Food Tourism: A Different Way to Experience a Town (bite by bite)

Maybe it is just because I live here, but Boulder’s food scene seems to be all over the news lately.  We are a smaller town, but have a big appetite for fantastic food.  I get to interact with some major players in the local food scene all the time while guiding my food tours and am trying to carve out a little niche as the food tourism expert in the area.  How am I doing?  Well, for my first year of business, I think I’m doing quite well.

It all started last year with dining tours and market-to-table tours.  By the time winter came, I had no idea what to expect, but dining tours were steadily popular all winter, which was incredibly positive feedback for me.  So, I kept going.  I added coffee and pastry tours, cocktail tours, and farmers market tours.  Local Table Tours and Boulder B-Cycle recently joined forces for a summer of ride and dine tours, so now my guests can venture further from Pearl Street and dine out in places like Radda, Laudisio, Pizzeria da Lupo, and Zolo.  That’s exciting!

So, if you live in Boulder, come on a tour and experience a unique taste of the town.  If you’re not from Boulder, come experience delicious food tourism in a town well-worth visiting!

Fennel-Pollenated Salmon

I’ve been on a fennel pollen kick lately- Fennel pollen turkey burgers one week, then fennel pollen grilled tempeh, and now fennel pollen salmon. Maybe it’s just me and my taste buds, but it seems like everything I sprinkle with the spice of the angels tastes better.
Here’s what I created with a gorgeous piece of wild Alaskan salmon…
In the mortar and pestle I ground
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (pick some up at Savory Spice Shop, or use red pepper flakes)
  • 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
Next, add a pinch of
  • Mexican Oregano
  • Dried Tarragon
  • Fennel Pollen
  • Maple Sugar
  • Sea Salt
Mix up the spice rub, get your nose really close to it, and breathe in. It smells fantastic. I bought a beautiful 1.8 pound piece of Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon.
After rinsing it in cold water, patting it dry, and tweezing out the bones, I sliced it in half (due to cooking restraints in a small space), rubbed it down, patted it with butter, drizzled it with a little Portuguese white wine (just happened to be the bottle I was drinking while cooking), and sealed it in heavy duty aluminum foil packets.

The fish grilled for approximately 10 minutes. I let it sit sealed in the packet a couple more minutes before squeezing a little fresh orange juice on top. That’s right- orange this time, not lemon.

Yum! I served this with some grilled red potatoes and parmesan peas (one of my favorites!).

Fennel Pollen Grilled Tempeh

Since my spice cabinet is filled with Savory Spice Shop herbs and spices, it is always a fun endeavor creating something vegetarian for dinner. I’m interested in Fennel Pollen lately, so I thought I’d make a tempeh dish featuring this “spice of the angels.”
I didn’t really measure anything for my marinade, but it was basically
  • 1 TB dehydrated onion
  • 1/2 TB garlic powder
  • 1/2 TB dried parsley
  • 1/2 TB smoked Spanish paprika
  • 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
  • a pinch of fennel pollen
  • 2-3 TB olive oil
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • a splash of worcestershire
Mix that up, and pour it over some temepeh.
I let mine sit for an hour or so before grilling. Then, I opened my last jar of pickled onions from last summer’s crop. My pickled onions are so delicious- they’re not just any old pickled onions- they’re olive oil pickled onions, which means they have a coating of olive oil over the top which kept them from spoiling all winter (they did not withstand a boiling bath or any heated canning process). The olive oil mixes with the vinegar to create a salad-dressing-like flavor effect (or profile?).
I’ll be making twice as many pickled onions this year… But, first, back to my grilled tempeh. Grill it for a few minutes on each side. Easy.
I served mine with some grilled ciabatta, smoked provolone, olive oil pickled onions, and Red Rocks Hickory Smoke Ketchup, which is, quite frankly, the best ketchup.
So, go grill some tempeh and enjoy a meatless BBQ. Wash it down with a beer cocktail!

Vanilla Bourbon

If you read my blog, you’ll know that I have been having a pretty intense love affair with cocktails lately. They’re fun. I like to be around them… get to know them… explore their flavor profiles.

And since it all seems to boil down to flavor profiles at this stage in my cocktail affair, it’s only right to explore the flavor profiles of this spring’s Cocktail Element, created by my esteemed sommelier/mixologist friend, Evan Faber of SALT. Last month I infused some Chipotle Tequila. This month it is Vanilla Bourbon.

How do you make Vanilla Bourbon? Soak a vanilla bean in some bourbon. It’s easy. I got some Madagascar vanilla beans from Savory Spice Shop and let them sit, whole, in a jar of Maker’s Mark for 3 days. I used on bean per liter jar of bourbon. You taste subtle notes of vanilla in my vanilla bourbon, and it seems smoother to me than regular bourbon. Now I need to experiment with a vanilla bourbon cocktail. Stay tuned…

 

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A Bolder Table is a place where I bookmark my favorite recipes for later along with some occasional musings. It's my personal digital recipe compilation... Let's say it's my cookbook. Thanks for stopping by! -Megan
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