Seasonal Ontario Food

Last year at this time I made Green Garlic & Sesame Fried Chicken.

Mix the flour with the baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix in the oil, until the mixture is crumbly and there is no dry flour remaining. Mix the lemon juice into a 1/2 cup of water, then stir them in to form a slightly soft dough - if it does not form a soft dough, add a tablespoon or 2 more of water until it does. Turn it out onto a clean surface and knead for a few strokes until it is quite smooth, but don't over-work it - it is pastry, after all. It should not be sticky. Return it to the bowl, cover, and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. It will firm up a bit as it sits.

It's another stew in July! But it cooks up so quickly and is really delicious. All it needs is some good crusty bread and butter to make it a complete meal.

I call for the peas last in the list of ingredients, because that is when they go into the stew, but do make sure they are shelled and ready beforehand!

I have been lucky to be able to get some really good local ham, processed at a small local butcher. If you can't get that maybe consider some good quality peameal bacon in its place. 

4  servings
30 minutes - 20 minutes prep time


1 kilo (2 pounds) kohlrabi
2 medium onions
1 cup chicken OR ham stock
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon rubbed savory OR thyme
2 bay leaves
500 grams (1 pound) smoked, raw ham steak
1 cup chicken OR ham stock (yes, another)
2 tablespoons chick pea flour
2 cups shelled fresh green peas

Peel the kohlrabi and cut it into bite-sized chunks. Put it in a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot. Peel the onions and cut them into 6 or 8 wedges. Add them to the kohlrabi. Add the first cup of chicken stock, and the seasonings. Consider how salty the ham will be when you add the salt. Cover and bring it all up to a boil, then let it simmer steadily.

Meanwhile, cut out and discard any bone and excess fat from the ham, and cut it into slightly smaller (than the kohlrabi) bite-sized pieces. Add it to the pot of kohlrabi. Simmer until the kohlrabi and ham are both done, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, dissolve the chick pea flour in the second cup of cold chicken stock. Mix well to be sure there are no lumps. There is no reason to add this last, as the chick pea flour needs plenty of time to cook, other than that it is important to get all the lumps out before it goes in. Add it as soon as it is lump-free and mix it in well, then let everything continue cooking until done.

Add the peas about 5 minutes before you are ready to serve the stew and let them simmer until done. If the stew is made in advance and re-heated, it would be best to keep them out until then.




Last year at this time I made Herby Feta, Quinoa, & Snow Pea Salad. 

This olive green colour suggests that this is a fairly old pea, as modern varieties are almost always a brighter, stronger green. Now, just to make life more complicated, when I was searching out the history of Lancashire Lad, about all I could find was references to the fact that the pea in circulation as Lancashire Lad is not, in fact, Lancashire Lad, which should be a green-podded pea. Since I don't believe anyone has found the original Lancashire Lad, this pea continues to circulate under that name, and I guess I will continue to call it that until it has another - I'm not holding my breath.

Other than that, it's a pea, and you can expect it to behave as such. Early planting, support for the long vines, plenty of water and weather under 30°C will suit it best, but I have to say for a pea of fairly unsophisticated breeding, it has held up the hot, dry weather this year quite well. Mind you, we have been watering and picking just about every day. Should you lose track of them, though, field peas were originally soup peas and I suspect the claim that they make good pea soup is quite accurate. Maybe next year we will plant enough to find out.

This is based on a dish I posted way back in the dawn of history, or at least the dawn of this blog. That was Eggs with Tomatoes, Chinese Style.  You'll never guess that I pretty much substituted peas for the tomatoes. I didn't add the sugar though, not just because I'm avoiding it, but also because peas are sweeter than tomatoes and I thought it could do without it. A little pinch could go in, though, to help balance the vinegar.

I think I like the tomato version just a bit better, but this was a really nice way to have our breakfast eggs while trying to use up some of the peas that are flooding into the kitchen at the moment. Because peas lack the acid kick of the tomatoes, it's a good idea to have a heavy hand with the pepper to balance some of the other elements in the dish. Or, next time, I might add a half teaspoon or so of finely grated ginger. Pinch of hot pepper flakes or a little chile-garlic sauce? Maybe.

Meanwhile, a slightly different take on our usual breakfast eggs. Ideally serve it with fresh steamed rice. We had it with leftover quinoa, which was actually just fine.

2 servings
15 minutes prep time


2 cups snap OR snow peas
2 green onions
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon water
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
4 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

Wash and trim the peas. Clean and trim the onions. Mince the onions, keeping the white and green parts separate.

 In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch, (sugar), sesame oil, water and vinegar. Whisk the eggs.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and when hot, add the whites of the onions[ cook for just a minute. Add and cook the eggs, breaking and turning them as for scrambled eggs. Remove them from the pan when they are mostly set, back into the bowl in which they were whisked.

Add the peas and green onions to the pan, with a splash of water. Cook until they change colour to a bright green; stirring and turning them to cook them quickly and evenly - the whole process won't take more than a minute. The water should be mostly gone. Give the starch-vinegar mixture a little stir and mix it into the peas. As soon as it has thickened - seconds should do it - return the eggs to the pan and mix them into the peas, but try not to break them into curds which are too small; you want the eggs a little chunky. Heat through and serve. Best, no doubt, on steamed rice but steamed quinoa isn't half bad either.

I've actually been making these all winter. Last summer, at the exact moment that the peas were ripe and we should have been home shelling and freezing them, one of Mr. Ferdzy's cousins in Toronto was having her Bat Mitzvah, and we went down and spent an entire weekend celebrating. When we got home the state of the peas was fairly dire, and we needed to perform triage. Literally; there was about one third that was still high quality, one third that was starchy but maybe edible, and one third that we didn't even pick, and left to go to seed. Well, at least we have lots of peas for seed now.

I labelled the starchy peas "soup" when we froze them, because that was what I expected to do with them. But then I remembered this recipe for Vegetable Patties and thought they would do well in it. They did indeed, and so that's how we ate them, about once a week all winter. We've gotten quite addicted to them although I think deliberately leaving our peas to go starchy is probably not a good plan. However, it's awfully easy to end up with peas that are just a hair too ripe to be ideal, and this is a great thing to do with them.

I keep being tempted to put the patties in a bun or sandwich, but of course I'm making them in the first place in part because when I want a quick meal, sandwiches and pasta are no longer reasonable choices. But I'm sure they'd be so good that way! I don't see them with ketchup or mustard or pickles, but relish, chutney, mayonnaise, tartar sauce, etc all sound like they would work well with them. Anything you think would go well with peas. Lettuce, certainly, and maybe a slice of tomato.

We just plonk them on a plate, and eat them with a dab of the sauce, and find them very enjoyable. 

2 to 4 servings - 8 patties
30 minutes prep time


Make the Patties:
1 cup chick pea flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mint OR 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1 green onion
2/3 cup water
2 cups blanched fresh shelled peas or thawed frozen peas
2 to 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Measure the chick pea flour into a small bowl and add the seasonings. Wash, trim, and finely chop the green onion and add it. Mix in the water and let the mixture rest for a few minutes while you make the sauce and mash the peas.

Mash the peas rather coarsely and mix them into the batter.

Heat half of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; about the usual temperature for cooking eggs or pancakes. Spoon half the batter into the pan in the form of 4 equal pancakes. Spread them out to about half an inch thick, and cook until set and lightly browned on each side; about 2 or 3 minutes per side. Transfer them to a serving plate, add the remaining oil to the pan, and cook the remaining batter in the same way. Serve at once with the sauce.

Make the Sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise OR thick yogurt
1 clove garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt
finely minced mint OR other herbs to taste

Measure the mayonnaise or yogurt into a small bowl. Peel and mince the garlic and add it, with the salt and a few teaspoons of finely minced herbs, if you like. Serve this with the finished patties.




Last year at this time I made Ham & Snap Pea Pasta Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.

Well yes; just a little rich!

But peas are special, and when they come fresh from the garden they deserve a special treatment that doesn't overwhelm them, and now that I'm cutting way back on the carbohydrates, I am eating more in the way of fat. Butter is good for you, they now say.

You could put this sauce on all kinds of vegetables besides peas; asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, green beans, even cabbage or carrots. Even if you stick to peas, snap and snow peas would work very well in this sauce too. Adjust the herb and stock according to which vegetable you are using, or replace the lemon juice with a good vinegar. Use more or less of the vegetables depending on what you have, how many people you are serving, and how prominent you would like the sauce to be. It's not outstandingly assertive, in spite of all that butter. I suspect this would also work just fine in the winter, with frozen vegetables.

Classic butter sauce is made with no starch, but I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of a cook, and took no chances of it failing to emulsify. This requires fairly precise timing but is otherwise very quick and easy to make. The butter should be cold, not at room temperature or it won't emulsify properly.

2 to 6 servings
15 minutes prep time, not including shelling the peas


3 cups shelled peas (OR use 2 to 4 cups other vegetable)
1/2 teaspoon potato starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon rubbed dry mint (OR other herb)
1/4 cup vegetable OR chicken stock
2 tablespoons 10% cream

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Have the peas shelled and ready to go. Cook the peas (or other vegetable) by steaming or boiling them in the usual way, expecting them to take 2 to 4 minutes. (Other vegerables may take up to 6 minutes.) Because vegetables cook very quickly, you should have all the sauce ingredients standing by ready before you start cooking them.

Put the starch, salt, pepper, herb, stock, and cream into a small bowl and mix. When the peas or other vegetables have about 2 minutes left to cook (which is to say you have just dropped the peas in boiling water, or put them in a steamer a minute or two ago) heat a broad, shallow pan - I used my stainless steel skillet - over medium-high heat. Add the ingredients you mixed in the little bowl and whisk steadily, until the sauce thickens - about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to low and add the butter, whisking it in until melted and amalgamated. Add the lemon juice and whisk it in.

Immediately pour the sauce over the WELL DRAINED peas in their serving dish, or you can add the well drained, did I say? peas to the pan and toss them in the sauce there before transferring it all to a serving dish. Serve at once.

Almost every June, when the peas first start, it seems I make some sort of salad with them, some kind of grain, and plenty of herbs. This year it was bulgur, heavy on the parsley, and I'm sorry I waited so long - it's really good. Quicker than grains that need to be cooked, too. The whole thing is delicious and yet you can somehow feel how healthy it is as you eat it; a very happy combination.

You could add feta or goat cheese to this - it's pretty close to a meal in itself now, and that would take you there - but I served it with some cold sliced ham and that was enough to round it out nicely. 

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time


Prepare the Peas & Bulgur:
1 1/2 cup shelled peas
1 1/2 cup snow OR snap peas
1 1/2 cups bulgur
1/4 teaspoon salt

Shell the peas, and trim the snow or snap peas, also slice them in half if they are large.

Put a pan of water on to boil. Measure the bulgur and salt into a bowl (or leave them in the measuring cup, if it is big enough). Pour boiling water over the bulgur to cover it by at least an inch and leave it to soak for 5 or 10 minutes. Meanwhile, use the remaining water in the pan to cook the peas (all of them) for 2 minutes.

Rinse the peas in cold water until cool, then drain well. Drain the bulgur well then allow to cool as well.

Make the Dressing:
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Measure it all into a small bowl or jam jar and stir or shake to combine.

Finish the Salad:
1 small head leaf lettuce
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup (2) finely chopped green onions
2 to 4 tablespoons dill, mint, or cilantro, finely chopped

Wash, trim, and chop the lettuce (or use the leaves whole under the rest of the salad). Wash, trim, dry, and finely chop the remaining herbs.

Mix the peas, bulgur, herbs, lettuce (if chopped) in a salad bowl and toss with the dressing. Transfer onto a platter of the whole leaves if that is how you are serving it.




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

What I have coming out of the garden right now is lettuce, snow peas and other peas, and herbs. Lots of herbs. Oh, and garlic scapes. They all come together in a vaguely Greek or Turkish flavoured salad which is pretty much a meal in itself. Since the quinoa needs to be cooked in advance and so do the snow peas, it does take a little advance planning, but it's very simple to put together. Leftovers will keep overnight in the fridge in reasonable quality, which is nice because this is a fairly big batch of salad.

I did put in 4 garlic scapes and you could definitely tell. Garlicky! Mr. Ferdzy kept commenting on how garlicky, but he was not complaining. Still, you should adjust your scapes accordingly. I also had a very heavy hand with the black pepper and I think that is a very good plan.

If Mr. Ferdzy would eat them, I would have garnished this with some olives. A few cherry tomatoes for some colour would have been nice, but mine are all still flowers. Radishes would have made an excellent and seasonal contribution, but mine are all over-ripe, if that's the word, and might as well have been carved from wood. This is why I have mostly given up growing radishes and stick to buying the little dears. Only I didn't. If you are better organized, by all means chop up a few and toss them in.

4 to 6 servings
cook the quinoa 2 hours or more in advance
30 minutes prep time to finish the salad



Cook the Quinoa & Snow Peas:
1 cup quinoa
1 2/3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
225 grams (1/2 pound) snow peas

Put the quinoa, water, and salt into a rice cooker. Turn on and cook. Once done, remove the pot from the cooker andl let the quinoa cool completely. This should be done at least an hour and up to 24 hours in advance. Keep it refrigerated once cool, if not using it right away.

Meanwhile just before continuing with making the salad, top and string the snow peas, and steam or blanch them until just tender - 2 minutes to blanch, perhaps a minute or so longer if steaming. Rinse immediately under cold water to stop them cooking any more and drain them well. 

Make the Salad:
2 to 4 garlic scapes
1/4 cup finely minced cilantro
1/4 cup finely minced parsley
2 tablespoons finely minced mint
2 tablespoons finely minced dill
150 grams (5 ounces) feta cheese
the juice of 1/2 large lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
8 to 12 lettuce leaves

Trim and finely mince the garlic scapes. Wash, dry, and mince all the remaining herbs. Put them in a mixing bowl with the crumbled feta cheese. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. Mix well.

Loosen and fluff up the quinoa and stir it in. Gently mix in the cooked and cooled snow peas. Serve the salad over the lettuce leaves, which should be washed and well dried first.





Last year at this time I made - oh, huh - Cheesy Pea & Pasta Salad. Apparently I really like those pea, carb, and dairy salads (and that's a true fact).

I do love a good pasta salad in the summer. Anytime, really, but the next month or so is the time for snap and snow peas. Quick and simple? So much the better.

2 to 4 servings
30 minutes prep time


Make the Dressing:
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)

In a small bowl, mix the honey, mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper. Mix in the mayonnaise.

Make the Salad:
166 grams (10 ounces) stubby pasta
2 cups snap peas (or snow peas)
250 grams (1/2 pound) chopped cooked ham
1 small onion, sweet would be nice
1 stalk celery
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Put a pot of salted water on to boil, and cook the pasta according to instructions, plus one minute. Meanwhile, wash the peas and string them. Drop them into the pasta water to cook for the last 4 or 5 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water until cool, then drain well.

Chop the ham, the onion, the celery, and the parsley. Toss them into the pasta and peas with the dressing. If you like, you can chop the onion before cooking the pasta, sprinkle it with salt, and let it drain while the pasta cooks to make the flavour milder and the onion more digestible.




Last year at this time I made Green Garlic & Pea Bruschetta with Chevre. 

I seem to have missed the opportunity to photograph these peas close up, as I was too busy shelling them and eating them. There they are a little earlier in the season, setting pods like crazy, along with one lone and solitary Sugar Magnolia which seems to have gotten slightly lost. They are over and done long since, of course.

We grew them last year for the first time. I have wanted to try them ever since I read about them on Rebsie Fairholm's blog, so I was quite excited to see them listed by Annapolis Seeds. We planted a nice little patch last spring, and when we picked the first couple of pods to try, Mr. Ferdzy and I looked at each other in amazement and promptly agreed to eat no more - because we wanted to grow them out for seed, so we could grow masses of them this year.

Their history is not much known. They are English, and probably date back to the 19th century; no earlier. They were donated to the Heritage Seed Library who named them, as is their custom, for the furthest grower back to whom they can be traced; in this case a man who was a gravedigger by trade and pea grower by vocation. Rebsie says pretty much all that is known about them. 

We planted them a bit late this year and so they were not particularly early to produce. I think at any rate they are a mid-to-late-season pea, of a middle height. They are extremely bushy and dense, and produce heavily but somewhat slowly - a nice pea for the home gardener, since they should produce for a few weeks. I think ours were cut a bit short by the very hot dry weather this year but they still went longer than most peas. We will want to grow them in our trellised beds, I think, even though they are not the tallest. Their substance does mean they should get good support.

The pods are fat, and full. I don't think most will have more than 6 peas, but the peas are quite large. They are a lighter green than modern peas tend to be but they are so tender and flavourful. The peas tend to be a bit more ovoid than round. They are really quite distinctive and a little different than any of the other peas we have grown.

These are very obscure and rare, and I am so happy that Annapolis seeds was able to get hold of them. I can see already that these are going to be one of our must-grow favourite varieties.