Oven Barbecued Onions

A good side dish to serve with roasted chicken, pork or beef, since it can go into the oven at the same time. The exact sauce is flexible and if you have one you particularly like, you could use a slightly thinned prepared BBQ sauce instead of the one I have given.

4 servings
1 hour 15 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

4 or 5 medium onions (500 grams; 1 to 1 1/4 pounds) onions
4 allspice berries (optional)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon hot mustard powder
OR 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 teaspoon thyme (optional)
salt & pepper

Put a good-sized pot of water on to boil. Peel the onions, and cut them in thickish (1/2 cm) slices. When the water boils, add the onions and boil them for 5 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Toast the allspice berries in a small skillet until fragrant, shaking them regularly. Grind them and put them in a shallow baking pan. Add the honey, butter, water, ketchup, mustard and thyme to the pan. Put the pan in the oven until the honey and butter are melted, then remove it (with oven mitts!) and mix the sauce ingredients together. Mix in the drained onions. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Return the pan with the onions to the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour, until the onions are soft, dry and golden-brown.

Rutabaga with Peas & Mushrooms

Here's a nice all-in-one vegetable dish. It's is my take on this recipe here.

4 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time

3 cups diced rutabaga
2 cups frozen green peas

2 cups diced fresh button mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/4 teaspoon rubbed savory
salt & pepper

Peel and dice the rutabaga, and put it in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for about 30 minutes, or until tender.

Meanwhile, clean and dice the mushrooms. About 5 minutes before the rutabaga is done, add the peas to the rutabaga and heat up the butter in a skillet. Sauté the mushrooms until nicely browned all over. Season them with the thyme, savory, salt and pepper.

Drain the rutbaga and peas well, and mix with the mushrooms in a serving bowl. Serve at once.

Apple Butter or Date Squares

These were always made with dates when I was growing up. I'm sure that anyone over a certain age - 40, say, or even 35 - has had these. Every comprehensive cookbook published in North America right up to 1970 was certain to have this recipe. You still see them in old-fashioned bakeries. They were called Haystacks in our family, from their similarity to the old rectangular bales of hay. (Our family were not much in the agricultural line, and our grasp on the terminology was a little vague.) For some unknown reason, they were also not uncommonly known as Matrimonial Cake.

It occurred to me that they could be made more Ontarian by replacing the dates with apple butter. I don't know why they weren't made with apple butter in the first place; but look through any old Ontario-published cookbook from the 1860's on to the 1940's, and by the number of recipes calling for dates, you would think that date palms waved their fronds in the breezes of Lake Erie. Besides being a local product, apple butter makes these absurdly quick and easy to put together, because it eliminates the necessity of cooking and cooling the date paste. If you want to make the date version, replace the apple butter with 1 cup chopped dried dates cooked to a paste with 1/2 cup water or orange juice, and cooled sufficiently to handle.

Makes 16 to 24 squares
45 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

1 cup flour (I used a mix of brown rice, barley and arrowroot)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup butter

1 cup (250 ml) apple butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the flour, soda, salt, Sucanat and oats in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into 1" cubes, more or less, and toss them with the mixture, then rub it in until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. This will not stick together like a dough, nor should it. There should be no dry flour apparent, but the mixture will be crumbs.

Put half the mixture into an 8" square pan. Press it firmly and evenly over the bottom of the pan. Put in the apple butter and spread it evenly over the base layer.

Sprinkle the remaining half of the crumbs over the apple butter, trying it get it as even as you can right off the bat. The top layer must be pressed into place much more gently than the bottom layer, to avoid disturbing the apple butter. However, it too needs to be pressed firmly and evenly into place.

Once that is done, bake the squares at 350°F for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Allow them to cool completely before cutting them, with a wet, hot knife to avoid it getting too sticky.

Growing Mint Inside During the Winter

In the past I have tried to grow various herbs inside during the winter without success. Here is my first successful venture. I rooted this from some mint I bought during the fall, by simply putting it into a glass of water on my plant shelf until roots had formed. Then I potted it up.

Mint likes a lot of water - in nature, it will grow right up to the edge or even into the shallows of small streams or ponds. So I just water it whenever I pass by and think of it. On the other hand it's pretty tough stuff - My sweetie was doing some painting, and for a month in the late fall my living room was so full of scaffolding, drop cloths, paint cans, etcetera, that I could not get anywhere near my plant stand without a considerable amount of acrobatics. I think it got watered once during this period. It wasn't happy, but it survived. I'm also going to give it a little fertilizer soon, which is something that is a good idea with any plant that produces a lot of leaf growth, especially if you are nipping some of it off on a regular basis.

My plant stand has fluorescent plant lights, and this has also contributed to the health of the mint. Even with a south-facing window, some extra light is a good thing during the darkest days of the winter.

Now that I have successfully managed to grow mint, I'm looking forward to trying some other herbs again.

Sprout Nest Salad with Tomato "Eggs"

This is a fairly plain and simple salad - it's just sprouts in vinaigrette, with tomatoes - but the presentation makes it very cute. Just don't ask me what kind of bird would lay such gaudy eggs.

2 servings
20 minutes prep time


Dressing:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon wine or balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Whisk these together in a small bowl.

Salad:
6 small greenhouse cherry type tomatoes
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1/2 cup broccoli sprouts
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
1 small carrot, peeled and finely grated

Wash the tomatoes and remove the stems. Set them aside.

Rinse all the bean sprouts, then dry them in a salad spinner lined with a paper towel. If the roots of the smaller sprouts have gotten matted together, you may wish to snip them off. (The broccoli sprouts in particular may have roots that are greyish and matted; not appealing.)

Peel and grate the carrot, and mix it with the sprouts.

Mix the dressing into the sprout and carrot mixture. Toss gently but well. Divide the salad in half, and form each half into a nest shape on a suitable plate. Put the tomatoes in the middle arranged like eggs in a nest. I garnished mine with a little mint.

Navy Beans Baked with Herbs and Tomatoes

On Saturday night as I was lying in bed I realized I needed to bring something for a lunch time pot-luck the next morning. Fortunately, I still had a bunch of cooked but unfinished beans in the fridge. On Sunday morning I flung them into a casserole with a few other things, and took them to Meeting to bake in the oven there until wanted. I did not bring my camera and photograph them as I was not considering them a serious recipe. Of course, 2 people promptly said they wanted the recipe, so now I must try to reconstruct what I did, and there is no photo. (If someone makes these, and wants to send me a pic, it would be appreciated!) I have to say, they were pretty good for something completely off the cuff! Updated: I made them again, so now there is a photo.

Makes 8 servings
2 days - 20 minutes prep time, divided

2 cups (450 grams, 1 pound) dried pea beans (navy beans)

1 large onion
1 796-ml (28 ounce) tin of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon rubbed savory
1 teaspoon celery seed, finely ground
2 or 3 tablespoons dried chives
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 or 3 bay leaves
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Rinse and pick over the dried beans. Put them in a pot with water to cover generously. Bring them to a boil, then turn off the heat and let the beans soak overnight. The next morning, drain off the water and cover them with fresh water. Bring to a boil then reduce them to a simmer, and simmer until tender, about 1 hour or perhaps a little longer.

When you are ready to bake the beans, put them in a fairly deep casserole. They should have some cooking liquid with them, but they should not be swimming in it. If there is too much, drain it off until it is about an inch or so below the level of the beans. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Peel and chop the onion, and mix it into the beans with the tomatoes and their juice. Mix in the seasonings. Drizzle the oil over the beans.

Bake the beans uncovered for 2 hours, more or less, until the sauce is thickened. You may wish to stir them once or twice.

Ham & Mushroom Orzotto (Risotto)

This is probably my favourite thing to do with leftover ham and ham stock. I've made it for a number of years as a risotto, but in the interest of more local content, I tried it as an orzotto this time. All that means is that I replaced the rice with barley. I was very happy with how it turned out.

If you want to make this as a risotto, don't pre-cook the rice. Use twice as much arborio rice as barley (2 cups) and put it into the pan once the vegetables have gone in and have softened and cooked down a little. Sauté the rice until it is opaque and perhaps even very lightly browned, then start adding the stock and proceed following the rest of the recipe.

Precooking the barley is perhaps not necessary, but I think otherwise it will take a loooong time for the orzotto to be ready, and you will likely need more stock or water. If you want to put the raw barley straight into the skillet without pre-cooking, be sure to use pearl barley and not pot barley. Pot barley was what I used. It has a lot more fibre and nutrients than pearl barley, but it definitely requires a lot more cooking.

4 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

Precook the barley:
1 cup pot barley
2 cups ham stock

Put the barley and ham stock in your rice cooker, with a pinch of salt if you think it is warranted, and cook the barley.

Cook the orzotto:
3 shallots
1 large leek
2 stalks of celery
2 cups diced mushrooms
2 or 3 tablespoons ham fat or olive oil
4 cups ham stock
6 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1 cup diced cooked ham
salt

Peel the shallots and dice them. Wash, trim and chop the leek fairly finely. Wash and chop the celery. Clean and dice the mushrooms.

Put the stock in a pot with the shiitake mushrooms and the saffron threads, and heat until it steams. Keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat the fat or oil in a very large skillet. Sauté the leek, shallots, celery and mushrooms until softened and cooked down a little. Add the cooked barley and about 1/2 cup of the ham stock. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Let cook, stirring regularly, until the stock is absorbed.

In the meantime, fish the shiitake out of the stock and let them cool enough to handle. Cut off and discard the stems. Chop the caps and add them to the orzotto.

When the first round of stock has been absorbed, add another 1/2 cup or so to the orzotto. Continue until you have added all the stock. Stir frequently. Prepare the Parmesan cheese and parsley to finish.

To finish the orzotto:
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup minced parsley

When the orzotto has absorbed most of the stock and is thick and cream-soupy in texture, stir in the Parmesan cheese. Serve with the parsley sprinkled over the top.

Sprout, Cabbage & Walnut Salad

Lots of great crunch here. I debated whether to add an apple to this or not. Since we had a mostly apple salad not long ago, I decided to leave it out, but this would be good with a chopped apple added. If you don't have any raspberry vinegar, cider vinegar will work too.

Salad:

1 cup finely shredded cabbage, preferably savoy
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1/2 cup broccoli sprouts
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Shred the cabbage and put it in the salad bowl. Wash the three kinds of sprouts, and dry them in a salad spinner lined with a paper towel. Mix them in with the cabbage. The sprouts will be inclined to be clique-ish; gently separate them and encourage them to mingle. Mix in the walnuts.

Dressing:

1 tablespoon apple butter
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons hazelnut, almond or walnut oil
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Whisk the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Toss into the salad.

It's Time to Order Your Vegetable Seeds!

At least it is if you have a garden. *sniff, sniff* Why yes, I am insanely envious of those lucky people who have access to a spot to grow their own veggies. I will just have to possess my soul in patience and continue to dream of the day when I too can get out and grub in the dirt.

For the few years that I did have a vegetable garden, we ordered seeds from Terra Edibles. They have a good selection in general and an impressive selection of tomatoes in particular. Tomatoes I remember growing and doing particularly well included Opalka, Amish Paste and San Marzano for canning, Principe Borghese for drying - they are not particularly nice fresh but are excellent dried, precisely because they are not at all sweet, - Yellow Pear, Striped German and especially Stupice for eating fresh. They also have tomatillo seed, which can be hard to find around here. I didn't have a lot of space so I barely scratched the surface of the tomatoes and didn't delve too deeply into the beans, the melons, the lettuce, the...

Check 'em out if you have a garden, and even if you don't you may want to cruise on over for a little drooling session.

Also have a look at Seeds of Diversity. This list has companies from all over Canada, including lots in Ontario.

Baked-Bean Style Bean Soup

Once you have cooked and eaten a ham, you are left with a ham-bone. The next step is to save whatever scraps of ham that are big enough to be used, and to make stock with the bone. Just stick it in a large pot with cold, filtered water to cover, and simmer gently for several hours. I highly recommend making sure that none of the cloves get in there; they've done their time and more will just make them bitter. Put it in the fridge overnight, and the next day skim off the fat (which I consider well worth keeping for cooking with.) Heat the stock enough to be liquid, and strain it from the bones and any bits of fat and skin that didn't render. You now have a culinary treasure. Don't cook your scrap ham bits with the stock though, or they will be sad and flavourless.

If you don't eat pork, you can also make excellent stock with smoked turkey parts (drumsticks seem to be the most commonly found.) The resemblance is impressive, and the flavour is just as good. I'll post a recipe with it soon.

6 to 8 servings
2 days - 20 to 30 minutes of actual work

8 cups ham stock
4 cups dried white pea beans (navy beans)
1 cup yellow split peas
3 -4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons black peppercorns, crushed
4 tablespoons molasses
5 tablespoons tomato paste
2 large carrots
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 cup diced ham
salt

Wash and pick over the beans, and put them in a pot with enough water to come up above them by 3 or 4 inches. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat, and soak overnight.

In the morning, drain the beans and add the ham stock and the split peas, bay leaves and pepper. Bring to a boil then simmer gently until the beans are tender.

Use a little stock to thin the molasses and tomato paste, and stir it into the soup.

Peel and dice the carrots. Add the carrots and ginger, and continue to simmer the soup until the carrots are tender. Add the ham, and add salt to taste (which will likely only be needed if your ham is unsalted.) Add water if the soup gets too thick; stir frequently to prevent scorching.

Bean soup is best made a day ahead and reheated. The flavours will have had time to blend and mellow.

Here Comes the Sun! - Pizza

I am feeling pretty cheerful today. I'm starting to notice that the days are getting longer, and when I pulled this pizza out of the oven, it shone up at me like a miniature sun. But tastier.

For a while, I have been wondering if I really do have problems eating wheat or if my ate-wheat-rash is actually caused by something that is added to the wheat. I am doing some experimenting. And very enjoyable experimenting it is too. I have been missing pizza badly. I confess my flour is not local, it's imported from Italy (it appears that European wheat doesn't cause my rash - go figure.) Whether it is the flour, or the recipe, I'm not sure, but this pizza dough has a soft, cakey quality to it.


I made a very simple cheese and onion pizza, mainly because my fridge is pretty empty at the moment, except for ham stock. What toppings you put on are up to you, but I have concluded that pizza cooks quickly enough that it is often better if vegetable toppings are cooked or partly cooked before they go on. Some - mushrooms, tomatoes, green peppers - are fine raw. Greeny vegetables in general, such as broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, or spinach are probably better blanched. They don't need much; just put them in a colander, pour boiling water over them and drain well. Onion slices I sauté in a smidge of oil until soft but not browned. Eggplant should be thoroughly cooked. Rare eggplant, bleaugh.

So... what are your favourite toppings for a home-made pizza, and how do you prepare them?


Makes 6 slices; make of that what you will
2 hours - 45 minutes prep time, not all at once.

Making the Dough:

1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons fast-acting yeast

2 2/3 cups hard wheat flour (unbleached or whole wheat)
1 rounded teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Put the water, which should feel pleasantly warm but not hot to the touch, in a medium sized mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Set aside as you prepare the flour.

Measure the flour and mix the sugar and salt into it. Put the oil into the bowl with the yeast and water, and mix in about 2/3 of the flour. Pour the remaining flour onto a clean counter or board, and when you have more-or-less mixed the remaining ingredients, turn them onto the pile of flour.

Knead the dough, working to amalgamate all the flour on the board. Once it is all in, knead until the dough is smooth and just slightly sticky. All this should not take long, just 3 or 4 minutes. Put a little oil into another bowl, add the ball of dough and turn it around to coat it in the oil. Cover it with a tea-towel and put it in a warm but not too hot place to rise until doubled in size; about 1 hour.

It can also be oiled and put in a plastic bag, and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days before being flattened out and baked - just be sure that it has doubled in size before you press it out. It will continue to rise, but slowly, in the fridge. Just keep an eye on it.

Forming and Baking the Pizza:

1 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano

1 medium onion
2 teaspoons olive oil

300 grams mozzerella cheese, grated

Other toppings ad-lib: more cheese, cold cuts, thinly sliced vegetables, etc.

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Mix the oregano into the tomato sauce - any plain, not-too-thin sauce will do. Peel the onion and cut it in thin slices. Sauté them gently in the oil until soft but not browned.

Meanwhile, press the dough out to a flat disc on a 16" perforated pie plate. It should pretty much cover the plate evenly. Start from the middle, and work your way out.

Top the dough evenly with the tomato sauce and then the cheese. Sprinkle the onions over the top. Add whatever other toppings you like, keeping in mind that a little will go a very long way. We are partial to very thin slices of zucchini, if it is available, tomatoes, also fresh mushrooms and basil, and even thin blanched slices of broccoli. And - whisper it softly - garlic, anchovies and hot peppers.

Bake the pizza in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes. Let it rest at least 5 minutes before slicing it - if you can!

Happy 2008

Happy New Year to all my visitors. I hope for a prosperous, successful and above all happy and healthy year for us all.

I've been food blogging for a few months now, long enough to have worked out a general format and long enough to start wondering how it can be improved. I would love it if regular readers and commenters, as well as new readers, lurkers and wanderers-by would take a moment to tell me what they think of this blog. What do you like, or not like? How could it be improved? What's missing, what's redundant?

Thanks very much!