OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest with videos, articles and this weekly newsletter. To keep you sated between episodes, we’ve brought on food writer Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian and ecologist, to highlight different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem. This week she offers a recipe for sinangag (garlic fried rice from the Philippines) with garlic scapes and pork belly.

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It’s the summer solstice this week (June 21) and while garlic fried rice might not be the first dish you think of for such an occasion, it’s probably the worst day to be a vampire (the most daylight hours of the year and all) so you might as well go big with a triple whammy of garlic flavor, including the scapes — the flower bud and stalk that grows straight from the bulb. If you’d rather keep your solstice celebrations more in line with Midsommar, you can always don a flower crown, maybe add some edible blossoms. Saffron famously comes from the stamens of a crocus, but do you know which flower is called “poor man’s saffron”? Read on to find out!

‘Oh, deer,’ a vintage rose jelly and your last chance to win a Zupan’s gift card

Freshly picked morsels from the Pacific Northwest food universe:

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We’re wrapping up our survey next week and this is your last chance to be entered to win a $250 Zupan’s gift card. This survey is vital for helping us to learn how you engage with food, food stories and recipes — and what you’re hungry for. Thank you for helping us grow and improve this newsletter!

‘Mixed use’ doesn’t include petting zoo

OPB’s Lillian Karabaic reported last week on the new uses popping up around Lloyd Center Mall in Northeast Portland, and it gave us a chance to reflect on the many transformations the mall has made over the decades. One never-intended use? Wildlife habitat. On June 17, 1978, a security guard on the early morning shift was surprised to see a deer wandering the Lloyd Center parking lot. The spooked deer ran into the mall (then an open-air plaza), darted into Edwin Furnishings, then turned on a dime, ran south toward Manning’s Cafeteria and leapt through a plate glass window. Hearing what sounded like a loud explosion, Manning’s breakfast cook Helen Schneider ran toward the dining room to see the 2-year-old buck charging straight toward her. “He sailed over the tables like logs in the forest,” remarked a thunderstruck Schneider. The deer was apprehended by Portland police and, battered and in shock, died en route back to the wilderness of Larch Mountain.

A chat with James Beard Award winner Vince Nguyen

Last week we reported on Portland’s many James Beard Awards wins, and OPB’s Crystal Ligori had a chance to chat with the winner of Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific, Berlu’s Vince Nguyen. Listen to the interview here.

‘Tis the season for rose jelly

Ninety years ago this week, our gal Lilian Tingle offered Oregonian readers a few choice uses for rose petals, including this lovely jelly: “Rose Jelly No. 1 — Pick two pounds fresh red rose petals, in the early morning. Put them into a crock and pour upon them one-half cup lemon juice and one pint boiling water. Cover and let stand two days. Drain and press the leaves [petals], and put the liquid into an aluminum kettle, boil, without a cover, for 20 minutes, then add an equal measure white sugar; stir and boil until it tends to jell, then put into very small jars.”

In the ‘Superabundant’ garden this week

The first little green cheong-gochu pepper made an appearance following the rainy day we had, and the rest of the chiles seem to be following suit with loads of flowers. French marigolds (Tagetes hybrids) and calendula (Calendula officinalis) are in full bloom, ready to adorn cakes and cookies or, when dried and powdered, to add color the same way saffron does; in fact, marigolds are sometimes called “poor man’s saffron.” We like the bracing terpene aroma it provides, pairing well with black pepper and rosemary in a compound butter or mashed into funky goat cheese.

Good things in markets

Markets are positively thrumming with delicious stuff: fava beans, summer squash (and their blossoms!), basil, kohlrabi, green garlic and curly-q garlic scapes, snap peas, rhubarb and strawberries for days. The first cherries from California are showing up now, so local Bings and Rainiers are just around the corner. The much-loved Bing cherry is an Oregon invention, developed on the orchard and nursery started by Henderson Luelling in the 1840s (the variety was named for Ah Bing, the Manchurian nursery foreman who discovered it on the Luelling property). So beloved are cherries in Oregon that the state capital once had its own Cherry Festival which ran for nearly 50 years.

Recipe: Sinangag (Filipino garlic fried rice) with garlic scapes and pork belly

Sinangag, or Filipino garlic fried rice, is made pretty much everywhere in the Philippines and eaten at any time of day — it’s especially wonderful for breakfast with a slab of Spam and a sunny egg. It’s salty, fatty, garlicky, and if you hit it with a little Datu Puti chile vinegar at the end, it’s got that perfect little hit of sour, too. Since garlic scapes are in season, we thought it’d be nice to add them for an extra pop of garlic-flavored color (but there are also garlic chives added because when it comes to fried rice, it’s 🎶once, twice, three times a gaaaarliiiic 🎶). Remember: the fried garlic bits should be slightly crunchy and sticky — if they’re not getting completely stuck in your molars when you eat this, you’ve done something wrong. Serves 4.

Note: You can leave the pork belly out and it’s vegan; just use ¼ cup of vegetable oil instead.

Ingredients

1 lb pork belly, diced into 1 inch cubes

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground white pepper

½ tsp MSG

½ cup garlic cloves, minced (measure the garlic cloves first, then mince)

6 or 7 garlic scapes (enough to make about 1 ½ cups chopped)

5 cups cold leftover white rice

1 cup garlic chives, chopped

Garlic or chile vinegar for serving

Instructions

1. Heat a large wok over medium heat. Season the pork belly with 1 teaspoon of the salt, the pepper and the MSG. Stir-fry until the pork starts to brown, about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered out and the pork has browned and crisped up. Remove the cooked pork from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Add the minced garlic to the hot lard and stir-fry over medium-low until it begins to get browned and crispy, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic scapes and cook for another minute or two.
3. Add the rice to the wok, breaking it up with your spatula to make sure there aren’t any lumps. Season with the remaining salt, add the pork belly back to the pan, increase the heat to medium-high and stir-fry until the rice is warmed through and completely coated in garlicky lard.
4. At the end, stir in the garlic chives, adjust seasoning as needed and then serve.

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