Spicy Apple - Carrot Chutney for #SundaySupper

It's no secret that I am the "chutney queen" around here. It's an odd distinction for me, really, since I'm not a huge fan of the sweet, sour and savoury condiment - but my parents both love it, as did my grandfather (RIP). While most of the people who enjoy my various combinations of fruit and vegetables do so alongside curries, rice or other spicy fare, my mom is the only one I know who will add it to (or serve it with) almost anything - Israeli couscous, whole wheat spaghetti and roasted vegetables, carrot sticks, and even Chinese-style stir fry. To her, it's simply another flavour enhancer like salsa or hot sauce.

This time of year is when (sadly) I can forsee the end of Summer approaching, heralded by the first harvests of my heirloom root crops and the beginnings of early apple varieties popping up in the markets. Even as hearty as these types of vegetation are, their season is just as fleeting as the earlier berries, asparagus, fiddleheads and tomatoes we've enjoyed the past few months. My mom and stepdad grow vegetables every year as well as I do (although theirs are conventional, not heirloom, varietals), and from the first bean to the last eggplant it seems like they wait until the food is almost rotting on the vine before finally picking them. When the produce does come into the house, their schedules often leave the vegetables sitting on the counter for better or worse, accounting for a shameful amount of waste if I don't get my hands on it.

To lengthen the amount of time we have to truly relish my hard work's harvest, I do things a little differently. First, I do my best to pick the veggies at the peak of their flavour and texture, separate what I can reasonably see myself consuming before it spoils, and process the rest by either blanching and freezing, drying (in the case of fruit) or canning into jams, sauces and condiments like this chutney. I found the inspiration for this "late season" condiment in Gluten-Free and Vegan Holidays by Jennifer Katzinger, which I packed with flavourful coconut oil and flakes, as well as a sweet and hot medley of exotic spices (including Schezuan peppercorns), garlic and fresh ginger. Whether freshly made for tomorrow's dinner or canned up for February eating, it's a taste of the harvest worth exploring.

This week on #SundaySupper, we're sharing recipes and tips for prolonging the taste of summer as long as possible with any method of preserving: canning, freezing, drying and pickling are all fair game, as well as some shorter term uses that look beyond perfect for the dinner plate! This event is being co-hosted by Tara of Noshing With The Nolands and Stacy of Food Lust People Love. Thanks Tara and Stacy!

Learn how to …

• Dry Fruit - No-Dehydrator-Needed from Take A Bite Out of Boca 
• Freeze Cherries from Pies and Plots
• Freeze Herbs from Rhubarb and Honey 
• Make Freezer Harvest Soup Kits from Cindy's Recipes and Writings 
• Make Pesto Cubes from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen 
• Make and Freeze Rosemary Butter from Momma's Meals 
• Make Ready to Blend Smoothie Packs for Your Freezer from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Oven Dry Cherries from The Redhead Baker 

Sip sunny cocktails and smoothies

• Blueberry, Peaches and Cream Green Smoothies from Cupcakes & Kale Chips 
• Green Tea and Chocolate Saketini from Ninja Baking 
• Sangria from Confessions of a Culinary Diva 

Scoop up special salsas and sauces

• Classic Freezer Tomato Sauce from Noshing With The Nolands 
• Peach Salsa from The Texan New Yorker
• Pico de Gallo from Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen 
• Spicy Apple - Carrot Chutney from What Smells So Good? 
• Spring Conserve from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks 

Jump into jellies, jams and preserves

• Apricot Habanero Jam from Food Lust People Love 
• Corn Cob Jelly from Daily Dish Recipes 
• Hot Pepper Jelly from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures 
• No Pectin Apricot Jam from Curious Cuisiniere 
• Peach Preserves from Delaware Girl Eats 
• Pineapple Mango Moscato Jam from Seduction in the Kitchen 
• Raw Raspberry-Vanilla Chia Jam from Shockingly Delicious 
• Savory Fig and Sweet Onion Freezer Jam from Peaceful Cooking 
• Spicy Ginger Tomato Jam with Coconut Sugar from Sue's Nutrition Buzz
• Spicy Red Pepper Jam from The Wimpy Vegetarian

Pucker up for pickles

• Bread and Butter Pickles from That Skinny Chick Can Bake 
• Pickled Beets and Onions from Kudos Kitchen by Renée 
• Pickled Green Tomatoes from Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Refrigerator Pickled Jalapeños with Herbs from Magnolia Days 
• Refrigerator Pickled Radish and Turnips from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen 
• Refrigerator Pickles from Webicurean 
• Sweet Pickled Cauliflower from Because I Like Chocolate 

Slurp and spoon soup and a side dish

• Easy Garden Fresh Tomato Basil Soup from Neighborfood 
• Savory Summer Kimchi from A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen 

Dive into divine desserts

• Easy (no machine) Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream from Mama Bee Does
• Freeze 'em For Later Peach Berry Hand Pies from eating in instead
• Frozen Yogurt Covered Blueberries from Peanut Butter and Pepper
• Lemon and Blackberry Meringue Cakes from Happy Baking Days
• Lemon Curd Coffee Crumb Cake with Vanilla Drizzle from Wallflour Girl
• Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream from Killer Bunnies, Inc

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on Twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7 p.m. ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board.

Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Baked Spanish - Style Tortilla

When I say "tortillas", what comes to mind? A lot of people probably say (quite correctly) that tortillas are (im)perfectly round flatbreads of corn or flour combinations ready for stuffing, a la Mexican style food. However, there is another type of tortilla out there that is totally unrelated to bread in any sense, and is in reality closer kissing cousins to quiche and fritatta - fitting, since this eggy dish hails from Spain, a stone's throw from France and Italy.

While there are a lot of variations on the Spaish tortilla, the two constant ingredients are eggs (obviously) and potatoes. Without a crust like quiche, the potatoes add a nice bit of "body" to the dish and are usually shallow fried in olive oil before assembly, adding extra texture. Anything else is really fair game, keeping in mind that "harder" veggies like carrots do better finely diced and cooked through and everything tastes better with a bit of sauteed pan-flavour. Since we have such a glorious array of garden bounty (including more zucchini than even soup can take care of), I took inspiration and packed ours with the harvest. I had a carton of egg substitute kicking around (we had bought it for something back at Easter, never made it and froze the carton) so that made up the bulk of the eggs, enriched with a luxurious splash of cream and pops of local chèvre and prime chorizo.

Now, traditional tortillas rely on copious quantities of olive oil for frying potatoes and other ingredients, but since I had the cream I wanted to play a bit nicer with the rest of the fat quantities. Instead, I steamed the red-skin new potatoes, and sauteed the remaining items in a hint of good quality olive oil. Lacking a decent oven-safe saute pan, I wrapped my best 9" springform up in foil and simply transferred the egg-coated mixture to it. A slice is definitely a full (and filling) meal for lunch, especially with a slice of garlic toast on the side and a nice wine (or sangria!). Without the chorizo, the dish is a vegetarian delight, and regardless the whole thing is gluten free too!

Shared with  Gluten Free Fridays

Garlic and Zucchini Soup

Pretty much everybody who knows anybody with a garden has an abundance of zucchini in their fridge or on their counters. My family not only have one Summer squash plant growing in our backyard, but 6 - four standard zucchinis and the two heirloom pattypan squash I started from seed this Spring. We also have garlic from last year's planting, my Egyptian onions, yellow carrots and Lutz beets, the Romano beans and a host of other goodies, all of which are being consumed with relish. Of course, our backyard produce goes hand-in-hand with what we buy at the farmer's market now that the season is in full swing - meaning that I got a bunch of local garlic, peppers, tomatoes and berries for an absolute steal last week!    

As much as we love our veggies in everything, even my family can't combat the sheer volume of zucchini we've been pulling from the garden. It seems that every day a new, not-that-modestly sized log of squash finds itself on our kitchen table, eventually making its way into the fridge alongside it's older comrades.There's only so much ratatouille, stir-fry, omelettes and zucchini bread one can tolerate, so when I came across a soup recipe on The Kitchn that used up 1 1/2 lbs of the stuff in one fell swoop (along with a ton of our local garlic), I got chopping!

One of the major reasons I was drawn to the recipe was the potential for extra garlicky goodness in my bowl, not to mention it's a creamy puree without a smidgen of dairy! I bumped up both the garlic and zucchini content to meet my needs and wants, both of which played rather nicely with the "green" flavours of camelina oil and Egyptian onions. Packed with flavourful nutrition, a bowl of this more than satisfies a rumbling stomach after a round of golf (or weeding the garden). That said, my mom did crumble some leftover bacon on top and deemed it equally delicious!

West African Beef and Peanut Stew

Sunday Supper has partnered with The Beef Checkoff this week, and while I can't "officially" participate (darn those US only regulations :-)) I thought that in spirit, I'd bring the beef too. Now, my family are not generally big beef eaters - my stepdad and stepbrother might go for a steak or a double burger occasionally (especially if the only other option is chicken), but my mom really could take a pass over the "cow" section of the supermarket without much of a second thought. We do love spice, though, and my mom is a huge fan of exotic combinations or multicultural offerings.

Even though my mom doesn't need to tote her lunch to work anymore (except for those few days she volunteers at my school), she still loves being able to pull something out of the fridge or freezer, stick it in the microwave and call it a meal. This is a bonus for me, since I love making her meals as much as she enjoys eating them, and it's a great way to not only have blog "fodder" and use up stray ingredients from the pantry, fridge and garden, but to expand my savoury cooking experiences beyond the usual "safe" meals I make for myself each night. When my mom mentioned that she was in the mood for a spicy, peanutty stew akin to one she had at a restaurant a while back, I got to searching and found this one from The Kitchn. What I particularly liked about it was that it didn't need a lot of red meat to pack a punch, rather a small cut of chuck left over from our butcher's trimmings acted as one member of a flavour symphony.

I definitely took the idea behind the original stew and added my own flair, loading the pot with local onions, potatoes, and garlic, plus hot peppers, scallions, carrots and beet greens from our garden. Extra spices added another layer of complexity, while a sizable dollop of peanut butter "hides" the heat at first bite, allowing it to sneak up and deliver a delicious kick in the end!  

I'm sharing this with  Gluten Free Fridays and Waste Not Want Not Wednesday

Are you a beefaholic? Check out The Beef Checkoff in one (or more) of the myriad ways below!

Website: http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beef
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeefItsWhatsForDinner
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/beeffordinner/

Quinoa Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Holes

I can't think of a Summer road trip my family took that didn't include at least one stop at a doughnut shop. Originally, the only joint along our 2 hour drive north was a (relatively seedy) gas station / coffee shop that reeked of fumes from both the trucks' exhaust pipes and years of cigarette smoke that infused into every molecule of the place. Later on, Tim Hortons became more common and soon my sister and I would get to choose a mid morning treat as a "reward" for not killing each other for the last hour. Almost always, our tastes would run to the chocolate-based items, while my mom favoured the "healthier" berry and bran muffins. My dad, though, loved his old fashioned doughnuts. Without much to hide behind, the dense crumb is a perfect marriage of sweet and "starch", with the merest whisper of nutmeg. While I don't think I'd opt for a full doughnut in that style, the doughnut holes rolled in a cinnamon sugar crust were definitely enjoyed when I found them in a snack pack!

Of course, all those treats were packed full of refined wheat, egg, dairy and sugar, not to mention they were deep fried. While they were devoid of everything nutritionally, they did contain liberal lashings of happy memories and an addictive personality. It's almost impossible to stop at one, which means each 70-ish calorie bite adds up quickly!

I wanted to see if I could turn those sweet gems from my childhood over to the (slightly) healthier side - not just by baking the "TimBits" (baking any doughnut is de rigeur in my kitchen, since I'm terrified of hot oil), but by attempting a gluten free, eggless batter that also had a touch of protein,  fibre, flavour and texture from the still-current darling of the nutrition world: quinoa.

Originally, I was hoping to use red quinoa in these "TimBits" (really glorified mini-muffins), but my local bulk store only had white in stock. No matter the colour, adding the pre-cooked quinoa definitely elevated these babies by giving them a lovely "nutty" flavour (which paired well with the camelina oil too) as well as the hint of texture I was going for. Knowing I'd be rolling them in a cinnamon sugar crust, I added some cinnamon to the batter, and while the recipe stayed sweet I eliminated refined sugar altogether with a combination of cup-for-cup stevia and coconut sugar on the inside and raw sugar on the outside. They are definitely still their addictive little selves, and wouldn't be out of place on any car ride (or in a Summer camper's lunch!).

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays