Seasonal Ontario Food

Prepare the Sauce:
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
the juice of 1/2 lime
a pinch of sugar (optional)

Mix these in a small bowl and set them aside.

Finish the Dish:

300 grams (10 ounces) beef or lamb liver
4 shallots
1 small sweet orange or red pepper 
1 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves
3 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 small hot chiles OR dried red chile flakes to taste
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Cut the liver into bite-sized pieces, discarding any tough or stringy bits. Put it in a small bowl and set it aside.

Peel and sliver the shallots. Core, de-seed, and sliver the sweet pepper. Strip the basil leaves from the stems, discarding the stems. Peel and mince the garlic, with the hot chile if you are using a fresh one.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and chile (or chile flakes), and let sizzle for a minute or two until the garlic just darkens a little. Add the liver, shallots, and pepper at once. Cook, stirring regularly, until the liver and vegetables are cooked - not more than 3 or 4 minutes. Add the sauce a minute or two into the cooking process; it will be absorbed and disappear about the time the meat is done.

Last year at this time I made Perfect Fluffy Scrambled Eggs.

Last year at this time I made Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Plum Sauce.

There are about a gazillion variations on the theme of kibbeh out there, although frequently it is made with meat and could reasonably be described as the Lebanese version of meatloaf. The defining feature, however, is the use of soaked bulgur to create a mortar to hold together some other food into a paste, and so there are a number of vegetarian versions as well. This is not one of them, though! This is the meatloaf version.

Actually, the mixture may be served raw, or formed into dumplings and fried or grilled, but as ever I was looking for the simplest solution and baking it, rather like a Turkish tray-kebab, seemed like the way to go. As often seems to be the case with kibbeh, the "mortar" formed by the soaked bulgur and some of the ground meat goes around a filling of more ground meat. Each is spiced a little differently, which adds some interest to the usual meatloaf theme. As with most meatloafs, enough other ingredients are added so that a smaller amount of meat serves a greater number of people, without most of them realizing just how far it has been stretched.

Bulgur is lower on the glycemic index than most forms of wheat; perhaps because it has been parboiled. At any rate, I expect to be using it more often.

6 to 8 servings
4 hours to soak & drain bulgur
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time


Advance Preparation:
1 1/2 cups bulgur

Put the bulgur in a bowl with plenty of tepid water to cover. Soak for 1 or 2 hours. Put it in a strainer, and drain for 1 or 2 hours.

Make the Shell:
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sumac
1 teaspoon rubbed basil
1 teaspoon rubbed mint
1 medium onion
250 grams lean ground beef or lamb
1 large egg
2 tablespoons olive oil

Grind the cumin seed with the salt, then put them in a small bowl withe the sumac, basil, and mint. Peel and finely chop the onion.

Put the soaked, drained bulgur into a food processor, and process for 3 to 5 minutes, until chopped and somewhat doughy. Stop the food processor, and scrape down the sides. Sprinkle in the spices, add the chopped onion, the crumbled beef, the egg, and the olive oil. Process again until well amalgamated and fairly smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Oil a 10" pie plate fairly heavily. Transfer half the prepared mixture into it, to cover the bottom evenly and come up the sides at least half an inch.

Make the Filling & Finish:
3 - 4 pods of green cardamom
4 allspice berries
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper to taste
250 grams lean ground beef or lamb
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts OR other nuts
1 medium onion

Crush the cardamom and remove and discard the green hulls. Grind the remainder with the allspice and salt until fine. Mix with the cinnamon and pepper in a mixing bowl. Crumble in the beef. Add the pomegranate molasses and the nuts.

Peel and finely chop the onion. I actually do this at the same time as the first onion, and just set it aside until needed. Add it to the mixing bowl.

Mix the ingredients in the bowl until well blended, then crumble it evenly over the mixture in the pie-plate, leaving the edges clear.

Pat our the remaining shell mixture to cover the pie. It may be helpful to do this on a sheet of parchment paper and transfer it. At any rate, pinch it well sealed all around the edges and flatten it out. If you like, cut a diamond pattern into the top of the kibbeh. Brush it with a little more olive oil. Bake at 375°F for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.





Last year at this time I made Pasta Taco Style. 

I've always been a bit dismayed by recipes that combined 2 types of protein; beans and meat. I was raised in the era of nutritionists assuring everyone that while we need protein, too much is not good. Furthermore, I spent my early adulthood seriously lacking in money. Serving multiple types of protein at once not only seemed a bit profligate, but was generally beyond my means.

Now that I'm trying to eat more protein and fewer carbs I have to re-think this whole attitude. I'm trying to keep my meat consumption at about what it was before, since when it comes to meat, the too much is not good idea still holds a fair bit of water. Essentially that means upping my bean consumption.

Long story short, here's some lamb chops on a bean purée. Very good too, if a bit fancy for everyday. However, as usual, nothing difficult and lots that can be done in advance. The bean purée is essentially a hummus, and if you don't serve it all, the leftovers can be treated as such, and served with chips or crudités. I'm likely to make it again for just that purpose. The garlic and garlic oil too, will have other uses, which is good, since you will only use about 1/4 of them in this recipe. The oil, if put in a very clean jar should last well, but I would try to use the garlic up within a week or so. Keep refrigerated.

4 servings
to make Oil-Poached Garlic - 1 hour - 20 minutes prep time
to make Pumpkin Seed & Bean Purée - 15 minutes prep time,
    not including cooking beans or toasting pumpkin seeds
to roast the lamb chops - 25 minutes - 5 minutes prep time


Make the Oil Poached Garlic: 
3 to 4 heads of garlic
1 cup mild vegetable oil

Peel the garlic and trim the root ends off. Put them in the top of double boiler with the oil. Bring the double boiler up to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly so that it is boiling at a slow but steady clip. Cook the garlic for 45to 50 minutes, until soft but not mushy. The oil can show small streams of bubbles, but should not be hotter than that. Check that the water level does not drop too low.

Strain the garlic from the oil, and put each in suitable separate storage containers, as you will have a fair bit of each left over. 

Make the Pumpkin Seed & Bean Purée:
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, toasted
4 to 6 oil-poached cloves of garlic
2 to 3 cloves raw garlic
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons garlic-flavoured oil (from poaching)
the juice of 1 large lemon
2 cups cooked white beans (1 cup raw)
salt if required

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet until lightly browned if they are not already roasted and salted, and let them cool on a plate.

Put the pumpkin seeds, cooked and raw garlic, paprika, pepper, and oil into a food processor and process until very finely chopped; puréed is what you are aiming for but I don't think you are going to achieve it quite yet. Stop and scrape the sides down several times. When the mixture is very fine, add the lemon juice and process some more.

When the lemon juice is in well and you cannot see any flecks of pumpkin seed, begin adding the white beans and blend thoroughly. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

I used this right away and it was good, but we both agreed that the leftovers were better, so if you can make this from several hours to the day before, that will be good.

Roast the Lamb Chops:
8 (900 grams; 2 pounds) lamb chops
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Have your skillet or grill in the oven to pre-heat too. If using a roasting pan, put a little water in the bottom of it to prevent the drippings from smoking.

The lamb chops should be removed from the fridge to come to room temperature before cooking them.Season the chops on both sides with the salt and pepper. Place the chops in the pre-heated cast iron skillet or roasting pan, on their edges with the fatty sides down. Cover loosely with foil. Roast for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the foil from the chops and continue roasting for another 5 to 7 minutes. Let sit in the pan for another 5 or 6 minutes to rest.

The beans should be heated while the lamb is in the oven; grease a shallow pan into which they will fit, and put it in the oven while the lamb cooks. The exact time will vary according to the depth of the pan and the temperature of the beans to start with. My beans were just warm and spread fairly shallow, and were hot within 10 minutes. Otherwise, they may take longer. It wouldn't hurt to cover them with foil too, and they will need a good stir once they come out as they will crust over a little.

Serve Up:
Put a good dollop (1/4) of the warm bean purée on each plate. Top with 2 of the cooked lamb chops. Slice or mince a clove of the poached garlic over each plate to garnish. Serve at once.  

Ever since our trip to Turkey I have been cooking Turkish food regularly. There are a lot of foods from around the Mediterranean area which are exotic to us, but the climate and therefore the food materials from the north and central plains and mountains overlap quite a bit with southern Ontario, making them very adaptable to be made here. This lovely little soup is a good example.

I have broken  it down into a lot of steps and it looks like a lot of ingredients, but it really isn't at all difficult or particularly time consuming, although making all those tiny meatballs got a little tedious. Most of the ingredients listed are just seasonings that get repeated in different components of the soup, and watch that barley flour - I call for it in several different places. The source recipes I looked at for this didn't use barley flour, but as you should know by now I really like it in soup. Most of the recipes I looked at called for chick peas, but some of them called for noodles instead, so you could make that substitution if you like. I'd cook them most of the way separately before adding them if I did that.

I used our own home-canned tomato sauce, which is on the thin side. Most recipes called for tomato paste, and much less of it. You should use whatever tomato product seems best (i.e. you have it) to you, and use your judgement to adjust the quantity. 

If you serve nothing else this will certainly be plenty for 4 people, and with some bread and maybe some Carrots with Yogurt & Garlic it should stretch to 6 without difficulty.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time


Make the Meatballs:
2 medium onions, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon rubbed dried mint
1 tablespoon barley flour
450 grams (1 pound) lean ground lamb
2 to 3 tablespoons barley flour

Trim the stem end of the onions, and peel back the skin to have the onions with an onion skin "handle" at the root ends. Grate the onions, discarding the root end. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of the grated onion in a small mixing bowl, and set aside the rest to go into the soup. Measure and add all the spices, up to and including the first tablespoon of barley flour to the mixing bowl.

Add the lamb to the bowl and mix it all well with your hands. The mixture should be quite smooth; most recipes I read used the word "knead" or "beat".

Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of barley flour over a large flat plate. Use a level teaspoon to measure out the meat and form small - small! - meatballs. Drop them on the plate, and give the plate a little shake every dozen meatballs or so to coat them in the barley flour. Sprinkle on another spoonful of barley flour if it looks like it is running low.

Mix the Spices:
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed dry mint
1 tablespoon barley flour
1 clove of garlic

Mix the spices and barley flour in a small bowl. Peel and grate the garlic very finely, and add it to the spices. Have them standing by.

Make the Soup:
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 cup tomato sauce (see notes above)
4 cups water
1 540-ml (19 ounce) tin of chickpeas, drained

Put the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. When hot, add the reserved grated onion and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring regularly. Don't let it brown, it should just sizzle gently. Once it is cooked down and translucent, mix in the bowl of spices and garlic. Mix well until there is no dry material left.

Add the tomato sauce, stirring relentlessly until the mixture is fairly smooth. That is, the onion bits will be obvious, but you want the barley flour and spices to have dissolved evenly and without lumps. Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. Stir in the water, a little at a time, to maintain a smooth lump-free soup. Meanwhile, open and drain the chick peas. (You could, if you like, use their liquid as part of the water to make the soup.)  Add them to the soup. Once it is all in, turn up the heat and bring the soup to a boil.

When the soup boils add the meatballs. Give them a gentle stir to make sure they are not sticking together. When the soup begins to boil again, reduce the heat to keep it at a steady simmer. Simmer the meatballs for 15 minutes.

This can be done up to a day in advance and the soup re-heated to serve, or you can continue from here.

To Finish & Serve the Soup:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon barley flour
2/3 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon rubbed dry mint
2 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk the egg and barley flour together until smooth in a small mixing bowl. Whisk in the yogurt.

Measure the mint and olive oil into another small bowl, and mix well. Set aside to infuse while you finish the soup.

When the soup is just gently simmering, carefully stir in the egg and yogurt mixture. Let it heat gently and uncovered until the soup thickens, but do not let it boil again or it may curdle. It's a good idea to stand over it and stir it gently. Serve at once, with the mint oil drizzled over the top of the soup.





Last year at this time I made Aloo Mattar Chowder - yes, it is still very much soup weather however much I would like it not to be.

It's been a while since we've been on an outing around here! So when I saw a poster advertising the 17th Annual Lamb Banquet, put on by District 2 of the Ontario Sheep Farmers, I told Mr. Ferdzy he was taking me out for dinner. It was a bit of a drive to the Egremont Optimist Club in Holstein (Holstein! There's that place again!) but the room was full. Lots of people are prepared to do some driving for a lamb banquet, I'd say.


In addition to the meal there was a silent auction with items running from the charming and whimsical...


... to the more practical.


Another view of a few of the silent auction offerings and the attending crowd.


As people found their seats and introduced themselves to each other, they were able to snack on lamb summer sausage (supplied by Jason Emke) and little lamb shishkebabs, which appeared in waves as they came off the grill, and so are not shown as they disappeared almost as quickly.


I stuck my head inside the kitchen, where the volunteers seemed to have everything under control just a few minutes before dinner was announced.


A lot of planning goes into this kind of event, with contributions of various kinds from a lot of different places and people, not to mention the planners and volunteers.


After a few very short introductory speeches, we were called up by table to help ourselves from the buffet. Of course we were on the side of the room that got called up last! We have a talent for getting the slowest line in the grocery store, too. We didn't mind the wait though, because shortly after we first sat down, a couple came and asked if the seats opposite us were taken. We said they weren't, and then they sat down and we all looked at each other, and said, "My! You look familiar!"

It was Bill Stonehouse and his wife, from whom we bought our last couple of lambs, some of which is still in our freezer. It was nice to have someone we knew to chat with, and we hardly noticed the wait (which wasn't all that long, after all).


And here's what I ate, minus the summer sausage and shishkebabs, although you can see the discarded skewers. I was a bit amused by the fact that every vegetable seemed to have been chosen as something pre-diabetics should not eat, except for a couple of salads which I'm sure had sugar in the dressing. I skipped the desserts (sob!) and the roll, and just had a small spoonful of each of the veg, including some lovely real mashed potatoes. Oh well, more room for lots of lovely LAMB!

And now I must confess that I am a bad reporter. I'm sure the post dinner time included speeches, and there was something about $5 lamb and mysterious buckets, there was the silent auction to conclude, and, well, I don't know exactly what, because mindful of the fact that our next day was pretty much scheduled and that we had an hour drive to get home, we snuck out before that part started.





Last year at this time I made Garlicky Dill Vegetable Salad.

Essentially, this is the technique for Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder, with the addition of a honey-mustard sauce. There's a lot of mustard in this, but it gets very mellow with cooking. If you want more of a bite - and I think it's a good idea - stir more mustard into the sauce just before serving it. I'm suggesting a tablespoon but adjust it to your own taste. 

As an aside, those Blue Lake beans sure do freeze nicely. They look just as good as fresh in the photo, and they almost are. 

6 to 10 servings
6 to 7 hours - 20 minutes prep time


3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon dry rosemary leaves, ground
1 teaspoon salt (but consider the mustard)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup sweet sherry
a 1.5 to 2.5 kilo bone-in leg of lamb
1 cup beef or lamb stock
1/4 cup beef or lamb stock
1 tablespoon arrowroot or corn starch
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Peel and mince the garlic. Grind the rosemary, and in a small bowl mix the garlic in with it, as well as the salt and pepper. Mix in the honey, then the mustard and sherry. Put the roast in a fairly snug roasting pan and rub/spread this mixture all over the roast. Cover it with a lid if the pan has on or foil otherwise, then let it rest for 45 minutes to an hour at room temperature.

Remove the cover or foil to allow the addition of the stock, then re-cover it.

After half an hour, preheat the oven to 250°F. Put the roast - with the lid on or covered in foil - into the oven and roast for 4 1/2 to 6 hours, until very tender.

Remove the roast to a carving platter and let it rest for about 10 minutes. The foil or cover should be loosely over it. If the roasting pan can go on a burner, leave the sauce (gravy) in it and put it on a burner over medium-high heat; otherwise it needs to be transferred to a saucepan first. Mix the starch up in the 1/4 cup of cold stock and mix it in well to the sauce. Simmer until thickened, stirring frequently - just a minute or two. Stir the mustard in just before serving.

Slice the meat and serve it with the sauce drizzled over it or passed in a gravy boat. Leftover meat is best re-heated in any leftover sauce.




Last year at this time I made a Bachelor's Omelette for the first time. Since then I have been making omelettes regularly, and they have been omelettes and not scrambled eggs! You can teach an old dog new tricks, apparently.

This certainly isn't a dish for a weeknight, given the times involved. I could also only consider it because we are finally getting a few cooler days interspersed with the really hot ones. However as usual with me, the actual work was neither difficult nor time consuming, making this a fine thing to make on a weekend. Also good for entertaining; you just have to pull it out of the oven and serve it with no last minute fussing required. A good crisp salad would finish the menu nicely, this one seems appropriate.

While this was lovely with fresh vegetables from the garden, it would actually do very well made in the winter, with frozen beans, greenhouse or dried peppers, and canned tomatoes. About 3 cups of diced or crushed tomato in that case, I would think. If I had had any celery I would have put in a stalk or two with the onion. Garlic is a bit betwixt and between at the moment. The old stuff is, well, old; and the new stuff is pulled from the garden,but hanging in the garage to cure for a couple of weeks. Still, I made a Turkish garlic sauce for the leftovers (you know the routine; a fat clove of garlic and a pinch of salt to about a cup of thick yogurt) and it went very well. This isn't a traditional Turkish dish, but it's definitely Turkish inspired.

6 servings  
2 hours and 30 minutes - 45 minutes prep time
not including resting time for meatballs (up to 2 hours)


Make the Meatballs:
1 medium fresh onion, with green top
500 grams (1 pound) lean ground beef
400 grams (1 pound) lean ground lamb
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons rubbed savory or thyme
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil, if needed

Trim the onion; set the green top aside to go into the rice. Peel and chop the bulb of the onion finely. Put it in a mixing bowl with the 2 meats.

Add the seasonings to the meat, including the parsley and mint once they have been washed, dried, and finely chopped. Mix very thoroughly. Form the mixture into 18 to 24 patties, keeping them about 3/4" thick. If possible, cover and let them rest (refrigerated) for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Heat a large skillet over high heat, and cook the patties in batches until browned; just a minute or two on each side. Put them into a large shallow roasting pan (such as a 9" x 13" lasagne pan) as they are cooked. Use the oil if it is required to prevent sticking. Don't wash the pan once you are done - you will want to sauté some veggies still.

Finish the Pilaf:
300 grams (10 ounces) green beans
3 or 4 medium-large (450 grams; 1 pound) tomatoes
1 or 2 medium sweet banana peppers or similar
the green top from 1 fresh onion
2 cups medium grain white rice
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon salt

Meanwhile, put a pot of water on to boil. Wash and trim the beans, and cut them into thirds or quarters. When the water boils, blanch them for 1 minute then remove them and drain them well. In the same water, blanch the tomatoes for 1 minute, then remove them and rinse them in cold water. Remove the skins.

Wash, trim, and de-seed the pepper(s). Chop them, not too finely. Wash, trim and chop the green onion top.

Using the pan the meatball patties were browned in, cook the pepper pieces until soft and slightly browned in spots. Add the green onions and beans, and cook for another minute or two, until the onion greens are wilted. Sprinkle the vegetables over the meatballs. Sprinkle the rice over the meatballs, and finish with the chopped tomatoes. Stir gently until evenly combined, trying not to break the meatballs.

Heat the water to boiling with the salt. (Or if your blanching water is clean, you can use some of that.) Pour it gently over the pilaf. Make sure all the rice is below the water line. Cover the pan, with foil if it does not have its own lid. Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked. It is a good idea to stir gently once or twice as it cooks. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.