Mary (and Everyone Else), Did You Know?

I learn the most interesting things about the things in my herb and vegetable garden some times. Like when I was at my elementary school's reunion celebration a few weeks ago and mentioned to a group of fellow "foodie gardeners" that I had planted a horseradish seedling last year for the spicy root that I absolutely adore. Most of the conversation's participants never knew horseradish could be grown in our more Northern climate, since it's taste is so "hot", and the notion of wasabi (also technically viable here) is so foreign. But come to think of it, grated horseradish is one of the most common condiments with British fare like roast beef, so why can't us Canucks give it a college try? Well, it turns out that horseradish is way more than a root plant. In fact, if you let it run amok in your garden, it can turn into a bit of a weed, invading your soil space much like sunchokes will. As the plant grows it's valuable, tasty taproot downwards, it also reaches skyward with huge palm tree-like leaves that can get as long as your forearm and just as wide. This is probably a coping mechanism developed to deal with being frequently grown in shade, but if your horseradish shares a plot with other plants, like mine does, you have to periodically remove the larger fronds to prevent it overshadowing the littler greens.

But what I found out during that conversation was that far from just serving as compost fodder in my garden bed, the leaves of the horseradish plant are actually edible. Not only are they edible, but when prepared similarly to kale or collard greens, they are actually quite delicious, tasting like a cross between peppery arugula and baby spinach with a texture similar to kale. One of my friends who had tasted stewed horseradish greens in the southern U.S. told me about a stewed preparation he had eaten made with bacon, onions and potatoes, and recommended I try cooking with them since they were so plentiful. Being dark leafy greens as well, I can only imagine the amount of folate and other vitamins the leaves have in them too! Apparently, if you harvest the leaves when they're small and tender, they're a great punch of flavour in salads, but in order to eat the larger ones they really should be cooked. Rather than stewing the leaves down into oblivion through (no offense to my Southern neighbours who like stewed greens!) I discovered a better way to prepare them, exactly the same way as my favourite kale dish - chips!

I don't know of anyone else who's made "horseradish chips" like this, and I'm quite pleased that I've tried it - the leaves lose their "heavy", "green" flavour and become light, zippy crisps that (truth be told) I like to dust with wasabi powder before firing - I'm not afraid of spice!

Healthy Horseradish Crisps
Serves 4
200 grams horseradish greens, middle rib removed and torn into "chip sized" pieces
Non-stick cooking spray
Kosher salt and black pepper (or wasabi powder) to taste

1. Preheat oven to 275F, line a baking sheet with parchment or SilPat.
2. Place the greens into a bowl and spray with a light coating of non-stick spray.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to combine, "massaging" the greens to incorporate the salt well.
4. Spread in one layer on the baking sheet.
5. Bake 10 minutes, then gently flip the pieces over and bake a further 7-10 minutes, until crispy.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 14.0
Total Fat: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 11.5 mg
Total Carbs: 2.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.0 g
Protein: 1.0 g

Bejeweled

It seems that every Summer I go on a weird tropical fruit kick - totally out of season for us (not to mention there's a gorgeous array of local fruit around!), so the kiwis, mangoes and lychees aren't at their peak, but I can't help it! They start calling to me at the grocery store like little beacons of sunshine, promising that if I eat their juicy pulp it will automatically transport me to their place of origin and bathe me in warmth.

And it works. For a while. But then I get my kicks out stuffing myself with sub-par, slightly sour foliage and eventually the lustre fades - especially when I get my first unbridled taste of real, in season fruit from the farmers market. All of a sudden it doesn't matter that the mangoes will take me to India or the kiwis are a passport to Italy... I'm perfectly content with my own backyard's (literally!) raspberries or the peaches from the guy down the road.

Inevitably, though, by the time that common sense hits my impulsive brain, lo and behold I've still got two or three kinds of alien fruit hanging out in the fridge, and they're not getting any younger! So there's not much left to do but figure out a way to use them up. Cue another non-sensical move for the Summer season... especially in the recent heat wave of humidex 40°C (104°F). Yup, this girl fired up the oven. Not only did I crank up the oven, but I made one of the least Summery desserts I can think of: pound cake. Oh yeah, and to jack up the "out of season" quotient even more? I tossed in some dried cranberries too.

Hey, I never claimed to be rational! But the result is delicious - tender batter chock-full of home-made butter, but also with a touch of whole grain flour, low-fat buttermilk, and egg substitute (we had a carton in the freezer for some reason). Then instead of adding sugary chocolate or cream cheese to the cake, I folded in vibrant jewels of diced fruit. Practically health food, right? Right?

Mango-Cranberry Pound Cake

Makes 2 loaves or a 12-cup tube pan, 16 slices

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups cholesterol-free egg substitute (or 6 eggs)
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup Kamut flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
6.5 fl oz buttermilk
20 oz (about 3 2/3 cups) diced mango
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Heat oven to 325°. Butter and flour a 12-cup tube cake or Bundt cake pan (or two loaf pans).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the EggBeaters and vanilla.
4. Whisk together flours, allspice, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
5. Alternating with the buttermilk, beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.
6. Fold in mango and cranberries.
7. Bake 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes, until tests done.
8. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Invert on the rack to cool completely.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 297.3
Total Fat: 9.2 g
Cholesterol: 23.4 mg
Sodium: 118.6 mg
Total Carbs: 50.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.7 g
Protein: 5.4 g

A Crumble Bumble

Okay... so you know how the cardinal rule of baking, or making anything from a list of instructions for that matter, is to read the recipe all the way through? Yeah... well, truth be told, half the time I take that "golden rule" as a whole lot of hooey (love that term!), and so - I don't. And you know what? Most of the time, no one's the wiser.

Bread With a Real Job

You know how there's all this talk about "functional foods" or nutraceuticals these days, right? I'm not talking about the natural, whole foods that are already full of benefits, like the eye-protecting lutein in spinach or the cancer-fighting lycopene available en masse in cooked tomatoes - I'm talking about the kind of things that fall under the "sneaky" category. Like how all of a sudden there's now 2 grams of fibre in every pot of one yogurt, or mac and cheese made with cauliflower, or now you can have a bowl of sugar-laden cereal (with 3 grams of fibre, mind you!), top it off with a cup of similarly fortified milk and clock in with a total of 7 grams of fibre for breakfast!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but when did milk and yogurt become fibre-rich food sources? And cereal and pasta, provided you're choosing "whole grain" options - well they do provide nutrients, but when you get into the nitty-gritty there is nothing redeeming in a box of Froot Loops. But everything seems to be fortified these days, not just with fibre but with Omega-3's, soy protein, bacteria of all kinds and sterols, and it's beginning to look like a losing battle at the grocery store. So what can we do? Well, make the best choices we can, according to the needs of our lifestyles. It's one thing to eschew the probiotic / inulin fibre-packed / vitamin enriched stuff if you normally eat a diet full of their natural sources, have the time to prepare the whole foods and have a family that will eat them (the constant battle), but if you're not so blessed... pick your battles. If you use one or two "cheat" sources of whatever you need in order to keep a balanced diet, all the power to you, but if your entire diet is labelled "Smart", "Super" and "Invisible"... what are you really eating?

So while I know not everyone out there has the time or inclination to make bread each week for their families, or the roasted berries (perfect on any cereal, by the way) or even the granola I made from Michael Ruhlman's recipe, I encourage everyone to at least cook for their families. Get back to a few things your mom made from scratch - they don't have to be hard or long processes - and relish what you've created.

This loaf is not only functional in it's ingredients, from strawberries to oats, wheat germ and flaxseed, but it also does a "job" of it's own - the berries that aren't completely oven dried form a type of "jam" ribboning through the bread, and the granola that's crammed into every available space gives every slice the equivalent of your own bowl of cereal!

I'm submitting this to Susan's YeastSpotting event this week at WildYeast.

Omega Fibre Bread with Roasted Strawberries

Makes 1 loaf, 16 slices

8.1 oz (230 grams) strawberries, cut into pieces, divided

1/2 tbsp instant yeast

3 cups whole wheat bread flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup psyllium fibre husks

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

3 tbsp whole flaxseed

2 tbsp instant mashed potato flakes (optional, makes for tender crumb)

1/2 tbsp salt

1 cup low-fat soy (or dairy) milk, warmed

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup (41 grams) strawberry-banana granola

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Spread 2/3 of the berry pieces on one sheet and 1/3 on the other, keeping pieces in one layer.
3. Bake 35 minutes, then remove the sheet with the lesser amount of berries on it and rotate the other sheet.
4. Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes, until withered and slightly dried out. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl whisk together the yeast, flour, oats, wheat germ, psyllium fibre, ground flaxseed, whole flaxseed, potato flakes and salt.
6. In another bowl combine the milk, water and brown sugar, stirring to dissolve.
7. Add to the flour mixture and stir in to moisten, then add egg and beat well for 5 minutes.
8. Add olive oil and knead for 15-18 minutes, until elastic.
9. Cover and allow to rest 30 minutes.
10. Knead in the granola and roasted strawberries, trying to evenly disperse them throughout the dough. It will look like an impossible task, but they do all fit!
11. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
12. Shape into a loaf and place into a greased loaf pan.
13. Cover and allow to rise until almost doubled, about 1 hour.
14. Preheat oven to 350F.
15. Bake loaf for 40-45 minutes, tenting with foil if the top browns too quickly.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 177.0
Total Fat: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 13.3 mg
Sodium: 70.8 mg
Total Carbs: 33.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 6.0 g
Protein: 6.2 g

Doubly Baked, Without Berries

Well, technically, I suppose this banana bread (yes, another one!) was only baked once while the bananas inside it were roasted, but unless you count grapes as berries the title isn't all wrong! With such a successful result from roasting the bananas in my "worry-free" muffins, I wanted to try the same technique in a banana bread! I also had some cream cheese sitting around to use up somehow, and a knob of butter calling out to be baked. For once I did actually have enough bananas at their peak of baking worthiness (i.e. black, beginning to seep sugary sap and attracting fruit flies) hanging around to make not just one, but two loaves from this recipe! I borrowed the technique of roasting sliced bananas with butter in a casserole dish from Picky Palate's Roasted Banana Bread Brownie Bites, and kind of winged the rest of the concoction from there, generally keeping to my standard recipe.

Pure Banana Goodness

The best (and yet the most vexing) part about these loaves is that they are incredibly tender and moist - almost ridiculously so. With all those bananas, the cream cheese, and the fact that the batter is riddled with dried fruit and granola, it's asking for trouble to move these more than you absolutely have to while they're anything but completely cool. Even flipping them out was treacherous - make sure that you let them sit in the pans for a good half hour before you even try that! It is more than worth the trouble, though - the recipients of the loaves both declared this version "the best banana bread ever". Hmm, I may have to re-think my bakery's formula!!

Double-Baked Banana Bread

Makes 2 loaves, 24 servings

6 over-ripe bananas, cut into chunks

1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup ground flax
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup strawberry-banana granola
1/4 cup diced dates
1/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 400F, lightly grease a small baking dish.
2. Place bananas into the dish and drizzle with melted butter.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then coarsely mash (leave some chunks). Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool slightly.
4. Reduce oven to 350F and grease 2 loaf pans.
5. In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter and sugar until well blended.
6. Add egg, beating well.
7. Mix together flours, flax, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in another bowl, stir half into the creamed mixture.
8. Add bananas and mix well, then add remaining dry ingredients and stir to combine.
9. Fold in granola, dates and raisins.
10. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in the pans, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 173.6
Total Fat: 6.7 g
Cholesterol: 25.6 mg
Sodium: 50.4 mg
Total Carbs: 26.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 3.0 g