Seasonal Ontario Food

This is a classic German salad that's also long been popular here, as well it should be. You get to feel all healthy and virtuous about the spinach and herbs, but there's also mushrooms! And bacon!! And sour cream! Well, I'm using yogurt these days because I can't get a decent sour cream for love or money. Use a full-fat one for best results. I like to add toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds for extra crunch. 

And here we seem to be, in salad season. 

2 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time

Prepare the Salad:
6 to 8 cups baby spinach leaves
8 to 12 small button mushrooms
a good handful of parsley, if available
3 green onions
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds

Wash the spinach very well in cold water, then pick it over, discarding any tough stems and damaged leaves. Rinse it well again, and dry it thoroughly - salad spinner is a good idea.

Clean, trim, and slice the mushrooms. Wash, dry, and mince the parsley. Wash and trim the green onions, and chop them finely. All of this, along with the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, should go into a salad bowl. You may, if you wish, keep the green onions out and cook them in the dressing instead - it depends on how mild your onions are, and how much you like them (or not) raw. Also, if they are not purchased roasted, you may wish to toast the seeds in a dry skillet for a few minutes over medium heat before they go into the salad bowl.

Make the Dressing:
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
maybe some salt
250 grams (1/2 pound) medium-lean bacon
1/4 cup sour cream OR thick yogurt

Peel and mince the garlic, and put it in a small bowl with the mustard, vinegar, pepper, and sugar. You MAY wish to add some salt, but it will depend very much on how salty your bacon is. Most commercial bacon is way too salty to need more added, but if you are getting good quality bacon a little salt may be beneficial - you will need to use your judgement.

Chop the bacon into pieces a little narrower than the width of the slices. Put them in a medium skillet over medium heat, and cook slowly until they have rendered quite a bit of fat and cooked to being quite crisp throughout.

Swiss chard is a popular vegetable in Spanish cooking. This is perhaps not surprising when you consider what a convenient and long-standing (in the garden) green it is. It also has reasonable heat tolerance, and would certainly do better in a hot climate than, say, spinach.

Which is not to say that I haven't been finding our Swiss chard a little tough and bitter this year, what with persistent heat and sporadic rain. This dish calls for cooking the chard a bit longer than I usually do, and I have to admit that under the circumstances that was undoubtedly a good thing. I served it with quinoa, grilled chicken and a sprinkle of cheese and we thought it was impressively good, considering the hacking and sawing required to pick the stuff this year.

The mushrooms were nice, but maybe a little overwhelmed by the other ingredients. It's up to you to add them, or not, as you like.

4 to 6 servings
45 minutes prep time


450 grams (4 medium; 1 pound) red tomatoes
1 large bunch white-stemmed Swiss chard
1 medium onion
125 grams (1/4 pound) button mushrooms (optional
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon sweet (smoked) Spanish paprika
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Put a pot of water on to boil and blanch the tomatoes. Peel them, chop them, and set them aside in a bowl.

Wash and trim the Swiss chard. Cut the stems from the leaves, and chop them into pieces about the same size that you would chop an onion. Put them in their own bowl, then peel and chop the onion and add it to them. Clean, trim, and chop the mushrooms in slightly larger pieces, and add them to the bowl.

Peel and mince the garlic, which now goes in a new, small bowl along with the cumin seed, ground with the salt, and the rest of the spices.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, chard stems, and mushrooms and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and cooked down, and perhaps browning very slightly (If it wants to brown more than slightly you have the heat too high.) While this cooks, chop the Swiss chard leaves fairly finely.

Add the little bowl of seasonings to the pan and mix in well. Let cook for a minute or two, then stir again and stir in the tomatoes. Let them cook for another 5 minutes, adding a little water if it looks like the pan is getting too dry. Your ultimate goal is a mixture that is moist and juicy but not swimming in liquid, so only add a little at a time.

Add the shredded Swiss chard leaves and mix them in until they are wilted and amalgamated. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Once they are well in, add the vinegar.

Serve hot as-is, or with a little grated cheese sprinkled over the top.





Last year at this time I made Cream of Zucchini & Mushroom Soup.

I wanted to make these for a couple of weeks, but it has been hard to get tofu. We're ordering groceries on-line for pick-up these days, and certainly not wandering randomly around to see what's in stock. Apparently tofu is in high demand at the moment. However, we did get some eventually, and even mushrooms at the same time.

These are mild and delicate; the ingredients are Asian but the method makes me think of Russian "cutlets". Sprinkle them with a little soy sauce and vinegar, or maybe with chile-garlic sauce when you eat them. Rice would be ideal, and perhaps another time I will try making them a little stiffer, with more barley four, and try eating them in a bun like hamburgers.

4 servings - 16 patties
45 minutes prep time


420 grams firm tofu
225 grams (1/2 pound) fresh shiitake mushrooms
1 medium carrot
1/4 cup finely minced green onions OR chives
1/4 cup finely minced fresh cilantro
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large egg
1/4 cup barley flour
mild vegetable oil to fry

Crumble the tofu into a sieve and sprinkle with a little salt; set it aside to drain while the other ingredients are prepared.

Remove and discard the stems from the mushrooms, and dice them finely. Peel and grate the carrot. Wash, trim, and mince the green onions and cilantro. Peel and mince the garlic and ginger.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet and cook the mushrooms in it over medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened and reduced in volume. Add the green onions and garlic, mix in well and cook another minute, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the prepared carrot, cilantro, ginger, sesame oil, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Break in the egg, and add the drained tofu and the barley flour. Mix well.

Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan generously in a large skillet (you can wipe out the one you used for the mushrooms). When the oil is hot, spoon in the mixture to form little patties or pancakes. They should not be too large as they are fairly delicate and will hold together better if they are small; in fact, if they seem too delicate you could add a little more flour. Try not to add too much as their delicate texture what makes them so nice.

Cook for a minute or two on each side until golden brown, then transfer to a serving dish. They can be kept warm in the oven if you like, although they do cook fairly quickly and should not have cooled off appreciably by the time they are all cooked. Add fresh oil as needed to the pan as cooked ones are removed and new ones put in.

This has been a very good spring for sorrel. The cool temperatures have brought it on slowly and it has been extremely tender and delicious and even a little less slug-ridden than usual.

Using it to stuff chicken thighs like this is a clever use for it; the fact that it turns a fairly unappetizing khaki green when cooked is hidden beneath a layer of crispy chicken skin. Spring oniony stuff - you can use whatever you have, really - and mushrooms round it out. I did not actually add extra mushrooms to the pan when I roasted the chicken, but I wish I had. I don't think too many more could be squeezed into the filling, but I did not think the amount I used was really enough. Roasting some more alongside the chicken should solve that problem.

As usual, sorrel has been the first substantial vegetable out of the garden, beating the asparagus by about 2 weeks. You are not likely to get any unless you grow it yourself, so I highly recommend that you grow it yourself, if you possibly can. Seeds for it have become much easier to find in the last few years.

3 to 6 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time


4 cups chopped sorrel leaves
12 to 18 medium button mushrooms
3 green onions OR a good handful of chives
2 tablespoons unsalted butter OR chicken fat
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/3 to 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
6 large skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil or melted butter

Wash the sorrel well, and discard any tough stems or damaged leaves. Chop them fairly finely. Clean 6 - that's 6 - of the mushrooms, trim them, and dice them. Wash, trim, and chop the green onions or chives finely.

Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, and add the drained but not completely dried sorrel. Cook until it is all wilted and changed to a dull brownish green, then transfer it to a small mixing bowl. Drain off any liquid into another small bowl.

Melt the butter in the skillet and cook the mushrooms until soft and lightly browned. Add the green onions or chives and cook until wilted, then add them all to the sorrel. Season with the salt and pepper, and mix well with the bread crumbs. The mixture should be a soft, coarse paste.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Debone the chicken thighs, being careful to keep them whole. Leave the skins on, but loosen them on at least one side, running your fingers in from side to side, but again, be careful to keep them attached on at least two opposite sides.

Divide the filling into 6 equal portions. Take each portion, and divide it in half. Half goes under the skin of a chicken thigh, spread out to form an even layer between the skin and the meat. Put the other half in roughly the position the bone used to occupy, and fold the thigh gently closed. Place it cut side down in a lightly oiled shallow baking dish of sufficient size to hold all the thighs in a single snug but uncrowded layer, with a bit of space for the remaining mushrooms. Repeat with the remaining filling and chicken thighs.

Pour the liquid you set aside earlier around the chicken thighs. Peel and mince the garlic and sprinkle it around. Clean the remaining mushrooms and cut them in halves. Brush them with the oil or butter. Arrange them around the chicken thighs. Bake them at 375°F for 1 hour, until golden-brown and cooked through. Let them rest 5 minutes before serving.

There should be a fair quantity of pan juices, and the filling will also be soft and oozy, so these are best served with something to soak it all up. Mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, polenta, or even some good sturdy slices of toast all come to mind.




Last year - or sometime - at this time I made Rhubarb-Ginger Syrup. 

Still looking for low-carb alternatives to pasta, and this certainly works well for that. Unfortunately Mr. Ferdzy is becoming more lactose-intolerant as he gets older (and lactose-free dairy products are a bad choice for pre-diabetics) so this is not going to be something I make often. Pity. It was good.

Sadly for Mr. Ferdzy, it took three tries to get this right. I kept hoping I could use less flour than actually turned out to be required, so not quite as low-carb as ideal. Still, it was delicious, quick and easy (oh how I like that phrase) and half of it amounts to 2 out of the 5 carbohydrate "servings" I allot myself each day, which is quite proportionate for a main meal. 

Spaetzle are now officially a part of my life; I even bought a spaetzle maker. Not the traditional kind, but a simple edged circle of stainless steel with holes in it, which sits on the top of the pot so the batter can be pressed through it. I like the simple design, and it can double as a strainer and possibly, with the right lid over it, a steamer.

As ever, the two of us ate it all, and it was all there was. You could serve it as a side dish with meat and it would go further, serving up to 6 people. The amount of ricotta cheese used was exactly 1/3 of a readily-available brand's oddly-sized 475 gram container. On one occasion that I made it, I served it with Poutine Gravy and we really liked that. The cheese does make this a fairly soft spaetzle, and it's a good idea to serve it with something that brings a little crunch.

2 to 6 servings
10 minutes to mix the batter, not including rest time
15 minutes to cook, including bring the water to a boil
10 minutes to finish in the pan 


Make the Spaetzle:
160 grams (6 ounces) pressed cottage or ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
a few scrapes of nutmeg
2 to 3 tablespoons finely minced fresh herbs
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup barley flour

Remove the cheese from the packaging carefully, discarding any accumulated liquid - if it seems quite moist it will not hurt to measure it a little generously then let it drain for a while. Mash it with a fork and whisk in the first egg. Add the seasonings, and the fresh herbs, finely minced. Green onion, parsley, chives, chervil, and dill will all be very appropriate. Mix in the Parmesan cheese. Beat in the remaining egg.

Stir in the flour to form a smooth, stiff batter. It should almost but not quite want to come together in a soft ball of dough. Set the batter aside to rest for 20 minutes to an hour before cooking.

To Serve:
3 or 4 medium shallots OR green onions
4 to 6 medium-large button mushrooms
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups thawed frozen peas

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil.

Meanwhile, peel and sliver the shallots, or trim and chop the green onions. Clean and slice the mushrooms. (Don't forget to have the peas thawed and standing by.)

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat just as the water begins to bubble for the spaetzle. Add the shallots and cook, stirring once or twice, for several minutes.

Press the batter through a large-holed colander or spaetzle maker into the boiling water. Cook until they float and are firm; just 2 or 3 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, add the mushrooms and peas to the shallots, and cook until the mushrooms are softened and slightly browned. Add the hot, well-drained spaetzle and continue cooking, and turning and mixing the contents of the pan gently, until well amalgamated, hot through, and perhaps the spaetzle are slightly browned in spots. Serve at once, sprinkled with a little more of the chopped herbs you used, if you like.

This is a fairly simple chicken-in-a-creamy-sauce-with-mushrooms kind of a dish, but take a look at that spice blend. It's based on one I found in a Polish grocery store (one of the few highlights of having had to drive to Mississauga every N days this winter was the shopping) and I liked it enough to reverse-engineer it. I've been using it a lot, in all kinds of things, and in particular I thought this gave an unusual and delightful flavour to the proceedings here. It goes well with pork and fish, too.

Like the original beef version of Stroganoff, this is quite fast and easy to make but the slightly luxurious ingredients make it, well, slightly luxurious.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time


Make the Spice Blend:
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon coriander seed
4 teaspoons caraway seed
4 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon rubbed thyme OR savory
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo or similar hot chile/paprika

Grind the mustard, coriander, and caraway seeds. Sift them and regrind anything that didn't go through. When all is ground finely, mix with the remaining spices. Keep sealed in a jar in a cool, dark spot until needed. This makes more than you will need, but don't worry. You'll find a use for it.

Prepare the Ingredients:
6 shallots
4 - 6 cloves of garlic
125 grams (1/4 pound) shiitake mushrooms
125 grams (1/4 pound) oyster mushrooms
225 grams (1/2 pound) button mushrooms
500 grams (1 pound) skinless, boneless chicken pieces

Peel and chop the shallots. Peel and mince the garlic. Clean, trim, and cut all the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. 

Cook the Stroganoff:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons soft unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup unsalted chicken stock
1 cup yogurt OR sour cream
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
dill pickles, if desired

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until melted and sizzling. Add the chicken pieces and cook until seared all over; stir a few times. Add the shallots and mix them in well, then follow with the mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes, turning occasionally, until they are softened and slightly browned in spots. Add the garlic and mix in; cook for another minute.

Mix in the flour, 2 tablespoons of the spice blend, salt, and pepper. Cook until there is no white flour left showing. Slowly mix in the chicken stock to make a smooth sauce. Let simmer for a few minutes, until thickened and you are confident that the chicken is cooked. Mix in the yogurt or sour cream, the mustard, and one or two dill pickles finely chopped (if you like) and allow to heat through to steaming hot, but do not allow to simmer or boil. Serve at once, over noodles or steamed rice.




Last year at this time I made Butter-Infused Beans in Tomato Sauce.