Harvest Time And A Bonus Recipe!!!

I'm back in Edmonton, now, and I'm finally starting to accept summer's end and the coming of fall and winter in the far, far North. This may not be Iqaluit but it's as far North as I ever go. My return to Edmonton brought a return to gardening in the Campus Community Garden, which is of course coming rapidly to an end for the season. (There's a frost warning tonight that should spell the end.) Perhaps because I know it's about to end, I've really been enjoying the last of the garden's bounty. In the last week or so, I've enjoyed cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and herbs from the garden. I've also participated in a massive planting that will turn into a virtual garlic farm next summer.

The summer squash and cucumbers are gone now and I will miss those sweet, fresh veggies. I don't know why, but I really like summer squash.

Swiss chard was something I tried for the first time from the garden last summer. I really enjoy the unique flavour and the virtuous knowledge that I'm eating dark, leafy greens. Last Saturday, a large crop of chard remained to be picked on the garden's farm plot. I couldn't bear to leave it there, so I took a couple of big bags home, mostly for freezing as fellow gardeners suggested. I'm not sure how that worked out, but I blanched and froze 4 good-sized packets of chard that I plan to make veggie lasagna and soup with. I also enjoyed some of the chard fresh, sauteed into a veggie mixture to top my favourite smoked chicken tortelloni from Safeway. It actually looks pretty good:

It was good, as I really like my stuffed pastas. The green flavour of the chard went well with the acidity and sweetness of garden fresh tomato and the freshness basil (from the garden of course), onion, and garlic.

Alas, we've torn up all the basil and tomatoes in an effort to avoid losing it to frost. I took a number of green tomatoes home when we ripped out the tomatoes on Saturday that looked like this:

Despite my best efforts to ripen them in my apartment, which is rather lacking in sunlight, only some of these tomatoes have ripened. The ones that have ripened have displayed the dramatic variety of what a tomato can be. With the focus on heirloom varieties in our tomato patch, I've gotten to try some rather unique specimens. The ripe colours range from reddish brown to "tomato" red to yellow. I suppose my taste buds are poorly developed because they all taste like good, sweet, slightly acidic tomatoes to me. Maybe yellow is a little more acidic than red, but I couldn't be sure. The shapes of the tomatoes range from round cherries to long "sausage" tomatoes. Even the tomato skin texture varies with one variety having not the usually smooth skin but peach-like slightly fuzzy skin.

I wanted to share my modest bounty of heirloom tomatoes with my sister, so when we cooked together today, I had her prepare this plate of tomato slices with basil and black pepper as a "salad." She was surprised that all the fruits I gave her to slice were tomatoes and even slightly afraid of the brownish one that I think she found tastiest. Here's a picture of her tomato arranging handy-work:

I think it looks awesome, Leslie has lots of patience for making things look good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to explore heirloom and unusual varieties and just vegetables I wasn't raised eating through the garden. I've met some interesting people and some real food people there too.

Even the carrots at the garden were unusual since we grew some red carrots. I cut into one fat red carrot and was surprised to find its yellow flesh:

The red carrot joined fingerling potatoes from the garden, garlic, mushrooms, and parsnip in a roasted root vegetable side to steak. It was very tasty, so I'm going to share my method.

Root Vegetable Roast

Ingredients

1 large button mushroom cut in quarters

1 medium carrot cut in large chunks

1 small parsnip cut in large chunks

4 fingerling potatoes, larger ones halved (or chunks of ordinary potatoes)

1 large garlic clove, cut in half

a few sprigs of fresh thyme, some with leaves removed, some whole

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Method

Toss the vegetables and garlic with some olive oil and thyme in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put in an oven safe dish. Here's mine:

Roast uncovered for 50-60 minutes at 400 F, stirring once, until tender. It will serve one with a small steak and look like this:

Obviously, you could make more if you are lucky enough to have an eating companion.

It's delicious because the oven caramelizes the outsides of the vegetables while on the inside the carrots remain crisp while the potatoes get soft, creamy, and starchy inside. Those fingerling potatoes were delicious, too bad I have none left. And the garlic, oooh that soft, mild roasted garlic. It is so good.

Winter is coming, so appreciate the harvest while you can. Although you might have a lot more time than I do in the frigid North.

Dad Isn't Afraid of Yeast: Making Pizza

In my last post I conquered my fear of separating eggs and whipping egg whites. I still haven't started making food requiring yeast. My dad on the other hand uses yeast enough to have a brand preference so strong that he'll make a separate visit to a different supermarket just to get some of the right brand. But hey, that's okay with me if buying yeast means he will make one of my favourite foods. . . PIZZA!!!!

I think I request pizza pretty much every time I'm at home now, but really who doesn't want pizza? He made extremely loaded pizza for Christmas Eve. That was pretty traditional pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. But this time, he was up for an experiment in the form of an attempt to recreate a Murrieta's flatbread he had once in Canmore at home. Needless to say he was impressed by the restaurant's creation. I believe it must have been the "Chorizo" with sun dried tomatoes, roasted mushrooms, black olives, and goat cheese. Incidentally, he must have forgotten about the mushrooms since he didn't suggest including any. But, what do you expect from a guy who persists in calling chorizo "chorozo"? Anyways, mushrooms or none, my dad makes a mean pizza and the experiment was a success.

I was semi-involved in the process so I'll tell you more or less how it went down:

My dad prepared a sauce of fresh Roma tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. He put it in the fridge until we were ready for the pizza making. He also cooked up some Spolumbo's chorizo sausages and sliced them and let them brown nicely. I think these were also chilled until the main event.

Next, came the magic I know not as he made a whole wheat pizza dough crust. This was actually the first time I had his pizza in it's new whole wheat form and it was a winner with more flavour than a white crust. I also know that the crust utilized the fine buckwheat honey we bought at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto in place of sugar. The honey flavour was too subtle for me to notice despite using the "Guinness of honeys," buckwheat honey.

The oven was preheated to 450 F with a ceramic pizza stone inside while the pizzas were prepared. The tomato sauce was spread over the dough, which was shaped by hand. Next the topping were arranged on top including sausage slices, strips of sun dried tomato, and pieces of kalamata olive. Finally, large crumbles of soft goat cheese were added. We to reconstitute the sun dried tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes and pit the olives. To pit the olives my dad smashed them with the side of a knife like you would with garlic. It really makes the pits easier to remove.

This is the pizza before baking on a sheet metal pizza paddle with cornmeal for easy transfer to the stone in the oven:
And this is the delectable pizza after baking. . . a little longer than my dad wanted to 'cause I like a crisp crust:
It was really good and different from the usual pizza. There was much less cheese but the cheese that was on the pizza was creamy, tangy, perfect goat cheese. The crust was crisp and tasty with it's light smearing of fresh tomato sauce. The toppings: olives, sun dried tomatoes, and chorizo were all very flavourful. Needless to say, I did my part in eating the pizza. My dad was disappointed with the minimal leftovers with me home and eating pizza.

For the record, my mom also makes great food. I couldn't get enough of her Caesar salad the night before we returned to Edmonton.

Mowing Down on the Sunday Chow

From the title you might think that the Sunday chow is some slow-cooked home style feast like pot roast or Sunday gravy. But really it's just some tasty stuff I had today that I want to share with you, my readers. (Do I have readers?)

Anyways, first up is a simple, easy and tasty sandwich that I made myself for lunch.

It's a super-tasty grilled cheese with Havarti, tomato, and basil. I made it by grilling a sandwich of cheese, tomato, and basil and mustard in a pan with a little olive oil. I adore the crunchy bread, gooey cheese and moist tomatoes. It was excellent from start to finish. There are few things as easy and tasty as a good grilled cheese.

I got my dinner at the Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival in Churchill Square after an appetite-building afternoon of shopping. The festival had lots of Caribbean flavour in the entertainment. I heard steel drums, saw dancers, and heard other festive music as well. But, the main thing on my mind was getting some food 'cause I was hungry. There was a bit of a mish-mash of food on offer from Italian sausage to ginger beef to enchiladas. But, I only had eyes for the Caribbean food because isn't that what the festival is all about.

I lined up at the tent set up by the Sit and Chat Caribbean Restaurant. I wanted to get the oxtail but it was not available (at least for me). So, I went with the choice of the Caribbean guy in front of me in line and went with the colossal curried goat roti for $10. Here it is in its entirety:

I was also a bit thirsty and curious what an authentic Jamaican ginger beer would taste like, so I got one for $3:

First, what's in a roti? What is a roti? I'd say it's like a Caribbean burrito with a flaky wrapper and a filling of curried potato, chickpea, and goat. Here are the insides because you know you wanted to see them:This was a rib sticking tasty concoction. The potatoes and chickpeas offered up their tender starchy goodness and the goat was flavourful and on the bone. I ate it mainly with a fork. I don't see how you could really pick it up without it falling apart. Especially since you have to gnaw meat off the bone, an activity that I increasingly enjoy. The curry flavour was tasty but not overly spicy. Overall, I enjoyed eating my roti while soaking up the sights and sounds of the festival.

The ginger beer was much sweeter than I would have thought with over 40 grams of sugar in 300mL. But I drank it all because of the intriguing strength of the ginger flavour that was sort of in the background. So, those are the highlights of my tasty Sunday chow.

My Zucchini Carpaccio

Before I get to the carpaccio utilizing zucchini from the garden, I bring you a freak from the garden. A Siamese-twin type green bean. I found this one and somebody else found another. Take a gander: Now, the carpaccio:
I was inspired by the recipe for Zucchini Carpaccio with Raspberry Vinegar in the Chocolate and Zucchini Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier. But, I think I strayed far enough with the basic concept to call it my own. To her, I owe the idea of arranging thin slices of zucchini, sprinkling them with an herb, salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar and cheese.

The addition of sliced tomato was entirely my own. While her recipe calls for thyme and I could have gotten some, I was using tomato so why not put basil on it. I think it worked. Tomato, basil, and zucchini are all summertime flavours. They should work together and to my mind they did.

The original recipe calls for raspberry vinegar, but I wasn't about to buy some (and it really wouldn't go so well with tomato). So, I subbed in some red wine vinegar and it tasted good to me. The Amateur Gourmet made the recipe truer to Clotilde's vision with balsamic vinegar and liked it, actually she recommends balsamic as a variation in the book. (Looking at his photo, I'd say my knife skills were better than his. Those are some thick slices. Too bad I'm not such a good writer.)

As for the cheese I sprinkled on top, it's Parmesan, nice and Italian to go with tomatoes and basil. Clotilde recommends the use of Parmesan in variations on this dish. So, I guess I didn't stray too far. Basically, you layer up the ingredients, put on the oil and vinegar dressing, and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Then, you cover it with plastic and let it stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. This is what you get:

What you're probably wondering about is how it is to eat raw zucchini. It's important to use fairly small and very fresh zucchini, mine was cut that day. It's crispy and slightly sweet, really enjoyable and totally different from cooked. I love the idea of eating things in an unconventional state, like raw zucchini or perhaps conversely cooked cucumber.

So, if you're confronted with a glut of zucchini right now as many gardeners are, consider cutting some young and tender ones and experiencing them raw. As a bonus, you don't have to turn on the stove on a hot day to make this. I made it on a very hot day and appreciated the dish's coolness.

Weekend With the Sister

Fully one week ago I played host to my sister for a weekend. It was lots of fun and we ate some good stuff, so I'm going to tell you about it.


On Friday night my sister and I had dinner at Dadeo and commenced a drinking tour de Hudson's. I wasn't blown away by my seafood jambalaya at dinner. I guess it was just too much rice and not enough other stuff or. . . intense flavour. Leslie really enjoyed the pulled pork po'boy and sweet potato fries, but I had that the week before.


At first we thought we might drink at Julio's Barrio 'cause Leslie was interested in margaritas. . . of the fishbowl variety. But there would have been a wait. So we headed to the Hudsons Canadian Taphouse on Whyte. I had a pint of Rickard's White. It was a bit fruitier and less bitter than I usually have my beer. It was also strangely opaque. I think it seemed summery. It didn't come with an orange wedge like the server said it would though. Later at another Hudsons location, I had a pint of Big Rock Grasshopper. I came with a lemon wedge and tasted more like I'm used to my beer tasting. A little more bitter and less sweet but still light for summer. Anyways. . . two pints was a lot for me.


The next day the main food action was the Taste of Edmonton Festival. My sister and I met up with my friends Ryan and Joel for an afternoon of eating from the tents set up in Churchill Square. Leslie and I split a sheet of 30 food tickets for $30, although I used more of them than she did. Here's a rundown of what I remember eating myself or other people eating:

-Fairmont Hotel Macdonald's Mac Scones w/Saskatoon Berry Compote (4 tickets): My sister got this for dessert, but it was huge and we all dug in. The scone was soft and buttery with a load of whipped cream and tasty saskatoon berry sauce. It was an excellent selection.

-Firestone's Butter Chicken w/ rice (5 tickets): My sister had this but I got a taste. It tasted good with tender chicken in a rich, spiced Indian sauce. She freaked out at the richness of this although she loved every bit.

-Firestone's Fresh Fruit Kabobs w/Chocolate Dip (3 tickets): I was full and looking to use up 3 remaining tickets on a light dessert. The fruit wasn't very good, mainly cantaloupe that hardly goes with chocolate and on token strawberry. The chocolate sauce had a sort of grainy texture and my sister said she tasted wine and did not like it. I should have gotten something else.

-Hoang Long Restaurant's Beef Lemongrass Skewer (4 tickets): Ryan and I got these skewers fresh and hot off the grill. They were hot, juicy and had a tasty, spicy marinade. They were not to be missed and possibly the best thing I ate.


-Hong Kong Bakery's Green Onion Cakes Chocolate Passion Fantasy: I didn't try either of these, but I think Ryan put raspberry sauce on Joel's green onion cake. The sauce was for the chocolate dessert. It was kind of funny. I don't like green onion cakes myself, they're too greasy.

-Hudson’s Canadian Taphouse's Alberta Beef Mini Cheddar Burger (3 tickets): I had to try this after observing a delicious looking but enormous burger at Hudsons the night before. The burger was good with crisp lettuce, ripe tomato, real cheddar cheese, and a tasty beef patty. The cheese however was completely unmelted, which I guess is okay. The bun was cold but tasty. Perhaps there was a touch too much bun, though. Overall it was good and satisfied my (mini)-burger craving.

-Korean Village's Vegetable Tempura: Ryan seemed to enjoy it.

-Old Spaghetti Factory's Cajun Chicken Alfredo: I think Ryan and Joel found this boring and perhaps bland.

-That's Aroma's Garlic Chicken Satay: Ryan and Joel had this. I think the sauce was garlic and peanut flavoured. It looked like lots of sauce.

-That's Aroma 's Garlic Tomato Salad (3 tickets): This was like very garlicky bruschetta tomato mixture on iceberg lettuce. There was so much garlic, which tastes so good. Plus, it was well suited to the heat of the day.

-The Creperie's Beef Tenderloin w/ Peppercorn Chocolate Sauce (5 tickets): I quite liked this although the filling for the crepe could have been warmer. The sauce contained pink peppercorns, which had a milder and delicious pepper flavour. It was quite good although Ryan couldn't get past the idea there was chocolate in it. I found the chocolate virtually undetectable, though. It was like a good pepper sauce.

The Taste of Edmonton Festival was and interesting and tasty afternoon. It's a little hit or miss and not ideal conditions for serving food, but it's fun. Next weekend I look forward to the food tents of Heritage Festival in Hawrelack Park.

On Sunday morning, I made french toast served with real maple syrup and blueberries, which we all enjoyed. Around noon we went to Leva for gelato. I had a tasty Chocolate Banana Nut single. It mainly tasted of chocolate and nut, though. The banana didn't cut though, but it was really good. Leslie raved about her peanut butter cookie gelato and her boyfriend enjoyed an unusual double of mint gelato and pina colada sorbet. He seemed to like the combo, though.

My sister and I had an excellent lunch on Sunday at Flavours Modern Bistro on Whyte Ave. The lunch menu is quite reasonably priced with salads, sandwiches, and other dishes from $8-14. The setting was classy and we got a two-top with comfy high backed chairs. We each ordered a sandwich and traded halves. I got the smoked salmon bagel while she ordered the smoked turkey baguette.

We both got the creamy tomato and herb soup for a side. It was heavenly and super-tasty. There was lots of tomato flavour. I hadn't had soup in a while and this was a very good, obviously house-made one.

The smoked salmon bagel was a multi-grain bagel with cream cheese, baby greens, smoked salmon, raw onions, and enormous capers. I had never seen capers so big before and enjoyed them. I was impressed with the generous serving of smoked salmon, but Leslie thought it was too much. That's crazy though, right? The smoked turkey baguette had tomato, tasty roasted bell pepper, and a generous pile of tasty turkey on a good baguette bread. Flavours Modern Bistro provided a delicious lunch for two for about $20 before tip. The food quality and surroundings were excellent. I know I'll be back.

Ratatouille: Au Four and the Movie

Ladies and gentlemen, I have become obsessed with Ratatouille. I decided to host a small dinner party on Saturday with hopes of going to see Ratatouille after because I heard it was a good food movie. The dinner party part went off fine and I had five friends over for a meal that I will probably describe over several posts. The revelatory dish that I made was incidentally ratatouille. It's the dish I felt was "must make" to fit my theme, not to mention I was curious about it. Here's my ratatouille from that night:

Actually, that's leftover ratatouille because I forgot to take any photos that night. It's freaking good leftover anyways. I used Clotilde Dusoulier's recipe for Ratatouille Au Four in the "Chocolate and Zucchini" book, because well I wanted to use her recipe since it worked so well for her. There's a recipe here on her blog, but it's not quite like the book one. The recipe in the book is. . . larger, even as I made it with only 5 or 6 tomatoes and two zucchini. Actually, it's really large and i couldn't fit it in my largest mixing bowl to mix or in a single baking dish. It's a variation on traditional ratatouille because it's oven roasted.

I didn't get a lot of browning on the vegetables for the dinner party, but the results were. . . amazing. I absolutely loved it and my guests enjoyed it too. It produced plenty of sweet, intensely flavoured veggie juices. The onion became very sweet, the yellow and red bell pepper strips were really sweet and tasty as well. I liked the tomato, zucchini and eggplant pieces as well. There were fabulous contrasts in texture and flavour in the large vegetable chunks. They retained a lot of character of the individual vegetables while being enhanced by the "sauce" of veggie juices, herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I suppose it could have been better if I used fresh rather than dried thyme. I highly recommend this recipe, though. It's tasty and easy.

Unfortunately seeing Ratatouille didn't' work out in conjunction with the dinner since dinner went to long and some people had to leave early. But, I did have a special "chef experience." I got a minor burn extracting the ratatouille from my oven. I know you want to see it:

You mean you didn't want to see that? Well, it's my blog and I feel I have a public responsibility to warn people not to touch the inside of a hot oven's door like I did.

After my dinner party was over I still wanted to see Ratatouille. So, I went downtown on Sunday afternoon and watched it by myself like the pathetic, obsessed person I am. I really liked the movie, but not the loud children in the theatre. It's really unlike other children's movies. The plot is not really predictable and. . . I'm not a movie reviewer. It's a good movie to see if you like food and are fascinated by restaurant kitchens.

Looking at what what in my fridge in the aftermath of the dinner party, I was excited to find most of the ingredients for another ratatouille au four. I had a remaining zucchini, a tomato (not in the fridge of course), a green bell pepper, rosemary, onions, and garlic. Yesterday I bought a small eggplant and a second large tomato. Today I cut a medium to large zucchini from the garden. I combined all these ingredients into another, smaller ratatouille. This one was not quite so juicy. Perhaps this is due to there being fewer tomatoes or a bit less olive oil. The eggplant browned quite nicely, though. The batch was still enormous, requiring two baking dishes. Using green peppers made it perhaps slightly less colourful and sweet than with red and yellow peppers, but the green pepper adds a savoury complexity that the other peppers lack.

Anyways, here's a pick of my second batch of ratatouille this week:

You know it must be good if I made it that quickly again.