Seasonal Ontario Food

There isn't too much to say about this; it's a winter vegetable purée soup, with some sweet and slightly zingy flavours and a lovely colour. (And brrr, it seems to be a winter week.)

At two servings, it will be a big bowl of soup to go with salad or bread and cheese; four servings would be fairly small portions as a starter to a meal.

Anise seed is an under-used spice, I think. I keep meaning to use it more often. This is a start.

This was quite a thick soup; you might want to add a bit more broth to make it soupier.

2 to 4 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


2 cups diced peeled rutabaga
4 cups unsalted chicken OR vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium carrot
2 large apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon anise seed, ground
1 teaspoon ground ginger
the juice of 1/2 small lemon
1 tablespoon sherry
1/3 cup light cream

Peel and dice the rutabaga, and put it in a soup pot with the broth and bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for 40 minutes, until tender. As soon as it is in, peel the carrot and cut it into dice. Add it to the pot of rutabaga to cook along with it.

When the rutabaga and carrots have about 15 minutes left to cook, peel, core, and slice the apples. Heat the butter in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Cook the apples gently until quite soft and slightly browned. A few minutes before they are done, sprinkle them with the ground anise seed and ginger. Mix in well.

Transfer the cooked carrots and rutabaga to a blender or food processor. Add the apples and process until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, add the lemon juice, sherry, and cream and re-heat just up to the point of being steaming hot, but do not allow it to boil. Serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Chick Pea Choux Pastry. 

There are a lot of recipes out there for baked oatmeal, it seems, and I keep tripping over them on Pinterest. They vary widely, from the frugal and dietetic, to much richer versions I would consider too sweet even for dessert; and not just now, but back in the day when I was eating sweeter things.

Even with the fairly modest amount of sweetener I opted to put into this, I do regard it as a dessert and not as a breakfast dish, but you could. Certainly you could. You could increase the amount of sugar too, but I have to say I think anything more than twice as much as I used would be excessive.

This isn't usually described as a pudding, but I do think that's exactly what it is. It is solid and dry enough in spite of the butter and apples, that it needs some milk or cream poured over it when it is served. Custard seems a little over the top, somehow, and yet I can picture ice-cream doing very well here.

Note: Edited 04/03/2020 to fix errors in ingredient list and instructions. 

6 to 8 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time - and do let it cool some


Mix the Dry Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (large flake or quick cook)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
about 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Measure out the oats; you can leave them in the measuring cup and just pile the salt and spices on top. Set aside until needed.

Pre-Cook the Apples & Finish:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large cooking apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 to 2/3 cup milk
1 large egg
milk or cream to serve

Butter an 8" x 10" shallow baking (lasagne) pan or similar which holds 1 1/2 to 2 litres/quarts. 

Wash and peel the apples. Grate them and discard the core, putting the grated apple into a reasonably large (2 l/qt) pot. Add the butter, sugar, and molasses. Bring up to a simmer, stirring frequently, until everything is well mixed, the butter melted, and the apples bubbling and exuding juice; this won't take more than 5 minutes or so.

Remove from the stove. Mix in the dry ingredients, then mix in the milk or cream. Mix in the egg.  You should have a soft batter-like texture; add a splash more milk if it seems too firm. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth it out evenly.

Bake for 35 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Let cool to warm or room temperature, and serve with milk or cream.




Last year at this time I made Braised Steak Goulash Style.

Not too fancy, but a quick and easy salad with a nice balance of sweet and bitter, sour and sharp.  Hooray for winter salads! Fight the stodge.

My red cabbage was a bit pale but isn't it pretty with the other very pale green vegetables?

4 servings
20 minutes prep time


Make the Dressing:
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil

Squeeze and strain the lemon juice and mix it in a small bowl or jam jar with the mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix in the olive oil. 

Make the Salad:
1 1/2 cups grated red cabbage
1 1/2 cups peeled and grated celeriac
1 large OR 2 medium Belgian endives
1 large crisp firm apple

Trim and grate the cabbage and put it in a bowl. Peel and grate the celeriac and add it to the cabbage. Wash and trim the endives, and cut them in quarters lengthwise. Cut them into thin slices widthwise. Add them to the salad. Wash and grate the apple, and add it.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss well. Serve at once. 




Last year at this time I made Russian Cabbage Fritters. 

This is more something to do with left-over squash than a recipe to make from scratch, but given the size of most squash, leftovers are not exactly unheard of.

I hope you can find squash at this time of year. I can still get lots just by walking into the laundry room, but you may have to go to a farmers market if you don't grow your own. By now they are a little starchier and less sweet than they would have been in the fall, so a touch of apple butter helps bring that back. You may wish to apply it with a slightly heavier hand than I did. At any rate, you scale the ingredients to the amount of cooked squash you have. Baked, boiled, or steamed; just make sure it is well mashed. 

1 to 2 servings per cup
15 minutes prep time not including first cooking the squash


1 cup cooked mashed squash
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp apple butter
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
a few gratings of nutmeg OR 1/8 teaspoon gr cinnamon

Put the squash in a saucepan with the remaining ingredients and heat until steaming hot. Stir, from frequently to just about constantly, to prevent it from catching.

Aaaaand serve it.

Wait; that's it?

Yes. Yes, it is.




Ha ha! Last year it was Butternut Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice & Mushrooms and I said the exact same things about finding squash at this time of year.