Seasonal Ontario Food

Last year at this time I made Barley with Vegetables.

I was trying for the flavour of graham crackers in a muffin, and I feel like I have succeeded, but I have to admit that without the texture of a graham cracker it reads pretty much as a bran muffin. With which there is nothing wrong! This is a very nice bran muffin, with a real fibre kick to it. It may seem like it calls for a lot of cinnamon but I find using ground flax really muffles the flavour of other things; I may try putting in even more next time. 

12 muffins
30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

Mix the Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole spelt flour
1 1/4 cups wheat bran
1/2 cup ground flax seed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Measure the dry ingredients and mix them in a mixing bowl. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and put 9 muffin pan liners in a muffin pan. 

Mix the Wet Ingredients & Finish:
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons molasses
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg

Measure the oil, and mix in the honey and molasses. It may help to heat it very slightly in the microwave to allow the sweeteners to dissolve, but don't overdo it.

Measure the buttermilk in a 2 cup measuring cup. Break in the egg, and stir it in.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until completely blended, but do not over-mix. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups, and bake for 20 minutes until set and firm. Let cool to at least warm before serving.

This pie was very well received - well, pie! - including by my mother, who really does not like coconut all that much. However, even she had to concede it added just the right level of crunch and contrast to the fruity filling. Citrus juices go extremely well with blueberries, and I particularly like lime, but nothing wrong with lemon or orange either. In fact what I had was some unsweetened cherry juice. You may wish to adjust the sweetener slightly, depending on which juice you use. (Adjust up, do I even need to say? You may wish to do that anyway. As usual, we found this sweet enough but have adjusted to fairly minimal sweetness in our desserts.)

I used frozen blueberries as ours are just starting to ripen. Mr. Ferdzy has been busy covering them with netting, as this is looks like it is going to be our first substantial harvest - providing the birds don't get them.

6 to 8 servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time
not including time to make crust OR cool


Make the Pie:
1 Quinoa-Potato Starch Pie Crust (or other single pie crust)
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup unsweetened fruit juice - orange, lemon, lime, cranberry, cherry, etc
a little grated zest if using citrus juice
1 large egg yolk
4 cups blueberries, washed and picked over

Pre-bake the pie crust as directed in the recipe, for 10 minutes. Keep the oven at 375°F when it comes out.

Meanwhile, mix the tapioca starch, honey, fruit juice and zest, if using. If your honey is very thick, you may want to warm it very briefly in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water until it is just runny. Whisk in the egg yolk.

Be sure the blueberries are well drained, then spread them in the pie crust. Pour the liquid mixture evenly over them. Bake the pie for 20 minutes.

Make the Coconut Topping:
1 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg white

Mix the coconut and coconut sugar, and rub the butter into them. Mix in the egg white.

When the pie has baked for 20 minutes and is beginning to look a bit set, sprinkle the topping evenly over it. Return it to the oven for another 25 minutes, until completely set and golden-brown. Let cool before serving.




Last year at this time I made Eggs with Purslane & Garlic Scapes. 

I started fooling around with this recipe last summer, after reading this recipe at The Guardian. As it stood, it was of no use to me as it called for condensed milk, which is sweetened (very sweetened). I decided, though, to see what I could do with evaporated milk, which isn't. The trouble with evaporated milk is that it is much thinner, and freezes differently. How would it work if made into a custard with an egg, I wondered?

The answer is, fairly well. The chocolate version of this is really quite excellent. So far, the berry version is not quite so good, being prone to large ice crystals forming in it. It also freezes much harder than commercial ice cream and must be tempered. However, it is ice cream, and ice cream that doesn't have large amounts of sugar in it, meaning that I can eat it.

I will, no doubt, continue to play around with this - especially if the weather continues at some of the temperatures we've been seeing so far - and I will probably post specific flavours separately.

I started off using an erythritol-monkfruit artificial sweetener (available at Bulk Barn). It's supposedly an all-natural artificial sweetener, and it is not supposed to raise your insulin levels, unlike other artificial sweeteners. It gets recommended a lot because of that, but I am a little dubious about it, and it still has a slightly odd aftertaste. I also found the sweetening effect to be a bit unpredictable when used alone so I tend to either just use real sugar or other regular sweeteners, or use half sugar and half of the erythritol-monkfruit blend.

Note that The Guardian's recipe calls for adding a little alcohol to keep it soft. You can do that if you like, but be aware that alcohol is basically sugar.

8 to 12 servings
about 25 minutes total prep time
allow at least 3 hours for cooling and freezing


Make the Base:
1 354 ml tin evaporated milk
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons sweetener of choice
1 1/3 cup whipping cream

Open (puncture in two spots) the tin of evaporated milk and pour it all into the top of a double boiler. Whisk in the egg and salt, and sweetener of your choice, the amount and type being up to you and depending on other flavourings and ingredients to be added. Also depending on the flavour of ice cream desired, other ingredients may be added now; for instance if making chocolate ice cream the cocoa powder and chocolate should go in with the sweetener.

Heat the mixture over simmering water, whisking regularly at the beginning, moving into whisking constantly as the mixture begins to thicken. Once it has thickened - and it's a thin custard, so the effect will be fairly subtle - remove it from the heat at once and let cool to room temperature before proceeding. There are some flavourings (for example the mashed berries) which may need to be added once the base is cool.

Beat the whipping cream until very stiff, and fold it into the cooled ice cream base. Transfer the mixture to a freezable container with a lid, and freeze  until solid.

It will likely need to be tempered before it is served - leave it on the counter for 30 minutes or in the fridge for about an hour before serving. These times may vary slightly depending on other ingredients added and how cold your freezer and fridge are, so check on it regularly until you have an idea of how long it will generally take.

For Chocolate Ice Cream:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
60 grams (2 ounces) unsweetened or very bittersweet chocolate
use sugar OR erythritol-monkfruit sweetener

While the ingredients in the double boiler are still cold, mix in the cocoa powder and chocolate, broken into small pieces. Use sugar as your sweetener, to taste, or erythrito-monkfruit sweetener, or a mixture of the two. Otherwise proceed as directed above.

For Fruit (Berry) Ice Cream:
3 cups prepared frozen fruit
1 to 2 teaspoons appropriate flavouring extract, eg. vanilla, almond, lemon, etc
use honey, sugar, OR erythritol-monkfruit sweetener

Before you begin, remove the fruit from the freezer and spread it out on a plate in a single layer to partially thaw. 

Proceed as above to make the base, using honey, sugar, or erythritol-monkfruit sweetener, or a combination. Add a teaspoon of compatible flavouring extract to the custard just as it thickens, if you like. Let it cool, as above.

When the fruit is thawed ONLY JUST enough to be mashed with a fork, do so, and fold it into the custard. Then fold in the whipped cream, and freeze immediately.

For Rum & Raisin Ice Cream:
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup rum
1 or 2 tablespoons honey

Before you make the ice cream, soak the raisins in the rum and honey for at least an hour. Make the custard without other sweetener added, then fold in the raisins with the soaking liquid when the custard is cool, and proceed as usual.




Last year at this time I made Sour Cream Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup.

More hazelnuts... they're neither local (alas; they used to be, before diseases destroyed them in the 1970s) nor in season, but I do have a fairly large bag of them in the freezer, and since shopping has been a challenge, shall we say, I have been digging into the freezer lately.

Haskaps (aka honeyberries) on the other hand are very much in season. We started picking them a couple of days ago, and must now pick them every day until they are over, which will not be in much more than a week or so. Short but, uh, no. Not sweet. That makes them a challenge for someone who wants to add as little sugar as possible. They are very much on a par with that other "fruit" of early summer: rhubarb. As I so often do these days, I decided the optimum way to use them would be in a crisp. With the amount of nuts I put in I decided it would be better called a "crunch".

Haskaps are a lot of work to pick and then to clean, and nuts are expensive, so this is a bit of a luxurious treat. Go ahead and serve it with cream or ice cream, and serve small portions because it's also very rich.

I put in the lower quantity of sugar in the topping, and only the honey in the fruit filling. The general consensus was that this was delicious, but would really have benefited from more sugar. So unless you are really avoiding the sugar like I am, I suggest you put it in. 

Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time


Make the Topping:
2/3 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
2/3 cup large flake rolled oats
2/3 cup ground almonds
2 to 3 tablespoons Sucanat, coconut sugar, or dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon almond OR vanilla extract

Toast the hazelnuts in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Transfer them to a plate to cool, then rub off the skins and crush or chop them coarsely. Put them in a mixing bowl with the rolled oats and ground almonds. Add the sweetener and salt, and mix.

Grate in the butter, stopping to turn it into the nuts, etc, every so often. When it is all in, mix the topping by hand until the butter is well distributed throughout - there should be no dry bits left - and forming small clumps. Sprinkle the flavouring extract over and mix it in.

Make the Filling & Finish:
4 cups haskap berries
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons minute tapioca

Wash the haskaps and pick them over, discarding any bad berries, leaves, or prominent stems. Butter the baking dish (9" x 9" or 8" x 10" or other 1 1/2 litre shallow baking pan), leaving any excess butter in the bottom. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Measure the honey and water and heat together (the microwave, for about 20 seconds works well) until warm and liquid and easily blended. Mix in the tapioca and sugar, and toss the berries with the this mixture. Spread it all out evenly in the prepared pan.

Spread the topping evenly over the berries and bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350°, until lightly browned and bubbling. Let cool to just warm or room temperature before serving. 

Clementines are not local, but they are certainly a familiar fruit of the season. They make a great sweet and tangy sauce for slightly bitter Belgian endives. Later in the winter you could use other oranges to supply the juice - most of those will be big enough that one will do.

This is a very quick and easy recipe, but it does require several minutes of very concentrated attention right at the end, as you cook the sauce down.

4 servings
30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time


4 medium-large Belgian endives
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 clementines
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Wash and trim the endives, and cut them in half. Heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the endive halves, round side down. Add a tablespoon of water to the pan to help cook them. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes then turn them over.

Meanwhile, juice the clementines. Leave the juice in the lemon juicer, but remove any seeds. Peel and grate the ginger and add it to the juice. Add the honey and soy sauce to the juice.

When the endives are turned over, pour in the clementine juice, etc. Continue to cook the endives over medium heat until quite tender, about 10 minutes more. Transfer them to a serving dish using a slotted spoon, then turn up the heat and cook the remaining sauce in the pan for a few minutes until thickened. Watch it carefully; it can turn just a shade brown but that is the signal to remove it from the stove and pour it over the endives at once. Serve as soon as the sauce is put on.




Ha, ha! Oh look - last year at this time I made Endive, Walnut, Cranberry & Blue Cheese Salad.

Nothing fussy about this; it's about as quick and easy as roasting squash ever gets. I'd say this is an ideal dish to serve with any poultry or pork; less ideal with beef or lamb but still good. A simple green vegetable will finish the menu.

 I am still trying to figure out how squash fit into a lower blood sugar diet. They are quite high in carbohydrates for a vegetable, and in fact contain sugars. On the other hand they rate quite low on the glycemic index and load, and some sources indicate they have blood-sugar lowering properties. On the other hand I can find references to people eating squash and having their blood sugar go up... it's a puzzle. Right now I am eating them because we have a laundry room shelf full of squash, but I will need to check my blood sugar levels over the winter as I eat them, and think about whether and how many we should plant next year. And I put honey in them too, because cranberries. However, in spite of all the potential pitfalls this is a dish for special fall and early winter occasions, and will not get eaten often.

If I wanted to make this more of a main dish, I would sprinkle some cubes of feta cheese over it for the last 10 or 15 minutes of baking.

4 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 15 minutes prep time


1.4 kilogram (3 pounds) butternut squash
6 to 8 shallots
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Peel the squash, and remove the seeds and any stringy bits from the seed cavity. Cut it into 1 centimetre slices, and then into bite-sized pieces. Peel and quarter the shallots.

Put the squash and shallots into a shallow 9" x 13" baking (lasagne) pan. Add the cranberries, washed and picked over. Drizzle the honey and vegetable oil over the squash, etc, and mix gently. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until the squash is tender. Stir gently halfway through the baking time. Serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Squash Poached in Maple Syrup.

Well, it's a salad. Made with stuff that was around. Because, you know, it's in season. I can't say I have very much to say about it, beyond the usual cries of "Tasty!" I like cheese and fruit in salads; it is known. 

4 servings
20 minutes prep time


Make the Dressing:
2 teaspoons honey
the juice of 1/2 medium lime
1 tablespoon sunflower or nut oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mix the honey and lime juice in a small serving bowl. It may be helpful to warm the honey first; the microwave is the easiest way, for just a few seconds until liquid. Mix in the oil, and salt and pepper to taste. 

Make the Salad:
1 medium cucumber
1 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons small mint leaves
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
90 to 125 grams ( 3 to 4 ounces) feta cheese

Wash, trim, and peel - if you like - the cucumber, and cut it into bite-sized chunks.  Add it to the bowl with the blueberries, washed and drained well. Wash, dry and finely mince the herbs, and add them. Cube or crumble the feta cheese and add, then toss the salad and serve.




Last year at this time I made Zucchini, Beans & Onion Japanese Style.

Hot and muggy, isn't it!? Slushies to the rescue. I put in the lower quantity of honey, and the result was tart, astringent, and very refreshing. I wouldn't have complained about a bit more sweetness, though, and you should sweeten it to your taste.

You will need a good sturdy blender to crush the ice. Don't over-load the poor beast, and if you must, transfer the ground ice to a bowl and keep it in the freezer as you crush more, then add it back in once the extract goes in.

4 to 6 servings
15 minutes to make extract
10 minutes to make slushies


2 cups water
1 to 3 tablespoons honey, to taste
2 cups raspberries
1 orange pekoe tea-bag
1/3 cup washed mint leaves, stripped from the stems
OR 1 teaspoon orange pekoe tea, in a tea-ball
about 3 trays of ice cubes
mint sprigs to garnish

Put the water, honey, and raspberries in a pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer until all the raspberries have broken down, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the tea-bag and the mint leaves. Cover and let steep for 4 minutes, then strain through a sieve, pressing to extract all the liquid and discarding the solids. You can keep this extract in the fridge until ready to proceed. Don't forget to check that your ice-cube trays are full!

To make the slushies, put 1/3 to 1/2 of an ice-cube tray worth of ice-cubes into a sturdy blender and run until it is fairly fine crushed ice. Add 1/2 the extract and blend again. Shake or stir the extract before adding it. Once smooth, add more ice cubes and process until you have the texture and strength that you would like. I found 1 1/2 smallish ice-cube trays worth of ice made 2 reasonably large slushies.

Garnish the slushies with a sprig of mint and serve with a straw.





Last year at this time I made Summer Fish Cakes.