Apple and Blackberry Galette

Short post this week. We spent the last five days in Barbados attending a friend's wedding... The short trip was wonderfully warm and provided a much needed respite from the drudgery of work.

Barbados is a beautiful country - if you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it.



I will write about our trip and our food adventures in Barbados at a later date when I recreate some of the delicious Bajan foods we tried. We arrived home late last night and I could only muster enough energy to make this simple apple and blackberry galette.


Apple & Blackberry Galette


This recipe makes a slightly sweet, slightly tart galette. If you prefer a sweeter dessert, I would add another 1-2tbsp of sugar.

397 grams of puff pastry (defrosted)*
4 Granny Smith apples - peeled & cored
1/4 c walnut pieces
1/4 pint blackberries
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Roll out puff pastry thinly. Place a large dinner plate (approximately 12 inches) wrong side down to create an impression on the dough.
3. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate.
4. Meanwhile, slice apples into thin slices and place in water with a little lemon juice.
5. Remove puff pastry from fridge. Arrange apples in a concentric pattern (or if you like a more rustic look, scatter within the circle.
6. Scatter blackberries and walnut pieces.
7. Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over the fruit.
8. Bake for 60 minutes. Remove from oven when the puff pastry is puffed, golden and crisp.
9. Cool slightly and serve with a dusting of icing sugar and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

*You can make puff pastry and I am quite sure the quality is much better, but this buying prepared puff pastry is a quick and easy solution for this dessert.
...Read more

A New Take on Risotto

This weekend started off with unseasonably cold weather. Even with a down-filled winter coat, winter boots and merino wool undershirt, the cold still managed to seep in somehow. And now, my husband tells me the weather forecast calls for snow all this week. I guess there is no escaping the weather except for a move to Costa Rica perhaps. (Awfully tempting, isn’t it?)

This week also marked the start of our “winter share” box from our organic CSA, Plan B. Inside our box were the tiniest Macintosh apples, a green cabbage, a small brown paper bag of fresh shitake mushrooms, a parsnip, a head of broccoli and a generous handful of potatoes and yams. This means rich, warming flavours for dinner this week. In search of something a little different for dinner, I decided to cook the ancient grains I had in the pantry along with some of the ingredients from our weekly box.



I know that the mere mention of grains conjures up thoughts of cardboard-tasting health food. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I bought these grains one afternoon after leisurely perusing the basement level of the St. Lawrence Market. I didn’t really have a plan for them and to be frank, I wasn’t quite sure what I would do with them. But like many ingredients I am not really familiar with, I derive a certain satisfaction in thinking about how an ingredient might become a meal and then going out and bringing it to life. Sometimes, it results in disaster, though rarely inedible. However, other times, I win the new ingredient jackpot, and my kitchen experiment turns into something that I would make again, and share with others.

I had eaten a rice blend recently that included kasha and quinoa and it was not bad but a little on the bland side. I thought it could be easily improved. Additionally, I had made a farro salad this past summer for a party and thought there would be an opportunity to do something hearty and warm for winter with these grains.

Farro is a whole grain particularly popular in Italy. It looks like a grain of rice with its husk intact. It has a nice chewy texture, delicious and hearty. Quinoa is a high-protein grain which makes it a vegetarian favourite. I love how its tiny pin-heads cook into the pudgy micro orbs that almost seem to pop in your mouth when you take a bite. Kasha is a whole grain made from buckwheat. It is often served as porridge is Eastern Europe as it often becomes a little mushy when cooked.

The approach I took to cooking was to think about the seasonal foods and flavours I enjoy and how to bring them into harmony with these grains. Risotto is a big winter time meal that I have come to enjoy over the last several years. I never used to like it, but I have recently been converted. Apples are a fruit that cellars well and hence are a winter time staple. Shitake mushrooms have a great woodsy flavour and may be cultivated indoors over the winter, making it possible to enjoy them all year around.

The recipe that I have provided here is probably enough for at least 6 people. I decided to make a little extra for our lunches for a day or two.



Ancient Grains “Risotto” with Mushrooms and Sautéed Apples

1 c farro
1 c quinoa
1 c kasha

2 small Macintosh apples, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and diced finely
1 garlic clove, minced
5 shitake mushrooms finely diced

4 c of vegetable broth
1 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of ground sage
1 tbsp of salt

1. Toast farro in a dry pan, shaking on occasion, until the farro smells nutty.
2. Rinse farro, quinoa and kasha under cold water and drain well.
3. Melt butter in a medium size pan, and add onion and garlic.
4. Once softened, add mushrooms, grains, 3 cups of vegetable stock (reserving one cup of broth), sage and salt. Cover and cook on low-medium for approximately 15 minutes. Stir grains and check water level. Add the additional cup of broth if most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add apples, re-cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Check often to ensure it doesn’t burn.
5. Once the liquid has been absorbed and the farro has softened but still has texture. Turn off heat and keep covered for another five minutes.
6. Serve with buttery sautéed apples.

Sautéed Apples

1 tbsp of butter
2 large Macintosh apples, peeled and sliced

1. Melt butter in a large pan. Once melted, add apples and sauté until apples soften and are glistening.

Apples + Cranberries = Fall Flavour

When we received our CSA share this week, we found little mangled Macintosh apples at the bottom of our box. A bit bruised and draped with dirt from the other tenants of the half share box this week. These little globes were not shiny and gorgeous like their Whole Food brethren. While they were too damaged to eat out of hand, they might do quite well transformed into a luscious crisp or a spicy chutney.

And truth be known, I had apple chutney on the brain ever since I sampled a bite at the farmer's market table several weeks back. Gosh, it was heavenly. It was sweet, savoury, tart, and bright. It left me wanting to make my own batch.

Since we had an apple pie sitting on the kitchen counter, an apple crisp might be overkill this week and a spicy, fragrant apple chutney might be a nice little accompaniment for fall meals. Best part of all, apple chutneys aren't fussy. It's a couple of apples, a little tang, some spices, cook for 20 minutes and you're good to go. (Unless you want to can them, but this requires a little more effort and time. Since this is a small batch - it makes a little more than a litre - you can jar a couple and stick them in the fridge to eat them in quick order. Or give it to a friend who will appreciate the fruits of your labour.)



I had two ginger gold apples (my personal favourite - the ginger gold is a tart and crisp with a slight hint of ginger warmth) sitting in the crisper. I threw them in to add extra body since Macs transform into something more jammy and luscious. But use the apples you have and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Once done, I packed the chutney in lovely gleaming glass mason jars, but I didn't process them so they went straight into the fridge once cooled.



4 small macintosh apples (use what you have and adjust the spice proportions)
2 ginger gold apples
1/2 c onion minced finely
1 c dried cranberries
1 c fresh cranberries
1/2c brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 c orange juice
1/2c white wine vinegar
ginger (thumb size piece)

1. Peel and cut apples into medium sized dice. Cut the onion into a smaller dice (or whiz onion in your food processor)
2. In a medium sized saucepan, add apples, onions, cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice, and vinegar. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat.
3. Meanwhile grate ginger over a ceramic grater and add to chutney.
4. Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated. The apples will be jammy and sticky but should still be chunky.

Serve with crackers or as a side to turkey.