Category: cooking

The Cooking Chronicles: Salads for Supper

Salads are definitely one of those things I know I should be eating more often – instead of being relegated to a side, and in place of some worse-for-me things like white rice. I’ve only made the recent discovery that salads don’t have to involve greens (read: lettuce, arugula, spinach) of any kind, and moreover, don’t have to be served cold. Imagine that!

Rice Noodle Cucumber Salad

A rice noodle cucumber salad from Rose Murray’s A Taste of Canada seemed like a great way to combine Asian pantry essentials (fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vermicelli noodles) with fresh farmers’ market produce: I had picked up a red pepper and a cucumber from Doef’s Greenhouses, as well as ground pork from Irvings. While not as dish consuming as our asparagus and poached eggs recipe from a few weeks back, we still ran through a few pots and pans to pull everything together.

Rice noodle cucumber salad

The result? An interesting combination of flavours and textures – from the heat of red chili flakes to the salty punch of the soy and fish sauces, and the sweet crunch of the cucumber and bell pepper – it’s definitely not your typical green salad. In hindsight, I would have included more pork and vermicelli for additional protein and balance – while the salad made a light meal great for a hot summer night, by late evening, we were both looking for something to nibble on.

Warm Spinach Salad with Yankee Fish Cakes

Okay, this is a green salad. But it’s served warm! I used the balsamic dressing from Company’s Coming that I have made before (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, honey, mustard, salt pepper), as well as the idea of adding sautéed mushrooms (this time, meaty Portobello from Mo Na). They warmed – but didn’t wilt – the Sundog Organics spinach nicely.

What really made this a meal, however, were the Yankee fish cakes. Many of the recipes in Saveur’s June/July market issue caught my eye, but this one most of all. I’ve never made fish cakes before, but with such an easy and delicious recipe, I know I will be making them again soon.

While the haddock (from Ocean Odyssey) cooked down with cream, onions and celery, I was able to pull together the flavourings and binding agents – minced pickle, Tabasco, dill, mayo, lemon zest, lemon juice, an egg and breadcrumbs. We added the cooled fish mixture, combined the mixture, and formed eight fish cakes. The last step was to coat them in cornmeal, and let them set in the fridge for half an hour.

Fish cakes for the fridge

Frying them in a hot, butter-coated skillet was the easiest part…or was it eating them? Mack and I both declared the recipe a winner – I loved the cornmeal coating, for its grainy sweetness, and firm, yet textured interior (the celery, for example, retained its crunch). And the haddock definitely came through it all.

Yankee fish cakes on warm spinach salad

Eaten with the warm spinach salad, it was a really satisfying meal. Thanks, Saveur!

Slow Food Edmonton’s Wood Fired Solstice Supper

I first joined Slow Food Edmonton just over a year ago. In that time, I’ve attended Indulgence twice, participated in learning activities, watched a grilled cheese smackdown, put together a scavenger hunt, and am part of the team organizing the upcoming Beer & Boar BBQ. What I’ve found most engaging, however, have been the potluck suppers.

Mary’s annual wrap-up potlucks have been a running Slow Food tradition, and we were able to attend our first last November. I thought it was a great, informal way to get to meet others interested in local food. In January, Valerie kicked off the first in a series of solstice suppers, another excuse to get together and enjoy great eats with Slow Foodies. She generously hosted the party in her home, and at that dinner, it was announced that a second solstice supper would take place at Colleen and Vince’s residence, also home to Sophia, their wood burning oven.

Sophia, their “hot and tempestuous wood-fired oven”, heh

It was to be an intimate affair capped at thirty people, to ensure there would be enough food, as everything would be cooked inside the oven. So instead of a straight potluck with attendees bringing completed dishes, everyone was assigned an ingredient (locally sourced) to be cooked on site. Ingredients ranged from salad greens to potatoes to fowl. Mack and I were one of four groups chosen to bring enough ingredients for three pizzas.

Valerie prepping her pizza ingredients

With Colleen and Vince taking care of the pizza dough (they are exceptional bread makers – I had to restrain myself at the last solstice supper from consuming the crusty bread they had laid out), our job was easy. We picked up some crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, spicy capicollo and prosciutto from the Italian Centre for starters, and planned to round out our toppings at the City Market the next day.

Perfectly formed pizza dough

We reached the market later than we had originally planned, however, and our selection was limited. We ended up substituting pea tendrils instead of arugula for fresh greens (from Sundog Organics), fresh oregano instead of basil (also from Sundog Organics), Portobello caps from Mo Na (Michael’s recommendation), tomatoes from Gull Valley, and a container of goat feta from Smoky Valley.

Getting the ingredients ready

Our pizzas were first up, to serve as appetizers for the hungry crowd. So just after our arrival, Mack and I joined Valerie, Wendy and Teresa in the kitchen. Vince showed us how to work the dough – stretching it and ensuring enough flour was between the pizza peel and the pizza to allow for easy transfer into the oven. He also advised us not to heap too many ingredients on top.

The pro at work

The first of our pizzas, with fresh mozzarella, Portobello and capicollo, ready for the oven

The dough was perfectly crispy and chewy, and tasted like no homemade pizza I’d ever had before. The oven, as Vince explained to us, reached temperatures of up to 900 degrees (he had a nifty electronic thermometer to measure its internal temperature).

 The first of our pizzas, out of the oven, topped with pea tendrils

Mack and I were clearly the most uncreative when it came to pizza toppings, which became evident when we saw what Valerie brought – pestos, roasted tomatoes and red peppers, duck confit, roasted chicken among them. They were delicious, and undoubtedly gourmet.

One of Valerie’s tasty creations, before baking (Mack’s favourite)

Valerie’s roasted tomato pizza with basil chiffonade

Once our last pizza was served, we were off kitchen duty for the rest of the night. That allowed us ample time to explore Colleen and Vince’s backyard oasis, built for entertaining. Between the large deck (featuring mounted external speakers), a small wooden house (for rainy days) and a lovely garden with lined paths, it was a pretty space to pass the time.

Enjoying the sun

View from the garden

The second half of the meal took several hours to prepare – Vince said it was difficult to control the temperature for such a lengthy period of time – but it allowed us plenty of time to catch up with familiar faces, and get to know some new Slow Food members.

Photo op

Though it was a shame that Mary Ellen and Andreas (of Greens, Eggs and Ham) weren’t able to make it, their products were well-represented at the dinner and included their salad greens and potatoes, and geese, guinea fowl and Cornish game hen (it turned out Mary Ellen helped coordinate the fowl somewhat, and prevented duplication).

Almost ready

When the fowl were crispy and cooked through, it was time to roast the asparagus and potatoes.

Seasoned and ready to go in the oven!

Crisp tender asparagus

The cold sides were prepped, and the eating began!

 Beautiful greens with lilacs sprinkled on top

Roasted vegetable salad (it tasted every bit as good as it looks)

Someone had made a delectable morel cream sauce to pair with the asparagus, but I have to say, the sauce paired well with everything. Mack loved the potatoes – tossed in a bit of duck fat, salt and pepper, the oven crisped them up like a dream. The fowl also did well in the oven, and as expected, the skin was the best part!

My plate

There was enough food left over for people to have seconds, but most were saving room for dessert. Roasted rhubarb was spooned over a ginger-spiced panna cotta (made with Bles Wold yogurt).  It was the perfect cap on a fantastic meal.

Panna cotta with roasted rhubarb

Thanks again to Colleen and Vince for being such amazing hosts. We were all well taken care of, and though I know dinner took longer to serve than Vince would have liked, we all had such a great time mingling that it didn’t matter. I’m looking forward to the next potluck already.

You can see our photoset here, and read Valerie’s post about the Solstice Supper here.

The Cooking Chronicles: Two Pot Meals

Donna Hay’s a bit misleading in her section on “one pot meals” in No Time To Cook. In actuality, some of the dishes require two pots – the first for the main and the second for the accompanying starch – whether it be a rice cooker or a pot to boil pasta. I know it’s not a big stretch – it’s just one more dish to wash, after all – but for whatever reason, it’s a bit of a disappointment to me when I realize that the recipe isn’t a true one pot meal.

Chicken Poached in Coconut Curry

This was one such dish that required two pots. While I’ve poached chicken in coconut milk before, this was the first time I threw in potatoes and snap peas for a whole meal. It was also the first time I used kaffir lime leaves (the recipe I linked to leaves them out). I picked up a whole bag at Lucky 97 for just 99 cents – and given how they come back to life simmered in hot liquid, and actually do lend a tangible citrus tang to the curry, they are worth seeking out.

Chicken poached in coconut curry

Sausage and Arugula Penne

A pasta recipe from Ricardo Larrivée also caught my eye (and yes, required two pots) – I loved that there were less than ten ingredients called for. And we’ve cooked often with white wine, but not red, so this was a good opportunity to experiment with a red-wine based sauce.

Sausage and arugula penne

We had ended up using the remainder of a bottle of red we had sitting around, which Mack thought probably wasn’t the best choice of wine variety – he thought it overtook everything else in the dish. I didn’t mind it so much – between the tomatoes and wine, the thin but flavourful sauce was a nice change of pace from the hearty, chunky tomato sauce we make more often.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before another two pot meal sneaks into our rotation!

The Cooking Chronicles: Asparagus and Morel Soup

While morels don’t quite have the rock star reputation of truffles, wild origins lend morels a mysterious, elusive quality. After learning about how fickle they are in terms of where they grow, and the related excitement that ripples through the mycological community at the start of spring (aka morel season), I had to wonder if they could possibly live up to the hype. We finally picked up a basket from Mo Na one weekend and set to find out.

Morels

The paper bag the morels came in expressed explicit instructions to wash the product, being that the mushrooms are wild, and could be harbouring any number of organisms. So – like most other vegetables that require a thorough bath, I decided to soak the morels.

Of course, after leaving them in the water for a few minutes, I realized this was the wrong move. The morels took in water like sponges! I literally had to wring them out before cooking. As Mack always says, I should have consulted the Google.

Anyway, I decided to prepare them two ways – the first was to simply sauté them in butter (as Martin, President of the Alberta Mycological Society had recommended), and the second was in an asparagus and morel soup.

I roughly chopped a handful of morels (and some that still retained water – mini mushroom bombs, they were – nothing says learning like the hard way, right?), and threw them in a pan of melted butter. A few minutes later, our small bowls of cooked gems in front of us, we expected to be blown away. Not surprisingly, as with other instances where the bar is set too high, we weren’t. The waterlogged morels had lost some of their inherent spring, but save for tasting like other members of the fungi family, neither Mack or I could discern any real distinct flavour worthy of fervour.

We did better with the asparagus and morel soup, though. An Eric Akis recipe (I am partial to his seasonal focus), the dish called for pureed asparagus (we used the last of our Edgar Farms bunch), and chopped morels that were simmered in chicken stock for additional flavour. Though the potato used to thicken the soup was a little too prominent for my taste, I loved the green colouring of the broth, and the added texture and slightly woody essence of the morels.

Asparagus and morel soup

Will we buy morels again? Perhaps, but I’m starting to think that morels are more about the thrill of the hunt – I’m sure they taste better if you foraged them for yourself.

The Cooking Chronicles: Desserts are for Sharing

Though I enjoy baking, it’s not something I do very often. My baking accoutrements are limited to a cookie sheet and a muffin pan, and I don’t even own an electric mixer. Moreover, knowing that the two of us will be on the hook to finish the entire dessert ourselves is often a deterrent enough. So more often than not, I end up saving dessert recipes for special occasions or instances where I know others will be able to help us enjoy the sweets.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Yogurt Loaf Cake

I remember seeing pictures of Rhianna’s extra virgin olive oil and yogurt loaf cake on her blog, and thinking what a brilliantly vibrant cake it was. I wanted to make something for Mack’s Grandma to help celebrate her birthday, and being a tea drinker, I thought the loaf would be a perfect afternoon accompaniment.

I’ve never made a cake using olive oil before, but I’ve read about the fruity flavour it can lend baked goods. However, I wasn’t able to discern a distinct flavour in my final product that I could attribute to the olive oil – nor was it wasn’t as bright as Rhianna’s cake. I also probably would have added some actual lime juice to the batter – the zest just didn’t lend enough citrus taste to the cake.

 Extra virgin olive oil and yogurt loaf cake

Still, much like other yogurt loaves, I found that it helped keep the cake fairly moist. Most importantly though – Mack’s Grandma liked it!

Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

I didn’t grow up eating rhubarb. It just wasn’t a part of my Mom’s repertoire, so my first encounter with rhubarb was fairly recent, incorporated into a dessert of some kind. I liked it well enough, but didn’t think much about it until our weekly visits to the City Market opened my eyes to how ubiquitous rhubarb is here. Several of the produce vendors offer it (Sundog Organics, Edgar Farms, and Riverbend Gardens, among others), and I knew I couldn’t just keep passing it by.

We picked up several of the pink-green stalks from Sundog Organics a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t yet have a recipe in hand, but I knew my family would be willing to sample whatever I made. Searching online, the vast majority of recipes I stumbled across featured rhubarb paired with strawberries, but I really wanted to find something that would allow the rhubarb to sing on its own. This rhubarb upside-down cake was it.

It was super-easy to make (as I am sure most upside-down cakes are), and though the recipe author claims it isn’t the most attractive dessert, I thought otherwise, between the pink hues and the flecks of orange scattered throughout (I will say that the photo below is terrible though…most things that I photograph in my parents’ yellow kitchen appear jaundiced).

Rhubarb upside-down cake

Although the rhubarb was a bit tart, the edge was taken off by a scoop of cold, sweet ice cream. Amanda also suggested that cinnamon would be a worthy addition to the cake batter. I do think I will make this again though – it’s hard to resist using seasonal ingredients when they’re so readily available!

Culinary Q & A with Carol Edwards

Occupation: Event Planner   

What did you eat today?

for breakfast: a granola bar and a banana; for lunch: a big salad with lots of veggies, a can of lemon pepper tuna and a slice of whole wheat bread;  for dinner: parmesan encrusted halibut, steamed asparagus and baby potatoes with butter and chives.

What do you never eat?

Beets. I prefer not to even be at the same table as them. I really hate that they’re so popular right now. It seems they’re on every menu in town.

What is your personal specialty?

Mediterranean Stuffed Rack of Lamb; it’s stuffed with feta, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes and basil, marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon and basil and then baked in the oven.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you will always find:

olives, anchovy paste, capers, parmesan cheese, milk and eggs. You never know when you’ll need to make a pasta sauce.

What is your weekday meal standby?

Pasta with a sauce of whatever I can find in my fridge and cupboards.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My green enamel coated Dutch oven. It’s great for making big meals for family and friends.

World ends tomorrow. Describe your last meal.

First, some really good blue cheese drizzled with honey, then some blue cheese wrapped in prosciutto. Then I’d move on to Finocchiona from Salumi’s in Seattle. Then salad made with ripe tomatoes warm off the vine, bocconcini and basil. For my entrée I’d have rosemary and garlic grilled lamb chops. For dessert a big bowl of salted caramel gelato and to wash it all down large amounts of fine red wine.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Brewsters in Oliver Square. Good food, good beer, good service, sports on the tv’s and it’s close to home

Where’s the best place to eat in Edmonton?

The best place I’ve eaten in Edmonton this year was Violino. The food and the service were outstanding.

If you weren’t limited by geography, where and what would you eat?

I’d go to Italy, visit towns in each of the different regions, find a place where the locals eat and ask them to recommend their favourite dish on the menu.

Carol blogs at A Seat At My Table.

Culinary Q & A with LeQuan

Occupation: I’m a former teacher and now a stay at home mother of two.

What did you eat today?

Breakfast was just a bowl of cereal.
Lunch was two boiled eggs and a nutella and strawberry sandwich with orange juice.
Dinner was steamed salmon with sautéed garlic, ginger and green onions. Plus stir fried spinach with garlic, and white rice. Dessert was strawberries.

What do you never eat?

Snake. I have never and would never eat snake or any other reptile.

What is your personal specialty?

If you’re talking about everyday cooking then it would have to be stir fry. If you’re talking about a specific dish then I’d have to say a Vietnamese tomato based vermicelli soup called Bun Rue, which I actually blogged about here.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you will always find:

shrimp. I love shrimp.

What is your weekday meal standby?

Some kind of veggie stir fry dish, some kind of fish and white rice.

What is your favourite kitchen item?

These two white bowls from Chintz and Company. They were expensive and I was too cheap to buy more. Haha. When I went back to get more they had discontinued them. They are the perfect sized noodle bowls.

World ends tomorrow. Describe your last meal.

Definitely an abalone dish. I don’t care how it’s made cause you can’t go wrong with abalone. A nice slab of Kobe beef marinated and grilled by my Dad. Stir fried ong choy (Chinese water spinach) for a veggie plate. And for dessert it’d probably have to be crème brûlée.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

The hubby and I like to take the kiddies to Pagolac restaurant in Chinatown almost every weekend cause they like noodle soup.

Where’s the best place to eat in Edmonton?

Ooh, that’s a tough one. According to price and best bang for your buck I’d have to say brunch at The Kitchen in the River Cree Casino. They are super kid friendly and have a wide array of food for
everyone. My hubby loves their lamb and can easily eat his money’s worth just on that.

If you weren’t limited by geography, where and what would you eat?

I would love to go to Japan for their fresh sashimi. I’m a huge seafood fan and I think it tastes best raw and fresh.

LeQuan blogs at luvtoeat.

The Cooking Chronicles: Poached Eggs on Asparagus and Bacon with Yogurt Hollandaise

While both Mack and I love the idea of having breakfast for dinner, it usually manifests itself as frittatas, quiches, and the like. But because of our love of brunch, I thought Mack’s pre-trip dinner on Saturday (he’s in New Orleans for a conference this week) should be a more blatantly breakfast-type meal. A recipe for poached eggs on asparagus with yogurt hollandaise, in Rose Murray’s A Taste of Canada, sounded perfect.

Though this recipe wasn’t difficult, it involved nearly every pot and pan we had in the house, making cleanup a not-so-envious task. Still, the results were fantastic, so we couldn’t complain.

This was my first time poaching eggs (I am partial to the ease of frying eggs). As I slipped the eggs into the water, peering into the bubbling water, I felt a little like Julie Powell, willing the whites to stay together (not to mention that they were quality eggs from Sunshine Organic; I hate wasting food, let alone good food). While some of the whites did inevitably drift apart, I was happy with the results.

While I watched over the eggs (and waited for the Edgar Farms asparagus to finish roasting and the ciabatta buns to toast), Mack fried up some back bacon from Irvings Farm, and took care of whisking together the yogurt-based hollandaise on a double boiler. Nothing says teamwork like cooking together!

We served the finished product with some mixed heritage greens from Greens, Eggs and Ham, tossed with some lemon vinaigrette.

Poached eggs on asparagus with yogurt hollandaise

Ciabatta buns were the wrong choice as the bread base (they was a little too hard to cut through), but everything else worked well. The addition of bacon made it that much tastier, and though Mack found the mustard-flavoured hollandaise a bit disconcerting to start with, he did enjoy it in the end.

Dining al fresco!

For dessert, we topped some creamy Breyers double churn (we love how easy it is to scoop the ice cream straight out of the freezer) with crumbled cookies from Confetti Sweets (a new vendor this year at the City Market).

Dessert

We may end up having this meal again for breakfast one day. Yum.

The Cooking Chronicles: Wilted Pea Tendril Salad

Unlike a conventional CSA with a produce farmer, where I think the sheer quantity and new-to-me vegetables would be overwhelming for a novice cook like me, I much prefer the route of trying and experimenting with different varieties at my own pace. If you can believe it, I tried parsnips and kale for the first time in the past year.

Having challenged myself to visit the City Market every week this year, I’m finding it even easier to do this, as I am now even more aware of the burgeoning seasonal inventory that changes every week. And though I may not pick up that produce item the first time around, being able to identify it, and realizing that we can grow it in Alberta is the first step for me.

Last Saturday, I couldn’t resist buying a beautiful bouquet of pea tendrils from Sundog Organics (their lovely displays of rustic baskets alone could get me to relinquish my wallet, I think). Though I had originally intended to throw them into an odds and ends stir-fry (made up of whatever was nearing the end of its life in the crisper), I thought better of it, and began searching for a recipe that would more appropriately showcase the tendrils.

A simple, warm pea tendril salad with mushrooms and shallots ended up fitting the bill, mostly because I had all of the ingredients required, and because I wouldn’t have the opportunity to accidentally overcook the delicate greens.

Eaten raw, the pea tendrils were crisp and sweet, and would make a lovely garnish or an addition to a mixed green salad. In this warm salad, they retained their fresh bite, contrasting nicely with the softened, buttery mushrooms. It would make a great starter dish for a dinner party, or a light accompaniment with fish.

Wilted pea tendril salad with mushrooms

Have you tried any new items from the City Market lately?

The Cooking Chronicles: It’s Asparagus Season!

I love reading the weekly updates from Edgar Farms, and in particular, seeing the first snapshots of the season capturing those darling, plucky stalks of asparagus bursting upwards from the soil. Sure, there are many ways to tell that spring is upon us, but I think it’s great that we are lucky enough to have a timely, seasonal vegetable that can act as our harbinger of spring.

Asparagus from Edgar Farms

At $6 a bunch, they’re not an inexpensive purchase at the City Market, but for the product’s freshness and ability to easily last a week in the fridge, they’re worth the cost.

Roasted Asparagus

What’s better than a side of simple, roasted asparagus? Tossed with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and placed in a 450 degree oven for 8 minutes or so, the crisp-tender stalks are bright and tasty.

Roasted asparagus

Asparagus Pesto

I’ve written in the past about my love of the versatile dip/spread as my office potluck staple dish – it allows me to escape the pre-lunch crush at the stove/microwave as my fellow colleagues rush to heat up their contribution. And, really, it’s allowed me to try out new recipes without having to commit to eating an entire sampling myself.

This time, an asparagus pesto recipe in the NYT caught my eye, and its radiant green hue seemed perfect for a spring potluck. I threw the blanched asparagus pieces with some of the cooking liquid, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan, black pepper and a dash of lemon juice into the food processor and blended everything until the mixture was creamy.

The result was a smooth, hearty dip with a deep, earthy flavour, and one that I am happy to say solicited many requests for the recipe.

Asparagus pesto

It’s a versatile pesto, and one that I look forward to trying with pasta as well, as suggested in the recipe.

What’s your favourite way to enjoy asparagus?