Beet Tart with Blue Goat Cheese and Frisee, and a visit to Portlandia

Portland, you are awesome--and a food-lover's dream. I spent five days in your misty city-straddling-the-river at the beginning of January, and not once in those days did I eat a single un-delicious bite. Every mouthful was beautiful and fresh and thoughtful, and made me wish that we could have our national linguistics conference in your city every year (no offense to Pittsburgh or Baltimore, where the last two conferences were held in previous years). Of course, I have to include the customary mention of the mammoth Powell's Bookstore, but by the time I made it there at the end of the conference, the impressively-large linguistics section had already been pretty picked over, and there are only so many hours (and, more restrictively, dollars!) one can spend in the cooking section, so instead, we ate our way through the city once all of our official business was through. (Also, thank you all for your suggestions via Twitter and blog comments and email on where to visit and eat in Portland! :D)

[pictured top to bottom: Thai Peacock's tofu tom yum soup, Stumptown coffee, Salt&Straw's ice cream tasting]

My favorite, favorite, favorite thing we had in Portland was the tofu and vegetable tom yum soup at Thai Peacock, a few blocks away from Powell's. Seriously, you guys, this version of the soup was the best I've ever tasted: rich, spicy, delightfully sour, a bit sweet from the stewed tomatoes and vegetables, and all around, incredibly soul-warming. It was so good that I went twice in two days, and seriously considered trying to take a thermos of it home with me (darn TSA security restrictions!). Other stand-out favorites that we tried were the fabulous Salt & Straw ice cream (recommended by many of you, so thank you!), with their inventive and perfectly creamy flavors (particularly, the sea salt ice cream with caramel--yes, the ice cream base is sea salt flavored!--and the lemon-basil sorbet); freshly-made and fantastic Japanese curry from Kalé (not heavy like you normally think of Japanese curry, but light and oh-so-spicy and flavorful!); and the adorable Little Bird Bistro, on the recommendation of Language of Food writer, where we ordered a plethora of small French plates to share, including butternut squash+parsnip+apple soup and beet tart. We even managed to spend one night at the cozy Living Room Theater, watching Melancholia, and feeling oh-so-hipster amongst the cool, twenty-something crowd that populated the place.

Here's a list of where we ate--all wonderful.

Kalé - so good I'd like to beg the owner to open a branch in the Bay Area.

Little Bird - the bread served here comes with local butter, salted with crunchy Maldon salt. 'Nuff said!

Rogue Brewery - they have homemade root beer! (which I'll take over beer any day. :))

Salt & Straw - dare I say it's better than some of the gourmet ice cream places I've had in the Bay!

St. Honore Boulangerie - the Normandy apple tart. Try it.

Stumptown Coffee - though I maintain allegiance to Philz here in SF

Thai Peacock - the tom yum soup: you won't regret it.

Voodoo Donuts - to my surprise, I particularly liked the Butterfingers doughnut/donut

Wildwood - wonderful, wonderful food. The garlicky butter of the mussels is perfect with the crusty toast it comes with, the caesar salad is inventive and novel, and the lobster risotto was exactly what a risotto should be.

One of the marks of a fantastic food experience is that it should inspire you, and my visit to Portland most definitely did. Over the following few days, my friends and I recreated at home some of our favorite dishes that we had had in Oregon: butternut squash, parnsip, and apple soup; crunchy, Maldon salt-flecked butter; and this beet tart with blue cheese and goat cheese and frisee salad.

Before having a version of this tart at Little Bird Bistro, I seriously never thought I would like a beet tart. Beets have just never been a vegetable I voluntarily run to, even though I've had very good beets before in my life (also very bad ones, like the canned beets my parents would insist on putting in our salads when I was growing up, which probably contributed to my aversion). But, for whatever reason, the beet tart looked really good on the bistro's menu, and when I had my first bite of it, it was even better than the menu's description. I think what really did it for me with this tart was how the saltiness of the blue and goat cheeses balanced out the sweet juiciness of the al dente roasted beets, with the buttery, flakey crust and the slightly bitter and acidic frisee on top.  It's something I would never dream up on my own, but once I did have it, I had to have more!

One last thing, though not food related: right around my Portland visit, I managed to watch all of Portlandia. I had a few Portlandia moments while I was there (e.g., waiters volunteering detailed information on the origins of the food; little birds everywhere), so watching the show made for was a very hilarious representation of my own experience. I would highly suggest it, in addition to this beet tart. :)


Read on for recipes....


Beet Tart
inspired by Little Bird Bistro
makes one 9x9 tart

6 large beets, peeled
olive oil
8 - 10 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt
pepper
1 sheet of puff pastry (enough to make a 10x10-inch square)
30 - 40 gr goat cheese
10 gr blue cheese
frisee
freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare two baking sheets: line one with foil and the other with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Slice the peeled beets into thick slices, about 1/2-inch thick. Lightly coat the sliced beets with olive oil, and toss with fresh thyme leaves and a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Lay the beet slices out on the foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
4. Meanwhile, roll out the puff pastry into a 10 x 10-inch square, or a comparably sized rectangle. Transfer to the baking sheet lined with parchment (or silpat).
5. Arrange the beet slices on the puff pastry, leaving about an inch or two along each side. Roll the puff pastry edges up to create a free-form crust, pinching the corners.
6. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for 25-30 more minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the beets are fork tender. Remove from oven and let cool briefly.
7. Mix the goat cheese and blue cheese together with a fork, and crumble over the beet tart.
8. Toss the frisee with lemon juice, olive oil, and a pinch of salt to coat, and serve over the tart.

Enjoy!