Winter Farmers Market

Saturdays November 5 to April 28, at 10:00 am, rain or shine, farmers hang out at Nat Bailey Stadium (Ontario Street and 30th).

And today, I strolled over there in the drizzle.

By far my favourite discovery. Those are brussle sprouts on the stem. They last for weeks on those stems on your patio and are simply delicious. (Check out how I cooked them in the past at Night with Nigel).

Winter Farmers Market is also the only place where I am find quince. After my failed attempt of making quince jam (read the story at Quince Jam), I now have a new family trick of making it so will try it soon.

And of course, being a winter market, every version of squash in all colours can be found. Too bad my cellar is packed with jardin spaghetti squash; I better use those first. 

Anyone knows how long squash can last in a cool, dry cellar?

Other crops you find in abundance at the market are pears and apples. I stocked up on my favourite Ambrosia apples (did you know that these types of apples originated in British Columbia only a decade ago?).

A unique stand that is a regular one at the Winter Farmers Market is that of Dundarave Olive Co.

All sorts of flavoured olive oils and a wide variety of sizes, colours and flavours. Today they had the best looking baguettes in the whole market too.

And the list goes on - soaps, meats, eggs, baked goods, cheeses - everything you fancy and definitely worth the stroll on Saturday mornings.

All wet from the walk in the drizzle, a chili tank (looks like a real tank in which chili is cooking) served as a perfect warming up snack.


Definitely lots of fun and I am planning to stroll over every Saturday if I can. Any followers going there, drop me a note, would be fun to discover the market together one Saturday.

 

Merry Christmas Eastern Style

For many Christians, today is the Epiphany - the revelation of God the son as a human being. But for Eastern Christians, today is considered their Christmas and celebrated.



Not having access to traditional menus and recipes for such a celebration, I hit the Eastern European stores in the neighbourhood (list of stores at the bottom) and bought anything that looked interesting.

The first platter included home-made Russian salad. I love this salad and still remember eating it out of cans when I was a kid.

Since moving to Canada, I have never seen the cans. Once, a dear friend made it for me from scratch and it was delicious. This one was up there too.

The salad accompanied Pirogies - yes, Pi, not Pe; or at least that is how it is written in the store. Those were really stuffed buns.

The options were cabbage (I loved), potatoes (a bit bland) and liver (stayed at the store).

In one of the stores, I found this cheese  simply called "Polish Cheese".

I thought I will try it. It is a sharp version of a German-style butter cheese. Tasty but now I have to think of some recipe to use it in given the amount left.

Some of the best home made Perogies were found.

Those were stuffed with potatoes and sour cream, served with beet horseradish and Ukrainian sausages.

The most interesting find was a smoked herring. 

I just love pickled herring, but always ignored the smoked ones. However, this fish looked perfect, it was all alone in the store and thought it needed a warm mouth for Christmas.

I really liked it. Salty, so not something you can eat a lot of in one sitting.

Lots of leftover fish remains in the fridge (I am dreaming of having it for breakfast over some goat cheese - yum). But anyone interested in trying it, pop over to somerville kitchen.

Now I was looking for something to accompany it and, in one store, I found a container of something that looked like cabbage salad or a version of coleslaw. 

It was the only disappointment of tonight's adventure. Somewhere between a salad, pickles and cold sauerkraut, it just did not fly. But it did not prevent cats from reaching for the fish either.

Dessert platter (below) was the most fun to put together and try. It had...

- my favourite holiday dessert - stollen. This was a Butter Christstollen that melted in the mouth.

- poppy seed cake (not roll). This was a cake roll with layers of poppy seed and some jam or syrup to hold it together and sprinkled with icing sugar. Excellent.

- something called marshmallows that look like meringue balls, but has a slightly thicker than marshmallows texture and a way more interesting flavour. I will buy the chocolate version next.

- the cutest Matryoshka Russian dolls chocolates

List of stores for your next Fraser Street Finds Adventure are:

- European Breads Bakery - 4324 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC
- Polonia Sausage House - 4286 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC
- Niche Market Foods - 3902 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC
- Alenka European Foods - 701 Kingsway (corner Fraser), Vancouver, BC
 (the last is my favourite, more on Alenka one day soon)

24 Hours of Calgary Foods

I was on the ground in Calgary for exactly 23hr, 15 minutes and food and drinks were the business of the day.

Dinner - CHARCUT Roast House (101-899 Centre St SW, Calgary, AB)

The highlight of CHARCUT is not necessarily their food (more on this below) but locals claim that they are best known for their beers (did I hear right about a beer sommelier?)


I left my fate in the hands of the locals in the know and ended up trying three different beers. Two were good but what stood out was La Fin Du Monde.

This is a Quebec brewed beer that is served in those wide round glasses you see in the pic. Delicious, kind of sweet, powerful. Loved it.

More on La Fin Du Monde at Unibroue.com.

But what about the food you ask? 

Unique and tasty. We had a family style meat platter featuring their Spit Roasted Spring Creek Prime Rib and their Slow Roasted Heritage Chicken. Both good, maybe not as good as mine.

But what locals said not to miss (and they were right) were those Duck Fried Fat Poutines with Truffle Gravy. Diners were fighting over them.

Another excellent feature was the Slow Roasted Heirloom Beats - lightly roasted red and yellow beats with goat cheese, mint and basil. Just perfect.

 




Drinks - Vicious Circle (1011 - 1st Street SW, Calgary, AB)

A school night, it was late,  we had the place to ourselves; many "girlie" martinis later,one cannot remember much after that.
 

Breakfast - Hotel Arts (119 - 12th Ave SW, Calgary, AB)

Hungover (understatement) for a day full of meetings followed by flight home. I should have ordered something more substantial.

But I opted for the hotel's muesli which was quiet tasty. In fact, it tasted too much like a creamy dessert than a healthy breakfast that I cannot vow for its health benefits.

Lunch - Some Office Building Cafeteria (Downtown Calgary, Don't Want to Remember it, Calgary, AB)

A wrap with tasteless chicken slices, a bit of avocado, some lettuce, some cucumber, eaten on the fly. 

Oh I am so glad to be back home!

Fruit Teas of the Holidays

I received two lovely fruit-based teas for Christmas and they were brewed repeatedly over the holidays (oh I miss being on holidays).

 Shaktea Strawberry Banana Rooibos

Described by Shaktea as sweet and fun blend of rooibos, banana chips, pineapple pieces and strawberry pieces, this sure is a repeat purchase.

Available @ Shakea.ca online ordering or visit the store at 3702 Main Street in Vancouver, BC.

A beautiful red brew, closer to the pink than a typical rooibos. Surprisingly, the taste of the fruit is not overwhelming, but does provide a neat fun aftertaste. A wonderful treat.

Enjoyed several holiday afternoons with different home-made Christmas cakes.

David's Tea Forever Nuts

A fun gift from a tea distributor I have not heard of before. This is a fruit infusion of apples, almonds, cinnamon, and beetroot.


Caffeine Free and it seems David's Tea has three locations in the Lower Mainland. More information at Davidstea.com.

The label above was so true - the colour of this tea is surely a crazy, almost children colouring crayon shade of pink.

But it is very tasty. While it looks like tea, the taste is more like a fruit cake or jam pretending to be tea. And bonus that crazy ones like me will eat the soaked particles after drinking the tea. Deliciously enjoyable.

Spontaneous Dining

The original plan was to have a nice thick split peas and ham porridge.

Nicely simmering and thickening for 3 hours when wonderful, lovely people showed up. For dinner they were asked to stay.


The dinner menu changed rapidly to soup and cheese spread.

The fridge was emptied of all its holiday festivities cheeses: Triple cream brie, camembert, pepper goat cheese, babybels.


The bread box was emptied of its own holiday festivities leftovers: baguettes, raisin bread and hazel nuts.

The pantry contributed a box of Granforno Grissini rosemary breadsticks. Basically delicious crunchies that are fat & cholesterol free; 25 calories per stick.

And for vegetables, the outdoor veggie basket had 1 yellow and 1 orange tomato.

The porridge was simply delicious - thick, flavoured with nothing but parsley, onions and lovage, along with the saltiness of the ham.

Everything on the table was eaten, but the best part of it was the after dinner hangout around the fireplace.

Love spontaneous dinners.

De-Clutter for the New Year

Behind this beautiful 1940's door in my basement is a sizeable cellar. Dry, cool, perfect to store all sorts of somerville kitchen goodies.

However, for many years now, it has been used as a dumping ground for everything.

In addition to the regular stuff one stores (luggage, Christmas decorations, etc.), it had every empty box of every appliance bought for the house, boxes of books ready for their new shelving home, old doors, baskets, etc.

Scattered within all of this mess are the root vegetables (see the jardin spaghetti squashes everywhere?), jam jars, cookies, onions, music tapes, cereal boxes, and on and on.

Well, my first of 12 new year's resolutions is "Keep House In Order".

And thus project cellar began...

I love de-cluttering. To blasting Lebanese music (but no belly dancing), hours of planning and sorting passed by like a relaxing dream.

Everything came out to the basement and got sorted out. Book boxes moved to the library, empty boxes became fireplace kindles, all other items were organized by subject - holiday stuff, food-related items, kitchenware, appliance boxes, empty boxes and baskets, etc. The filthy carpet ripped out. The walls cleared of spider webs, the floor swept and the real fun begun.

First, the floor was covered with cork tiles for a fresh, clean look and feel. All items organized - luggage and boxes in one pile. Shelving occupied, from floor to ceiling, (a) paint and house material, (b) holiday stuff and boxes, (c) somerville kitchen shelf with all the root vegetables, jams, chutneys, pickles, empty jars and kitchen containers and, (d) kitchen appliances and kitchenware that is rarely used (e.g., food processors, juicers, coffee makers).

What a nice space this turned out to be. I am tempted to put a mattress in there and lounge with cats in the coolness all summer.

New Year in Paris

Two lovely gifts from a lovely friend were put to use on this new year's day. A fancy cookbook stand and a very interesting cookbook - Found Meals of the Lost Generation - with recipes and stories of where and what the Bohemian revolution writers and artists ate in the 1920's Paris.

Tonight's dinner is tres-Paris, with steak et frites. Those were inspired by Kay Boyle's Art Colony book in which a Russian old woman, new to Paris, was feeling sad and the young woman hosting her wanted to treat her to a "good thick one running with juice and cooked up with French frieds" the way the Russian liked them.

The steaks are pan-broiled, based on a 1920's recipe from the "famous" chef Pampille. 

Simply melt butter in a frying pan until "a single drop of water flicked into the pan will sizzle vigorously". Add onion slices and the steaks. Turn after 4 minutes then add 1 cup beef broth and 1 Tsp red wine vinegar. Turn steak once. Serve drizzled with onions and sauce.

Now the French Frieds (Frieds is not a typo, it is the book's spelling) followed a new approach for me. 

Slice potatoes into thin long sticks, no wider than 1/2 inch and soak in water for 15 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oil "very slowly until a small cube of bread, dropped into the fat, browns in exactly 60 seconds".

Once you put the potatoes in, the oil will "bubble, sputter, hiss and gradually die down". And it sure did that. 

Fry for 3 minutes. Remove and let rest for five minutes, then fry again until they brown. They cook faster than my typical fries, taste less starchy and look very French.

Now since I am showing off my Christmas gifts, these were my boxing day gift to myself - beautiful ceramic measuring spoons (including one for a "pinch") from Front & Company on Main Street.

These were used to make a Parisian vinaigrette for the greens salad.

A very tasty Parisian dinner indeed.