FFWD – Warm Scallop Salad with Corn, Nectarines, and Basil

August 10, 2012May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 27 Comments

It’s about time we had another scallops recipe in the group – they’re probably my favourite seafood (though mussels run a close second). I also appreciate a recipe that makes use of height-of-summer produce. Chilliwack corn, farm-fresh tomatoes, and basil from my own garden are part of this salad and the taste is phenomenal.

This recipe is really about small parts coming together well. Lime dressing, basil coulis, chopped tomatoes, kernels of corn, all served with grilled or pan-fried scallops and nectarines. They worked together even better than I’d imagined. My presentation, however, was not as pretty as I’d imagined. No matter, we had a delicious dinner.

Every summer I try to make as much use as I can of the succession of fresh, local fruit and vegetables. Every year I feel like I’ve fallen a little short. A recipe like this certainly helps me feel like I’ve succeeded. A gourmet treat full of summer goodness – we’ll be having this again.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Warm Scallop Salad with Corn, Nectarines, and Basil

Yet another post about the garden

August 7, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 2 Comments

Holy thunderstorm, Batman! It’s hard to believe that just yesterday (and this morning, for that matter), it was sunny. I’m hoping things don’t get too exciting out there – my eggplant and most of my tomatoes are quite little and fragile at the moment. I think my beans could survive just about anything, though. The photos I’m sharing aren’t the best I’ve ever taken, but they show how things are coming along.

Tonight, I’m making kale pesto (inspired by Cher), with some leaves I took to thin out the almost scary growth it’s been having – amazing what a little sun will do for the garden. Tomorrow, I’m going to make a Swiss chard quiche, I think, since those leaves are in need of picking next. There are radishes that need picking, too, and I think I’m going to leave off making pesto with the leaves so that I can make some furikake instead. I made that for the first time last year and loved it. My cucumbers and zucchini are taking forever to grow and I’m afraid that I won’t get any this year. We won’t starve, though, because there’s a ridiculous amount of beans on the way (five varieties, as I keep mentioning), along with beets, carrots, onions, leeks and a few other things besides.

What have you been growing this year? What keeps getting your attention at the market? What are the recipes you can’t get enough of this summer?

FFWD – Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

August 3, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 19 Comments

I admit, I was prepared not to like these. I imagined they’d be one of those experiences that my partner describes as, “I’m a better person for having tried it, but I won’t be doing that again.” I was wrong.

The idea of preventing puff pastry from puffing was the thing that gave me pause. Why not use a regular flatbread, then? I dutifully rolled the dough out, cut it into six-inch circles, pricked it and gently laid it on a parchment-covered baking sheet, only to sandwich another baking sheet on top of the delicate dough. When they came out of the oven, I was still skeptical – all this work for…crackers?

When it came time to assemble the tart, though, I got a little more excited. I used some radish leaf-almond pesto (my go to pesto recipe this summer, it seems) and some leftover (grated) mozzarella. The tomatoes in my garden aren’t quite ready yet, but the ones at the store were perfectly ripe. I had some leftover bacon, too, so I diced it and added it between the pesto and tomato layers. The basil was fresh from the garden. I hoped the pastry was going to measure up to the rest of the ingredients.

As many of us have said before, trust in Dorie. These were delicious and very worth the unpuffing of some puff pastry. The pastry had a nice snap to it and was a great base for the toppings. In fact, I think I might even be willing to sacrifice some homemade gluten-free puff pastry for this recipe.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

The Progression of the Garden

July 31, 2012July 31, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

There’s nothing so interesting to me this summer as my vegetable garden. I’ve had some difficulties (mostly of the nocturnal animal variety), but overall I’m pretty pleased with it. I harvested tomatoes today, with more to come. There will be beans and cucumbers, kale, Swiss chard, beets, and radishes – perhaps even an eggplant or two. I’m going to try again with lettuces for September harvest and there’s late-planted garlic growing, which I’ll pull up in October, dry out, and sow for next year’s harvest.

In the meantime, I’ll keep taking photos, so you may have to endure one or two more of these posts before the summer’s through. I’d love to hear about what you’re growing, in backyards, windows, or balconies.

In the Swing of It

July 17, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

It’s truly summer here and I’m spending a lot of time fussing over the plants in my vegetable garden. That’s not all that there is to do, though. Summer’s a busy time around here.

For instance, while I’m typing away in my stuffy apartment (what am I thinking?), there’s a hyper-local honey tasting at Salt Tasting Room; folks are finding a spot for their blankets to watch a movie in Stanley Park (courtesy of Fresh Air Cinema); and elsewhere in the park, folks are settling in to watch a live presentation of The Music Man.

This week’s Main Street Farmer’s Market is featuring a pie contest as part of their Berry Festival and The Salty Tongue’s brought back their Long Table Supper series with a fruit-focused Pit for your Supper theme. If that’s not enough berry goodness for you, Gourmet Warehouse is tempting folks (well, me) by stocking Bernardin’s Home Canning Starter Kit. If you’re needing a canning primer, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank‘s Community Kitchen program is hosting a Safe Canning Basics demonstration. If you’re more of a grow-your-own sort, there’s Mid-Season Gardening workshop coming up, too. I think I may need a little help on both counts – I got a little carried away with the five(!) varieties of beans I planted and I think freezing all the extras would be a bit of a shame. I’m also trying to figure out what to plant in my newly freed up garden squares – ah, Square Foot Gardening, you really know how to keep a body hopping.

There’s tonnes more going on, with all the festivals, block parties, and outdoor events of the summer. I’m hoping to take in a goodly portion of them. But for now, I’m off to water my garden before it gets dark.

What’s happening in your neck of the woods this summer?

Flowers + Dog

July 5, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

A photo post today, just because. I was hoping to call it Dog and Butterfly, for that ’70s vibe, but none showed up on the day I was taking these photos. I did have a face-to-face with a hummingbird, which seemed to go on forever, but must have really been only about ten seconds. I don’t mind not having photos of that encounter – how often does a hummingbird hover a foot from one’s face, taking stock of you while allowing you to enjoy its delicate iridescence?

Most of these photos were taken at my parents’ place and the rest are from a walk around Fort Langley. Tomorrow, I’ll be back, with cucumbers.

Oh Summer, Where Are You?

July 3, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

We’ve had a long wet stretch from late winter until, well, now. The forecast finally promises a stretch of sun, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The funny thing is that I’m a mild weather girl. Having been raised here, rain doesn’t bother me. But, since I’ve started vegetable gardening, I’ve found myself longing for some sunshine.

There are things growing in my garden and, truth be told, there are a lot of things germinating in my garden right now, too. The one good thing about this very late summer is that my procrastinating self has been able to stretch out the planting portion of the season to its limits. But, my tomato plants are sad and I’m feeling a little fear for the eggplant plants I finally put into the ground. I’m not worried about the zucchini. I suspect that it would over-produce in a nuclear winter (though I hope never to test that theory).

I love looking at my vegetable beds, neatly marked off into square foot plots with wooden barbeque skewers and hemp twine (I’m rather proud of myself for repurposing those skewers). The flower beds are a challenge, sometimes, with the constant threat of morning glory, buttercup, snails and slugs. The vegetable garden, though, is easier to weed and brings out a love of orderliness I didn’t know I possessed. If only that would extend to the storage cupboards…

Photos from a Tiny Urban Desert

May 15, 2012May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

I rarely go to Canada Place. Most Vancouverites don’t. It’s a cruise ship terminal and convention centre, primarily. This weekend, though, I went there to attend the EPIC Expo, courtesy of Vancouver Farmers Market. It’s a sustainable living show and there were lots of interesting organizations and products there.

I had my camera with me, but didn’t take any photos of the show. Instead, once I’d worked my way through all of the booths, entering contests I was destined never to win, I wandered outside and took some photos around Canada Place. My primary response was to wonder why such places are designed so that they become tiny deserts, devoid of any of the natural features of the region they’re in. Vancouver is in rainforest territory, yet in Sunday’s sunny weather, Canada Place felt like Nevada, arid and hot. I was glad to escape back into the artificial forest conditions of downtown’s highrises, where it was cool and breezy.

Here are a few of the shots I took.

FFWD – Sardine Rillettes

April 13, 2012May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 20 Comments

Every summer, my family would go on holiday for the month of August. We’d go “up country” to the lakes north of Kamloops. British Columbia is dotted with freshwater lakes and we visited many of them. We’d stay at one for a while and if the fishing wasn’t good, my Dad would hitch up the Boler trailer and the family would pile back into the car, ready to explore the next forestry campsite. My sister, brother, and I would run through the woods, swim in the lakes, read books by the shore, and at least once a day, we’d go out in the boat to troll for trout. The rule was, If You Catch It, You Clean It and when the fishing was good, we got a lot of practice.

I found myself thinking about these trips the other day, while removing the spine and tail from two tins’ worth of sardines for this week’s recipe. It’s a much easier job than cleaning trout, if a bit fussier. The process is almost as rewarding, though, because rillettes are my new best friend. Forget dip, spread, and stuffing – the only word you need, I’ve found, is rillettes.

For this recipe, sardines are mashed into a mixture of cream cheese, onions, and herbs, with lime juice and a dash of cayenne for bite. Chilled overnight, the rillettes become a thick, spreadable paste. You might spread it on bread or crackers, use it to stuff eggs or vegetables, or add it to a plate of crudités for dipping.

We still had a big bag of Saint-Germain-des-Prés Onion Biscuits in the freezer, so we baked a few and while they were still warm, filled them with rillettes, with a few cornichons on the side. The next day, we did it again. I’m going to have to make another batch if I want to try these rillettes with anything else. I think a thin layer on rye bread would make an excellent condiment for a Montréal smoked meat sandwich. For example. I might have to try Dorie’s recipe for Salmon Rillettes, first, though. And perhaps I’ll have to get my hands on some rainbow trout and work up a version for that, too. Like I said, rillettes are my new best friend.