Feeling Blah, and the last of Summer Food

I'm feeling really none too well today, so I'll be pretty brief. This corn recipe (method, really) is one that my dad adores when he goes to the fairs in "rural" Ontario or the CNE in the summer. In truth, whenever we go to one of these events, the sweet and slightly smoky aroma of the grilling corn permeates the entire fairgrounds, not just the food stalls. Mind you, at fairs the food is EVERYWHERE (not that it's a bad thing! Though your hips may hate you for it later... but who goes to the fair to diet?)

Dad’s Style BBQ Corn
Serves 6, or 3 if you're like us
6 ears fresh, husk-on corn
½ cup unsalted, very soft butter
1 tbsp BBQ seasoning
1 tsp salt

1. Soak ears of corn 8 minutes in cold water.
2. Preheat BBQ to medium.
3. Dry off corn husks and place on hot grill.
4. Cover and cook 10-12 minutes. Turn every 4 minutes.
5. Combine butter, BBQ seasoning and salt in a bowl.
6. Serve butter with corn.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 213.1
Total Fat: 16.4 g
Cholesterol: 41.4 mg
Sodium: 15.6 mg
Total Carbs: 17.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.4 g
Protein: 3.1 g

Elementary (School), Dear Watson!

Those of you who have grazed though this blog know that I have a close (and some would say sadly ongoing) connection with my old elementary school. True, I have not been a pupil of theirs since 2001, but I have since gone back to visit many many times. I have brought many friends of mine along, and introduced Andrew (my favourite eggchef) to the fray of staff that grace the halls of MLCP. In fact, the woman who took care of most of my early childhood education (and the first person to ever introduce me to the love of writing) Verity, is invited to our wedding!

The author of this recipe, Michelle, was my Home Economics instructor for the six years I attended the school, and though she has since left the institution (and the face of the planet, apparently, since she is nowhere to be found) her recipes and legacy lives on in the hearts and kitchens of her former pupils. If I ever do get the chance to see her again I would happily invite her to my wedding also, provided she brought these granola bars along. These were always a joy to have for "snack time", and sometimes made appearances on the bake sale table as well.

Michelle’s Vegan Granola Bars
Makes 16
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup large-flake oats
¼ cup apple cider
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup whole flax seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds
¼ cup chopped almonds
½ cup chopped, dried fruit (figs and apricots are nice, she used apples and raisins)
½ cup rice syrup or agave nectar

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Turn out and press into a baking pan.
4. Bake 15 minutes and leave to cool completely on sheet before cutting and wrapping.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 140.4
Total Fat: 7.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 54.0 mg
Total Carbs: 17.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.6 g
Protein: 2.7 g

SHF #35: The Beautiful Fig

Well, I saw yesterday over at the wonderful (and wonderfully kind) Canadian Ivonne's site that the new SHF theme was figs! Not only that, but she has just come off a previous hosting gig of La Festa Al Fresco, with half of a beautiful round-up to boot! You go, girl, and I hope you enjoy all that the blogging world has unleashed on you!

Of course, I cannot continue without due mention of the founder of this sweet event, Jennifer of theDomesticGoddess. Her blog is so divine to read and I'm happy to be able to take part in her event!

This theme works well for me, as I am part of a family of fig lovers (noshing in both fresh and dried forms). Unfortunately, I don't often cook with them, since they aren't usually a pantry or fridge staple for us (unless of course the future SF goes to Costco... then we wind up with 40lbs of them (fresh), 20 rock-hard peaches and 5 huge jars of nuts). I can't bash the store too much though, since they have the camera I'm craving to get my hands on and it may be coming for Christmas... hey, a girl can dream, right?

I found some things on this yummy ingredient that I thought were pretty neat, so I wanted to share with you:

• In Chinese the fig is called 'fruit without flower'.
• The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to reproduce (lay eggs). In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps.
• There are tons of varieties available: Adriatic (Fragola, Strawberry Fig, Verdone, White Adriatic), Black Mission (Beers Black, Franciscan, Mission), Blanche (Italian Honey fig, Lattarula, Lemon, White Marseille), Brown Turkey (Aubique Noire, Negro Largo, San Piero), Celeste (Blue Celeste, Honey Fig, Malta, Sugar, Violette), Conadria, Croisic (Cordelia, Gillette, St. John), Desert King (Charlie, King), Excel, Flanders, Judy, Kadota (Dottato, Florentine, White Kadota), Len, Osborn's Prolific (Arachipel, Neveralla), Panachee (Striped Tiger, Tiger), Tena, Genoa (White Genoa), Ventura, Verte (Green Ischia)
• Figs are rich in calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron.
• Figs are the sweetest of all fruits, with a 55% sugar content.
• One serving of figs is 40 grams, about 1/4 cup, or about 3 Calimyrna figs or about 4 to 5 Mission figs.
• Figs are high in fiber, providing 20% of the Daily Value — more dietary fiber per serving than any other common dried or fresh fruit.

Nutrition Facts of the Fig
Serving size 1/4 cup (three figs) (49g) dried, uncooked figs
Calories 130
Fat Cal 5
Total Fat 0.5g 1%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 5mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 33g 11%
Dietary Fiber 6g 24%
Sugars 31g
Protein 2 g
Vitamin A 0%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 8%
Iron 6%

If you're looking for more info, check out The Fig Lady!

So here's the recipe. Italian inspired polenta, with banana for moisture and sweetness, plus raisins in addition with the decadent figs, makes this cake a great change to any dessert table. You can add nuts if you like, hazelnuts or even pine nuts would be good choices.

Vegan Polenta Banana-Fig Cake
Serves 8
1 egg replacer (such as Ener-G), prepared
1 banana, mashed
2/3 cup cane sugar
2 cups soy milk
¼ cup brandy
½ cup yellow cornmeal
pinch salt
½ cup dried Mission figs, diced
1/3 cup Thompson or flame raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease an 8" square pan.
2. Beat egg replacer, banana and sugar in a large bowl.
3. In a saucepan, bring soy milk, brandy, and salt to a brisk simmer, remove from heat.
4. Gradually add soymilk to banana mixture.
5. Return everything to the saucepan, add corn meal and whisk until thickened and beginning to bubble.
6. Add figs and raisins to the batter and pour into the cake pan.
7. Bake 40 minutes.
8. Cool 20 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a plate.

100-Mile Diet? Try 100-Metre Sauces!

There's been a lot of fuss lately about eating locally and the 100-Mile Diet. Personally I know that I wouldn't last a day on that diet, since most tofu, fish, soy products and grains that I can safely eat come from places at least in other provinces, if not other countries!

However, I can't let this phenomenon go past without at least an honest mention of two things I made today that would make even the stingiest locavores happy. Two sauces came out of the pot today- one sweet, one savoury- that were made using nothing but ingredients found no less than 100 METRES from my location. That's right... 100m, the same distance as the sprints in the Olympics! This is due to our well-stocked and (thankfully) bountiful garden, filled with beets, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and a myriad of herbs, and the great soil that appears in Prince Edward County. Though I don't live in the County, my dad owns a trailer there and when I went for a visit Andrew and I picked a bag of crabapples from the tree a few steps away from our door. I felt that it was a nice excuse for me to cook somethin' up, and save the best (and last, sadly) that Summer brought to our table this year.

So, what do you get when I make 100-metre sauces? Crabby County Sauce and Jars of Summer Sauce! Can you tell I love creative names? Andrew will be getting jars of each of these when he comes home on the 22nd, so he can tell me how they rate on his scale. I think they're both pretty darn tasty myself, and the perfect consistencies for my palate. As for the rest of you, keep on cooking, wherever your ingredients come from. What matters most is that you combine them with heart and love, and they will be the most local dishes ever created!

The recipes are all approximations, I don't usually cook with a recipe since the impromptu stuff is so much fun! Here is what I did, at any rate:

This sweet, yet slightly tangy sauce is awesome warm, whether straight from the pot or heated in the microwave. I actually like to mix this with some whole-fruit raspberry jam and warm it for a mid-morning snack.

Crabby County Sauce

20 crabapples, chopped

1 red delicious apple, chopped

1/4 c water

1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot on the stove or use a crockpot.
2. Cook, covered, on low heat 3-4 hours or until saucy consistency.
3. Stir every 1/2 hour to hour or so.
4. Serve warm or jar for later use. Can be frozen successfully.

A note about this next recipe... note the absence of onions or garlic. I would have added them, but I don't grow them in my garden (next year for the garlic!) and I didn't have any on hand. I think it makes the full roasted flavours of the sauce stand out a little more.

Jars of Summer Sauce

2 zucchini, chopped

20 plum tomatoes, chopped

5 beets, chopped

1 hot banana pepper, seeded and cut into strips

3 Shepherd peppers, seeded and cut into strips

1 hot Portugese pepper, seeded and cut into strips

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips

2 cups stewed tomatoes (I used ones that the SF's mama jarred herself)

1/2 cup water (or home-made chicken stock, beef broth or locally made red wine...)

1 large sprig fresh rosemary, leaves stripped

1 large handful fresh basil, torn

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray 3-4 baking sheets with oil.
2. Now, if you're like me, you wander outside and pick a bunch of vegetables to throw into the sauce. Basically anything roastable works!
3. Toss all the vegetables onto the baking sheets, ensuring there is a little space between everything (ie. don't let the veggies overlap).
4. Roast 45 minutes, rotating pans 1/2 way through.
5. Scrape all the roasted vegetables into a large pot, add stewed tomatoes, water and herbs.
6. Turn the heat to medium-low, stir and bring to a simmer.
7. Turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and simmer 2 hours longer, stirring every 1/2 hour or so.
8. Cool to room temperature if not using immediately.
9. Put into jars or tight-lidded containers, store in fridge or freeze for future use.

This sauce smells ridiculously amazing while cooking out, and the roasted vegetables add a smoky carmelized flavour and aroma that you can only get when cooking from fresh. My mom has served this over white fish, and she's added it to her leftover lasagna when she did a leftover night. I tossed it over eggs once. It's really thick and chunky so if you go the pasta route, pick a rigatoni, fusilli or lumache over spaghetti. Enjoy!

WHB: Time Travel with Thyme!

It's the weekend again, and that means another episode of Weekend Herb Blogging, invented by Kalyn's Kitchen!! This round-up is being hosted by Katie from Thyme for Cooking, the Blog, and in honour of her blog's name I've chosen Thyme as my herb!

Thyme is a basic ingredient in French and Italian cuisine and is an herb also widely used in Lebanese and Caribbean meals. It is often used to flavour meats (such as beef, pork roasts, or the lamb chops I present below), soups (such as this one) and stews. It has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with tomatoes and eggs. It adds an intense aroma and wonderful flavour to scrambled eggs made with old cheddar cheese and mushrooms!

Thyme is not just a modern culinary marvel! Ancient uses of this fragrant herb (from Wikipedia) include:

• Ancient Egyptians used thyme in embalming.
• The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing that thyme was a source of courage.
• The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thanks to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms.
• In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares.
• In this period, women would also often give knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer.
• Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.

Here is a simple to make but elegant main dish, which uses both the herb and a honey made from the thyme blossom, a popular variety in Turkey. The mustard and honey form a delicious crust and the red wine leaves the lamb rich, crimson, deeply flavoured and moist. Served with a couscous pilaf and perhaps some broiled eggplant and you too can serve up a Sultan's Feast!

Turkish Honey Lamb
Serves 6
6 1” thick lamb chops
1 ½ cups good red wine
2 tbsp grainy mustard
2 tbsp Kekik Bali (Thyme Blossom Honey) or regular liquid honey
½ tsp dried thyme

1. Marinate lamb chops in red wine overnight.
2. Preheat broiler.
3. Drain and pat chops dry.
4. Combine mustard, honey and thyme.
5. On a broiler tray, lay room-temperature chops and brush exposed bone with a little oil.
6. Lightly spread the honey mixture over exposed side.
7. Broil 5 minutes, turn chops and brush with the honey mixture again.
8. Broil 5 minutes more.
9. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

P.S. My first cookbook review is up, over at my review blog, Reading, Writing and Cooking. Take a look!