What is a Dark Days Challenge?

The Dark Days Challenge was started by Laura McCrea at the Urban Hennery.
Unfortunately I couldn't get into her challenge, so I started my own blog.
The challenge is to try to eat one meal per week consisting of 100% locally produced food. I'm choosing to define "locally produced" as Washington State.
In my recipes I tell you the origin of the ingredients I use.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Dark Days Challenge Wanna Be 12/4/10

So this is the first dinner of the Dark Days Challenge - cooking one meal per week with ingredients that are local. I wasn’t able to get into the Urban Hennery’s Dark Days Challenge, so I’m creating my own. I’ve been focusing more and more on local food over the past year, so I don’t think this is going to be difficult, just a fun challenge. I didn’t have a lot of time tonight, so I wanted to keep things fairly simple. Good fresh local ingredients don’t need a lot of fussing. Food like this – crab, clams, fresh bread and butter, makes dining a pleasure!

I made a trip to the Waterfront Fish Market and Sno-Isle Food Coop, and a cruise around my yard. It’s hard to believe that I can get enough greens from the vegetable garden to make a salad in December.

Menu
Organic Salad greens
Topped with Holmquist Farm filberts and Snohomish County blueberries (frozen)
Dungeness Crab
Samish Bay Clams in Tomato Garlic Broth (recipe below)
Snohomish Bakery Multi-Grain Artisan Bread
Golden Glen Creamery Butter
Potatoes, boiled

Not local
Salt & pepper
Olive oil and white balsamic vinegar to dress the salad

From our garden – all organic:
Potatoes, shallots, garlic, parsley, chives, chili peppers, salad greens (chard, spinach, sorrel, kale, arugula),

Waterfront Fish Market, Everett
Clams, crab

Clams in Tomato Garlic Broth
2 servings
1 pound clams in shell
salt
1-tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup chopped organic shallots
3 cloves chopped organic garlic
1-2 chili peppers, seeds removed (more or less, depending on taste)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh organic parsley
½ cup red wine
14 oz can organic Diced Tomatoes, Muir Glen, (Sedro Woolley)

Soak clams in cold water and 1 tablespoon salt for 15 minutes. Drain, and soak again in cold water and 1 tablespoon salt for a second 15 minutes. Scrub shells.
Heat olive oil in large pot on medium heat
Add shallots, garlic and chili peppers and cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add wine and tomatoes, bring to a boil then turn heat down to simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drain clams from brine and add to broth. Cook covered about 5 minutes. When the clam shells have popped open, serve. Remove and discard any clams that have not opened.