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Recipes

Buttonwood Farm partnered with The Herbfarm restaurant's chef Chris Weber to bring you two recipes you can make using your organic Christmas tree as an ingredient. 

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christmas tree sorbet

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 pint Organic Douglas Fir Needles (*Do NOT use non-organic needles, which may have been exposed to or treated with poisons!)

  • 1 cup Crème Fraiche

  • 1 pint Simple Syrup

  • 1 cup Verjus

  • 3 Egg Whites

  • 1 cup Sugar

For the base:

  1. Infuse 1 1/2 cups Douglas Fir needles into syrup. (Save the remaining for the candied garnish.) Gently add verjus and crème fraiche.

  2. Chill the base for at least 1 hour.

  3. Pour the chilled base into a sorbet machine or ice cream freezer and let it spin for 15 minutes. (If you don’t have a machine, you can whisk by hand.)

  4. Freeze the sorbet for at least 1 hour.

For the candied garnish:

  1. Whisk the egg whites.

  2. Dip remaining fir needles into egg white and whisk them around to coat.

  3. Drop the needles one by one into the sugar, then toss them around.

  4. Take the needles out and place them on acetate to dry.

  5. Allow to dry overnight, and they’ll be crispy by morning.

Serve the sorbet garnished with candied fir needles on top!

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DOUGLAS FIR CURED SALMON (LOX)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 Sockeye Salmon

  • 1 cup Organic Douglas Fir Needles (*Do NOT use non-organic needles, which may have been exposed to or treated with poisons!)

  • 1/4 cup Salt

  • 2 ounces Sugar

  • 1 tablespoon White Peppercorns

  • 1 tablespoon Pink Peppercorns

  • 1 tablespoon Black Peppercorns

  • 2 ounces Gin

Steps:

  1. Coarsely grind up the spices (peppercorns and coriander.)

  2. Poke holes in the skin of the fish (on the back)

  3. Season both sides of the salmon with the ground spices, salt, and sugar.

  4. Cover with Douglas fir needles.

  5. Sprinkle gin on both sides of the salmon.

  6. Wrap the salmon in plastic wrap.

  7. Refrigerate for 5 days with a light weight pressing down on the wrapped salmon (a half gallon of milk is the perfect weight). Flip the wrapped salmon in the fridge after 3 days to weigh down the opposite side for the remaining 2 days.

  8. Before serving, remove excess fir needles.

  9. Slice VERY thin and enjoy with a bagel!