OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest with videos, articles and this weekly newsletter. Every week, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, food writer and ecologist, highlights different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem. This week she offers a recipe for classic French salade Niçoise made with local albacore tuna.

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Sure, the peaches and blackberries are going gangbusters, but albacore tuna season is also upon us! And for being such a sought-after fish, albacore is still an ecologically friendly “best choice,” according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch. The species isn’t at risk of being overfished, but where to catch it is still dependent on some environmental factors affected by climate change, like the water’s surface temperature and chlorophyll levels. What does chlorophyll (famous for making plants and algae green) have to do with albacore tuna? Read on to find out!

Two more tastes that taste great together; new pesticide safety regulations; more grass, less (greenhouse) gas; and good things in markets, gardens and kitchens

Salt and chocolate team up again in new frozen treat

Northwest potato giant Ore-Ida has heard the cries of heat-addled snack addicts tired of dragging French fries through milkshakes. The company teamed up with Good Pop to launch a limited-edition, frozen vanilla oat milk bar; the frosty treat is rolled in crispy French fries and then dipped in chocolate. As long as there isn’t any macaroni and cheese involved, we’re in.

EPA updates rules about pesticide drift

It’s been a decade since the United States Environmental Protection Agency last reviewed its policy on pesticide drift, but on July 15 the agency announced it will now evaluate human health risks from pesticide exposure before new chemicals are introduced, not after they’re already in use, OPB’s agricultural reporter Alejandro Figueroa reports.

Less-managed, more diverse grasslands better at weathering climate change

Bad news for monoculture-loving farmers: Researchers at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Halle, Germany, reported the results of a 10-year study that grasslands, meadows and pastures that are intensively managed for high productivity (i.e., planted to one species, mowed and treated with fertilizers, herbicides and/or pesticides) may be more productive in the short term, but were also correlated to lower resilience against drought and extreme heat. Fields with higher biodiversity (five or more plant species) handled the stress better and may be the key to stabilizing these important ecosystems over time — an important consideration since grasslands store more than a third of the planet’s terrestrial carbon.

Good things in markets

Stone fruits remain the queens of the produce stand, and while cherries will soon be on their way out, local plums are beginning to edge out the flavorless California imports. (California-grown table grapes are still lovely, though — look for “Cotton Candy” and Champagne grapes for a special treat.) Currants and gooseberries are good now, along with blueberries and blackberries.

It’s just the best time of year to eat fresh stuff — local tomatoes, snap/green beans, herbs, lettuces, eggplants, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos and summer squash (and their blossoms) are all coming in hot. Sweet peppers aren’t far behind!

In the “Superabundant” garden this week

The peaches have been harvested, leaving us with the task of processing literally dozens of pounds of fruit. Fortunately, they’re the free-stone “Red Haven” variety, which means we can just pit, slice and freeze them for a less-busy time.

The “Chester” blackberries are coming on strong, even after removing half the fruiting canes to keep spotted wing drosophila under control — of course, that hasn’t stopped invasive brown marmorated stink bugs from moving in. At first glance, their nymphs look like small ladybird beetles, but don’t be fooled! Pick and destroy on sight.

The lovage, winter savory and oregano are all flowering like nobody’s business, so we’re turning them to simple syrup and shoving them into jars of vinegar to savor a flavor of summer once the cold and dark sets in.

Lately, in the “Superabundant” kitchen

✨A friend dropped off almost 20 pounds of Shiro plums from her tree, and after shoveling a few directly into our gob, we turned the rest into a Georgian sour plum sauce called tkemali for canning. We used chocolate mint from the garden as a substitute for pennyroyal, since the two herbs are primarily flavored by the aromatic compound pulegone.

✨With the Caucasus at top of mind (seriously, one of the most diverse and interesting culinary regions), we made lamb meatballs cut 50/50 with millet and seasoned heavily with garlic, cumin, coriander and fenugreek, to grill with baby leeks, lemons and broccolini.

✨We saw some noodle-length tteokbokki at H MART so we threw together a pan of the spicy rice cakes with lots of zucchini, carrots, scallions and slices of odeng, a salty-sweet fish cake. We ate it with cold and crisp cucumber-seaweed salad.

Recipe: Oregon albacore Niçoise salad

Of all the fish hauled out of Northwest waters, few are as strikingly beautiful as albacore tuna. Catching a glimpse of their steely, livid-blue backs and shining silver bellies is already worth the 20 to 50 nautical-mile drive out into the warm mass of clear blue waters of the Pacific, but depending on the surface temperature and chlorophyll levels in the ocean, they may be out as far as 200 miles offshore. That’s because albacore feed on small schooling fishes like anchovies and saury, which feed on the zooplankton and chlorophyll-producing phytoplankton in the upper epipelagic zones.

Though August is the official “Oregon Albacore Month,” the season typically gets started in mid-July. If you can’t manage a trip to catch your own, the best place to buy albacore is at the coast, where you can get tuna directly from the folks catching them.

Once you have your hands on fresh tuna loins, you can always smoke or pressure-can them for later, but there’s nothing like the fresh article: fish tacos, seared tuna tataki with cold soba or this rustic and satisfying salad. A favorite of Julia Child, the salad hails from Nice, France (hence its name), and has pretty much all the food groups — if potatoes aren’t enough to cover the “white carbs” food group you can serve the salad with a torn baguette. Serves 4

Note: you can make this vegetarian or vegan by swapping the tuna for white beans (such as cannellini or gigante) and omitting the eggs

Ingredients

Salad

1 pound albacore tuna loins

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided

½ pound slender green beans (haricots verts)

½ pound baby or fingerling potatoes

1 head Bibb or butterleaf lettuce or frisée/curly endive, torn into pieces

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (or a large tomato cut into wedges)

4 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters

½ cup pitted Niçoise olives (kalamata is fine), halved

Vinaigrette

Zest from one lemon

1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon white or red wine vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

1 anchovy, mashed with a fork (optional)

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon flaky sea salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Pat the tuna loins dry and rub them with a drizzle of olive oil and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Sear in a pan over medium-high heat until cooked to your preference (a little rare in the center is nice), 2-3 minutes per side. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the parsley and set aside to rest.
2. Bring a medium-sized pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the green beans for 1 minute, then transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water to shock them. Drain and set aside.
3. Using the same pot and water as you did for the green beans, cook the potatoes until tender enough to pierce with a fork. Drain, then drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and chopped parsley, tossing to coat. Set aside.
4. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together until fully combined and emulsified. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
5. Slice the tuna loins into ½ inch medallions. Assemble the salad ingredients on a large platter, being as artful (or not!) as you see fit, then drizzle the vinaigrette evenly over the top.

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