This just in: White asparagus

While many of us are caught up in this joyous time of springtime’s green asparagus, don’t forget about their tender, oft-forgotten albino kin, white asparagus. A few years ago I was in Germany in May, just in time for what they call Spargelsaison where it was all asparagus, all the time, and I never got sick of it.

With that taste memory in mind, I picked up a small bunch of white asparagus at my local grocery store this week (it was only $3; in my mind I always pegged white asparagus as being as expensive as lox), and then thinking back to a terrific side dish of butter-poached white asparagus that my family enjoyed at Nota Bene last year, I decided to make a quick batch of butter-glazed asparagus.

To make it, all you do is snap the rough ends off a 1lb bunch of cleaned white asparagus, get out a large skillet and add ¼ of water to it. Set it on high heat. When the water comes to a boil (this happens quickly), add the white asparagus and lower heat to medium. Cook for two minutes, then add 3 tbsp butter, a good pinch of sugar and a good pinch of salt. Keep the spears moving around in the pan and cook for an additional 6-8 minutes or until tender.

On matzo and meatballs

There’s something about Passover, the Jewish holiday happening this week, that really speaks to me. For starters, culinarily speaking, it’s quite the challenge making food for a crowd based on a cracker; and I enjoy a challenge. I also like that for eight days of the year you really stand out as being Jewish, what with all the matzo sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs.

And if people thought I was annoying before, you should see me matter-of-factly explaining why we can only eat things made of ground-up matzo and not flour, even though matzo is made of flour, while waving around a piece of matzo shmeared with pareve margarine and 778 blackcurrent jam for effect. Hours of fun!

Geez, I guess I’m a little more into Passover than I thought, as I even found a bunch of blog posts related to the holiday here, here, and here, plus some ditties I did for Food & Wine magazine here, here, here, and here.

I hosted my first-ever seder this year, and along with the matzo ball soup, salads, salmon, brisket, roasted asparagus and potatoes (tip: when people offer to contribute to the seder, say yes), I made this fresh take on sweet and sour meatballs.

Whether you’re celebrating Passover or Easter or nothing at all, I think we can all agree that everybody loves a good meatball. It's the meat that binds.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

(serves 12)

Ingredients:

4lbs lean ground beef

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

6 medium tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped

2 cooking onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 medium carrots, roughly chopped

1 pineapple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp honey

4 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

*Depending on the sweetness of your vegetables and pineapple you’ll want to adjust with more ketchup, vinegar, salt, etc. before serving in order to hit that perfect balance. Taste your food!

Method:

1. Season beef with salt and pepper and roll into 1-inch bite-sized meatballs.

2. Add prepped tomatoes, onion and carrot to a food processor and chop until smooth, then add pineapple and pulse so that it’s still a bit chunky. Add mixture to a very large pot, add oil, ginger, honey, ketchup, vinegar and salt and pepper, then bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, add meatballs, and cook, partially covered, for two hours. Serve will roasted potatoes or matzo.

When nice nieces go vegan

Most of us have friends or family members who enthusiastically announce they have gone vegan, and in reaction to the big news all the rest of us can usually muster is a snort and an elaborate eye roll. Sometimes the veganism lasts a week – usually when they realize they can’t eat cheese and chocolate anymore – but it can also last for years.

Though I have altogether too many vegetarian friends, I have yet to befriend a long-term vegan. That said, my teenaged niece Madeline, recently decided to go vegan seemingly for ethical reasons. I gave her a week but she’s already a couple of months in. A happy offshoot is that she’s taking more control of the cooking process (seeing as this was her choice and she’s the right age to start cooking some of her own meals). So she’s whipping up dinners to suit her needs and tastes, and I’m a fan of that. Here’s a meal she prepared at the cottage during March Break, under the guidance of my mother, a Dietitian. After all, we don’t want a bunch of vegan teenagers growing up brittle boned and anemic because they love animals. Plan your vegan means accordingly.

Maddie’s Easy Vegan Tortilla Soup

(Makes 6 serving/ 8 cups)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small sweet onion, diced

1 vegetable bouillon cube

5 cups boiling water

1 cup Israeli couscous

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup beans of your choice, such as cooked chickpeas, black beans or navy beans, rinsed and drained

500mL salsa

Tortilla chips and avocado garnish (optional)

Method:

Brown the onion in oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. When onion is browned, add couscous and stir. Add the water and bouillon cube and stir again (note: if you have 5 cups of vegetable stock on hand, use that instead of the bouillon cube and water). Let cook covered for 10-12 minutes until couscous is almost tender. Add corn, beans, and salsa and cook covered for an additional 10 minutes to finish cooking the couscous. Top with tortilla chips or avocado cubes and enjoy! Tip: This is even better the next day, though you may need to thin it with a bit of water.

Stuff, straight up

And now for something a little different, here’s what’s been going on in my neck of the woods...

-On March 29^th I’m one of the judges for RAW! The Great Toronto Tartare-Off, at The Fairmont Royal York. The super exciting part? Rush frontman and noted foodie Geddy Lee is also a judge! We’ll be tasting and judging over a dozen different tartars non-cooked up by some of the city’s best toques, among them Didier LeRoy, Lorenzo Loseto, Jason Bangerter and Jamie Kennedy. The event is to support the construction of a school in Guatemala. If you can’t attend, consider making a donation to Grapes for Humanity (grapesforhumanity.com). If you can make it, tickets for the Great Toronto Tartare-Off are $125 and can be purchased by calling Annette at 416-445-9920. If you want my tartare recipe (pictured here), just click here.

-I stopped in at The Midfield Wine Bar & Tavern, co-owned by a pal who used to run the late Marquee Video, where I often popped by for my afternoon latte. Happily in my neighbourhood, I now have plans to make The Midfield a regular haunt.

-Walking by 7-Eleven the other day I noticed a billboard advertising 2-for-1 hot dogs with free chili and cheese. I wondered what the asterisk beside the "free chili and cheese" was referring to, and upon closer inspection, at the bottom of the sign it said “with food purchase”. This struck me as hilarious. (Visions of ne'er do well youths pumping liquid cheese down their gullets.)

-Three weeks in and I’m still loving my gig at Chatelaine. Here’s my first blog post for them. Sandwiches for one and all!

-I had a delish sneak preview meal at Bestellen a couple of months ago, and now that I’ve finally eaten at the officially open-for-business restaurant I can officially say this place tastes great. (P.S. Good looks and terrific service too.)

-A couple of friends and I have a long running competition that runs in tandem with Top Chef. We each choose a winner immediately after the contestants have all been introduced (bets are usually laid by the first commercial break.) I may stand corrected but I do believe I’ve picked the winner every time but once. (And so far I’m 1 for 1 on Top Chef Canada.) My pick for season 2? David Chrystian.

-Finally, unrelated to anything, am I the only one who had a major crush on the Galloping Gourmet? They sure don't make cooking shows like they used to.

Homemade Hot Sauce!

Lately, I’ve been obsessing over hot sauce: The hotter the better. (Let’s just say the ghost pepper is my new bff.) And while over the years I’ve made my own cheese, ketchup, dulce de leche, pickles, ice cream and dressings, I’ve never thought to make my own hot sauce. I suppose I felt it was too dangerous and difficult to master – best left to the domain of space age laboratories and food conglomerates.

Well, today I decided, screw that, and found a recipe that looked too good to be true in that it was simple, sourced from one of my favourite NYC restaurants, Blue Ribbon, and best of all I already had all of the ingredients on hand (though I swapped out the suggested habanero chilies with serranos.) Guess what? Amazing! And who knew the secret ingredient to homemade hot sauce was carrot?

A special shout-out to my neighbour Victoria, who made it extra smooth by pouring it into her high performance Vitamix, which is basically the most awesome blender ever. (It even cleans itself.)

Make a batch of this today: You’re going to put this shit on everything. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Homemade Hot Sauce

1 very large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 ½ cups white vinegar


3 serrano chilies, trimmed, seeded and sliced


1 tbsp sea salt


pinch of sugar

Method: To a medium pot add sliced carrot and cover with water. Simmer until tender but not overcooked, about 12-14 minutes. Drain well.

In a small non-reactive pot combine vinegar, chilies, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil then shut off heat and let the mixture cool. Purée in a blender with carrot until silky smooth. Eat straight away, or pour into an airtight, sterile jar or bottle and refrigerate.

Perfect purple cauliflower

Let's do a recipe today! Something familiar with a bit of a twist: Sweet and salty roasted cauliflower.

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets (Tip: I used a purple cauliflower for kicks. Mulitcoloured heads are now becoming the norm at supermarkets. Fun for the whole family.)

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

about 1 tsp za'atar (optional, but it kind of makes it. Available in the spice aisle or at Middle Eastern groceries)

about 1 tsp runny honey

2 Tbsp pinenuts, toasted

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss prepped cauliflower in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and za’atar, and lay out evenly on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Roast in preheated oven until slightly browned; about 25 minutes.

When cauliflower is done, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with toasted pinenuts.

What to serve this with? Goes great with a falafel plate, fish or chicken. (Maybe you’ll find a suitable recipe here.)

Hummus is a no-brainer.

Some homemade labna would be good too.

And if it were summer I’d definitely make this. Soon, but not quite yet.

A brisket for friends

In the middle of my first week of working at Chatelaine I started missing my old colleagues at House & Home. Don't get me wrong; I love my new colleagues -- they're fantastic! But looking around my gorgeously (almost) finished reno and feeling super grateful for all of their suggestions -- the great Cameron MacNeil did the job, but other House & Home angels, especially the wonderful Stacey Smithers, also weighted in with opinions, and I wanted them all to see the place and enjoy the new kitchen in action. So an impromptu Thursday night dinner for six was planned.

But what to serve? I wouldn't be home until 6pm, dinner was called for 7pm, so a work-ahead meal was needed.

The fab Sasha Seymour would be attending, and she insisted on brisket. She styled the shoot for the photos in the House & Home 2012 trends spread for January, pictured here, and she wanted to taste that brisket again. (She was actually super aggressive about it.) I told Sasha that I had no time to go out and buy a brisket, so god love her, she placed an order, picked it up, and dropped it in my oversized mailbox just before I got home Wednesday night.

Then I got marinating and braising, made mashed potatoes, honey roasted carrots, a lemon vinaigrette for the arugula and apple salad I'd throw together the next night, and a salmon spread to nibble on when my stylish guests arrived.

Ding dong! 7pm. I take the brisket from the oven, warm up the potatoes and carrots, cook some peas, toss the salad and away we went, much wine and stories christening my colourful new kitchen and dining room during its first real dinner party.

These friends are keepers.

And so is this brisket recipe.

Amy’s Beef Brisket

(serves 8-10)

Ingredients:

1 5lb single brisket

1 cup Coca-Cola (not diet, not Zero, just Classic please)

1 cup apricot jam

1/2 cup tomato sauce (homemade or store bought)

1 packet dry onion soup mix, such as Lipton's

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp kosher salt

fresh cracked pepper to taste

Method:

1. Mix marinade ingredients together, pour over brisket in a roasting pan, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. Or, if you don't have that much time to spare, several hours will do in a pinch.

2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 325 F then cook covered brisket for 3 hours, then uncovered for an additional 1/2 hour. Let cool, then refrigerate (this aids in slicing). Skim any excess fat. When cooled, slice thinly against the grain and add back into pan with sauce.

3. About a half hour before you’re ready to serve, preheat oven to 350 F and reheat brisket for 20-30 minutes, spooning sauce over it a couple of times.

Snacky things for Oscar

I just returned from vacation and I’m still on Club Med time, but since the Oscars are tonight I thought I’d be as uncreative as traditional media and do a quickie post about snacky things you can serve to guests while watching the big show.

Leafing through past blog posts, I had almost forgotten about my new favourite olives, while these lemony mushrooms have been part of my regular repertoire for a decade.

Feta red pepper dip? So easy! (Tip: Why not make some hummus while you’re at it?)

Shrimp are both tasty and fancy.

And everyone loves homemade caramel corn.

Meanwhile, a party can only be improved upon with the inclusion of Ritz Bits.

Oh, and offering something sweet is a must.

So, that's it. Good luck on your Oscar pools, and here’s hoping that the big show won’t be as lame as this blog post! (But seriously, there's a lot of good info tucked in here.)

On eating with a cold

This week it finally hit: I got a cold. But not just any old cold. This one woke me from a deep sleep at 3:30 a.m., filling my sinuses, ears and throat with such pressure that I thought my head would pop off. It was the most sudden cold onset ever! I hopped out of bed, popped an Advil, blew my nose and it was game on. About four days, 1.5 boxes of Kleenex and a few envelopes of delicious NeoCitran later, the cold is basically gone. But with a busy schedule this past week, what with a food shoot and finishing up at one job before starting another tomorrow, I had to push on through.

I tried to sneeze into the crook of my elbow while trying to enjoy my nights out, and along the way devised some tips on how to eat with a cold. Here they are:

1. THINK TEXTURE. I was invited to dinner at Colborne Lane at the height of my cold and it was too late to cancel. So on the one hand, I couldn’t taste a damn thing -- what a waste. But on the other hand, I took more notice of the gorgeous-looking dishes being served and reveled in all of the amazing textures. Crunchy, airy, smooth, cold and warm, my tastebuds may have been dead but my tongue was alive! At home if you feel like snacking, think apples, celery, popcorn, whole grain cereal and other good-for-you foods that will fight hunger and boost your system without you caring whether or not they taste great. Because you can’t taste them anyway!

2. EAT ORANGES. I had been expecting this cold for about a month. Everyone at work had been sick and I was convinced that my seasonal mandarin orange habit was keeping the cold at bay. Sure enough, the day after my third crate ran out my cold stormed in. I honestly feel if you OD on vitamin C you will not get a cold. If you don’t want to eat them, juice ‘em.

3. NO FINGER FOODS. Now is not the time for sharing. Keep your mitts off the chips and M&Ms at get-togethers and don’t indulge in shared fries or finger foods because you’ll just lick your fingers, then on spreads the virus. Ask your host for your own plate and fork even if none are being offered, then keep your food and germs to yourself. No hugs or air-kissing either. Don’t even clink wine glasses. Wash your hands often, with soap. Try to be thoughtful and soon enough your cold will be gone -- and your friends won’t blame you for passing it on to them.

And that’s what I learned this week. I’m heading off to sunnier climes next weekend so I’ll report back in two weeks time. Adios amigos!

Trend Alert: Canadian Eats

The more I travel the more I learn that every area in Canada has its signature dish. From Acadian country’s Rappie Pie (pictured here) to Thunder Bay’s Persian doughnuts, while these recipes are everyday eats within a town’s borders, they're mystically almost unheard of elsewhere. Still, they are all part of the edible social fabric of Canada, where a tasty new chapter has just begun.

No ifs ands or buts about it, Canada is having a moment. It started with our winning ways at the 2010 Winter Olympics and continued when our economy didn’t tank as badly as the rest of the Western world's. Now, part of the trickle-down effect is our blooming indigenous culinary scene.

Canada is a young country with no true old guard to speak of. For this reason, our chefs tend to be youthful, multi-ethnic, homegrown, experimental, and their food, proudly delicious. Which is why right now is an exciting time to be a Canadian chef, or (better still) a Canadian restaurant-goer.

The first Bannock restaurant launched in the flagship Hudson’s Bay store in Toronto this fall, with a focus on traditional Canadian comfort food (everything from bannock pizzas to poutine and chicken pot pie). Then there’s chef Michael Stadtlander’s off-the-grid woodsy dream that is Haisai in Southhampton (the godfather of Canadian cookery, chef Stadtlander has also spearheaded the important cause of stopping a proposed mega quarry.) Vancouver has the Oakwood (try the Nanaimo bar custard for dessert) while other Canadian anthems include Martin Picard’s seasonal Caban au Sucre, as well as his meaty Quebecois comfort food temple, Au Pied de Cochon.

There’s also Edible Canada, which opened on Vancouver’s Granville Market, and Halifax’s Chives Canadian bistro, which just celebrated its happy 10^th. These are just a few examples; the good news is that there are many more.

But for money, the restaurant that has it all – great looks, creativity, hot chefs, and overall deliciousness, is chef Aaron Joseph Bear Robe’s aboriginal Keriwa Café. Judging from brunch alone, from the basket of freshly baked goodies and homemade preserves to the brown butter eggs Benny (why have I never had this magical take on hollandaise before?) with its local Red Fife biscuit base, crispy homemade bacon, not to mention the cleverly tasty roasted root veg tossed with salad side, I’ll be shocked if someone can find a better brunch in town.

Or, a more Canadian one.