Grocery Club Supper # 4: Pear, Parmesan and Roasted Strawberry Salad, Carrots and Lime-Chili Butter.

Hello Grocery Clubbers. Do you have any produce left from last week, or are you already engrossed in this week’s bag? Perhaps there is a pear or two remaining, or the bottom row of strawberries, and maybe you have not yet gotten to the red lettuce. Did you eat both bags of brand new orange and yellow carrots, so sweet you could almost slice them onto the breakfast granola and cover them with yogurt, or do you have one bag left? If so, please read on, and hear my apologies for the lateness of this post.

A wedding in Abbotsford intervened, a wedding that brought together two large and loving Canadian families, one that originated in the Ukraine, the other in Holland. For three days we feasted and laughed and undertook adventures, adventures that included hammock-buying on Granville Island, roaming the streets of a gated community and swooshing down the powdery slopes of Mount Baker. We made 53 new friends, heartily endorsed the choices of both bride and groom and I am going home with a smart new felt hat. Ooh la la!

This late post, dear produce clubbers, is being tapped out on a laptop enroute to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Yes, I am not only late but remiss. There will be no supper this week, you are on your own. Instead I will regale you with tales of oysters and artisanal cheese, of happy lambs and local wines and other culinary excitements yet to be discovered in the wilds of Parksville, where errant members of my family have now relocated.

But here in the meantime are two tardy ideas for your pears, your lettuce, your carrots, your limes and your strawberries. I hope you will find them useful, if not now, sometime soon. Strawberry season is not far. Note to Yukoners: do not roast wild strawberries. They are too precious. Roast instead the hothouse variety, organic or otherwise, whose beauty outlaps their flavour. 

 Pear, Parmesan and Roasted Strawberry Salad

2 Bartlett pears

2 tbsp. (30 ml) birch syrup

1 tbsp. (15 ml) balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt

2 cups (480 ml) whole strawberries

½ head of red leaf lettuce

¼ red onion, sliced thinly

½ cup (125 ml) hazelnuts

Shavings of parmesan cheese

Vinaigrette

2 tbsp. (30 ml) balsamic vinegar

6 tbsp. (90 ml) extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. (5 ml) maple or birch syrup

1 tsp (5 ml) soya sauce

1 clove garlic, crushed

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Wash and hull the strawberries and slice in half lengthwise. Combine birch syrup and balsamic vinegar, pour over the strawberries and gently toss. Spread the strawberries on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until slightly brown and caramelized at the edges. Remove from oven and cool.

2) Roast the hazelnuts in the same oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes then rub together in a tea towel to remove the skins. Not all the skin will come off; no matter.

3) Make the vinaigrette—combine first four ingredients in a jar and shake or whisk until emulsified. Add the crushed garlic and let sit.

4) Cut the pears in half, core and cut each half into six slim slices.

5) Wash and dry the lettuce and lay one large leaf on each of four salad plates. Tear the remainder into bite-sized pieces. Toss with half the vinaigrette.

6) Arrange the pear, onion and strawberries on top of the lettuce and sprinkle with hazelnuts. Drizzle the assembly on each plate with the remaining vinaigrette.

7) Take a vegetable peeler and shave curls of parmesan off the block onto each plate.

Serves four.

Carrots with Lime-Chili Butter

1 lb (454 gr) new yellow and orange carrots

¼ cup (60 ml) butter

Zest and juice of one lime

2 chili peppers, crushed

1) Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk in lime juice, lime zest and crushed chili peppers. Cook for 10 minutes. 

2) Top and tail the carrots, wash in cold water and place in a saucepan. Boil a kettle of water, pour over carrots, bring to the boil over high heat, turn heat to medium low and cook for a scant three minutes. Drain.

3) Arrange carrots in a serving dish and pour lime butter over top. Serve immediately.

Serves four.

Grocery Club Supper # 3: Cabbage, Onion and Cheddar Galette

What could be more prosaic than a head of cabbage and a bag of onions? The challenge posed by these sturdy, everyday vegetables in this week’s Alpine Bakery grocery bag was to look beyond the usual; the cabbage rolls, the borscht, the coleslaw.

(Though a mango, crimini mushroom, celery and cabbage coleslaw with a cilantro-lime dressing is not a bad option, and would incorporate four of the toothsome items that tumbled out of the bag on Tuesday afternoon.)

I liked this challenge, imagining I was a homesteader nearing the end of the winter with nowt but root vegetables and a few cabbages buried in sand in the cold cellar, and a family heartily sick of both.  

The light returneth.

I began the quest with The Harrowsmith Coobook Volume Two, always a good source for elevated supper fare, but found nothing that appealed in this mood of discovery so moved on to Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian and contemplated South Indian Cabbage. Alas, I had no fenugreek, asafetida or curry leaves on hand. Hmm. From South India to Thailand. Not good. The larder was bare of ginger, lime leaves, cilantro and pork. On to Culinaria Russia, a fabulous crimson tome that celebrates the cuisine of Russia from the Ukraine to Georgia to Azerbaijan but I didn’t want to make cabbage rolls, no matter how authentic.

By this time the idea of a pie had taken dim form and hovered in the stratosphere surrounded by question marks, and when that happens there’s nothing for it but to enter the ether and launch a search. I Googled cabbage and onion pie and turned up several rather pedestrian dishes AND different versions of this cabbage and onion galette, which looked very promising indeed.

A galette is basically a floppy pie. Instead of baking the pie in a pie plate you just wrap the filling by folding the pastry over top, leaving a space in the middle to show off the delicious innards and allowing them to brown in a photogenic and yummy way. 

I have fond memories of a turkey and pear galette my mother served on one of my trips home to Southern Ontario, a pie she bought in the tiny bakery in the tiny village of Heathcote in the Beaver Valley, where my youngest brother lives when he’s not living in Hong Kong, as he will for the next five years, and we miss him and my sister-in-law and their two sweet dogs a lot. But they were with me in my kitchen in Whitehorse as I put this recipe together, my mom and my youngest brother and my sister-in-law, and isn’t that what happens when we cook? Our kitchens become peopled with those we have eaten with before and will eat with again, our families and friends and loved ones and passing strangers.

Cabbage, Onion and Cheddar Galette, with fondness

This is a recipe whose flavour depends on the method. Give yourself time to properly caramelize the onions, about 45 minutes. Baking time is about 35 minutes.

The Filling

2 large onions

half a cabbage (you could use red, white or Savoy and the flavour would be slightly different with each one)

1 large clove garlic (I still had some Italian Porcelain from last week)

Olive oil

2 tsp. (10 ml) balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. (5 ml) thyme

1 cup (250 ml) each grated parmesan and grated cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

(With 2 onions and half a cabbage I had enough filling left over for a super duper focaccia topping. Just reserve about one third each of the cooked cabbage and onions. Refrigerate and use within a couple of days. Try it!)

1. Slice the onions thinly. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron frying pan over medium heat and add the onions. Sprinkle with about ½ teaspoon of salt, which will help draw out the moisture. When the onions are translucent, after about 10 minutes, turn the heat to medium low, add the garlic and cook slowly, stirring now and then, until onions are thoroughly brown. Cool.

2. Remove the core from the half cabbage and slice thinly. Heat another 2 tablespoons of oil in another cast iron pan over medium heat and add cabbage. Once it begins to wilt turn heat to medium low, add the thyme and cook for about 20 minutes. Near the end add balsamic vinegar and cook until the aroma loses its sharpness. Cool.

3. Toss the cooled cabbage with the grated parmesan, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

While the cabbages and onions are cooking, make the pastry.

Pastry

 1 ½ cups (375 ml) all-purpose flour

½ cup (125 ml) cold butter

½ tsp (2.5 ml) salt

¼ cup (60ml) yogurt

1 egg, beaten

1. Cut butter into small pieces. Pulse flour, butter and salt together until butter is the size of dried peas. Add yogurt a tablespoon at a time and pulse after each addition, until the dough clumps into a cohesive lump when you pinch it.

2. Dump the dough onto a piece of parchment paper the size of a baking sheet. Gather it into a ball, knead briefly, cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll the dough into a rough circle about 15 inches in diameter. Don’t worry about the uneven edges, they will add to the charm of the galette.

3. Slide the dough on its sheet of parchment paper onto a baking sheet and chill while the cabbage and onions finish cooking. Bring  the dough out to warm up and become pliable about 10 minutes before you’re ready to spread the filling on top; you want the edges to bend over the filling, not break.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 400F

1. Brush the chilled pastry liberally with the beaten egg.

2. Spread about two thirds of the cabbage over the pastry dough, leaving about three inches of pastry all around.

3. Cover the cabbage with two thirds of the onions. Sprinkle the grated cheddar over top. Reserve the remaining cabbage and onions for focaccia or pizza.

4. Fold the dough over the filling, again not worrying if it looks a bit rough. You should have a nice package with about three inches of exposed filling in the middle.

5. Brush the pastry with the remainder of the beaten egg and grate a final bit of parmesan over top.

Bake for 35 minutes, until the pastry is browned and the cheddar is melted and bubbling.

Let sit for about five minutes then slice and serve.

Serves six, as part of a light supper with a green salad and steamed broccoli.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. The trouble with cooking at night is the ghastly conditions for taking photos of your brilliant creations.

GROCERY CLUB SUPPER # 2: Roasted Garlic and Almond Soup & Sweet Potato Stir-Fry with Buttered Apples

This Tuesday the Alpine Bakery grocery bag was mostly a selection of the old winter favourites: leeks, garlic, apples, sweet potatoes, Bosc pears that won’t be ready for another few days. Now it’s Thursday night in Whitehorse. The weather has turned steely cold; there’s a strong wind from the south and fine blowing snow, and I’m really glad I don’t have to go anywhere. It’s a perfect night for Roasted Garlic and Almond Soup, some rustic ciabatta and a simple sweet potato and apple get-up.

Years ago when I was reviewing restaurants in Toronto I went to a Spanish place on Avenue Road called La Ina, a restaurant that didn’t last long but that tried hard to do things right. My first meal there started with a roasted garlic and almond soup that was out of this world; it tasted exactly like the smell of roasting nuts. I’ve never had it since, but confronted by big, fat creamy Alpine Bakery garlic cloves, and with a drawer full of organic almonds what was a girl to do? Make the soup!

This potage is super rich, so the lightness of the veg and fruit combo is a nice contrast. And guess what? There was kale in the Alpine bag! So I decided to try kale chips, all the rage a few months ago. They’re great. As good as the beet and yam chips you can find now on the organic shelf at the Super Store. Throw them at the family to buy time while you concoct the soup.  

I must give credit where credit is due: the soup is adapted from Jamie Oliver, the sweet potato from Marc Bittman, and I followed Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for kale chips.

 

Roasted Garlic and Almond Soup

 Extra virgin olive oil

1 leek

3 bulbs garlic (how can you not love a garlic called Italian porcelain?)

1 cup (250 ml) whole almonds, blanched or not (I didn’t blanch them)

4 cups (900 ml) chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup (250 ml) 35 percent cream

2 thick slices ciabatta or other country bread—enough for 2 cups of rough chunks

1 or 2 tsp (5-10ml) balsamic vinegar

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Whack the garlic bulbs with the blade of a knife to loosen, and separate into individual cloves, skin on. Coat with olive oil and spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Spread the almonds on another parchment-lined baking sheet.

 

2) Put both garlic and almonds in the oven. Roast the almonds for 10 minutes and remove. Enjoy how they crackle as they cool down, the best kind of kitchen music. Once they’re cool, grind as fine as you can in a food processor, but don’t make almond butter. 

3) Roast the garlic for 30 minutes in total, or until soft. Remove from oven, let cool, then peel off the skin (Italian porcelain garlic skin peels off easily. Another technique is to squeeze the garlic out of the skin by pinching one end. Fun for the whole family.) Add to the almonds and puree.

4) While almonds and garlic are cooking, slice the leek in circles, white and light green part only, and soak in cold water to loosen any dirt. Drain by lifting the leeks into a strainer. Discard the water, rinse once more, drain and shake dry. Heat 2 tbsp. (30 ml) olive oil in a medium saucepan and sauté leeks over medium heat until they begin to brown.

 

5) Add chicken stock and cream to the leeks and bring to the boil. Watch carefully, it may boil over. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

6) Cut the crusts from the bread (save for bread crumbs), tear into chunks and add to the soup, stirring once or twice.

7) Whisk the almond and garlic puree into the soup. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring now and then.

8) Add balsamic vinegar 1 tsp. (5 ml) at a time, tasting as you go. Don’t overdo it. Add salt and pepper to taste, serve, and prepare yourself for accolades.

Makes about 6 cups (1400 ml), enough for four to six.

Sweet Potato Stir-fry with Buttered Apples

 Extra virgin olive oil

2 large sweet potatoes (we grocery clubbers are using Garnet Yams today)

1 large apple (that’s the Nicola variety, FYI)

butter

1) Peel the sweet potatoes and grate them. Heat about 1 tbsp. (15 ml) each olive oil and butter in a cast-iron frying pan over medium heat. When the butter is sizzling throw in a few strands of grated potato. If it sizzles fast, the pan is ready. Add all the sweet potato at once, turn heat to medium low and cook the potatoes, stirring often, for about 10 minutes.

 

2) Quarter the apple and remove the core. Slice each quarter thinly lengthwise. Melt about 1 tbsp. (15 ml) butter in a cast-iron pan and arrange apples in the pan. Cook on each side for 5 minutes, or until the apples brown and begin to caramelize. Remove from heat.

3) Pile the sweet potato on a platter and arrange the apple slices over top. Drizzle with a thin stream of maple syrup or birch syrup, but not too much. The beauty of this dish is the simple, clean taste.

Serves four to six.

Kale Chips

Kale—I used 6 leaves but heck do the whole bunch, there will be more next week

Olive oil

Kosher salt to taste

 1) Preheat oven to 300 F. Wash the kale and dry in a tea towel. If you’re a grocery clubber using green curly kale, tear the leaves from the stem; it grows in bite-size pieces. Other kinds of kale can be sliced from the rib and then chopped.

 2) Rub kale with enough olive oil to lightly coat the leaves--1 to 2 tbsp. (15-30 ml.) depending how much kale you’re going with. Sprinkle with Kosher salt, but go easy.

3) Spread kale on a couple of baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, pour into a bowl and serve. 

Okay so kale chips might not be pretty but man they are good. Also an excellent substitute for popcorn for those on a spring cleanse. I am now walking with a bowl of kale chips towards the television to watch an episode of...Downton Abbey! Happy Thursday to all. Stay tuned for next week's Grocery Club Supper surprise.

GROCERY CLUB SUPPER # 1: Pork, Pineapple,Yam and Sweet Pepper Skewers

Click to read more ...

The Finished Boreal Christmas Cake: Marzipan & Royal Icing

Updated on Friday, December 30, 2011 at 02:25PM by Boreal Gourmet

Mastering Royal Icing is a lonely journey for the home cook, my friends, but what is cooking if not a journey into the unknown, ending in ridicule or triumph? The end of the story will soon be revealed, when the cakes are opened and eaten. But first...

Click to read more ...