March memories, 2008, with swell food, my sons, and my little Mama.

Lamont got invited to participate in the Chef's Blackbox Competition, and he asked his brother Leland to be his assistant--they've worked together many years at the same restaurant, several ones, in fact, starting in Jackson, Mississippi, and ending up here in Portland, Oregon, at 3 Doors Down Cafe where they both worked in 2008. Decision-making time meant looking around at what's available and making notes for a three-course menu. What to select from the ingredients to prepare dishes for the judges at the Taste of Tillamook competition held March 15, 2008, in Tillamook, Oregon. That's Lamont on the right, Leland on the left. The secret ingredients, yet to be revealed.



Available produce, fruit, spices. Lamont selected prawns and cod from the secret ingredients--I don't remember what else was available, nor do I remember what the competing chef chose. The teams had one hour to prep and cook their three dishes.



Leland works on leeks; Lamont works on salsa verde.



Leland works on fennel; Lamont works on salsa verde.



Leland and the mandoline slicer, part of prepping for the salad.



Prep, an important and on-going step to creating tasty plates.



Leland and the spinach. I'm not sure what Lamont is opening in this photo.



Busy cook.



Left hands.



Still busy cook.



Right hands.





Memorable appetizer--sautéed prawns (a secret ingredient), freshly made salsa verde, and sautéed leeks with bacon.



Memorable salad--quarter-sized cucumber slices surround a mound of match-stick-sliced fennel and Granny Smith apple, topped with paper-thin slices of red onion.



Memorable entree--pan-roasted cod (a secret ingredient), spinach sautéed with garlic and capers, and roasted fingerling potatoes.



The five judges.



Getting up close and personal with the judges. Those extra people also bid on plates and ate the ones prepared by the other chef. More about Lamont and Leland's plates later.



A bit more with the judges.



My little Mama, smiling her special smile, enjoying this time with my sons and me just as much as we enjoyed it and being with her.



In review, the requirements were to make three demonstration dishes, using a different secret ingredient in two of those dishes, then prepare more of the same for the five judges to taste. At the end of an intense hour for the four cooks, Mama and I won the bidding competition for the demo dishes (a fundraiser for Food Safety in Tillamook County) and got to pick which chef's dishes we wanted to eat. That's a no brainer, right. While their food was delicious--we cleaned the plates in no time--the judges made the other guy the winner by 11 points.



And here they are, the two most important men in my life, Leland and Lamont, one-hundred-per-cent their father's sons.

On the menu at 3 Doors Down Cafe, SE 37th and Hawthorne

From Friday night and still on the menu in much the same fashion: Duck confit, roasted pork belly, roasted carrot, roasted shallot, cannellini beans, bread crumbs. Sprinkled on the duck and pork, Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. A fine mixture of textures and flavors for your dining enjoyment.

Entree Envy, Anyone?

Succulent, sweet, wonderfully textured new entree at 3 Doors Down Cafe, orecchiette, oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, corn, smoked bacon, scallion sauce--I ate half of it for my Friday night supper and brought the rest home for lunch on Saturday.

What makes a cherry tomato sweet? It's bound to be a miracle inside that tiny globe, the combination of sugar in the tomato's meat, held inside by that tight, firm skin. Put them in the oven, sliced in half by a properly sharp knife, and a proscribed number of minutes later you've got a bite of heaven with each one.

Yummy entrees from 3 Doors Down Cafe, 37th and SE Hawthorne

The Special one night in December: braised lamb shank, mashed potatoes, roasted young turnips, Brussels sprouts, red onion and a scrumptious serving of what I call the wonderful juice, but the cooks in the kitchen refer to it as the braising liquid.


Braised Painted Hills short rib, parmesan, Meyer lemon, spinach risotto with pan jus. From the menu we find out the proper terminology for the wonderful juice.


Tuna, polenta, vegetables--I can't find my menu from that night, doggone it! Anyway, it was scrumptious! It might have been the special, I can't remember. But I got this great photo of it, right before I ate it all!