Category — Meat and Fish

The greens in my garden had grown to Popeye-esque proportions and it was time to use them up.  So, on Saturday afternoon, I pulled up beets and hacked off the leaves to make beet green chips.  So easy.  So kid friendly.

Then on Sunday, it was showtime for the swiss chard.  Now, the little guy loves stuffed grape leaves from Raw Sugar, so I gambled that stuffed swiss chard would also be familiar enough to casually slide onto the dinner table without an upturned nose or a scowl.

And it almost worked.   Once he realized that they contained meat – MEAT! – he warmed up to the idea.  Although, I say that in the most lukewarm of ways.

Look at those little bundles... so cute.

Now, the rolls weren’t overly tedious to put together, but it’s a dish that’s best saved for the weekend when you have a bit of extra time.

Handy tip #1:  You’ll want to find some nice large swiss chard leaves with as few holes as possible.  Luckily, it’s the perfect time of year for finding swiss chard in the market if you’re not growing them yourself.

Handy tip #2: Don’t pick swiss chard wearing pajama pants on a Sunday morning when you live next to a church.  The raised eyebrows from passers-by had me believing that God frowns upon flannel snowflake prints.  Oh well.  Such is the life of the urban gardener.

(For the fashion record: I was wearing a normal fall raincoat over the jammies.  Nonetheless, the addition of slippers to the snowflake ensemble was likely the downfall.)

I followed this recipe for Bulghur and Beef-stuffed swiss chard from the Washington Post almost to a tee.  I made a slight modification to the herbs – tossing in extra parsley, oregano and lemon balm that I had gathered in my PJ outing.

As we tucked into our dinner, it struck me that without any thought or planning, most of our dinner was home/locally grown.

Home: chard, tomatoes, onions, herbs, homemade chicken stock
Ottawa: ground beef (Bearbrook Farm)
Canada: bulgur
Unknown: rice

We’ve come a long way from just being very mindful about shopping for local ingredients and reading the labels.  Now it’s part of how we cook.  Having a garden has trained us into the “use it or lose it” mentality.  If you have a CSA box, you’ll know the feeling.  If there’s anything that irks me more, it’s letting good food go to waste.  I believe some people refer to that as being Scottish.  Stereotypes aside, I don’t like wasting food.

And these swiss chard rolls?  They will be gobbled up before you know it.  No waste.

Alden is a homebody and it’s hard to convince him to leave his growing collection of Thomas trains to catch a bit of fresh air.  The one thing that did get him bopping out the door on Saturday morning was our regular trip to Whalesbone for fish. It was a great fall day to be out – light sweater weather and lots of sun.

At Whalesbone, Alden and I got to sample smoked wild salmon “Indian candy.” It’s salmon that’s been smoked, dehydrated and brined in maple syrup. (I think that’s right.) It ends up being totally sweet, sticky and five kinds of delicious. Alden went apey for the stuff.  We couldn’t leave without a package. Correction, an open package. There was no way Alden was going to wait to get home to eat more. He was nice enough to share a piece. Thanks, kid.

I bought enough baby scallops to cook the eggplant and broccoli stir-fry from the summer issue of Fine Cooking on Sunday night and do some on the BBQ as a treat on Saturday.

To make it a little more swish, I lightly marinated the scallops in some oil, lemon balm, rosemary and a bit of orange juice and then skewered them on rosemary from the garden. We also grilled up the last of our okra and served it with basmati rice. It took no time at all to put dinner together.

Alden suggested we eat outdoors. Good idea, kid.  Good idea.

My mom used to garnish our plates with parsley.  I distinctly remember scowling and saying, “Mom, don’t put grass on my food!”.  Oh wait, maybe that was chives.  Hmm.  Or dill.   Double hmm.

At any rate, I’m sure there was parsley and I didn’t care for it.  And despite what my herb garden looks like, you’d think I was parsley mad.  Not the case.  I have even given handfuls of it away.  Handfuls.   And still, there is still so.much.parsley.

I needed to find a way to use a lot of parsley and fast.  I narrowed my options to: making tabbouleh, drying it, giving more away or making gremolata (something I hadn’t tried before).

Tabbouleh?  It gets stuck in your teeth.  I’ll definitely be drying more, but that’s not very exciting.  So, gremolata.  Let’s do that.

I blitzed it all in the food processor. (Of course, I should have used the blender since it leaked out the top.)  I threw in some extra basil too.  I just can’t stick to a recipe.

The salmon marinated for a couple of hours before cooking in “en papillote” (AKA, in a tin foil bag) on the BBQ.

Dinner is served!  We dished it up with some of the “artisan bread in five minutes a day” bread (that is for another post, long story), a simple salad with blueberries, snow peas with olive oil and mint and iced tea.

Hey.  I think I like parsley now.

BBQ chicken dinner

The husband, he is king of the BBQ and whipping things up without a recipe and having them turn out awesomely.  (That’s a word, right?)  When he read the roasted red pepper spice blend recipe for making lamb sausages in his new Aussie bible, “My Grill” by Pete Evans (Pete! Soooo Australian) he thought it would also be an excellent rub for chicken.  His recipe, combined with my idea to remove the backbone of the bird and splay it on the BBQ flat to cook it, turned out to be a winning combo for a weekday dinner.

Now, the boy, he’s not a fan of bird meat.  Ever.  But even he, a staunch red meat-itarian, tried it (‘birditarian’ doesn’t work here, does it?).  So, you know that it’s good.  Really good.

The charry/smokey flavour (umami? umaminess!  yes!!) of the red peppers also made a great addition to the guacamole that I made.  (And today, I used the leftover guacamole and chicken on a wrap for my lunch.)  The guacamole had some kick to it – perhaps a bit too much kick for a three-year old, but he was feeling pretty adventurous to eat it.  His eyes only bugged out a couple of times when he hit a spicy patch.  Three year olds make hilarious faces.

I bought a bottle of this Australian Banrock Station pink moscato rosé thingy, but it was too sweet to go with the meal.  And not a very manly drink either, although, the husband did not complain.  It’s probably best for an after work drink with the girls.

As an aside, earlier in the afternoon, one of the Dads made us moms a spicy cayenne shandy and I think it may be a contender for summer drink of 2011.

We stopped at MacKinnon’s fish shop to pick up some mussels and scallops for dinner, but when I saw the Raspberry Point oysters in the display, well, a few of those had to come home with me too.  I wanted to shuck oysters.

At the fish shop!

Raspberry Point is just off the north shore of Cavendish, not far from the strip of beaches in the PEI National Park.  The water is salty and chilly – which is great if you’re an oyster, but less so if you’re thinking about going swimming before August.  Looking through the glass display, I knew this was my chance to try out my new shucking skills.  I ordered six.  I didn’t want to be too ambitious.

Alden inspects the loot. One full bag of shellfish... just for mom.

I could have spent more time in the shop, but someone *ahem* was afraid that the lobsters were going to bite.  With all of the hoopla over the impending lobster attack, I completely forgot to ask about getting some irish moss.  So, I’ve given up on my idea of making seaweed pudding as I have no desire to drive to Tignish with my toddler for a bag of seaweed!  We toted our bag of fish to the cooler in the car and headed home.

At home, my mom pulled out the oldest oyster shucking tool I’ve ever seen.  I think it may have had barnacles on it.  I cringed – how in the world was this going to work?  I pressed forward, determined to not waste my $6 of oysters.

Ok, twist and pop.

In went the knife with a twist and a wiggle and a bit more twisting (and possibly a grunt) until the shell popped open.  Aha, the sound of promise.

Scrape the top

I slid the knife under the top of the shell, cut through the muscle and opened up the oyster.  Easy does it.

Voila!

Then, I flipped the oyster around and cut the muscle on the bottom of the shell.  Voila.  All ready to eat.  Not too bad for the first attempt.

Ready to eat.

And the taste? Salty! Really salty.  It struck me – it was the same taste I remember as a kid swimming on the north shore.  Jumping and diving under the waves – licking the salt water off my lips before going under for another dive.  Except this time, I didn’t have to wade in slowly to get used to the cool water and I didn’t get prune fingers from staying in too long!  The perks of being an adult.

Arriving at the Culinary Institute

I signed up for one of the Culinary Institute’s cooking bootcamps for lots of reasons (including having 7 hours of blissful toddler-free mom time).  While the free babysitting provided by Alden’s grandparents was a perk, the feast we had at the end of those seven hours in the kitchen was indulgent to say the least.

With only nine people in our course, we did lots of hands-on cooking and had time to talk with the chef and instructor, Jeff McCourt.  Chef McCourt is one of the authors of the cookbook, Flavours of Prince Edward Island.  (A cookbook that I received for Christmas this year and highly recommend their cranberry chutney!)  It’s pretty amazing to have access to a chef with this much experience – I was pretty stoked.

Hi! We're cooking lobster.

Here’s a rundown of the dishes we made:

• Asian slaw
• Butter poached lobster
• Coquilles St. Jacques
• Gnocchi with a mussel sauce
• Mussel salad on arugula
• Steamed clams with fennel, tomato and lime
• Seafood chowder
• Lobster perogies
• Mussels in chilli
• Parmesan crusted haddock
• Potato and lobster cakes
• Risotto croquettes
• Salmon with ratatouille

Ok, seriously.  That was a feast of a menu.  I feel full just typing it out.  The class was divided into teams with each group making about four dishes.  I was happy to be on the lobster poaching and chowder making team.  These ended up being my favourite dishes of the day.

Here’s the chowder, almost ready to serve.  The base is made with good old PEI potatoes to give it a super creamy and thick consistency.  No flour roux here.

Say it... chowdah

Next, lobster time.  First we learned about lobsters and how to tell the difference between a boy and girl lobster.  (FYI: The one on the left is a girl.)

Lobster identification lesson

Then it was time to do some dirty work.  I can’t recall ever handling a live lobster before, let alone dropping one in a pot of water.

First time cooking lobster!

Chef McCourt demonstrates how to get the claw meat out in one piece.

Cracking claws

Then the lobster went back into a bubble bath of butter and cream to poach.  You’re looking at a whole pound of melted butter and a touch of whipping cream.  And yes, you just gained five pounds from looking at this photo.

Poaching lobster

Each group did a mussel dish – ours was tossed with chili and stewed tomatoes.  It was pretty good, but I’m more of a traditionalist: mirepoix, white wine and herbs.  Old school.

Steaming mussels

Another team was in charge of the gnocchi.   This version was made with potatoes and made a sturdy base to carry the creamy mussels.

Gnocchi in a mussel sauce

The same team also seared scallops for the Coquilles St. Jacques.  Oooh, nicely done.

Scallops

These were served on a shell plate with piped potatoes.  It tasted great, but this traditional presentation now seems a bit dated.

Coquilles! Complete with piped potatoes. Whoa.

I thought this mussel salad on a bed of arugula was a great way to present mussels at a dinner without having to have an empty bowl for shells at the table.   And it’s a good way to use up leftover mussels the next day too.  Because, when you’re buying mussels by the bag, there’s bound to be leftovers.

Mussel salad on arugula

The lobster cakes with a squeeze of lime rounded out the meal.

Lobster cakes

Here’s our class – we’re smiling, but I assure you, we were all hungry and ready to dig in.

Seafood 101 class

Ok… let’s have at it!

Almost all of the dishes we made

More information:

• More information on this and other Culinary bootcamps at the Culinary Institute
• Get more Island recipes in the Flavours of Prince Edward Island cookbook
• Read about Chef Jeff McCourt
• See more photos from my Flickr set

PEI Flavours guide - day trip planning

I’ve eaten my fair share of oysters both from the island and from elsewhere, but I’ve never bothered to learn how to open an oyster for myself.  I wanted to earn my girl guide badge in oyster shucking so we drove up to Stanley Bridge to visit Carr’s Oyster Bar.

Now, the first time I can recall eating an oyster was when I was a teenager and we were on some sort of family outing to a cow show in Crapaud. I can’t remember what other food producers were there, but I remember trying two oysters: one plain and one with a squeeze of lemon.  Not bad.   This was before locavores and 100 mile diets, so I’m not sure how fruitful these efforts were to convince Islanders to eat food from the Island.

After that, I don’t remember eating oysters again until later on in my university days when I’d return home “from away” over the summer break.  Once I got to grad school in Ontario, my “foodie currency” became “oh no, I only eat seafood when I’m home on PEI.  I could *never* eat fish that had flown.  On.a.plane.”  How crude.  Silly Ontarians.

Eventually, I got to taste oysters from around PEI (and shhh…  other provinces), but the oysters from Malpeque Bay, Colville Bay and Raspberry Point are the ones I still choose above all others.

Fast forward a few years.

When I brought my then-boyfriend to the Island for the first time in March of ….errr… 2005, we shared a plate of Malpeques at Carr’s.  And two years later we got married on PEI.  So – draw your own conclusions about PEI oysters. (And yes, we stopped at Carr’s the day after our wedding too.)

Ok, back to Shucking 101.

Destination: Carr's Oyster Bar

We arrived in the early afternoon for a quick bite and hopefully a shucking lesson.  Alden was still snoozing in the car, so he stayed with the grandparents and I enjoyed a little mom-time inside over a plate of shellfish.

The first thing to do was choose the oysters.  I went for three small and three large.

Choosing the oysters: 3 small, 3 large

I had my lesson in shucking from Suzanne (daughter of Phyllis Carr – champion shucker).  She made it look so easy.  Wedge your knife in the top, wiggle, pop, scrape, cut the muscle on the bottom of the shell.  So easy.

Twist and wait for the pop

Well, my large shell cracked in half and I kind of gutted one of the small ones.  My speed, accuracy and presentation were rock bottom.  Like many other learned skills, I just didn’t have the feel for it that years of practice bring.

Cut the muscle on the top

Suzanne had made it look so easy.  My idea of hosting an oyster party back home in Ottawa with my new shucking skills was dashed.  I would have to settle for *sigh* oysters at a restaurant.

I slurped back my oysters.  Some plain, some with a squeeze of lemon.

Sit down and enjoy

From the restaurant, I watched boats deliver their catch to the wharf less than 500m away from the restaurant door.  Carr’s may not be as fancy as my local oyster bar back in Ottawa, but the food also doesn’t need to travel very far to get to your plate.  Fish.on.a.plane.  Silly Ontarians.

View of Stanley Bridge

Need to know more?

• Learn about oyster aquaculture in Colville Bay from Chef Michael Smith’s show “Food Country“
• Carr’s Oyster Bar: 10056 Route 6, Stanley Bridge

My coworker gifted me a gently used crockpot from her crockpot stash and honestly it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had been hemming and hawing about crockpots for months, but never got around to doing anything more than a cursory glance at some pots on Amazon.  You see, I’m the sort that likes to read the reviews and then go buy it.  Otherwise, I end up with things like my STUPID new LG cellphone that does not connect to the internet.  INTERNET.  GAH!   (And now I have to waste my time to return it ONE DAY after I bought it.  Apparently, the reviews for the LG Bliss say it all.  It is a piece of crapo.  Lesson learned.  And then I learned that Virgin is run by Bell in Canada – which also may explain the recent craptitude.  So, odds are I’m going to be looking not only for a new phone, but a new provider. Double GAH!)

Holy tangent.

Ok, back to crockpots.

I decided to make an easy and thick chicken stew that I could serve in some fresh bread bowls.  The recipe was super simple and easy to make allergy friendly.  (Instead of the can of condensed mushroom soup, I just added real mushrooms and a bit of extra rice milk mixed with cornstarch).  It cooked away during the day and made the house smell lovely.  Alden helped make the buns for the bread rolls and everything seemed great.  I actually patted myself on the back for making a meal where the little dude would HAVE to eat veggies in order to get to the bread part.

Mom 1, Toddler 0.  Oh ho, I thought I was so clever.

Until the whining and tantrum ensued when he realized that there were VEGETABLES impeding his consumption of carbs.

Toddler 1, Mom 0.

SIGH.

Well, we liked it.  And the bread bowl works like a charm.. as long as you’re not two years old.

I have to say, the September issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food has been such a pleasure to read and cook through.

Over the weekend I made my first ever batch of cabbage rolls. It was exciting and thrifty at the same time. Exifty? As usual, modifications were made to the original recipe to make it a bit tastier, twice the size and allergy friendly. I’m not sure if Martha does this intentionally, but I often find her recipes a bit bland and unseasoned. Maybe she just expects her readers to add herbs and spices as they wish. We certainly do. I added some dry herbs and replaced the egg with flaxmeal.

The little dude didn’t quite understand the cabbage wrapper, but he seemed to like the recipe. I am definitely adding this into our dinner plan rotation.

We picked up some ground lamb from the farmers market last week. It took a week to figure out the perfect way to prepare it. Since it was the weekend and we didn’t have to rush, I decided that we would make these lamb patties and serve it on some homemade pitas with a side of soy yogurt and the last of the mint from the garden.

I still love trying new recipes even if it’s a gamble on the toddler front. In this case, the gamble paid off and the sandwich wrap was a great toddler meal! (Pheeeeeeyew!) Alden really got into rolling the bread and making his little wrap. It was a total toddler hit. And bonus, the husband and I loved them too. I can see this recipe being a staple weekend meal. I could eat a whole stack of those homemade flatbreads! Mmmm.