Campfire cooking

The Age of Petrol will not be over for many more years. But it is waning, and the Days of Cheap Oil Energy are probably firmly behind us. I was struck this winter, considering our family's emergency kit, by just how vulnerable we are in regards to fuel. In the city, there is actually lots of food around, especially dried food, and we store quite a bit of water. But we have no wood pile, and certainly no fire pit or wood stove, anyways. I imagine, should an earthquake (this region's flavour of disaster) knock out the power for many days, we would BBQ all our food, probably sharing fuel and grill space with our neighbours. If the power was out for a week or more, we may have to resort to building a fire pit and salvaging wood.

Sadly, it seems one of the victims of the Petroleum Age, is the widespread knowledge of how to cook over a fire. I admit massive ignorance in this department. I've almost exclusively had an electric element to cook with, occasionally using gas flame, but only handful of times have I actually used a wood fire to make my meal. This is very aberrant to history, where knowing how to manipulate a fire to optimally fry, roast and boil was probably mastered by most people before they turned ten. 

Here are the few times I have tried, and what I did. Try not to laugh.

Veggie burger and sausages on a grill with corn roasting in the husk just beside the coals. Pretty simple camping food. We used 2 by 4s to hold up the grill, with the intention of tossing them in the fire after.

It all turned out delicious, note the water on the one board, just to keep it from burning faster than we wanted it to. 

Another trip, another fire. Here we are again roasting corn in its husk (its great, it gets steamy but loses none of its flavour) and we also have cut up veggies wrapped in foil with garlic butter. This was a grill-less dinner.

This dinner, made on a beach in Haida Gwaii was a little bit more elaborate. We started with mussels we had gathered that afternoon, with a bit of tomato sauce and garlic butter.

 Then, while we were snacking on those, we sauteed some meat and started boiling water.

 Veggies and mushrooms joined the meat in that pan when the meat was almost done, no extra oil was needed.

And once the pasta was boiled, tomato sauce and buttery greens and a bit of wine were thrown in with the noodles.

Mmmm, I have to say that all these meals are among some of my favourites ever. I think maybe its just the pleasure of eating outdoors, with great scenery and surrounded by nature sounds. Or maybe it is the high heat of the flames and the added flavouring of the smoke? Who knows. I am looking forward to practicing this skill some more.

If you are going to have a fire soon, try these simple ideas. And please, share with me what you and your family cook out in the open.

Banana and Chocolate melt

1 banana per person

half a chocolate bar (go dark if you dare!) per person

foil

Cut the banana in half length wise, sandwich in broken pieces of chocolate, wrap tightly in foil and bake over or beside the coals. When steamy, open and eat the goo with a spoon, or over graham crackers or whatever you got that seems good.

Roasted Yam 

One Fat, Round Yam

Yams, or Sweet Potatoes can be roasted right in the coals, if you don't have foil don't worry, only the skin will blacken into charcoal, the insides will be cooked into a soft, moist consistency that you can spoon out onto plates or right into your mouth.

And of course, there are always the marshmallows. Obviously not the healthiest choice, but for one night around the fire with your friends and family, I think you'll be alright.

What kind of things do you cook over a fire?

Zucchini Time!

 Its that time of the year, where we are blessed to be drowning in Zucchini. I go down to the garden every other day and look for the little courgettes. And sometimes I realize I missed one, and instead, I harvest a giant Zucchini baby, like the one pictured above.
Having a glut of something in the garden is fertile ground for creativity in the kitchen. After we've had our fill of Zucchini bread, and Raw Zucchini noodles topped with Marinara sauce, and then Sauteed Zucchini tossed with garlic, parsley and parmesan over pasta noodles, I've discovered two more ways we like our summer squash.

Korean Zucchini and Shrimp Pancakes

Grate and drain one Zucchini, Salt it as you grate, to draw the water out, reserve that water for later.

Equal portions cooked baby shrimp

A few green scallions chopped

1 1/2 cup flour

1 egg

1tsp baking powder

Seasoning salt

Enough water or milk to make a batter (start with 3/4 cup)

Oil for you pan

Oil a pan and put it on med heat. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, try to achieve a thin but not liquid batter. Once oil on pan is hot, spoon batter out into small puddles on the grill. Let cook for 3 or 5 minutes on the first side, or until golden, then flip and cook on other side. Repeat until all the batter is used up. This is hearty, and delicious served with rice, kimchi and korean sesame black beans.

A great Vegetarian version is to replace the shrimp with onions.

Zucchini Fennel Coconut Soup

2 Large Zucchini's chopped

1 Bulb of Fennel, finely diced

One Onion finely diced

Coconut oil, or just oil

2 Bay leaves

1tsp Celery seed

1tsp dried Basil

1 head of garlic

Broth, or the Reserved Zucchini juice from recipe above

1 can coconut milk

Fresh ground pepper

Salt to taste

Start with the oil and the celery seed, add the onion and the fennel. After about 5 minutes, add everything else, except the coconut milk. Simmer for 30 minutes or more, once you are almost ready to serve, add the coconut milk and bit more pepper and puree with a hand blender.

What do you make in these times of Zucchini Glut?

Apples to Applesauce...

Many of the old neighbourhoods in Vancouver have fruit trees that are often not harvested.
This lovely apple tree is in the yard of one of my friends, and they were too busy this year to pick them. I was very happy when she invited me to come harvest them, in exchange for a portion of the harvest.

I brought a few friends, and we used a tool called a apple picker. The tree is relatively small, and it was loaded, so it didn't take long for us to harvest quite a bit.

We got three bags. We divided them up between the owner and the pickers.

At home, and three weeks later (you got to love apples for their lasting qualities) I started to process them into applesauce. First washing them, then coring, and peeling the ones whose skins had lots of blemishes. I have been enjoying leaving most of the peel on the apples when making applesauce, its easier, and it gives the applesauce a heartier texture.

Putting the pots of apple chunks on the stove, I cook them down until they are juicy, soft and very steamy. I also added some sugar and lemon (less than a cup of each) to raise the acid to help ensure that they last longer in the cans.

After the apples are cooked and boiled, then I puree them with my blender. Hot puree bubbles too dangerously, and I have been burned before, so, now I make sure to cook them down first and then puree. Notice how much the apples did cook down, the two pots of apple chunks made one pot of apple sauce.

And into the jars and through the water bath canner they go. It was funny, usually you follow a recipe for a dozen jars and end up with 8 or 16 jars, here I followed no recipe, and ended up with exactly one dozen.

Are there trees in your yard that you can share with eager foragers? 

Or are you eager and want to harvest some of the wasted fruit in your town?

Check it out, there are programs connecting these two all over the world, and they always need new fruit and new pickers. 

In Vancouver -https://vancouverfruittree.com/

In Calgary- http://calgaryharvest.com/

In Toronto- http://www.notfarfromthetree.org/

In Montreal-http://lesfruitsdefendus.wordpress.com/

The first time we used the applesauce was with Latkes, made with our garden potatoes. So, virtually a free meal. Cool.

Latkes

1/2 lb grated potatoes

1 egg

spinkling of flour

oil

Oil a cast iron pan and heat on med. Mix the grated potato with the egg and flour, and form into patties on the pan. Fry until cooked inside and browning slightly on the outside.

Enjoy!

Low-Tech Latte

I live in a household with two coffee fanatics, however I find coffee too bitter on its own, and need to have it really milky to enjoy. Doubly so with espresso from our stove top espresso maker. 

As I am the only one in the house not connoisseur enough to enjoy my espresso black, I've developed a little method for foaming my milk that doesn't involve buying a new gadget. I simply heat my milk on the stove....

 Pour it into the ubiquitous mason jar.

Shake like mad, pour in into the mugs and spoon out the foam. It works great. It does create a few dishes, but those are so much easier to do once you've had your latte.

As an aside, I recently learned that if you are ever in Italy, don't order a latte if you want a cafe latte, or you will just get milk. 

Enjoy!

Lughnasadh or Lammas

Tomorrow is August first, the approximate date of the ancient Irish festival of Lughnasadh, a celebration that marks the start of the harvest and the beginning of summer's warmth declining to winter's chill. It was most often celebrated by picking berries, climbing to hill tops and visiting sacred wells.
My family and I went berry picking yesterday, not as a celebration of Lughnasadh, but because this is the season to do it. Which, I guess, is why I am so attracted to the Wiccan holidays, they are still so connected to the natural cycles, and they don't require lots of sugar and plastic to celebrate.

MMMMmmmmmmm! We do love berries. We also like hiking up the mountains around Vancouver, but we may not do this for a few weeks, as this time of year is so busy. 

Visiting Sacred Wells seems kind of funny to me, but likely because I've always grown up with indoor plumbing, I imagine that Wells were important to home life, and that some would be known to provide special water (maybe cleaner, maybe sparkling, or maybe infused with some mineral.) I don't even know how I would attempt this if I were to even try, but it does make me pause and consider how much the role of Water has changed for Humans over the last century.

There are two other common activities to perform on Lughnasadh, baking bread and getting married.

The bread make sense to me, it all ties in to harvest, and abundance. At this time of year, grain is just starting to ripen, and hopes are high that the harvest will be plentiful. Baking bread now seems like an act of faith, that there will be much more of this to come.

This is a sensible time of year to throw a big party, the weather is nice and food is plentiful. So getting Married, or Handfasted now would ensure that the union begins well, without undue stress. But Wiccans also believe that, as this time of year is the peak of summer (ruled by male solar energy), and the beginning of the longer nights of winter (ruled by female lunar energy) this is a time in the cycle when the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine are in balance, are getting married themselves you could say. 

Ahhh, I wish our lives today in these big glass cities could still be so connected to these natural cycles that continue to occur. 

In a personal attempt to celebrate this lovely season, I will share with you a wonderful and easy biscuit recipe. I've never had success raising yeasted breads. But these biscuits always come out wonderfully fluffy.

Biscuits for Lammas

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

2tbs baking powder

1/4 cup milk

3/4 oil

1/2tsp salt

1tbs honey

Preheat oven to 450 degree F. Mix together dough, do not over knead. Either drop onto a baking sheet, or roll out and use a cup or cookie cutters to get your desired shape. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden.

Enjoy!

Garlic and The Winter Garden Cycle!

On July 10th we harvested our garlic. We got a huge haul this year: 150 heads, and I'm happy to say that ~100 of them are market worthy, big, beautiful and intact.  

Harvesting them has created a free bed in our garden (a pretty big one too!) It is way too late to sow summer vegetables, but a perfect time to start sowing winter vegetables. Kale is a classic winter vegetable that I have grown every single year, but this year I am experimenting with many more veggies, that, started now, can be harvested in the fall and even through the winter.

So far I've done the first sowing in only half the space I used for the garlic.  I've sown the Scallions, Turnips, Rutabaga, Kohlrabi and Radishes. And they've already come up. In this heat (our peak summer weather) it is really important that I keep them well watered. But they are growing so fast, I can tell that I will be eating them very soon. In two weeks I will do a second sowing in the garden which will involve Walla Walla Onions, and more Turnips, Radishes and Scallions. I plan to sow Arugula and Corn Salad in my containers upstairs so they are more easily accessible.

I'm so excited, especially for the Turnips, which I've recently discovered I LOVE boiled slightly in salty water (turn your water into broth after) and having their greens cooked in a tomato sauce. MMMMmmmm.

Mint, the overlooked weed.

Mint propagates itself very easily. We got our mint plant by pulling a stem with a little root attached off of a plant growing in our alley. We planted it in our garden, and have divided it twice already. The tendency of the roots is to thatch underground until it has spread itself throughout the garden, prompting many to not even attempt to grow it at all. I think we should be welcoming it, it is one of the earlier things we can harvest through the year, and we can harvest it numerous times in a season. In fact, continual harvesting may be the best way to keep its growth in check, making the task of weeding into a task of harvesting.

Mint is delicious dried as a tea, but lately I have preferred it as a seasoning or even a vegetable. Try these three recipes, and tell me if you don't agree.

Strawberry Mint Smoothie
A power boost to any morning

2-3cups strawberries

1/2cup chopped mint

2 cups water or ice

1/4 cup honey

Juice from half a Lime

Blend together and enjoy immediately, garnish with a mint leaf.

Pasta with Mint, Peas and Pecorino 
Cheese
This is simply an amazing pasta to have for a sunday lunch in the spring

Pasta
Fresh green peas or Fava beans
Mint, chopped
Pecorino Cheese, grated
butter
Freshly grated pepper

For one serving, boil pasta in salted water.
In a small sauce pan, sautee 1/2c fresh peas or beans in 1 tsp butter until bright green

Drain the pasta, toss in the mint, cheese and pepper.
Top with the peas/beans and butter
Adjust amounts to serve more than just you.


Nettle Mint Phyllo Pies
Adapted from a recipe that appeared in Edible Vancouver, Mint and Nettle make a harmonious combination, however kale, spinach, collards or chard could replace the Nettle. Nothing, can replace the mint though.

2cups chopped blanched Nettles
1cup chopped mint
1 white onion diced
1/4 c feta crumbled
Phyllo pastry.
Olive oil

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Find your happy place, then gently start to pry apart the Phyllo, oiling it as you go. Once you free up a sheet, place about 2tbs of filling onto one corner, and wrap and fold it until you have a triangle pocket. Google it if you don't find this too clear. Brush oil on each side and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven (that is Fahrenheit)

Enjoy!

Burdock Root

I've been making an effort lately to push myself to try new things. A fear of new foods is natural, but so is diversity in our diet, and I personally want to benefit from all the nutrients available from many different sources. So, when I saw this humungous burdock root (1lb) for sale at the farmers market, I had to jump at the chance to go on a culinary adventure.

I decided to pair it with another relatively new food to me, Oyster mushrooms, also bought from the farmers market, they had always scared  me off for looking so much like a fungus. Thankfully they have a mild flavour and a pleasing, tender texture. With all this new food, I had to add something familiar... green beans.

 I made this delicious stir fry, I challenge you to try it yourself. The sauce is worth it.

1 part washed and peeled Burdock root

1 part chopped Oyster mushrooms

1 part trimmed Green beans

Sautee, in enough oil to cover pan, with 

1 part maple syrup (maybe 3tbs)

and 

1 part soy sauce (same as the syrup, balance it)

Serve over rice, 

Enjoy!

Daffodils for Spring!

There is something about a bouquet of Daffodils that screams EASTER at me. I know we still have another week, but after buying these amazing Daffodils at the Farmers Market yesterday I've been in a mood to decorate eggs and create a brunch menu.

This is the floral shelf I just put up, to help brighten up the space above the table.

Here's a simple drink to try if you want to luxuriate over brunch next sunday (and won't be driving.)

Champagne Orange Spritzer

1 part White Bubbly wine

1 part Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1 piece fruit to garnish

ice

Mix drink, toss over ice is glass, garnish

Enjoy!

The First Winter Market

The Vancouver Farmers Markets have been steadily increasing in popularity over the last few years, not just in the summer months but over the Winter as well. In fact the winter market, which used to be held only twice a month in a small community hall, has grown this year into a weekly fair in the parking lot for Nat Bailey Stadium, which conveniently is in my neighbourhood.

My sister and I walked the baby over yesterday and found an abundance of farm fresh local food to tempt us. There were walnuts and hazelnuts, greens like dandelion and chicory, parsley, kale, broccoli sprouts, beats, carrots, spuds, apples, pears, mushrooms, squashes and so much more. I was surprised to even buy some of the last field ripened heirloom tomatoes of the season. I will be keeping an eye on what they continue to offer throughout the winter, and challenging myself to make a few meals out of whats in season. Go see them yourself at www.eatlocal.org

This is what we bought, it is $30 worth of veg, which may seem pricey but I look at it as 1 stir fry. 1 salsa, 2 salads and 1.5 dips, all made from ingredients so fresh that they can sit in my fridge for two weeks and still be fresher than what I buy a the supermarket. Doesn't strike me as overpriced.

First Winter Market Salad
Serves 6 Big Eaters

1 Large bunch Red Russian Kale
2 medium sized bulbs Florence Fennel sliced into matchsticks
2 small sized Beets sliced into thin halfmoons
1 lrg carrot sliced into thin disks
2 Shallots sliced into thin circles
1 Asian Pear, cored and cut into thin slices

Toss with
Apple Honey Mustard Dressing
Mix Well:
1 part Apple Cider Vinegar
1 part Olive Oil
Generous dallop of liquid Honey
Generous Squirt Dijon Mustard
Black Sesame Seeds for looks

Walnuts

Walnuts, they are rich in omega-3s, full of protein and super tasty, not to mention extremely familiar to most palates, as they are grown in Europe, Asia and the Americas for both food, and wood.

On a recent visit to Galiano Island, I had a chance encounter with this lovely Walnut Tree, which just happened to be ready for the harvest.

This is the trunk, you can see holes drilled into it from the local Woodpeckers, trying to get at some bug inside the tree. Infestations are usually a sign that the plant is under stress, but this tree is old and fruiting, so I think it is only a minor concern.

These are the leaves.

Here is the fruit, bursting with a nut inside. I was amazed at how different Walnuts and Hazelnuts look like on the tree.

The grass was so long under the tree that it was tricky to see the nuts on the ground, so I had to "feel" them by gently treading over the area.

I got enough, and washed them up. I was warned to wash them with gloves on, because the preservative present in the fruit is strong and will dye your hands black for weeks.

I had to dry them next. This picture looks pretty, but remember, heat rises, so to be more effective, put the nuts you want to dry above the heat source.

After an hour and a half of shelling the walnuts (talk about slow food!) I had enough for my recipe, and I got so good a small miracle happened...

I extracted a walnut intact from its shell, not an easy thing to do.

As the nuts were still raw, and soft, I choose to put them in a raw recipe. My sistah Jill of illumination introduced me to Ani Phyo and the raw diet. I prefer raw foods in the warmer months, but this recipe of Ani's feels warm and fits fall very well.

Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice"

1lb squash (I used a japanese Blue Kabocha that I grew in my garden)

1/2 small yellow onion

1tbs cumin seeds

1tbs coriander powder

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup walnuts, crushed

2tsp sea salt

Put small batches of squash into the food processor at a time, processing into small pieces.

Put processed squash into large bowl, add rest of ingredients and mix well. 

Enjoy!