Galloping through the Olympic Peninsula
Published on Wed, Oct 12, 2011Read More News
Crab Omelette of Port Angeles
The Galloping Gourmet was a man ahead of his time. Since the early 1960s Graham Kerr has been promoting the use and enjoyment of fresh, locally grown foods. In 1990 he coined an acronym for his preference — FABIS — which stands for Fresh and Best in Season.
He recently provided a definition: “I would like to see more of whatever is in season, whatever comes from our water, sun, soil, enjoyed.”
For example, he said, parsnips, which just now are ripening.
Parsnips are the magic ingredient in his new recipe, which he introduced this weekend at the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
To prepare it Kerr steams several bunches of parsnips until they’re tender. Two cups worth then are put into a blender with one can of evaporated skim milk.
“If you put it on high speed for three to four minutes — which will be very irritating — you will find a pot of velvet,” he said.
“It will be glossy and unlike what you would get if you only left it on for a minute or two.”
Then make a crab omelette and put the parsnip velvet on top.
“It’s simple,” said Kerr before the event. “I will call it Crab Omelette Port Angeles. I would love to think that in the fullness of time it will be served in New York, Paris, London ....
“And they would know it as our dish.”
Sequim Gazette
For those of a certain age, Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet, is an icon, the male counterpart to Julia Child.
From 1969-1971, back in the days of three TV channels, he was in everyone’s living room at least once a week.
This weekend he was back on the stage, kicking off Port Angeles’ 10th annual Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
But the agenda for the Mount Vernon resident’s visit “across the ditch” was a little more ambitious: Kerr also met with “people key to the future of the peninsula” about his newest goal: “I’m longing to see my home state of Washington develop a Northwestern Cuisine — which we do not have.”
He had one additional purpose: “The world moves too fast and we’re exhausted,” he said. “We can’t catch up. But when you cross over the Hood Canal you almost immediately find yourself living at the speed of life. I came with my wife,Treena, to decompress and to see how you live.”
Kerr’s itinerary included trading stories and ideas with Gabriel Schuenemann, chef and co-owner of the Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim.
Kerr enjoyed a bit of Schuenemann’s carrot cake and sampled a four-cheese flatbread Schuenemann prepared with grapes from the bistro’s backyard. Because he is a native of England and because it was tea time, Kerr accompanied the little feast with a cup of tea and his usual charming patter, which now has graced more than 1,800 television shows.
“As a result of no longer drinking tea,” he said, “the entire British Empire has now floated out to sea.”
“No great loss, really,” he concluded.
Schuenemann agrees wholeheartedly with Kerr’s philosophy and in fact grows grapes, horseradish, edible flowers and various herbs in the small garden behind the restaurant. To the degree possible, he seeks out local produce, including oyster mushrooms grown “two blocks away.”
Thursday morning Kerr enjoyed a farm-fresh breakfast with local organic farmer Nash Huber and took a tour of the Delta Farm and Nash’s packing shed in Dungeness.
He also spent time with Nash’s staff and in talking with Huber about the importance of healthy, local
food — an enthusiasm the two share.
While in Sequim, Kerr expounded on what he calls his “mission statement.”
“Delight and do no harm to the soil, the water and the air we breathe. I am absolutely convinced that if we go on living the way we do, we will destroy the world,” he said.
He sums up his philosophy with an acronym: EGGS. “Eat, grow, gather, share. That would reduce the risk that we put to the world.”
And, he added, “We need to eat 100 percent more veggies.”
Kerr is not only a celebrated chef, but an accomplished author of more than 25 books with 14 million copies sold.
He calls the early books his “fattening books,” because they essentially were celebrations of the joys of butter and cream. When Treena suffered a heart attack, he changed his ways. Today he promotes fresh local vegetables.
Business hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Phone 360-683-3311, or toll free at 800-829-5810. FAX 360-683-6670.
For a complete company directory with contact information please click HERE.
