Sister Witches in the Kitchen:Melissa

My friend Melissa has excellent taste. When she calls to say “You have got to try this, it's going to change your life” I pay attention. Over the years I have known her, her recommendations have included Poulet Yassa (an African lemon chicken dish), seriously addictive Curried Popcorn and a Mexican Chicken and Bean dish that stews tantalizingly in a slow cooker. You wouldn't know it to look at her, but she has an appetite almost as big as mine. She loves wine and foods from places where she has lived and travelled: Bangladesh, Thailand, Africa, Vietnam. She doles out her love in recipes, home baked treats, and excellent advice. If you need to rant about the unfairness of life, she will patiently listen until you're done. If you need a recipe for butter chicken, or the best vegan power bar on the planet, she has it.

Even Mike Holmes is jealous of her biceps!

Melissa and I met at college when we were 17 and 18. Our dormitory had two beds to a room and as we shyly (well, I was shy, she was not) introduced ourselves to each other, we both thought, what the hell is this going to be like, sharing a room with a total stranger? I eyed her Gone with the Wind poster and music collection and fancy computer and straight-from-India decorations with trepidation. Was this girl way cooler than me? It took a while, but we found some common ground while jumping on our beds dancing to Courtney Love's screeching, and playing guitar (we even got up at open mic nights a few times) and sharing a birthday, almost (they are one day apart). One night after a few drinks, she spit in her hand and I spit in mine and we shook on everlasting friendship. It worked.

We lived together again in Halifax years later, and that's when we started cooking together. We worked late nights at bars and wanted to eat well, so every couple of weeks we would go on a big shopping adventure, then get to work in the kitchen. We froze burritos, Pad Thai, Shepherd's Pie, anything we thought would survive reheating in the microwave. We had big dinner parties and ate at fancy restaurants. We fought once and made up right away.

She's one of those people you could hate because she's funnier than you, more fit than you, and does everything she puts her mind to with irritating excellence. She gets away with all that because she truly is one of the kindest and most generous people I know. We're closer than ever because our lives have paralleled each others'. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, then got married herself three weeks later on the grounds of my house (I got to make the food). We had babies at the same time, my second and her first. We've started businesses and read the same books and run in races. We now live about 100 kilometers apart and see each other only a few times a year, but I know if I need anything, anything at all, that she's there for me.

This Thai Corn Soup recipe is the latest of the must-tries. Although I've tinkered with it considerably (no lemongrass or coconut milk could be found in Berwick) I hope it tastes close to the original. Melissa suggests you invite your girlfriends over and make them this.

Thai Corn Chowder

1 C. Shredded Coconut (preferably unsweetened)

1 Lemon

1 Lime

6 Cobs of Corn

4 C. Diced Potatoes

2 t. Salt

2 T. Canola Oil

2 Onions, chopped

3 Cloves Garlic, minced

2 T. Grated Ginger

1 T. Toasted Coriander Seed, Ground

2 T. Cornstarch

1 C. Milk, Cream, or Water

2 T. Fish Sauce

Fresh Cilantro and Basil

Soak the coconut in boiling water to cover for ten minutes. Grind for 3 minutes in a blender and set aside. Zest the lemon and the lime, then squeeze the juice into a cup. Set both aside separately. Stand each corn cob on end on your cutting board, then cut the corn from the cob. Scrape the cob clean with the edge of the knife. Put all the bits of corn in a small bowl (save the cobs). Place the potatoes and corn cobs in a large pot and add 1 tablespoon salt and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are just tender.

\ Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the onion and saute for five minutes, until beginning to soften. Add the ginger and garlic. Saute for another five minutes, then add the coriander and lemon and lime zests and turn off the heat. When the potatoes are ready, remove the corn cobs and dump the potatoes and their water in with the sauteed onion mixture. Add the corn and coconut-water blend and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium high heat. Whisk together the cornstarch and milk, water or cream. Stir this into the soup along with the fish sauce. Let the soup simmer until it bubbles a little. Taste for seasoning and serve with chopped cilantro and basil on top.

Autumn Soups

To everything there is a season. A time for beet greens, a time for peas. A time for strawberries, a time for peaches. And a time for squash, potatoes, apples, brussels sprouts, turnips and pumpkins. That time seemed to come early this year, right on the heels of the most glorious summer I can remember. Was it the time off I took thanks to my ever-so-competent gals in the kitchen, Alexis and Annette? Was it the fact that nearly every weekend, the weather was perfect? The new garden and the chicks in the laundry room that grew up to be the chickens running around the backyard? Living the summer in food and sharing it with you? Writing this has given me the opportunity to really reflect on the abundance and variety grown in our magnificent Valley (and Mountains!)

Sure, I haven't touched on all the things we can do with broccoli, and I missed peppers and eggplant completely. That's ok, because we're going to be together for a long time, right?

Nothing says autumn to me like soup. Summer can be hell in a restaurant kitchen, but when the temperature drops fifteen degrees and there's an avalanche of squash and apples at your delivery door, there's nothing like cozying up to the beastly stove and cooking up some love-in-a-bowl.

That's my boy, harvesting Sunflower seeds!

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry Spices

2 T. Butter

2 Onions, diced

6 cloves Garlic, peeled and chopped coarsely
2 t. Mild Curry Powder
1 t. Garam Masala (or substitute cinnamon)
1 Butternut Squash (about 2-3 lbs), peeled and cut in 2" chunks 
1 T. Salt
2 T. Maple Syrup (or more, to taste) 
2 C. Milk, Cream or plain Soymilk
Cashews, Yogurt and Chopped Cilantro for serving (optional)

Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook for about ten minutes, stirring often, until fully softened and beginning to caramelize.  Add the garlic and cook another minute, then add the curry powder and garam masala.  Stir and cook for about thirty seconds to release the delicious toasty flavours of the curry spices, then add the squash and enough water to just cover.  Add the salt and crank the heat to high.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to medium high and simmer about twenty minutes, until the squash has fully softened and is falling apart.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or let it cool a little before blending it (in small batches, with a towel covering the lid and being super-duper careful) in a blender.  Add the maple syrup and milk and whisk to combine.  Taste for salt and add some pepper if you like.  Serve steaming in bowls with the optional garnishes if you like.  Extra yum credit: add a small dollop of mango chutney-we sell a good handmade one at the Berwick Farmer's Market!

Apple Cheddar Porter Soup

2 T. Butter

1 Onion, diced

3 Apples, cut into chunks (no need to peel) Boates is a good source in the Valley

1/4 C. Flour

2 t. Salt

6 C. Chicken or Vegetable Stock

12 oz Porter or your favourite ale (Propeller Brewery is my all-time favourite)

1 C. Grated Cheddar

1/2 C. Cream or Milk

1/2 t. Pepper

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute for about five minutes, until starting to soften.  Add the apples and stir and cook for another five minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour and salt and cook for a minute, then whisk in the stock and porter. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil.  Simmer until the apples have softened and are falling apart.  Remove the pot from the heat and blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender (regular blender=yikes, unless you let the soup cool first).  Place the pot back over low heat and add the cream and the cheese.  Whisk until the cheese has melted, then add the pepper and taste, adding a little more salt if necessary.

A Rainbow of Tomatoes

Last night we sat down to my daughter's cooked-all-by-herself macaroni and cheese and a giant plateful of sliced tomatoes, all different shapes and colours. There were tiny and sweet orange tomatoes, large brown and small red cherry tomatoes, bright yellow plum tomatoes, huge red beefsteak tomatoes, green-but-ripe tomatoes and a beautiful kind that is red with green stripes. There is even a kind with fuzzy yellow-orange-pink skin!!! All this is thanks to Josie of Seachange Naturals in Centreville, who grew tomato and other organic vegetable transplants to order this year. In March, I looked through a fantastical list of varieties she was planning to grow and picked 2 dozen to try. They arrived at the Cafe at the end of May looking healthy and lush, ready to bolt out of their already roomy pots. Josie uses only organic fertilizers and much larger containers than most nurseries, which means the plants were already well on their way by the time I planted them in my new and slightly less than ideal garden bed. There they have grown beautifully, and are ripening by the basketful. As long as I can keep the chickens out, we'll have more than enough for us and the Cafe.

We gratefully buy tomatoes from Den Haan's hothouse for most of the year. With a little time in the warm kitchen, they are very good. We have also obtained incredibly early organic tomatoes from the Penners of Goldfinch Farm, who also grow theirs in a wood-heated greenhouse, but on a much smaller scale. Henry and Dora, along with their son Nelson, grow a huge variety of spectacular produce on the outskirts of Berwick (just look for the sign on Willow Avenue or find them at the Wolfville Farmer's Market).

As a kid, I remember briefly preferring the plastic wrapped rectangular cage of hard winter tomatoes to the drippingly sweet and soft tomatoes of summer. I'm not sure what I was going through, but I'm over it now. This sandwich, my favourite of all time, sure helped.

  

My Favourite Tomato Sandwich

Don't make this unless it's tomato time!

2 Slices Whole Wheat Bread, as plain or fancy as you like

1 Clove Garlic, peeled

Mayonnaise

At least 1 perfectly ripe Tomato, possibly more, sliced thickly

A few Basil leaves, sliced into ribbons

Salt and Pepper

Toast the bread and rub one side of each with the garlic. Spread a little (or a lot) of mayonnaise on both. Stack one with as many tomatoes as will fit, sprinkle with salt and pepper and lay on the basil. Top with the other slice of bread, cut in half, and enjoy the rapture.

Grilled Summer Vegetables

Excellent just off the grill, but equally welcome warmed up the next day. May I suggest as a topper for otherwise vegetable-less mac and cheese?

3 medium Zucchini

2 Onions

1 large or 2 medium Eggplants

3 T. Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1 quart Tomatoes of any and all varieties you can obtain

2 Cloves Garlic

2 T. Balsamic Vinegar

Cut the zucchini thickly on the diagonal. Cut each onion into four wedges. Slice the eggplants thickly and put all the vegetables in a large bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with a healthy teaspoonful of salt and some pepper to taste. Fire up the barbecue. When it's nice and hot, turn it to medium heat and place each vegetable one by one on the grill. Cover for a few minutes and cook, then turn each piece over with tongs. Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes roughly and place them in the same bowl the vegetables were just in, along with the garlic and balsamic vinegar. When the grilling vegetables have cooked to your liking (make sure the eggplant is completely soft), throw them all in to the bowl. Toss gently. You may want to cut the veggies into smaller pieces before serving, or just cut them up as you eat.

Peaches

A few weeks ago, I bought a bushel of peaches. They are kinda rare around here these days, grown mainly tucked up against the North Mountain where they can enjoy some protection and extra heat. Luckily for me, this means a slight detour from my usual route to town and I'm driving right by the peach orchards. I took the box of peaches to the restaurant, where we ate as many as we wanted before adding them to mixed green salads, pasta dishes and whatever else we could think of. A wonderful discovery was the combination of peaches and kale with chicken and pasta. To try that, follow the directions for Pasta with Greens and Raspberries and substitute two diced peaches for the berries. 

I used to peel peaches for baking, but I'm done with that. Aside from the very tedious boiling for ten seconds, cooling, and slipping off the skins, peeling peaches removes a lot of the flavour and beautiful colour from the skin. Just wash them, and cut them up. Done.

I found a lovely recipe for peach cobbler in a book titled “Cooking from the Heart”.  I messed with the pastry a bit, and since it's also blackberry time, I added a few handfuls. A spoonful of whipped cream and it's end-of-summer bliss.

Peach Blackberry Cobbler

adapted from Rick Bayless

Filling:

6 Peaches, sliced thickly

1 Cup Blackberries

½ C. Sugar

3 T. Cornstarch

1 T. Lemon Juice

½ t. Salt

1 T. Butter

Pastry:

1 1/3 C. Flour

¼ t. Baking Powder

¼ t. Salt

½ C. Butter

¼ C. Sour Cream

1 ½ t. Apple Cider Vinegar

1 T. Milk or Cream, for brushing

2 t. Sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400°. To make the pastry, place the flour, baking powder, salt, and butter in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until crumbly, about 12 times. Whisk the sour cream and apple cider vinegar together along with 1 tablespoon of water. Drizzle this over the flour mixture in the processor, then pulse another 12 or so times, until the dough forms clumps. Turn it out onto a piece of plastic wrap, gather up the dough, and fold the plastic over the top. Flatten into a rough square shape and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Combine the peaches, blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt in a large bowl. Cut off 2/3 of the dough and roll it into a square roughly 10x10 inches. Fit the dough into an 8 inch baking dish, letting the dough hang over the edge of the dish. Pile in the filling, then cut up the 1 tablespoon butter and scatter it over the filling. Roll the remaining dough out ¼ inch thick and cut into squares or other shapes. Place these evenly over the filling, tucking some crust pieces into the filling here and there. Brush with milk or cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350° and bake for another 40 minutes, until filling is bubbling thickly and pastry has browned.