Greening Up

Some days, you just need something quick and dirty to feed yourself in between the demands of home, garden, work and family. On those days, nothing beats a light and simple stir-fry. Especially when the Summer months come, bringing days of camp sessions, late night drives to the cottage and times where it's too darn hot to even turn on the BBQ, you can't go wrong with a single pan, lots of fresh veggies and about 20 minutes to make the magic happen.

Such magic is infinitely variable, so of course this recipe and it's ingredients are not etched in stone! It was a good blend of ingredients, mind you - and I got to use my new julienne peeler! I'm going to axe the snowpeas next time though, possibly in favour of some shredded beets - I'm not as fond of them today as I used to be.

Super Spring Stir Fry
Pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, julienned
4 oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 oz snowpeas, halved
6 oz parboiled cauliflower florets
1/2 medium zucchini, julienned
3 oz beansprouts
8 oz baby bok choy, halved

1. Heat a non-stick saute pan over medium-high.
2. Combine pepper flakes, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar in a small dish, set aside.
3. Add a splash of water and the onions. Cook, stirring, until the onions begin to colour - about 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic, carrot, and mushrooms, along with a bit of extra water if needed. Cook a further 3-4 minutes, stirring well.
5. Toss in snowpeas, cauliflower, zucchini, beansprouts and bok choy.
6. Cook, stirring, until bok choy is crisp-tender, 3-5 minutes, then pour the soy sauce mixture over the whole works.
7. Toss well and serve immediately.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 231.0
Total Fat: 2.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 700.4 mg
Total Carbs: 49.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 15.0 g
Protein: 14.6 g

Of course, if your early Summer nights are more like ours up here and are more suited to jackets and jeans than jugs of iced tea, firing up the oven and roasting some seasonal greenery isn't totally out of the question! Anyone hitting the markets in the northeastern part of the USA, or anywhere from southern Ontario eastward, will probably have seen these funky little spiral veggies in the produce bins - for about three weeks each Spring. What are they? Well, because the people that name vegetables apparently were lacking in inspiration when they discovered these immature ferns, they're called fiddleheads, due to their resemblance to a certain string instrument's top. Apparently (at least according to Wikipedia) these tops of the ostrich fern are also available in Oceana (coastal Asia, New Zealand and Australia).

These are supposed to be fully cooked in order to neutralize the "mystery toxin" that was linked to some food poisoning episodes in Canada, and the most common method is boiling the heck out of them. I have somewhat of an abhorrence to boiled vegetables of any kind (I don't think I've boiled a veg in my entire life, after being raised on Grandma's broccoli and carrots), so I was eager to find another way. Any other way. Well, what could thoroughly cook a vegetable more so than popping it into a blazing hot oven for 20 minutes and serving it with lashings of Sriracha? If the heat doesn't kill everything on it, the hot sauce sure will.

There's even less of a recipe for these babies than there was for the stir fry. Essentially, you clean off all the papery brown ends, dirt and slimy bits, dry them well, and place one layer of fiddleheads onto a non-stick spray coated sheet pan (or two, or three if you have lots... I had about 5 oz of them and it took up one large cookie sheet - and that was pushing it). Put the pans into a preheated 400-425F oven (it doesn't have to be exact, I was roasting potatoes between those two temps so I piggybacked) and cook them for 20-25 minutes, stirring the greens halfway through. In the end you'll have delicious, asparagussy tasting tender fiddleheads with the tiniest bit of charred goodness and no hint of anything that will make you sick!

In case you were wondering, 1/2 cup (3.5oz) of these seasonal beauties have only 34 calories, .4g fat, 2g fibre, 4.6g of protein and 72% of your RDA for Vitamin A! They're gone from the markets now, the parent plants having matured into their equally pretty (but inedible) Ostrich Fern counterparts. Ah well, only 11 more months until the next harvest!

Fridays and Fruitcake

Whew. It's the end of the week! Even though most of the lucky readers across the border had a short one, it still feels nice for it to be Friday, doesn't it? For us, today was anything but a nice, relaxing end to the week - my sister had her prom to prepare for! All I can say is that it can't be true! My little sister simply cannot be growing up this fast - I still have photos of the two of us (at 3 and 6, respectively) all dressed up in our Hallowe'en garb before putting on winter coats (it was snowing, after all!) and trolling our street for candy! Now she's a big girl of 18, fancied up to the nines in the only dress I've seen her in since my mom's wedding (and complaining the whole way). It's a bittersweet experience, knowing that soon she'll be graduating and moving off to university, getting to do the whole postsecondary thing while I'm still here at community college! My comfort is that I'll still be graduating from before she does, since my program is a paltry 2 years long!

Being home does have a lot of upsides to it, though. For one, I have a full sized kitchen at my disposal most of the time, and enough cupboard space to store all the random ingredients I come across! I also get free-range access to the leftover pieces of fruit and bags of nuts my family decides are "too leftover" for their tastes. Whether it's overripe bananas, slightly bruised apples, or in the case of the nuts, part of a handful or so, all the food is still perfectly good, and perfect for baking! Fruit breads and muffins are prime for throwing the bits into... how else would we get deliciously moist banana bread or applesauce muffins? I know many a zucchini loaf that wouldn't have been made if the star ingredient was tossed rather than shredded too! These days, with the economy in the hole such as it is, it's more than worth it to turn leftover ends of things into fresh, delicious food!

I came across this recipe (well, a version of it) at the blog
Kate in the Kitchen around the same time I found yesterday's inspiration. Kate had found the recipe on AllRecipes - though when I looked for it later I couldn't find it for the life of me - and her pictures of the finished loaf sucked me right in. I knew I had to make that bread. A peek into the baking pantry determined that the bread could be made, but a modified version of it. A banana again butted out the egg, and canola oil stepped in for Ms. Butter. Spelt flour, spices and two different nuts instead of one snuck their way into the mix too. The dates stayed put - those weren't going anywhere anytime soon! I've also listed the paltry amount of sugar as optional - I didn't find I needed it in the end because my dates were sweet enough on their own, but if you have a sweet tooth (or sour dates!) you may want to add it. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup, though!

I later decided making all the changes was a good move - especially since within 3 days of being sent into my mom's office I had orders for two more!

How fitting that this bread should come around right at the time when Fun and Food is hosting Sugar High Fridays - an event originally created by fellow Canadian Jennifer over at Domestic Goddess. I'm sending it in to join the party... you can come too if you like, the deadline is June 25!

Most & Fruity Nut Bread

Serves 12

13 1/2 oz pitted, chopped dates
1 2/3 cups boiling water
1 medium banana, mashed
2 tbsp low-fat milk
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp packed brown sugar (optional)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup spelt (or whole wheat) flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup toasted, slivered almonds
1/4 cup toasted whole hazelnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dates and water. Let stand 15-20 minutes.
3. Mix in the banana, milk, oil, vanilla and sugar (if using) until well blended (I found it best to use a potato masher).
4. Combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, spice and salt.
5. Stir into the wet mixture until just blended, then mix in the nuts.
6. Pour into the prepared pan, filling no more than 2/3 full (I got 4 medium muffins as well as the loaf).
7. Bake 50 minutes (20 minutes for muffins), or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan(s) 20 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and cooling completely.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 253.1

Total Fat: 8.2 g

Cholesterol: 0.1 mg

Sodium: 3.3 mg

Total Carbs: 45.1 g

Dietary Fiber: 4.7 g

Protein: 3.9 g

Borrowed Baking

I love when I can bake with confidence... not necessarily by sticking hard and fast to a written recipe (since we know how well that works for me!), but instead taking something tried and true and using it as a base for my own whimsy. The food blogging world (and if you follow me you know of my latest obsession with Twitter) have become indespensible for this. How and where else can you (to paraphrase Nicole) get an answer to any question in under 2 minutes - on any topic? I begin most of my time online perusing FoodGawker too.

The weird thing is that half the time I don't know when or how I stumble onto most of the base recipes I use! Most of the time, I record the source (simply because the recipe is usually locked into my IE "Favourites" folder), but as to how I got there? Anyone's guess!

Such is the case with one of the best, fruitiest and balanced sweet breads I have ever made. I know that Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking wrote the initial post I came onto, and I know I'm not alone in being drawn to her title: Fool Proof Baking. Inside the previous post, she had written about her latest baking escapades and frustration with not finding a good recipe to take to a bake sale. Blog world to the rescue once again - in the form of a fruitcake recipe from Jacqueline (AKA Holler) at Tinned Tomatoes. Her mom's fruitcake. People, if a mother's recipe is not tried and true, I don't know what is! I snatched up both versions of the recipe and started investigating their nuances, such as what was the actual amount of butter used? The recipes both called for fractions of a "block" (and as it turned out, Wendy's used half the amount that Jacqueline's did).

In the end, I wound up drastically modifying the recipe, and while I'm not going to say it's better than Jacqueline's mom's (I don't mess with the mother!) I am thoroughly pleased by my results.

I eventually wound up making the risky switch from the solid fat (butter) to a blend of canola oil and applesauce. The sultanas became a mixture of dried cranberries and dark raisins (soaked in juice rather than the called-for water), while the egg became an (equally binding) banana. Given the extra sweetening power of the juice and banana I cut down the sugar and used dark brown rather than white. I didn't have any self-raising flour (and it's pricey to buy for one recipe) so I made my own, blending baking powder, salt, all-purpose and whole wheat flours with the spice blend and baking soda. The baking time and temperature stayed the same, and while I can't vouch for the taste myself - it went into work with Mom - the lack of even a crumb on the returned plate can speak for the addictive qualities of this snack. Certainly if the aroma that filled the kitchen while it baked was any indication, you'd be hard pressed to even let it cool before cuttting yourself a piece!

Just make sure you don't open the oven door until it's at least 30 minutes into the bake time - the low, long bake is key to the moisture. Next time I make this I'm going to try adding dried cherries and apricots to the mixture. You could probably get up to 8oz of dry fruit total into the cake at any rate.

(Not) Holler's Mom's Fruit Loaf
Serves 12
2 1/2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup fruit juice or water (I used a 100% cranberry-grape cocktail)
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 oz raisins
2 oz dried cranberries
1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 over-ripe banana, mashed
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Bring oil, applesauce, water, sugar, raisins, cranberries and spice to a boil in a medium pot.
2. Cook, stirring often, 2 minutes, then cool 30-60 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 300F, grease a loaf pan.
4. Add vanilla, banana, flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the pan mixture and mix gently but thoroughly.
5. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until tests done. Cool 15 minutes in pan, then turn out and cool on wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 209.0
Total Fat: 3.4 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 9.2 mg
Total Carbs: 44.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.5 g
Protein: 2.9 g

With thanks to Wendy and Jacqueline, I'm passing this off to the Bookmarked Recipes Blog Event.

What Seymour Made!

Remember Seymour? You know, the weird flower-head growing out of my garden's giant rhubarb plant? Yeah, I named him Seymour, and then proceeded to behead him (the flowering stem is inedible, and saps the nutrients from the rest of the plant... it had to be done!) and kidnap some of the "offspring" (read: stalks) to make these muffins! I figured that with the Spring gifts of the earth clearly being bestowed on us this year, it would be heresy to let it pass me by! I heard the call of the oven and I had

I had a triple berry blend in my freezer and a blackening banana on the countertop, so they became prime candidates for muffiny inclusion too. Then it was just dry + wet, and into the oven went the fruit, veggie (cause you know that's what rhubarb is!) and whole grain batter-filled paper cups. I then had to resign myself to waiting... for what seemed like forever... while these baked up, perfuming the whole house with a sweet bran aroma. When the time came and I pulled them from the oven, I saw...

SUNKEN MUFFINS

Yes, despite using a muffin recipe with the most basic of ingredients, the weight of the berries and rhubarb overpowered the strength of the batter. Even though they passed the "toothpick test", to be extra safe I broke one apart. Sure enough it was cooked through, just full of stuff. If I was going to serve these to company (they'd probably make delicious brunch fare) I'd simply fill the void with something like a slightly sweetened strawberry cream cheese - you can't go wrong with that!

If you have fresh berries, I highly reccommend using those to cut down on the sinkage. Likewise, if all you have is frozen rhubarb, toss it in a little bit of flour and add the bits to the batter while they're still frozen.

Banana - Berry Rhubarb Muffins
Makes 14
1 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup skim milk
2 tbsp nonfat plain yogurt
3 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup All-Bran cereal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen unthawed)
2/3 cup assorted berries (fresh or frozen unthawed)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, line muffin cups with wrappers or lightly grease.
2. In a large bowl, combine banana, milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla, sugar and All-Bran, mixing well. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, whisk together flours, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Stir dry mixture gently into the wet ingredients to just moisten, then fold in the rhubarb and berries until the flour is just mixed through. Do not beat.
5. Portion into the prepared tins and bake 30 minutes.
6. Cool in the tin 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 123.6
Total Fat: 3.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.2 mg
Sodium: 14.4 mg
Total Carbs: 23.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 1.9 g

I still have a glorious glut of the stuff in my garden, with an entire season ahead of me! I'm hoping I can find enough nibblers to test out some ideas I have going!

Take A Walk

Our garden is waking (and perking) up for the year! Though it's now grey and beginning to drizzle outside right now, yesterday was just prime for the green thumbs out there. Now, my thumbs may be a bit more pink than green when it comes to starting the garden's seedlings (or maintaining the houseplants), but I do an apt job of general plot maintenance (politically correct "weeding") and Andrew and I are almost always the ones harvesting!

Harvest time is so far away to us, though - with the exception of the plants that are coming out of dormancy we have nothing in our soil beds! However, our dining room's only window is crowded half to death with trays and trays of baby seedlings. You may recall a similar state last year when we had explosions of seedlings, mature plants, and harvested results! Our seedling tally is actually fairly small so far this year, though there are a few plants going into the garden that will be purchased this week! So far, we've got a myriad of peppers (hot, sweet and even blue!), giant pumpkins, zucchini, 3 types of tomatoes (including these rainbow heirlooms, left) and some assorted ornamentals going inside, and most are prime for transplanting this weekend. For straight seed-to-earth planting, I've also got some purple carrots and Chioggia beets (can we say hello, salad?). I'm just keeping my fingers are crossed that we don't get smacked upside the head with frost and hailstorms this year!

When I went out "exploring" our reawakening backyard yesterday, I found out just how hardy some of our perennials really are! The funny thing, though I shouldn't be surprised, is that our strongest plants out back aren't even ones we really planted! Lining the back fence that separates our property from the forest and conservation area is a virtual field of wild raspberry plants, that even with all our local wildlife will give us some sweet nibbles this summer, and the 1/4 of rhubarb bulb that Andrew and his family gave me two years ago is now so strong and big - I can only hope strawberries are plentiful in the fields this year so I can get some pies made!

Apparently the rhubarb plant is hitting puberty too - it's generated it's own seed pod on it's centre stalk that reminds me of the plant in Little Shop of Horrors:
These are the pumpkin babies on the right... I know that when they're fully grown they won't be "pie-friendly", but I may be able to steal the seeds out of them and at the very least we'll have our very own "Pumpkin Kings" for Hallowe'en!

And here's the aforementioned giant rhubarb... strong (but not too thick) stalks that are such a beautiful balance between ruby red and green!