Welcome to “Toronto: Down Under”, a celebration of Australian Cuisine.

Luke Hayes-Alexander will be coming down from Kingston for THREE DAYS ONLY to cook some of the great cuisine he experienced on his two week trip to Australia, where he staged in some of the best restaurants in Sydney. Australian John Placko, one of the most knowledgable and skilled modernist chefs in the Toronto will be there. Rounding out the team will be Matt Kantor, of Secret Pickle, Little Kitchen and Ghost Chef.

It was announced today shortly before 10am and within two hours tickets were 50% gone. Don’t miss your chance! Get more information and buy tickets here. Do it now before they’re gone. They make a great holiday gift for you and your significant other, or for that Aussie-lover in your life (which, if you and/or your significant other are Aussie is the same person).

(Then come back and read around my blog some more. I like when people stay.)

Edit: I forgot to hit “send” on this yesterday and as of about 10:30am Thursday there are fewer than 10 tickets left.

The ice cream idea’s been in my mind since September’s Vegetarian Food Festival, where Lisa Pitman demonstrated a healthier, vegan alternative to Dairy Queen Blizzards using banana “soft serve”. A lot of fruits could serve as the base. At it’s most basic, and the way that Lisa did it: Put frozen bananas in a food processor and let it run until bananas are creamy, like soft serve ice cream. For her demo, Lisa created mix-ins such as her take on mint sandwich cookies, raw “cookie dough”, and raw strawberry “cheesecake”.

I was inspired by banana soft serve, walnuts, maple and spice.

Mine made one portion that I couldn’t finish. I suggest making one and sharing it with a special friend. The contest rules say that the dish should be suitable for holiday gatherings/ winter entertaining. Well, You could always made smaller versions, I suppose, and make more. Use different types of glassware, as long as it’s transparent. I used a beer glass. And it’s always the right season for ice cream. This one is kind of comforting, and it’s got the spice in there. Spice is good for winter.

Raw banana whisky maple walnut ice cream

Ingredients

• 3 frozen bananas
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp Spicebox Canadian Whisky (I considered Jack Daniels Honey, which might also work. Try it and see.)
• 1/2 tsp each cinnamon,
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I make my own extract, you could use almond extract but for contest purposes I was only allowed to use one type of nut).
• Maple California walnuts, reserved (see recipe in previous post)

Directions:

Put it all in a food processor (multipurpose blade) & let machine run until the banana mixture is smooth. Remove blade, fold in maple walnuts. (You can leave them whole, or crumble them in like I did.)

Lisa advised that a Vitamix/Blendec won’t work. If you try it in a Vitamix, use the plunger and add some liquid such a coconut milk. I don’t know Blendtec.

When it’s creamy, if it looks too melted. you might want to put it in the freezer for a little bit to solidify a bit. I had no room in my freezer.

Mostly-raw parfait layers

(Suggestions only. Create your own. Ideas: Crumbled cookies, candied ginger, dried or frozen fruit, cacao nibs. My layers were not all raw.)

Layer 1 (from bottom):

Sliced bananas

Layer 2:

Ice cream

Layer 3:

Jam/fruit preserves

I used cherry peach, made locally by Sausage Partners, acquired at the  preserve tasting party that I attended at the end of September, hosted by Joel and Dana of Well Preserved. Jam is not raw.

Layer 4:
More ice cream

Layer 5:

Maple California walnuts

I added California walnuts because I’d forgotten (until a few days later) that I’d been thinking of using Mum’s Original coconut cacao nibs. It’s another not raw layer.

Layer 6:
More ice cream!

Layer 7:

Pomegranate seeds

The tartness helped balance out the sweetness of the entire thing.

Layer 8:
More ice cream! But now we’re getting near the end.

Layer 9:

Raw, vegan chocolate sauce

(recipe below)

..and..

coconut

Raw vegan chocolate sauce recipe

I think that I read a recipe like this on Meghan Telpner’s website awhile ago, though I felt like completely winging it when I made this one and went on instinct rather than looking at other recipes for guidance. She inspired it.

Mix together:
2 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp agave or maple syrup (I used agave, which I rarely use due to its highly processed nature) because I didn’t want the maple to overpower the chocolate)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp each of cayenne pepper & cinnamon*
(It probably could have used 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of coffee powder to bump the chocolate flavour. I’ll try it with the remaining sauce.)

And that, my friends, is my 9-layer raw banana whisky maple walnut ice cream superfood parfait inspired by two very cool women I know, Lisa and Meghan.

P.S. Dinner was raw too. I spiralized (yes, it’s a word, it means to use a spiralizer) Japanese turnip and celeriac – and, unsuccessfully, apple – added kelp noodles and tossed with the California Walnut pesto that I made earlier this week.

Full photo set:

Chef Pépin has been cooking since he dropped out of school at age 13 to apprentice at a restaurant. In the 63 years since, he’s been chef, author and TV host. One of the original “celebrity chefs”, he was hosting cooking shows and writing cookbooks long before the Food Network. His 1976 book, La Technique (left), is still used in culinary schools. The success of La Technique prompted him to launch a televised version of the book, resulting in an acclaimed 1997 PBS series, The Complete Pépin. Pépin co-starred in award-winning 1999 PBS series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home with Julia Child. Together they won a Daytime Emmy in 2001.

Jacques Pépin has earned a reputation as a champion of simplicity. His recipes are classics. They find the shortest, surest route to flavour, avoiding complicated techniques.

Now: Pépin serves as Dean of Special Programs at the French Culinary Institute, part of the International Culinary Center, in New York City. He is also an active contributor to the Gastronomy department at Boston University. Pépin also writes a quarterly column for Food & Wine magazine.

This is Jacques Pépin’s website.

In his new book, Essential Pépin, Jacques Pépin shares a lifetime of food and techniques. For the first time ever, the legendary chef collects and updates the best recipes from his six-decade career.

Publisher Thomas Allen & Sons is holding a contest for home chefs and bloggers. As a contest participant I was able to choose from three recipes:

• Composed Salad of Greens, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Pecans
• Chicken in Tarragon Sauce
• Chocolate Mousse

See? Simple classics. I made the salad. Of course I made the salad. Salads are what I do and I don’t make meat at home (though I must might also make the mousse before the contest closes on Sunday).

Of the composed salad, Pépin says,

A composed salad consists of greens and any of an almost endless variety of other ingredients, from cooked vegetables to fruits, nuts, poultry, lamb, beef, fish, or shellfish, arranged on a plate or platter, rather than tossed. In this one, I add cheese, apple, and caramelized pecans to tender greens. The combination makes an ideal summer supper or lunch main course or elegant dinner first course

Sounds pretty much like what I do almost daily, except that I usually toss mine rather than “compose”. Another thing I do is modify recipes. Here’s what I changed:

• I had to replace the pecans. I’d thought I had some so I didn’t buy more. I did, however, have almonds, cashews, walnuts (from my California Walnut contest – but they’ve been assigned to another dish), pistachios, and hazelnuts. I chose almonds.
• I don’t think that the apple I used was a Golden Delicious or a russet, as called for in the recipe. I don’t know what kind it was, but it was grown at Everdale Farm (about an hour from here) and I picked it up from the CSA.
• Since I’m on a walnut kick with the California Walnut contest, I used La Tournagelle‘s roasted walnut oil (recipe dictates “1 1/2 tablespoons oil, preferably a mixture of walnut, hazelnut, and/or canola”)
• Instead of sherry vinegar I used coconut vinegar from Upaya Naturals.
• For the salad, Pépin directs, “salad greens, preferably mesclun”. I used Earthbound Farms‘ “Half & Half” spinach & spring mix.
• Also to the salad I added pomegranate seeds and two types of Everdale Farm’s beets, candy stripe and golden, that I’d roasted with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, birch syrup from Forbes Wild Foods, and salt.

My version of the salad wasn’t only simple, but pretty local. I’d have used local greens if they were available but Everdale is down to mustard greens. If this is what it’s like to cook like Pépin, I want an entire collection of Pépin cookbooks. It’s great for a lazy cook such as myself.

I’m already feeling an allergic reaction to something in it (goat cheese? Vinegar? The sugar I used for the caramelized almonds?). I’ve been yeast-free all week. Oh, the things a food writer does for a story and, in this case, a chance to win a KitchenAid Artisan Series Stand Mixer. Every food writer needs one.

I was going to make a California walnut dessert this evening but I was too full. Same thing happened last night. I think that tomorrow I should just have dessert for dinner.

Check out Everything Pépin offered by Amazon. (I want my affiliate code to work for me, darn it. Food blogging doesn’t pay).

Seriously, Pépin could change your life.

Next up: Baked spaghetti squash with California walnut watercress pesto

Spaghetti squash has a high water content and is not as dense in vitamins and minerals as other winter squash, such as acorn or butternut, but does provide 3 percent of the Daily Value for calcium, 5 percent of the DV for Vitamin A, 9 percent of the DV for Vitamin C and 8 percent of the DV for dietary fiber. Spaghetti squash supplies modest amounts of carotenoids, plant substances that the body turns into Vitamin A and that may help protect against some diseases. (Source: Livestrong, which got their information from the USDA).

Squash is abundant this time of year so it seems like a seasonal dish. I baked the squash the day before. It really would be better baked same day and served warm. 1 squash serves 2-4 people, depending on size. (Or in my case, 2-4 meals.) Double the squash if you’d like. The sauce easily makes enough for 4.

Squash

Ingredients

California walnut & watercress pesto

Ingredients

1 small clove garlic , peeled
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup California walnuts, toasted*
2 cups packed fresh watercress leaves (can also use arugula or spinach or any combination)
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese & more for sprinkling on top.
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions
In a food processor or blender,  add about 1/2 of the walnuts, watercress, basil, and olive oil. Blend until paste forms.

Stir in Parmesan and lemon juice.

*Toast nuts in toaster oven or oven at 400°F. Watch carefully because they burn easily.

Makes 1 cup

To put the dish together:

Scrape squash with a fork to remove flesh in long strands. Place in a large bowl. Top with pesto. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts and one tablespoon of cheese.

Leftover pesto should be transferred to an airtight container. It can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

…I have one more walnut recipe to try and 2 more cups of walnuts (1 in shells).

Update: A few days later I put the pesto on Japanese turnip and celeriac “noodles” that I made with my spiralizer along with kelp noodles.

Final recipe here.

A nutrition lesson about walnuts

• Walnuts are rich in anti-inflammatory nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids and ellagic acid. Research has shown that the regular consumption of walnuts appears to improve cardiovascular function following high-fat meals.
• The form of vitamin E found in walnuts has been found to provide significant protection from heart problems.
• Studies suggest that the addition of walnuts to one’s diet may be a useful adjunct in lowering elevated LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
• Walnuts contain antioxidant nutrients, with approximately 90% of the phenols in walnuts found in the skin. Research shows measurable anti-cancer benefits to walnuts. Similarly, research has found measurable anti-cancer benefits.
• Walnut oil is an excellent source of omega-3

 Some of the contest rules:

• All recipes must be original creations.
• Recipes must use at least one cup of California Walnuts, no other nuts can be used.
• California Walnuts must be listed in the ingredient list.

Also: Entries will be judged on originality, creativity, flavour profile, ease of preparation and the use of at least one cup of California Walnuts.  The recipes should be suitable for holiday gatherings/ winter entertaining.

“Why not?” Said I.

“Why not”? Because I’m not much of a cook. I mean, I do like to cook and I’m good at it, but I’m kind of lazy when it comes to cooking for just myself. But, most of my recipes are original. Often they’re based on other people’s recipes but sometimes they’d indistinguishable from the original(s). They’re all easy to make (like I said, I’m lazy). I trust my judgement of flavour profile. I think I’m fairly creative. So, I started brainstorming on paper, with pen. Diagrams. Arrows.

I settled on a few ideas. I’m making them over a course of a few evenings.

The first one, which I made last night, was a salad with maple walnuts. As this is a walnut challenge, I could consider maple walnuts the recipe with salad as one of their uses, but you can’t eat a meal of maple walnuts. You’ll be tempted to, but you can’t.

I’ve been making a version of this for holiday gatherings for years and each time I’ve been asked for the recipe. The original recipe called for cashews. In the past I’ve used toasted pecans. For dried fruit, I’ve used a combination of cranberries & dried cherries in the past. I think that dried currents and Saskatoon berries would work too. It’s the tartness you want. Last year I added pancetta to a version and it worked. If you’re making this for a crowd you might want to do dressing on the side.

Salad with lemon poppy vinaigrette

Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup maple sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I used Kozlik’s regular Dijon this time but considered using the tarragon variety).
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 1/3 cup La Tournagelle roasted walnut oil (handcrated in California )
• anchovy paste to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds

Salad

• Romaine lettuce and spinach (original recipe calls for a head of romaine)
• 4 ounces shredded emmental, blue or old white cheddar cheese*
• 1 cup candied maple California Walnuts (see recipe below)
  
• 1/4 cup or more dried cranberries*
• 1 apple, diced
• 1 pear, diced

*I used emmental this time, sliced, because it was on sale at the supermarket & I didn’t have time to buy cheddar from the farmer yesterday. Had I used cheddar it would have come from Monforte Dairy, bought at a farmers’ market.

Directions:

1. In a blender or food processor or with an immersion blender, combine sugar, lemon juice, shallot, mustard and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running add oil in a slow steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth.* Add poppy seeds and process just a few seconds more to mix.

2. In a large bowl combine the romaine lettuce, shredded Swiss cheese, cashews, dried cranberries, cubed apple and cubed pear. Toss to mix then pour dressing over salad just before serving and toss to coat.

* I used my new food processor, which came with a 3-piece food pusher. Each pusher is a different size and are nested together. Small holes in the bottom of the narrow pusher are for drizzling oil into ingredients. You just fill the pusher with the amount of oil needed. It worked, unlike the egg whip attachment which does not whip egg whites into a useable form as promised.

Maple walnuts

1 cup California Walnuts
2 tbsp maple syrup (I use Forbes Wild Foods #3 dark).
1 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment. Combine walnuts, maple syrup & spice in medium bowl. Spread out nuts on sheet. Bake until brown and dry, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Cool. Coarsely chop nuts if you want, crumble them into  salad with your hands, or leave whole.
Store airtight at room temperature.

I didn’t get a good photo of the end result. Instead, I offer you photos of the lovely package of California walnuts, cutting board, pot holder and nut cracker that I got, as well as the salad-making in progress.

Up next: Tonight’s meal of spaghetti squash with watercress California walnut pesto.

Another recipe post!

Awhile ago I bought a couple of mackerel fillets from Hooked. You should eat this fish, and here’s why:

Mackerel contains high amounts of essential fatty acids, especially EPA and DHA, so it’s good for your brain, skin, heart and more. The brain is 60 percent fat (I often tell people that the brain is mostly fat and that people need fat to properly function) and DHA, an Omega-3 essential fatty acid, is the most abundant fat in your brain. Low levels of DHA  have been linked to an increase in dementia, mood changes, memory loss, attention deficit disorder and visual problems. Personally, my ADHD symptoms decrease significantly when I’ve been frequently eating fish. Food as medicine.

According to this article at Livestrong, mackerel contains high amounts of vitamin D, niacin, vitamin B12, vitamin B6 and riboflavin. Vitamin D is important for bone and teeth health while the B vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12) aid in energy metabolism.

Mackerel is also high in the minerals magnesium, phosphorus and selenium. Magnesium is used in various chemical reactions in the body, phosphorus plays a role in cell metabolism and selenium helps with enzyme functions. Being fish, it’s high in protein.

Get Hooked

So, I bought these fillets and stuck them in the freezer.  Things seem to get lost in there (just me?).  Eventually I have to pull stuff out and use it, right? So, I defrosted them and then had to decide what to do next. The previous time I bought mackerel from Hooked I took their advice and pan fried it. This time I wanted something different. To Google I went! (Really, first to Twitter, then to a friend I saw on Facebook. No one responded on Twitter and my friend only had “holy mackerel” to say.)

“Roasted Mackerel and Avocado Salad” from Epicurious sounded good, with modifications of course. I’m not good at following rules or recipes.

Here’s what I came up with. I don’t know the quantity of greens that I used because I wasn’t using radicchio as recommended, nor do I own a kitchen scale or know what 10 ounces looks like.

Image by alex.coles via Flickr

Roasted Mackerel and Avocado Salad

Adapted from Epicurious. (Original recipe.)

Yield: It made enough for two meals on one filet, and I have one filet left over.

Ingredients

• 2 mackerel fillets with skin, halved (I don’t know how much they weigh, but they looked like regular sized fish, not something you buy in a can.)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup avocado oil (original recipe calls for only olive oil)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used Kozlik’s maple mustard.)
• Bitter greens. I used the mustard greens that I’d picked up the day before, fresh from the farm. I estimate that I used 3 cups but base it on the amount of salad you want to make.
• ( I also used sunflower sprouts from the CSA and minutina from Vicky’s Veggies at the farmers’ market.)
• 1 medium avocado, thinly sliced

Instructions (these I followed)

• Preheat broiler.
• Make several diagonal slashes (1/8 inch deep) in mackerel skin about 1 inch apart. Coat both sides of mackerel with 2 tablespoons oil, then season with 3/4 teaspoon salt (total).
• Broil mackerel, skin side up, in a 4-sided sheet pan about 4 inches from heat until just cooked through and skin is crisp in spots, about 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile, whisk together remaining 1/3 cup oil, lemon juice, mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons vinaigrette, then toss greens with remaining vinaigrette.
• Serve salad topped with avocado and mackerel and drizzled with reserved vinaigrette.

Enjoy!

Eat well, be well.

If you’re like me and don’t think about making dinner until you’re hungry, or if you’re more an instant gratification person, or if you don’t like the idea of waiting 40 minutes for part of your meal to prep, roast the squash in advance. That’s what I did.  The challenge is not eating all of the squash before you use it for the mac ‘n’ cheese. I was going to make it on Sunday but a) ended up eating dinner at Fresh because I was already out and b) When I arrived home later, intending to make it anyway so I’d have it for lunch the next day, I found that my coconut milk had gone bad. Over dinner on Sunday I told some vegetarian friends about it and they asked for the recipe. I hadn’t even made it yet but emailed them the Oh She Glows link (Miriam and Risa, this is, in part, for you).

I don’t actually like nutritional yeast. I think it smells like feet and I don’t believe anyone who says it tastes like cheese. To me, savoury + salty = cheese flavour. To me nutritional yeast tastes, well, like feet smell. I also learned last spring that I’m sensitive to yeast (I’ve had a blog post in my “drafts” for months about my food sensitivity testing), and I did get a reaction from this. Bumps, like an invisible rash, near my mouth. I shouldn’t eat it. But, I liked the taste of this dish even though it didn’t taste like cheese.

I encourage you to go over to read the back story and original recipe. I’ve changed little. Once again, I forgot to take photos while cooking. Maybe if this was exclusively a recipe blog I’d remember.

Image by Fimb via Flickr

Butternut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze

Yield: The original recipe says 4 servings or 1.5 cups of cheeze sauce.
Like clothing sizes, I find serving sizes to be somewhat arbitrary, though helpful. I got 3 servings: 1 dinner, 2 lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh butternut squash
• Extra virgin olive oil, S & P
• 1 tbsp coconut oil. (The original recipes uses Earth Balance but I prefer to go natural.)
• 3/4 cup So Delicious coconut milk (original flavour/unflavoured) or other milk alternative.
• 1 tbsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• 6 tbsp nutritional yeast, or more to taste
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard (I always use Kozlik’s, and this time I used the tarragon variety)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
•  1/2-3/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) & ground black pepper, to taste (I omitted the pepper)
• 4 servings brown rice macaroni (8oz or half a 16oz package) makes 3 1/4 cup cooked
• Mix-ins of choice (Angela’s examples: kale, spinach, broccoli, peas, pumpkin seeds, etc.)

1. [Can be done in advance] Preheat oven to 425F. Line a casserole dish with tin foil. Mix chopped squash with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for about 40 minutes, uncovered, or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the “cheese” sauce in a pot on the stove top. Add coconut oil over low-medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together milk and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch or flour) until clumps are gone. Add into pot and whisk. Stir in remaining ingredients (nutritional yeast, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper) and whisk over low heat until thickened (about 5-7 minutes or so).
3. Cook your pasta according to package directions. The sauce makes enough to cover 4 servings of pasta.
4. In a blender, blend the sauce with 1 cup of roasted squash.
5. Add cooked, drained, and rinsed macaroni into pot, along with cheese sauce & mix-ins. Heat and serve.

…Now I know that it might seem odd to “de-veganize” a vegan dish, but I imagine that a certain smokey pig product would be tasty in this. Or, if you want the taste of it without the meat, a few drops of liquid smoke.

…In two of my servings I added smoked turkey, leftover from Thanksgiving dinner and made by my friend who smoked an entire turkey. He vacuum sealed some for me. I also used tomatoes. I added my mix-ins into individual servings.

…Try adding curry, turmeric, cinnamon and similar.

…Everything tastes better with Rossy’s hot sauce. Update: Her hot sauce is now being sold at Pimenton on Mt. Pleasant in Toronto. This is exciting news!

Enjoy.

The 20 week season is over. I made it to 18 pick ups. The good news is that we’re extending into a mini-season with bi-weekly pickups. That gives me two more months. I might join another one in the winter. I hear that Kawartha Ecological Growers does year-round and they deliver to Appletree Market and U of T. And hey, I’ve got my year-round farmers’ market (Wychwood Barns), at which my farm has a table.

The farm’s “veggie of the week” is mustard greens, which isn’t exactly one vegetable but a combination of varieties of leafy greens in the mustard family. In this case it’s mizuna, Red Rain, Green Wave, and Red Giant. Here’s what our farmer said about the mustard greens:

This is the first year I’ve grown them, and I am totally impressed. They all have a mild flavour (not too spicy) and can be eaten raw or cooked … except Green Wave, which is quite hot until you cook it slightly, then it mellows. They’re beautiful and they’re perfect greens for this time of year. Soon the hard frosts will wipe them out.

The only information I could find about Green Wave were seed sales and blog posts about CSAs. Since I was on newsletter duty this week and this gives me an excuse to exercise and share my nutritional nerdiness, I learned that mustard greens are detoxifying, can help prevent cancer, they’re an excellent source of antioxidants, they have anti-inflammatory benefits and support the cardiovascular system.

Mustard greens are an excellent source of many vitamins including vitamin K, vitamin A (beta-carotene), vitamin C, folate, and vitamin E. They are also an excellent source of manganese and calcium as well as dietary fiber. They are also a very good source of potassium, vitamin B6, protein, copper, phosphorus, iron, vitamin B2, and magnesium. Mustard greens are a good source of vitamin B1 and vitamin B3 (niacin).

Serving Ideas

• Young mustard greens make great additions to salads.
• Serve healthy sautéed mustard greens with walnuts.
• Adding chopped mustard greens to a pasta salad gives it a little kick.

I included this recipe for sauteed mustard greens from Simply Recipes but was also interested in this recipe for Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas and Mustard Greens.

Here’s what else I chose this week after missing last week:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Spaghetti squash (I now have 4 kinds of squash, all acquired separately, though I could have also gotten acorn squash and others today.)
• garlic
• Sunflower greens
• cilantro

I need regular salad greens. If the farmers’ market can’t provide, it’ll be Earthbound Farms, my off-season choice.

Here’s my squash collection, by the window in my living room.

Now to decide whether or not I want to stay with the 8-point small share or upgrade to a 12-point medium share if I’m doing half the pickups in the fall than in the summer…

Eat well, be well.

What’s interesting is that it was written in 1962. I was informed about the book Stalking the Wild Asparagus and its author Euell Gibbons this past summer when I sat in on a lesson that Forbes Wild Foods founder Jonathan Forbes gave one of his farmers’ market employees. I took notes and afterwards looked up Gibbons and his books (also see Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop, published in 1964, and Stalking the Healthful Herbs, published in 1966). Shortly after I placed the book on hold at the Toronto Public Library. There were many holds on the book, which meant that it could take months for me to receive it.

This past Monday night I attended the weekly 86′d at the Drake Hotel. I’ll do a more detailed post about it later in the week, but Hank Shaw was there promoting his current book Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast published last spring. As I flipped through the book I was reminded of Stalking the Wild Asparagus. I bought a copy of Hunt, Gather, Cook and remembered that I was still waiting for a copy of Asparagus to become available. As I was doing the final edits on this post I checked Shaw’s book to see if it references Gibbons. I found what I was looking for. Asparagus and Scallop are listed in the “Further reading” section at the back. I intended to mention Asparagus to Hank but it never happened.

When I checked my email later Monday night there was a message from the Toronto Public Library telling me that one of my held items was available but that due to technical difficulties it couldn’t tell me which book.

The next day I visited the library and found Stalking the Wild Asparagus waiting for me. Great timing. I appreciate the synchronicity.

I feel that if I were a high school or university student I could be assigned an essay comparing and contrasting the two books (why do teachers like “compare and contrast” essays?). I will write something up about both. I hadn’t intended to write anything about Asparagus until I’d finished it but when I read the opening paragraph and saw how relevant it was to today, and when it occurred to me that I will find relevant passages throughout the book’s 295 pages, I realized that I need to blog snippets here and there.

The photo above comes from page 5. The book opens (after acknowledgements and table of contents) with the following:

WHY bother with wild food plants in a country which produces a surplus of many domestic food products? With as much reason, one may ask, why go fishing for mountain trout when codfish fillets are for sale in any supermarket? Or why bother with hunting and game cookery when unlimited quantities of fine meat an be purchased as every butcher counter?

The reason I didn’t use that passage as the photo above is that I was afraid that the word “cookery” might give away the book’s age. Do people still use the word “cookery”? It sounds very M.F.K. Fisher to me. Her first book was published in 1937.

And so, I hope you enjoy reading along with me. I won’t share the entire book – that you’ll have to read – but I hope that what I do share gives you something to think about.

I just may compare and contrast Stalking the Wild Asparagus with Hunt, Gather, Cook.

Image via Wikipedia

National Organic Week is almost here.

National Organic Week is dedicated to creating awareness and promoting sustainable and healthy living. It’s Canada-wide, organized by Canadian Organic Growers and the Canada Organic Trade Association.

List of National Organic Week events.

Enter the Organic Breakfast Challenge, win a gift basket.

To celebrate the upcoming Organic Week, I’m sharing the recipe for a soup that I made recently after buying okra for soup from a farmer. The recipe comes from a blog called Coffee and Cornbread. The tomatoes I used came from Shana’s garden. She gave them to me green and I’ve watched them change to yellow, to orange and to red. I’d give a shout out to the farm but I don’t remember what they’re called.

Tomato Okra Soup

Serves 3-4

6-8 okra pod sliced
4 large ripe tomato diced
1 medium onion chopped
1 clove garlic diced
3 – 4 cups chicken broth
dash of red pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
chives for garnish

Just place all ingredients but chives in a stock pot.
Bring to boil and then simmer until Okra is tender, about 20 minutes.
Garnish with chives.

Here’s the original, if you want to bump her visitor stats.

My only changes (from what I remember): I used vegetable broth instead of chicken, and a whole hot pepper. The woman who sold me okra at the farmers’ market also had hot peppers (I forget the variety) and tossed a few in the bag for free because I didn’t have use for a full quantity. One small red pepper packed a lot of heat. I didn’t use any chives.

• See what else I’ve written about okra in the past. (Or search “okra” on my blog)
• Read Meghan’s now-famous post about okra. I think that she once said that it was in her top popular posts, though maybe I’m making that up because it’s past my bedtime and I’m finishing a blog post that I thought was ready to go this morning.

Don’t forget about Foodstock this Sunday!

Eat well, be well