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 a spiced pumpkin cake topped with a layer of Basque cheesecake.

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It’s November already? The cold, rainy weather may be kind of a downer but this time of year has its pluses, too. That’s right: It’s weird fruit season. Bring on the astringent persimmons and the double-trouble quinces, guarded both by thick, waxy fur and impenetrably gritty sclereids! Bring on the rough and tough medlars, inedible until they’ve half-rotted! Luckily, these fruits are all rendered succulent through a process called bletting, or over-ripening to release sugars and reduce the astringency. Medlars and quinces may have originated in southwestern Asia, but the Pacific Northwest has its own close relative — it, too, produces tart fruits that require bletting — do you know what it is? Read on to find out!

Day of the Dead

Though not specifically limited to food, the Oregon Muertos Project explores Dia de Muertos through Latinx art in installations and ofrendas around the state — and for more than a decade, Portland restaurateur Megan Sanchez has been creating her own works of art in her beautifully eclectic space Güero. OPB’s Oregon Art Beat caught up with her last year to learn more about her aesthetic approach to cooking.

Frybread Fest is coming!

It’s officially National Native American Heritage Month! On Saturday, Nov. 9 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.), come to Director Park to join storyteller Ed Edmo and the drummers of Turquoise Pride in celebrating with Frybread Fest, brought to you in partnership with Portland Indigenous Marketplace. Indigenous pop-up Javelina will be providing frybread.

Plans for James Beard Market come back to life

After decades of planning and millions of dollars in fundraising, the little market that won’t give up has secured a new location downtown. The James Beard Public Market aims to be a central indoor food emporium that rivals the likes of San Francisco’s Ferry Building or Pike Place in Seattle, but Portland history nerds may recall an earlier public market — the Carroll or Yamhill Public Market — that captivated the city’s gourmands. During the years it was open (1920s-1942, with a relocation in 1933), Portland’s “Marvelous Million Dollar Market” even held a place in James Beard’s heart.

Quince Fest this Sunday

Weird old pome lovers unite: Portland’s first ever Quince Fest, brought to you by tarte flambeé pop-up (!! what a time to be alive) Sauvette PDX and the Culinary Breeding Network is this Sunday, Nov. 3, at Bauman’s on Oak (the cidery’s new tasting room in the Buckman neighborhood). Sadly, it is now sold out, but luckily you can still enjoy cider all season long. (Incidentally, our native crabapples also make an outstanding cider, but like a quince, they require bletting first — as known by Indigenous Pacific Northwesterners like Chinook, Cowlitz, Klallam and Kwakiutl people.)

Speaking of cider, be sure and check out this wonderful episode of OPB’s Oregon Field Guide — a glimpse into the workings of the historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill, built in 1876 in Woodland, Washington.

Farm life is a tough row to hoe

OPB’s Alejandro Figueroa recently spoke to young urban farmers and learned about how difficult it is to break into the biz as a first-generation agrarian. Read his story about their new farm incubator project.

Happy 50th, Kitchen Kaboodle

To celebrate half a century in the Portland area, Kitchen Kaboodle will be hosting a series of culinary events at their Orenco Station location in Hillsboro. Kicking off a new monthly series, the first (free) event will be held on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. and will highlight the efforts of five local organizations promoting food sustainability and equity.

It’s definitely time for cool-season vegetables — there are winter squashes and greens (and pinks! Never forget the joy of a good radicchio) galore. Frilly, purple Napa cabbage is showing up now, ready for all manner of hot pots and kitchen science experiments. And look for small, flavorful squashes with edible skins, like sweet dumpling and bitterroot buttercup. Yes, technically all winter squash have edible skins, but I really don’t find it much fun gnawing on a stiff, leathery rind.

Apples remain the glory of the season — orchards and U-pick spots around the Northwest will be your best bet for the freshest specimens and unusual heirloom varieties, but farmers markets will also be flush with fun and flavorful alternatives to a Red Delicious. Pears and persimmons are also outstanding right now, and the quinces are steadily streaming in as well. Just don’t forget to let them blet!

Lately, in the “Superabundant” kitchen

✨ In an effort to work through a backlog of eggs, lentils, green tomatoes, cabbage and mushrooms (including two matsutakes I scored for a couple bucks), I made a banquet of curries. Two were South Asian: Tomato and egg curry flavored with an hoja santa leaf (it makes a lovely partner to kasuri methi/fenugreek leaf) and tadka dal with fried chiles from the garden; the other two were Ethiopian: atakilt wat (tender, stewed cabbage but with roasted Chioggia beets instead of carrots) and engudai (mushroom) tibs with green tomatoes. The cinnamon-piney flavor of the matsutakes paired beautifully with ginger and garam masala, but since I didn’t have any Berbere spice I added fresh holy basil to the sauce.

✨ I made kung pao tofu with a brick of extra firm Ota Tofu, but since my favorite part is the crunch, I added tons of celery and roasted peanuts to the mix. While I frequently crave American Chinese food classics like kung pao and lo mein, I have still been unable to fill the egg roll-shaped hole in my heart. I’m desperate for a proper crunchy, burrito-sized egg roll with blistery skin and glass noodle filling, but have only had my hopes dashed over and over by soggy versions filled with mushy cabbage. (I’ve checked the Safeway deli and every divey Chinese joint in town but am always disappointed.)

✨ We had some leftover fried chicken (and a few extra boiled eggs) so I sliced it up to top large bowls of ramen. I used the straight type of noodles, and gobs of miso-butter corn and sliced scallions went on top, but to me, the best part is always the broth. This time, a leftover rotisserie chicken carcass simmered with shiitakes, ginger, scallions and bonito flakes, then strained and seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, black garlic salt and a splash of sake.

Recipe: Spiced pumpkin cake with Basque cheesecake topping

It’s Diwali and that means plenty of sweets and soft, glowy lighting. Of course, if you’re like me, cake already lights up your life, and this cake is two in one — a custardy, richly spiced pumpkin cake with a creamy and tangy Basque “burnt” cheesecake on top. Diwali celebrates the triumph of light over dark, of wisdom over ignorance, and this cake is a sort of visual representation of those two opposing forces. It’s nutritious enough to be taken seriously, but it’s still a treat that’s easy to pull together. We could all use a little more carrot than stick these days, couldn’t we?

This time every year, as it gets darker, I have to make more of an effort to get exercise and daylight to keep the stressy depressy at bay. Recently, though, I was taking a walk and noticed that my right foot kind of hurts all the time. As it had for many people, the pandemic had derailed my weight training regimen, but I’ve stayed fairly active with a steady supply of chores and running errands on foot. This achy foot feels like a betrayal and a bellwether, and I want to slow down this falling-into-entropy thing that human bodies do.

Unfortunately, it has been a few years (nearly five by now! What even is time) and that means it’s going to take a lot of hard work to regain my pre-’Rona strength levels. I’ll have to be extra careful to avoid injuries. It’ll probably include some longer, very sore recovery time, too. The groan I gronpt!

That’s when the little voice in my head whispered, “no pain, no gain.”

Chalk it up to the mental health benefits of taking a stroll (it really does help!), because for once, hearing this tired gym rat proverb gave me pause. Why do we say these types of things to ourselves? Suffering isn’t the only path to enlightenment. What happens when we’re gentle with ourselves and with each other — are we really too obtuse to learn and grow from experiencing splendor instead of hardship?

Listen, I get that pearls are made from grit, but I think there’s still plenty of mental health benefits to smelling fragrant baked goods coming from a warm kitchen. There’s a lot to gain by seeing the look on someone’s face when you bring them a little treat. And as a bonus, the beta carotene in pumpkin can boost your immune system and prevent cognitive decline, so this cake is practically medicinal.

Cake may not completely vanquish evil (or mean inner voices), but baking, smelling, sharing and eating a special little treat will certainly brighten your mood. Serves 8-12

Note: This recipe actually makes a two-in-one cake plus a loaf of moist pumpkin bread — I’ve included separate instructions to bake the pumpkin bread at the same time. You can triple the Basque cheesecake recipe to make a full-size cheesecake; I only came up with the idea for a cheesecake layer because I had some odds and ends (an open brick of cream cheese, half a carton of heavy cream, egg surplus) in the fridge that needed using up.

Ingredients

Pumpkin cake

1 10-ounce bag frozen diced butternut squash (about 2 ½ cups of cubed squash)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ cup pumpkin puree

½ cup neutral cooking oil

½ cup milk

3 eggs

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

⅓ cup dried cranberries

⅓ cup unsalted roasted pumpkin seeds

Sparkling sugar

Basque cheesecake

1 8-ounce brick cream cheese or Neufchâtel, softened

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon flour

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375o and grease a half sheet pan, a 9-inch cake pan and a 8 ½ x 4-inch loaf pan. Line the cake pan and loaf pan with parchment.
2. Spread the frozen butternut squash out onto the greased sheet pan, breaking up any chunks that are frozen together, and roast until the squash is warmed through and beginning to caramelize on the edges, about 20 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin cake’s dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients until fully combined, then stir in the roasted butternut squash. Don’t mix the wet and dry ingredients yet though!
4. Make the Basque cheesecake: In (sorry, yet) another bowl, mix the softened cream cheese and sugar until fluffy and creamy, then mix in the eggs one at a time. Add the cream and vanilla, whipping until fully incorporated. Set aside.
5. Return to the pumpkin cake: Make a well in the bowl of dry ingredients, and pour in the blended wet ingredients. Mix until well combined (but don’t try to mash up all the roasted squash cubes — they add a wonderful pumpkin pie texture to the cake), then pour about ⅓ of the batter into the prepared cake pan. Scrape the cheesecake mix on top of the cake batter and smooth the top, taking care not to mix it all up — you want to preserve the distinct layers as best you can.
6. Add the cranberries and pumpkin seeds to the remaining cake batter, and scrape it into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with sparkling sugar.
7. Place both the cake and loaf pans in the oven and bake until the cheesecake is a rich mahogany color (don’t worry, it’s not really burnt!) and a toothpick inserted in the loaf comes out dry. Remarkably, this takes the same amount of time for both — about 50-60 minutes. The cheesecake will inflate quite a bit during baking but will sink back down when it comes out of the oven.
8. Use the parchment paper like a handle to pull the two bakes out of their respective pans, then transfer to a cooling rack and cool for 20-30 minutes.

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Note: in an earlier version of this newsletter, we stated that Quince Fest was free; tickets were $12 but have sold out. OPB regrets the error.