Warm Cermini and Exotic West Quebec Mushroom, Half Dried Tomato, Pickled Ottawa Valley Ramp and Olive Salad

A selection of exotic west Quebec mushrooms from Le Coprin.
The greater the selection the more complex the flavour.  My favourites are the honey and king eryngii.

Oddly enough I developed this recipe the first week of January.  I was thinking about a cold weather salad and was tried of beets, one of my fall back ingredients for cold weather salads.  I was researching warm “salads” for cold days and I saw something like this.  It was the idea of mushrooms that caught my imagination, but the original recipe used capers which reminded me of the jars of Ivan’s wild ramps, all picked on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, that I had pickled last spring.  I make a relish with them and thought that I could adopt them for this recipe. 

The next thing of course was the mushrooms.  Christophe Marinaux cultivates mushrooms up the Gatineaux, on a farm near Wakefield.  He picks as well, however, the demand for the cultivated mushrooms and the demand of family limits his picking.  I am always happy if he comes in with wild chanterelles or even more special, Gatineaux hills porcini.  However, for this recipe, I am using a variety of his Asian mushrooms, particularly varieties of oyster and shitake mushrooms that he produces.  The more interesting the mushroom, the more interesting the salad.  Make time and take the effort to locate some interesting mushrooms.

The half dried tomatoes are from Italy and I prefer them to the dried tomato because they are have more pulp and are juicier.  They are harder to find and if you can’t find them, use the oil packed dried tomato cut in thin slivers.  I love olives and thought that their brininess and saltiness would work well with the sweetness of the tomatoes, the pickle of the ramp and meatiness of the mushroom.  The arugula adds a contrast to the salad and wilts well; you don’t want it to wilt all the way, just soften it with the warm oil.

The garlic bread is wonderful.  Normally I use Romano cheese – I prefer the sharp taste of the Romano, but if you prefer a more subtle flavour use Parmesan – but for this recipe I have substituted Highland Blue.  Back Forty’s cheese production is spotty and their cheeses aren’t always available.  If you can’t find it, use Roquefort, or maybe just go with the Romano.  If you think that you are making too mush base, you aren’t.  It keeps well in the refrigerator for about three weeks, but it never lasts that long in my house.  In the old days it lasted even less time in the restaurant.

Use this salad as a starter to a diner or make a larger salad and serve it for a lunch entrée.  Enjoy.

Warm Cermini, Exotic West Quebec Mushroom, Half Dried Tomato,

House Preserved Ottawa Valley Wild Ramp, and Olive Salad

with Back Forty Highland Blue-garlic bread,

a balsamic-lemon drizzle and arugula

for the salad:

6 Tbsp. olive oil                                                        ½ lb. cermini mushroom

12 oz. west Quebec mushrooms                           ¼ cup pickled wild ramp

¼ cup black olives                                                   2 Tbsp. lemon

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar                                       salt and pepper to taste

Remove the stems from the cermini and cut caps into slices or leave whole if small; cut the west Quebec mushrooms into appropriate size.  Cut the ramps into quarters along their length.  Toss the mushroom with the oil, sauté in small batches until browned.  Combine the mushrooms, ramps, olives, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar in a roasting pan.  Roast in a 400° for about 10-12 minutes, to bring the flavours together.  Set aside.

Per order warm a half-cup of the mushroom mixture; at the same time, toss the arugula with olive oil.  When still warm, toss the mushrooms with the arugula to lightly wilt.

for the bread:

½ lb. butter at room temperature                          ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup roasted garlic                                              ½ cup blue cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all the ingredients together.  Brush the bread with the mixture and toast in oven for 2-3 minutes.

The finished salad.  Warm, with complex flavours and a satisfying ending.

Beef Satay served over Chinese egg noodles with quick pickled vegetables with pineapple chili dipping sauce

The marinated, skewered beef with a selection of raw vegetables waiting to be pickled

For most Canadians of my generation, and for generations before mine, the first non European food that we experienced was Chinese food.  The Chinese came to Canada to build the railway and later as they immigrated across the country, to introduce Canadians who had emigrated from Europe, to the cuisine  of the far east. 

When I was a kid we would have “Chinese” food maybe once a year, on New Years Eve, my parents night out on the town: the meal most often consisted of sweet and sour pork, chicken fried rice and beef in some awful orange sauce.  Chinese food was exotic, mysterious and way too sweet; it was an adventure. 

Chinese food was exotic, something special and my first tentative steps into the world of new cuisine. On the first date that I can remember going out on, we were going to a high school play, but before the play, we when out for dinner.  Chinese food.  The only thing I can remember about the meal is the advice offered by my older sister, “…Offer to serve your companion  (she wasn’t my girlfriend, just a date) before you serve yourself.  And don’t fill your plate right away, you can always get more food after you’ve finished what’s on your plate…”  That was Chinese food in Hamilton.  Not a hot bed of the oriental cuisine.

Not surprisingly, Chinese food is something more than the stuff that I experienced in Hamilton.  It has become old hat, a part of the back ground; as time has gone by, it has been surpassed as exotic food in Canada by Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian – in many variations - and north and south African cuisine, each in their turn becoming the new in food.  But in study the cuisine of Asian, I have come to recognize the many and varied cuisines of China as the first and the mother of Asian cooking.  It is the foundation on which other cuisine have build and its more than sweet and sour, too clinking sauces and way too sweet.  It is intriguing and complex and fascinating.  My first experience of Chinese food beyond “Hamilton Chinese” was from the Time-Life series of world foods and expanded to maybe a hundred cook books, endless meals in a wide variety of Chinese/regional restaurants and the realization that I am only beginning o understand the depth of the food.  Each journey is started with a single step, and this is a step into the culture of Chinese cuisine.

This is a simple recipe for a light lunch or dinner.  I use skirt or flank steak for the satay and I marinate the beef at least overnight; but if you have the time, let the meat marinate for 2-3 days. 

The longer the time in the marinade, the more the meat is infused with flavour; quick marinating leaves the flavour on the surface and gives no depth to the complexity of the marinade.  I am offering two variations on serving the noodles: the first is a warm, crispy noodle cake with the pickled vegetables on the side; the second is a cold noodle salad with the pickled vegetables topping and tossed with the noodles.  This is a quick pickled vegetable recipe – quick and simple and not to be confused with the fiery flavour of true kimchi and other pickled vegetables.  The selection of vegetables is a basic suggestion; if you choose to use a cucumber just pickle it for about 15 minutes, as it tends to get much too soft if pickled longer – or simply save yourself the trouble and use a zucchini.  The quick vegetables are “chopped” on a benrider – a Japanese mandolin; if you don’t have one – GET ONE – or process the vegetables into match stick sized chop.

Beef Satay

 served over Chinese egg noodles, with quick pickled vegetable salad

and a pineapple-chili  dipping sauce

for the marinate:

1 cup pineapple juice                                    ½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup sake                                                      ¼ cup soya sauce

1 lime –juice and zest                                    2 Tbsp. each garlic and ginger, chopped

2 Tbsp. brown sugar                                      1 Tbsp. jalapeno pepper, in thin rings 

Combine all the ingredients and marinate the beef overnight.

for the pickled vegetables:

½ cup rice vinegar                                          ¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. kosher salt                                           2 tsp. Szechwan peppercorns   

2 Tbsp. jalapeno pepper, sliced in thin rings

1 Tbsp. ginger, minced                                 1 tsp. garlic, minced                                                        

Toast the salt and peppercorns; grind and set aside.  Combine the vinegars and sugar; heat until the sugar is dissolved.   Whisk the spice mix, pepper, ginger and garlic into the simmering vinegar mixture: combine with spice mix and ginger, return to a boil and pour over the vegetables.

suggested vegetables:

2 cups nappa cabbage, thinly sliced                   2 cups daikon

1 cup each carrots and zucchini                          1 cup red onion

1 cup sweet pepper                                                2 Tbsp. sesame oil

½ cup green onion, thinly sliced                          ½ cup cilantro, chopped

Combine the nappa, daikon, carrot, zucchini, onion and red onion; pour the pickling liquid over the vegetables and let stand for an hour.  Strain off the excess pickling liquid; toss with the sesame oil, green onion and cilantro to serve.

for the noodles:

1 lb. egg noodles – to serve about 4-6 people

sesame oil

Boil the noodles until al denta; toss lightly with the oil, spread out to cool.  If making noodle pillow, form into 6 noodle nests.  To cook brown in a well tempered cast iron or non stick pan – really, it depends on how well you maintain you pans.  Unfortunately too many people abuse cast iron pans and they are left with rust rings and scraped out so anything sauté in them sticks like crazy.  If this sounds like you, then use a non stick pan.  The noodle cakes can be warmed up in an oven for a few minutes before serving.

for the pineapple-chili drizzle:

1 cup pineapple, chopped                           2 cups each orange and pineapple juice

½ cup seasoned rice vinegar                      ½ cups sesame oil

½ cups each mint, cilantro, with stems      ¼ cup ginger root, cut into coins, smashed

¼ cup shallots, thinly sliced                         4 Tbsp. jalapeno pepper, cut into rings

1Tbsp. garlic, smashed                                ¼ cup brown sugar

1 each bay and keffir lime leaves     

Combine all the ingredients and simmer for 30 - 40 minutes; remove the cilantro, mint and bay leaves.  Puree and strain.  Adjust seasoning.

                                    

                  

Beef Satay served over a noodle and pickled vegetable salad with pineapple-chili sauce.
The bowl's from a soup and food fundraiser held at the Glebe Community Centre annually.

Warm, Almond Crusted Goat Cheese on a bed of fennel and grapefruit with pink peppercorn dressing

This is a winter salad, a celebration of the citrus which makes its way north travelling from the warm, sunny, sunshine state along highways that pass through a country which greys fr om the lush green of citrus state, to greyed, leafless trees and colourless grass land, to here, a country of too many acres of too much snow and too much cold and too little light.
Pretty on the plate, this dish is coloured with the very pale, almost white, green of fennel, the pink and pale pearl of the grapefruit, the toasted warmth of the crusted cheese and the splashes of pink in the vinaigrette.
On those days, as the day light lengthens, and the sun warms the kitchen to an almost spring warmth, this makes a beautiful light lunch.
A few notes on the salad: try to use both pink and white grapefruit, it makes the salad more of a visual delight. I enjoy the sharp sour-sweet taste of the grapefruit, however, you can mix in other citrus as well: if you cab find them, the Meyer lemon – a lemon/tangerine highbred – adds additional depth to the plate; to sweeten the disk, you can blend in some sweeter orange, but to so with a light hand, the stronger flavour of the grapefruit or Meyer lemons balances the chalky flavour of the cheese. The sweetness of the orange lacks the depth to balance the salad.
As to the cheese, I prefer the flavour and texture of an unripen goat cheese. However, if you prefer a richer, more creamy texture, you can go with a brie style cheese: I often use a raw cow’s milk triple brie from Quebec or for an intriguing variation, try one of the soft-ripened Fifth Town Goat Cheese, which keeps that chalkiness of goat cheese, but at the same time provides a more creamy finish.
Finally a note on the crust: I use almonds in this crust, both for texture and for taste. You want a little crunch in the finish. If you prefer, and can find and afford them, pine nuts offer a beautiful finish. Another tree nut can also be substituted.

Almond and Herb Crushed Goat Cheese Fritter

served over a shaved fennel and grapefruit salad

with a dijon and pink peppercorn vinaigrette

for the fritter:
4 X 2 oz. goat cheese, formed into a “puck”
½ cup bread crumbs ½ cup almonds, chopped
1 Tbsp. each parsley, thyme, chives, minced
1 tsp. lemon zest
seasoned flour                                                         1 egg beaten with tablespoons of water
Combine the bread crumbs, almonds, lemon zest and herbs; set aside. Toss the goat cheese win the seasoned flour, dip in egg and roll in the almond mixture to well crust. Refrigerate. Just before serving, prepare the plate, brown the fritter.

for the vinaigrette:
¼ cup shallot, thinly sliced                                      1 cups olive oil
2 Tbsp. each grapefruit juice, champagne vinegar and white wine
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard                                              ¼ cup pink peppercorns, lightly crushed
¼ cup chives, minced salt and honey to taste
Combine the juice, vinegar, wine and mustard; whisk in the olive oil, shallots, peppercorns and herbs. Adjust seasoning.

for the salad:
1 bulb of fennel 2-3 grapefruit
baby greens
Remove the core from the fennel; it is easiest to shave it the fennel with a mandolin – a Japanese variation, the Benrinder, is available in some Chines kitchenware stores for about $40 and is a good investment. Carefully cut the skin from the grape fruit; over a bowl, slice out the segments and squeeze the juice into the bowl. The juice can be used in the vinaigrette, above. Combine the fennel and grapefruit and toss with the vinaigrette, making a bed on the plate. Mold the greens on the grapefruit mixture – I don’t dress it, there should be sufficient vinaigrette on the grapefruit mixture to “dress” the greens. I hate overdressed salads. Finish with the goat cheese fritter.

Jerked Pork Pork with plantain fritters and chutney

Raw Pork Belly with a ripe plantain, hotter than hell habanero and ginger root 

The Canadian winter in the Ottawa valley begins sometime in November and can strength, long, cold, white through to April.  The trees are nuded by the cold and wind, the grass browned, the fields, street roads blanketed in growing and shrinking piles of snow.   And those local crops that can be are stored in dark root cellars; I love those root cellar vegetables, they are the flavours of winter and carry the body through the long cold.  But every so often, I need to escape the flavours of winter, to break away from the weigh of the root cellar and taste something which conjures up hot flavours, the hot sun.

Not to lose all touch with the winter, this recipe combines the flavours of the sun with the remnants of the harvest put away against the winter.  Recently, poor cuts of meat have become more and more popular; although I’m not sure that cured and smoked pork belly becoming bacon could be more popular, its base product, then raw untreated belly, isn’t something which traditionally found its way into the kitchen.  If you can’t find pork belly, which is usually available either from a good butcher shop or can be found in an Chinese market, you can substitute pork shoulder.

This is something like a Canadian escape to the Caribbean, at least in taste, for a night. 

This is a recipe that requires several days, although not much time on any given day.  The finished pork can easily be portioned, frozen and be used at another time.  I’m offering two variations on the chutney to accompany the pork: the curried rhubarb is one which I usually make in the late spring and can over the winter; mangoes are available for a longer time, and I use fresh mangoes for this chutney, however, its just as easy to use mango which are preserved from the summer or fall.  Finally, I’m including a plantain fritter, but the pork can be as easily served with sweet potato frites.

Begin by carefully removing the rind from the meat and scoring the meat on both sides.  Marinate overnight; this is an aggressive marinade, so I don’t think the pork needs more than a night in the marinade.  After the pork belly has been braised, let it cool in the braise and then weigh it down over night.  This give the belly a better texture to serve.

The jerked, braised pork belly, resting in its fat and spices

Jerked, Slow Braised West Indies Pork Belly,

served with curried rhubarb or mango chutney and plantain fritter

for the marinade:

8 Tbsp. allspice berries                                 2 cinnamon sticks

2 Tbsp. mustard seed                                    2-3 habernao peppers, chopped

2 Tbsp. garlic, chopped                                8 Tbsp. ginger, chopped

4 Tbsp. thyme, basil, parsley                       4 Tbsp.  brown sugar

1 cup orange juice                                         4 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. soya sauce                                       8 Tbsp. lime juice                                    

Toast the allspice, cinnamon stick and mustard seed; grind.  Combine all the ingredients.  Marinate the pork belly for 4-6 hours or overnight.

for the west indies masala:

6 Tbsp. coriander seeds                               1 Tbsp. Fenugreek seeds

2 Tbsp. fennel seeds                                     1 Tbsp. mustard seeds

1 1/2 Tbsp. cumin seeds                              2 Tbsp.  turmeric

1 Tbsp. allspice

Roast all the ingredients except the turmeric together; grind to smooth.  Add the turmeric.

for the braise:

2 cups onions chopped                               2 Tbsp.  garlic, minced*

2 cups tomatoes chopped (canned are ok), chopped

1 habanero seeded or 3-4 jalapeno minced

½ cup veg oil                                                2 Tbsp. masala

3 cups chicken stock – to just cover 

Sauté the onions, garlic and peppers; add the masala and cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stock, bring to a boil and pour over the belly.  Cover, braise at 300° for 2 - 2 1/2 hours until tender.

*I buy 25 pounds of local garlic in the fall and use it over the winter.  The thing that brothers most people about garlic is its core, which is bitter and cause indigestion.  When using garlic always check to see if there is a core and remove before using.

Hot, spicy pork belly with crispy plantain fritters and curried chutney

for the chutney:

1 cup apple cider vinegar                             ¼ cup each orange and lemon juice

1 cups brown sugar                                       1 tsp. mustard seed

1 tsp. red pepper flakes                                 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 cup red onions, minced                             2 Tbsp. ginger, minced

1 Tbsp.  garlic, minced                                ¼ cup lime, seeded, chopped

6 cups mango - hard - peeled and chopped

Combine all the ingredients, except the mango, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Add the mango and continue to simmer until the mango is tender - about 20 minutes.

for the plantain fritter:

2 ripe plantain                                                          1 cup of masa harina

1 tsp. baking powder                                              ¼ cup shallots, minced

2 Tbsp. each garlic, ginger, minced                    2 Tbsp. butter

1-2 Tbsp. Caribbean masala                                salt and pepper to taste

Depending on how ripe the plants are, either mash or roast until soft and mash; set aside.  Sauté the shallots, garlic and ginger together until soft; add the masala, taste for spice, cooking for an additional 3-5 minutes.  Adjust the seasoning.  Form into dumplings, crust (below) and fry to serve.

for the crust:

1 cup cornmeal                                                       1 Tbsp. Caribbean masala

1 tsp. cumin seed, roasted, ground                     2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

Combine all of the ingredients.  

Maple Scone and Bacon Two Cheese Scone

The Raw Maple Scone

Its Saturday afternoon. True Loaf, the bakery that I usually collect my morning bread from is closed for a spring break and I’m considering Sunday morning breakfast; for me, breakfast consists of two primary elements, large honey sweetened mugs of tea – one mug on a work day, two on an off work day – with some sort of bread. But without True Loaf – a weekend treat is the date-fennel bread – I’m left to consider what bread to have for Sunday breakfast. For about four years my workday, and some days my days off, began with my making scones; I can’t really remember, but it seems to me that Domus offered scones before lunch and, more importantly, scones with afternoon tea. I haven’t made scones in some time and think that maybe tomorrow morning would be about the right time to make a batch again.
The first question is savory or sweet? What to make, what to make: I don’t just want scones for breakfast, so I decide to make cheese scones-bacon scones. But my son doesn’t eat meat; I’ve tried to explain that bacon isn’t meat, its bacon, like salt is salt and pepper is pepper. It’s much more than meat; he doesn’t see my argument and won’t eat the cheese-bacon scone. I would just leave the bacon out, but that’s really like leaving out the salt and pepper and I don’t really like the idea. So….it will be savoury and sweet.
My favourite scone in the old days was a maple scone and I decide to go with it to accompany the cheese bacon scone.
I will be using extra old Cheddar and Romano cheeses: I like sharp hard cheeses in my scones and I have these in the house. If I didn’t and I had o go looking, I might try a hard old sheep’s milk cheese, which will push the direction of the scone, or maybe even a hard blue cheese. If you prefer, a fresh goat’s cheese is a different variation, a softer, tangy-chalky scone. I really don’t use a lot of bacon and cook it to crisp and dry, to give create distinct instances of texture and flavour in the scone. The other element that I think is important in a cheese scone is spice: either grind a healthy sprinkle of fresh black pepper into the scone – if you have pre-ground pepper in the house, run, don’t walk, and throw it out! While it may be black-grey speckled it lacks the piquant element of fresh ground pepper, which isn’t to say I don’t pre-grind pepper. I do, but I use it within a day. Anyhow, if you don’t have fresh ground black pepper, use a pinch of cayenne. And toss in a palm – something less than a handful – of fresh herbs.
As to the sweet scone, the real trick is to reduce the maple syrup: this both intensifies the flavour, giving a rich maple undertone to the scone and controls the amount of liquid being added to the batter. I had the end of last season’s maple sugar in the cupboard and used it with the reduced maple syrup; if you don’t, use as raw a brown sugar as you have at hand. You can also use a teaspoon of lemon zest in the maple scones, to balance the sweetness and bring out the flavour of the maple.
Finally, and most importantly don’t over work the scone dough. For small batch, like we’re making here, I work the wet ingredients into the dough using a dinner fork, and once its come together, work it as little as possible to shape into a slab of dough, before rolling it out. Roll it out once, cut the scones, bring it back together and cut another set of scones – what’s left over, I call the bakery’s portion, a left over nob of dough that I devour before it comes to the table.

For a long time I had eggs over with bacon and maybe fried tomatoes.
With age I've learned to appreciate the pure flavour of a poached egg -
I poach in water with as little vinegar as I can get away with. 

Cheese Bacon Scone

2 cups flour 2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground pepper or ¼ tsp. cayenne 1 cup each Cheddar and Romano cheese
½ cup bacon, diced 6 Tbsp. butter
½ cup chopped herbs – parsley, chive 1/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
Place the bacon in a pan with about a quarter cup of water, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until the water is cooked off and the bacon fat rendered; continue to cook until the bacon is crisp; set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sat and pepper; set aside. Cut the butter into small cubes; set aside. Grate and combine the cheeses; set aside. Beat the eggs into the buttermilk; set aside. Cut the butter into the flour mixture, working until the flour is coarse and crumbly, sort of like oatmeal; cut the cheese mixture into the flour mixture, working to incorporate. Toss in the bacon and herbs, stirring to combine. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; pour in the buttermilk mixture and work, with a fork, to combine. Once rough dough has formed, work with your hands to bring it together. Roll out and cut scone; bring the dough together and roll out again, cutting the final scones. Place on a parchment covered baking sheet.
Bake at 400°F for about 20 minutes, until a beautiful golden brown. Let cool a bit before serving.

In the foreground sweet maple scones and in the background cheddar and bacon scones.
I like the maple scones with goat cheese and peach rum conserve.

Maple Scones

½ cup of maple syrup, reduced to ¼ cup
3 cups flour ¼ cup sugar – maple or raw brown
1 Tbsp. baking powder ½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt 8 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup buttermilk 2 eggs
2 Tbsp. 35% cream + 1 Tbsp. maple syrup, combined
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Cut the butter into small cubes; set aside. Beat the eggs and reduced maple syrup into the buttermilk; set aside. Cut the butter into the flour mixture, working until the flour is coarse and crumbly, sort of like oatmeal. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; pour in the buttermilk mixture and work, with a fork, to combine. Once rough dough has formed, work with your hands to bring it together. Roll out and cut scone; bring the dough together and roll out again, cutting the final scones. Place on a parchment covered baking sheet.
Bake at 400°F for about 20 minutes, until a beautiful golden brown. Let cool a bit before serving.