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.