A Peek in my Cart: May 11 - 17

With the first Farmers Market of the season on Saturday, this week ends on a fantastic note!

Monday - stirfry with cannellini beans, mushrooms, broccoli, and snow peas. Served with rice. Like pasta, stirfry is my fall-back meal. Again, I used canned beans for a quick, inexpensive protein choice. The stirfry veggies are always a combination of whatever is in the fridge/freezer. Same with the sauce. I keep a variety of asian sauces and I combine them using my sense of smell and the basic Chinese flavour principle of balance between sweet, salty, sour, and spicy. If I leave enough time I serve it with brown rice. Today, it was white rice.

I make enough for leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Tuesday - root vegetable gratin and 'meat'. W has a porkchop. I choose not to eat conventially-raised meat so I eat an Yves veggie patty.

After following several scalloped potato and root vegetable gratin recipes, I now just wing it. I use very few gadgets in the kitchen, but I do like my Cuisinart. It makes this a very fast dish to prepare. I use the slicing blade for all the veggies and the grating blade for the cheddar. I make a lasagne-pan full and we eat the leftovers all week.

Root Vegetable Gratin

A variety of root vegetables (potatoes, turnips, celeriac, sunchokes, parsnips, etc)

Onions or shallots

Milk

Cheddar cheese

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Nutmeg

salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


2. Wash root vegetables, peel those with thick skins (e.g. parsnips, celeriac, turnips). Slice thinly.


3. Wash, peel, and thinly slice onions or shallots


4. Grate cheese and set aside


5. Grease a non-reactive (glass or ceramic) baking dish.


6. Place root vegetables in a layer on the bottom of the pan. Top with some slices of onion. Season with salt & pepper. Repeat. If you choose, you can add a thin layer of cheese and a light seasoning of nutmeg part way through the layers of root vegetables and onion.


7. Top with a light seasoning of nutmeg.


8. Pour milk over the vegetables until you can see it coming between 1/2 and 3/4 of the way up the sides of the pan.


9. Top with cheese.


10. Cook, covered, for about 30 to 45 minutes - until veggies are starting to soften. Uncover and cook until veggies are soft. Uncovering at the end will allow the cheese to brown and crisp.

Wednesday - leftovers.

Thursday - It is W's turn to cook. It doesn't work out. He eats it. I have a bowl of cereal and a banana. Oh well, you win some and you lose some!

Friday - dinner on the Drive. I love the vibe on Commercial Drive on a sunny day.

Saturday - Steak with red wine morrel sauce. Served with boiled potatoes & sunchokes and salad. A trip to the first Farmers Market of the season has my kitchen full of fantastic ingredients and me full of inspiration. While strolling the market, I remember the morrel mushrooms in the back of my freezer from last June. A grass pastured steak Frostbauer farms is the perfect match. To let the steak and mushrooms take centre stage, I pair them with simple boiled potatoes/ sunchokes and a spring salad of green leaf lettuce and radishes. For the dressing I make a quick vinaigrette with black cherry vinager from the Okanagan, olive oil, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

Red Wine Morrrel Sauce

Morrel mushrooms

1 Shallot

Butter

Olive oil

Red wine

Pepper

1. Soak mushrooms in cold, salted water.


2. Finely chop the shallot


3. Heat the oil and butter in a pan. Saute shallot on medium-low heat until very soft. Meanwhile, remove the mushrooms from the water and pat dry. Remove any tough ends and slice them open.


4. When the shallots are soft, add the mushrooms and a splash of wine. Turn up the heat to medium.


5. Cook, adding wine as needed and scraping the bottom of the pan so that nothing burns. Season with pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are well cooked and the mixture is sauce-like.

Sunday - dinner out with friends.