Month: July 2011

Cherry and Sorrel Salad

~ Lynn ~ 15 Comments

Growing up I would ask my parents to get a pool every summer. Every summer they would say no. To be honest I asked them to get a pool this summer too; still no. Sigh. I guess it’s a turtle shaped kiddie pool for me again this year.

Instead of a pool they have trees and gardens. Sitting in the backyard almost makes me forget that I’m in a city. There are two little herb gardens, tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers, all kinds of flowers and more. Birds and squirrels are regular visitors.

This weekend some raccoons also stopped by. They showed up in the middle of the afternoon, and didn’t seem to be afraid of people at all. One them came right up to the patio door knocked. He would have come and sit down to lunch if we had opened the door. They are strangely cute and terrifying at the same time. They knocked over some plants, pulled my laundry off the rack. I assume they must have been very hungry because as far as I know raccoons are nocturnal, and although I felt bad I couldn’t feed them. I wanted my backyard back. My dad eventually scared them off, and we were once again able to enjoy the day.

Along with the sage and oregano in the picture above, there is also sorrel in the garden. I had never tried sorrel until yesterday; it’s got a zesty almost lemony taste to it. I instantly wanted to make a salad with it. I had already been planning to make a salad with cherries and decided to use the sorrel as well as some baby spinach as greens. The sweetness of the cherries was a great contrast to the zesty favour of the sorrel.


Cherry and Sorrel Salad

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbps lemon juice
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp fresh tarragon
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 cups sorrel, chopped
  • 4 cups baby spinach
  • 1 cup sweet cherries, pitted and halved
  • 6 ounces goat cheese
  • 1/2 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped
  1. In a small jar, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon, salt and pepper together.
  2. Put the greens and cherries in a large bowl. Toss with the dressing.
  3. Plate then top with the goat cheese and hazelnuts.
Enjoy!

Peach Cherry Crisp

~ Lynn ~ 20 Comments

When I was a kid if you asked me what my favourite fruit was I would answer with zero hesitation: cherries.

Today the answer is a little more complicated. It varies from month to month. In June I think strawberries are the greatest thing ever. Once July comes around my attention is divided between raspberries and cherries. In August I eat Lac St Jean Blueberries by the handful.

I’d like to say that peaches are on my list, but I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find good peaches in the last few years. I remember eating Niagara peaches from those pretty little baskets when I was young that were incredibly sweet and bursting with flavour. Lately I’ve found them to hard and tasteless; so disappointing I would rarely buy them. This weekend I had a peach that brought me back to my childhood. It was exactly the flavours I remembered. These weren’t from Niagara; I don’t know where they were from (unless Costco is a country).

Fruit that good cannot be allowed to go to waste so I used a few in a crisp. I decided to add a few cherries to please my inner child as well.I flavoured the fruits with almond extract and added some almond meal to the crisp topping. If you can find oats that haven’t been in contact with wheat this dessert is a great gluten free treat.

Peach Cherry Crisp

  • 3 large peaches, sliced
  • 1 cup cherries, pitted and halved
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract (or 1 tbsp amaretto)
  • 2 cups oats
  • 1/3 cup almond meal
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 F
  2. In a bowl toss the fruit with 1 tbsp sugar and the almond extract. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the oats, almond meal, cinnamon and salt together. Add the butter, then using your fingers tips cut the butter into the oat mixture. It should clump together when combined
  4. Pour the fruit into a baking dish or pie plate, top with the oat mixture.
  5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
  6. Serve warm or cold.
Enjoy!

Crème Bavaroise avec Gelée aux Fraises

~ Lynn ~ 24 Comments

Montreal is a city that is bursting at the seams with restaurants. I read recently that we have the most restaurants per capita in North America. I don’t know if that’s true but based on the number of restaurants I want to try, it certainly feels possible. To keep track of all the places we need to try Janice and I have a List. The List is hard to track; it’s maintained in email strings that are hundreds of emails long. The only way to find it is to search our mail for “restaurant list”, then sort through random chit chat. We might we need a better system.

One of the restaurants that has been on the list since we started it over a year ago is Joe Beef. We finally made it there a couple of weeks ago and had an incredible meal. I’m really not sure why we waited so long to go. I chose not to bring my camera to dinner because I wanted to focus on the meal, but as soon as we stepped out onto the terrace in the back and saw the incredible garden I regretted it. The patio is surrounded by a vegetable and flower garden that would make any home gardener quite jealous.

After quite a bit of deliberation, we finally chose our meal. For appetizers we shared shrimp with aioli and stuffed squash blossoms as well as scallop ceviche and cucumber salad. Both were excellent, but the highlight for me was the squash blossom. It was the first time I had ever had one, and I loved it. I honestly don’t know how to describe it other than delicate and deep fried.

For mains I had the cod and onion and Janice had the ribs. The fish was perfect served with onions cooked three ways (including a really awesome onion ring). Towards the end of our meal, Dave (one of the owners) came by to see how we were doing. Through the magic of twitter he knew who I was, which is fun. He told us about the hydroponic garden the have the restaurants basement, and the constant inspections they go through because of unusual electricity usage. It’s pretty safe to say that most people in Montreal with hydroponic equipment are not growing tomatoes. Some review boards have complaints about Dave’s attitude, but I found him to be warm and inviting; our conversation with him added to the ambiance of the evening.

For dessert Janice had the financiers and I had the bavarian cream with rhubarb compote. Having a dessert in a restaurant made from food grown in the backyard garden is pretty incredible. The bavarian cream was really light and airy, and the rhubarb had just the right amount of sweetness. That dessert inspired the recipe I’m sharing with you now.

I decided to use Quebec strawberries instead of rhubarb, and added a layer of strawberry gelée at the bottom. For the gelée I followed this recipe from the LA Times. My bavarian cream wasn’t quite as airy as what I had at Joe Beef, but it was very good. It was thick and creamy, not too gelatin-ey. It’s a perfect dessert for hot summer days. This dessert does take time to put together as there are several “setting” periods.

Bavarian Cream with Strawberry Gelée

For the Gelée

  • 1 pint strawberries, hulled
  • Juice of one lime
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 package gelatine
  1. Fill a medium pot halfway with water then bring to a boil. In a metal bowl that will fit over the pot, mix the strawberries lime juice and sugar together. Cover with plastic wrap then place over the boiling water (like a doulble boiler). Lower the heat and let the water simmer for an hour.
  2. Using a mesh strainer lined with a paper coffee filter, strain the strawberries into another bowl. Gently press down on the strawberries to extract all the juice, reserve the strawberry pulp for another use (great on pancakes)
  3. Mix the gelatin with 1/4 cup warm water to dissolve, then add it to the strawberry juice. Pour into serving dishes and let cool in the refrigerator until set, about 2 hours.
Bavarian Cream
  • 3 tablespoons cold water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons gelatin
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the water. Set aside.
  2. In a metal bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together.
  3. In a medium saucepan heat the milk and vanilla until small bubbles form around the edges of the pot. Do not let it come to a full boil.
  4. Whisk a small amount of the milk into the egg yolks to temper them. Slowly pour the remaining milk into the eggs whisking constantly.
  5. Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. The mixture should start to thicken.
  6. Pour back into a bowl and stir in the gelatin. Place the bowl in an ice bat to cool.
  7. While the custard is cooling, whip the cream to soft peak. Once the custard has cooled completely but before it starts to set, fold the whipped cream in. Pour into serving dishes and let set in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
Macerated Strawberries
  • 1/2 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • mint, sliced
  1. Toss all the ingredients together and let sit for about 30 minutes until the strawberries start to release their juice.
  2. Pour over set bavarian cream and serve.
Enjoy!

Watermelon Salad

~ Lynn ~ 18 Comments

I’ve had a couple of conversations recently about how hard it is to meet men. Where do you go? It’s pretty much impossible to have a conversation in a bar. Online dating is like looking for a needle in haystack. I already know all of my friends friends, although I could go to the friends friends friends level. At one point I thought I might meet a man in the elevators of my office building. There was this really cute guy I’d see often who would smile at me. Then one day I saw him in a restaurant with his girlfriend and realized he’s just an elevator flirt.

Both of the friends I talked to about this had already come to the conclusion that the only place to meet a man is the grocery store. There are some rules to keep in mind though.

  1. A man in a big grocery store in the burbs is most likely already in a relationship; small urban markets are the way to go.
  2. There is nothing to talk about in the canned soup aisle other than the amount of sodium in the cans; if you spot a cute guy there try and catch him again in the beer aisle.
  3. A man who only has beer and chips in his cart might be fun, but ultimately I believe the relationship would be unsatisfying.
  4. The best spot to meet a man in the grocery store is the produce section. You can discuss weird looking greens, how to pick a ripe fruit, and if your lucky melons might get squeezed.

And that brings me to the recipe part of this post; watermelon salad. I considered doing a savoury version, as that seems to be the trend these days, but to me watermelon is a sweet treat to enjoy at the end of a long hot day. It’s Watermelon is quite sweet on its own so I used just a bit of honey to sweeten the salad and a little rum to make it extra delicious (booze always makes dessert better).

Watermelon Salad

Serves 4

  • 1/2 a medium watermelon
  • 2 mangoes
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1 oz rum
  • Mint, finely chopped
  1. Using a melon baller, scoop out the watermelon and the mangoes into a medium bowl.
  2. In a glass, mix the lime juice, honey and rum together.
  3. Pour the line mixture over the fruit and toss with the mint.
Enjoy!

Orzo Salad

~ Lynn ~ 9 Comments


How often do you make recipes from blogs? Although I read a lot of food blogs, I rarely follow recipes I’ve found on them. I read food blogs more to follow the people than the recipes. Every blogger has their own story to tell, and a style they use to tell it. My favourite blogs are the ones that engage me, the ones that give the impression I’m actually getting to know the author. Pretty pictures help too.

That’s not to say I only read blogs for the articles. The recipes inspire me. Sometimes I’ll see a blogger use an ingredient in a way I had never considered, which makes me think of other innovative things to try in the kitchen.

Other times I’m inspired by the simplicity of a recipe. This salad was inspired by a very simple pasta dish by Paula of bell’alimento. Her recipe got me thinking that pasta is the perfect showcase for some of my favourite summer ingredients.

This dish is comes together very quickly, but is still full of flavour, especially if you use fresh summer produce.

Orzo Salad

  • 1 cup orzo
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 plum tomatoes, diced
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • chives, chopped
  1. In a large pot, cook the orzo according to the package instructions.
  2. While the orzo is cooking, in a large sautee pan heat the olive oil on medium. Add the minced garlic to the oil. Once you can smell the garlic, add the tomatoes, pepper and olives. Sautee for two to three minutes; the peppers should remain crisp.
  3. Strain the cooked pasta, pour into a serving bowl then add the tomato mixture. Toss with the lemon zest and chives.
Enjoy!