Orcas Island Rehearsal Dinner at Red Rabbit Farm

Imagine having a wedding on a Northwest island that is known for its farm fresh food and culinary talent. Next envision the most highly acclaimed chef on the island as your personal chef for your very own wedding event. That’s what you get when you hold your special occasion at Red Rabbit Farm run by Chef Christina Orchid and her husband Bruce.

For nearly 30 years, Christina Orchid was the chef and owner of what many consider to be Orcas Island’s finest restaurant. Christina’s was heralded and cherished by many including Nancy Leson, author of Seattle Time’s Food Blog, All You Can Eat. Nancy claimed that dining at Christina’s was the first restaurant experience to knock her off her feet after moving to Seattle in 1988.

I ran into two members of Edible Seattle’s editorial staff, Angela Murray and Jill Lightner, who both raved about how Christina was one of the first to popularize the concept of a farm to table dinner. The staff at The New Leaf Cafe, one of Orcas Island’s nicest restaurants, told us how much that they all look forward to having their annual staff retreat at Red Rabbit Farm.

Bruce and Christina are now enjoying semi-retirement and the only way to taste their food is through select private catered events, Farm to Table dinners, and cooking classes through their stunning farmhouse at Red Rabbit Farm. After visiting their farm, we knew immediately that we wanted Christina to serve food for our event. We envisioned a smaller and more intimate dinner at Red Rabbit Farm and we decided to have them host our rehearsal dinner instead of the entire wedding. 

Red Rabbit Farm does not possess a liquor license so we had the liberty to bring the wine or beer of our choice. I met with Ron Lachini of Lachini Vineyards and purchased a case of their Oregon Rose of Pinot Noir. We also went with a fantastic value of a Bordeaux, L’Ecuyer de Couronneau that was purchased from our friends at Pike and Western Wine Shop.

I couldn’t help but hype up the event to all our friends and family that was attending the rehearsal dinner. As anticipation grew and the date crept closer, I grew anxious of whether the experience was going to meet the extremely high expectations that have been built up.

Let me tell you right now that the event of eating at Red Rabbit Farm not only met and exceeded all expectation, but can arguably be filed away as one of those once in a lifetime dining experiences. 

Planning and coordinating a wedding weekend can be quite stressful, but once we arrived at Red Rabbit Farm, good company, great conversation, and unbelievable hosts kicked us into nostalgia. We were able to relax and enjoy delicious food, fantastic service and catch up with friends and family who had flown from around the world to be with us. 

Bruce and Christina delivered on the promise that the dinner would celebrate the bountiful pleasures of life as they kept the food coming. Family style passed platters paraded down our dinner table as we cheerfully dined our way through braised short ribs, roasted chicken legs, Lopez clams with fennel and garlic, buttermilk mashed potatoes, summer corn pudding, strawberry shortcake and much more. 

To add to the expertly prepared farm fresh and local food was the ambiance of Red Rabbit Farm. On top of a hill overlooking Deer Harbor surrounded by mountains, farms, forests, and fields, the farmhouse and long communal dinner table provided an ideal picturesque setting that can usually be found on the cover of travel magazines. We ate, talked and laughed as the sun set in the harbor. 

As a testament to how enjoyable the food was, Christina received a standing ovation from the 46 family and close friends who attended our dinner. Everyone agreed that it was one of the best meals of their lives and a number of guests bought Christina’s cookbook.

Our rehearsal dinner was such a culmination of family, friends and love in the setting of a celebratory feast. I know that we all wish that we could relive our dinner at Red Rabbit Farm over and over again.  It was a night and a meal we will cherish for a lifetime. 

How Investing a Little Time and Effort into Wedding Planning and Caramel Sauce Pays Off

On top of the hill just off the ferry landing is Orcas Hotel. This is the site of our future wedding and reception. Photo by Abbie Griffin.

I love the principle of investing, not just in financial terms, but also with time and energy.

We’ve invested a lot of effort into our wedding plans in the last 2 weeks. A visit to Orcas Island, dozens of emails and phone calls with vendors and relatives, and long hours over our coffee table and Macbooks will all pay dividends in ensuring that everything will be smooth up until the big day. 

A view into the cabin we stayed at while on Orcas. Photo by Abbie Griffin

Not only were we able to accomplish our goals on Orcas Island, but we were able to find serenity and relaxation. The hospitality and friendliness of the locals, the "Oh my God" views, along with great food and peacefulness reaffirmed why we are choosing to get married on the island. Our fruitful efforts made it easy to do exactly what anyone hopes to do while on Orcas Island: Slow it down a bit. 

Since we’ve taken care of major details like the venue, photographer, DJ, and save the dates, we can actually enjoy our trip to Maui instead of working and worrying about things on our trip. It’s nice to again view Maui as a relaxing vacation rather than an obstacle to our wedding planning.

Like in many aspects of life, investing time, resources and effort in the kitchen can pay off handsomely in the long run. Putting in time and effort to making items like melted onions, fresh spice mixes, or homemade chicken broth can really increase your stock in the kitchen (pun totally intended). These ingredients can be made ahead of time and stored in your pantry, fridge or freezer. You can then use or add them to a number of recipes and instantly add depth, complexity, and flavor to your dishes.

Caramel sauce is a staple to Vietnamese cooking. This inky bittersweet sauce can be thrown into a pan with meat, chicken, shrimp, or fish to give your dish a sweet and savory richness.  It also lends a rich brown color to grilled meats, much as molasses does in American barbeque. Putting in a half hour to make a batch of caramel sauce allows one to throw together dishes that are both easy and quick to prepare yet deep in flavor and richness.

I’ll first show you how Andrea Nguyen makes her caramel sauce in her book Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Then I’ll feature a series of three very easy recipes you can make using the caramel sauce as a primary source of flavor. 

The first of these recipes, chicken and ginger simmered in caramel sauce, will be featured below. Chicken thighs and ginger are simply simmered in caramel sauce, fish sauce, and a splash of water. The juices from the chicken incorporate into the sauce resulting in a kaleidoscope of sweet, savory, and aromatic flavors.  The sauce will can be mopped up perfectly by a bowl of rice leaving you with a satisfying quick and easy Vietnamese meal.

FrancisFoodie’s Notes on making caramel sauce

• To simplify, the entire process of making caramel sauce is the following
• Water and sugar heats up evaporating all the water
• Sugar bubbles, partially crystallizes and then melts
• Melted sugar darkens in color and turns into caramel
• When caramel is cooled, remaining water is added to the thick caramel dissolving all the caramel into water leaving you with a slightly viscous, inky brown and bittersweet sauce
• When the caramel is approaching a coffee color, feel free incorporate any crystallized sugar around the edges by stirring it into the melted mixture
• The sauce will virtually have a shelf life of forever

Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen

Ingredients

3/4 cups water

1 cup sugar

Select a small, heavy saucepan with a long handle with a light interior to make monitoring the changing color of the caramel easier. Fill the sink with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the saucepan.

Put 1/4 cup of the water and all the sugar in the saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Stir with a metal spoon. After about 2 minutes, when the sugar is relatively smooth and opaque, stop stirring and let the mixture cook undisturbed. A good 7 minutes into cooking, bubbles will cover the entire surface and the mixture will be at a vigorous simmer. As the sugar melts, the mixture will go from opaque to clear. 

After about 15 minutes, the sugar will begin to caramelize and deepen in color. You will see a progression from champagne yellow to light tea to dark tea. When smoke starts rising, around the 20-minute mark, remove the pan from the heat and slowly swirl it. Watch the sugar closely as it will turn darker by the second; a reddish cast will set in as the bubbles become a lovely burnt orange When the caramel is the color of black coffee or molasses, place the pain in the sink to stop the cooking. Add the remaining 1/2 cup water; don’t worry, the sugar will seize up but later dissolve. Return the pan to the stove over medium heat. 

Heat the caramel, stirring until it dissolves into the water. Let cool for 10 minutes before pouring into a small heatproof glass jar.

FrancisFoodie’s Quick Notes on Chicken and Ginger Simmered in Caramel Sauce

• I prefer to cut the ginger into the shape of matchsticks. It is visually appealing and will almost eat like little noodles in the dish.
• There will be some chicken fat floating around in the sauce. You can choose to remove most of the chicken fat by spoon if you wish.

Chicken and Ginger Simmered in Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen

-1 and 2/3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, well trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks

-Chubby 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced, and smashed with a broad side of a cleaver or chef’s knife

-3 tablespoons caramel sauce

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons water

1 scallion (green onion), green part only, chopped

In a small saucepan, combine the chicken, ginger, caramel sauce, fish sauce, salt and water and stir to distribute everything evenly. Cover and bring to a strong simmer over medium heat. Stir again to break up the chicken pieces and replace the lid. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring every now and then so all the chicken is evenly exposed to the sauce. Fragrant plumes of steam will shoot from under the lid and the contents will boil vigorously. The sauce will increase in volume as the chicken releases its juices. If the contents threatens to boil over or the lid rattles, lower the heat.

After the 10 minutes, uncover and continue cooking for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce reduces and the color deepens to a rich reddish brown. Remove from the heat, cover, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Taste the sauce and adjust the flavor with extra fish sauce, if necessary. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with the scallion and serve immediately.