A drop of simplicity in the midst of the storm – leeks, artichokes, and lentils du puy

26 Oct

I’m sitting here in the midst of a storm – both literally and figuratively.

Outside, the winds are beginning to build, as a seasonal fall storm makes its way towards St. John’s. During the beautiful and uncharacteristic warm weather of these last few days, I’ve made time to prep the yard and garden for colder weather. Tonight found me harvesting thyme, lemon thyme, chocolate mint, and sage for drying. A final head of lettuce was plucked from the garden. The last week resulted in blanching and freezing of both kale and swiss chard. Slowly, we have the makings of a beautiful winter – full of local, happy food.

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In this beautiful time of harvest its easy for us gluten-free folks to set aside for the winter, to enhance our winter ingredients of gluten-free grains and staples with local vegetables and herbs. Gluten-free is never boring. On the contrary, I find myself too often getting lost in the essence of an ingredient, which spirals into yet another ingredient, and another… there are so many ways to prepare foods, and it should never be difficult. But always flavourful, and always happy.

The storm in my life is the storm that the harvest, in all its beauty and bounty, brings with it. The winter will bring slowness, but for now, its time to enjoy the harvest.

The busy-ness means foraging, gathering, preparing, and preserving food – both for the market, orders, and for my own personal stash for the winter.

With it comes these beautiful moments of happiness. On a happy Sunday I ventured out to White Hills to pick blueberries. And while the blueberry season was slightly sparse this year, it brought me two large buckets after several hours. And the slowness of the day is reminiscent even more of the slowness and beauty that food brings with it.

Other days brought partridgeberries amongst a thunderstorm. There were farm visits, learning about artichokes and fava beans, resulting in artichokes preserved in lemon and oil, and beautiful meals of favas, leeks, and lentils du puy. Artichokes were stewed with fava beans. Leeks were roasted with tomatoes and thyme. A post-farmers’ market meal was as simple as stewing Seed to Spoon cherry tomatoes with Mt. Scio garlic and leeks, garden-grown swiss chard, and tossing some olives into some corn pasta. Meals are simple, flavourful, and local.

There are tiny squashes to be played with still. Potatoes pulled from their container bed in my garden. Apples strained for jelly and juice to flavour homemade granola with.

And tonight, as a storm brewed, a simmering braise of leeks, preserved artichokes, and simmered lentils du puy brought back from France.

Lentils du puy are beautiful, flavourful green lentils grown in the Puy region of France. Unlike red lentils, they hold their shape beautifully. Simmered with some thyme, a bit of white wine, and water, they are an easy addition to a meal. They are beautiful added to salads because of their shape and flavour. Upon a visit to France in May, I took home a bag of lentils and autumn has found me carefully working my way through the bag. I will be sad when the bag is empty, but for now, its an easy, gluten-free source of protein that adds beauty to a meal.

So simple, these gluten-free meals. Simple and happy, just as food should be.

Leeks, artichokes au gratin with lentils du puy

2 leeks

1 jar of preserved artichokes

2 shallots

1 bulb of garlic

1-2 cups of vegetable broth with a splash of white wine

4-5 stems of thyme

Bay leaf

Dash of lemon juice

Olive oil

1/2 cup of lentils du puy (green lentils, or substitute brown or black lentils)

Gluten-free bread crumbs of your choice

Prepare leeks – trim roots of leeks and tops, leaving about half of the leek top. Slice lengthwise in half and be sure to wash thoroughly in between layers to be rid of dirt. Place leeks in baking dish, casserole, or dutch oven of your choice. Slice garlic and shallots and place amongst the leeks. Add vegetable broth and white wine, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover and put in the oven at 375 F for about a half hour until leeks are softened. Add preserved artichokes to leek mixture with a splash of preserving juice. Place in oven for another 10 minutes. Top with gluten-free bread crumbs and return to oven uncovered until bread crumbs brown. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Remove from oven.

Simmer lentils with water, thyme, shallots, and a splash of artichoke preserving juice and white wine until lentils are soft but still hold their shape.

Serve lentils with leeks and artichokes. And what ingredients here can be found locally? The leeks, the artichokes, the thyme, the bay leaf, the gluten-free bread, the garlic and shallots, and if you know someone who makes white wine, and if you can make your own vegetable broth, this is a very happy, easy, flavourful, healthy and simple local gluten-free meal.

Talking about gluten-free on CBC…

21 Oct

What’s your experience eating out gluten-free in restaurants? Do you choose to go out and risk potential cross-contamination? Do you want to be able to enjoy a beautiful meal and a night out? What’s the service like? This past Monday October 17th, that was exactly the topic of choice on Radio Noon’s Crosstalk program. A La Tarte! called in to the show to share a few thoughts. Take a listen to the entire program to hear from a variety of restaurants and chefs in the province on how they deal with gluten-free allergies.

Feel free to post your comments here about eating out and eating gluten-free – or with any allergy or insensitivity!

- A La Tarte!

 

A simple autumn soup to celebrate the harvest

17 Oct

I am so over summer.

Fall is the new summer.

How is that when I was dreary and miserable and longing for sunshine during these drizzly grey summer months, that I somehow forgot how beautiful autumn in Newfoundland is?

Because its harvest-season.

This harvest season has been so splendid and beautiful, despite the many losses of crops that we had here in Newfoundland over the summer. Autumn is a time of beauty, and for the Tarte Lady, its been a busy season.

There have been trips to farms, walks in greenhouses, playing with new vegetables and ingredients, cooking up recipes, preserving tomatoes, and storing away for the winter.

It has been a beautiful season, and its only just now mid-October. There is still much much more to come.

There are posts being written on some of these local farms, posts about the market, posts about storing up gluten-free happy food for the winter.

But for now, a recipe to tide you all over.

Gluten-free Zucchini Soup

This was a surprise soup. Fall is Zucchini season, and certainly the zucchinis have not been as plentiful this year. Each fall I wait anxiously for the giant zucchinis that are large enough to cradle in your arms – the ones that people don’t want, the ones that farmers try to get rid of. They are perfect for grating up and storing away in freezer bags for the winter, to be used in cakes, cookies, soups, relishes, salsas. I grate the zucchini with the shredder attachment on the food processor.

So what happens when you try to grate a zucchini while having a glass of wine? Zucchini mush, which results in zucchini soup. On this particular evening I forgot to take the blade out of the food processor – resulting in a shredded and blended zucchini. No good for zucchini relish, but perfect for a zucchini soup.

1 leek

1 shallot

Garlic to taste (I used a whole bulb)

About 2-3 cups of shredded and blended zucchini

2 apples

3-4 carrots, chopped or shredded

Fresh sage

2 cups of vegetable broth (or coconut milk, depending on your mood)

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

Saute leek, shallot(s) and garlic in olive oil in a large pan until softened. Add zucchini, carrots, and apples. Add coconut milk or vegetable broth, depending on your tastes. Cook until heated through. Add fresh sage from the garden, salt and pepper to taste. Blend in a food processor or with a hand blender. Indulge in beautiful, easy, spontaneous soup.

On this particular night I was also craving a bit of extra protein, so I poached a piece of salmon in olive oil and then added to the soup once it was blended. Chunky soft salmon bites in a sage-flavoured zucchini apple soup. Simple, easy, beautiful autumn surprise meal.

Tartines of favas and tomatoes bring on the happy

17 Sep

Food ought to never be boring.

Its easy to see how entranced and captivated I become in preparing food. But eating food, as well as preparing it, should never be boring. Rather, it should be pleasing to the senses – and there’s simply no reason for gluten and dairy- or casein-free food should be dull, nor complicated.

My refrigerator is full this week of harvest vegetables from a variety of sources. Come Monday evening, the day before my weekly CSA pick-up, I browse through to try to figure out how to use up some of the veggies.

One of my favourite quick and easy meals is a simple tartine.

A tartine is an entirely uncomplicated, beautiful, and creative meal. An open-faced sandwich, so to speak. They can be salty or sweet, savoury, decadent, and always beautiful.

Several weeks ago I had tartines of sunflower seed bread, proscuitto, and honey-roasted figs for lunch.

This week, a tartine of slightly more work, but so happy. And a simple way to use some of my market veggies up.

A bag of fava beans from my CSA – Seed to Spoon Collective – remained in my fridge, waiting to be used, waiting for the perfect use. I adore fava beans. There is something magical about opening up a fava bean, finding it nestled in its pillow-like cushioning. Fava beans take a little preparation, as the beans are removed from the pods to then be blanched for a few minutes in boiling water. Not long, just long enough to be able to then pop the beans out of the casings they remain in. After blanching for approximately a minute or two, plunge in ice cold water, and then remove from their casings. Favas have a rich, buttery, smooth taste, and are ideal simply thrown into a green salad, blended to make a soup, or as a spread.

These favas found themselves in a fava-cilantro-roasted garlic spread. Beautiful, bright and flavourful, this was a truly happy tartine. Gluten-free bread toasted, topped with the fava spread, and a slice of Mt. Scio tomato. The entire meal was local (aside from the olive oil and lemon juice). And entirely uncomplicated.

Fava-cilantro spread

1 bag of fava beans

1 bunch of cilantro

1 tbsp of lemon juice

2 heads of garlic (or to taste)

1/4 cup – 1/3 cup of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare fava beans. Place sliced garlic and favas with a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan. Heat gently until garlic is soft. Place all ingredients in a bowl and blend using a hand mixer, or in a food processor. Adjust olive oil and lemon juice to taste. Spread liberally over your favourite gluten-free bread or crackers, and top with a slice of tomato. Serve and feel happy.

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Harvesting the season pre-storm

16 Sep

They say there’s a storm out there.

Standard storm-hurricane prep chez A La Tarte! means moving the tomatillos indoors and hoping that the rest of the garden plants weather any high winds.

I am enormously lucky and grateful during the harvest season to have an abundance of vegetables come my way. Through a combination of my weekly CSA (community supported agriculture a la Seed to Spoon Collective), gifts from farmer friends, bartering with market vendors, and my own garden – there is a huge wealth of veggies and herbs for preserving, baking, and cooking. This usually results in neglecting my own garden’s harvest. Storm season is a perfect excuse to pick some vegetables, for fear of their not surviving high winds and rain.

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Last night, herbs were picked. Rosemary, chocolate mint, coriander, thyme, and lemon balm. All with a purpose. The rosemary will find its way into the lemon olive oil cakes. The chocolate mint intended for a very special birthday cake this weekend. The lemon balm – tea for drinking.

Then, the vegetables.

Potatoes, zucchini, and swiss chard. Plus two beautiful green beans.

Now, the hazelnut tartelettes are in the oven, in hopes that the power stays. Market prep is in full swing until that happens.

But for now, in the eye of the storm, the sun is out. The winds are heavy. But the blue sky, the sunshine, such a beautiful backdrop amdist a night of market baking.

Update: The calmest most beautiful hurricane of blue skies and parting clouds, with no power outage – unlike Igor. Maria is perfect for baking, resulting in hazelnut tartelettes, pumpkin with dark chocolate, pear frangipane, strawberry frangipane, and still more to come. A La Tarte! will have beautiful autumn celebration gluten and dairy free tarts at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday. Perhaps even the return of the chocolate lavender tartelette, by request.

The turning of the season with a market pumpkin tarte.

10 Sep

Good morning market day.

An autumn morning. This week, there is a chill in the air that wasn’t there before. A desire for sweaters and warm tights, for soup-making and recipes full of beautiful fall bounty. Kale, potatoes, carrots. All happily in season now, with the turning of the weather.

I wasn’t quite ready to let go of summer. But fall is a season of foraging and bounty, of recipes and cooking, of preserving and harvesting.

So what better way to celebrate autumn, than with a decideably autum tartelette?

Tarte au citrouille et chocolat

The table will be decidedly full of autumn tarts this morning. Blueberry almond tartlet with local berries and a splash of cassis, pear frangipane tartlets, hazelnut tartlets, and this beautiful, very happy tart – pumpkin with dark chocolate drizzle.

And so begins another market morning.

Looking for a Thanksgiving dessert? Order early large gluten and dairy-free tarts for your celebration dinner – Large Hazelnut Tart, $20, or Large Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Tart – $20.

Currants, raspberries, blueberries, and celebration.

5 Sep

Sunshine, ocean, happiness.

This is what I arrived to upon setting foot in Newfoundland and Labrador, eight years ago this Labour Day.

A first night spent in a bed and breakfast in downtown St. John’s, waking to antique furniture, beautiful conversation on a third-floor balcony, partridgeberry pancakes, and the harbour and ocean glistening below.

Such was my first glimpse of this gorgeous place that I now call home.

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I believe in celebration.

Celebrating food, taste, life, pleasure. I relish in the simple joys of finding food, foraging, creating.

Such was this weekend, and today. A day of celebration and anniversary, of simple joys.

A weekend filled with raspberry and red currant picking, the berries finding their way into a simple almond tartlet for the Saturday market. Labelling black currants in the freezer, still waiting to see how they will be used. Sitting below the Signal Hill trail, away from the eyes of hikers, in an alcove near the ocean. Swimming. Falling asleep in a new hammock, surrounded by a beautiful garden. Discovering a new trail (for me), glimpsing the city from a new view, with new eyes, picking blueberries along the way. Blueberries that found themselves into a celebration tartlet.

A beautiful tartlet with the same almond batter used for the market red currant tart. But with a splash of creme de cassis added to the batter, and a new crust made with almond, sweet rice, and quinoa flours, and held together with blood orange oil. Topped with gifted edible flowers from The Organic Farm.

Happiness.

Celebration.

I am so in love with this place that I call home.

Lost in a berry patch, found in the kitchen…

1 Sep

Its been a flurry of busy days.

Summer came in a flash, finally, and with it all the beautiful produce, the hint of berries ripening, and the glorious hot humidity and sunshine. Writing has come only in flashes, foregone for preserving, hiking, and musing amongst the garden. A few market days have been missed for summer weddings, camping trips, berry-picking, canoeing, and pond-swimming. Oh summer, how I have missed you.

Zucchini flower blooming

August has seen the arrival of FEASt’s Open Garden Day, which A La Tarte!’s burgeoning garden was featured in. Timed with a flurry of weekend activities, it was wonderful to just sit down in the garden and visit with people throughout the day, talking about recipes, and garlic scapes, and pickling, and container gardening. The peas are flourishing, the zucchinis are finally growing, and lettuce heads are being given away to friends.

Lettuce, kale, and chard growing happily

So what does a gluten-free, dairy-free, casein-free girl like to make with all the beautiful vegetables and fruits finally in season?

These last days have found me in the kitchen, happily preparing food. Happy food. Yes, this is what I call it. Food ought to be beautiful, as it appeals to the senses that much more. Last weekend was a happy weekend full of canoeing, hiking, swimming, and picking gorgeous black currents and raspberries. And of course, mornings were filled with rhubarb and strawberries stewing on the stove with lavender and honey, ready to be topped on buckwheat and quinoa pancakes. A happy breakfast, with lavender filling the air and the sun already hot through the windows.
 

Strawberry and rhubarb lavender compote stewing on the stove

And what of the vegetables? – chanterelles finally in season, zucchinis and early tomatoes, leeks ready to be harvested. Perhaps a gluten-free pizza (Sobeys and Dominion both carry fantastic crusts if you’re not in the mood to make your own) with roasted chanterelles, tomatoes, garlic oil and fresh basil or a happy green pizza with zucchini, spinach, leeks, and garlic thyme oil or garlic scape pesto. The same roasted vegetable combinations could be easily tossed in corn or quinoa pasta for a simple outdoor summer supper with a tossed salad with market greens.
 

Rhubarb percolating for jam-making

 
And of course, there is ice cream.
 
With a new shipment of Nova Scotia strawberries in this week, I turned to this beautiful recipe from The Kitchn - strawberry ice cream with cacao nibs. Oh happiness. I substituted, once again, coconut milk for the heavy creams and milk, and it turned out beautiful, creamy, rich, and full of strawberry dark chocolate flavour.
 
Ice cream is so simple to make that I can’t believe these weeks are the first I’ve tried it. The custard base in this recipe could be used for any concoction of flavours – perhaps blueberries and basil added? Or melted dark chocolate with a few strawberry pieces or cherries? The same idea was used below for the peach and lavender ice cream – a custard base with stewed peaches infused with lavender added to the mixture. Both mixtures must be chilled before using in the ice cream maker.
 
Summer is happy. And yes, I realize that it is the first day of September. But summer, with all its harvests, has only just begun.

Coconut milk ice cream, with peaches and lavender.

16 Aug

Happy pea pods from all the rain

Happiness comes in the form of sunshine, warmth, brilliant blue skies, and starry nights with meteor showers.

From this gorgeous sunshine arises many other wonderful things – including a recovering garden after many weeks without sunlight and with lots of rain.

It also brings new and beautiful seasonal fruits to play with. Vegetables to forage. And new recipes to experiment with – seasonal recipes.

Peach lavender dairy-free ice cream, with some gifted chanterelles on the side.

Ice cream is something that I have long missed. After cutting out dairy from my life, as well as gluten, finding an ice cream that I could eat is near impossible. They are never as good as what I remember ice cream tasting. Not nearly as creamy, not as rich, or decadent as the real thing.

Recently I was gifted an ice cream maker, and have been patiently waiting for sunshine to inspire me to use it.

Tonight, finally. Ice cream attempt #1 resulted in the most lovely of ice creams -  peach lavender ice cream made with a coconut milk custard base, locally farmed eggs, seasonal Ontario peaches, and lavender from a trip to France this spring.

This ice cream is creamy. It is full of exquisite flavours that keep playing on the tongue long after the cream slides down the throat. The peaches are cooked ever so slightly to soften them, and blended into the coconut milk custard base which is already infused with lavender. The entire batch took almost no time to make. For any of you dairy-free folk who dream of ice cream, just try experimenting by substituting cream, whole milk, or whatever your favourite recipe calls for, with coconut milk instead.

This will be a bartered batch of ice cream, but there is most certainly going to be more ice cream made in my very near future. Peaches and lavender, one of my favourite combination. And yes, ice cream made with coconut milk, is just as good as I dreamed it.

Cold summer nights with lavender, peaches, and cherries

7 Aug

Its full out summer here in St. John’s.

Typically, this first week of August, I expect that I would be foraging any variety of berries, chanterelle mushrooms, and in full harvest swing and food preparation.

On this Sunday in August however, I find myself in full fall mode. With temperatures well below average and a blustery, pounding rain and wind against the window panes all weekend, its hard not to want to crank up the heat, brew a pot of tea, and bundle up under the blankets.

But even on a cold August, autumn-like summer day, there is much to love, appreciate, and celebrate.

While peaches and cherries are scare growing here on the Avalon, that doesn’t stop the stores from stocking up gorgeous Ontario and Nova Scotia fruits. And the lavender that I’ve been dreaming of has finally been filling my kitchen with its delicate scents.

Peach rhubarb lavender jam bubbling on the stove. Peaches in lavender syrup preserved in jars, ready for those winter days when a spot of sunshine is necessary. One jar of peaches already found its way into market tarts this past weekend. A beautiful, delicate summer tart on a stormy day – peaches in lavender-infused creme patissiere. Something to bring sunshine to the mind and to the heart.

The cherries, on the other hand, have found homes in cherry clafoutis tarts, cherry rhubarb preserves with red wine, and cherry coconut petit gateaux. For my personal stash, a handsome batch of brandied cherries.

A summer moment – on a scarce few hours of sunshine last week, sitting with a glass of wine on the deck, pitting cherries, their red juice spattering across the table, while avocodoes roasted on the grill for a simple grilled avocodo guacomole. Easy, simple, summer moments.

The clafoutis are another dessert that makes me smile in the greyness of the summer. Friends will easily know that clafoutis are a favourite of mine. A simple summer dessert that lets fruits be the star – and one of the most delightful french words to let roll off the tongue.

Clafoutis flavoured with coconut milk and a bit of almond flour are my favourite. A bit of vanilla depending on the fruit. Or perhaps some orange zest.

Even in this greyness, its possible to find a spot of sunshine. A summer dessert, and happy stashed-away preserves to warm the winter (or fall, or cold summer night).

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