Flowers For The Dinner

It is salad season and adding a little extra bit of colour to a salad can come in the form of adding edible flowers. Nasturtiums go wild once they get growing and they are a beautiful addition of colour and artistry to a fresh green salad. A sprinkling of bright orange calendula petals is another delightful splash of colour for the salad plate. You don't have to leave them - go ahead and eat them along with the greens!
This colorful and delicate annual is from Peru, where it was once used to treat skin wounds. Nasturtium is well known for its edible spicy flowers and leaves; what may not be so well known is that it has a high content of vitamin C and effectively treats infections and may help relieve colds. It was first brought to Europe in the seventeenth century and first cultivated only in abbey gardens for medicinal usage.
Today, nasturtium is used in cooking and as an herbal remedy. The plant's peppery leaves make a delicious addition to a salad - as long as pesticides weren't used on the plant! Nasturtium is most often used to stimulate the appetite and promote good digestion - a perfect blend of the delightful plant's culinary and medicinal properties. Nasturtium is an easy, colorful plant to grow and is available with trailing, climbing or mounding habits and either dark green or variegated leaves. Plant it in full sun or partial shade for a large harvest of leaves and flowers all summer long.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/herbal_lore/44947

Roasted Tomato Spaghetti Sauce

The local café kitchen window (photo in the previous posting)grabbed my attention with the fresh herbs growing in the planter box, the luscious bowl of fresh tomatoes sitting in the open window and the colander hanging, ready at a moments notice to hold freshly washed produce as the cleansing water slowly dripped off. Summer time and plates of fresh sliced tomatoes always go together.

When I lived in Italy the tomatoes had flavour and colour that I have not found anywhere else. So red and juicy, to be eaten just as they were. Slice them onto a plate, fan them out, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and throw on some fresh basil leaves - oh so sweet and delectable! Travelling in Bulgaria several times, the shopska salad, made from fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, thinly sliced onions and feta cheese, was always cool, refreshing, and delicious. One never got tired of being presented with this simple salad.

Our tomato plants are currently laden with tomatoes: a hanging basket with cherry tomatoes, a roma tomato plant and one beefsteak plant. Unfortunately they are taking their time ripening so we have not been able to enjoy this fresh produce just yet. Soon some fried green tomatoes might end up along with our brunch omelette!

A plate of freshly picked tomatoes was in my line of vision and something for our evening meal was also on my radar so the idea of roasted tomato pasta sauce and spaghetti was what came out of it. The roasting of the tomatoes brings out their sugar and a deeper flavour for this sauce. Fresh tomato pasta sauce does not have the tang or the acid taste that using tinned tomato sauce can give. I was actually making this in the kitchen at work for our dinner so I didn’t have a camera ready to photograph it for this posting. So you will have to use the images your memory holds of steaming, heaped plates of pasta!

Roasted Tomato Spaghetti Sauce:

6 fresh good sized tomatoes (remove the stem core and then quarter them)
6 cloves of garlic (leave the skin on)
5 or 6 stems of fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon of dry oregano)
3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 - 2 teaspoons sea salt
Heat oven to 350F

Also:
½ cup red wine (if you like)
1 cup small cubed pancetta
Touch of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar

Gently toss the tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, balsamic and oregano together and place on baking pan, put into the oven for 45 minutes.

When the tomatoes are done, gently squeeze the garlic out of the skins. It will be a bit caramelized which is perfect!

Put everything into your blender, including all the juices and the oil, and blitz it for just a moment. It won’t be really smooth - you don’t want it to be.

I just love pancetta in my spaghetti sauce so I then saute the cubed pancetta in a little bit of olive oil until it is getting lightly browned. This Italian bacon has a very unique flavour to add to your sauce. Add in your pureed roasted tomato and garlic mixture and add the red wine and the touch of sugar. Simmer this at a very low heat for about 20 minutes. Using a good size fry pan is best.

Cook up your spaghetti pasta (Garofalo brand is my favourite). When the pasta is ready, drain it (don’t rinse it) and put it into the sauce and toss it all together.

Add grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.

Buon appetito!

Fresh...

If only "fresh" ingredients were always this close at hand, this easy to procure!

Moments of Surprise

I adore those moments that take you by surprise, make you take a breath, then exhale, leaving you with a delicious sense of wonder with life.

Early the other morning I caught sight of the bear leaving the apple tree to head for something else. He stopped, stood tall, reached up and pulled down a towering sunflower and helped himself to the seeds it held.

A perfect morning snack on his morning walk!

Surprising Places to Eat in Vancouver

Loving to eat, and loving to cook, means that you are always on the lookout for great places to be surprised by the food. On our visits into Vancouver we have some favourites and then there are some new places which we add to our list. We love to find unique little places with something that takes us by surprise. Being surprised by food is always a delicious moment in a day!

We were heading up to our favourite book store and while we waited for the owner to come cycling up and open the store, we wandered along McDonald and ‘just happened’ to pass by The Patty Shop. The smell of the freshly-baked and still very warm Jamaican Patties lured my husband in and he came out shortly thereafter with a box of a dozen still warm goodies. There was an assortment of beef, chicken and vegetable patties, and, while we meant to take them all home with us, a few of them were consumed as we travelled around the city doing various errands! What a tasty snack or lunch they are and well worth a stop at this little shop. This little row of shops around McDonald and 23rd is a treat to meander through.

Copenhagen and coffee anyone? One bite of these deliciously decadent pastry treats will cause you to say you must have another and then you are hooked! The pastry is so flaky, the filling so creamy and these are the best Copenhagen’s I have ever tasted. Elite Bakery on Rumble in Burnaby have been making superb Danish pastries for years, and my husband says they have been making these Copenhagen’s at least since he was a young man in university in the early 70's. Take some home, put on a good strong pot of coffee and enjoy a beautiful mid morning treat.

There is an excellent bakery on West 10th ,The Mix, that we traditionally go to when we are in the Vancouver in November doing our Christmas shopping. But of course, we stop there often when we are out shopping for their excellent hot apple cider and one of their Panini’s, the bocadillo or their savoury gallette. Their fresh baked breads are excellent and our favourite is their orange and cranberry bread - it is superb!! It is very small unpretentious little spot and usually very busy but their food is like comfort food with extra and unique ingredients added.

When you stay in downtown Vancouver and just walk to wherever your feet take you, you can find all sorts of places to eat. We were in town for a theatre production and wanted something simple but tasty to eat, along with a glass of wine, before heading to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The Vancouver Art Gallery has a cafeteria-style restaurant on the second floor and in the summer it opens up onto a very large patio. They offer some unique salads and I chose a French Rivera Salad which was roasted vegetables (including yams) and lentils over crisp lettuce. It was such a delightful combination. Sitting out on this second story patio overlooking Robson Square, in the warm July sunshine, sipping a cool beverage and being serenaded by a jazz trio made me think I was somewhere in Europe. It was such a splendid surprise to find this lovely café!

There are so many eateries and while many of them are full of clients, I find they often have nothing special to offer. Wherever we travel we love to find places off the beaten track that are eclectic and have something that grabs our attention and invites us in to give it a try. I am sure there will be more establishments to add to our list! There is always the need to eat, and the longing to find that something special on the menu.

Wearing the Chef's Jacket

Wearing the Chef’s Jacket
July 30, 2010

Cooking school is almost 10 years behind me. Just the other day I had to purchase a new chef jacket as my others are beginning to show signs of wear and tear. The original one from school is going to be retired - the one that has my maiden name on it, the one that seems like it was first put on a lifetime ago. In many ways it is a lifetime ago as the journey from then to now has been one of no clear destination to one of finding who I am and where I belong. A big piece of that definition comes when I put on my chef jacket and begin the work day in the restaurant - the place where as the sous chef I am finally beginning to embrace the reality, “I am a chef!”.

A few years ago, when I was first married, my wonderful newly inherited daughter and son-in-law asked what I wanted for my birthday and my reply was ‘a chef jacket’. The kitchen work in the ‘home for ministry’ where I worked had taken its toll on my t-shirts and I decided it was time to work smarter and wear a jacket. Yet I was a little unsure of wearing it because it seemed a bit presumptuous to wear one in this beautiful private home that provided a place for retreats and also opened its doors to provide a safe sanctuary for disenfranchised women. A few eyebrows went up at times but it sure saved my shirt wardrobe from constantly bearing the marks of cooking!

While a nice white chef jacket is a part of the kitchen uniform, I am realizing that, for me, there is so much more to putting it on each day to begin my work. It is the realization that indeed I am a chef, a culinary artist. For so many of us we are so reluctant to truly, deeply embrace who we really are, with all our pieces, with all our creativity and passion. We are afraid to ‘put on the jacket’ that is simply a little symbol of the real person whose shoulders it rests on, whose heart it covers, and whose spirit is expressed in every move that is made.

The move into a restaurant kitchen a few years ago was a surprise for me as I never envisioned that work environment as where I would be. Yet today, a little over a year into it, I realize that this is my new ‘training kitchen’. The chef I work with has a passion for excellent food and creates such delicate flavours and is a gentle family man that shares many of the values in life I have. This is no ‘hell’s kitchen’ that I am working in!! No Gordon Ramsay’s allowed! It is a time of learning the nuances between a good sauce and a superb sauce that elicits a ‘wow’ when tasted. There is the challenge of learning to love making desserts and striving to get the ‘perfect’ texture and flavour with each one. Becoming more artistic with each dish, consistently sending out an excellently presented and flavoured appetizer is a daily challenge. I ask myself constantly how can I let my creating become a sacred work even when I never see who receives it or know how they enjoy it? Learning to be patient and precise are two challenges when I prepare desserts because, as my closest friends know, I always hated doing desserts! Not only did I not want to prepare them but I never really enjoyed eating them! Becoming a chef, in this season, means that I must take the challenge of learning to strive for excellence in the areas that are not my forte, and begin to love them because of what they teach me. Learning to be diverse in what I create allows me to be more versatile as a chef.

All those years ago in cooking school I never imagined ‘wearing the jacket’ would mean that I would proudly say ‘I am a chef’ and believe it to be true. I used to think I simply loved to cook and had a passion to let others experience the beauty and sensuality of food. Oh I still do! Yet, it is now more clearly, the realization that in order to continue to create good food, share it at our table with family and friends, to let guests experience the sensuousness of eating, there will always be the desire to know more about how excellent food is created and to be mentored by those whose experience and knowledge is much broader than mine. Wearing my chef jacket is not about having arrived but rather it is the wonder of the adventure to always finding that there is such a vast well of learning that will be a lifetime of creating new culinary tasting experiences!

At home, I still love that my husband is the dessert creator and I am the savoury food creator. It is a great team and only metaphorically do I wear my jacket at home! In my soul, all my life, I have been moving into being a chef. That is who I am.

Thoughts on Love...from Merton

The Weekly Reflection
July 26, 2010

Love is, in fact, an intensification of life, a completeness, a fullness, a wholeness of life. ...We will never be fully real until we let ourselves fall in love - either with another human person or with God. And this must not be confined only to sexual fulfillment: it embraces everything in the human person --- the capacity for self-giving, for sharing, for creativity, for mutual care, for spiritual concern.



Thomas Merton. Love and Living. (New York: Harcourt, 1965). p. 27



Thought for the Day



...love is not just something that happens to you: it is a certain special way of being alive.


Love and Living: p. 27