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Sonya Sanford

@sonyamichellesanford

13.3K

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✨ Chef • Author• Podcast Host
🍒Sharing seasonal recipes, Jewish + Slavic food stories
🎙️Co-host @foodfriendspod
🥕Food Styling & Cooking Classes
🌎 PDX

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

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3 years ago

Some recent highlights:
🍯Annual plum rosemary challah for Rosh Hashanah
🥗Fig radicchio salad
🍺Beer and onion braised brisket — got the brisket from @laurelhurstmarket market, and it was the best I’ve ever made
🥕My take on tzimmes is always roasted carrots, squash and dates, drizzled with maple, with fresh ginger
🍇”New fruits” fruit platter as part of RH dessert
☀️ @davidlebovitz roasted plum recipe, which later topped a honey cake
⚡️Incredible lamb arayes, discovered this particular recipe/delicious version in our conversation with @maggiejhoffman on a recent @foodfriendspod episode
🍎Make-ahead fennel apple celery pomegranate salad (just released our make-ahed salads ep too)
⛅️And the September sky on the river.... by @sonyamichellesanford

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a month ago

Late summer highlights…

Galettes with fruit from the freezer harvested earlier in the summer — I especially love the combination of raspberry and huckleberry

Sweet corn — 💜💜💜 this purple variety from Eloisa Farm (tastes sweet and similar to the bi-color)

Big salads with all the late summer veg and lots of fresh herbs

Soooo much amazing produce from the farmers’ market (but especially cranberry beans).

Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite gift to give all year, and sometimes I keep a few for us too 🍪🍪🍪 taken in Portland, Oregon by @sonyamichellesanford

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a month ago

At this month’s cookbook club we cooked through “A Platter of Figs” by @david_tanis

Each person prepared a different dish (or two), and along with making the “corn, squash, and beans with jalapeno butter”, I couldn’t resist making a dessert.

While I typically would only make something from the designated book, at a recent @foodfriendspod live gathering, listener Mary Jo recommended another David Tanis recipe: the “fig and almond cake” from @nytcooking 💫 I knew I had to include it in this meal — especially since figs are perfectly in season right now in Portland.

This was such a lovely book with beautiful writing, gorgeous photography, and the kind of seasonal recipes that help you truly embrace a moment in time. It was a warm summer evening eating wonderful things in the best company 🌽 by @sonyamichellesanford

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2 months ago

What’s your favorite pie?

My current ranking is
1) strawberry rhubarb
2) peach
3) key lime
4) whichever fits the season/moment in time best — banana cream, chocolate silk, cranberry lime, apple, sweet potato….

I didn’t follow an exact recipe for thie, but I have tried (and loved) the peach pie recipes from Nicole Rucker and Alison Roman 🥧

Thank you @amandalucier for the gift of amazing peaches, which inspired this pie!

#peachpie by @sonyamichellesanford

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2 months ago

An incredible meal @republicapdx 💫

One of my favorite parts of the @portlandfarmers market is that you might meet a local chef standing in line waiting to buy incredible tomatoes, and then a few days later, you get to try the way the chef prepares them — like in this tomato dish that uses 7 different varieties, and is topped with wasabi flowers (!!), holy basil, and more.

Other standouts from our meal were a quesadilla with a nutty chili oil so good you want to bottle it up and take it with you, complicated nuanced mole, tender flavorful house-made tortillas, and a delicious brioche-style fried pastry topped with cherries with an incredible creme fraiche with lime zest.

Thank you @smalltimegenius not just for your outstanding food and hospitality, but for the fascinating history and stories behind each dish. by @sonyamichellesanford

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4

2 months ago

Summer sweets!

I’ve been baking and making treats all summer, even when the temperature outside makes it unwise to turn on my oven.

Some favorites have been:
🍈 A very good fruit salad (recipe on the @foodfriendspod Substack)
🥥Coconut tapioca pudding (from the book “Dac Biet” cookbook, made for cookbook club), topped with macerated fruit
🍦Not homemade, but soft serve with rainbow sprinkles is my favorite (thank you @arlefton for capturing my joy)
🍒Sour cherry apricot galette with marzipan
🍰Alison Roman’s raspberry ricotta cake recipe (with blackberry added in too) by @sonyamichellesanford

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2 months ago

There are certain dishes that call to me to make just once a year. They’re not necessarily difficult or time-consuming, but are out of the ordinary routine, and require a fleeting ingredient available in its prime.

On this week’s @foodfriendspod “Best-Bite” ep, I shared about frying stuffed zucchini blossoms for dinner. Earlier in the day, I had run into a chef friend at the farmers’ market, who had picked up a bouquet, and told me he was going to make the dish for his wife. I was immediately inspired to do the same, and went to the stand that was selling these especially beautiful (and large blossoms).

There’s nothing quite like the sound of them delicately frying in a cast iron pan, the only thing better is taking that first bite: tender petals, herby ricotta filling, a tempura-like batter surrounding everything, all crisped and browned. Alongside a big salad, this made for one of the best dinners we’ve had in months. 🌼

#zucchiniblossoms #foodfriends #summercooking by @sonyamichellesanford

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4 months ago

A solstice weekend Shabbat dinner 🌞

🌱Challah with herbs and flowers from the garden

🍒Salad with cherries, cucumbers, snap peas, mint and lettuce, in a pomegranate molasses vinaigrette

🍓Fresh raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, blueberries, and strawberries, with some of last year’s frozen huckleberries, macerated with raspberry liqueur, lemon, and sugar, layered with a blueberry pound cake

🫛Not pictured — charred green beans in an herb sauce, and apricot harissa chicken

An incredible moment in the year for herbs, vegetables, and fruits. 🙏

May the longest days of the year welcome in all the light in all the ways. Shabbat shalom 🍋🫐🥬 by @sonyamichellesanford

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4 months ago

Hi, it’s Sonya 👋 Berry season is full-on here in the Pacific NW, and there’s nothing quite like picking them right off the bush, warmed by the sun 🌞

Once the berries are home, it feels like there’s endless delicious things to bake and make. @karilauritzenla and I recently rounded up some of our favorite berry dishes for summer — some we make every year, and there’s some new fun recipes to try, too!

I love all the berry pies and galettes — including a fresh strawberry icebox pie (recipe coming out on our Substack Sunday 6/21). Blackberry cobbler, strawberry cake, and even Slavic strawberries and sour cream are all high on my summer desserts list. And I can’t wait for huckleberries to arrive later in the summer!

All the recipes from each episode are always linked in the show notes, and you can also find them on our Substack ✅.

What summer dessert do you love to make??🍓🫐🍒

(And thank you @laurenchandlercooks for inviting me to pick mulberries in your neighborhood AND capturing me in berry harvest joy) by @sonyamichellesanford

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4 months ago

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4 months ago

I recently catered for a friend hosting a fundraiser for Portland Friends of Chamber Music @focm_pdx , where beautiful Turkish music was performed.

It has been a few years since I’ve made Pogača and baklava, and this was the perfect time to revisit these recipes. I learned to make baklava at 18, and I remember feeling like it was such a huge accomplishment (it still feels that way).

My sister-in-law’s family is Turkish, and her mother taught me how to make her version of Pogača— a tender spinach and feta stuffed pastry made with a yogurt-based dough.

I also served veggies from the farmers’ market to dip into a charred eggplant dip, as well as labneh, a beet and walnut salad in pomegranate molasses, sigara borek (phyllo and feta cheese rolls), and my chocolate chip cookies for good measure.

I shared all about it on this week’s @foodfriendspod best bite! 🫛🫜🍪
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#foodfriends #baklava #springmenu by @sonyamichellesanford

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5 months ago