Seasonal Ontario Food

I knew Mr. Ferdzy couldn't bring himself to compost all the extra tomato seedlings that came up and that we would end up with massive quantities of seedlings clamouring for light and water. We went out and bought a shop light and some more full-spectrum fluorescent lights, and he made this makeshift set-up for them. There's also a bunch of seeds that were stuck in the fridge over the winter down there as well. Specifically, we put sour cherry, damson plum, peach and apricot pits and quince seeds in damp soil and stuck them in the fridge last summer. I opened up the cherries last week and discovered that they had all germinated and were beating on the lid to get out! We potted up 6 of them, and planted the other pits and seeds, minus the peaches and apricots which seemed to have vanished utterly. I think I cracked the pits before putting them in the fridge and so will make a note: don't do that next time. On the other hand, the quinces are sprouting after 2 days out of the fridge. I think there's only about 48 of them, lol. I'll have to thin them when Mr. Ferdzy isn't looking.


Here are some of the seedlings on the official seed-starting stand. The onions and leeks are doing fine and most of the peppers and eggplants and pretty much all of the tomatoes have come up and are doing well. This photo is actually out of date as shortly after I took it we potted up a bunch of these tomato seedlings, and started a new flat of brassica seeds.


In addition to all the seed-starting going on inside there are starting to be signs of life outside too. We were amazed to see that the last of the lettuce survived the winter in the cold frame. Unfortunately, it will just get pulled and composted as it has turned tough and bitter. But still, we're impressed.


The spinach we planted in the hopes of overwintering did indeed overwinter very nicely. We're planning to eat it for Easter, or rather the week after when Mr. Ferdzy's family comes up to celebrate it with us.


Mr. Ferdzy's other big project so far this spring was to build a hoop house over one of the vegetable beds. He used the ABS pipe sections we've put in the corners of the beds to support hoops made by bending 10 foot pieces of 1/2" electrical conduit. He ran rope, looped around each piece of conduit, from one long end to the other, and staked it into the ground to hold the whole thing tight. Then he covered it with 6 mil plastic, and weighted it down with various heavy objects to prevent it blowing away. We did this in the hopes of keeping the cauliflower and broccoli plants which survived the winter under the snow. Too bad; the cauliflower took one look around and promptly croaked and I don't expect the broccoli to amount to much. Still, I think we'll use the hoop house to start early spinach and lettuce.


My own project this week was much more modest. I took the Christmas tree that had been tossed out into the 4 feet of snow on our back deck early in January, and cut off all the smaller branches and green bits, and laid them on top of our blueberry bed to mulch them. They like acidic soil, so I hope it will help.

That's about it in the garden for the moment. Most things have too much sense to be up yet, except for a bunch of little crocuses in the front lawn, and some bright red rhubarb buds. Spring is coming though! Soon we'll be out there doing the bed-digging thing again.

I haven't made, or had, apple dumplings in ages. They are one of those things that sounds good in theory but the reality is often too big and too doughy. Still... a good apple dumpling is a real treat. I used the same pastry that I used for Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuity Crust, and wrapped half apples and raisins in it. I also didn't worry about getting the pastry all the way up over the top of the apple, in order to keep the amount of pastry down to a dull roar.

These were not wildly sweet; you could eat one for breakfast as easily as for dessert. I made them without adding any sugar to the dough. If you want them sweeter you could add the sugar, or perhaps serve them with a sweet sauce or custard. I have to say though, I didn't miss the extra sugar. Not every dessert has to fall into the "death-by-chocolate" category.

I used two different kinds of apples for these, and one got quite soft and one stayed quite firm. You should pick a good baking type of apple accordingly. I used Empire (soft) and Red Prince (firm).

6 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time



Make the Dough:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups soft whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Let the butter sit out for a while; it should be quite soft. Blend it with the oil and buttermilk, but don't worry about the butter being lumpy. It will be.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix this into the butter mixture, until it forms a ball of dough. If it does not come together, add a few drops more of buttermilk until it does.

Pat the dough out into a rectangle on a piece of parchment paper, then roll it fairly thin, into a rectangle that is 50% longer than it is wide. Cut it into 6 equal squares.

Make the Dumplings:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 medium-large apples
3 tablespoons raisins

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set it aside. Peel one of the apples and cut it in half. Cut out the core from each half, in a "v" shape, then clean out any core still left in the middle. Poke each piece of apple 5 or 6 times with a fork - this will help them bake through. Dip each piece of apple into the cinnamon sugar, turning to coat them thoroughly.

Place 1/2 tablespoon of the raisins on one of the dough squares, and put the half apple over them, face down. They should fit into the core section. Fold up the dough around the apple, and pinch it so it stays around it, although it won't cover it. Using a thin spatula, lift the dumpling and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining apples and raisins. Sprinkle any leftover cinnamon sugar over the tops of the dumplings.

Bake the dumplings for 35 to 40 minutes, until the pastry is browned and the apples are tender. They may get a little softer as they cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. I don't think they will keep too well, but who would know?




Last year at this time I made Applesauce Spice Cake.

This turned out to be more like a baked soup or stew rather than traditional baked beans, but nothing wrong with that. I made these fairly mild on purpose; I was in the mood for something quite plain. You can certainly up the seasonings if you like. I think a little hot dried chile and fennel seeds would be nice, for example.

My Mom was here for lunch and commented that I've been posting a lot of cabbage dishes lately. What can I say? 'Tis the season. Still. And for a while yet, I'm afraid, although we do have some nice spinach in the garden! This was spinach we planted last year in the fall. Half of it was left in an open bed and half of it was covered by a cold-frame. The spinach in the cold-frame, not too surprisingly, looks much larger and healthier. So we should have a few meals of fresh spinach coming up soon. Not sure I can post them with a clear conscience though; where is anyone else going to get fresh local spinach this early? Beans and cabbage it is then.

6 to 8 servings
1/2 hour prep time - 1 1/2 hours baking time - plus time to cook the beans


Cook the Beans:
500 grams (1 pound) dried white beans

Put the beans in a large pot with water to cover them generously. Bring them to a boil, then turn them off and let them soak for several hours. Repeat 2 or 3 more times, until the beans are fairly tender. Obviously, this needs to be done the day before you finish the dish.

Bake the Beans:
3 cups chopped green cabbage
1 large leek
OR 2 medium onions
1 large carrot
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
3 cups crushed or diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary


Chop the cabbage. Trim the leek or onions, and chop. If using leeks they should be rinsed and drained to remove any grit hiding in them. Peel and chop the carrot fairly finely. Peel and mince the garlic; keep it separate from the other vegetables.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook down the cabbage, onions and carrots, over medium heat since the leeks scorch fairly easily and browned cabbage isn't really a treat. When the vegetables are soft and slightly browned, mix them with the drained beans in a large casserole dish. Stir in the tomatoes and the seasonings. Add some bean cooking water if necessary, to raise the level of the liquid so that it looks like the top layer of beans etc are floating.

Put the beans in the oven and heat to 350°F. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.




Last year at this time I made Aunt Alethea's Cheese Soufflé and Cucumber & Carrot Salad.

I've been yearning for some buns lately, and since that means making them myself usually, I made some myself. Not bad; could have been a little lighter in texture. It's that red fife flour, I guess. You could use more white spelt and less red fife if you liked.

16 buns
30 minutes work time - at least 6 hours rising - 15-20 minutes baking



2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry yeast

3 cups white spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups red fife flour
red fife flour to knead

Heat the milk and butter until the butter melts; set aside to cool slightly. Mix the sugar into the water then sprinkle the yeast over. Let it sit 5 minutes until foamy.

Meanwhile, mix the salt into the spelt flour and red fife flour in a mixing bowl.

Mix the milk and yeast mixtures into the spelt flour. Turn out the dough onto a clean, floured board or counter, and knead it with extra red fife flour as needed to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. It should pull away from your hand or the counter reluctantly, but completely. Knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Put the dough in a clean, oiled bowl, and turn it to coat the dough in the oil. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.

Roll the dough out into a rough rectangle, and cut it into 16 equal squares. Put them on a prepared baking ban (or two) lined with parchment paper. Cover with a clean tea-towel and put in a warm place to rise again until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 375°F, and bake the buns for 16 to 18 minutes, until firm and very lightly browned.




Last year at this time I made Spanish Rice.

I wasn't going to post this; it's just a salad, I thought. But after I found myself making it for the fourth time in two weeks I have to say it's a good salad. Nice and crunchy and juicy. You could dress it up some more with some nuts and dried cranberries if you liked, but it's perfectly good as-is.

2 to 6 servings
20 minutes prep time



Make the Dressing:
1/3 cup hazelnut or sunflower seed oil
1/3 cup cranberry juice
1/3 cup raspberry vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Whisk together in a bowl or shake in a jar. The jar is a better idea, as there will likely be some left over.

Make the Salad:
2 1/2 cups shredded green cabbage
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1 medium carrot
1 1/2 cups sunflower sprouts, chopped finely
1 1/2 cups pea sprouts or other micro-greens, chopped finely
2 medium apples

Shred the two cabbages and put them in your salad bowl. Peel and grate the carrot and add it too. Chop the sprouts and mix them in. Wash the apples, quarter and core them, then chop them up and throw them in. Toss with as much of the dressing as seems good to you.




Last year at this time I made Chocolate-Chip Peanut-Butter Cookies.

... that the red-winged blackbirds are back. It's been funny this year; usually they are not here one day and then the next day they are everywhere. This year I've been hearing one or two calling in the morning for the last 4 or 5 days but there just aren't huge numbers of them all over the place. Are they trickling up slowly, confused by the fact that it's been so cold down in the U.S.? Or did they decide to go to Europe this year? Or is the Big Wave still to come and I am just impatient?

And honestly, I think we've had more warmth in the last week than we had all of last summer. I am left with the feeling that this summer too will be a gardening challenge for completely different reasons than last year.

Compared to the first chick pea and potato curry I made last week this seemed too simple, even crude, and when I first tasted it I wasn't sure it was going to be all that exciting. However, after it rested overnight and was reheated, I was very happy with it. The flavours really combined well. The tomatoes, of course, were the ones we canned last fall - a 1-litre jar.

This is a combination of spices I have been tinkering with for a while now, and I think it is ready to become my "standard curry blend". It's somewhere between mild and medium in heat, but with a rich full flavour. If you want something hotter, you can put in more cayenne; but really I thought this was very nice; bitey, but not so hot that the more fragrant spices were overwhelmed.

You will need about a cup and a half of raw chick peas to get about 4 cups cooked. See the previous recipe for notes on cooking them. If you use canned chick peas, you can use their liquid as the water, but omit the salt from the spice blend, and adjust the salt at the end of the cooking time. You should need considerably less.

6 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time - not including cooking the chick peas


Make the Spice Blend:
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon fennel seed

2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground hot mustard seed
2 teaspoons salt

Grind the first four spices together, then mix in the remaining spices. Set this mixture aside until wanted. (If you make it further ahead than just before starting the curry, it should be stored in an airtight jar in a cool, dark spot.)

Make the Curry:
4 cups cooked, drained chick peas
4 cups crushed or diced tomatoes
2 cups water
4 medium potatoes
1 large onion
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh ginger
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Put the chick peas, tomatoes and water into a large pot. Scrub the potatoes, and cut them into dice, and add them to the pot. Bring to a boil and boil steadily for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Stir regularly.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion, and peel and mince the garlic. Peel and mince the ginger. Heat the oil in a medium skillet and sauté the onion until it is soft and slightly browned. Add the garlic, the ginger and the spice blend, and continue sautéing for another minute or two.

Add the onions etc, to the stew-pot with the rest of the ingredients, and mix in well. Continue cooking as noted above, until the potatoes are tender. I used a little of the water to clean out the skillet, and added it to the curry.

This dish was okay once the potatoes were tender, but it improved considerably by being cooled and refrigerated overnight then reheated; the flavours were much more developed and blended. Even the colour seemed better.




Last year at this time I made Celeriac, Apple & Broccoli Sprout Salad.

Really, these are hot cross buns, without the cross. Good-tempered buns, maybe. I was inspired by recipes found here, although you will note that I was considerably more restrained on the subject of butter, eggs and cream. Or perhaps not really, since I didn't use a pound of flour either, I don't think.

I found I had to add quite a lot of flour as I kneaded this, as it was unbelievably sticky. Mind you, I started out with 4 cups. I have just called for 5 cups to start with in the recipe; hopefully that is a lot closer to what you will actually use.

The cardamom should be 16 to 18 pods. Bruise them thoroughly, then pick out the green papery hulls and discard them, and grind the remaining seeds as fine as you can.

I was really happy with how these turned out. They were delicious fresh out of the oven, and now that a couple of days have passed since I made them I am enjoying them toasted, with butter. Jam seems like gilding the lily, even though there are pots and pots down in the basement that we have just not been eating our way through this winter, although I suspect at least one bun will get some marmalade applied to it before it is dispatched.

If you want hot cross buns, the traditional way of marking them is to mix up a little white flour and water, and pipe it onto the buns after the glaze has been put on them. Modern cooks often use a white icing to apply the cross. Seems excessively sticky to me, but undoubtedly much easier.

24 buns
30 minutes work time - up to 6 hours rising time - 15 minutes to bake


Start the Yeast Working:
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry yeast

Put the milk and teaspoon of sugar in a small pot and heat it until it starts to steam. Test it with your finger; it should feel warm but not hot to the touch. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and leave it to foam for 5 to 10 minutes.

Make the Dough:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 extra-large eggs

5 cups white spelt flour
1 teaspoon cardamom pods, ground and sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar or Sucanat (I used half and half)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup candied peel
2 tablespoon minced preserved ginger
the grated zest of 1 orange OR 1 lemon
more flour to knead

While the yeast gets started, beat the eggs into the softened butter in a small bowl. Measure the flour into a larger mixing bowl, and stir in all the remaining ingredients. Wash your hands well in preparation for kneading the dough.

Once the yeast mixture is high and foamy, mix it, with the egg and butter blend, into the flour. Once it becomes hard to stir with a spoon, turn it out onto a lightly floured board or counter. Begin kneading the bread, sprinkling it with more flour if it sticks to your hands or the board. Once the dough is slightly sticky - that is, it pulls away from your hands or the board a little reluctantly, but cleanly - stop working in any more flour, and knead the bread for a further 5 minutes or so. Total kneading time should be about 10 minutes.

Put the dough into a clean bowl into which a dab of oil has been poured, and turn it so it is lightly coated all over in the oil. Cover it with a clean cloth and put it in a warm spot to rest until the dough is doubled in size.

Line a large cookie sheet or other baking pan with parchment paper, and turn the dough out onto the paper. Cut it into 24 equal pieces. (I cut it into eighths, then cut each eighth into thirds.) Roll the pieces into round balls, and space them on the tray. Cover the tray with the cloth and let them rest in a warm place until doubled in size again.

Glaze and Bake the Buns:
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Heat the milk and sugar just enough for the sugar to dissolve. Brush this glaze over the top of the buns, discarding any excess.

Bake the buns for about 15 minutes, until nicely browned. Let cool 10 minutes, then remove from the tray to finish cooling.





Last year at this time I made Shepherd's Pie.

Dear Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur;

I have been following the situation in Ontario regarding the Special Diet Allowance for people on various forms of social assistance in this province with interest for some time now.

According to this article in the Star,the province is considering doing away with the Special Diet Allowance and replacing it with a general increase of 3 or 4 percent.

I have a much better idea: give the Special Diet Allowance to everyone on social assistance.

Current levels of social assistance are absurdly low.

I'm retired now, but when I was a landlord I saw a lot of people on social assistance, and got an unusually intimate look into how they were coping in their day-to-day lives. When I first started out, someone on social assistance could keep a roof over their head and eat. There wasn't any extra money, but it covered the basics. That was over 15 years ago. By the time I retired about a year ago, it was clear that the social assistance was no longer sufficient to do the job. And this was in a city with very affordable rents by provincial standards (Cambridge).

"No longer sufficient to do the job." By this I mean that people had to start trying to double up in apartments not meant to be doubled up in, with people they didn't have anything in common with but poverty. You can imagine how well this works. By this I mean the quality of people's possessions dropped as constant moving without any money to move with obliged them to leave things behind for me to discard. It was heartbreaking to throw away people's photos and other life mementos. By this I mean that people's health, and that of their children, suffered as they cracked under the stress of having no money.

I've been a business person for much of my life. I have nothing against the argument that we should provide people with an adequate amount of money to live when we give them social assistance because it is the decent thing to do. Indeed, I don't want to live in a society where people think doing the decent thing isn't necessary.

But I also see that failing to provide the necessities of life to people on social assistance is very expensive in the long run, and even in the medium to short run. Sure, you will save millions by giving out less social assistance money. But you will pay billions more in increased health costs, in increased education costs, in increased policing and justice system costs, in decreased productivity as people fail to thrive sufficiently to return to employment in an effective manner.

Please don't waste my tax money. Please give social assistance recipients the money they need to live healthy, dignified lives, and to return to fully productive lives if and when that's possible. Please provide the money now available only as a Special Diet Allowance to everyone on social assistance in Ontario.


Yours Truly,


Ferdzy


Please contact Madeleine Meilleur to express your views on this topic.

Mom just came back from her winter in Florida, bearing a few leftover tortillas. We were very pleased to see them (and her too, natch). For some reason it is ridiculously hard to get decent tortillas around here. There are a few local makers, but most tortillas* will be shipped up from the U.S. and even those are hard to find. Try the freezer of a Latin American grocery store - the "fresh" ones will be so full of preservatives as to taste positively disgusting. It's almost easier to buy the masa flour, and make your own. Just follow the directions on the package.

Anyway, it also happened that I had just bought some perch, so perch tacos seemed the obvious outcome. Fish tacos are a pretty traditional dish in Baja Mexico, but their fame has been spreading abroad in recent years, with complete justification. We only had cabbage, but I admit I would like a little avocado with this.

8 tacos
30 minutes prep time



Make the Sauce:
3 tablespoons mayonnaise (light is fine)
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/8 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice

Mix together the above in a small bowl and refrigerate until wanted.

Prepare the Fillings:
1 1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage OR lettuce
1/4 cup finely chopped radishes (optional)
1 green onion, finely chopped (optional)
1 cup prepared salsa, red or green
1 small avocado, peeled and sliced (optional)

The salsa and cabbage are all that you must have and in fact were all I had to put on mine. The other ingredients make good additions, although maybe not all of them at once. You can have them prepared next to your taco assembly station, or you can put them out on the table and allow people to fill their own tacos.

Cook the Fish & Assemble Tacos:
600 grams perch fillets or other white fish fillets
fine corn (arepa) meal or flour, about half a cup
salt
ground chile (yes, I used the neverending Korean stuff)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed, ground
1 medium egg (optional)
2-3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
8 corn tortillas

Skin the perch, and discard the skin. It is rather tough, so once you pry it up at the thin (tail) end of the fillet it should pull off fairly easily. Don't worry if the fillets break up a bit, because once skinned they should be cut into 16 relatively equal portions.

Salt the fish fillets, and season them with the chile and cumin. Roll the pieces in the meal. If you like, they can then be tossed with the beaten egg until coated, and rolled in meal again, which will give them a thicker, crunchier coating, but one layer will do if you prefer.

Heat most of the oil in a medium skillet, and just a dab of it in your largest skillet, both over medium-high heat. Cook the fish in the smaller skillet, until lightly browned and firm on both sides. Meanwhile, heat the tortillas in the larger skillet, getting in as many at once at you can, and turning them once they are hot and lightly browned in spots. Remove the tortillas to a plate as they heat, folding them in half as you go. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Once the fish is cooked and the tortillas heated, put 2 pieces of fish in each tortilla, and add a scant tablespoon of the sauce, along with a whatever quantity of the other fillings seems appropriate. Eat at once. A bib is helpful, and pass lots of serviettes.




* I'm refering to corn tortillas here, of course. Wheat tortillas have their place but they aren't, you know, "tortillas".



Last year at this time I made Celeriac & Beet Salad.

These are good moist and chocolatey muffins, but not too loaded with fat and sugar. Still, you could ice them and call them cupcakes and no-one would say they weren't. I figure they check in at about 200 calories each, un-iced. Since I'm trying not to eat them all at once, I am about to find out how well they freeze. Should be alright, I think.

12 muffins
40 minutes - 15 minutes prep time


2 cups mashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cup soft whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin pans with papers, or butter them.

Mash the bananas and mix in the sugar. Beat in the remaining wet ingredients one at a time; the eggs, the buttermilk, the oil and the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well blended, but do not overmix. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until firm (done). Cool in the tray for about 10 minutes, then remove them to finish cooling.





Last year at this time I made Pasta with Bacon, Shallots, Shiitakes & Cabbage.

This is Chick Pea & Potato Curry #1 because I went to a pot-luck on Sunday, and started cooking chick peas Friday night in massive quantities, with the idea that they would go too. They, however, had other plans and by late Saturday night were still distinctly firm. So, on our return I had a very large pot of chick peas awaiting my decorator touch, as the real estate agents say. Once this version is gone I will try another one with tomatoes instead of coconut milk with the other half of the chick peas. After all, there's no such thing as too much curry.

4 to 6 servings
45 minutes prep time, not counting cooking the chick peas


Cook the Chick Peas:
1 1/2 cups dry chick peas

rinsed and picked over, with water to cover them generously, in a large pot. Bring them to a boil, then let them soak for an hour or two with the lid on. Bring them to a boil several times more, followed by soaking. Once they begin to soften, bring them to a boil then reduce the heat, and simmer them until tender. Expect this process to take at least a full day, maybe most of two days.

Make the Curry:
1 medium onion
3 tablespoons finely minced ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 to 3 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 or 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
water
500 ml coconut milk
4 large potatoes
2 tablespoons Sucanat or dark brown sugar

Peel and chop the onion, and peel and mince the garlic. Keep the garlic separate for the moment, but the other ingredients, up to and including the vegetable oil, can be put in a very large skillet or large soup pot. The cumin seeds should be lightly crushed.

Heat the oil and seasonings and fry, stirring regularly, until they all show signs of browning. Add the garlic and mix in well, and cook for a minute or two more.

Meanwhile, clean and cut the potatoes into dice.

When the seasonings are browned - do not let them scorch - mix in the coconut milk and enough water to come up to the top of the potatoes, which should be added as well once the mixture is sufficiently liquid to hold them. Add the drained, cooked chick peas (there should be about 4 cups of them) and the Sucanat, and simmer the mixture for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently.

Serve over rice. Reheats well, although you may need to add more liquid, either water or a bit more coconut milk.





Last year at this time I made Indian Style Cabbage and Indian Style Rutabaga. Perhaps there's something about this time of year...