Category Archives: Vegetables

Asparagus Panzanella Salad

I promise that this asparagus post (unlike my previous one) will not offend anyone by mentioning any bodily functions, so feel safe to read on. This post is all about the unabashed joy of celebrating all things green this spring.

The classic panzanella salad originated in Tuscany. It was a way to use up stale bread and highlight tomatoes at the pinnacle of their summertime glory. Often onions, cucumber and basil are added. The texture of the bread in traditional panzanella is not supposed to be crunchy or chewy or crusty like croutons. If you have ever eaten this salad in Italy, you will recall that the bread is light, a bit wet, airy, just short of mushy. I was shocked when I had it a few years ago on the Amalfi Coast, and to be frank, was less than enthused. It sort of had the texture of fluffy torn-up matzoh balls. There is a very fine line between lightly moistened and unpleasantly soggy. Although I love the classics, in my panzanella salad, I want the bread to have a bit of chew and crunch.

The inspiration for this spring panzanella came from Chef Michael Symon. Asparagus and green peas get top billing in this version of panzanella. Out of season tomatoes need not apply for entry into this salad. Like Michael, I grilled my asparagus, but I also shaved a few raw spears with my vegetable peeler to get some fresh crunch.I used a half a loaf of Ciabatta bread I had in the freezer. I thawed it and then tore it into chunks, rather than cutting it into neat cubes. Tearing it gives a more rustic appearance and all those craggy surfaces have a better chance of soaking up the flavourful dressing.

If fresh peas in a pod are available where you live, go ahead and indulge. I used frozen peas since we are at least a month away from fresh here. I really love frozen peas. It seems to be a family thing. My daughter used to eat frozen peas as her afternoon snack every day when she was about 4 years old. Peas are one of the few vegetables that are actually better frozen. Unless you have green-peas growing in your backyard or access to a Farmer’s Market, you really are better off buying frozen. Cook’s Illustrated explains why this is so:

“Fresh peas have very little stamina. They lose a substantial portion of their nutrients within 24 hours of being picked This rapid deterioration is the reason for the starchy, bland flavor of most “fresh” peas found at the grocery store. These not-so-fresh peas might be several days old, depending on where they came from and how long they were kept in the cooler. Frozen peas, on the other hand, are picked, cleaned, sorted, and frozen within several hours of harvest, which helps to preserve their delicate sugars and flavours ”

I finished the salad off with some crumbled Ricotta Salata cheese (a firm ricotta). If you can’t find it, Feta would work just as well. Ricotta salata is a sheep’s milk cheese that has been pressed, dried and salted. It has a dense, slightly spongy texture and fresh milky flavour.

A quick dressing is made with garlic, dijon, sherry or red wine vinegar and olive oil. Fresh chopped mint gets sprinkled over the whole dish. This is a delicious addictive salad. I was home alone the day I made this and polished off the entire platter after photographing it. The contrast of the soft grilled asparagus was really wonderful against the crunch of the fresh shaved raw asparagus ribbons. The peas, barely cooked gave a great pop of green brightness. I mixed everything together and let the salad sit for at least 20 minutes. By the time I ate it the croutons had time to soak up the dressing and they were chewy but still just a bit crunchy. Perfect.

Click here to print recipe for Asparagus and Panzanella Salad.

I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with this salad. Asparagus is quite difficult to pair with wine, as certain chemicals in asparagus can make your wine taste vegetal, grassy, or just plain rotten. A crisp and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc is a perfect match. I am currently crushing on New Zealand Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc. It has a juicy acidity and crisp finish that pairs perfectly with this salad.

If you are curious about learning more regarding food and wine pairings, check out Natalie MacLean’s Great Canadian Wine Match. Natalie is a certified sommelier and was named the World’s Best Wine Writer at the World Food Media Awards.

This is the first People’s Choice Competition for Canadian food and wine pairings. A real on-line battle of the bottles! The search for Canada’s best wine and food pairings launched on May 8. Wine drinkers from coast to coast are rallying behind their favourite Canadian pairings in this first grassroots, “bottoms up” competition.

Wine lovers can nominate and vote for their favourite Canadian wines as pairings in six Canadian food categories: cheese, chicken, beef, seafood, pizza and dessert. Voting ends May 20 when the top five wines in each category move to the showdown finalist phase. Wines from each region in Canada will vie to be named the best wine with a particular Canadian dish.

“This is a coast to coast toast to celebrate our own wine and food ,” says MacLean. “I think we can all drink to that.”

Let’s get personal with asparagus

5 Replies

It’s entirely possible that I may be jumping the gun a bit by writing about asparagus during the end of April. Here in Ottawa we will not be seeing any local crops until mid-May at the earliest. However, given the winter that we recently crawled out of, I hope I can be forgiven for buying California asparagus at Costco last week. I could not wait any longer.

Perhaps like you, I have a love hate relationship with asparagus. I love it when I eat it, but not so much about 15 minutes later when I pee. Up until recently it was believed that everybodys urine has that pungent aroma after eating asparagus, but not everyone can smell it.

It should be noted that the effect of asparagus on urine odour has been around for several hundred years. Apparently one British men’s club is said to have put up a sign reading, “During the asparagus season, members are requested not to relieve themselves in the hat stand.” I would have hoped that men would always have the good sense to never relieve themselves in the hat stand, but perhaps that’s just asking too much of that gender.

More recent scientific studies on what I like to call “The Great Asparagus Pee Mystery” (yes folks, there are some freaky scientists out there actually studying it) have now theorized that there are really two factors at play here; the ability to produce the aroma and the ability to detect the aroma. Both are determined by genetics.

Let’s deal first with the ability to produce the aroma. Asparagus contains a sulphurous compound called mercaptan. Enzymes in your digestive system break down the mercaptan and certain by-products are released that cause the offensive odour. But, here’s where it gets interesting. Not everyone has the gene for that enzyme. If you are part of the 54% of the population whose DNA lacks the gene for this enzyme, then you will not produce smelly urine after eating asparagus.

Now, what about the ability to detect the aroma? It has been theorized that depending on your DNA, you may or may not have the olfactory receptors to detect the scent. Some of us are “super-smellers” and others are just “smell-blind” when it comes to asparagus pee.

To simplify things I have created a chart!

If you are one of those with a malfunctioning olfactory sense, I envy you. Although looking on the bright side, when I am old and my memory is failing, I will always be able to remember that I had asparagus for dinner!

A word to the wise should you happen to find yourself at the Spargelfest (Asparagus festival) in Beelitzer Germany or any of these other Asparagus Festivals, this spring. If you are a super smeller, you may want to hold your breath when you enter the bathroom stalls!

The fact that I am a stinker and a smeller does not hold me back from eating asparagus when it is in season. One of my favourite ways to enjoy it is to simply steam it and serve it with poached eggs. I love to dip the spears into the runny golden egg yolk. Last week, I served the poached eggs on top of Rösti potatoes, with the asparagus dippers on the side. A perfect spring dinner!Rösti potatoes, also known as shredded potato cake, is not the same thing as latkes. Latkes are made with shredded raw potatoes, whereas Rösti are made with shredded par-boiled potatoes. Yukon Gold or Idaho potatoes are perfect for this dish.

Once the potatoes are parboiled, they should be allowed to chill in the fridge for several hours, or even up to a day, before they are peeled and shredded. This is the secret to getting the a crispy golden crust on the outside of the potato cake and having a fluffy and tender inside.The shredded potato is mixed with some salt and pepper and gets pressed into a hot cast iron skillet, with a little bit of both butter and vegetable oil.Patience is required here. Turn the heat down to medium low and let it get brown. This will take at least 15 minutes. When the underside is brown, flip the cake out into a large plate, browned side up. Add more oil and butter to the pan and slide the cake back into the pan, pale side down. Brown the second side.

While the Rösti potato cake is cooking, steam or boil asparagus and poach eggs. If you are at all intimidated about making poached eggs, please know that you are not alone, and there is help. Serious Eats posted a fool-proof method for poaching eggs, that is really quite genius, and actually works! Click on the link above to view the video if you are planning top poach eggs.

Click here to print recipe for Rösti topped with Poached Eggs and Asparagus Dippers.

Flower Power

14 Replies

They dubbed it “Snowicane”. With winds gusting at 56 kilometers per hour and the snow blowing sideways, it was quite the storm this week. Here in Ottawa we were “blessed” to be hit by this massive meteorological monster that originated in the U.S. Plains earlier this week. We are still digging out, and frankly, hearing my friends on the west coast gush about their early asparagus shooting out of the ground, is giving me a severe case of spring envy. But enough of that!

When life hands you snow, you simply must embrace the season and dig down deep to find something to give you joy. Ice skating, snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing simply won’t transport me to my happy place. Instead, I have found my winter bliss in cauliflower. I have always enjoyed roasted cauliflower, but leave it to Food 52 and their Genius series, to bring us roasted and pureéd cauliflower, all together in one glorious dish.

These cauliflower steaks are the creation of Dan Barber. He is the chef behind Blue Hill, in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a farm-restaurant in upstate New York. He is a leader in farm to table education and practices “close to the land” cooking. When Dan Barber creates with vegetables, it is a wondrous and delicious event.

This dish is a real celebration of cauliflower. What I found amazing was that 3 simple ingredients, cauliflower, milk and olive oil could be transformed into something so incredible.

The process begins with cutting 2 cauliflower “steaks”. Two thick slices from the center of the cauliflower are brushed with olive oil and seared in a hot skillet for several minutes, until golden brown.

The cauliflower florets are boiled in a pot in milk, water, salt and pepper, until soft. The cauliflower steaks are brushed with some olive oil and browned in a skillet until golden. They get baked in the oven for a further 10 minutes to get the insides tender.

The pureed cauliflower has an earthy creaminess that comes from the natural pectins that cauliflower contains. The roasted cauliflower is nutty and crispy around the edges and the contrast to the luscious silken purée is quite special.

You could add a garlic clove or bay leaf to the milk and water when cooking the florets, to get some additional flavour, but it really does not need it. The first time I made this I topped the dish with a couple of fried eggs for a simple but very satisfying dinner. It makes this never-ending winter almost bearable.

Click here to print the recipe for Dan Barber’s Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree.

Wanted: Rosemary, dead or alive.

12 Replies

Every summer we plant an herb garden outside our kitchen door. Before we can even finish washing the dirt off our hands, the rabbits, voles, squirrels, moles and other assorted wildlife in our backyard have munched off the tops of the cilantro, basil and Italian parsley plants! For some reason, they shun the rosemary.

By fall, our rosemary plants are tall, healthy and quite lovely. We pot them and bring them inside to live on the kitchen windowsill for the winter. My husband has a wonderful green thumb and takes care of all the living things in our home. Each week, as he goes about his watering ritual he asks me the same question, “Are these rosemary plants still alive?’

I have to explain here that he is colour blind and has a great deal of trouble telling the difference between greens, browns and grays. So while I see a vibrant silvery green rosemary plant, he does not. Each week I smile and patiently answer, “Yes, dear, they are alive and well.” Okay, maybe I am not being completely honest here. Perhaps every other week I smile and give a patient answer. On alternate weeks, I am quite likely to give a snarky sarcastic retort, muttered under my breath, which I will not print here.

I must admit that this weekly discourse has given me some pause for thought. If my husband has trouble seeing shades of grey, I worry that I should die in my sleep, he may not notice the grey pallor of my skin in the morning. It may be days before he notices that I am not alive.

Continue reading →

Crispy Cauliflower with Capers, Raisins and Breadcrumbs

7 Replies

Roasted cauliflower recipes are a dime a dozen these days. It seems that everyone is embracing roasting as a cooking method for all kinds of vegetables. It’s true, roasting really does bring out some very special flavours. It mellows cauliflower’s pungent qualities. So, with all that being said, does anyone really need another roasted cauliflower recipe. The answer is a resounding YES!If I needed proof that this treatment of cauliflower is the ultimate, I need look no further than my own kitchen and dining room. The first time I made it, it was just my husband and I for dinner. The recipe says it feeds 8. The two of us almost finished it all! I made it again this past weekend for a family dinner. I served grilled rib steaks, roasted parsnips and rainbow carrots, spicy-sweet green beans and this cauliflower dish (I made a double recipe!). The cauliflower was the first to go and there were no leftovers.

The NHL All-Star game was in Ottawa this weekend and our family came to visit from Toronto. Several members of our Toronto family are diehard Toronto Maple Leaf fans. My brother-in-law is what I consider to be an ultimate fan. I remember one winter weekend they were visiting when the Leafs were playing the Sens. They stayed at the same hotel as the Leafs and my brother-in-law, used his one year old son as “bait”. He dressed the baby in Maple Leaf pyjamas and took him down to the hotel bar at 11:00 p.m. The plan was to meet the players as they were coming into the bar after the game. And it worked. They all fell upon this adorable baby in his footed Leafs p.j’s!

To say that my dining room resembled an episode of The Hatfields and The McCoys, would only be a slight exaggeration. Here in Ottawa, our NHL team is the Ottawa Senators. While we are not rabid Sens fans, there is a healthy amount of hate going on for the Leafs! It is a fairly intense rivalry that all members of the family have embraced. To further fan the flames of discord, I baked two varieties of gingerbread cookies and set them on the table on alternating plates. Great fun was had by all, especially when it came time for my sister to help her sons brush the blue food colouring from their teeth and tongues!

The flavour profile of this dish is Sicilian inspired. The recipe hails from the November 2011 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I have some words of advice for you before you tackle this recipe.

1. You may be tempted to leave out the anchovy paste. DON’T! It adds a depth of flavour, that you can not get from anything else. The finished dish will not taste fishy, I swear!

2. You may be tempted to substitute dried breadcrumbs from the grocery store, for the fresh ones called for in this recipe. DON’T! Take the time to cut some stale good quality bread into cubes and buzz them in the food processor until you have coarse crumbs. You will be rewarded, I promise you.

There are several steps in this recipe, but all can be done ahead of time, so when it comes time to serve it, it’s a simple matter of assembly.

Make sure you give the cauliflower ample room on the roasting pan. Don’t crowd it. The original recipe called for slicing the garlic thinly and then cooking until golden. I had a really hard time from preventing it from burning, once I added the other ingredients and kept cooking it, so I recommend just smashing the whole cloves and gently frying them in the oil. Once they turn golden, remove them and discard. They will have imparted their garlicy goodness into the oil and you won’t run the risk the bitter taste that results from burnt garlic.