A Trip to the Guelph Organic Conference Trade Show

The 2008 Guelph Organic Conference was held at the University of Guelph from January 24th to January 27th. This was their 27th annual conference, and as usual, there was a trade show on the weekend which was open to the public. Since it wasn't too far away, we decided to go.

We arrived bright and early on Saturday at 8:00 am. The last few stragglers were still setting up their booths, but the place was already bustling.

I was impressed by the number of suppliers of organic vegetable, herb and flower seeds that were there, and by what a large selection they all had.

Organic Meadow had a booth. This is the organic milk brand that is most readily available around here, and I buy their products fairly regularly. They have a good, large basic range of milks, yogurt, butter and cheese. They are a good-sized farmers' co-operative.

Harmony Organic Dairy, their main competitor was right across the aisle. They are notable for the fact that you can get their milk in glass bottles, and they also produce quite a range of flavoured milks. I had a little of their chocolate milk, which was delicious. Full fat and not too sweet, mmm, mmm, mmm.

Pfenning's are a big name in organic produce locally. They have been around for a long time. In addition to growing a wide range of vegetables, especially winter storage vegetables, they retail imported organic produce and have a box delivery service. I stocked up on leeks and turnips. I eyed their red sauerkraut with considerable interest, but since I already have a jar of regular sauerkraut I need to use, I restrained myself.

Canadian Organic Growers have been promoters of, well, Canadians growing stuff organically since way back when.

This was a booth with products I had not seen before, and they look very interesting. Pleno Empanadas is a company producing a line of empanadas (little Latin American filled pies) with a variety of flavours, as well as selling ready-made pastry. What is particularly interesting is that they have developed a pastry with low/healthy fats.

More seeds!

Mapleton's Organic Ice Cream. That's a place that's not too far away... must get out there when the weather warms up.

L'Ancêtre cheese, made in Quebec with raw milk. Fabulous, fabulous stuff. It's a sad truth that there are no great Ontario cheeses. It galls me to admit it, but until Ontario cheesemakers are allowed to make raw milk cheese, they are relegated to the ranks of the rather good at best.

Homefield is a Guelph company which delivers door-to-door in the region. Their list of available products changes (slightly, I expect) weekly and can be accessed and ordered on-line.

I have not seen Tradition Miso before, but I was quite excited to see it. I have often wondered why soy sauces and misos have not been produced in Ontario on an artisanal level, when we have so many soy bean growers.

Live Green Food Ontario had very cute little sprout growing kits, as well as seeds for sprouting. Can't get more local than your windowsill!

Saugeen Specialty Grains, also known as GrassRoots Organics was a name I did recognize. I discovered their products this summer at the Meaford Farmers Market. They're the ones that are producing puffed grain cereals, as well as rolled oats, flours, barley and popcorn.

There were quite a few other booths, some of which didn't interest me that much (farm equipment, big ag, or stuff from too far way, etc) and some of which did interest me but which I was not sufficiently together to record. From opening time at 8:00 am to the time we left - and well beyond, I'm sure - the place was jam-packed. It was a very worthwhile way to spend a Saturday morning, and it was exciting to see how much is happening in local organic circles.

Fish in Leek & Carrot Sauce

I do like things that are simple to do, and can be done at least partly ahead, provided of course that they are also delicious. This lovely little sauce fits the bill very well. I used it on the splake I bought at The 100 Mile Market, but it would be fine on any white fish, or chicken for that matter. Splake is a cross between brook (SPeckled) trout and lAKE trout; hence the name.)

It made quite a lot of sauce for our piece of fish, and although the two of us had no problem finishing it off, it would stretch to three servings quite easily, and maybe even four if people are restrained.

2 to 3 servings
50 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

1 large leek
1 medium carrot
1 shallot
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon smoked sweet or hot paprika
salt & pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

500 grams (1 pound) white fish fillet, or more

Wash and trim the leek, and cut it in thin slices. Rinse them again, and drain well. Peel and dice the carrot and the shallot.

Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot, and add the vegetables. Cook, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are fairly soft but not browned; about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer for a further 10 or 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and most of the chicken stock absorbed.

Purée the sauce. At this point you can proceed at once, or keep the sauce covered and refrigerated until wanted.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Rinse the fish and lay it in a lightly oiled pan. Bake for about 10 minutes, until cooked through.

Meanwhile, re-heat the sauce and add the paprika, salt and pepper, and sour cream. The sauce should be hot through, but do not let it boil. Serve the sauce over the cooked fish.

Wild Rice Pilaf

This is a fairly simple pilaf, which I served with fish. Since the fish was sauced, I did not want the pilaf to be too assertive, while still setting off the lovely, subtle flavour of the wild rice.

4 Servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time

3/4 cup wild rice
2 tablespoons barley or brown rice
2 tablespoons red rice
2 cups chicken stock
salt

2 small stalks of celery
100 grams (1/4 pound) button mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon savory
1 tablespoon dried chives

Put the rices in a rice cooker, and add the chicken stock. Season with salt, keeping in mind the saltiness of the chicken stock. Turn the rice cooker on.

Clean and trim the celery and mushrooms. Dice the celery fairly finely, and cut the mushrooms in halves or quarters. Sauté them in the butter until the celery is soft and translucent and the mushrooms lightly browned. Season with the savory and chives. Add the mushrooms and celery to the rice cooker. When the pilaf is cooked, stir well to distribute the mushrooms and celery throughout the rice mixture.

Sweet Potatoes with Bacon & Shallots

Bacon makes everything better. Not lower in calories, but better. Enjoy!

4 servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time

4 medium sweet potatoes
5 to 7 shallots
250 grams (1/2 pound) bacon
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Wash the sweet potatoes, and trim off any bruises or damaged skin. Cut them into 1" chunks. Put them in a large, shallow roasting pan. Peel the shallots, and cut them in halves or quarters. Add them to the sweet potatoes.

Cut the bacon into 1" pieces. Separate the pieces and toss them in with the sweet potatoes and shallots. Season generously with pepper, and cautiously with salt, as the bacon is likely to be salty.

Roast the sweet potatoes for up to 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender and the shallots and bacon are browned.

Carrot Pudding - An Old Canadian Recipe

For Christmas this year I was given a modern printing of a little cookbook that was originally published in 1906: "CULINARY LANDMARKS: Recipes collected by the ladies of St. James Church, Port Colborne, Ont". I have been interested in old Canadian cookbooks since I was a teenager, and I can remember inflicting some distinctly hair-raising concoctions on my long-suffering family (Apple Rice Pudding. Had apples. And rice. Um, that was it. Yes, it was bad; why do you ask?)

But I'm digressing here; what I'm getting at is that I have read an awful lot of older Canadian cookbooks, and I know all the usual inhabitants therein. This is one of them. In fact, this one shows up in the 1877 Canadian Home Cookbook, and it was still showing up in cookbooks published in the 1960's, although by then it was presented more as a historical curiosity than as something many people would want to make. CULINARY LANDMARKS had 25 pudding recipes. This was 3 of them. (The editing in CULINARY LANDMARKS was absolutely classic: there wasn't any.) The thing is though, the recipe survived that long for a reason - it's pretty darn good. It's not quite as rich and complex as a Christmas plum pudding, but it's fairly similar and some people would say that it being a little lighter is a good thing.

Here's one version of the original recipe:

"1 Cup brown sugar, 1 cup suit, chopped fine, 1 cup raw potatoes, grated, 1 cup raw carrots, grated, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup currants, 1 teaspoon soda sifted in flour, 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and cloves, flour to make a stiff batter. Steam 3 hours. "

Mrs. Wm. Hawkins

Most of the versions I've seen vary a little from each other, but this is fairly typical. Mrs Hawkins, by the way, does not mean that you should start shredding your navy pinstripe; she means that you should use the fat found around the kidneys of cattle, or as it is also known, suet.

I've made some changes, of course, and I don't just mean elaborating the instructions. The first thing I did was to ditch the suet. Good suet is hard to find, and frankly I'm not sure why you would want to. It's noticably solid at anything lower than steam-bath temperature, and I've heard some pretty astringent commentary about how it sticks to the teeth, and leaves a long-lasting tacky film on them. This is not from some namby-pamby modern eater such as myself, but from my Great-Aunt, who as someone who grew up in the large, poorish, rural household of a clergyman, was accustomed to eating what was put in front of her and liking it. She didn't care for suet though, and I can't say I blame her. A plain vegetable oil works just fine. I also add a grated apple, which is something that showed up in later versions of this pudding.

12 servings
2 hours 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

I made this pudding at the same time as I made Boston Brown Bread, and so my steamer was quite full. I could not get the lid on, with items on both tiers of the steamer, so I sealed it as best as I could with foil, which worked very well.

butter

1 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
1 cup flour (I used half buckwheat and half brown rice)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (I used rye crackers)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup raisins

1 cup grated carrot (1 medium-large)
1 cup grated apple (1 large)
1 cup grated potato (1 medium)
1/2 cup mild vegetable oil

Butter a 6 cup pudding mold, or 3 500-ml wide mouth canning jars.

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Peel the carrot and grate it. Wash and grate the apple to the core. Wash and grate the potato. Add these to the dry ingredients with the oil. Let the mixture sit for 15 or 20 minutes.

Divide the mixture equally between the canning jars, or press it gently but firmly into the single mold. Cover the mold or jars with parchment paper and foil, and hold it in place with string, or the outer rings for the jars. Put the puddings into a large steamer with water coming halfway up jars. If the steamer does not have a lid, seal the top with foil.

Bring to a boil and boil for 2 hours. Check regularly and top up the water with more boiling water if it is needed. (The water level can drop, but don't let your pot boil dry - disaster!)

These kinds of puddings are often made in advance and re-heated. I find the microwave best for that; otherwise you are essentially re-steaming them for another hour to get them hot through to the middle, whereas 5 minutes in the microwave should do it, at least for the smaller ones. However, unlike traditional plum puddings, this was meant to be eaten promptly. Because of the use of fresh vegetables, it will not have the keeping qualities of plum pudding.

Serve the pudding with a pudding sauce - my favourite is hard sauce, which is basically a butter cream icing made with lots of booze - or with custard.

Chicken with Leeks and Barley - An Anglo-Saxon Recipe

I found this recipe on the internet, although it comes from The British Museum Cookbook by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, and is adapted from a 7th century British recipe. It sounds very plain, but it is surprisingly good. The leeks, vinegar and sage combine very well. I used a good bit more barley than called for, and even so, I wouldn't say it makes 6 servings. I've made a few other tweaks as well, and I suppose I should also confess that I prefer it made with dried sage. I find fresh sage to be just too overwhelming in flavour.

4 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

3 large leeks
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
3 pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces

3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups pot barley
4 cups (1 litre, or 1 quart) chicken stock
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 bay leaves
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage, or 2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh sage

Trim the leeks, chop them, and rinse them well. Peel and mince the garlic. Cut the chicken into pieces, if it is necessary.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet, and sauté the leeks until soft. Add the garlic, and sauté for a minute or two more. Put them in a large pot with the barley and the chicken stock.

Heat the remaining butter in the skillet, and sauté the chicken pieces until nicely browned on each side. Put them in the pot with barley and leeks.

Add the vinegar, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and simmer, covered, until the barley is tender; about 1 hour. Stir very gently if it seems to be sticking, otherwise don't bother. Add the sage about 15 or 20 minutes before the barley is done.

Serve garnished with a little parsley, if you like and if you have some.

Haystacks - An Unbaked Cookie

Here's another popular old recipe. Once a month I need to supply a dessert for a group that meets at my house. This is what I make when I really don't have much time to make anything. It's safe to say though, that nobody feels fobbed off with something makeshift - on the contrary, people cheer when they see these.

The only real difference between this recipe for Haystacks and a lot of the other recipes out there is I use WAY less sugar - at least half and up to two-thirds less - than most of them. Which is a little scary, because these are still more like candy than cookies. I also like to add a mixture of dried fruits or nuts to them. Chopped dried apricots, dried cherries or cranberries are favourites.

24 cookies
30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded dessicated coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, chopped (optional)

Put the butter, milk, sugar, and cocoa into a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Stir to mix as the butter is melting, but after that an occasional brief stir will be sufficient.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the oats, coconut, vanilla extract and nuts or raisins if desired.

Drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, and let sit for 20 minutes to half an hour, until set. Keep the cookies well-sealed in a tin, for up to a week or two - if you can.

Pasta with a Creamy Mushroom, Celery & Leek Sauce

Gnocchi are what I always think should go with this sauce, but I was not up to wrestling with gnocchi, so it's plain old dried pasta again. Nobody's complaining; it's still very good stuff. For the mushrooms, I like to use a mixture of button mushrooms and fresh shiitake mushrooms, but I would think that pretty much any mixture of mushrooms would be good.

This would make an elegant pasta course in a multi-course meal. It's definitely on the rich side, so if it's not served in smaller portions as a starter, I would suggest pairing it with a light green salad. I would also suggest checking out Presto Pasta Nights at Once Upon a Feast for a ton of great pasta ideas.

4 servings
25 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

450 to 500 grams (1 pound) dried pasta

2 to 3 cups diced mixed fresh mushrooms
2 stalks of celery
1 medium leek
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (or fresh is better if you have it)
salt & pepper

1 cup light cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.

Clean the mushrooms and dice them fairly finely. Wash and trim the celery and leek, and chop them finely. Mince the parsley and grate the cheese.

This sauce is ready in about 8 minutes, so don't start cooking it until the pasta is sufficiently far along that they will be ready at the same time.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and sauté the mushrooms, celery and leeks until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir regularly. Sprinkle the vegetables with the flour, and season with the thyme and salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly for another minute or two.

Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the cream, cheese and parsley. (If you like, reserve a little of the cheese and parsley for garnishing.) Stir constantly until the sauce is well mixed and thickened.

Toss with the cooked, drained pasta and serve at once.

Boston Brown Bread

Boston brown bread is the classic accompaniment to baked beans. You don't see it much anymore though. It was mostly made at home - it's easy and it doesn't keep terribly well - so unlike the beans, there is no well-known commercial version. I love the stuff: the dense, moist grainy texture, the sweetness of the molasses and raisins, with plenty of butter or cream cheese.

In spite of being called a bread, Boston brown bread is in many ways more like a pudding in the traditional meaning of the word; i.e. a boiled or steamed grain and fruit dish, formed by a mold, cloth or casings into a ball or loaf shape. I wonder if it is perhaps the very youngest member of that family; a return to old techniques of cooking when early American cooks had to adapt to a lack of good yeast and ovens and wheat flour for bread, combined with the use of the New World grain corn, and the New World leavening agent baking soda.

Although it is easy it can be a bit intimidating if you haven't made it before. Two hours of steaming requires some planning ahead and also decent ventilation. You also need to save up some tins, if you are going to make it in the traditional way. Coffee tins used to be called for, but we don't drink coffee, and does it even come in tins anymore? At any rate, tomatoes or pumpkin purée purchased in 796-ml (28 ounce) tins will give you the right sized cans for this; you will need two. I am also experimenting with cooking the bread in 500-ml wide-mouthed canning jars. In this case you will need four of them. I think you will need less time to steam them (maybe an hour and a half) but I'm not completely clear about that yet. I'll update this recipe once I know. As usual, I made mine without wheat, so instead of the traditional cup of wheat flour I used half buckwheat and half rice flour. That works fine.

Serve it with Baked Beans with Pork or with Navy Beans with Herbs and Tomatoes. It's also great for breakfast with a good, tangy cream cheese.

2 to 4 loaves - 24 slices
2 hours 30 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

This is the loaf out of the 28 ounce food tin, which gives it its customary round shape.

1/4 cup soft butter to grease tins

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
AND 1/2 cup brown rice flour
OR 1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup dark rye flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup raisins

2 1/3 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup fancy (light baking) molasses

Use the butter to generously grease the tins; either 2 28-ounce (796-ml) food tins OR 4 500-ml (2 cup) wide-mouthed canning jars. If they aren't wide-mouthed, you won't be able to get the bread out.

Put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk and molasses, and mix well. Divide the mixture equally into the prepared tins or jars. Put a layer of parchment paper and aluminum foil over the top, and hold it in place with string or a large elastic band (tins) or the screw band (jars).

Put the prepared tins or jars into a steamer, with water coming half-way up the sides of the tins or jars.* Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours, until done. You can use a toothpick to test it. Check the water level regularly, and add more boiling water if needed.

The best steamer I have found is a pot set that was sold for cooking pasta, which has a large deep pot, a perferated insert of similar size, and a steamer tray that can go on top of that as well as a lid. I never use it to cook spaghetti, but it's a great steamer.





* Do not bring the water to a boil before adding the prepared tins or jars. Especially don't do that with the jars. They will likely break. Ask me how I know this, duh.

Creamed Onions

In my family, these are known as Aunt Florence's creamed onions, although at one point they were a very common winter dish, and a staple at Christmas. They seem to have fallen somewhat by the wayside in recent decades. Perhaps people are startled by the idea of treating something as plebian as the onion to a rich cream sauce. I think they are delicious, and enjoy them very much. The smaller the onions you can get, the better; but there is no need to go looking for tiny pearl onions or the like, unless you really want to. Regular cooking onions are just fine.

4 servings
40 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

8 to 16 small onions (about 500 grams, or a good pound)

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup rich milk or light cream
salt & pepper
nutmeg

Peel the onions and boil them gently until tender. They should be put in the pot so as to stand on end, and be packed in fairly tightly, and boiled quite gently. This will help to keep them whole.

Drain them into a strainer, and return the pot to the stove. Put in the butter and flour, and mix well. Slowly mix in the milk or cream to make a smooth sauce. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Return the onions to the pan and heat through, occasionally stirring very gently. I like to sprinkle over a little more nutmeg when I serve them.

Sherried Sweet Potatoes

I found this recipe in an old German cookbook, and it's been a favourite way to serve sweet potatoes since then.

4 servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time

4 medium sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons light cream
3 tablespoons good sherry
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender, 30 to 45 minutes. (The heat is a little flexible, and can be adjusted to the requirements of other dishes, from 325°F up to 400°F. Just remember to also adjust the baking time.)

When you remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, turn up the heat to 450°F. Handle the cooked sweet potatoes through an oven mitt or tea-towel; they are hot. Cut them in half, and scoop out the flesh into a small bowl. Mash it with the butter, cream and sherry. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Spoon or pipe the mixture pack into the shells and bake for 5 minutes at 450°F.

Smoked Trout & Rutabaga Chowder

Here's a very quick and simple soup with rich simmered-all-day flavour. I used my smoked splake (which is a form of trout) from The 100-Mile Market and it was fine - very good in fact - but I do think smoked salmon trout is better for this if you can find it.

6 servings
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

450 grams (1 pound) smoked trout, preferably salmon trout
1 litre (4 cups) water
1 bay leaf

2 cups diced rutabaga
2 cups cooking water

1 large leek
2 stalks of celery
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
salt & pepper
sour cream

Put the fish in a soup pot with the litre of water and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the fish has softened. Remove it from the stock, allow it to cool enough to handle, then remove the skin. Break the fish up into flakes, removing any bones, and return the flaked fish to the broth.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the rutabaga, and cook it until tender in water to cover. Mash the rutabaga coarsely and add it to the fish with 2 cups of the rutabaga cooking water.

Clean and chop the leek and celery, and sauté them in the butter. Sprinkle the flour over them, and season with salt and pepper. When the vegetables are soft and translucent, and the flour starting to brown, ladle a little of the soup over them. Mix well and bring up to a simmer. Scrape the bottom of the pan well, then add the contents of the skillet to the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Allow the soup to simmer for a few minutes for the flavours to blend, or the soup can be cooled and re-heated just prior to serving. Actually, like a lot of soups, I think this is better re-heated.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.