Salad with Grapefruit Dressing

I have a huge bag of pink grapefruits from Costco so I am using some of them to make dressing for salads.  It's so easy and delicious.   Did you know pink grapefruits have more nutrients that yellow? 

Grapefruit Dressing

Ingredients:
1 Pink grapefruit
Dijon mustard (prepared)
Freshly ground pepper
Mixed greens
Fresh basil
1 - 4 close fresh garlic (optional)
Olive oil

Instructions:
Squeeze the juice out of the grapefruit into a pint jar using a wooden reamer.  Don't worry about chunks in the juice.
Add 2-3 large Tbsps mustard to the jar.  Taste to check the balance.
Grind some pepper in.
Grate in 1 - 4 cloves garlic
Whisk the ingredients with a mini whisk.  Then put the top on the jar and shake well.
Put greens into a large bowl.
Add lots of fresh basil if you have it.
Pour over about 1/4 cup of the dressing.
Pour on olive oil
Toss the salad.

The dressing keeps in the frig for about 3 days worth of salads. 

Beef Stew for Beginners

When I first left home, I tried to make beef stew but couldn't remember how my mother made it.   It turned out just awful.  I think I used stewing beef and I didn't brown it.  I tried to make a gravy by adding flour, which didn't work either.   So here's the basic no-fail beef stew --- I make it often because it's always delicious and very easy if you have an onion and a few potatoes and carrots.   This is my mother's method -- no flour, just lovely broth.   This is a very basic stew --- just to show you how easy it is to make a delicious meal in minutes without any fancy spices or opening a can.  

There are numerous variations to stew -- with different vegetables, flavourings and spices.   You can also use pork or chicken or sausage.   No need to use a crock pot to make a stew.

Beef Stew
Ingredients:
1 large onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 to 1 pound of sirloin steak, with as much fat as possible for juiciness and flavour
2 carrots
2 large potatoes
1/2 small turnip or 1 parsnip (optional)
Sea or kosher salt
Pepper

Instructions:
Heat a flying pan or Dutch oven on medium heat.
Meanwhile, chop the onion.
When the rim is hot to the touch (about 2 minute), add 1 tablespoon of oil and heat (about 30 seconds).  Turn the pan to coat the bottom and sides with oil.
Add the onion and saute, tossing frequently with a wooden spoon or tongs.  
Meanwhile, slice the steak.  I usually make the pieces about 1 inch by 2 inches by a generous 1/4 inch thick.
When onions are partly soft, remove them to a bowl.  
Add another tablespoon of oil and heat for 30 seconds.   The pan and oil are hot enough if the oil sizzles when you add a piece of food.
Add the steak about 6 or 8 pieces at a time, flat side down making sure there is at least 1 inch clearance between the pieces and brown about 2 minutes on each side.  Do not move the pieces while they are browning.   Adding meat cools the oil and pan --- if the pan cools off too much, the meat won't sear and will steam in its own juice and dry out and you won't get the browning.  The browning seals in juices, add a defining dimension of flavour to the stew. 
As the pieces brown, remove them to the bowl with the onions.  If the meat is cold or partly frozen, you won't have good results with browning.  
Meanwhile, slice the carrots and potatoes into 1 inch pieces (leave the peel on the vegetables, just trim the ends any damaged parts).
Once all the pieces of steak are browned, add the meat and onions back to the pan.
Add the vegetables and 1/2 cup of water.
Add 1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper.
Turn down the heat half way between low and medium, cover the pan with a lid and simmer 20 minutes until the vegetables are done.   Check frequently to make sure there is enough liquid to prevent burning.  This is called braising.  Braising makes the meat very tender and lifts all the browned bits off the bottom of the pan to flavour the liquid.  

How to Prevent Stainless Steel Pans From Burning and Sticking

I've long ago gotten rid of all my non-stick pots and pans and baking utensils in favour of stainless steel and cast iron, but I had to learn how to prevent sticking and clean them properly.   I used to burn everything and just everything stuck on the pans and then couldn't clean the them without resorting to steel wool.  It's so easy to prevent burning and sticking and clean the pans once you know how.   Do exactly as follows and you won't have any trouble.

1.  Heat the clean dry pan on medium heat (never higher).   The pan heats up very hot and holds the heat, so high heat is not necessary.  
2.  Once the pan rim is hot to the touch, add oil, about 1 or 2 tablespoons.  Olive oil is the best for everything.  Don't leave on the heat longer than it takes to heat up without adding oil.
3.  Roll the oil around the pan and sides.  
4.  Add food.  Stir or toss occassionally to prevent burning things like onions, and adjust the heat down a tad if necessary.  I use wooden spoon or tongs or metal tongs and turner for back up.
6. After removing the pan from the heat or turning the heat off, and transferring the food to a serving dish, let the pan cool on a cold element.  Do not add water or the pan may warp.
7. When the pan is cool, add water and soak.  You can add a bit of dish soap too.  Depending on how cooked on the food is, it will take between 5 minutes and a few hours to loosen the food.
8. Wash the pan with soap and water and a dish cloth.  Use a plastic scrubber if needed.  Don't use steel wool as it takes off your nice non-stick finish that you've just added.   If some food is still stuck, soak longer.  Be sure to scrub the bottom and sides and all around the rivets to prevent a build up. 
9.  When the pots need a shine, rub inside and out with a cloth and Bar Keepers Friend.  You can get it where you buy pots and pans.   It is the only product I have ever used that really cleans stainless steel sinks and pots. 
 

Turkey Thighs Roasted with Herbs

This is a turkey dinner for two (for two days at least). I am still thinking about those thighs a month later.


Turkey Thighs Roasted with Herbs

Ingredients:
2 turkey thighs
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs - sage, tarragon, rosemary, oregano

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Run out and cut a bunch of herbs.
Rinse the herbs and put them at the bottom of a medium sized roasting pan with lid.
Put the thighs on the bed of herbs. Pour on olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
Roast for 1 hour, then remove the lid and turn up the heat to 450 for 30 minutes.

Harry's Amazing Fruit Salads

This one is my brother-in-law Harry's specialty. No breakfast is complete without it when we are all together. It's a super healthy meal in a bowl and so refreshing. My sister wrote the rest of this.

Harry’s theory is to use the same base for all the types of salad and then change the main ingredients to suit the type of salad. The presentation and the preparation are part of the what makes it so good. So you can prepare these salads in front of your friends, family or guests or as a special ritual for yourself.

His Four Versions of Fruit Salad are:
1) Dessert
2) Breakfast
3) Salad served with the main evening meal
4) There is a fourth type which is a brunch salad, which can be a variation of the three.

Basic Fruit Salad
To start with, here are the Five “Must Do Basics” for all types of salads.
1) Basic Ingredient #1: The base is always oranges and grapefruits. The peeling of them is very important. First, cut off the ends, then slice down all sides. What is left is just the meat of the fruit. Then cut out each one of the segments with a sharp knife. Do this over a large bowl so that you catch all of the juices that drip into the bowl. It’s very quick after you get used to doing it. Then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp. This makes a nice presentation and no pulp in the salad for your guests.
2) Basic Ingredient #2: Fresh Ginger grated to taste.
3) Basic Ingredient #3: sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
4) Basic Ingredient #4: A good extra virgin cold pressed olive oil.
5) Basic Ingredient #5: Finely grated hard Reggiano cheese on top.

Version #1 - Dessert Salad
Start with a martini glass or some kind of see through dish for nice presentation so that you can see what’s in the salad.
Line the martini glass with fresh baby spinach leaves.
Put in the orange and grapefruit, less for a dessert salad and add “tropical” fruit like banana, kiwi, mango or papaya. Mix it nicely into a large mixing bowl.
Inside the bowl, grate fresh ginger, a fresh lime which you cut the same way that you do the oranges and grapefruits…cut the wedges out with a sharp knife, then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp.
Melt a little honey in the microwave. Drizzle on salad – not too much, not to take away from the salt and pepper taste. But it pulls together the fruit flavours.
Put all the fruit onto the lined spinach leaves in your dessert dish.
Grate an excellent Reggiano cheese with a fine grater on top. Just a little.
Top with mint leaves. Serve with a fork.
At the end, a special treat is to drink the remaining juice mixture out of the martini glass.

Version #2 - Breakfast Fruit Salad
Berries go well in this salad – blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. It all depends on what you like and what your guests like or what is available.
Leave out the spinach leaves, no avocado, no citrus fruit is necessary.
A nice Brie or Camembare cheese can be used as a garnish.
For example, this morning Harry made a warm Brie and Blackberry salad.
Slice a little banana, maybe ½ per serving, into the bottom of a serving dish. Place the ¼ round of Brie or Camembare per person on top of the banana. You will not see the banana underneath. Warm in microwave for 25 to 30 seconds. You will not notice the banana flavour but will think that the cheese and the banana are one. It will have a combined flavour that is indescribable.
Around the sides arrange blackberries and drizzle warmed honey mixture and olive oil on top. In this case, Harry warmed up some dried herbs from the garden in a cast iron frying pan (mixture of all types including lavender, sage, basil, etc.) and added the warm honey. Then he drizzled this mixture on top of the Brie, banana, and blackberries. If using the Brie or Camembert, then you don’t need the grated cheese.
Serve a thinly sliced toasted heavy German or Transylvanian or multigrain bread cut into wedges on the side of the dish. We also had some bacon as a side dish with this which worked with the dried herb flavours.

Version #3 – Evening Meal Salad served with or before the main dish
Serve this salad in a larger, deeper, wide rimmed white bowl. Put more spinach leaves in..again that show at the edge of the bowl.
Herbs – Put in fresh herbs - more dill, cilantro, basil, mint, whatever you have.
Add sliced green onion or shallots.
No honey on this one.
Use more citrus fruits, less banana, less tropicals.
Add the sea salt, pepper, ginger and EVOO
Add Brie or Camembert or your favourite cheese (a five year old white cheddar is also good) in wedges around the edge of the bowl.
Garnish with sliced avocado.
Grate Reggiano Cheese on top and add mint leaves.
This salad goes well with fish, smoked salmon, or smoked goldeye.

Chicken Noodle Soup (Heina Zup)

I have been wanting to make this for ages. My previous attempts had always been rather bland and I have quizzed a lot of people about their secrets. Most of the time it is the stock --- they use a commercial stock powder --- I find that disappointing. I wanted to see how I would do without the commercial stuff first. I used a plain Costco chicken but next time, I'll get a real one. I think that would make a huge difference. A lot of recipes call for a stewing hen but I have found they taste awful. I really think you have to get a farm chicken.

Another intriguing aspect of chicken soup is the different spices and herbs that are used by different cultures. The Mennonite tradition is to use peppercorns, star anise and parsley. Apparently the Mennonites were wealthy when they lived in East Prussia and could afford spices imported from China (where star anise comes from). The Russians and Ukrainians do not use star anise in anything. Peter assures me that Jews do not use star anise either.

Loris' mother Helen Loewen used whole allspice, so I just had to try that.

The Jewish traditional recipe calls for garlic and dill, as well as carrot, parsnip, celery and onion, and matzoh balls. The dill and garlic schmeck in my imagination, but I find the celery a little hard to imagine on the steppes of Russia, but those who know me know my suspicions about celery. Ukrainians use garlic, potato, tomato, onion, celery root, and carrots.

To be authentic about a traditional recipe, you have to use the right ingredients and herbs and spices. If you change it, then it's not Salade Nicoise as Julia Child said. That is why I avoid making every soup into the same vegetable soup. You want to appreciate the special ingredients for any particular recipe, so my credo is to put the least number of ingredients possible into every recipe. That being said, my recipe is a cross breed of Mennonite and Jewish.

Speaking of Julia, did you notice that she cooked everything on her show on a regular little electric stove --- I agree with that --- a real cook can cook anything on an electric stove. I see no reason to spend a fortune on a huge monsterous stainless steel thing that's hard to clean, when I have a perfectly good white electric in the kitchen.

Of course, I have hoarded the homemade noodles that Loris and I made last summer just for this soup. The key to noodle soup is the noodles -- of course. You can use store bought dried ones or make your own. One of the Mennonite traditions is that chicken noodle soup is supposed to have really fine noodles.

You need a largish spice ball to put the spices in with or you can tie the herbs and spices into a small piece of cloth.

A few health notes --- chicken fat is very healthy for you, so don't skim it off. If you have a cold, try chicken soup. It clears the congestion and makes the fluids in your body flow.

Chicken Noodle Soup (Heina Zup)

Ingredients:

6 quarts water
5 pound chicken
10 peppercorns
3 whole allspice
1 whole star anise
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 tsp. kosher or seal salt
Parsley, fresh
Dill, fresh
Noodles

Instructions:
Wash the chicken and put it into a large soup pot. Fill with water to 3/4 full.
Put the peppercorns, allspice, star anise and garlic into the spice ball and put it into the pot.
Simmer the chicken for about 2 hours, until the meat is falling off the bones.
Take the chicken out and put on a plate. Remove and discard the skin and bones, taking care to find all the little bits of bone and connective tissue. Cut the chicken meat into small pieces and put it back into the pot.
Remove the spice ball and discard contents.
Taste the broth and add salt if necessary.
Chop parsley and dill and add to the pot and simmer.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles in separate pot.
Drain the noodles, put them in a large bowl, immediately add butter and stir. The butter will keep the noodles from sticking.
Put some noodles into each bowl, and ladle broth and chicken over the noodles.
Serve with homemade brown bread and homemade butter.

Zuppa Toscana

This is Loris's brother Kelvin's recipe, adapted a little bit.

This was a huge hit with Rosemary and Linda. I had to forage in the garden by flash light to pick the kale, parsley and sage.

With kale, you have to wash very very carefully as there are little colonies on the back of the leaves. I use a scissor to cut the stems out and cut the leaves into pieces.

It's a quick soup --- as long as you have bacon and sausages in the freezer, you can do it in about 30 minutes. Bacon and sausages are much easier to slice while frozen, so don't thaw first.

You will have to make another pot -- it won't last long.

Serve with homemade brown bread and butter.

Zuppa Toscana

Ingredients:

2 small onions, chopped
6 slices bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 - 6 mild or spicy Italian sausages, sliced
2 potatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes OR 2 to 3 cups cauliflower (I used my own Yukons from the garden -- they hold their shape)
3 cloves garlic, sliced into quarters lengthwise
1 cup beans of any kind (I used kidney beans, soaked the night before and cooked while I was making the soup)
2 cups tomatoes (fresh or canned), chopped
2 quarts chicken stock (I used my own stock from the freezer)
2 - 4 cups kale, and chopped into 2 inch pieces (or spinach)
5 - 6 sage leaves, without stems
Handful of flat leaved parsley, chopped, with stems
1 cup cream or sour cream (I used my own sour cream)

Instructions:
Heat a large soup pot on medium heat.
While waiting, slice bacon (frozen is fine) and chop onions.
When the pot rim is hot to the touch, add onions and bacon and oil.
Saute until the onions are nearly clear. Stir frequently.
While waiting, cut the sausage and garlic.
Add sausage pieces and garlic and saute 5 minutes. Stir frequently.
Meanwhile, cut up the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces (with peel)
Add potatoes, beans, tomatoes and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are nearly done.
Meanwhile wash kale very thoroughly and cut into pieces removing the stems.
Roughly chop herbs. The sage leaves can be added whole but remove from stems. The parsley can be added stems and all, and roughly chopped.
Add kale and herbs and simmer another few minutes, til kale is cooked but still bright green.
Add cream and heat through.

Spicy Prawns with Coconut

This is always a big hit. Use the large black tiger prawns or any other kind of prawns or shrimp for this dish. Leave the shells and tails on for added flavour and juiciness. Be sure to put plenty of napkins and a dish for the shells on the table. It is acceptable to peel the shrimp with your fingers, but it can be done with a fork and knife as well. The technique is the same. First pull off the fringe or legs. Then the shell comes off quite easily and last the tail just pulls off.


Spicy Prawns with Coconut


Ingredients:
30 tiger prawns or any other kind of prawns
4 Tbsp. dessicated coconut
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp sea or kosher salt
large thumb of fresh ginger, grated
4 large garlic cloves, grated


Instructions:
Preheat the broiler and put the oven rack on the highest rung.
Line a large baking sheet with tin foil.
Toss the prawns and everything else in a large bowl.
Arrange the prawns in one layer on the baking sheet.
Broil the shrimp a few minutes on each side, about 5 minutes per side for large tiger prawns.
Be careful not to overcook --- they are done when they are bright pink.
Remove and serve.

Spices, Dried Herbs and Spice Blends

When buying dried spices and dried herbs, be sure to find a really good fresh aromatic brand. Natures Choice and Dan D Pak and bulk stores are good options but you have to make sure to shop in a store where the turnover is very high. I have purchased caraway seeds in three different stores in Kits on the same day and found a vast difference in the quality and freshness. It is well worth trying a variety of sources until you have established a quality reference (meaning that your nose recognizes a good one). Of course, you have to buy and then just toss anything that isn't wonderfully aromatic.

There is no point spending any money on those small bottles from a big super market. Throw those out right now along with any and all jars, cans and packages of condiments, sauces and soups (okay, keep the Dijon).

Regarding dried herbs, some cooks, including David Rocco, only use fresh herbs. I like dried herbs for some recipes. The flavour is different from the fresh herb and wonderful in it's own way. Thyme is one I use a lot. I also use dried basil, oregano, dill leaves, dill seed, aniseed, and mint. Don't buy dried parsley or rosemary. If you ever find dried summer savory in a farmer's market somewhere, grab it.

It's much better to make your own spice blends. You can control the flavour, the freshness, and the proportions.


Garam Masala

Garam Masala is a basic Indian spice blend. I find that I tend to use less or no cinnamon for many recipes.

1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cardamon
1 tsp. pepper

Uses -- numerous Indian recipes, Aloo Gobi

Zatar

Zatar is the traditional Turkish spice mixture used for everything

Sumac is available in Greek grocery stores and has a lovely lemony flavour and a dark red colour.

You can toast the sesame seeds but if they are going on bread or chicken before baking or roasting, you won't need to.

Mix with olive oil and spread on bread before or after baking.

1/3 dried sumac
1/3 dried thyme
1/3 sesame seeds

Uses -- baking bread, roasting chicken

Pickling Spice

Mix the any of the following depending on what you are making:

Allspice, whole **
Mustard seed *
Celery seed *
Coriander seed *
Red pepper flakes **
Bay leaf fresh or dried, broken up *
Cinnamon stick, broken up **
Dill seed **
Mace **
Cardamon pods, green **
Star anise, broken up **
Juniper berries **
Dried or fresh ginger root **
Grape leaves, cherry leaves or oak leaves between the layers of cucumbers.

*Standard for pickling spice
** Optional for pickling spice

Uses - pickled cucumbers, corned beef

Aloo Gobi - Cauliflower and Potatoes

Sorry for being away so long, friends. I am still cooking and trying new things.

This recipe is a great example of layering spices, the key to great Indian cookery. I made it several times this summer and fall, and it's delicious, healthy, and makes great leftovers.

Aloo Gobi

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, cut into small pieces, about 1/2-inch in size
2 waxy potatoes (Yukons, German, Island Amber)
olive oil - EVOO
1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
1 t. whole cumin seeds
1-2 dried hot red chili peppers, broken into pieces (red pepper flakes are okay too)
3/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp. garam masala (mix your own of course)

Instructions:
Cut up the cauliflower and potato (with peel) into 1/2 pieces.
Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan on medium heat.
When the pan rim is hot, add 2-3 Tbsps olive oil and heat.
When the oil is very hot almost smoking, add the fenugreek, fennel, and cumin seeds and the pieces of dried red peppers.
Stir and then add the cauliflower and potato.
Stir until the vegetables are covered in oil and spices
Add the turmeric, ground coriander, salt and pepper.
Saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add 1/4 cup water and put the lid on the pan immediately.
Turn the heat to low and steam the vegetables until tender.
Sprinkle garam masala over the vegetables, stir once, and serve.

Julia and Sonya's Tian de Courgettes au Riz

Here's a recipe that's been adapted a few times and it's still the best zucchini dish I've ever eaten. The Brazilian student Jucellia loved it because of the rice. I loved it because of the cheese and milk. The recipe is from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My friend Sonya made it for me on a recent trip to Bainbridge Island, which inspired me to try it.

Of course, I deleted unnecessary steps such as pre-cooking the rice. I also changed the annoying recipe measurements like 2 tablespoons of minced garlic to 2 cloves of garlic, grated; and two squares of frozen zucchini to 2 large fresh zucchini. We have it in the markets all year round so there's no need to resort to freezing it unless you have a garden excess.

Now to buy the perfect baking dish to make this in --- my motley collection just won't do.

Tian de Courgettes au Riz

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsps. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 medium to large fresh zucchini - about 8 to 10 cups
2 tbsps. flour
1/2 cup rice (I use Basmati for everything)
1 cup Parmesan cheese (I use a lot more - 1 1/2 cups), grated
1 tsp. sea or kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

Instructions:
Put the milk into a bowl and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes to heat.
Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan on medium until the rim is hot to the touch.
Add olive oil and heat.
Add the onions and garlic and saute on lowered heat until soft but not browned.
Meanwhile, grate the zucchini and the cheese and hold on the side.
When the onions are soft, add the grated zucchini and stir and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the flour and cook another 2 minutes.
Add the hot milk, stir well, bring to a boil briefly, stirring frequently.
Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the uncooked rice and 3/4 cup cheese.
Put the mixture into a 9 x 5 inch baking dish about 1-1/2 inches deep.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Either refrigerate for several hours or a day or put into a preheated 425 degree F. oven.
Put the baking dish into the top third of the oven.
Remove when bubbling and brown on top.

Cabbage Borscht

This is one of the best Mennonite soups. It is excellent made in winter but special in the summer using a fresh cabbage from the garden. It's a fabulous way to eat more cabbage, which is the number one anticarcinogenic food.

Beef short ribs can be hard to get --- you'll have to go to a butcher, Real Canadian Store, or Stongs. Be sure to get them with the bone.
There are many great borscht recipes. This recipe uses fresh herbs available in summer. I am not a fan of adding carrots, onions, celery, garlic. I have seen recipes that called for star anise and 10 whole allspice --- intriguing.

Cabbage (Komst) Borscht

Ingredients:
Beef short ribs, with bone and fat
For the spice ball: 10 pepper corns and 1 bay leaf
Fresh dill, chopped
Fresh Italian parsley, chopped
5 tomatoes, chopped fine
4 waxy potatoes, with peel, chopped in 3/4-inch pieces
Medium head of cabbage, sliced thinly
1 tsp. salt

Instructions:
Put the beef in a pot of cold water, add the spice ball, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 - 3 hours.
This can be done the evening before or the same day.
Take out the meat and cool. Remove fat and bone. Cut in small pieces and add back to the soup.
Add the herbs, vegetables and salt to the stock and simmer until done.
Taste and adjust the salt.
Serve with sour cream and brown bread and butter on the side.

Noodling

I hadn't made pasta since my disaster with ravioli years ago. Always in a rush, I somehow missed the fact that pasta expands when cooked. My ravioli were 3 x 6 inches in size and split open and all the filling fell out.

I had wanted to make noodles the traditional Mennonite way for ages --- they are essential to good chicken soup, which has been a fascination of mine because the spices and herbs are so unique. This summer, Loris and I had a noodle making session, and she taught me all the secrets that the recipes don't tell you.

Homemade Noodles

Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 tbsp. water
2 tsp. salt
Flour

Instructions:
Clear a large space on the counter or table and scrub clean and dry.
Keep the bag of flour and scoop handy.
Add the eggs, water and salt to a large bowl and mix well.
Add enough flour to make a stiff dough, about 2 cups to start.
Stir the dough and then pick it up with your hands and work the dough until all the flour is incorporated. Add more flour as the ball gets sticky. The ball of dough will be very stiff and you will give your hands quite a workout. It will take about 5 minutes.
When the dough is very stiff and no longer sticky, flour a 24-inch square area of the work surface very heavily, and start rolling with a rolling pin. A big heavy one is good. Add more flour to the surface of the dough if it gets sticky.
It will take a long time to roll the dough out into a very rough circle. Press hard and keep stretching and rolling until the dough is about 1/8-inch thick and about 15 inches by 30 inches. The piece of dough can be any shape and very uneven around the edges, just as long as it's thin enough.
Now add about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of flour to the top of the dough, covering the whole surface including edges. Let the dough sit for about 30 to 60 minutes to dry. The flour dries the noodle dough, but does not get absorbed into the noodles, so you can't use too much.
Making sure there is plenty of flour on the entire surface to prevent the noodles from sticking, carefully roll the dough along the long edge very tightly into a long log.

With a sharp knife cut the log into short thin wedges (maximum 1/8-inch at the thick end) --- at a slight angle, first one way, then the other way. This makes very fine noodles, perfect for soup.
Each time a handful or so of noodles are cut, add them to a pile of flour and toss them to make sure they are well covered.

Ribbell them with your hands (not so gently rub them between your palms to make sure the noodles come apart). Keep adding flour as needed.
Once all the noodles are cut and ribbelled put them into a large seive and shake to remove the excess flour.

Brush the excess flour back into the bag or separate container to use for bread baking.

If you want long noodles, make one or two rounds of dough, put one on top of the other, and with a sharp knife, cut long thin strips.

Then either cook the noodles in salted boiling water until they rise to the surface or freeze them in a ziploc bag. If you freeze them, they won't stick together and you can remove as much as you need anytime and cook them frozen.
After the noodles are cooked, drain them in a seive, and immediately put them back in the pot and add butter to prevent sticking.

If making chicken soup, put noodles into the individual soup bowls and add broth and meat to the noodles. Don't add the noodles to the soup pot --- they'll get soggy.

Cauliflower Kurma

This is my all time favourite cauliflower recipe. It also gives me a chance to flaunt my Indian spice know how. The recipe is adapted from Stylish Indian in Minutes, one of my favourite Indian cook books.

Cauliflower Kurma
Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
8 green cardamon pods
1 tsp. coriander seeds
1 star anise, broken up
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
4 small tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp garam masala (1 tsp. each ground cinnamon, ground coriander, ground cardamon, pepper)
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. salt
1/2 t. sugar
1 large cauliflower, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro

Instructions:
Heat a large saute plan on medium until the rim it hot to the touch.
Add the oil and heat.
Add the whole spices and saute until the cumin darkens.
Add the chopped onion and cook until soft.
Add the ginger, garlic tomatoes, and ground spices and stir. Cook until well blended.
Add salt and sugar.
Add the cauliflower and baste with the sauce.
Add 1/2 cup water and cover the pan.
Cook until tender.
Transfer to serving dish and add fresh cilantro.

Sage Advice

I tried some excellent recipes using fresh fried sage this summer --- who'd have guessed how amazing that taste would be. Sage has the ability to infuse oil and other foods with its wonderful aroma.

I always have several sage plants --- one on the deck, one in the garden, etc. and they are very hardy and easily make it through a cold winter. The purple kind is very tasty and attractive too. Fresh sage is fabulous in chicken and turkey stuffing of course, but these recipes are really worth making often too.

I invented Pork with Sage after I read the tortellini recipe in The Italian Way, the De Lucas recipe book from the famous Italian gourmet food store in Winnipeg (thanks so much Loris). Fried sage leaves are amazing.

Pork nowadays seems is very lean and has to be cooked differently from the pork with lots of fat and bone that we used to get. You get the best results cooking it until just done. This is another tip from my cooking and travelling pal Loris.

The tortellini recipe is the type I like --- simple, a few ingredients, and one dominant herb or spice flavour.

I made the beans with a sage infusion last winter, and it was outstanding so here is that recipe too.

Pork with Sage

Ingredients:
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea or kosher salt
10 fresh sage leaves
4 pork cutlets, with as much marbling as possible

Instructions:
Heat a frying pan on medium until the rim is hot to the touch.
Add 1/4-inch of oil and heat.
Add the fresh sage leaves and saute until black and crisp.
Meanwhile, cut the pork into 1 x 2-inch pieces.
Remove the sage leaves from the pan and set aside.
Saute the pork pieces in the sage-infused oil until just done or just slightly pink in the middle.
Place the pork pieces onto a serving plate.
Sprinkle with the salt.
Sprinkle the sage leaves on top and serve.
Sensational!


Tortellini All Salvia

Ingredients:
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup butter
12 sage leaves
2 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound tortellini

Instructions:
Set a large pot of cold water on the stove to boil and add the tortellini when the water boils.
Cook until tender.
Meanwhile, heat a large saute pan on medium until the rim is hot to the touch.
Add olive oil and butter and heat. Watch carefully and do not burn.
Saute the sage leaves until crisp.
Meanwhile, grate the garlic.
Add the garlic and salt to the pan and saute another 20 seconds, stirring so the garlic doesn't burn, and then turn the heat to low and set the pan off the heat.
When the tortellini are cooked, drain, reserving 1/4 cup of cooking liquid.
Add tortellini to the butter and sage mixture in the pan.
Add the cooking liquid and toss.
Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with cheese.

Beans with Sage and Rosemary (from Vegetable Heaven)

Ingredients:
2 cups dried white beans
2 large sprigs fresh rosemary and 12 fresh sage leaves, tied together
4 garlic cloves, grated
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:
Soak the beans in cold water (about 6 cups) overnight.
Drain the beans, add fresh cold water to cover by 2 inches.
Add the rosemary and sage bouquet.
Bring to a boil and simmer until mushy (about 30 minutes).
Remove and discard the herbs.
Grate the garlic and add to the hot beans.
Add salt and pepper and stir.
Serve topped with a drizzle of olive oil.

Maintaining your Bread Starter

When making bread, the best taste and texture come from using your own starter. A starter is a live culture living in a flour and water mixture, that you replenish and use each time you bake. There are many methods and detailed instructions for making and maintaining bread starters. Most are too complicated and work-intensive for me. However, here are a couple of great web sites that are helpful.

http://www.breadtopia.com/sourdough-no-knead-method/
http://www.grouprecipes.com/89655/no-knead-sourdough-bread.html

Assuming you have been given a live starter, here is how to maintain it.

Keep it in a 1-quart flip-top (French) jar in the frig. Keep the lid clamped but don't use the rubber jar ring so that a tiny bit of air can get in.

Feed the starter once a week or every few weeks. Add 1 cup flour and 1 cup water (or equal amounts by weight which means slightly less water).

Some insist on purified or bottled water (let stand overnight or boil) and some say it doesn't matter. I just use tap water.

You can use unbleached, rye or wholewheat flour, but generally stick to the same flour as is in the starter already. The microbes are used to it. You can slowly switch a starter from one kind of flour to another. You can use the starter for any kind of bread or the same kind as the starer.

Stir well. Some say use a wooden sppon or chopstick but short contact with metal is okay).

Dump some starter down the drain if there is too much in the jar. Don't fill the jar more than half full because the starter needs room to double or even quadruple). The amount of starter you produce will depend on how much you need for your recipes. For my bread recipes, you only need 1/4 cup.

If the starter has been neglected, feed it 2 or 3 times before using it to bake bread.

After feeding, put the jar back in the frig overnight or, if baking within a few hours, leave it out on the counter. It should double within a few hours at room temperature. Some starters are very thin and bubbly. Some starters are very stiff. They will have a very strong brewery smell.

A few hours before baking, bring out the starter and bring it to room temperature. After feeding it, use it within one day or within a few hours if at room temperature.

Once you are ready to bake, stir the starter with chopstick to remove the bubbles. Measure out a generous 1/4 cup --- you can use a metal spoon and measuring cup. Mix the water called for in the recipe (reduced by 1/4 cup) and starter in a measuring cup or bowl. Add to the flour and salt mixture.

Classic Sourdough No-Knead Bread

I lost my confidence with sourdough bread after the first try --- my new friend Diana says you have to have your mojo intact when tackling baking bread and I agree. Just lately I tried again.

I borrowed precious starter from Diana (thank you). I fed it and dashed around town trying to find a cast iron pot that didn't cost anarmandaleg, poured over recipe books and watched Youtube videos, to distill the instructions for no-knead sourdough bread and maintaining your starter.

By the way, Florin, the transilvanian baker, says that using a starter instead of store yeast is not sourdough --- it is levain. However, this recipe is for the "classic" sourdough with golden hard crust and chewy texture with lots of holes, which is obtained by the pot method of baking.

I had a very stressful two days, but it has been so worthwhile as I have now invented the easiest possible method.

To get the typical golden crust and chewy holey texture, you need a cast iron pot (5-quart size okay). They say you can use an enamel cast iron, Pyrex, or casserole as long as it has a lid, as well but be sure you can heat it to 500 degrees with nothing in it. I cracked an Emile Henry baking dish once trying to roast vegetables so I am leary. You can use the starter for regular no-knead bread and regular bread pans just substituting 1/4 starter for 1/4 tsp. yeast. The crust and texture won't be the "classic" sourdough though.

Here is the classic sourdough bread with all the wisdom and lore I gathered. This is the easy way --- no sponge or other intermediate steps.

Sourdough No-Knead Bread (1 1-1/2-lb. loaf)

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached flour with no additives (e.g. Rogers) (You can use 1 cup wholewheat and 2 cups unbleached flour)
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup starter
1-1/2 cups bottled or purified water (let stand overnight or boil to get rid of the chlorine --- I forgot, and it worked okay)

Instructions:
Assuming you have a nice bubbly smelly starter in the frig (should be kept in a 1 quarter flip-top French jar, lid closed, but without the rubber jar ring), the night before, feed it with 1 cup flour and 1 cup purified water, stir with wooden spoon or chopstick. Again I forgot the purified water but it all worked. If there's too much starter, throw some out. The jar should only be 1/4 to 1/2 full to leave room for the starter to double or quadruple even.
Put the jar back in the frig overnight or, if baking within a few hours, leave it out on the counter. It should double within a few hours at room temperature.
In the morning or a few hours before baking, bring out the starter and bring it to room temperature. After feeding it, use it within one day or within a few hours if at room temperature.
Around lunch time or early afternoon, mix flour and salt in a large or medium sized bowl.
Stir the starter with chopstick to remove the bubbles. Measure out a generous 1/4 cup --- you can use a metal spoon and measuring cup. Mix water and starter in a 2-cup measuring cup or bowl.
Add the water mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with spoon until the flour is mostly mixed in. You will have a very wet mixture.
Cover with plastic wrap or put in a plastic bag and twist tight to prevent the dough from drying out.
Set aside to rise for a full 18 hours. It will eventually start to bubble and should more or less double, but don't fret about it as I did.
In the morning, put some wheat bran on the counter.
Oil a medium sized bowl.
Scrape the dough out of the bowl with a metal spoon and dump it on the wheat bran.
Oil or flour your hands and flatten out the dough.
Fold the dough four sides into the centre.
Put some wheat bran on the dough and cover with a clean cloth and let rest 15 minutes (I forgot this step but nothing went wrong)
Pick up the dough with floured or oiled hands and put it fold-side up into the oiled bowl.
Cover with a clean cloth.
Leave the bowl on the counter for 1-1/2 to 2 hours to rise again. Again it is supposed to double, but it's hard to tell. It is ready when the dough does not bounce back if you poke it with a finger about 1/4 inch into the dough, i.e. the hole stays in the dough.
1/2 hour before baking, heat the cast iron Dutch oven and lid in the stove at 500 degrees F.
When the dough is ready, open the oven, and using oven mitts, carefully take the pot out and set it on the oven door. Take the lid off.
Take off the mitts, take the dough out of the bowl with your hands and gently drop it into the hot pot. It doesn't matter how it lands, is lopsided, or doesn't fill the pot. Don't touch the pot and don't try to move or touch the dough.
Put the mitts on again and put the lid on the pot.
Put the pot into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Take the lid off the pot, turn the oven down to 450 degrees F, and bake another 15 minutes.
Using oven mitts, take the pot out of the oven and put it on top of the stove. Take the lid off and pry the loaf out of the pot (easy) and put it on a rack to cool.
Wait 1 hour to slice and eat.
Store out on the bread board cut side down or freeze in a ziploc bag.

Spicy Dill Pickles

I was attracted to pickling because of the wonderful spices used. Always looking for something to use allspice for, you know.

This recipe is another one handed down from grandma and mom, so I tried it again after all these years. Since the recipe is vague about the pickling spice, I felt free to make up my own creation. You can buy pickling spices blends but it's better to make your own so you have more control over the contents.

Reading the old recipes, especially the Mennonite and Ukrainian ones, there are some very interesting spices used. Have you used grape, cherry or oak leaves in your pickles? How about horseradish root? I can't wait to find some and try those in the pickles. Of course, we are in a time crunch to pickle and preserve while the produce is fresh and available.



With canning, the quantities can be quite hard to estimate, so I wing it.

An average of 14 pounds of cucumbers is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 9 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 48 pounds and yields 16 to 24 quarts—an average of 2 pounds per quart. Select firm cucumbers of the appropriate size—about 1½ inches for gherkins and 4 inches for dills. Use odd-shaped and more mature cucumbers for relishes and bread-and-butter-style pickles.

Spicy Dill Pickles (5 quarts)

Ingredients:

About 10 pounds of 4-inch fresh crisp cucumbers.

9 cups water (depending on your area, you may have to use distilled water. Vancouver city water is okay)

3 cups white vinegar 5% (any store vinegar)

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup pickling salt (not kosher, sea, or table salt)

5 fresh dill flower heads (or more if you like)

5 garlic cloves

5 red chili peppers, fresh or dried

5 cloves

Pickling spice (see below)



Instructions:

Wash 5 quart jars and lids with soap and water and rinse well.

Set the jars in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Put the lids into very hot water for 20 minutes but do not boil.

Scrub 4 to 6 inch pickling cucumbers well.

In a large pot, boil the water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Leave on a simmer while you prepare the jars.

Take the jars out of the oven and set on the counter using oven mitts but don't touch the inside of the jar or the rim.

Put the 1 tsp. pickling spice, 1 clove, 1 garlic, 1 chili pepper, and 1 dill spring into each jar.

Using tongs or hands, pack the cucumbers tightly in the jar.

Bring the brine to a boil and, using the wide mouth funnel, pour into the jars leaving 1/2 inch head room.

Wide the rims of the jars with a clean towel.

Put the lids and screw the bands on fingertip tight.

Put the jars into a hot water bath.

1) Old way --- til the cukes discolour.

2) Cover jars with 1 inch water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes.

Remove the jars from the water with the jar lifter and set on a clean cloth on the counter.

Leave the jars undisturbed for 24 hours. The lids should all snap. If any do not, put those jars in the frig and use them first.



Pickling spice:

Mix the any of the following depending on what you are making. I found that you have to make sure some of the large broken up spices get into each jar.

Allspice, whole **

Mustard seed *

Celery seed *

Coriander seed *

Red pepper flakes

Bay leaf, fresh or dried, broken up *

Cinnamon stick, broken up **

Dill seed

Mace **

Cardamon pods, green **

Star anise, broken up **

Juniper berries **

Dried or fresh ginger root **

Grape leaves, cherry leaves or oak leaves between the layers of cucumbers.

*Standard for pickling spice
** Optional for pickling spice

Back to old fashioned Pickling

Decades after giving up canning and ditching the precious collection of sealer jars (the old kind with glass lids and zinc screw tops), and quite a few years after finally giving away all my blue enamel canner, lovely metal funnel and lifter, I again have the urge to pickle things. I think it's my love of spices and herbs that has enticed me back.

Luckily, like vegetable gardening, home canning is enjoying a resurgence, hence the availability of Bernardin jars in most grocery stores again. (Did anyone else have trouble hunting down Italian parsley seeds this year? Our good Bob at The Natural Gardener, informed me that the nurseries were caught off guard and could not keep up with the demand for seeds and vegetable and herb transplants this spring.)

My recipes from back in the day are terse, and my memory of the proper techniques was vague, so I canvassed friends and researched the project on the internet. The pressure of time was on as I heard a rumour that cucumbers are "over" due to the rain, chatting to a total stranger in the store, as one does.

In a panicked search for a canner to borrow, I collected several offers, and then found a canner and a jar lifter, a plastic funnel, and some new-fangled gizmos like a stick with a magnet for picking up metal lids out of boiling water, regular tongs, on sale at good old neighbourhood HH.

As I recall, in the "earth mother" age, we poured hot pickles and brine into jars, put the metal snap lids on, and waited for them to pop (seal). However, modern methods call for "processing" the jars in boiling water for 10 or 15 minutes. My mother and grandmother didn't have snap lids, they used the rubber jar rings and glass lids and probably the hot canning bath but I can't remember. I do remember the hot paraffin was used to seal the amazing plum jam and chokecherry jelly, which are impossible to duplicate with anything we have available now.


Here is the web site that I think is most valuable for basic techniques and safety tips:

http://www.homecanning.com/can/ALBasics.asp


There are lots of delicious sounding recipes on the internet, but I am going to share my grandma's and mother's recipes for Three Minute Pickles and Spicy Dill Pickles. I made up my own pickling spice mix, the fun part.

I bought the fresh dill in flower and 10 pounds of lovely crisp cukes at the Richmond Country Farms on Steveston Highway. Use the cucumbers the same day when they are still really crisp.

Use pint jars for the Three Minute Pickles and quart jars for the Spicy Dills and use new metal snap lids.

I made up the Three Minute Pickles in about 1 hour between work and making dinner. I made up the Spicy Dills in another hour this morning before work. Very easy but stay organized -- the kitchen must remain very clean at all times.



Anna Reimer's 3-Minute Pickles (makes 7 to 8 pint (250 ml. jars)

Ingredients:
5 pounds or so of pickling cucumbers (12 cups sliced). You can use the bigger ones and save time slicing.
3 medium or large white onions, sliced finely
1/2 cup pickling salt (You can't substitute kosher or sea salt and you can't use table salt.)
3 cups white vinegar (5% solution, which is any store vinegar)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. celery seeds
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 t. turmeric

Instructions:

Slice the onions finely and put them into a bowl with the pickling salt.
Mix salt and onions and let stand overnight or for several hours. Drain. (I forgot this step so my onions only stood for a few minutes.)
Turn the oven to 200 degrees F.
Wash jars and lids in hot water and soap and drain in a clean place or run them through the dishwasher.
Put the jars into the heated oven for 20 minutes.
Put the lids into a pot of hot water on the stove and keep hot. (I read later you are not supposed to boil the lids, just hold them in very hot water.)
Wash the cucumbers very well with a clean scrub brush.
Slice the cucumbers into 1/8-to 1/4-inch slices (you'll need about 12 cups) and put them into a large bowl.
Mix the cucumbers and the drained onions.
In a stainless steel pot, boil the vinegar, sugar and spices.
Add the cucumber and onion mixture
Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.
One minute before the cucumbers are done, take the jars out of the oven using oven mitts and put them on a clean towel on the counter near the stove. Don't touch the jar rim or insides with the oven mitts. (I used a baking sheet to avoid handling the sterile jars too much, but you have to be careful as they slide around.)
Using your wide mouth funnel, fill each jar with cucumber mixture leaving 1/2 inch (1 cm.) head space, and then fill each jar with the brine from the pot. The brine should cover the cucumbers but leave the required head space. If you spill any on the rims, carefully wipe the top of the rim clean and dry with a clean towel or paper towel.
Fish the lids out of the hot water with your tongs and put them on a clean towel.
Put a metal lid on each jar.
Screw the screw bands on finger tip tight, which is not tight at all.
Leave the jars to pop. The metal jar lids will seal as the jars cool and the lid will be sucked down and be slightly concave. It can take up to 30 minutes for them all to pop.
Let stand for 24 hours undisturbed.
Store in a cool dark place or in the frig.
You can eat them in 2 or 3 days.

If you are going to process the jars, you have to get the hot water "bath" going at the start of the process. Determine how much water you need in the canner and bring the water to a boil and then simmer while you get the jars ready.

These are the instructions from http://www.homecanning.com/can/ALStepbyStep.asp?ST=5

Place jars on elevated rack in boiling water canner.
When all jars are filled or canner is full, lower rack into water. Be sure water covers jars by at least 1 inch (2.5 cm); add boiling water if required.
Place lid on canner and turn heat to high.
When water returns to a full rolling boil, begin counting "heat processing" time - 10 minutes in this case. When time has elasped, turn off heat and remove canner lid. Allow boil to subside, then lift jars using the jar lifter without tilting and place them upright on a towel to cool in a draft-free place. DO NOT RETIGHTEN screw bands.
Cool jars undisturbed for 24 hours.
After jars have cooled, check jar seals by pressing on centre of each lid. Refrigerate or reprocess any unsealed jars.
Wipe jars with a damp cloth.
Label and store jars in a cool, dark place. For best quality use home canned foods within one year.

Salade Niçoise with Beef

Salad Niçoise has always been a favourite of mine. The classic recipe calls for green beans, potatoes, tuna, olives, eggs, anchovies, and Dijon vinaigrette.

This recipe has the same Provencal taste and is really delicious, perfect summer dinner. You can use leftover beef or broil a sirloin steak. I made it tonight in about 15 minutes, including running out to the garden for parsley, tomatoes, arugula, and green onions several times.

Salade Niçoise with Beef

Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1 lb sirloin steak
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Capers or pickled peppers
Parsley, chopped
Arugula
Red onion, sliced or green onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
Nicoise olives, pitted

Instructions:
Grate the garlic and rub into the steak.
Preheat the broiler.
Put the steak on the broiling pan 6 inches from the element.
Broil 5 minutes on each side. Take out and let rest for 10 minutes.
Slice thinly across the grain.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together mustard and vinegar. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking.
Add capers or pickled peppers, parsley, and pepper.
Place arugula on a platter.
Layer the meat, onion, and tomatoes.
Pour over the vinaigrette.
Garnish with olives.

The Best Sour Cream You've Ever Tasted

I made this yesterday morning and it was ready this morning. It takes about 2 minutes to make and it is silk smooth and delicious.

Sour cream is great in cucumber salad, as a condiment with most soups, and is fabulous with baked potatoes and potato salad.

When making yogurt and sour cream I always use jars that have been washed in the dishwasher fairly recently, air dried and then stored with the lid on. There is a surprising amount of mould spores around any kitchen especially on dish rags and counters, no matter how clean you are. Of course you should be cleaning the dish rags and counters with hot water and dish soap constantly and avoiding cross contamination. According to CBC's Marketplace, using antibacterial products makes no difference at all.

In any case, we want the good healthy bacteria to live and multiply in our food and our gut. According to Beliveau and Gingras in Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer, the health benefits of fermented milk products are many.

You can also sterilize jars by putting them in a 200 degree F oven for 20 minutes. The lids should be simmered in a pot of boiling water. Of course, the jars should be washed with hot water and soap and rinsed well before sterilizing.

Homemade Sour Cream

Equipment:
1 litre or quart sealer jar and lid

Ingredients:
2 cups (500 ml.) light or heavy cream (half and half or whipping)
3 Tbsp. (100 ml.) cultured or live buttermilk (read the label to make sure it contains live cultures or bacteria)

Instructions:
Pour boiling water over a clean sealer jar (inside and outside) and the lid to sterilize.
Dry carefully with a clean dry tea towel or paper towel and avoid contact with anything in the kitchen.
Pour the cream and buttermilk into the hot jar. If you have any dribbles or spills, use a paper towel or clean tea towel to wipe the jar.
Cover the jar tightly and shake to combine the ingredients.
Keep at room temperature until it reaches the desired thickness and tang --- about 24 hours.
Store in the refrigerator up to 3 weeks.
Throw the sour cream away if mold begins to form on the top.

Making Homemade Butter in a Food Processer --- Sooo easy

For a fascinating history of butter making and a discussion of using sweet versus cultured cream, see the following web site. The site also explains the flavour and colour of butter depends on the season. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/How-To-Make-Butter-And-Buttermilk.aspx

The ultimate web site on butter is Butter through the Ages at http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/index.html

I made butter this morning in about 15 minutes using the following instructions.

Homemade Butter

Equipment:
Food processer, with plastic, whisk, or chopping blade (I used the chopping blade).
Glass or measuring cups, various sizes
2 cups heavy whipping cream (Have the cream around 60°F/15°C before churning. I didn't warm mine up that but it worked anyway). Use fresh cream preferably straight from the store and use as soon as you open the carton. Apparently, "vat pasteurized cream" tastes better than ultra heat treated (UHT) or HTST pasteurized but I don't know a source.
Ice water (cold water with a few ice cubs in it).
Instructions:
Fill the food processor about 1/4 to 1/2 full. Blend. The cream will go through the following stages: Sloshy, frothy, soft whipped cream, firm whipped cream, coarse whipped cream. Then, suddenly, the cream will seize, its smooth shape will collapse, and the whirring will change to sloshing. The butter is now fine grained bits of butter in buttermilk, and a few seconds later, a glob of yellowish butter will separate from milky buttermilk. (Mine didn't form a glob until I added ice cold water with ice cubes in the third washing later.)
Drain the buttermilk and save for bread baking. You can eat the butter now --- it has a light taste --- though it will store better if you wash and work it.Add 1/2 cup ice-cold water, and blend further. Discard wash water and repeat until the wash water is clear (7 times). This will ensure that the butter does not go rancid.Now, work butter to remove suspended water. Place damp butter into a cool bowl and knead with a potato masher. The water will come out --- drain it off. The butter is now ready. Put butter in a French butter crock, ramekins or roll in waxy freezer paper. You'll have about half as much butter as the amount of cream you started with. You can freeze the butter or keep on the counter in a French butter crock. See this page for pictures and details: http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/crocks.html

If desired, add salt before working.

To make compounds, see this page for recipes: http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/compound-recipes.html

For even tastier butter, culture the cream before churning. Pour the cream into a pottery or glass bowl. Add a few tablespoons store-bought live cultured yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, clabbered cream, or creme fraiche, and let sit uncovered on the kitchen counter for 6 to 14 hours to thicken and ferment before churning. It should taste delicious, slightly sour, with no aftertaste. If it is bubbly, or smells yeasty or gassy, discard. Use some butter making tools, such as a churn, paddle for working, or molds for forming the finished butter.

Perfect Roasted Vegetables --- If you only know one recipe ...

Besides knowing how to make a simple green salad, everyone needs to know how to make roasted vegetables. Make them once or twice a week and you'll get all your vitamins and phytonutrients.

Once you've got your roasted veggies, then you can eat them hot or cold with meat or fish, made into a sandwich, or made into a salad with leafy greens and nuts or cheese.

Almost any vegetable can be roasted. Make your own combinations. Be sure to use fresh crisp vegetables.

For a special treat, use duck fat instead of olive oil.

Perfect Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

Basic combination:
2 sweet peppers, red, green, yellow, or orange, sliced in 1 inch strips
1 onion (red, yellow, or white), sliced
One or two root vegetables (yams, carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, beets), with peel, chopped in 1 inch chunks, or sliced diagonally
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Optional:
Zucchini or yellow summer squash, sliced
Acorn or butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
Eggplant, with peel, cut in slices or chunks
Cherry tomatoes or big tomatoes cut into chunks
Asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces
Corn on the cob
Brussels sprouts, cut in half
Mushrooms (cremini)
Fennel bulb, sliced
Broccoli, cut into largish sprigs
Lemon, sliced
Garlic cloves, grated or whole
Knob of fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes
One or more fresh green herbs, chopped (rosemary, thyme, oregano, tarragon, parsley, basil, sage, mint) (optional)
Chili powder (for corn on the cob)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. ( 225 degrees C.). Put the rack(s) in the middle of the oven.)
Put a sheet of foil on 1 or two large baking sheets. Don't use a non-stick baking sheet.
Heap the prepared vegetables on the baking sheet (s).
Pour on olive oil liberally.
Add salt and pepper, not too much.
If using them, add the garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and/or fresh herbs.
Mix well with hands or tongs.
Spread out into one layer (otherwise, they steam instead of roast). Use two baking sheets if necessary.
Put into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until all the veggies are cooked and golden brown.
Broil for 5 minutes at the end if you want more browning.
Remove from the oven, and move to a platter or casserole dish.

Roast Leg of Lamb with Joan's Accompaniments

I made the roast leg of lamb early one morning (to avoid heating the kitchen) and served it cold with salads in the evening for my old dear friends Kim and Stephen.

I grew up in a cooking culture that cooked all cuts of meat to well done, braised or pot roast style, mostly, and thought the tougher cuts had more flavour. I have had to teach myself how to cook better cuts of meat medium rare.

I cannot forget the image of my a pasture with 6 lambs that my Australian friend, Heather, painted. She and her husband eat only lamb and only lamb that they grow themselves. Every year they buy 6 lambs and then take each one to the abbatoir as the freezer empties. My dream come true --- my own grass-fed lamb all year round. MMMM!

I find Stongs nearly always has some kind of special on for lamb. This week it was fresh Australian leg of lamb. You can also use shoulder of lamb. You always want bone and fat in the meat because that's where the flavour and the nutrients are located.

Health benefits:

Lamb has incredible health benefits especially if it's 100% grass-fed as described in the excerpt below from http://www.mountvernonfarm.net/benefits.html My friend Patrick tells me that eating lamb is a good bet since most lamb is grass-fed. Nowadays, apparently the Australians are also turning to grain finishing. Too bad. Also, Patrick advises me not worry about lamb being tough as it is like pork, always tender.

Don't forget now, eat all the fat to get the health benefits of CLA for your heart and to prevent cancer. You can read more about the benefits of animal fat in Jennifer McLagan's great cookbook called fat.

Mount Vernon Farm website extract

In ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats, bison, deer, etc.), feeding grain — even if the grain is organic — produces meats that are not as healthy as 100% grass-fed meats because feeding just a little grain reduces the health benefits of the meat. Grass-fed meat is a lean, flavorful health food. It provides you with high levels of the antioxidant Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), which may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer. CLA also fights and reduces obesity, heart disease, “bad” cholesterol, adult onset diabetes, and many other ailments.

Synthetic CLA is available in health food stores, but CLA in its natural form (from 100% grass-fed meat) is 600 times more biologically available to your body, according to Professor T.R. Dhiman of Utah State University as published in the Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine.

Grass-fed meat also has six times the amount of ‘good’ Omega-3 fatty acids, the proper 1:1 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty-acids (the ratio found in plants; a ratio higher than 1:4 is detrimental to your health and grain-fed meat can have a ratio as high as 1:14), and four times the amount of vitamins E and A than grain-fed meat.

Grass-fed products also contain Activator X, a powerful catalyst only found in animal fats that helps your body absorb and utilize minerals.

All these benefits of pasture finished meat come with about the same amount of fat as skinless chicken, and at a fraction of the calories of grain-fed meat. You will want to eat the fat as that is where most of the benefits are concentrated. This is a super food that tastes great and is reasonably priced, especially when considering the extra nutrients in our meat. You would have to eat five to six servings of grain-fed meat to equal the nutrient intake from one serving of grass-fed, and you would be consuming all that additional, unneeded poor-quality fat and calories as well.

Cooking tips:

I have learned to use a meat thermometer. Patrick can just look at the meat and press it with his finger and know whether is is done. I like this traditional idea, but just don't trust myself yet. In any case, don't over cook lamb because it will shrink considerably. When you look at lamb that is done to medium rare, it will have shrunk a little (the bone will stick out slightly).
Gently press the tip of your middle finger and your thumb together. With the other hand, feel the fleshy area below the thumb. This is medium rare.

For comparison here's how the range goes (not that we would cook lamb that way):
Little finger to thumb - well done (quite firm)
Ring finger to thumb - medium (gives a little)
Middle finger to thumb - medium rare (gives a little more)
Index finger to thumb - rare (gives a lot)
This website explains it in detail:
http://elise.com/recipes/archives/007259the_finger_test_to_check_the_doneness_of_meat.php
Best of this blog:

I use a similar method using my face. If it's the softness of my cheek, it's rare; my chin, medium and my forehead, well done. It'd work a treat if I didn't keep getting distracted and forgetting that I'm cooking at all!

Keep in mind that it takes a piece of meat, any meat, a while to go from raw to medium rare, yet little time to go from medium rare to absolutely inedible hammered well done. My best advice is to pay attention to the juice. When a steak or burger begins to bleed, when the juices coming from the cut are bloody, you are looking at a medium rare temp. If the juices are clear, that is well done. Medium will tend to have an opaque and slightly bloody appearance.

Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board http://www.sksheep.com/cooking_lamb.htm, cooking tips:

Lamb should be cooked at low, moderate temperature not higher than 160° C (325° F). Slow cooking ensures a tender, juicy, evenly coloured and delicious final product.
Internal temperature at the center of the roast: Rare 60° C (140° F) Medium 65° C (150° F)Well done 70° C (160° F).
Lamb with an outside layer of fat or bone takes longer to cook.
Frozen lamb does not need to be thawed before cooking, but will require approximately 1.5 times the recommended cooking time. Braise frozen thick chops, shanks, and neck slices only slightly longer than comparable defrosted cuts. Broil frozen chops and patties further from the heat to ensure that the meat does not brown on the outside before it is fully cooked.
Leg, loin, ribs, shoulder, and shank --- cook by dry heat, e.g. roast. Chops from these cuts --- broil. Shoulder chops --- can also be braised. Breast, shank and neck --- cook by moist heat methods e.g. simmer or braise.


Roast Leg of Lamb

Ingredients:
1 leg of lamb, any size
8 garlic cloves
4 sprigs rosemary


Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. ( 165 degrees C.) for 20 minutes.
Rinse the meat.
Peel the garlic cloves and slice them lengthwise into halves. Don't add salt and pepper.
With a small paring knife, cut incisions into the meat every 2 inches and stuff them with garlic and rosemary.
Season with salt and pepper.
Put a rack into a roasting pan.
Put the meat on the rack, and roast uncovered for 1-1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into the centre of the meat (not touching bone) registers 130-135 degrees F. (55 degrees C.). Cooking time will vary with the thickness of the meat.
Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes. Place a foil tent loosely over it. As the meat rests, the internal temperature will increase by several degrees, the muscle fibers will relax, and the juice that has come to the surface of the meat during cooking will begin to return to the center. A well-rested piece of meat will be more tender, and will retain its juices better when you slice it.
Serve well-chilled or hot.
Serve with rhubarb chutney.

Joan's accompaniments:
We’ve been doing those little new potatoes boiled with little onions, even if you buy the large green onions and cut off the green ends and save for salads. Boil that together until done. Then drain and add olive oil, coarse sea salt, and fresh pepper and mix together like a salad but it’s a warm potato dish. It is wonderful. With that I just take a simple lettuce, leafy green or butter, not spring mix, and add an herb (cilantro) and green onion, and then also just add olive oil, salt, pepper. That’s it. Serve with roast meat or fish.

Caprinhas --- Great Summer Cooler

This is a great Brazilian drink, very healthy. One of my Brazilian students, Helena, taught me this one. She also brought the cachaca (pronounced kashasa), which is a coconut-based liquor, with her in a fabulous pottery container shaped like a coconut.

Brazilians like their Caprinhas very sweet, but you can cut the sugar down a bit.
Apparently you can make Caprinhas with any fruit you have around, but the limes are terrific. Also, you can use vodka or Ypioca (sugar cane liquor) instead of cachaca.

Serve to your guests when they arrive --- it really makes for an immediate recovery from the blasting heat outside.

You can also make each drink separately and muddle the lime and sugar for each drink separately in the glass.

Caprinha

Ingredients: (makes 4 drinks)
4 limes
1/2 cup sugar
4 shots (oz.) of cachaca
ice

Instructions:
An hour or so in advance, put the glasses into the freezer (use old-fashioneds, i.e. short, fat glasses, for this drink).
Cut the limes into quarters and cut out the white pith but leave the peel.
Put the lime quarters and 1/4 cup sugar into a medium sized bowl or large (4 cup) measuring cup.
Using a pestle (wooden if you have one), muddle (press into a mush) the limes and sugar together, to get out both the juice and the oil from the lime peel.
Add the cachaca to the mixture.
Put the other 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl for dipping the rims of the glasses.
Take the glasses out of the freezer.
Dip each glass in the lime mixture and then into the dry sugar.
Put the sugar remaining from dipping the glasses into the lime mixture and stir.
Fill the glasses 3/4 full of ice cubes.
Pour the lime mixture into each glass and add 4 lime quarters to each glass.

Kristina's Cold Beet Borsch (Saltibarsciai)

Kristina made this incredible Lithuanian dish for me yesterday. Another wonderful summer soup recipe. Saltibarsciai (roughly pronounced "salchi bars chay") means cold borsch. Traditionally it is served with hot boiled potatoes.

Kristina describes it as a combination of soup and salad. She serves it as an appetizer and welcoming cooler to guests.

The first beets of summer, cucumbers, dill and green onion are all ready in the garden now or available at farm stands or your local produce store.

Equipment tip: Paring knives

The skin of beets usually falls off pretty easily if you slide your fingers across it with a little help from your "bird's beak" paring knife. I just found out that those small curved knives that are so handy in the kitchen are called "bird's beak" knives. They are not very sharp but they are pretty handy for so many things, including testing beets and potatoes. Just poke the knife into the centre of the beet or potato or whatever, pull it out and if the vegetables slides off with no more than a shake, it is done. I use mine for peeling and paring and trimming fruit and vegetables.

After cooking I make sure to wash all my knives and put them back in the knife block. Actually, I probably do that several times during any cooking session. Those little paring knives have a way of disappearing so I make sure they are all back in place.

Equipment tip: Graters

Those box graters are the best for grating almost anything (cheese, carrots). I hate getting my food processer or blender and use the box grater whenever I can. They provide the right support and leverage but still give your arms a workout. I can't imagine Giada doing it, she is such a little bird, but real cooks do it. Make sure to wash your grater immediately after using because cheese and carrots turn to cement on them very quickly.

I also have one of those microplane things that look like a ruler and is fabulous for nutmeg, garlic and ginger right over a cup, bowl, or pot and easy to wash. Wash right away --- again, garlic and ginger have a way of turning into cement.

Cold Beet Borsch

Ingredients:
5 to 6 medium beets
1 litre buttermilk
1 tsp. salt
2 boiled eggs
2 small pickling cucumbers
1 bunch fresh dill
4-5 green onions

Instructions:
Cook the beets in advance to make sure they have time to cool.
Wash the beets (not too carefully as they are peeled later).
Trim the stem to about 1-2 inches long. Don't trim the root. Leaving the stem and root prevents bleeding and makes sure the beets retain their flavour and makes less mess.
Boil the beets. It can take up to 45 minutes depending on the size of the beets. Do not overcook the beets as they won't taste good. Stick them with your bird's beak paring knife and when they fall off the knife with a shake they are done.
Cool the beets, preferably in the frig for several hours.
Trim the root and stem and peel the beets.
Shred the beets on the large side of a box shredder into a large bowl.
Trim the end of the cukes but don't peel them, and shred them on the large side of the box shredder.
Chop the dill and onion very finely.
Peel and slice the eggs on an egg slicer.
Add the eggs, cukes and herbs to the bowl.
Add a liter of buttermilk to make a thick soup or soupy salad consistency.
Add the salt and stir well.
Put in the frig for 2 hours and serve ice cold.

Green Bean Soup with Ham and Summer Savory (Shaubel Zuhp)

This is my favourite soup and I always make it when the green beans from the garden are ready.

Regular green or yellow beans are best and you must have fresh summer savory. As I've mentioned before you need to plant this herb in the garden yourself as it is not readily available. Before it blooms, cut enough for the freezer.

The best type of potatoes for soup and salad are the waxy ones. I like the Island Ambers, Warbas and Norchips from Westham Island Herb Farm or you can sometimes find German potatoes in Richmond at a farm stand. Yukon Golds from a produce store are also good. At this time of year, be sure to take advantage of all the new potatoes available.

Regarding parsley, I use both stems and leaves --- the stems are not hard and they have a lot of flavour. I try to add parsley in the last few minutes of cooking anything so it still looks fresh and green.



Green Bean Soup with Summer Savory


Ingredients:
Ham hock with bone
16 cups cold water
5 large potatoes, or 8-10 small new potatoes
4 cups green yellow beans
1 bunch fresh summer savory
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped with stems
10 peppercorns

Instructions:
You can make the stock the day before or in the morning. Refrigerate the stock and ham if you are not making the soup right away.
Put the ham, summer savory and peppercorns (in a spice ball) into a large pot with the water.
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
Remove the ham and put it on a board or platter.
Remove the summer savory stems and discard. Remove the spice ball.
When ready to make the soup, wash the potatoes (preferably new potatoes, the waxy type).
Cut into bite sized pieces but do not peel.
Add to the soup and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes while you prepare the beans.
Trim the beans and cut them into 1 inch pieces, and add beans to the soup and simmer about 15 minutes.
Cut the ham off the bone and discard bone, rind, and fat. Cut the ham into pieces and put back into the soup. I love the fat and rind so I sneak a few tidbits while cooking.
Add the fresh parsley, chopped with leaves and stems, and cooking.

Serve with brown bread and a bowl of sour cream on the side.

This soup does not freeze well because of the potatoes, so just eat it all week.

Raspberries --- Eat Something Black Everyday

I have been reading a lately about the benefits of black, purple, blue and dark red fruits and vegetables, especially berries, and the implications for health and well being. It makes sense --- our ancesters and the native Canadians maintained excellent health picking and eating wild and domestic berries and preserving them as well. So here's little motto I have adopted --- eat something black every day. For my purposes, I am including coffee as a black food.

But there are many other black options --- beets, blueberries, cranberries, eggplants, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, prunes, cherries, red and black grapes, raisins, red cabbage, purple kale, purple potatoes, black beans, red beans, red wine and chocolate.

You have to eat the skins and seeds such as raspberry seeds, to get most of the benefits, so that rules out juice. Apparently dried fruits and frozen fruits are okay and red wine retains some benefits of the grape skins but I have not found any details about that. Instinctively, I know that I should eat as much freshly picked raw food as possible. When possible, I head out to Westham Island Herb Farm and buy berries picked the same day. So don't just buy the fruit and stick it in the frig --- get out a bowl and starting eating and then eat some at every meal.

Be careful eating chocolate --- it comes with sugar. If you are tired all the time, get all the chocolate and other sugar out of your diet and eat lots fruit and green salads (and I don't mean caesar salad).

I have written about the wonderful tastes of beets, red cabbage, and cranberries on this blog, so check the Labels (blog speak for index) for recipes.

Raspberries are in full season now, and they are so delicate that they have to be picked and eaten. My house rule is that the first one out in the garden in the morning gets to eat all the berries for breakfast. I don't see much point in picking them and putting in the frig. Usually that means me --- I keep rooster hours. There are also just enough strawberries still bearing and the blueberries are starting too. House guests and students are offered first dibs but they have to get out early.

Heaven is a mug of strong black cofffee, freshly ground overroasted beans of course, and warm berries plucked and eaten on the spot. I check out the peas and eat those too, pod and all if they are not too fat yet.

If you have a sunny spot about 3 feet in diameter in your garden, plant a summer-bearing variety. You don't need any special conditions other than sun. Mine are some kind of heritage plant, I wish I knew what because they are absolutely delicious --- huge, sweet, juicy flavourful, and prolific. You can read pages and pages about growing them, but as usual I do the least you can. You will need to prune the canes at the right time and you will need to stake them. You will also need to watch for suckers and pull them out.

There are two types of canes on the plant --- ones with flowers and fruit and ones without. In late summer or fall, remove the ones that had flowers and fruit, i.e. cut them off at the ground. Don’t top the ones without flowers during the summer --- they will have fruit the next year. In January to March, remove damaged canes leaving all the healthy canes. Prune the whole thicket to fit the space allotted and shorten the canes to 6 feet. I use stakes from Lee Valley but any wooden or bamboo sticks that you can jam into the ground will do. You need string or ties to tie the canes to the stakes. You will need gardening gloves and secateurs for pruning (friendly neighbourhood Home Hardware).