Last Jars

Stores certainly appear to be running low!  There are only two jars of pickles left, the jam supplies are looking anemic, and the last jar of Jim Hayward's San Marzano's went while I was out in British Columbia. Nyls asked for pasta for his birthday dinner today, and that led to me cracking the last jar of the pistou.  I continue to be amazed by how intense the smells and flavours remain a year after the basil and garlic were harvested. This has been great, especially when I consider how late the growing season is this year.  Last year at this time the asparagus was pretty much done, and here it is just starting.  All of which brings me to the bright side, namely the opportunity to lay in some pickled asparagus and asparagus soup this year.  Look for an update on that front as soon as I source 24 pounds of asparagus :)

Until then, here are a few photo's for your enjoyment!

The Key to Unlocking a Pomegranate (Redux)

A while ago I posted instructions for opening a pomegranate into a flower to serve in decorate arrangements like the one below.

Since then there have been a number of requests for more visual instructions.  With the help of our friend Abby I now have this little video that combines written instructions and and video clips of the details.

Enjoy!

What's Cooking on Cavell: The Movie

It's hard to believe it's been a year since I posted last!  In the event anyone has any illusions, it now seems apparent that  going back to school for a Masters cuts into your free time a tich.  That said, I'm coming up on a month break!  With an inch of ice still covering the back yard it seems hard to believe spring has sprung. I though that with today giving us a first taste of good things to come, sharing this retrospective of good things past.  I hope you enjoy it, and will do my best to share more in the weeks and months ahead.

Ploughman's... With Flowers?

While the so-called, "Ploughman's Lunch," may be a concoction of the Cheese Bureau in the late fifties, it doesn't mean it's not delicious. We periodically make one up when an easy supper or lunch is called for. This past Sunday I may have gotten a little carried away... Perhaps it was Spring's tentative arrival that inspired the creation of flowers...

Featured above is an olive-cilantro loaf from the St. John's Bakery, Pingue prosciutto and bresaola from Niagara Food Specialties, boiled duck eggs from Fresh From the Farm, spicy pepperoni, cheese, and butter (out of fame) from the Montfort Dairy. The pickles, beets, and asparagus are our own, and the olives are Turkish.

We've been asked to do a pickle plate for Easter as well, so there may be more, "flower," arrangements to come...

 

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Drawing down the Stores

Despite an extended cold spell this March, the dream of spring is in the air. You could feel it at the Brickworks yesterday. Between the Irish country dancing, Jamie Kennedy returning with his al fresco frites stand, and Ruth from the Montfort Dairy moving back to her prime outdoor spot you could tell. People are ready for spring.

This is the time of year we start drawing down our stores. The freezer has started to look like it needs a good defrosting, and ghosts of dinners past come back to delight us. That said, in the process of doing so, we've realized we didn't lay in any soups last fall. For those who haven't heard, I had a brutal bout of pneumonia, and our routine preparations for winter were thrown off.

So, we decided that a good batch of roasted pear-squash soup was in order to tide us through the cold and snow that's forecast for the week to come. Today the house smelled of roasting local squash, onions, double smoked bacon, ginger, and home made chicken stock. The pears were the only import, they were just too good to resist.

Things went swimmingly. The only problem was it was ready just after lunch, and we have to wait until dinner to eat it!

 

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The Perfect Pomegranate

The pomegranate is one of the many wonders of nature. Hidden beneath it's leathery exterior are a multitude of delights, packaged away like no other fruit. The tough skin makes extracting the pomegranate's. hidden treasures. Once upon a time we would spend what seemed like hours trying to extract all of the seeds. Surely there must be a better way?
Well, there certainly are. A quick search of the Internet will reveal the spoon trick. You can score the skin around the equator, halve the pomegranate, then paddle it with a wooden spoon over a bowl. Even with some of the gadgets to help, this always seemed a bit of a brute force and ignorance approach to me. It also leaves you with a bowl full of seeds mixed with pith which you have to pick over to separate. The delicate seeds are also often bruised, allowing the tartly delicious juice to leak out.
Surely there must be a better way?
There is. The structure of the fruit holds a secret key to not only extract the seeds, but also expose the inner beauty hidden away beneath the skin. If you inspect the the fruit closely you will find that there are a six just perceptible ridges running from the stem end to the blossom end of the fruit. These ridges are are reveal where the segments of the thick pith are separated by the seeds.

The flower is opened, and adorned with clementines

If you take a sharp knife, and trim off the blossom end, then score from the cut to just near the stem you will have turned the key in the lock. Now gently prise apart the the segments like opening up and orange, and you find yourself holding a flower of pomegranate seeds covered by the white membrane. This just peels off, leaving you with something like this to delight both the eye and the stomach.
This approach also allows you to snap off the segments and quickly seed them into a bowl without having to resort to abusing the poor fruit and its fragile contents.
So, the next time you see a pomegranate in the store, and it is firm and feels dense in the hand I encourage you to give it a try. You won't be disappointed!

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A Trio from Spain

Its been far too long since I've posted here. Between Nyls' arrival on the scene and a new role, time has been tight. That said, a couple of recent events have changed that.

First, we had a chance encounter with old friends at the Brickworks farmers market Saturday. not only was it a chance to catch up withDonna and Mel, we got to meet their son Ashton and niece Megan for the first time. Donna commented how much she's enjoyed the blog. Roberta from the Withrow Park market also commented on the hiatus recently. So, how can I disappoint my audience?

I have a long backlog of photos from the past year and half, and could easily dig into them for material. that would be too easy though, and to get things started off I.m going to stay current. With the cold winter months we've been trying a Spanish theme of late to mix things up and remind us of the sun. We've also been using a slow cooker fairly frequently, and enjoying time shifting our cooking efforts to the morning.

Two Sunday's ago it was a Spanish style beef stew, with tomatoes, black olives, and some different seasonings. To make this we reduced down some of Ben Sosnicki's tomatoes we put into stores last summer to make our own tomato paste, and let it simmer away all day. The mix of dry cured black olives and tomatoes gave the stew a distinctive flavour and richness that we haven't tried before, but will definitely try again.

Last week was Arozzo con Pollo. The otherworldly scent of fine saffron from the Spice Trader on Queen West filled the house and haunted our taste buds. Even Aija, who at times can be less than adventuresome, ate her fill of this delightful dish. That said, green olives are one of her favorite treats, and this dish had a fair number of them in it to keep her coming back for more.

Finally, today a boneless cross rib roast slowly cooked to tender perfection in a blend of good Madeira, some left over tomato sauce from the Arozzo con Pollo, rosemary, and thyme with a mix of vegetables to add flavour to the sauce. Once the roast was cooked, we removed it and the vegetables. Once the fat was skimmed a portion of the vegetables were returned and puréed into the sauce, which was poured over the lot on a Maiolica platter.

Nyls devoured all three. He's never met meat and vegetables in sauce he didn't like.

I hope you have enjoyed the reboot, and as usual recipes will follow at an erratic pace.

 

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