are waiting to be roasted.
Fugere comes in and orders a cappuccino over the heads of two regulars at … » More …
Although Middle Eastern cooks who found themselves in the United States undoubtedly found sources of such a vital ingredient, it wasn’t until the last couple of decades that the chickpea made its way into the American diet and moved up from the bottom shelf at the supermarket. It can be said with some confidence that chickpeas did not find their way into church carry-ins (potlucks to you non-Midwesterners) until very recently.
The chickpea’s introduction to American cuisine probably started with the salad bar, suggests Phil Hinrichs ’80, president of Hinrichs Trading Company, which processes and distributes chickpeas primarily to a domestic market. Remember those odd … » More …
Walla Walla Sweets
I really enjoyed your article on Walla Walla Sweet Onions in the Fall 2010 Washington State Magazine. It brought back a lot of memories of working at the Walla Walla Produce Company, a wholesale fruit and produce company that my Dad ran, as I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s. I spent a lot of summers loading 50-pound bags of Walla Walla Sweet Onions delivered by the growers to our warehouse into rail cars that were being sent to the midwest and east coast. But your article stated that the onions were “not called Walla Walla Sweets until 1960.” … » More …
Ingredients
Walla Walla Sweet onions
Olive oil
A grill
Peel and slice the onions very thick, about an inch.
Heat the grill. Put the Walla Walla Sweets on the grill when it’s ready. Brush with olive oil as necessary.
When the onions are softened slightly and warm, remove them from the grill and enjoy.
Don’t overcook the Walla Walla Sweets. They only need a little grilling to make them even sweeter.
Tim Steury grills up some Walla Walla Sweets, while describing why these onions are special and how they were brought to Walla Walla. 2 minutes, 53 seconds.
When retired French soldier Pete Pieri settled in Walla Walla around the turn of the 20th century, he planted onion seed he had brought from Corsica. His new neighbors, Italian gardeners who had settled there earlier, admired the ability of the onion to winter over in the ground, which gave it a good size for an early summer harvest. The bonus, notes Walla Walla horticultural historian Joe Locati, was its mild flavor. The Italians called it the “French onion” (though it was actually Italian), and by 1910, it was about the only summer onion grown in the area.
In late May this year, Paul Castoldi … » More …
Dan Snyder can remember when local grocery stores would only buy one case of Cougar Brand Smokies at a time. Now, it’s unusual for them to buy fewer than three or four. And when they run out, the Washington State University Meats Lab manager’s phone starts ringing.
The meats lab building is tucked into the parking lot behind the Lewis Alumni Centre. It is primarily a teaching facility, used for animal science classes and agriculture industry professionals to learn how to evaluate live animals and grade and process animal carcasses. It’s also home to one of the most popular meat products on the Palouse.
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These are not your ordinary grocery store strawberries.
They are nothing like those California berries, bred for size, long truck rides, and shelf-life, locked in plastic clamshells under the florescent lights of the produce section.
The berries of Washington are juicy, fragile, flavor-packed fruit. Because Northwest berries are mostly grown for processing, their texture and flavor are paramount, says Patrick Moore, WSU’s strawberry breeder.
And what grows best here are typically berries bred for this environment. Hood, an Oregon variety, is one of the most widely-grown in the region. It has large, dark red fruit and a clean, sweet taste. And like the rich, … » More …
A Washington apple? you say. You might respond, correctly, that Washington and apples are almost synonymous. After all, we produce more than half of the nation’s eating apples. Visit a market in Mexico, Thailand, Houston, or Saudi Arabia, and there, you will find Washington apples.
Still prominent among the selection is the iconic Red Delicious. Up through the 1980s, it represented more than three-quarters of Washington production. But now, other varieties, the sweet Gala, the tart Granny Smith, the intensely sweet-tart Pink Lady, are steadily usurping the Red’s status.
But neither in the era of the Red’s dominance nor in this new age of increasing … » More …