Tag archive for seasonal

It’s not everyday that I find a recipe that inspires me to make it immediately. Just like everyone else, I’ve got stacks and bookmarks and torn out magazine pages, waiting for their moment to shine. Unless that recipe is the salted Texas chocolate sheet cake from Bon Appetit, that demands immediate attention. (True story!) Anyway, there is often something keeping me from making them, some missing key ingredient or prep step that seems better suited to a weekend cooking foray. Maybe I am a collector or recipes, a hoarder even? That might be a topic for another day, but in this case, I had the perfect combination of enough of the right ingredients and some time, so I started cooking.

Without even knowing it, I started prepping for this recipe by heading out to my favorite fresh veggie place earlier in the day. Their late season corn is such a treat, and they had it sitting around by the bucket. By now, I have a pretty good idea of just how much corn I can fit in the produce drawer in my fridge, so I loaded up, knowing I would be eating fresh corn for the next few days. I don’t know how the corn and the recipe found me on the same day, but I’m not asking any questions!

I made this for a solo dinner by splitting the recipe, but whether you’re cooking for yourself or a few people, this stir-fry comes together pretty quickly and has great late summer flavors. And while I know the sambal oelek and fresh lime juice I squeezed on top of my plate might not have been exactly in keeping with the originally intended flavors of this recipe, I thought they were pretty darn good additions!

Stir-Fried Tofu with Green Beans and Corn

 Adapted from Martha Rose Shulman’s recipe on The New York Times

1 14 oz. package of firm tofu, drained
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons sesame oil
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon ground pepper, preferable white pepper
¼ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
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1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
½ pound green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
Kernels from 2 ears of corn
1 finely sliced scallion
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro

 Cut the tofu into ¼ inch slices, then cut slices into ¼ inch matchsticks. Place on a clean towel or paper towel and allow to drain while you prep the rest of the stirfry.

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, and the sesame oil. Combine the salt, pepper and sugar in another small bowl. Keep these handy for when you begin cooking.

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the green beans, blanching for about one minute. Remove from heat, rinse in cold water, drain and set aside.

Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately. Add a tablespoon of oil to the pan and tilt to distribute. Add the tofu and stir-fry for a minute or two, until it just begins to color. Drop in the ginger and jalapeno and stir-fry for a few seconds.

Pour in the remaining oil, then add the green beans, corn and scallions. Stir-fry for about one minute, then add the salt, pepper and sugar mixture and toss for good measure. Pour in the soy mixture, top with a lid and cook for about 30 seconds. Uncover, throw in the cilantro and stir-fry for another 30 seconds or so. The green beans should be crisp tender by now. Remove from heat and serve.

In my memory, there is a cherry tree in the backyard of my grandmother’s house. It is taller than the house and shades the back bedroom, where I often sleep when I visit. On the sticky hot summer evenings when we throw the windows wide, I can hear the breeze ruffling the leaves, lulling me to sleep. Its sturdy, spreading branches make this cherry tree more inviting to climb than the peach trees further down the yard.

With a cherry tree, it seems that you could pull your way up into the tree with little effort and vanish among the thick green leaves, finding a comfortable perch and your own personal cherry picking heaven. And while I don’t often take to climbing other people’s trees out in the picking orchards these days, I do love that experience of climbing deep into the tree on a towering ladder. Suddenly, you are surrounded by drooping branches of sweet fruit, sometimes sticky from the bees and birds that call these havens their own. I favor the clumps of heavy fruit that come off in long, elegant, stemmed pairs, nature’s tasty version of a 2-for-1 deal.

Last week, I mentioned I was working on a recipe for clafoutis. You’ve heard about clafoutis, right? It is a flan-like dessert, often served slightly warm, that is usually overflowing with cherries. (OK, maybe the overflowing part is more me than anything else!) Eaten as a dessert, or maybe even a tasty breakfast treat, the custardy filling is perfectly at home with seasonal fruit. And while cherries are the traditional filling, the batter takes well to almost any fruit. And once you’ve tasted it for yourself, you will likely find reasons to adapt it to raspberries, blueberries, pears and more.

I don’t generally make clafoutis year round. I seem to play with it a few times every season right about now as the cherries start to pile up in my fridge. There is something about cherry season that does not let me pass by the darkly glinting heaps of the black-red fruit that I find at farmers markets or roadside stands. Surely I can find a use for a few more pounds? A month or so ago, I got a pretty baking dish with deeply fluted sides, that claims to be a clafoutis mold. With that one mention, I jumped right back into clafoutis production like I’d never missed a beat. And while I’ve always made this dish in a cast iron skillet or even a pie dish, this pan makes for a pretty presentation, even if it is a little tricky to serve.

The thing with this pan is that is a little smaller capacity than what seems to be typical for most clafoutis recipes. So I’ve been tweaking, trying to find the perfect portions for a smaller crowd. I’ve also been playing with other flour combinations to find a good gluten-free variation, but I’ll have to save that for another day. I think this recipe will nicely serve four for dessert. You can use a pan with about a 6-cup capacity, or a 9-inch pie plate or skillet. See, we aren’t picky here!

And don’t let the fact that it is cherry season fool you—this dessert is really for Tina, who will be celebrating a birthday in a few days. An undying fan of Okanagan cherries and a true connoisseur of the flan, I am sure this recipe will be just the thing for your special day. I’m sorry I can’t make you a piece this year.

While there is some debated as to whether cherry clafoutis should be prepared with whole or pitted cherries, I’ll leave that decision to you. I can’t often be bothered with the pitting, but I don’t really relish the thought of someone breaking a tooth under my watch. In the meantime, I’ve included a few drops of almond extract to add a little more flavor, no matter which way you go!

Cherry Clafoutis
Serves 4 as dessert, 2 as breakfast
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¼ cup (40 grams) all-purpose flour
¾ cup milk
¼ cup (55 grams) sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
a couple of drops almond extract, optional
2 cups (350 grams) pitted cherries

Heat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, measure flour. Slowly add milk to flour, whisking constantly. Beat hard to remove lumps. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and almond extract, if using. Mix well to combine.

Butter a 9-inch pan generously. Add cherries to bottom of pan and spread evenly. Pour batter on top of cherries. Place in the middle of the oven and cook for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden and puffy. The very middle of the clafoutis will still be a little wobbly when you gently shake the pan.

Allow the clafoutis to cool for about 30 minutes. Slice and sprinkle with a little icing sugar, or serve with freshly whipped cream.

I am pretty sure that I am not cut out to be a chef, you see, at heart I am just a recipe follower. Perhaps I need the structure a recipe provides, that bit of guidance that lets you know you are on the right track. I am however, pretty good at modifying recipes so maybe all hope is not lost. But branching out and making something up, that I can not do. Or perhaps I should say haven’t done. Likely because I’m too scared of failing. This however is the type of cooking that I would love to be able to do. As well as finishing reading the five half finished books that I have stacked up on  my night stand, this fall I have also decided to challenge myself to create an original recipe.

As a kid we didn’t grow up having pie all together that often, my mom wasn’t much for making pies. I recall tackling the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie one particular time, while Ginger prepared the rest of the dinner and surprisingly enough, I always remember getting rave reviews. This may just be a figment of my imagination, but who’s to say really. So for my original recipe creation I have decided to play to my strengths and make a pie.

This recipe brings together a few of my very favourite things: fragrant and juicy pears, tangy lemon and a hint of the fresh-cut wood and rosemary flavour of lavender. I tested this recipe out a few times, once with the pear peels on and once with them off. I personally like the peel on, I think it helped to bring out a little more pear flavour. However you choose to do it I think that you will enjoy the lovely mending of flavours. Fanfare please!

Pear Pie Scented with Lavender & Lemon

For the crust:  Adapted from Bon Appetit
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon Fleur de sel (heaping)
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 – 4 tablespoons ice water

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4 – 5 pears cored, halved and sliced thinly (the peels can left on or off)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried food grade lavender
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 lemon juiced

Directions
I always make my pies crust by hand, I’m hardcore that way/I don’t have a food processor. If you want to be hardcore too, make sure that you have all your ingredients on hand and measured out before you start working with the butter. The less time you spend working with your butter the flakier your crust.

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add butter to the mix and blend using a pastry cutter or your hands until a coarse meal forms. Slowly blend in just enough ice water to form the dough into a crumbly ball. Flatten the ball into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the sliced pears in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the flour, sugar, lavender, lemon zest and juice over the pears. Lightly toss the pear mixture until evenly coated.

Removed the chilled dough and place it on a well-floured working surface. Using a rolling pin,  roll-out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Roll the dough up around your rolling pin and carefully transfer it to a 9-inch pie dish. Gently settle the dough into the dish.

Pour the filling and all of its juices into the dough-lined pie dish. Roughly fold the edges of the crust up over the filling forming a rustic crust.

Bake the pie for 55 minutes, until the pie crust develops a deep golden color and the pear juices are bubbling.

Place the pie on a rack and allow the pie to cool. Cut into slices and serve with whipped cream.