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Basque Style Cider Made in Oregon

Jasper Smith is a terrific cook. Actually, he's a pro with plenty of kitchen experience. 

At the top, he's grilling branzino, which he'll serve with his own salsa verde. 

But Smith's main job now isn't cooking. It's making cider--Basque style cider, under the label Son of Man.

This he does in a business complex at Cascade Locks, Oregon. Smith first tried his hand at cider-making in Spain, but his Oregon cider is brand new, made from 27 varieties of apples grown in the Hood River area.

Fermentation started in August, 2018, and the first batch was bottled in February, 2019.

What is Basque cider? Smith's is dry, higher in acid than ordinary cider and slightly alcoholic--6%. It's made from pure fresh juice, without concentrate.

Fermentation takes about three weeks, then the different batches are blended into the final cider, which should be consumed within a year. Above, he's explaining how it's made. 

The fermentation is spontaneous, without added yeast, and the cider is not fined or filtered. It's "similar to what you would be drinking fresh in Spain," Smith says. In Basque country in northern Spain, the name for the cider is sagardo, as on this sign in the cidery. 

Why did he get into this?  A first taste of Basque cider in San Francisco blew him away, in his words. Now, he's the only one in the country that is doing Basque cider exclusively, he says. This year's batch was 20,000 liters.  

The traditional way to drink is straight from the tank or barrel, poured in a long stream to make it lively. You can only do this at Smith's cidery. To visit there, an appointment is necessary.

However, Smith bottles the cider, and distribution is getting underway. I saw it at Park Avenue Fine Wines in Portland, where Smith lives. And it can be ordered through his website. 

"It's a living beverage," he said. "It's all about food, drink and having fun."

This is where his cooking comes in. Smith produced a handsome meal for a small group of visitors. The next day, he would be grilling steaks for 100 or so. "Basque cider goes well with food," he says. 

For the small group he grilled the branzino, seasoned with olive oil and salt, and then daubed on his homemade salsa verde.

Here, Smith cuts up the fish to serve his guests. 

Two salads accompanied the fish. The one above combined celery, dried apricots, almonds and mint in a sherry vinaigrette.

This one was based on grilled cabbage--Smith recommends using Savoy cabbage. The dressing was a spicy blend of homemade preserved Meyer lemons, guajillo chiles, garlic, honey, sherry vinegar and grapeseed oil. For Basque flavor, he sprinkled the Catalan goat's milk cheese Garrotza over the salad. 

The bread came from Ken's Artisan Bakery in Portland. 

There were cheeses, too. 

After cider as an aperitif, Smith paired his lunch with wines, easy to do because he shares space with two artisan winemakers, Bethany Kimmel of The Color Collector and Graham Markel of Buona Notte Wines. 

Markel's wines are made from Italian grape varieties grown in Oregon's Columbia Gorge. Kimmel's are French. She's a specialist in Oregon Gamay Noir and makes a Rosé from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.

So under one roof, the beverages are French, Italian and Basque, all made from Oregon-grown fruit. 

Bangladesh's Spicy Bharta Dishes

If you're an Indian food fan, you've no doubt eaten baingan bharta. This Punjabi dish of roasted, mashed, spiced eggplant is on virtually every Indian restaurant menu.

But there's another style of bharta. In Bangladesh, it's comfort food, easy to prepare and versatile. You take any vegetable in your kitchen or garden, cook it and then mash it with traditional bharta seasonings. 

Even mango will work, says Martin Shah, chef/owner of India's Tandoori in Brentwood (above). Shah, who is from Bangladesh, is adding bharta dishes to his catering menu. To introduce them, he staged a bharta dinner at the restaurant.

The way to eat these dishes is with rice, he said, and so small servings were grouped around rice on each plate. 

Eggplant bharta (above) was among them. The eggplant was roasted over an open flame, then seasoned bharta style with mustard oil, which adds a fiery pungency; garlic, onion, cilantro and red and green chiles. 

Shah had worked all day making bharta dishes. One less familiar vegetable that he used was shim, also known as hyacinth bean (above). This green bean is being planted locally, he said.

Others were taro, peas and green banana, each seasoned slightly differently, some more spicy than others, some with more mustard oil than others. 

The bharta dishes weren't all vegetables though. First up was tilapia, cooked bharta style (above).

Later came fermented shutki chapa (above), a fish that is either sun-dried or fermented in the ground. Prepared bharta style, it was intense. 

Shah's food was spicy and some of it very strong in flavor. To offset this, he served a cool drink made with lychees, jackfruit, oranges, mango, green chiles and red chile flakes. Even though spicy, it was refreshing.

He served non-bharta Bangladeshi dishes too, including sweet and spicy shrimp cooked with ground coconut, coconut milk and coconut water.

Another was lamb shanks rezala, a classic curry made with yogurt and without chiles.

Also, chicken with mint.

The most unusual was the roe of the popular Bengali fish hilsa (ilish). (Bangladesh was once known as East Bengal, and most of its inhabitants are Bengalis.) This was prepared with onion, garlic, ginger and other common seasonings rather than bharta spices. (Note: you may also see bharta spelled bhorta.)

Desserts included a Bangladeshi version of carrot halwa, made with ghee, milk, raisins, nuts and cardamom.

Another was opo firni, a soft mixture of boiled opo squash combined with milk, sugar and cardamom. 

And what better way to end an unusual and highly seasoned dinner than with a calming glass of hot chai?

Northwest Flavors at 3 Rivers Grill

Want to learn about Pacific Northwest food and wine? 

A good place to do this is 3 Rivers Grill in Hood River, Oregon. It's a beautiful restaurant with stunning views. At night you look out over the town. During the day you can see the Columbia River, with Oregon on one side and Washington on the other. And any time, you can sample delicious regional cuisine.  

One example is Pacific halibut almandine, lightly coated with panko and served with a cranberry, citrus and butter sauce. The vegetables on the side include locally-grown asparagus. 

Others are pork tenderloin stuffed with Hood River apples, Oregon sole with a lemon, dill and cream sauce and pan-seared fresh Northwest steelhead with a cherry tomato piccata sauce.

The halibut got the most takers when five local wine producers brought their wares to a tasting dinner. The five were Keely Kopetz of Wy'East Vineyards (Wy'East is an indigenous name for Mount Hood), Robert Morus of Phelps Creek Vineyards, Lonnie Wright of The Pines 1852, Jill House of Stave & Stone Wine Estates and Rick Cushman of Viento Wines.

Wine went with every course, even a house salad composed of organic greens,  tomatoes, olives, red onions, Gorgonzola and an herb vinaigrette.


The first poured was a Pinot Noir Brut Rosé from The Pines 1852, made according to the traditional French champagne method.

Jill House brought the Stave & Stone Dorothy Pinot Noir Rosé. Dorothy was the grandmother of the founder, and only her female descendants are allowed to stomp the grapes for this wine, she said.  

Cushman of Viento Wines helped with the pouring. The window behind Cushman and House looks toward the Columbia River, which is almost hidden by the trees. 

Then came Chardonnays from Wy'East and Phelps Creek. That's Mount Hood on the Wy'East label. This winery has a tasting room on Highway 35 outside Hood River, and a place for gatherings high among the vineyards, where the views are spectacular. 


Morus of Phelps Creek (above), who poured two Chardonnays, said he is transitioning to 500-liter puncheons for the wine. In these large wooden casks, Chardonnay can stay for an extended time without picking up too much oak, he said. Here he's moved on to the reds that were poured later. 

Morus supplied one of several Pinot Noirs, which were nice with Mediterranean pasta, a mix of pasta, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, Parmesan and pesto.

Wines were poured right through dessert. That's when Wright, of The Pines 1852, brought out an Old Vines Zinfandel from a vineyard planted in the late 1800s. It's at the left in the photo. A Wy'East Carménère is at the right. 

The desserts were creme brûlée.

And a mixed berry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries. 

Overseeing the dinner was 3 Rivers chef Efrem Rivas (above). Jim Dey, who owns the restaurant, has made sure the Northwest is well represented on the wine list, which includes selections from those at the tasting dinner.