Seasonal Ontario Food

I suppose I should confess right off the bat that I am not the greatest maker of pies. Firstly, not eating wheat makes crust-making tricky, and secondly I only make them once or twice a year at most. That lack of practice shows. Still, if approached in a calm, relaxed manner pie-making is quite do-able. Mine always taste just fine, but they can be funny looking.

I took a picture of the raw pie, because I figured that might be as good as it ever looked. I like a well-filled pie but it must be said I did come awfully close to overdoing it. The crust barely fit. I used 9 1/2 apples; it was going to be 9 but one of them proved to be a haven for worms, so I added another. Seven of them were very small (one was not an apple at all but my last little quince) but the 2 that were large were really very large. Those were Mutsu. I also used the Golden Russets and Red Gravensteins.

It looked lovely baked, and overflowed just a tiny, tiny bit. As soon as it was lukewarm the vultures gathered, and the destruction of all my labour began.

1 recipe double crust pastry

6 to 9 apples, depending on size
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 cup Sucanat or sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons apple butter

Prepare the dough first, and set aside according to instructions.

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Peel the apples, core them, and slice them fairly thinly. Mix them with the flour, Sucanat, and spices.

Roll out the bottom pie crust (you will need about 60% of the dough) on parchement paper, using a little extra flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. Invert your dish over the dough, and flip it over with the paper. Peel off the paper, and patch and neaten the pie crust as required.

Put the apple butter in the pie crust and spread it as evenly as possible over the bottom. Add the apples and press them in as tight as you can. Keep them off the edge. Roll out the remaing dough on the parchment paper, and flip it carefully over the pie. Peel off the paper, and press it firmly around the edges, trimming off any extra if necessary. Cut a steam hole in the top if you like, but at any rate pierce it in a number of places with a fork or knife to let the steam out. Chill the pie for 15 to 20 minutes before baking.

Put the pie on a cookie sheet - this will catch any leaks; and they generally do leak. Bake it at 450°F for 15 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 350°F and continue baking for another 45 minutes. Let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be kept out for a day or two (if it lasts that long) or you can put it in the fridge, well wrapped, but it is better not.

This is a very sandy-textured, tender pie crust, but it doesn't hold together wonderfully well, since there is no wheat. However, it works well enough! You can certainly do this with soft (pastry) whole wheat or unbleached flour, or a combination of the two. However, note that you will need rather less water before the dough starts to stick together. Perhaps around 5 tablespoons will do it.

I list different formulas depending on the amount of crust you need:

To Line a 9" x 9" pan:
1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons neutrally flavoured vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter, or perhaps a little more
1/4 cup ice-cold water
To Make a Single Crust, for a 9" Pie Plate:
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons neutrally flavoured vegetable oil
5 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons ice-cold water
To Make a Double Crust, for a 9" Pie Plate:
2 1/4 cups brown rice flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup neutrally flavoured vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter
7 or 8 tablespoons ice-cold water

Put some water in a bowl with a few ice cubes; set aside until needed.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse. Add the oil, and pulse again.

Cut up the butter into teaspoon sized pieces, more or less, and sprinkle them around over the flour. Pulse until mostly chopped into the flour. Drizzle about 1/3 of the ice-water required for your particular formula over the flour. Pulse to mix in. Repeat with another third of the water needed. Finally, add the last third and pulse in, adjusting the amount if necessary. You want a crumbly mix that just barely starts to look like it will hold together. Squeeze a little gently together to test; if it holds, you are done.

Turn the dough out into a bowl, and gently squeeze it together to form a ball. Cover with waxed paper and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes to an hour, until you are ready to proceed.

Chill the rolled-out pie-crust thoroughly before baking, according to the recipe, or at 425°F for 10 minutes, until light brown.

Yes, yes... more bean salad. Nothing wrong with that.

4 servings
15 minutes prep time

Salad:
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 540-ml (19 ounce) tin white pea (navy) peans
1 medium carrot
1 cup finely chopped parsley

Put the tomatoes in a small pot withe the water and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let them soak while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Rinse and drain the tin of beans, and mix them with the carrot, peeled and grated, and the chopped parsley.

Remove the tomatoes from their soaking liquid (do not discard it) and chop them, and add them to the salad.

Dressing:
sundried tomato soaking liquid
the juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper

Whisk these together - I do it right in the pot that the tomatoes were soaked in - then toss the dressing into the salad. Watch the salt; even rinsed, canned beans can be on the salty side.

Here's a quick and easy way to cook sweet potatoes. These are not really all that French-fry like; they don't get nearly so crisp. However, they are very tasty.

2 servings
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

2 or 3 medium sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Wash the sweet potatoes, and trim off any bruised spots. Cut them into slices about 1 centimetre thick, or even slightly less. Cut each slice into further slices, lengthwise, about the same thickness to form the fries.

Put the oil in a shallow roasting pan. Toss the fries gently in it, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the fries for 15 minutes. Turn the fries over, and roast for another 15 minutes.

Serve very promptly; because of their small size they will cool off fast.

Here's the other brownie in my repertoire. These are a fairly middle-of-the-road brownie; not as extravagantly rich and decadent as some, not particularly pared-down and healthy. I think they are just perfect, personally. They should not be cake-like, but fairly solid and moist. Don't overbake them.

24 to 32 brownies
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup oat or barley flour
OR 1 1/2 cups soft whole wheat (pastry) flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 extra-large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
2/3 cup milk (or soy or rice milk)

Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Sift together the flours, cocoa, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Beat the vegetable oil with the egg. Beat in the vanilla brown rice syrup. Mix in the milk.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until well mixed. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 to 27 minutes. Let partially cool in the pan, then lift out to finish cooling. When cutting, keep washing the knife every few strokes to prevent it from becoming sticky and tearing the brownies instead of cutting them.

There are only two brownie recipes that I am inclined to make. This is one of them.

Peanut butter is really the only locally grown nut butter you are likely to find, but peanut butter is yet another on that tedious list of foods that give me indigestion. This particular batch was made with cashew butter, and while I prefer the almonds or hazelnuts, it was very tasty. I'd do it again, for sure.

24 to 32 brownies
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup oat or barley flour
OR 1 1/3 cups soft whole wheat (ww pastry) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup light vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups pure nut butter (peanut, hazelnut, almond or cashew)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons brown rice syrup

Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Cream the nut butter thoroughly with the vegetable oil, working out as many lumps as you can. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the rice syrup.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, until well mixed. This will make a fairly thick batter, more like a dough. Spread it evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 to 27 minutes. Let partially cool in the pan, then lift out to finish cooling. When cutting, keep washing the knife every few strokes to prevent it from becoming sticky and tearing the brownies instead of cutting them, although there will be less trouble with these brownies than with the cocoa brownies.

I looked at quite a few recipes for my quinces, and found a number that started out by covering the quinces with water and boiling them. Then one was to discard the pulp and keep the liquid or, conversely, discard the liquid and keep the pulp. The sensible thing, it seemed to me, was to keep both. Hence, this is a recipe to make both jelly and jam , also known as "paste", "cheese" or "membrillo", if you are Spanish.

The Spanish serve this with Manchego cheese. Being a Canuck, I plan to try it with some nice old Cheddar, or a good sheep's milk cheese if I can find one that seems right.

8 250-ml jars paste
3 250-ml jars jelly
Rather a long time. 3 or 4 hours I would think.

1.8 kilos (4 pounds) quinces
4 litres (4 quarts, plus) water
sugar - more or less 7 cups

The quinces should be just ripe; slightly greenish to yellow and rather hard. Wash them and cut them into small pieces, peels, cores and all. (Do feel free to discard any obviously bad bits.) Put them in your kettle with water to cover generously - about 4 litres.

Bring to a boil, and boil until they are very tender and falling apart, about 45 minutes. Let cool enough to handle. Lift the quince pieces out of the kettle with a slotted spoon, and put them through a food mill. Discard the seeds and stringy bits that won't go through. Strain the remaining liquid through a jelly bag.* They always say not to squeeze the bag or you won't get clear jelly, but I always squeeze like heck. It isn't as pretty, but it doesn't affect the flavour and you get more; in this case I would say much more, but that may just have been my particular jelly bag.

At this point, you can store the substances obtained in the fridge and continue the next day if you like.

Put the number of canning jars you think you will need for the jelly into a canner, and cover with water to 1" above the rims. Bring to a boil and boil ten minutes. It's a good guess that you will need one 250-ml jar for each cup of juice you have.

Meanwhile, measure the strained juice, and put it in a heavy-bottomed pot with 2/3 the amount of sugar. So for example if you get 4 cups juice, you should add 2 2/3 cups sugar. Bring to a boil and boil, stirring occasionally, until it tests as ready to gel. You can put a little on a very cold saucer (put in the freezer in advance) and see if it wrinkles up when you push it, or you can run it off the spoon until it forms a sheet, or at least runs off in more than 2 streams. I found this very quick; quinces are packed with pectin and my jelly was done in about 10 minutes. (I also didn't have a lot of liquid, so that helped speed up the process.)

Ladle the jelly into the sterilized jars and seal with lids and rims that have been prepared by boiling them for 5 minutes. Pop the finished jellies back into the boiling water bath for 5 minutes to ensure a good seal.

When they come out of the canner, put in the number of 250-ml jars you think you will need for the paste. Again, one 250-ml jar for each cup of purée. Measure the puréed quinces, and put the purée in a larger heavy-bottomed pot (ideally a canning kettle) again with 2/3 cup of sugar for each cup of purée. Bring to a boil and boil, STIRRING CONSTANTLY, until thick; again, 10 or perhaps 15 minutes will likely do it.

It was recommended that the cook should wrap their arm in a towel, and I took that as good advice; I would add, pin it in place with a safety pin. The stuff gets very thick, and plops and spits like a boiling lava pit. Nothing like clinging, boiling sugary fruit pulp to give you burns that will leave scars for years, so use caution. At the same time, this is why you must stir constantly: it is so thick that it will scorch in seconds if left unstirred.

When it is thick enough put it in your sterilized jars. Run a knife through it to remove as many air pockets as you can. Seal with boiled lids, and put back in the canner for 5 minutes, as with the jelly.

My jelly turned out very well, I thought. The paste is a bit coarse in texture, which doesn't bother me particularly. If it did, I might peel and core the quinces instead of just chopping them, and wrap the cores and peels in cheesecloth to be boiled along with the rest of the fruit then discarded. The strained quinces could then be put through the food processor for a smoother texture. I doubt I'll bother though; I don't find the rustic texture I achieved unappealing.




*A clean old pillowcase will do very well, or 4 layers of cheesecloth in a strainer.

Quinces have been very hard to find in Ontario until recently. (Let's face it; they still are.) However, with the surge in demand for a wider range of fruits and their varieties, a few farmers are starting to grow them. My quinces in the picture above are somewhat runty; they were the last that the farmer had of his first commercial crop, and so they are somewhat small and on the green side. Also, some of them were inclined to split; the result of drought this summer. As it turns out, these hard and slightly under-ripe quinces are perfect for jelly and quince cheese. Quinces should never be soft; that is a sign of over-ripeness.

However neglected they have been in Ontario, quinces are an ancient cultivated fruit, with roots back to the highlands beyond the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, from whence they spread; east, west, north and south although they have been particularly cherished around the Mediterranean. The golden apples that show up in many fairy tales and legends are almost certainly quinces. They are a relative of apples and pears, and have a sweet elusive pear-like fragrance that will fill a room. The trees are lovely and elegant in bloom, with pink blossoms sparser but larger than those of apples.

The fruits are also charming, in a wabi-sabi kind of way, being green to yellowish, with a knobby uneven shape and slightly fuzzy skin that catches the light beautifully. (The fuzz is a sign of immaturity; when the fruits are fully ripe most of it will be gone. At any rate, it is easily washed away.) There may be a tuft of tiny leaves at the blossom end.

So why are they so neglected here in Ontario? Well, they are simply inedible raw. The flesh is dry, sour and astringent. It is not until they are cooked (and usually sweetened) that their flavour develops and their fine qualities become apparent. In England they are traditionally used for pastries, preserves and jelly. They are used this way in Mediterranean and middle-eastern countries as well, but they are also cooked with meats (generally lamb, but sometimes chicken.)

I hope that in future quinces become more widely available here. They deserve to be much better known, and they have many possibilities for delicious eating.

Somehow the colour in the photo doesn't look quite right; but this is a really delicious - and attractive - Soup.


6 to 8 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time




500 grams (1 generous pound) sweet potatoes
250 grams (1/2 pound) carrots
1 cup chicken stock

3 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons butter
sea salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons good sweet sherry

1/2 cup light cream

Wash the sweet potatoes, and stab them several times each with a fork. Bake them at 350°F until tender; generally 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Peel and cut the carrots into chunks. Cook them in the cup of broth until tender. Reserve the broth.

Cook the finely minced basil and the carrots very gently in the butter, until the butter is mostly absorbed; about 10 to 15 minutes.

Purée the carrots and basil with the stock from cooking the carrots, and put the purée in a soup pot.

When the sweet potatoes are done, let them cool sufficiently to handle. Peel them, and purée them with the remaining chicken stock. Add them to the carrots. Season with salt to taste (it will depend on the saltiness of your chicken stock) and with the ginger. Add the sherry and cream, and reheat gently until just below the simmer. Do not let the soup come to a boil.

Unlike most soups, I think this is best the day it is made, although it can be kept in the fridge overnight and re-heated the next day.

Russet apples are a subset of apples, rather than one particular variety - Wikipedia lists 14 different varieties, and there are surely many more. However, I have never seen them sold as anything other than generic russets. The Canadian Apple site lists only Golden Russets for Ontario, so that may very well be what I have been getting. Golden Russets are a variety dating from the mid 1800's in New York State. The tree is hardy and disease-resistant.

They are a medium to small apple, with the typical rough brown patches on the skins which give them their name. Individual apples vary from having little russeting to being completely covered in it. The apples have a fine sweet-sour tangyness, and are good for eating, cooking, cider and drying. In particular, the (presumably hard) cider made from this apple is frequently compared to champagne, which I am inclined to take as hyperbole. We particularly like this apple for munching.

In spite of the rough look of the skin, it is not particularly thick or tough. They can be stored for a little while, but are not one of the better apples for storing, and can be expected to disappear from the markets after Christmas.

Everybody's favourite comfort food. I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't love it. I think it's best baked in a glass dish; that way it gets brown and crispy all over. The mint is a surprising subtle but interesting addition.

See also Presto Pasta Nights at Once Upon a Feast for more delicious pasta.

6 to 8 servings
1 1/4 hours - 30 minutes prep time



To Make the Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried mint
2 cups milk

500 to 600 grams (1 pound to 1 1/4 pounds) extra-old cheddar

Cut the cheese into smallish dice and set aside.

Melt the butter, flour and mustard together in a saucpan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until well amalgamated and inclined to stick to the pot. Add the mint. Slowly stir in the milk, pausing to ensure the mixture is lump-free before adding more. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens.

Add the cheese, and stir, over low heat, until the cheese melts. The sauce can be made a day or so ahead, and kept in the fridge until wanted.

To Assemble:
450 grams (1 pound) macaroni
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Just before starting the sauce, put on a large pot of salted water to boil. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Boil the pasta until about three-quarters done. Drain and set aside until the sauce is ready. When the sauce is ready, mix in the pasta then put it in a 2 1/2 quart (litre) glass casserole dish, and sprinkle with the Parmesan, if using.

Bake at 350°F until golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Here's another option for those unloved broccoli stems.

4 servings
30 minutes prep time


the stems from 2 or 3 heads of broccoli (1 bunch)
1 large carrot
2 or 3 green cabbage leaves
1 red cabbage leaf

1 recipe Buttermilk & Herb Salad Dressing

Peel the broccoli stems and the carrot, and grate them both. Discard any tough stringy bits from the broccoli. Wash and shred the cabbage leaves.

Toss the veggies with the salad dressing. Let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, if you have just made the dressing and it hasn't had a chance yet.