I was on CTV Morning news this morning, pinch hitting for chefs who are cooking for the Saskatchewan Environmental Society's Sustainable Gourmet Fundraiser.
I needed to do something that we could pull off in 3 minutes, and while there are several complex items on the Sustainable Gourmet menu, like sous vide bison and balsamic pearls, I decided I could do a carrot pickle, the garnish for Chef Darby Kells' trout fritters, without much trouble.
Here's the recipe for anyone who missed my instructions. And here is the original Epicurious recipe that I adapted it from.
Quick Carrot Pickle
Makes enough brine for a pint of carrot pickle.
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 T. sugar
1 T. pickling salt or sea salt
1/2 T. each peppercorns and mustard seed (I used a peppercorn mix, and a combination of yellow and brown mustard seeds)
1/2 lb. fresh garden carrots, sliced into sticks that will fit in your jar
Put all ingredients except the carrots in a pot an bring to a boil. In the meantime, pack the carrots into a clean pint jar, or two half-pint jars. Once the mixture is boiling and all the salt and sugar has dissolved, pour the hot brine over the carrots, cover, let cool and place in the refrigerator. Chill for two hours or overnight.
These quick pickles will last 3-4 weeks in your fridge, and then you can make fresh ones when they're all gone. It's easy to have great vegetable pickles with minimal fuss or mess.
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Friday, October 3, 2014
My New Way to Preserve Produce: Make Soup!
For those of us who grew up on farms, watching our mothers and grandmothers put up the garden produce, we know what we're supposed to do. I helped my mom pick and process bushels of fresh peas, beans, and corn (blanched and frozen in little bags), cabbage (krauted, then processed in a boiling water bath), cucumbers (pickled in vinegar), beets (pickled or made into a borscht concentrate with a collection of other garden veggies and frozen), and tomatoes (canned in a variety of ways).
I've been spending the last few years reconciling my own approach to gardening and preserving food with the one I grew up with. For one, I don't have a 5,000 square foot garden. I also have had no luck with peas (one of the best yields in my mom's garden), and I have never had the space to grow many root veggies. Plus, my mom's (now smaller) garden still offers up enough beets and potatoes for us to enjoy.
I've also discovered the joys of lactic acid fermentation, so I am loathe to pickle anything in vinegar. Instead I've been experimenting with salt brining various veggie combinations, and I don't process anything in boiling water. This activity is limited somewhat by refrigerator space, as they have to be kept in cold storage.
I took on the canning of my mom's tomatoes last year because she and my dad were traveling during canning season. I found it labour intensive, hot and messy, and while I like the results, I prefer my own method of slow roasting tomatoes and throwing them in the freezer.
And then there are are the few vegetables that are too plentiful for me to eat fresh or find a way to ferment. This year, that includes zucchini, corn (not that I grew it, but I did get carried away at the market gardens), and chard.
With the cold weather coming, I picked all my chard at once, and then wondered what to do with it. My mom blanched and froze it, which I loved. My kids have yet to warm up to cooked leafy greens, and while I did blanch some last year, it is still in my freezer. This year, I decided to make soup. I found a couple of freezable recipes that can be used as is or added to, and which call for a ton of veggies. My kids love soup, and will eat things they normally avoid, like lentils and chard, when it is served in a broth.
Every one of those containers in the freezer is a quick and easy meal, and a (hopefully) effective way of getting my kids to eat their veggies.
My two favourites (there are tons more--I just Googled 'corn chowder for freezing' and 'chard soup for freezing' and these came up:
Sweet Corn Chowder, c/o Keeza's Freezer Meals
Lentil Swiss Chard Soup, c/o Flavia's Flavors
The lentil chard soup is perfect as is; the sweet corn chowder has all kinds of potential. It is vegan and packed with veggies when it comes out of the freezer, but when you add a bit of ham, cheese or cream, it is elevated to absolute heaven. I could imagine adding some seafood or bacon, along with cheese and cream, for an absolutely decadent soup. And it can change every time. Kind of like my mom's borscht recipe...
I've been spending the last few years reconciling my own approach to gardening and preserving food with the one I grew up with. For one, I don't have a 5,000 square foot garden. I also have had no luck with peas (one of the best yields in my mom's garden), and I have never had the space to grow many root veggies. Plus, my mom's (now smaller) garden still offers up enough beets and potatoes for us to enjoy.
I've also discovered the joys of lactic acid fermentation, so I am loathe to pickle anything in vinegar. Instead I've been experimenting with salt brining various veggie combinations, and I don't process anything in boiling water. This activity is limited somewhat by refrigerator space, as they have to be kept in cold storage.
I took on the canning of my mom's tomatoes last year because she and my dad were traveling during canning season. I found it labour intensive, hot and messy, and while I like the results, I prefer my own method of slow roasting tomatoes and throwing them in the freezer.
And then there are are the few vegetables that are too plentiful for me to eat fresh or find a way to ferment. This year, that includes zucchini, corn (not that I grew it, but I did get carried away at the market gardens), and chard.
With the cold weather coming, I picked all my chard at once, and then wondered what to do with it. My mom blanched and froze it, which I loved. My kids have yet to warm up to cooked leafy greens, and while I did blanch some last year, it is still in my freezer. This year, I decided to make soup. I found a couple of freezable recipes that can be used as is or added to, and which call for a ton of veggies. My kids love soup, and will eat things they normally avoid, like lentils and chard, when it is served in a broth.
Every one of those containers in the freezer is a quick and easy meal, and a (hopefully) effective way of getting my kids to eat their veggies.
My two favourites (there are tons more--I just Googled 'corn chowder for freezing' and 'chard soup for freezing' and these came up:
Sweet Corn Chowder, c/o Keeza's Freezer Meals
Lentil Swiss Chard Soup, c/o Flavia's Flavors
The lentil chard soup is perfect as is; the sweet corn chowder has all kinds of potential. It is vegan and packed with veggies when it comes out of the freezer, but when you add a bit of ham, cheese or cream, it is elevated to absolute heaven. I could imagine adding some seafood or bacon, along with cheese and cream, for an absolutely decadent soup. And it can change every time. Kind of like my mom's borscht recipe...
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Weed Salad
Sometimes working with who you are rather than who other people expect you to be or say you 'should' be makes life easier. Actually, I think it will always make life easier to go that route.
Today, my practice in working with who I am has to do with my garden. I only grow things that I can eat, for starters, but I also am really only interested in planting and harvesting. The in between growing part is not my thing. Not so keen on weeding or hilling potatoes, or thinning the rows—unless I can eat the fruits of my labour.
Which brings me to weed salad. It turns out most of the weeds in my garden are edible, and not only edible, but delicious and nutritious. Dandelion, chickweed, lamb's quarters, pigweed, are all edible. So I have been making a practice of having weed salads for supper. And in the process, my garden gets weeded, since once I'm there, picking my salad greens, I am likely to pull up any weeds that are close to going to seed, or any that are choking out the plants I purposely planted.
So I could feel guilty about not weeding (which I am never going to make room in my busy schedule to do, since there are a 1,000 things I'd rather be doing), or I could eat the weeds. A delicious solution!
Today, my practice in working with who I am has to do with my garden. I only grow things that I can eat, for starters, but I also am really only interested in planting and harvesting. The in between growing part is not my thing. Not so keen on weeding or hilling potatoes, or thinning the rows—unless I can eat the fruits of my labour.
Which brings me to weed salad. It turns out most of the weeds in my garden are edible, and not only edible, but delicious and nutritious. Dandelion, chickweed, lamb's quarters, pigweed, are all edible. So I have been making a practice of having weed salads for supper. And in the process, my garden gets weeded, since once I'm there, picking my salad greens, I am likely to pull up any weeds that are close to going to seed, or any that are choking out the plants I purposely planted.
So I could feel guilty about not weeding (which I am never going to make room in my busy schedule to do, since there are a 1,000 things I'd rather be doing), or I could eat the weeds. A delicious solution!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Joys of Roasted Tomatoes
First and foremost I must apologize for my lengthy absence. September and most of October have been a mad rush of working out of town every week and juggling events and travel on almost every weekend. In September my husband turned 40 and I hosted the party (and was so busy I had to hire Caffe Sola to cater...although I did bake the cake(s)), we took a road trip to Calgary, I went on a girls' getaway to Portland, OR, we spent a weekend at Elk Ridge Resort in northern Saskatchewan while my husband was at a conference, and I also worked a weekend evening at the Premier wine festival. D started preschool three days a week, and I started playing volleyball on two teams in a Sunday league.
In October, it has been slightly more quiet, except for my dad's 60th birthday party, which my parents hosted and combined with their 40th wedding anniversary celebration. This involved 200 guests, and the roasting of a whole pig and 3 barons of beef. I was again in charge of the cake; I made a three-tier puffed wheat cake, with Rice Krispie 'frosting'. My dad doesn't like real cake, but he loves puffed wheat cake, and this is the third celebratory puffed wheat cake I've made. The other two were wedding cakes. Thanks to my girlfriend who forwarded this photo of her puffed wheat wedding cake after I mentioned I didn't have one.
I travelled slightly less often, but my days were filled with the frantic efforts to harvest the last of my garden. I got all the basil processed and gave the rest away, and froze and dried herbs late into the night in late September. And then the frosts came, and whatever didn't get done was beyond saving. The garden is (mostly) put to bed, and probably as much as it is going to be, considering there is now snow on the ground. I had intended to dig some Jerusalem artichokes, but haven't got to them yet. They may have to wait until spring.
All that I have left of the summer bounty are the bags of root vegetables harvested from our garden, my mom's garden, or purchased from the Farmer's market, as well as a big box of spaghetti squash. And then there are the tomatoes. My tomato plants didn't yield much this year, but I did get a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes. My neighbours have been keeping me in big beautiful Beefsteaks and Golden Boys, and my mom passed on a bag of Romas.
What does one make with so many tomatoes and so little time? My new favourite recipe is roasted tomatoes. All kinds, with the large ones cut into chunks, and the small ones tossed in whole, a handful of whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper, some fresh or dried herbs and a generous glug of olive oil. Roast them in a dish of some sort (they look prettiest in some sort of pottery or stoneware), and roast them at 325F for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. I froze the results, which can be used as is as an excellent pasta sauce, used as a base for anything requiring tomato sauce (my husband cooked quinoa in some of the sauce, and it was wonderful), or pureed and turned into soup.
It was also the easiest option for the days when the tomatoes needed attention and I had no time to give it. Simply chop, toss, throw in the oven, and ignore while doing other things. Perfect!
I was also committed to making roasted salsas, which are my absolute favourites. In fact, I don't make simmered salsas at all. There are a few steps to a roasted salsa, and it requires a few cookie sheets and a blender, as well as some wrestling with chiles (I always forget to put on gloves and suffer an evening or two of burning fingers as the chile oil permeates my skin), but the final results are so superior that I never begrudge the effort.
Here are two of my favourite recipes, both from Rick Bayless's Salsas that Cook:
Roasted Poblano-Tomato Salsa
Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with Roasted Tomatoes and Tomatillos
When a good friend of mine tasted the chipotle-cascabel salsa, he told me I should quit my job and just start cooking. I didn't think I should quit my job just because I could follow a recipe, but I do agree that this is about the best tasting (albeit quite spicy) salsa I have ever tasted. It is tangy, smoky, spicy and savoury all at once. It is also too hot for my kids to eat, or at least I thought so. D is up for the challenge, and if we warn him it's spicy, he keeps a glass of milk close by to cool the burn (I'm glad he's trying it. Gives me hope that one day, they'll like hot stuff as much as we do!). Even the roasted poblano salsa, while mild by almost anyone's standards, is a bit on the hot side for my kids.
Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't made them in a couple of years, besides the issue of renovating my kitchen last year, and having a brand new baby the year before that. But now, I'm back, and I am delighted to have three kinds of salsa in my freezer, ready for the winter.
While I was at the salsa making, I may have lost my mind a little bit because when the recipe called for tomato puree, I decided to make my own. It came out tasting quite a bit like ketchup, and the little bit that I had left over also went into the freezer.
While I'm a huge fan of the roasting technique, and will finish up this post with my new favourite pasta sauce recipe, I did make a bit of simmered tomato sauce, mostly because I had leeks, and my favourite basic sauce for freezing calls for them. I now have some regular red tomato sauce and a couple of containers of pure yellow tomato sauce ready for pulling out of the freezer whenever we need it over the winter. It is a fairly simple recipe, and I've been referencing it in The Occasional Vegetarian for over 10 years.
3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded (to peel, heat a pot of water to a boil. Drop whole tomatoes into the boiling water and leave for a minute or two. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, let cool til they can be handled, and slip off the skins. To seed, cut in half and gouge out the seed pockets. Or watch this tutorial to learn how. I don't always seed the tomatoes, because it feels wasteful. This year I did, though, because I had so many tomatoes. It does make a thicker sauce if you let them go. You could always dry them for seed!) or you can use 4 c. canned tomatoes, but I usually make a different recipe if I'm using canned.
2 T. olive oil
1 1/4 c. chopped leek (I have also used onion if I don't have leeks)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. pepper
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the leek and garlic. Saute gently for about three minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the desired consistency is reached. Use this as a pasta sauce, add whatever herbs you like, or use it in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. I freeze it in containers and add the necessary herbs to turn it into pasta sauce, pizza sauce, a soup ingredient, or whatever. I delight in not having to buy tomato sauce all winter.
But back to tonight's dinner, which was another experiment in roasting. And I have to say, I am IN LOVE. I only had time to do the standard roasted tomatoes, and I decided to just do that and pasta. I wondered, though, if I could add other ingredients to it, like anchovies and capers, and do a roasted Puttanesca sauce? It turns out I can, and the results were extremely satisfying.
The simmered version of the sauce is easy, too, and it is up to each individual whether they prefer the stovetop method or the oven roasted method. For me, I loved being able to stick it in the oven and walk away. I was also efficient with my oven use, since I baked a plum torte for dessert at the same time. The final result was a perfectly balanced umami sauce that blended beautifully with some rustic "Ferretto Calabro" artisan pasta. My kids asked for seconds and thirds of the meal, and we enjoyed it just as much. It's a keeper!
Roasted Puttanesca Sauce
2 lbs. mixed tomatoes (I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes left whole and large red and yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped)
1 head garlic, cloves broken up, unpeeled
4 salt packed anchovies, soaked, filleted and chopped
2-3 T. salt packed capers, rinsed
1/2 c. or a medium handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and torn in half
Generous pour of olive oil over all (about 1/2 c., or about a 1/2 inch deep in the roasting pan)
Several grinds of fresh pepper
In a roasting pan that will hold the ingredients to about 2 inches deep (a well-packed single layer), toss tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, capers and olives. Pour olive oil over, sprinkle with pepper and toss again. Place in a 325F oven for two hours, stirring when you remember.
Cook your favourite pasta to al dente. Drain and put pasta back in the cooking pot with the sauce. Toss with the sauce until the noodles soak up the sauce and it thickens slightly. Enjoy!
In October, it has been slightly more quiet, except for my dad's 60th birthday party, which my parents hosted and combined with their 40th wedding anniversary celebration. This involved 200 guests, and the roasting of a whole pig and 3 barons of beef. I was again in charge of the cake; I made a three-tier puffed wheat cake, with Rice Krispie 'frosting'. My dad doesn't like real cake, but he loves puffed wheat cake, and this is the third celebratory puffed wheat cake I've made. The other two were wedding cakes. Thanks to my girlfriend who forwarded this photo of her puffed wheat wedding cake after I mentioned I didn't have one.
I travelled slightly less often, but my days were filled with the frantic efforts to harvest the last of my garden. I got all the basil processed and gave the rest away, and froze and dried herbs late into the night in late September. And then the frosts came, and whatever didn't get done was beyond saving. The garden is (mostly) put to bed, and probably as much as it is going to be, considering there is now snow on the ground. I had intended to dig some Jerusalem artichokes, but haven't got to them yet. They may have to wait until spring.
All that I have left of the summer bounty are the bags of root vegetables harvested from our garden, my mom's garden, or purchased from the Farmer's market, as well as a big box of spaghetti squash. And then there are the tomatoes. My tomato plants didn't yield much this year, but I did get a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes. My neighbours have been keeping me in big beautiful Beefsteaks and Golden Boys, and my mom passed on a bag of Romas.
What does one make with so many tomatoes and so little time? My new favourite recipe is roasted tomatoes. All kinds, with the large ones cut into chunks, and the small ones tossed in whole, a handful of whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper, some fresh or dried herbs and a generous glug of olive oil. Roast them in a dish of some sort (they look prettiest in some sort of pottery or stoneware), and roast them at 325F for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. I froze the results, which can be used as is as an excellent pasta sauce, used as a base for anything requiring tomato sauce (my husband cooked quinoa in some of the sauce, and it was wonderful), or pureed and turned into soup.
It was also the easiest option for the days when the tomatoes needed attention and I had no time to give it. Simply chop, toss, throw in the oven, and ignore while doing other things. Perfect!
I was also committed to making roasted salsas, which are my absolute favourites. In fact, I don't make simmered salsas at all. There are a few steps to a roasted salsa, and it requires a few cookie sheets and a blender, as well as some wrestling with chiles (I always forget to put on gloves and suffer an evening or two of burning fingers as the chile oil permeates my skin), but the final results are so superior that I never begrudge the effort.
Here are two of my favourite recipes, both from Rick Bayless's Salsas that Cook:
Roasted Poblano-Tomato Salsa
Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with Roasted Tomatoes and Tomatillos
When a good friend of mine tasted the chipotle-cascabel salsa, he told me I should quit my job and just start cooking. I didn't think I should quit my job just because I could follow a recipe, but I do agree that this is about the best tasting (albeit quite spicy) salsa I have ever tasted. It is tangy, smoky, spicy and savoury all at once. It is also too hot for my kids to eat, or at least I thought so. D is up for the challenge, and if we warn him it's spicy, he keeps a glass of milk close by to cool the burn (I'm glad he's trying it. Gives me hope that one day, they'll like hot stuff as much as we do!). Even the roasted poblano salsa, while mild by almost anyone's standards, is a bit on the hot side for my kids.
Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't made them in a couple of years, besides the issue of renovating my kitchen last year, and having a brand new baby the year before that. But now, I'm back, and I am delighted to have three kinds of salsa in my freezer, ready for the winter.
While I was at the salsa making, I may have lost my mind a little bit because when the recipe called for tomato puree, I decided to make my own. It came out tasting quite a bit like ketchup, and the little bit that I had left over also went into the freezer.
While I'm a huge fan of the roasting technique, and will finish up this post with my new favourite pasta sauce recipe, I did make a bit of simmered tomato sauce, mostly because I had leeks, and my favourite basic sauce for freezing calls for them. I now have some regular red tomato sauce and a couple of containers of pure yellow tomato sauce ready for pulling out of the freezer whenever we need it over the winter. It is a fairly simple recipe, and I've been referencing it in The Occasional Vegetarian for over 10 years.
3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded (to peel, heat a pot of water to a boil. Drop whole tomatoes into the boiling water and leave for a minute or two. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, let cool til they can be handled, and slip off the skins. To seed, cut in half and gouge out the seed pockets. Or watch this tutorial to learn how. I don't always seed the tomatoes, because it feels wasteful. This year I did, though, because I had so many tomatoes. It does make a thicker sauce if you let them go. You could always dry them for seed!) or you can use 4 c. canned tomatoes, but I usually make a different recipe if I'm using canned.
2 T. olive oil
1 1/4 c. chopped leek (I have also used onion if I don't have leeks)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. pepper
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the leek and garlic. Saute gently for about three minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the desired consistency is reached. Use this as a pasta sauce, add whatever herbs you like, or use it in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. I freeze it in containers and add the necessary herbs to turn it into pasta sauce, pizza sauce, a soup ingredient, or whatever. I delight in not having to buy tomato sauce all winter.
But back to tonight's dinner, which was another experiment in roasting. And I have to say, I am IN LOVE. I only had time to do the standard roasted tomatoes, and I decided to just do that and pasta. I wondered, though, if I could add other ingredients to it, like anchovies and capers, and do a roasted Puttanesca sauce? It turns out I can, and the results were extremely satisfying.
The simmered version of the sauce is easy, too, and it is up to each individual whether they prefer the stovetop method or the oven roasted method. For me, I loved being able to stick it in the oven and walk away. I was also efficient with my oven use, since I baked a plum torte for dessert at the same time. The final result was a perfectly balanced umami sauce that blended beautifully with some rustic "Ferretto Calabro" artisan pasta. My kids asked for seconds and thirds of the meal, and we enjoyed it just as much. It's a keeper!
Roasted Puttanesca Sauce
2 lbs. mixed tomatoes (I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes left whole and large red and yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped)
1 head garlic, cloves broken up, unpeeled
4 salt packed anchovies, soaked, filleted and chopped
2-3 T. salt packed capers, rinsed
1/2 c. or a medium handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and torn in half
Generous pour of olive oil over all (about 1/2 c., or about a 1/2 inch deep in the roasting pan)
Several grinds of fresh pepper
In a roasting pan that will hold the ingredients to about 2 inches deep (a well-packed single layer), toss tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, capers and olives. Pour olive oil over, sprinkle with pepper and toss again. Place in a 325F oven for two hours, stirring when you remember.
Cook your favourite pasta to al dente. Drain and put pasta back in the cooking pot with the sauce. Toss with the sauce until the noodles soak up the sauce and it thickens slightly. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Preserving for Busies
'Tis the season for preserving. Does that cause you anxiety? Many people equate preserving with pickles, jams and jellies, all requiring sterile environments, candy thermometers, and complex chemical interactions. That's part of preserving, and I don't shy away from making pickles and jams. The thought of doing them doesn't cause me anxiety, but it does make me do a quick calculation of my available time. If that time isn't substantial (because it does take at least an hour to prep the jars, fruit/vegetables, line up the equipment, check that I have all the ingredients, and so on), I'll opt for something easier.
This year, with a minimum of time and effort, and the help of my deep freeze, I have put away raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, sour cherries, green beans, radish leaf pesto, basil pesto, and pureed basil that can replace fresh basil in the dead of winter. I will also be freezing grated zucchini, tomatoes, either whole or as salsa, and many more herbs from my kitchen garden.
Most of these items were simply washed, frozen individually on cookie trays (so they aren't solid lumps, and we can remove as much or as little as we need) and dumped into freezer bags. I do all my berries like this, and have also frozen peaches and apples (tossed in lemon juice) this way. The zucchini is simply grated and packed into freezer containers, to be pulled out whenever I have a craving for morning glory muffins or chocolate zucchini cake. I have literally tossed tomatoes in a bag and stuck them in a freezer, when I simply don't have time to deal with them. They are ready and waiting to be turned into tomato sauce or replace canned tomatoes in any recipe, whenever you need them.
I make big batches of roasted tomato salsa, so instead of chopping and boiling everything together, I place whole vegetables under the broiler until they're blackened, and then puree them and pack them in freezer containers.
Our pesto, also frozen, lasts right till the next basil season, bringing a taste of summer and one of our favourite quick meal fixes and kid favourites: simple pasta with pesto. Throw in some veggies and leftover chicken for a delicious one dish meal.
I have more basil than I can make into pesto, so the remainder gets pureed with a pinch of salt and just enough olive oil to make it a paste. I fill ice cube trays with the blend, freeze it, and then toss it into any winter dish (soups and stews especially) that calls for fresh basil.
Other herbs, I just wash and freeze whole. They can be chopped and added to anything and are the next best thing to fresh. I'm also experimenting with herbes salees this year, a Quebec tradition. I already have a jar of them in my fridge, but haven't started using it yet, since my fresh herbs are still available.
In all of this preserving, I only heated up my blancher once, and that was for a surplus of green beans. They cooked in the hot water no more than two minutes before I pulled them out, cooled them in ice water, and froze them individually on trays, again, so they can be tossed in a large freezer bag and pulled out as needed.
I did make a couple of batches of crabapple jelly this year, as well as a batch of cucumber relish, because I was gifted with some overripe cucumbers. I love the snap of hot jars sealing in delicious garden goodness that can be enjoyed any time of year.
I've also got three kinds of fruit liqueur on the go: raspberry, crabapple and sour cherry. These are one of the easiest ways to preserve the summer flavours of fruit, as long as you tipple now and then. Simply mix 2 parts berries or cherries with 1 part brandy or vodka and 1 part sugar, mash together to dissolve the sugar, and let sit for three weeks. Strain and pour into sterilized bottles (this takes a bit of organization, both to have the bottles, and to have them washed and boiled in water for ten minutes to sterilize. I haven't yet gotten around to bottling my liqueurs, even though they have all been sitting longer than three weeks, but the good news is, the process is extremely forgiving, and no matter when I get to the bottling, the results will be delicious, and will last at least a year).
If I had more time, I would be doing more preserving, but I can barely keep up with regular meals and garden tasks in among raising kids and trying to make a living, let alone spending a couple of hours at a time devoted to washing, prepping, cooking, and canning various fruits and veggies. It's a sad reality. I have even had to give away some of my garden produce because I don't have time to blanch it or grate and freeze it. But paying it forward is always rewarding in the end, so if this is where I'm at right now, then at least nothing is going to waste and others get to enjoy it. So however I can make the fresh food last in the simplest manner possible—that's what I've been doing this year.
Hopefully you'll find a way to save a bit of this season's bounty for colder times of year. With a minimum of planning, your deep freeze will help you sock away fresh herbs, veggies, fruit for smoothies and pancakes (or just for plain eating—frozen blueberries are a favourite any time of year in my household). All you need is a box of freezer bags and some freezer containers to get you started.
This year, with a minimum of time and effort, and the help of my deep freeze, I have put away raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, sour cherries, green beans, radish leaf pesto, basil pesto, and pureed basil that can replace fresh basil in the dead of winter. I will also be freezing grated zucchini, tomatoes, either whole or as salsa, and many more herbs from my kitchen garden.
Most of these items were simply washed, frozen individually on cookie trays (so they aren't solid lumps, and we can remove as much or as little as we need) and dumped into freezer bags. I do all my berries like this, and have also frozen peaches and apples (tossed in lemon juice) this way. The zucchini is simply grated and packed into freezer containers, to be pulled out whenever I have a craving for morning glory muffins or chocolate zucchini cake. I have literally tossed tomatoes in a bag and stuck them in a freezer, when I simply don't have time to deal with them. They are ready and waiting to be turned into tomato sauce or replace canned tomatoes in any recipe, whenever you need them.
I make big batches of roasted tomato salsa, so instead of chopping and boiling everything together, I place whole vegetables under the broiler until they're blackened, and then puree them and pack them in freezer containers.
Our pesto, also frozen, lasts right till the next basil season, bringing a taste of summer and one of our favourite quick meal fixes and kid favourites: simple pasta with pesto. Throw in some veggies and leftover chicken for a delicious one dish meal.
I have more basil than I can make into pesto, so the remainder gets pureed with a pinch of salt and just enough olive oil to make it a paste. I fill ice cube trays with the blend, freeze it, and then toss it into any winter dish (soups and stews especially) that calls for fresh basil.
Other herbs, I just wash and freeze whole. They can be chopped and added to anything and are the next best thing to fresh. I'm also experimenting with herbes salees this year, a Quebec tradition. I already have a jar of them in my fridge, but haven't started using it yet, since my fresh herbs are still available.
In all of this preserving, I only heated up my blancher once, and that was for a surplus of green beans. They cooked in the hot water no more than two minutes before I pulled them out, cooled them in ice water, and froze them individually on trays, again, so they can be tossed in a large freezer bag and pulled out as needed.
I did make a couple of batches of crabapple jelly this year, as well as a batch of cucumber relish, because I was gifted with some overripe cucumbers. I love the snap of hot jars sealing in delicious garden goodness that can be enjoyed any time of year.
I've also got three kinds of fruit liqueur on the go: raspberry, crabapple and sour cherry. These are one of the easiest ways to preserve the summer flavours of fruit, as long as you tipple now and then. Simply mix 2 parts berries or cherries with 1 part brandy or vodka and 1 part sugar, mash together to dissolve the sugar, and let sit for three weeks. Strain and pour into sterilized bottles (this takes a bit of organization, both to have the bottles, and to have them washed and boiled in water for ten minutes to sterilize. I haven't yet gotten around to bottling my liqueurs, even though they have all been sitting longer than three weeks, but the good news is, the process is extremely forgiving, and no matter when I get to the bottling, the results will be delicious, and will last at least a year).
If I had more time, I would be doing more preserving, but I can barely keep up with regular meals and garden tasks in among raising kids and trying to make a living, let alone spending a couple of hours at a time devoted to washing, prepping, cooking, and canning various fruits and veggies. It's a sad reality. I have even had to give away some of my garden produce because I don't have time to blanch it or grate and freeze it. But paying it forward is always rewarding in the end, so if this is where I'm at right now, then at least nothing is going to waste and others get to enjoy it. So however I can make the fresh food last in the simplest manner possible—that's what I've been doing this year.
Hopefully you'll find a way to save a bit of this season's bounty for colder times of year. With a minimum of planning, your deep freeze will help you sock away fresh herbs, veggies, fruit for smoothies and pancakes (or just for plain eating—frozen blueberries are a favourite any time of year in my household). All you need is a box of freezer bags and some freezer containers to get you started.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Spring Catch-up: Cooking, Just Not Writing
Hello all, thank you so much for your patience! I have been thinking of how much I have to write, but I have no time to do it. The trouble with being a professional writer who has a blog is that paid writing keeps getting in the way of the unpaid writing.
Good news, though, my deadlines have settled down a teensy bit, and I now have some energy to devote to foodie writing, right here!
I have certainly not stopped cooking. I have lots to share, which I will do in a brief list, with lots of recipe links, so that we can all get caught up without my being overwhelmed with how much I have to say.
Here are some of the highlights of the last few weeks:
• a six-day stretch over a weekend where I had overnight company (three different guests, one at a time) five of the six nights. Some highlights from those dinners:
Pear-cranberry tarte-tatin thanks to dee Hobsbawn-Smith's Quick Gourmet, sadly, out of print
Saffron cauliflower, from my new favourite vegetable cookbook, Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Multi-vegetable paella from the same book
Jamie Oliver's baked chocolate tart (after a meal of grilled steak, Pommes Anna, and grilled asparagus and salad)
• I rediscovered the joys of making things ahead of time, and for a short while, I had a good supply pre-made hamburgers and frozen chocolate chip cookie dough in my freezer. There are a few hamburgers left, but the cookie dough is all gone, the last of it baked to take along to D's preschool windup.
• I have been experimenting with 'cooking by feel', making up recipes and adjusting cooking methods as I go, resulting, most spectacularly, in a meal of brined, cherrywood smoked short ribs, slow roasted by indirect heat on our bbq. I intend to cook like this more often!
• We finished building raised garden beds, and I planted my garden.
• We've been taking advantage of newly available seasonal flavours: we tasted our first homegrown asparagus, picked up some fiddleheads from the Farmers' Market, and I started making use of our perennial herbs, especially chives, lovage and Egyptian walking onions
• I started making whole grain rhubarb muffins regularly, and a rhubarb pie is in the works for tomorrow. Kids are enthusiastic about rhubarb!
• I hosted a Mexican night inspired entirely by Epicurious.com:
Chicken wings in easy mole sauce
Pork Tostadas with corn salsa
Fish Tacos (made with freshwater burbot from northern Saskatchewan, which is a perfect substitute for firm, white ocean fish)
Mango Salsa
• I hosted a Pampered Chef party, and offered up some yummy dips to go with the pizza we made during the show:
Yellow Split Pea Dip
Homemade Goat Ricotta with Herbs de Provence and garlic
Fiddlehead Dip
And for the sweet tooth, mini gluten-free quinoa cupcakes, using the usual quinoa chocolate cake recipe, but baking it in a mini-cupcake tin. A hit!
• I combined two of my favourite potato recipes (lovage potato salad and potatoes with lemon and capers) to create a new and delicious use for the plentiful lovage in my garden. For those of you not familiar with this old-fashioned herb, it is a shade-loving hardy perennial that has leaves tasting like lemon-scented celery. It is traditionally cooked with potatoes and seafood, but can be used in all kinds of recipes. I added it to my favourite simple potato side dish, and came up with a winner:
Lovage-scented potatoes with lemon and capers
5 or 6 potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, cut into 3/4" cubes
A large stalk of lovage, leaves removed
Juice and zest of one lemon
2-3 T. olive oil
1 T. capers
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water, along with half of the lovage leaves. Chop remaining lovage leaves and place in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest, olive oil and capers. When the potatoes are tender, drain and toss hot potatoes and leaves with the lovage/lemon juice mixture until well-coated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with seafood (I served it with Herb-crusted Ling Cod and steamed broccoli and cauliflower)
• I started planning parties for the summer—now that I am no longer expecting a baby, buying/selling a house, or renovating (some combination of which I have been busy with for the past four years), I am excited to have the time and energy to really get into cooking and entertaining. Our party plans, so far:
-We're having an Indian food night featuring Goat Curry, in an effort to use up some of the goat meat I have obtained from my generous suppliers of goat milk and farm eggs. We're inviting three couples, all of which USED to get together for amazing dinners before we had children.
-Father's Day brunch for my husband, his dad and brother
-A neighbourhood come-and-go open-house brunch for the people on my street
-A food writers' food and wine get-together for some new acquaintances in the food writing world
-Later in the summer, the executive at my preschool will be gathering in my backyard for a 2012/2013 season launch.
More on that later!
There. That gets me more or less caught up. Thanks for your patience, and I'll do better in keeping up with regular posts.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!
We rang in the New Year in style, with eight parents and seven kids under the age of 5, and I counted myself lucky to have friends who love food and cooking as much as I do. I'm sorry to have posted this selection for New Years' noshing the day after, but I didn't know what my friends were bringing. I guess I did provide you with my menu a day in advance...
Besides all the food that I prepared, we also got to enjoy:
• Caesar salad devilled eggs (YUM!)
• French onion soup stuffed mushrooms (from www.pioneerwoman.com) (EXTRA YUM!)
• Crudites with Miso dip
• Roasted pepper and eggplant dip
• Assorted cheeses
• Hummous and pita
• Homemade chocolate cake (thanks to my hubbie!)
• Assorted Xmas baking and chocolates
• Butter tarts
We had one couple pull out at the last minute, and I think we would have had just about the right amount of food had they come. As it stood, there were a few left over finger foods, and far too much sweet stuff, in spite of the kids' best efforts to eat as much as they could. At the end of the evening, one little three-year-old said, "Mom, I'm still hungry." She said, "What would you like to eat?" He answered, "Hmm, I don't know. Something covered in chocolate?" He had himself a second slice of birthday cake.
Last night I had declared that I would take today "off" and not cook anything. We were planning to go to a New Years' Day open house and I had enough crackers, goat ricotta dip and beet tartare left over from the night before that even if I didn't cook anything else, I wouldn't show up empty handed.
But our plans were foiled by kids once again when Baby G woke up this morning, throwing up. We had an enforced day of rest, mostly sitting under Baby G while he slept. But that meant I had to think up something for dinner time.
I had some leftover empanada filling, and I had saved some whey from my cheese-making efforts because I hate to waste it, and I had read that you can use it in bread dough. So I made whole wheat buns, stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella. They were popular with everyone, including Baby G, who by 6:00 had rallied and ate several bites of a bun and sipped some of the goat's milk.
I am so very grateful for all my friends and family, for their love and generosity, and for the beautiful food they bring to my life. Some examples:
• Last night I found myself mentioning my mom again and again: I used her pastry dough in the butter tarts, she made the gingerbread men that the kids went crazy for, and my go-to birthday cake recipe is her Devil's food chocolate cake. We felt (and tasted) her presence very strongly last night.
• My mom's cousin very generously off-loaded dozens of litres of frozen goat's milk (and she says there is more where that came from), which all my boys drink (in fact, D refers to goat's milk as "boy milk" because only I drink cow's milk in our house. So that is "girl milk"), and which makes up a substantial portion of our grocery bills. The kids (and hubby) love it, and it tastes so fresh that I might even be convinced to start drinking it. It will also provide us cheese and possibly yogurt (more on that after tomorrow) for the next few months.
• My in-laws gifted me with Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, a cookbook that I am madly in love with (and recently had to return it to the library), as well as a gift certificate to Souleio Foods. There are so many potential (and delicious) ways to spend it!
• Another good friend gifted me with Cook, Eat, Smile, a lovely seasonal cookbook
• "Santa" brought me a cast-iron frying pan, a cut glass beverage dispenser, a beautiful porcelain serving platter and bowl set, and a Le Creuset kettle.
• my neighbour brought us Cat's Claw bush honey from Arizona and some homemade rhubarb chutney.
• my freezer is full of beef, pork, and northern freshwater fish, gifted by my dad, as well as one and a half farm chickens from my mom's cousin and my mother in law.
• another good friend sold me gorgeous lamb for cost, and also brought another pint of honey from bees on her family's land.
• my birthday gift from my husband was a light garden, so I can start growing herbs and microgreens indoors during the cold months! I was so delighted to get dirt under my fingernails, even in winter, when I filled the pots with soil today!
My cup floweth over. And I am thankful.
Besides all the food that I prepared, we also got to enjoy:
• Caesar salad devilled eggs (YUM!)
• French onion soup stuffed mushrooms (from www.pioneerwoman.com) (EXTRA YUM!)
• Crudites with Miso dip
• Roasted pepper and eggplant dip
• Assorted cheeses
• Hummous and pita
• Homemade chocolate cake (thanks to my hubbie!)
• Assorted Xmas baking and chocolates
• Butter tarts
We had one couple pull out at the last minute, and I think we would have had just about the right amount of food had they come. As it stood, there were a few left over finger foods, and far too much sweet stuff, in spite of the kids' best efforts to eat as much as they could. At the end of the evening, one little three-year-old said, "Mom, I'm still hungry." She said, "What would you like to eat?" He answered, "Hmm, I don't know. Something covered in chocolate?" He had himself a second slice of birthday cake.
Last night I had declared that I would take today "off" and not cook anything. We were planning to go to a New Years' Day open house and I had enough crackers, goat ricotta dip and beet tartare left over from the night before that even if I didn't cook anything else, I wouldn't show up empty handed.
But our plans were foiled by kids once again when Baby G woke up this morning, throwing up. We had an enforced day of rest, mostly sitting under Baby G while he slept. But that meant I had to think up something for dinner time.
I had some leftover empanada filling, and I had saved some whey from my cheese-making efforts because I hate to waste it, and I had read that you can use it in bread dough. So I made whole wheat buns, stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella. They were popular with everyone, including Baby G, who by 6:00 had rallied and ate several bites of a bun and sipped some of the goat's milk.
I am so very grateful for all my friends and family, for their love and generosity, and for the beautiful food they bring to my life. Some examples:
• Last night I found myself mentioning my mom again and again: I used her pastry dough in the butter tarts, she made the gingerbread men that the kids went crazy for, and my go-to birthday cake recipe is her Devil's food chocolate cake. We felt (and tasted) her presence very strongly last night.
• My mom's cousin very generously off-loaded dozens of litres of frozen goat's milk (and she says there is more where that came from), which all my boys drink (in fact, D refers to goat's milk as "boy milk" because only I drink cow's milk in our house. So that is "girl milk"), and which makes up a substantial portion of our grocery bills. The kids (and hubby) love it, and it tastes so fresh that I might even be convinced to start drinking it. It will also provide us cheese and possibly yogurt (more on that after tomorrow) for the next few months.
• My in-laws gifted me with Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, a cookbook that I am madly in love with (and recently had to return it to the library), as well as a gift certificate to Souleio Foods. There are so many potential (and delicious) ways to spend it!
• Another good friend gifted me with Cook, Eat, Smile, a lovely seasonal cookbook
• "Santa" brought me a cast-iron frying pan, a cut glass beverage dispenser, a beautiful porcelain serving platter and bowl set, and a Le Creuset kettle.
• my neighbour brought us Cat's Claw bush honey from Arizona and some homemade rhubarb chutney.
• my freezer is full of beef, pork, and northern freshwater fish, gifted by my dad, as well as one and a half farm chickens from my mom's cousin and my mother in law.
• another good friend sold me gorgeous lamb for cost, and also brought another pint of honey from bees on her family's land.
• my birthday gift from my husband was a light garden, so I can start growing herbs and microgreens indoors during the cold months! I was so delighted to get dirt under my fingernails, even in winter, when I filled the pots with soil today!
My cup floweth over. And I am thankful.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Foodie Book Review #2: The Art of Living According to Joe Beef
My book-recommending librarian friend strikes again, ordering The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts for me to borrow from the library. I started off flipping through it, thinking it looked kind of fun, and very much a restaurant that I will put on my bucket list for the next time I travel to Montreal. But the recipes (such as Lièvre à la Royale—taking two days and involving a rabbit, a hare, a veal trotter, caul fat, foie gras, truffles, and the reserved blood of the hare, among other things) weren't something I would be likely to try at home.
At least not at first glance. As I looked through more carefully and got sucked into the stories and history of Montreal, and the playful voice of the whole thing, I stumbled across some real gems. For example, in their subsection titled "Tall Tales, Taste and a Few Theories" (all three of which I am a fan) they describe why the Big Mac is so popular (according to them, it is a perfect balance of salt, fat, sugar, acid and bite)—and then set out a series of simple recipes that combine the same perfect balance of flavour.
This will in no way convince me to go out and buy a Big Mac, since my farm upbringing (and lifetime access to real, healthy beef) has spoiled me forever for anything from McDonalds. I have never been able to enjoy it, even as a child. I always wanted to, because you're supposed to, but I was always disappointed in how it tasted. But I digress.
It was the chapter titled "The Smoker", backing on to the next chapter, "Building a Garden in a Crack Den," which got me totally hooked. They actually provided their plans for a homemade smoker (something my dad has built), and tucked in the middle of a book that uses all manner of meat, fat and foie gras, is a gorgeous chapter outlining their monthly garden harvest schedule and a recipe for Jerusalem Artichokes with Ketchup.
And in the middle of that chapter was a revelation to me: Herbes Salées—salted herbs! I had never considered preserving my herbs in salt, but there was a recipe that explains how. In cold climates like Saskatchewan, this is pure gold! Apparently this is a traditional Quebec recipe. Quebec! You've been holding out on the rest of the country! And they store in the fridge for up to a year. I have currently been sneaking out to my herb patch for thyme, since it is merely frozen but not covered with snow. This won't be the case forever, though. I'm so excited to get at my herb bed next summer. I have to plant chervil...
Their booze and dessert chapters also got me thinking. The dessert recipes confirmed my attachment to Panna Cotta as a great quick and easy dessert (if your dinner guests give you a few hours' warning, so it can set), as well as sparking my interest in Eclairs and a cake called Marjolaine, a multi-layered confection of hazelnut cake, ganache, and vanilla and hazelnut buttercreams, that looks absolutely amazing. I may have to make it, very soon. My birthday is coming...
I'm getting more and more into the book as time passes. It's lying open next to me and I just discovered a totally doable recipe for "Onion Soup Sauce," described as "tasting like an extraction of the essence of onion soup." I gotta go. Gotta get back to the book.
At least not at first glance. As I looked through more carefully and got sucked into the stories and history of Montreal, and the playful voice of the whole thing, I stumbled across some real gems. For example, in their subsection titled "Tall Tales, Taste and a Few Theories" (all three of which I am a fan) they describe why the Big Mac is so popular (according to them, it is a perfect balance of salt, fat, sugar, acid and bite)—and then set out a series of simple recipes that combine the same perfect balance of flavour.
This will in no way convince me to go out and buy a Big Mac, since my farm upbringing (and lifetime access to real, healthy beef) has spoiled me forever for anything from McDonalds. I have never been able to enjoy it, even as a child. I always wanted to, because you're supposed to, but I was always disappointed in how it tasted. But I digress.
It was the chapter titled "The Smoker", backing on to the next chapter, "Building a Garden in a Crack Den," which got me totally hooked. They actually provided their plans for a homemade smoker (something my dad has built), and tucked in the middle of a book that uses all manner of meat, fat and foie gras, is a gorgeous chapter outlining their monthly garden harvest schedule and a recipe for Jerusalem Artichokes with Ketchup.
And in the middle of that chapter was a revelation to me: Herbes Salées—salted herbs! I had never considered preserving my herbs in salt, but there was a recipe that explains how. In cold climates like Saskatchewan, this is pure gold! Apparently this is a traditional Quebec recipe. Quebec! You've been holding out on the rest of the country! And they store in the fridge for up to a year. I have currently been sneaking out to my herb patch for thyme, since it is merely frozen but not covered with snow. This won't be the case forever, though. I'm so excited to get at my herb bed next summer. I have to plant chervil...
Their booze and dessert chapters also got me thinking. The dessert recipes confirmed my attachment to Panna Cotta as a great quick and easy dessert (if your dinner guests give you a few hours' warning, so it can set), as well as sparking my interest in Eclairs and a cake called Marjolaine, a multi-layered confection of hazelnut cake, ganache, and vanilla and hazelnut buttercreams, that looks absolutely amazing. I may have to make it, very soon. My birthday is coming...
I'm getting more and more into the book as time passes. It's lying open next to me and I just discovered a totally doable recipe for "Onion Soup Sauce," described as "tasting like an extraction of the essence of onion soup." I gotta go. Gotta get back to the book.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
First Frost
No matter how far removed we think we are from the farm (and I admit I'm not all that far removed), Saskatchewan people still scurry like squirrels at the first sign of frost. Tonight is the night. It's midnight, and the thermometer reads 3.4 degrees Celsius. Our neighbours came home from the lake a day early; my dad was in the city but rushing home to help my mom pick vegetables; my grandfather and my uncle were picking corn, cucumbers and amaranth; my cousin was also rushing home to instruct her husband on what parts of the garden needed to be covered; I was outside just before dark, picking basil and gathering the remainder of my meagre harvest: 4 yellow zucchini, 15 beans, 1 tiny Armenian cucumber (the only one my sad little plants produced), 7 red and 12 green tomatoes.
For me, the basil is the precious commodity. I preserve as much of it as I can to offer that taste of summer through the cold months when my only other option is to hope they stock it at the supermarket. And that stuff never tastes as good as what I grow. My two favourite basil preservation recipes:
Pesto (from the Lazy Gourmet cookbook—I tend to go back to this one because it makes the basil go a long way. It's a bit more runny than some pestos, but not at all fussy, and has beautiful flavour)
2 c. fresh basil, tightly packed
1 1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. pine nuts, toasted
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 t. salt and freshly ground black pepper, combined (I do 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. pepper)
1 t. chopped garlic (I just throw in a large, whole garlic clove and let the food processor do the chopping)
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process into a paste. Can be refrigerated up to a week or frozen up to 3 months.
I'll be freezing mine.
The remainder of my basil, once I run out of pine nuts and Parmesan to make pesto, is simply processed with a pinch of salt and enough olive oil to make a paste, and then frozen. This is super handy in the middle of winter when a recipe calls for chopped basil. That little patty or ice cube of pureed herb is probably equivalent to a quarter cup of loosely chopped basil, and each time I taste it, I am delighted.
Happy hunkering down for all you foodies preparing for fall. I am already anticipating delicious winter soups and stews. And to those in the southern hemisphere preparing for spring, and those of you in climates where you can pick fresh basil all year round, please don't rub it in.
For me, the basil is the precious commodity. I preserve as much of it as I can to offer that taste of summer through the cold months when my only other option is to hope they stock it at the supermarket. And that stuff never tastes as good as what I grow. My two favourite basil preservation recipes:
Pesto (from the Lazy Gourmet cookbook—I tend to go back to this one because it makes the basil go a long way. It's a bit more runny than some pestos, but not at all fussy, and has beautiful flavour)
2 c. fresh basil, tightly packed
1 1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. pine nuts, toasted
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 t. salt and freshly ground black pepper, combined (I do 1 t. salt, 1/2 t. pepper)
1 t. chopped garlic (I just throw in a large, whole garlic clove and let the food processor do the chopping)
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process into a paste. Can be refrigerated up to a week or frozen up to 3 months.
I'll be freezing mine.
The remainder of my basil, once I run out of pine nuts and Parmesan to make pesto, is simply processed with a pinch of salt and enough olive oil to make a paste, and then frozen. This is super handy in the middle of winter when a recipe calls for chopped basil. That little patty or ice cube of pureed herb is probably equivalent to a quarter cup of loosely chopped basil, and each time I taste it, I am delighted.
Happy hunkering down for all you foodies preparing for fall. I am already anticipating delicious winter soups and stews. And to those in the southern hemisphere preparing for spring, and those of you in climates where you can pick fresh basil all year round, please don't rub it in.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Lovely Dinner Menu
Tonight's dinner party was a success—it only took one afternoon (yesterday) of slightly neglecting my children to pull it off. Because I got so much done yesterday, I was able to relax today, play with the kids, and still get dinner finished more or less on time. More or less, because I was cooking the rice outside on my bbq burner (to avoid heating my house during this September heat wave), forgot about it, and burned it beyond recognition. I feel terrible, not just for the wasted food, but because I really did a number on the 40-year-old Le Creuset pot that was a wedding gift to my parents. I currently have it soaking in vinegar and baking soda. If anyone has any suggestions for cleaning a pot covered in burned-on brown rice, please let me know!
Because it was brown rice, it took another 45 minutes to cook, so dinner would have been ready before 6:00 (which is perfect for a family with young kids), but instead it was done sometime after 6:00. This menu was especially satisfying because it was full of ingredients that came from local gardens: yellow squash, cucumber, corn, fava beans, basil, lovage and parsley. So fresh and healthy—not to mention delicious!
Here's the menu:
Crispy-skinned salmon with salsa verde rice (previously published on my blog in July)
Fava bean salad with roasted garlic vinaigrette (this was lovely, although I didn't recreate it completely faithfully, because there has been a walnut recall and I couldn't locate any walnuts in the city. It would have been great with walnuts, but even without, it was a fantastic late-summer salad, with what I could scrounge from the fava beans' final gasp in my mom's garden)
Yellow squash and bell pepper torte (I'll post a photo soon—it turned out beautifully. The flavour of this isn't really terribly intense. It truly is just a pretty stack of roasted vegetables. However, I consider it perfect as an homage to fresh, seasonal vegetables. And for that reason, I will grow yellow squash in my garden next year for the chance to make it again.)
Sorbetto di Uva (Concord grape sorbet) (For anyone wondering what to do with their overabundance of hardy grapes, I strongly recommend this recipe. I used Concord grapes, but as I made it, I was thinking about all my friends with grape vines here in Saskatoon. You may have to up the sugar content a bit, but I'm sure the result with local grapes would be amazing. Just grapes and sugar, pureed, strained and frozen. Even grapes with seeds would work. Cool, velvety heaven!)
If I do say so myself (and I do), this menu was a fitting use of my new kitchen, and a fitting 'thank-you' to the friend who acted as my design sounding board during the long and painful decision-making and planning process.
Because it was brown rice, it took another 45 minutes to cook, so dinner would have been ready before 6:00 (which is perfect for a family with young kids), but instead it was done sometime after 6:00. This menu was especially satisfying because it was full of ingredients that came from local gardens: yellow squash, cucumber, corn, fava beans, basil, lovage and parsley. So fresh and healthy—not to mention delicious!
Here's the menu:
Crispy-skinned salmon with salsa verde rice (previously published on my blog in July)
Fava bean salad with roasted garlic vinaigrette (this was lovely, although I didn't recreate it completely faithfully, because there has been a walnut recall and I couldn't locate any walnuts in the city. It would have been great with walnuts, but even without, it was a fantastic late-summer salad, with what I could scrounge from the fava beans' final gasp in my mom's garden)
Yellow squash and bell pepper torte (I'll post a photo soon—it turned out beautifully. The flavour of this isn't really terribly intense. It truly is just a pretty stack of roasted vegetables. However, I consider it perfect as an homage to fresh, seasonal vegetables. And for that reason, I will grow yellow squash in my garden next year for the chance to make it again.)
Sorbetto di Uva (Concord grape sorbet) (For anyone wondering what to do with their overabundance of hardy grapes, I strongly recommend this recipe. I used Concord grapes, but as I made it, I was thinking about all my friends with grape vines here in Saskatoon. You may have to up the sugar content a bit, but I'm sure the result with local grapes would be amazing. Just grapes and sugar, pureed, strained and frozen. Even grapes with seeds would work. Cool, velvety heaven!)
If I do say so myself (and I do), this menu was a fitting use of my new kitchen, and a fitting 'thank-you' to the friend who acted as my design sounding board during the long and painful decision-making and planning process.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Summertime Menu: The Three Sisters Get a Makeover
Much has been made of the classic North American vegetarian combo, corn, beans and squash. They like to grow together, and when eaten together, are nutritionally balanced. Our meal tonight included all of them, but not in a traditional early North American way. But wow, was it satisfying.
Roasted Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese
Salad of White Beans and Chard
Steamed Corn on the Cob
Fresh sliced Purple Kohlrabi
Our kids also enjoyed the meal; although mostly, they were both excited to see corn on the cob, which we haven't had in a while, and then disappointed that it wasn't the usual bicolour variety from the grocery store. A friend has started an organic farm garden (check out Barefoot Earth Farm and Co-op on Facebook), and she delivered some heritage corn to us this week. It was tasty, but smaller and chewier than normal, which left D muttering to himself, "I don't want it to be chewy." I liked it.
I'd like to share both salad recipes, as they are absolute keepers, particularly at the height of vegetable season.
Roasted Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese
I learned today that it is less the exact ingredients of this salad and more the way it is made that make it so amazing. The original recipe, serving six people (very generously) called for a long list of vegetables: zucchini, two colours of peppers, eggplant, onion, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Chop them into large chunks, then marinate them in a Dijon vinaigrette (6 T. red wine vinegar, 4 T. olive oil, 1 T. Dijon mustard, 1 T. chopped fresh oregano and salt and pepper to taste) for a half hour. Grill or roast them until done to your liking and then toss the hot vegetables with a generous amount of chevre (10 oz).
Well, today, I made do with the vegetables I had, using some yellow zucchini, a red pepper, half a large onion, one lonely tomato and a large handful of white mushrooms. The finished product was still amazing. My husband's response, with full mouth, was to point at the salad in the bowl: "This: super-awesome."
So pull whatever you have out of the fridge or garden. Toss it with vinaigrette, cook it, and toss it with goat cheese. It isn't all that pretty, since it just turns into a creamy mess. But the flavour. You will never look at an overabundance of zucchini the same way again.
Salad of White Beans and Greens
There are many takes on white beans and greens—pasta, casseroles, soups—but this one is one of my favourites. I can't find the original recipe anywhere, although I know I found it online about 10 years ago. If someone recognizes it as their own, please accept my thanks and due diligence.
1/2 lb. dried white beans (I used navy beans)
1 1/2 lb. Swiss chard
1 onion
1 T. vinegar
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 c. black olives
3 T. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. fresh parsley
1 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 t. salt and pepper
Soak the beans overnight. Cook for an hour (or do what I did: soak overnight, turn on the heat and forget about them until the liquid boils off and they are hopelessly ruined and the pot requires intensive scrubbing. Then get some more dry white beans, skip the soaking part and cook for two hours, or until tender). Finely chop the stems and leaves of the chard and steam just until tender.
Combine onions, vinegar and sugar. Cover and bring to a boil, and then immediately remove from heat and let stand, covered, for a few minutes.
Combine all ingredients. Serve at room temperature.
This recipe serves 10 people. I often half it.
With dishes like this, I could almost get used to the idea of being vegetarian. Almost, but not quite.
Roasted Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese
Salad of White Beans and Chard
Steamed Corn on the Cob
Fresh sliced Purple Kohlrabi
Our kids also enjoyed the meal; although mostly, they were both excited to see corn on the cob, which we haven't had in a while, and then disappointed that it wasn't the usual bicolour variety from the grocery store. A friend has started an organic farm garden (check out Barefoot Earth Farm and Co-op on Facebook), and she delivered some heritage corn to us this week. It was tasty, but smaller and chewier than normal, which left D muttering to himself, "I don't want it to be chewy." I liked it.
I'd like to share both salad recipes, as they are absolute keepers, particularly at the height of vegetable season.
Roasted Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese
I learned today that it is less the exact ingredients of this salad and more the way it is made that make it so amazing. The original recipe, serving six people (very generously) called for a long list of vegetables: zucchini, two colours of peppers, eggplant, onion, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Chop them into large chunks, then marinate them in a Dijon vinaigrette (6 T. red wine vinegar, 4 T. olive oil, 1 T. Dijon mustard, 1 T. chopped fresh oregano and salt and pepper to taste) for a half hour. Grill or roast them until done to your liking and then toss the hot vegetables with a generous amount of chevre (10 oz).
Well, today, I made do with the vegetables I had, using some yellow zucchini, a red pepper, half a large onion, one lonely tomato and a large handful of white mushrooms. The finished product was still amazing. My husband's response, with full mouth, was to point at the salad in the bowl: "This: super-awesome."
So pull whatever you have out of the fridge or garden. Toss it with vinaigrette, cook it, and toss it with goat cheese. It isn't all that pretty, since it just turns into a creamy mess. But the flavour. You will never look at an overabundance of zucchini the same way again.
Salad of White Beans and Greens
There are many takes on white beans and greens—pasta, casseroles, soups—but this one is one of my favourites. I can't find the original recipe anywhere, although I know I found it online about 10 years ago. If someone recognizes it as their own, please accept my thanks and due diligence.
1/2 lb. dried white beans (I used navy beans)
1 1/2 lb. Swiss chard
1 onion
1 T. vinegar
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 c. black olives
3 T. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. fresh parsley
1 T. olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 t. salt and pepper
Soak the beans overnight. Cook for an hour (or do what I did: soak overnight, turn on the heat and forget about them until the liquid boils off and they are hopelessly ruined and the pot requires intensive scrubbing. Then get some more dry white beans, skip the soaking part and cook for two hours, or until tender). Finely chop the stems and leaves of the chard and steam just until tender.
Combine onions, vinegar and sugar. Cover and bring to a boil, and then immediately remove from heat and let stand, covered, for a few minutes.
Combine all ingredients. Serve at room temperature.
This recipe serves 10 people. I often half it.
With dishes like this, I could almost get used to the idea of being vegetarian. Almost, but not quite.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Meal Plan #13: Favourite Summer Recipes
It will be an interesting week in the Amazon Kitchen. Among preschool executive meetings and preparing for a long weekend visit to my parents' farm, I am hosting a work party for my husband where I will be demonstrating how to make apple liqueur, since their office lunch room has been inundated with bags of apples from co-workers' trees. I've just spent the evening researching potential snacks to go with apple liqueur drinks. More on that, later.
My poor garden has been partially decimated by sparrows, who apparently have a great appetite for Swiss chard, strawberries and green peas. We're still doing well with zucchini, green beans and kohlrabi, and I managed to steal some Swiss chard from my sister-in-law's garden this weekend, so that will also be factored into our meal plan.
Monday (before I rush out to the preschool executive meeting)
Roast chicken on the bbq (we'll see how this goes, since it's a BIG chicken. Too big to be roasted on a beer can, and too big for our crappy little bbq rotisserie. I'll be experimenting with indirect heat roasting. I can't bring myself to roast a chicken in the house when it's going to be 27 degrees.)
Dolmathes (from the gigantic can we opened a while back—don't worry, they were packed in oil so they're still well preserved, and they're no longer in the can)
Steamed green beans
Roasted cauliflower (an amazing way to eat cauliflower—just toss florets with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roast until tender and browned). I usually roast it in the oven, but for the same reasons the chicken is going outside, the cauliflower will go into my new bbq grill pan to get roasted there.
Tuesday
Checking off my list of favourite summer recipes (we're running out of time!!):
White bean salad with Swiss chard, olives and capers (recipe to come Tuesday)
Simplified roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese (the one I like to make calls for piles of vegetables, including eggplant, asparagus and cherry tomatoes as well as zucchini, peppers, onion, green onion. I'm going to use what I have: zucchini, onion, mushrooms and a red pepper. I'm pretty sure it will still rock our world, since melty goat cheese on warm roasted vegetables is soooo good.)
Tuesday I'll also be doing some simplified prep work for our Wednesday event (making little pork meatballs and apple brandy applesauce)
Wednesday
Work party:
Liqueur making demonstration, including three drink recipes, and an appetizer platter of pork mini-meatballs, apple slices, smoked cheddar and fried sage, with apple brandy applesauce for dipping. I'm excited! I LOVE doing this sort of thing.
Thursday
Herbed Beef and Rice Noodle Salad (can't wrap up summer without serving this, one of my all-time favourite recipes, packed with fresh herbs from my garden!)
Friday: off to the farm
I am trying something new in my efforts to streamline our road trips. The trip to the farm, which takes about three hours, always overlaps the supper hour if we want to leave right after my husband is done work. We have tried stopping part way to have a sit-down meal in a restaurant, but I noted on our recent road trip that our efforts to give the kids a break where they sit down and eat something fails on all counts. D is free! He wants to run around! Running around is a much higher priority than eating! Our efforts to corral him and get him to sit down only draw out the experience and reduces the enjoyment of our own meals. The second he's strapped into his carseat again, he says, "I want to eat something!"
So this weekend, I've decided, perhaps later than most parents would have, that we should eat on the road. I will pack salmon sandwiches, a kid favourite, and pass them back when requested. We will drive straight through, getting there before bedtime, well-fed, less frazzled, and hopefully happier.
Will it work? I'll keep you posted.
My poor garden has been partially decimated by sparrows, who apparently have a great appetite for Swiss chard, strawberries and green peas. We're still doing well with zucchini, green beans and kohlrabi, and I managed to steal some Swiss chard from my sister-in-law's garden this weekend, so that will also be factored into our meal plan.
Monday (before I rush out to the preschool executive meeting)
Roast chicken on the bbq (we'll see how this goes, since it's a BIG chicken. Too big to be roasted on a beer can, and too big for our crappy little bbq rotisserie. I'll be experimenting with indirect heat roasting. I can't bring myself to roast a chicken in the house when it's going to be 27 degrees.)
Dolmathes (from the gigantic can we opened a while back—don't worry, they were packed in oil so they're still well preserved, and they're no longer in the can)
Steamed green beans
Roasted cauliflower (an amazing way to eat cauliflower—just toss florets with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roast until tender and browned). I usually roast it in the oven, but for the same reasons the chicken is going outside, the cauliflower will go into my new bbq grill pan to get roasted there.
Tuesday
Checking off my list of favourite summer recipes (we're running out of time!!):
White bean salad with Swiss chard, olives and capers (recipe to come Tuesday)
Simplified roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese (the one I like to make calls for piles of vegetables, including eggplant, asparagus and cherry tomatoes as well as zucchini, peppers, onion, green onion. I'm going to use what I have: zucchini, onion, mushrooms and a red pepper. I'm pretty sure it will still rock our world, since melty goat cheese on warm roasted vegetables is soooo good.)
Tuesday I'll also be doing some simplified prep work for our Wednesday event (making little pork meatballs and apple brandy applesauce)
Wednesday
Work party:
Liqueur making demonstration, including three drink recipes, and an appetizer platter of pork mini-meatballs, apple slices, smoked cheddar and fried sage, with apple brandy applesauce for dipping. I'm excited! I LOVE doing this sort of thing.
Thursday
Herbed Beef and Rice Noodle Salad (can't wrap up summer without serving this, one of my all-time favourite recipes, packed with fresh herbs from my garden!)
Friday: off to the farm
I am trying something new in my efforts to streamline our road trips. The trip to the farm, which takes about three hours, always overlaps the supper hour if we want to leave right after my husband is done work. We have tried stopping part way to have a sit-down meal in a restaurant, but I noted on our recent road trip that our efforts to give the kids a break where they sit down and eat something fails on all counts. D is free! He wants to run around! Running around is a much higher priority than eating! Our efforts to corral him and get him to sit down only draw out the experience and reduces the enjoyment of our own meals. The second he's strapped into his carseat again, he says, "I want to eat something!"
So this weekend, I've decided, perhaps later than most parents would have, that we should eat on the road. I will pack salmon sandwiches, a kid favourite, and pass them back when requested. We will drive straight through, getting there before bedtime, well-fed, less frazzled, and hopefully happier.
Will it work? I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Herbs in all Their Glory
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life keeps getting in the way. I've been wanting to share this herb-filled vegetarian recipe as well as my first efforts (not great) at food photography with my new SLR camera.
Grilled Halloumi Cheese with Zucchini, Tomato and Red Onion Salad
(adapted from Simple Vegetarian Recipes, part of the "Cooking for Today" series, published by Whitecap Books in North Vancouver. This is an older cookbook, and I can't find reference to it even on the publisher's website. We have two in the series, though, this one and 'Simple Chinese Recipes')
1 lb. Halloumi cheese
Marinade:
Juice and zest of half an orange
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. dry white wine
2 T. white wine vinegar
1/2 T. snipped fresh chives
1/2 T. chopped fresh marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Salad:
8 oz plum tomatoes
1 small red onion
1 small zucchini
4 T. olive oil
2 T. cider vinegar
1 t. lemon juice
pinch ground coriander
2 t. chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil leaves to garnish
Slice cheese thickly and place in a shallow dish. Mix together marinade ingredients and pour over the cheese. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
To make the salad, slice the tomatoes and zucchini thinly and place on a serving plate. Thinly slice the onion and scatter over the tomatoes. Whisk together remaining ingredients, except basil, and drizzle over the vegetables. Cover and chill.
Drain the marinade from the cheese. Cook cheese on a hot grill for 2 minutes, until slightly charred and softened, turning once. Lift onto plates and serve with the salad.
I served it with purchased dolmathes for a refreshing Greek-inspired summer meal.
Grilled Halloumi Cheese with Zucchini, Tomato and Red Onion Salad
(adapted from Simple Vegetarian Recipes, part of the "Cooking for Today" series, published by Whitecap Books in North Vancouver. This is an older cookbook, and I can't find reference to it even on the publisher's website. We have two in the series, though, this one and 'Simple Chinese Recipes')
1 lb. Halloumi cheese
Marinade:
Juice and zest of half an orange
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. dry white wine
2 T. white wine vinegar
1/2 T. snipped fresh chives
1/2 T. chopped fresh marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Salad:
8 oz plum tomatoes
1 small red onion
1 small zucchini
4 T. olive oil
2 T. cider vinegar
1 t. lemon juice
pinch ground coriander
2 t. chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil leaves to garnish
Slice cheese thickly and place in a shallow dish. Mix together marinade ingredients and pour over the cheese. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
To make the salad, slice the tomatoes and zucchini thinly and place on a serving plate. Thinly slice the onion and scatter over the tomatoes. Whisk together remaining ingredients, except basil, and drizzle over the vegetables. Cover and chill.
Drain the marinade from the cheese. Cook cheese on a hot grill for 2 minutes, until slightly charred and softened, turning once. Lift onto plates and serve with the salad.
I served it with purchased dolmathes for a refreshing Greek-inspired summer meal.
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| Thick slabs of cheese in the herby marinade |
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| Yellow zucchini is thriving in my garden this year |
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