Election day-derived anxiety calls for comfort food! We picked up a beautiful branch of broccoli from Birri, and I roasted it with lemon zest, olive oil, garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes until charred, more charred than you can imagine. (If we’re getting technical, about 10-12 minutes in a 450 degree oven). With some good bacon, grated pecorino, toasted pine nuts, and a handful of tiny, tender orecchiette, I enjoyed a big plate of coziness to help ward off election day jitters.
Posted in lunch, pasta, vegetables
Tagged comfort food, election day, pasta, roasted broccoli
Have you ever heard of dakos?
I had never tasted this simple Cretan dish until very recently. With its blend of dried bread, chopped tomatoes, herbs, olives, and crumbled feta, Dakos reminds me of panzanella. But I prefer dakos even more, which features huge, crunchy lumps of dried barley rusk — way more fibrous and interesting than normal bread. (Though I would love to make dakos with a loaf of my own sourdough!) The rusk is soaked in a mixture of water and olive oil until it becomes tender, and then gets dressed with a mixture of vegetables and cheese. Magically, soaked rusk gets both mushy and crunchy. It’s insanely delicious. (We added fresh basil, dried oregano, and sun-dried tomatoes to our dakos, which is a little less traditional but no less tasty.)
We made a few other traditional Cretan dishes, like an addictive dip of pureed fava beans. Cretans like to pair the dip with finely chopped raw cipollini — so genius. They also tend to douse their pureed favas in a lake of olive oil, but we were a little more cautious. A little goes a long way.
(P.S. That slaw-looking thing at the bottom isn’t cabbage — it’s my new favorite vegetable in the world, white radicchio. It looks like chicory and tastes a little like Belgian endive. I love bitter, so it really, really hit the spot, especially when dressed up with a touch of Grecian honey, sunflower oil, and some Dijon mustard.)
Posted in lunch, vegetables
Tagged crete, dakos, grecian food, vegetable lunch, white radicchio
Not sure what to do with this bad boy. Or rather, I have too many ideas. Isn’t he gorgeous? Also, did you know you can eat those huge cabbage leaves at the top? Maybe that’s obvious to you, but I had no idea! I was thinking of shredding everything up and tossing them with orange zest, sultanas, and pine nuts for a citrusy raw salad. How are you eating brussels sprouts this fall?
Of course, I could always put them on a pizza, where they belong…
Posted in vegetables
Tagged brussels sprouts, fall cooking, i need food ideas, pizza toppings
Ever since I’ve traded the hours spent in my kitchen for another, cooking elaborate meals at home feels less and less appealing these days. A strange adjustment since I’ve always loved cooking at home and entertaining. Not only do I lack energy to plan and execute multi-course meals — “cooking” these days is basically toast with almond butter in the mornings, and popcorn dusted with nutritional yeast late at night — I can barely muster the enthusiasm to cook proper, simple meals for myself.
So I’m extra grateful when Adam shows up, eyes bright from the market, bearing a tote bag bursting with juicy, sweet tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, field basil, and a hunk of bread from the new (amazing!) bread-by-the-pound place, Joe La Croûte, all of the perfect ingredients for the best no-cook lunch that my tired brain could have imagined. Shamefully, this was the very first Caprese salad I had assembled yet this year, the most iconic of summertime dishes, but I almost wept over the results, a joyous marriage of licorice-sweet basil, milky cheese, and tomatoes streaming with juice and dotted with salt.
Posted in lunch, vegetables
Fresh peas, French radishes, Campari sodas. Guys, I’m scared about summer ending.
Posted in summer, vegetables
Tagged campari soda, essence of summer, french radishes and butter, fresh peas
Last week, the Montreal Gazette ran a story I wrote about the pleasures of home fermentation. The piece was really fun to research, because I got to interview my talented, amazing friends who ferment delicious and sometimes strange things. (My friend Haley gave me a jar of mindblowing lacto-fermented leeks!)
If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Leyla Majeri, then you know how enchanting she is. Her delicious wine and meads somehow channel her vibe, which is mellow, sweet, and vibrant. (Her partner also brews delicious-tasting horseradish beer!) I love learning about these kind of different worlds. It might not be the exact kind of lifestyle I could ever sustain for myself — I definitely won’t be making my own miso from scratch, though I’m glad that I learned how to do it — but knowing these people makes my life infinitely richer and more beautiful.
Read the full story here — plus a bonus recipe for Bubbie Bronia’s half-sour Kosher dill pickles, courtesy of my friend Ithamar!
Posted in vegetables, writers
Finally! A belated sharing of photos from Camilla’s latest picking workshop at Depanneur Le Pick Up. Once again, Camilla blessed us with her staggering amount of preserves-related know-how (she is Preservation Society, after all) and we all listened, rapt. When the evening closed, we were the lucky recipients of warm, glowing jars stuffed with pickled green tomatoes and spicy apple chutney. Camilla advised us to wait at least one month before cracking our jars open, but truth be told, I struggled to wait even one day.
Thank you Camilla for such a wonderful night!
Posted in restaurants, vegetables, work
Tagged camilla wynne, canning workshop, depanneur le pick up, preservation society
Have you ever made celery salt before? (Ashley and Heidi have). It’s so simple, yet it can transform almost any dish into something super fancy and delicious. We had just bought a beautiful, big knob of celeriac, and the leaves were dark, fragrant, and crisp. After thoroughly washing the leaves, I let them dry completely in between layers of paper towels (important — you don’t want the leaves to cook over the heat, just toast!). Over super-low heat, gently warm the celeriac leaves in a cast-iron skillet until brittle, grey-green, and brown in spots. Wait for them to cool (the leaves will continue to crisp up), and then crinkle into a fine powder with fingers. Mix in as much salt as desired. (I love the flavor of the celeriac, so I used about a 1:1 ratio of salt and leaves).
So what is celeriac salt good with? Actually, pretty much everything — I’ve sprinkled the stuff on leftover pizza, chicken sandwiches, big salads, and roasted mushrooms — but my favorite pairing is with fried eggs in the morning. Here, I sprinkled it on a rustic end-of-summer pasta, which was laced with fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, swiss chard, edamame, and mushrooms.
Posted in food, lunch, vegetables
Tagged celeriac, celery salt, pasta, quick lunch, savory
Last week, one of Adam’s birthday requests was to have our friend Michelle teach us how she prepares her infamous artichokes, which are truly the best artichokes I’ve ever eaten. (Hint: She uses a lot of lemons, and trims much more of the artichoke than you think you really should).
Around the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about those gorgeous Chez Panisse menus, many of which were designed for the restaurant’s lavish Le Grand Aïoli parties.
So we organized a small pre-birthday dinner around both Adam’s desire to consume those lemony, minty, velvety artichokes and my passion to host a classically Provencal Le Grand Aïoli. In his Provence the Beautiful Cookbook, Richard Olney states:
“[Aïoli] designates the ritual celebration of poached salt cod, boiled vegetables, hard-cooked eggs and a selection of garden snails, sea snails, periwinkles, mussels, octopus, and other seafoods. When it is complete, it is called Le Grand Aïoli. Everything is served warm, simply because it is impossible to get it all onto the table hot.”
It sounds perfect, right?
Even though we didn’t serve any seafood — just a platter of fresh vegetables and a single tureen of sauce — it still felt incredibly elegant and luxurious. In addition to Michelle’s extraordinary artichokes, there were tiny fingerling potatoes, quartered golden beets, roasted cauliflower, yellow wax beans, chubby nubs of carrots, and spicy radishes. We dipped the vegetables in a glossy puddle of garlicky aïoli, which coated everything in its thick, shiny embrace. When we ran out of vegetables, I started compulsively dunking my fingers into the bowl and licking the aïoli off of my skin like a popsicle.
The only other ingredients you need are a loaf of super-crusty bread (in a perfect world, the Tartine country bread), a plate of salted butter, and a great bottle of Rosé. Michelle brought over a 2009 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé as an early birthday present. The Bandol region is one of my favorite appellations, and the Tempier Rosé — infamously temperamental and unpredictable — happily didn’t disappoint.
Aïoli
[Note: I know that it can be hard to get in the habit of making your own mayonnaise, but honestly, once you do it, it's the most simple thing ever and you'll never want to go back because the flavor is so indescribably delicious. And you don't need an electric mix, either. Just a strong forearm, a sturdy whisk, and patience.]
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1/2 t Dijon mustard
1/4 t salt
3/4 cup olive oil (I always approximate this amount; just add slowly until it is as thick as you like, remembering that the more oil you add, the thicker it will be)
1 t white wine vinegar
2 t fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup garlic, run through a garlic press (other recipes say the garlic can just be finely chopped, but I prefer the smoother texture of a garlic press; you could also use a mortar and pestle to get a similar paste-like consistency).
—Whisk yolk, mustard, and salt in a small bowl until well combined.
—Add about 1/4 cup olive oil in a slow stream, whisking constantly until the mixture begins to thicken.
—Whisk in vinegar and lemon juice.
—Whisk in remaining 1/2 oil until well blended and smooth. (Note: if it appears that the oil is not incorporating smoothly, stop adding oil and whisk vigorously until the mixture is smooth again).
—Whisk in salt and garlic paste to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Posted in celebration, dinner, vegetables
Tagged aioli, bandol appellation, birthday dinner, domaine tempier bandol rose, le grand aioli, rose wine
In the sobering weeks that will lead to winter here in Quebec, I’ve been buying as much produce at the Jean Talon Market as possible. I’ve been experiencing an unsettling combination of winter-onset paranoia, hoarders-esque mentality, shoppers anxiety, and fear of abandonment. The result? Shopping sprees that end in every nook of our apartment brimming with whatever vegetable or fruit speaks to me at the market. I’ve been making a lot of spontaneous purchases, like 5 pounds of tomatillos. (What the hell am I going to do with 5 pounds of tomatillos?) So it is with a heavy heart that I tell you about this dinner, in which we bid summer farewell with one final, glorious orgy of vegetables.
I made a panzanella with half a seeded baguette, a handful of mizuna, slivers of red onions, and wedges of heirloom tomatoes, all dressed in a creamy red wine vinaigrette. There were parmesan-cornmeal crackers that I made with whole wheat flour and salted butter, spiked with thyme leaves and fleur de sel. And finally, I roasted a head of Romanesco broccoli, golden beets, red onion, and cumin seeds, onto which I dumped big spoonfuls of chunky, hand-cut pesto.
I think a lot of people assume that I eat a diet centered mostly around butter, meat, cheese, and bread. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but when produce is plentiful and mouthwatering — as it is right now, and has been all summer — I often find myself unintentionally eating vegan.
A promoter in Toronto invited me to curate and prepare a harvest feast in conjunction with a concert happening later that night. In my excitement, I spent all day brainstorming a menu, which was stuffed with meat, seafood, eggs, cream, and butter — only to find out later that the meal had to skew mostly vegan. At first, I thought it was going to be impossible, and maybe not that fun. How many times have we been burnt at these vaguely potlucky concert dinners by the boring, banal quinoa salad? Or the generic spinach salad? So it’s been a really fun and inspiring challenge to create dishes that reflect my kind of seasonal, healthy, and vegetable-centric aesthetic. Turns out, it wasn’t that hard after all.
The dinner pictured here epitomizes the kind of approach that I plan to take with the Toronto harvest feast on October 15. It will be classic, simple, and bursting with flavor. Which is what I love anyway — meat or no meat.
Posted in food, summer, vegetables
Tagged dinner at home, summer vegetables, vegan, vegetarian