FARMERS’ MARKETS ARE BACK….FINALLY!!!!

Well, the long wait for spring has arrived and it’s finally arrived….how do I know??? Well, perhaps it is the explosion of colour on the trees and in the gardens through out our area but that’s too obvious….for me it is the opening of the Farmers’ Markets.

In addition to the Hamilton Downtown Market which is open all year the Ottawa Street Market is once again every Wednesday and Saturdays  from 7 a.m to 3 p.m. serving that terrific shoppers’ haven and last week the Mountain Farmers’ Market (located Viewpoint Ave. and Mountain Park Ave) of Mountain Park Ave. began on the Mother’s Day Weekend and will be open every Saturday until the Fall.  The opening of the other markets is June 15th on the varying days.

With food prices soaring it is comforting to know that at least purchases at the market will support the local economy.

This year I have decided to get on the band wagon and start to do my own preserving and canning.  An old tradition that allowed our Mother’s & Grandmothers to preserve fresh produce from the garden and offset the food costs in the winter.   Environment Hamilton posted a blog on canning…check it out at http://hamiltoneatlocal.blogspot.ca/2008/07/canning.html.

Bernardi’s (the folks who manufacture the canning jar systems) website offers some insight as well www.bernardin.ca/‎  – there you will find how to’s and recipes that will open your mind to many possibilities.

Why not lighten the load a bit and share the tasks with a family member, friend, neighbour or community group.  Get together and buy a bushel(s) of some seasonal vegetables or fruit and  get together for a canning party.  Add some local wine & snacks and you’ve got an event with a purpose!!!   The old adage “Many Hands Make Light Work” applies whole-hardheartedly here.  The aromatic packet of spices & herbs as they bubble in the tomato sauces the smell of the fruit as it simmers on the stove throughout your house. One of the most vivid memories I have of my childhood is the  distinctive aroma of that flavour pack for my mother’s chili sauce which we used like ketchup on “EVERYTHING”.  With aromas like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, bay leaves and more (can’t remember her recipe entirely)  who needs artificial air fresheners!!!

I have a date with the markets on Saturday.  I am going to check out the Mountain one first and maybe make my way to Ottawa Street finishing up with the Downtown Hamilton Market.  I’ll have to see what goodies I find.  I hope to see you there on Saturday!!  Enjoy!!!!

Stauffer’s Specialties

It’s Saturday night at Celli’s Osteria and the restaurant is buzzing with happy, chattering people. The waitresses glide to and fro’ with platters of pizza and pasta, the lights are dimmed and the candles are lit, wine is poured and there is a hum of genial conversation. Periodically, Chef Michael Stauffer moves out of the kitchen, to appear at the bar, bearing food and casting a judicious eye over all of the proceedings.

Stauffer, a Dundas native, is a classically trained chef whose culinary skills have been honed at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and in five star establishments such as Langdon Hall, Toronto’s Spendido and the late, lamented Rain where he worked with Guy Rubino learning to cook exemplary Asian fusion. Perhaps the most impressive notation on his resume, however, is a six month internship at Le Grand Véfour in Paris, one of the world’s most renowned, Michelin-endorsed, temples of gastronomy. (He recalls, “I worked from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to midnight, getting my butt kicked every day. But what I learned was equivalent to a three years apprenticeship.”)

So how did this accomplished and innovative chef end up in Burlington?

It was a yearning to own his own business that brought him back to Hamilton where he teamed up with an old friend to start his own catering company, The Culinary Office. He worked at that Locke Street location for five years and when it was bought out by the owners of Celli’s, he moved to Celli’s Cafe in Ancaster. Now, he spends his time in two venues: the mornings at the Ancaster location, until after lunch, when he moves to the Osteria on Burlington’s Brant Street.

He takes a tremendous amount of pride in Celli’s. “The kitchen team is my backbone, they all care a lot about the food that we make and Sharon, the sommelier, is dedicated to finding the very best, value-driven wine.”

The term “osteria” means tavern or inn, a simple lodging with traditional food and wine. On the restaurant’s website, that translates into rustic Italian dishes with a contemporary flair including a wide variety of pizza and house-made fresh pasta. But there is much more than that; Stauffer notes that the steaks are dry aged and one of the superstars of the menu is “branzino” — Mediterranean sea bass simply filleted and served with a red pepper soffrito. And Stauffer pushes his clients to refresh their tastebuds and try something new.

“We add guanciale to our buccatini — it’s our own pork jowl cured with salt, sugar, spices and herbs for four weeks, and then, with cracked pepper for six weeks. It’s a bit like a prosciutto, but from a different part of the pig. We’re always trying to market something new and inventive — diners don’t have to drive to Toronto to have an exceptional experience.”

Not surprisingly, Stauffer’s early training left him with a penchant for culinary history which evidences itself in a personal collection of old cookbooks by the French masters — people like the Troisgros Brothers, Paul Bocuse and Joël Robuchon. In fact, he finds this advice from Fernand Point who is often considered the father of modern French cuisine, to be his guiding precept. Point said that to be a good chef, one must see everything, taste everything, smell everything and read everything, in order to retain even a little bit.

“A chef must be like a sponge,” says Stauffer. “You must approach everything with an open mind and never stop learning in this industry.”

We have been lucky enough to have Michael Stauffer oversee our Go Cooking sessions three or four times now. Here is a recipe for a wonderful, refreshing salad that he made for us to enjoy a few weeks ago.

E. Hujer

Warm Israeli Couscous Salad with Arugula, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Prosciutto, Toasted Pine Nuts and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

Serves 4 

Ingredients

Salad

1 pint cherry tomatoes

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

½ cup Israëli couscous or Concini de Pepe

2 cups washed arugula

¼ cup pine nuts (lightly toasted)

150 grams prosciutto

Parmigianino-Reggiano

Vinaigrette:

1 Meyer lemon, zested and juiced

½ cup cold pressed olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp honey

Method:

1. For the tomatoes, place in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and olive oil.
2. Put on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in a 325° F oven for 30 minutes or until just wilted.
3. Cook the couscous in a large quantity of salted water until just al dente, strain, spread on a oiled baking sheet and allow to cool slightly.
4. Place all vinaigrette items in a bowl and whisk well.
5. Add the arugula and pine nuts and toss gently.
6. For service, mix the warm couscous with the arugula and pine nuts and arrange on plates.
7. Garnish each plate with thinly sliced piece of prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, and Reggiano.
8. Serve immediately

Cooking with Mom

My mother belonged to the “life’s too short to stuff a mushroom” school of cookery, and yet, like most other people and their moms, I remember her meals with incredible fondness.  I learned to cook from her and the hours spent in the kitchen were memorable not only because of the cooking lessons that I absorbed, but also because they were the times when we both would talk openly over endless cups of coffee about all of the things that were bothering us or amusing us or exciting us.

In my small, southern Ontario “whitebread” community, my mom was seen as a bit of an exotic.  Her background was French and she was known to actually use garlic in the kitchen.  We ate it, for instance, in the tomato sauce for spaghetti which was always served with meatballs.  (Nobody called it “pasta” back then.) Like most of our neighbours we had a good sized yard with a large garden.  But along with the necessities like tomatoes and carrots and green beans, our garden produced asparagus, chives, butter lettuce and lots of spring onions.  Salads were a daily requirement for mom and she even made her own mayonnaise.  And parsley was the ubiquitous garnish.  Presentation was important and I remember being totally embarrassed when a friend came to dinner and her plate was embellished with the dark green sprigs. (No one else’s mom bothered with that sort of thing.)

Mother’s repertoire was limited — no one in the 50′s knew how to cook Thai and Julia Child had not yet appeared on the scene to upgrade our French cuisine.  Time was short and mom didn’t make puff pastry or French bread or complicated sauces that required split second timing.  Few cookbooks were used — I believe that I may still have a ragged and stained copy of “The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook” which, along with Betty Crocker, was the “cookbook du jour.”  Soups and stews, meatloaf and salads were the basics and the “recipes” were, more often than not, a pinch of this, a bit of that and whatever leftover happened to be in the fridge.  There were certain things, however, that had to be perfected: chocolate brownies, roast chicken with stuffing and gravy and, at Christmas, not one, but two “Christmas cakes”, a light and a dark, in case anyone came over for tea during the holidays.  And, of course, I also recall the usual horrors of that era: something called “Sunshine Salad” which consisted of grated raw carrots suspended in lemon Jello always was on the table for special occasions.  And it was not until I grew up and moved away, that I ever understood why anyone would want to eat a steak or rare roast beef which, in our house, had always been cooked until falling apart and grey.  I also cringe at the recollection of the amounts of butter, bacon and salt that were eaten freely, because no one knew then that they supposedly were “bad” for you.

My family was not really “poor” but frugality in the household was the watchword.  Food was never carelessly thrown out and, in the fall, the house was redolent with the odours of jams and jellies, chilli sauce and canned tomatoes.  No one had huge freezers then, and to be accused of “cooking from the can” was a ghastly insult.  A clean, well-lined fruit cellar filled with well-labelled, gleaming glass bottles was meant to get us through the winter.

As a tribute to mom, I’ll leave you with a recipe for “Bread Pudding” which I still have, written out in pencil in her quavery handwriting.  And if you’re lucky enough to be with your mom this Sunday, be sure to give her a hug and tell her how much you love her.

E. Hujer

 

Perfect Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups milk

2 slightly beaten eggs

2 cups 1 inch day old bread cubes

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup seedless raisins

Method:

Combine milk and eggs; pour over bread cubes.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture into 8 inch round baking dish.  Place in shallow pan on oven rack; pour hot water around it 1 inch deep.  Bake at 350 F. about 45 minutes or till knife inserted halfway between centre and outside comes out clean.

My Notes:

This is good by itself, served warm or cold; but with heavy cream or syrup poured over it, or even a chocolate sauce, it is heavenly.

 

 

 

SHAWN ROCCHI- Ronald Mcdonald House Hamilton – in Go Cooking Kitchen!

Ronald Mcdonald House – Hamilton

Meals that Heal – Culinary Program

The Hamilton-Wentworth region is rich with many skills, talents and specialties. One of our largest forums where those elements are showcased is McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH).  One of the top pediatric academic health science centres in Canada, MCH serves the special and unique healthcare needs of children using a family-centered model of care.  Each year MCH has approximately 180,000 visits to our subspecialty clinics, diagnostic areas, emergency department, inpatient wards and operating rooms.

McMaster Children’s Hospital Serves a community of 2.3 million people from south central Ontario and beyond. In fact, over 50% of our patients come from outside the Hamilton region.

Families are torn apart during this time and that’s where Ronald McDonald House of Charities stepped in.  The very first Ronald McDonald House of Charities was established in Philadelphia in 1974 with the mission of providing temporary housing for families of sick and injured children receiving medical treatment. The vision of this organization is to provide a home away from home, offering hope and comfort during difficult times. In a fashion that is always friendly, supportive, respectful, and responsive to individual needs.

With recent renovations, Ronald Mcdonald House Hamilton (RMHH) was expanded to accommodate families sometimes assisting up to 60 – 70 people.

A culinary pilate program has been instituted at the Main West facility.  Directly across from McMaster Sick Kids Hospital, RMHH offers “Meals that Heal” program.

This program offers families a home-cooked meal seven nights a week.  Last evening, Go Cooking featured Shawn Rocchi, RMHH’s Culinary program Manager,  to our kitchen.  Preparing a Mediterranean Medley menu, he demonstrated his expertise of providing flavours, and healthy selections delivering a fantastic meal to 22+ guests with humour and heart.

Hamilton is the only site that offers a professional chef on-site offering a culinary program to help families of sick children, staying at RMHH.

Highlighting the program, he spoke of the opportunity to volunteer with RMHH and make a difference in these families’ lives when they are going through so much turmoil and heartache.  Shawn’s sense of humour teamed up with his love of food made a great evening for all

Shawn’s role with RMHH is to prepare the home-cooked meals with the help of special “Meals that Heal” volunteers.  Last evening we were privileged to have “Firefighter Jim” assist Chef Shawn in the kitchen.  He volunteers at RMHH throughout the week and is the in-house cook at his station-house.  Shawn stresses that the volunteers at RMHH make the program what it is.  With the families of the children who are in treatment at McMaster Sick Children’s Hospital needing nourishment to help give them energy & strength, these volunteers play an important role and “Meals that Heal” does as well.

HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?

Those interested in participating, will experience the tangible impact of helping our families directly.  You can get involved by gathering a group of friends, co-workers or family and contacting RMHH to set a date.

OR

Adopt-a-Meal Program – if you don’t live locally or do not have time to dedicate to the kitchen, you can sign up for the Adopt-a-Meal program and treat the families to a home0-cooked dinner.   For $300 you or your group can donate a fantastic meal that these families can enjoy.  Many who have endured long and stressful days watching their little ones endure things they should never have to endure. These meals are often their only touch with “Life” as they new it.  Home-cooked meals away from home.

“MEALS THAT HEAL” Program offers:

• A delicious meal for the families (60-100 people)
• Learn some great cooking tips from a professional chef
• Save time – they do the grocery shopping and meal planning for you
• Enjoy a delicious meal – you get to enjoy what is cooked
• Receive a tax receipt!

Ready to sign up?  CONTACT:  905-521-9983 ex. 2177 or email mealsthatheal@rmhhamilton.ca

Happy Spargelzeit!

I am fuzzy from jet lag and a trip to Germany — a week in Berlin and a week in Dresden.  My head is full of old masters (plus a lot of mind-blowing contemporary art), I am footsore from walking for miles through castles and train stations and entire baroque villages, and I have consumed my fill of wurst and golden reisling.  All went as expected — however — the most exciting surprise of the trip was — (drumroll, please) –  I found that I had arrived right at the beginning of spargel season!!

Yes, you may well be asking yourself, what the heck is spargel?

It’s asparagus actually, only not quite.

Carved stone asparagus in a spargel museum.

Spargel, in Germany, is usually white asparagus, that grows within a very short season — from about April 23rd to the end of June.  The season is called spargelzeit and is the highlight of the springtime German foodie calendar.   Tiny villages have festivals and crown asparagus queens.  There are spargel museums and a spargel cycling trail along the spargel-spangled routes of the Saxon countryside. The spargel is valued so much that it is dubbed “white gold” or “edible ivory” by those with a penchant for metaphor.  This asparagus is pale because it is grown in mounds, with soil covering the shoots.  With the lack of exposure to sunlight there is no photosynthesis and the shoots remain white.

The flavour of the white asparagus is softer, milder and sweeter than the green asparagus that we enjoy — I find it almost buttery, but maybe that’s because it’s usually served drenched with butter.  It can be boiled or steamed and served with hollandaise sauce or sprinkled with olive oil or parmesan cheese or coated with mayonnaise.  I actually enjoyed it rolled in an omelette, served with scallops and in a broth with shrimps.  It can also be found on pizza and is often served with ham slices, boiled new potatoes, wiener schnitzel or in crêpes.   There is spargel cream soup, spargel in chive beurre blanc and spargel wrapped in prosciutto.  Superstar chef Susur Lee, apparently, likes to eat it raw. But maybe, just maybe, it is best appreciated on its own, with salt and pepper and lots of  melted butter.

It is possible to get this decadent and luxurious treat in Canada occasionally but it is very expensive.  I haven’t seen any yet, but it may at the market soon. If you find some, you need to know that it must be kept in a moist environment or it goes woody.  The class A spargel is very straight and absolutely white in colour with tightly closed tips.  When buying, always check to see that the cut ends of each stalk are not dried out. And it must be peeled before cooking.

Therein lies the challenge. Unlike green asparagus, where you seek the finest and thinnest stalks, with white asparagus you want the stalks to be thicker so that they can be peeled more easily.  You can use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife and peel from the top down. For cooking, there are tall narrow asparagus cooking pots which allow the shoots to be steamed gently with their tips out of the water. (I always cook my asparagus in an old, tall coffee perk which seems to work pretty well.)  The spargel needs to be cooked longer than green asparagus, because the stalks are thicker.  Maybe even 15 to 20 minutes — keep trying a piece to check it out.

If you are fortunate enough to be served white asparagus in Germany, you should be acquainted with certain traditions.  Spargel etiquette proclaims that one must eat it with a knife and fork no matter how much you’d like to just pick up the spears with your fingers and dip them in the butter.  It is considered very discourteous to ever leave any leftover spargel on your plate.  This is more serious than it sounds because the Germans don’t fool around with meagre portions.  A proper serving is considered to be 500 grams, or one pound per person.  And treat this food with respect.  Spargel is expensive and time consuming to grow and the harvest is small — so it is also considered impolite to ask for more.

The question of wine to go with asparagus is one of the on-going debates for wine writers.  What little I have gleaned, is that reds and oaky chardonnays should be avoided.  Instead, stick to fragrant, light, crispy spring wines.  Sauvignon blancs and pinot grigios are fine, but in Germany I was intent to try the dry (it should say “trocken”) reislings, or a gewürtztraminer or an Austrian grüner veltliner.

Food writer M. F. K. Fisher always opined that you can tell a lot about a people by what they like to eat.  I am gazing at the photos of these pale, phallic spears and still grappling with that question.

Anyway — here’s my favorite easy hollandaise sauce recipe, a great accompaniment for either green or white asparagus.

E. Hujer

Quick Hollandaise Sauce

from Craig Claiborne’s “The New York Times Cookbook”

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

3 egg yolks

2 tbsps. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

pinch of cayenne

Method:

Heat butter to bubbling, but do not brown.  Into an electric blender put egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne.  Blend on low and add hot butter gradually.  Blend about 15 seconds, until sauce is thickened and smooth.

My Notes:

This makes about a quarter of a cup of sauce but it can be doubled if desired.  Not authentic, but quick, easy and good.

GO COOKING features – Vahn Kalong, My Thai in our next session

Hamilton is a much better place having Vahn Kalong working towards bettering the economy for many students who have grown up learing the restaurant business. Vahn Kalong, the founder, owner, and operator of all five My-Thai Restaurants, is deeply passionate about creating an authentic Thai dining experience. She has the utmost amount of respect for her employees and her customers, which allows My-Thai to produce the most efficient, high-quality cuisine possible. Vahn also strongly believes in maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle and treating each new day as an opportunity for excitement, joy, and success.

Visit www.gocooking.ca and pick up one of the last 4 seats in this fantastic session. Join Vahn and learn more about her philosophy of cooking, how she is helping out our young students and more.

SESSION IS ON MONDAY, MAY 5, 2013 FROM 7 – 9 P.M. AT THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR – 44 FRID ST., HAMILTON, ON

This video is a must See!!!!

“Canada’s Favourite Recipes”

So what, exactly, is Canadian food? Anything with maple syrup? Apples? Venison? Wild salmon? Or, that old favourite, butter tarts?

I’ve always fantasized about taking an eating trip across Canada, from sea to briny sea, in order to answer that question. Happily, I recently discovered a new cookbook that does the legwork and saves me from that time-consuming, diet destroying, not to mention expensive, proposition. Simply titled “Canada’s Favourite Recipes”, the cookbook is by Rose Murray and Elizabeth Baird and published by Whitecap, Canada’s most renowned cookbook publisher. This is a book that deserves to find a place on the shelf of every serious Canadian cook; it will be used over and over again and at $40 is well worth every penny.

The chapters cover everything from appetizers to sweets, candy and drinks, including one dedicated exclusively to that once-so-important Canadian necessity, preserves. How many of you grew up with a “fruit cellar” in the basement and the spicy smell of chili sauce an essential ingredient of the early September kitchen? Although I don’t do it myself, I actually do have friends who make their own pickles, jams and jellies and distribute the bounty as the most delightful gifts.

An attempt is made in the book to celebrate the diversity of this huge country, so that you can find everything from grilled salmon with tarragon mayonnaise using wild salmon from the west coast, to lobster rolls, that luxurious treat from Atlantic Canada; from a Quebec tourtière, to strawberry Pavlovas featuring berries from our own Springridge Farms in Milton. But the recipe selections are not entirely “traditional.” Essentially, what we once may have thought of as “Canadian” food, has changed dramatically over the last 30 years with our waves of new immigrants. So now, recipes for pad Thai, jerk chicken, pizza, hot and sour soup and souvlaki share the space with all of the usual subjects.

I decided to try three of the recipes before writing this review, so over the last few weeks have cooked the aforesaid grilled salmon recipe, an appetizer called Spiced Shrimp with Lime-Ginger Sauce and the butter tarts. The tarragon mayonnaise with the simply grilled salmon was lovely — tart and piquant — and you will definitely throw away the bottled tartar sauce. I also loved the spiced shrimp. It’s a great appetizer because you can make both the sauce and the shrimp ahead of time, quickly cook the shrimp (1 or 2 minutes) when guests arrive, and let them dip the hot shrimp in the cool sauce. The butter tarts were a little more complicated. I loved the pastry, called “Reputation-making Pastry.” The recipe uses lard which sounds awful, but anyone who uses it will become a devotée very quickly. I am a butter tart purist who resists all change, however, and much prefer sultana raisins in the filling, to currants. There was also a suggestion that dark maple syrup could be used instead of the traditional corn syrup. I am taking that under advisement. I must say that I can’t wait until I have a whole weekend to try the complicated looking recipe for chicken pot pie.

Rose Murray and Elizabeth Baird

Anyway, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the recipes work. The cookbook authors both are veteran food writers who have been contributing to the Canadian food scene for more than 30 years. Rose Murray(http://rosemurray.ca/), has written ten cookbooks, including the award winning 2003 “Hungry for Comfort.” Elizabeth Baird was Food Editor of “Canadian Living” for 20 years and has worked in television extensively on the Canadian Food Network. The two writers and editors travelled across the country to research the 160 recipes and each listing is accompanied by an introduction that outlines the recipe’s genesis and puts it into context. The illustrations are beautifully photographed, lavish and colourful.

I’ll leave you with the recipe for grilled salmon.

Grilled Salmon with Tarragon Mayonnaise

from Canada’s Favourite Recipes by Rose Murray and Elizabeth Baird

Ingredients:

3 lb (1.5 kg) wild salmon fillet or fillets with skin

3 tbsp (45 ml) olive oil

2 tbsp (30 ml) each chopped fresh tarragon and parsley

1 tsp (5 ml) grated lemon zest

1 tbsp (15 ml) fresh lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Divide the skinless side of the fillet into 8 portions by cutting down almost to the skin, but not through it.  Place the fillet skin side down in a shallow glass dish.  In a small bowl combine the oil, tarragon, parsley, zest and lemon juice.  Brush over the salmon and let sit at room temperature for at least 5 minutes or up to 30 minutes.

Place the fillet, skin side down, on a greased grill over low heat and sprinkle with salt and pepper;  close the lid and grill until the fish is opaque and flakes easily when tested with a fork, about 30 minutes.  Insert a spatula between the skin and each portion of fish, removing the fish and leaving the skin on the grill.  (When the grill cools, it will come off easily.)

Tarragon Mayonnaise

(makes about one cup)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (175 ml) mayonnaise

2 tbsp (30 ml) sour cream

1 tsp (5 ml) grated lemon zest

1 tbsp (15 ml) fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp (30 ml) chopped fresh tarragon

1 tbsp (15 ml) snipped fresh chives

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp (2 ml) salt

1/4 tsp (1 ml) freshly gound black pepper

Method:

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon zest and juice.  Stir in the tarragon, chives, garlic, salt and pepper.( Make-Ahead:  Cover and refrigerate for up to six hours.)

My Notes: 

I used separate salmon fillets with skin and made this in the broiler, since the weather is not really suitable yet for outdoor grilling. (The cooking time is, of course, much shorter if using individual portions — maybe about 5 – 7 minutes.) This was good, but I am looking forward to that special flavour that comes from cooking on the barbecue.  The sauce is delicious.  This is served with a summery-looking bean salad in the cookbook, which also sounds like a plan!  

Paul Cezanne pre-Twitter