Seattle Met Magazine

For a short, fun profile piece about a few of my favorite food-finds around Seattle, take a peak at Seattle Met Magazine's Taste of the Town. Not surprisingly, Olsen Farms, Taylor Shellfish, and Cook Local top the list.

Olsen Farms' Potatoes

Thousands of potato varieties exist that it's difficult to imagine trying them all. These colorful hodgepodge of taters came again, from Olsen Farms.

Their potatoes are dryland-produced and known for their superior flavor and lively colors. Though they have over 20 varieties to choose from, we smiled upon Viking Purples, Purple Majesties, All Blues, Mountain Roses, and Red Ladies. With names like those, how could you not feel to be in good company in the kitchen? We certainly did.

The preparation of these potatoes played a role in our grass-fed Rib-eye steak and beet puree dish (featured below).

Potato Players:

- Viking Purple Potatoes, Purple Majesties, All Blues, Mountain Roses, Red Ladies

Blanched Potato Recipe:

1. Blanch potatoes in salted water. To blanch, plunge the taters into a pot of boiling water and let cook for 10-15 minutes.

2. Remove potatoes from boiling water. Then plunge potatoes into an ice water bath or run under cold water to halt the cooking process.*

3. Peel potatoes by turning each tater evenly so that they have 7 equal sides.

4. For this potato recipe (which we paired with grass-fed Beef Rib-eye and organic Beets), we finished our potatoes with Lavender Rosemary salt.

* Blanching helps to loosen the skin, making it easier to peel potatoes. Blanching can also help enhance the flavor of some vegetables such as broccoli (by releasing bitter acids stored naturally in the food). Blanching is also reportedly used to enhance the color of some particularly green vegetables by releasing trapped gases of the food that obscure the greenness of their chlorophyll.

Grass-fed Beef Rib-eye

Though a cow's diet no doubt affects the flavor and resultant meat and milk, the Beef Rib-eye that we partook in was lean, tender, juicy, and rich in flavor. I look forward to trying more grass-fed lamb and beef from Olsen Farms, and recommend that you do too.

Their Angus is nurtured in green-grass pastures, where they are fed hay and potatoes from their farm. Unlike the majority of commercialized beef in today's market, they do not give any animal by-products or outside food sources to their cattle. Nor do they rely on growth-promoting hormones and antibiotics to fatten their beef.

Grass-fed cattle is also leaner than feedlot grain-fed beef (known for its high fat content, marbling, and caloric level). Did you know that meat sourced from grass-fed cattle have higher Omega-3 fatty acids? We're convinced

Pan-seared Rib-eye Recipe:

1. Cure the steak in kosher salt for 20 min to extract some of the water out of the cells for a concentrated flavor.

2. Wash excess salt off.

3. Pan-sear steak until it takes on a deep, dark brown color on the outside (2-4 min).

4. Put in oven at 400 degrees for 4-6 minutes depending on the cut of the steak.

5. Mount with butter as it heats up in the oven. This helps to seal in the moisture as it self-bastes.

6. Finish with Bloody Mary salt. The Fleur de Sel and sun-dried tomatoes in this salt will make any steak shine!