Westport’s Forage & Cook With the Shipboard Chef
Disclaimer: People should not eat wild mushrooms unless an expert identifies them as safe.
This past summer, I discovered Westport's charm and grace while delivering a 125-foot classic wooden yacht, Taconite, from Victoria, BC, to Mazatlan, Mexico. The Taconite was built in 1930 and has hardly run over the past decade. Bringing her down the West Coast was a complex endeavor, and in preparation for our journey to Mexico, we ended up in Westport, WA, for a multi-week stop for repairs and to prepare for our voyage south.
What a fun place to land! It's hard to be discreet in a small town when you're arriving on a 125-foot yacht, and we were quick to meet the locals. We were pleased to discover how friendly and helpful everyone was. The people of Westport welcomed us in, and I had numerous offers of freshly caught fish, home-grown produce, fishing charters, hand-painted rocks, and an invitation to forage for mushrooms.
As a chef, when I think of Westport, the first thing that comes to mind is seafood. However, I had heard that there was good foraging in Westport, so when we were getting the Taconite ready for our journey to Mexico, I poked around the pine forest, hoping to find some mushrooms, but it was still too dry, and I didn't find anything. So, I vowed to return in the Fall once we were back from our trip, and I'm so glad we did.
Fortunately for me, when I returned, local expert Mike Coverdale – Windemere Real Estate Agent and Mushroom Whisperer extraordinaire – offered to take me foraging for those wily King Boletes. I could hardly contain my excitement, and I was inspired it inspired me to create a foraged menu from some not-so-obvious local fare to accompany the filets I had brought to test a new grill.
My absolute favorite mushrooms are Boletus edulis, also known as porcini (Italy), cèpes (France), and Steinpilz (German)! We started off into the forest at Light State Park to see what we could find. At first, finding Boletes was slow. We finally spotted a few excellent specimens, but I worried we wouldn't have enough for our dinner. But then, jackpot!!
We must have found nearly 20 boletus edulis in varying sizes in one small patch! And each one was PERFECT! Solid bases, thick, meaty caps, not a sign of any worms having attacked them! An hour later, we had 30 more! Certainly enough for our meal. I would have loved to continue the hunt, but I had more ingredients to gather for my dinner.
Next, we headed to Plenty Farms, an organic Cranberry Farm in Grayland, WA, just a few miles south of Westport, to get the ingredients for my Cranberry Reduction Sauce! I wasn't sure what to expect at a you-pick cranberry farm. Would I need hip-waders to wade into a flooded bog to harvest the berries? That's how the Ocean Spray commercials show it. However, Plenty Farm's owner, Wanda Wentland, assured me that wasn't the case and that I could save my waders for fishing another day.
Instead, Wanda outfitted me with a berry rake, a metal scoop with thin prongs, and a bucket. We walked through the property to a beautiful bog overflowing with berries. Wanda encouraged me to "glean" the berries from the bushes. I combed through them with ease with my handy berry rake. Her plants were so healthy and prolific, and I had about 3 pounds of beautiful cranberries in no time. I love knowing where my food comes from. It just tastes better when you harvest, catch, or forage yourself. Harvesting the cranberries for this meal was fun and a unique experience, and now I understand why they call it the Cranberry Coast.
Of course, every good meal needs a nice wine pairing, so our next stop was the Westport Winery. I didn't expect to find excellent local wine on the Washington Coast and was pleasantly surprised. What a fabulous asset to the area! Great Northwest Wine Magazine named Westport Winery the 2022 Washington Winery of the Year, and it is the seventh top platinum-winning winery in the Pacific Northwest. We did a wine tasting, and I selected a rosé bubbly for our appetizer, a white for those who don't care for red, and then two other reds to balance out our Surf and Turf meal.
Speaking of "surf," our final stop was at Seafood Connection, where I had met Adrienne, the owner, several weeks earlier. She'd been tempting me with local Spot Prawns all summer, so I knew what I needed to make this meal shine! Running luxury yacht charters up in Southeast Alaska, I always looked forward to the day in the week when we'd be fishing for 'Spots" for our guests, so I am always excited to serve these up!
Finally, I had all the local ingredients I wanted to serve with my steaks, and I headed back to the condo to make some magic.
And, was it ever magic! Creating a meal with these fabulous local ingredients was incredible and delicious. I served grilled filet mignon with garlic-marinated spot prawns, simple grilled porcini mushrooms, and a sauce made of cranberries, rich beef stock, and a touch of horseradish. While a cranberry-based sauce might sound odd with a Surf and Turf meal when you add the notes of beef and horseradish, which is a natural pairing, the acid and sweetness of the cranberries become otherworldly in combination with the other elements of the dish.
What an incredible experience. We lucked out and hit prime mushrooming season in the Fall after the rains had begun. I loved meeting the locals, supporting the local businesses, and foraging for ingredients. Dinner was served just as the sun was setting behind the dunes, the sound of the waves breaking just beyond providing the musical backdrop. Not only was it a great dinner, but I made a new set of friends, giving me yet another reason to visit Westport in the future.
Cranberry Coast Sauce with Horseradish
2 medium shallots, minced
1 Tbs olive oil
2 cups fresh or frozen whole cranberries
½ cup water
¼ cup dark brown sugar
1 cup strong beef broth or stock
2 Tbs prepared horseradish
1 Tbs butter, cut into four pieces (optional)
In a heavy-bottomed, medium saucepan, add the olive oil. Heat over medium until oil is shimmering, then add minced shallots and cook, stirring constantly for approximately 1 minute. Shallots should be soft but not browned.
Add cranberries, ½ cup water, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to keep cranberries just simmering. Allow cranberries to cook down, adding a little more water if needed to keep from scorching until the berries have mostly popped. Add beef broth, stir, and bring to a boil. Allow mixture to cook down to about half, about 30 minutes. Then, transfer to a blender or food processor.
Add horseradish to the cranberry mixture, then blend until smooth. Strain the mixture using a sieve, pressing down on the solids to extract. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and keep warm until ready to serve. If you'd like a glossier sauce, place strained sauce into a small skillet, warm to nearly simmer, and drop one piece of butter into the sauce at a time, whisking to combine before adding the next piece. Serve immediately.
Makes sufficient sauce for 4 servings.
Note: the amount of horseradish (and strength) you use is up to you. I love horseradish, so I tend to use an Extra Hot style, but for those who don't go "nuclear" on your tastebuds, adjust as you like!
Corinne Gregory Sharpe
The ShipboardChef – Corinne Gregory Sharpe – is all about sharing her unique lifestyle of life cooking and serving onboard boats, whether it's about living and working on luxury yachts, repositioning a vessel up the Coast in stormy seas, or learning what it takes to provision and stow ALL that food for ALL those people aboard a cruise ship, a military cruiser, or even a submarine! Corinne shares what it's like to visit unforgettable destinations, meet the locals, cook with novel and exotic ingredients, and experience adventures she never thought possible.
