Potato, Beet & Bean Salad

There are few things that bring more joy to my life than a mountain of straight-off-the-farm veggies. The freshness and the fragrance, the variety of shapes and colours and textures, the direct connection to the changing seasons and the soil and the people who work it. But ultimately it's about the ripe possibility of all the potential flavour combinations and dishes that might come about from a bit of slicing and simmering and mixing....  (It also brings me a ridiculous amount of satisfaction to know that these goodies have been plucked off a plant or pulled out of the soil, and have all landed from a nearby farm to my kitchen without one single piece of plastic packaging.)

Looking at my gigantic pile of yummies from Saturday's market (which you can see in the video) I realize I may have overdone it a little. This week will be a bit of a race to conjure up ways to use up all this deliciousness before it gets sad and wilty. I started off with a potato, beet, and bean salad because, well the freshly-dug baby potatoes were acting all coy and cute and generally being their irresistible baby potato selves. And the golden and chioggia beets are simply drop-dead gorgeous and they know it, sitting there all smug and confident in the knowledge that upon slicing into them you just may fall to the floor in awe of their bright pink and orange flesh. And the purple beans with their aura of mystery and magic, they knew they were first up on the list too...  Of course all the other veggies have their charms (don't even get me started about the romanesco, that one deserves a post of its very own, possibly two)...  I hope to share with you some of the various ways I'll be racing to use up this mountain of goodness in the next few days... I'm toying with the idea of a savory swiss chard bread pudding, a leek chevre tatin, and something worthy of that romanesco, but I'm still pondering that one. 


Before we go to potato salad, do you remember a few posts ago, I told you about my mami's birthday cake from Patisserie Rhubarbe in Montreal?  The gateau choco-citron? Well it turns out one of my favorite food bloggers recreated the cake in her own kitchen, all the way in Brunei! How cool is that? The food blogging community is so awesome!!



Potato, Beet & Bean Salad from Kitchen Vignettes on Vimeo.

Potato, beet & bean salad

     1 to 2 pounds baby potatoes

     1/2 pound fresh beans

     4 beets (golden or chioggia) 

     2 to 3 green onions

     1 bunch of fresh dill

     Honey Dijon Dressing:

     1 tbsp whole grain dijon

     1 tbsp honey

     2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

     1/2 cup olive oil

     1 tsp crushed garlic

     Salt & Pepper to taste

Steam the veggies. Chop into chunks. Chop onions & dill finely. 

Shake up a good dressing, pour and mix all together. 

Jack Layton's Gumdrop Cake

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.” 

                                                                                           –Jack Layton

Gumdrop Cake is not really the kind of thing I would normally bake. But I did it for Jack.

Food is my favorite way to remember loved ones who have passed on. I feel closest to my mom when I'm making her recipes and eating the foods she used to make (you’ll be seeing a lot of her recipes on this blog). This morning, I wanted to make a recipe in honor of Jack Layton who passed away yesterday. It turns out Gumdrop Cake is one of his all-time favorites. His grandmother used to make it as a special treat when he and his siblings would visit.

Like so many Canadians, I am deeply saddened and still reeling from the news of Jack’s passing. For the past 3 years, I've had the pleasure of living in his Toronto riding. It's been so amazing to have an MP that I can admire, respect, be inspired by, and who would so promptly respond to letters and let you know that your concerns had been heard. The news also weighs down on me because it was almost 2 years ago that I lost my mom to cancer. She was about the same age, a bit younger than Jack. Both were too young to die. Cancer has become such an epidemic. One of the reasons I chose to work in the environmental sector is because I believe, like my mom did, that the health of our planet is directly related to our own health and well-being. And if we want to win the fight against cancer as a society (and also get to eat delicious and uncontaminated foods) we need to fight against pollution first and foremost. This film really gets to the core of the cancer issue for me personally, so I thought I’d share the trailer here, even though it’s not directly food related.

But back to Gumdrop Cake. And Jack. What a politician, and what a man. It is such a huge loss for Canada, at a time when we badly need his leadership. But as he so eloquently says in his last letter, the future must be faced with love, hope, and optimism. To cheer you up a bit after that trailer, and get you warmed up for the cake recipe below, here’s an excerpt from This Hour Has 22 Minutes “Baking with Jack Layton”. Rest in peace Jack, and may there be an infinite supply of your grandmother’s gumdrop cake in heaven.

Jack Layton’s Gumdrop Cake (taken from the Globe and Mail)

3/4 lb gumdrops (omit black ones)

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

5 ml vanilla

1 egg

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup hot water

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon each salt, baking soda and nutmeg

Cut gumdrops if large. In a shallow bowl, dredge gumdrops, raisins and nuts in 1/2 cup flour. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add applesauce and hot water and mix well. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, salt, baking soda and nutmeg and add to sugar mixture. Fold in gumdrop mixture.

Pour into a well-greased tube pan or 9-by-5-inch pan lined with wax paper and well greased. Bake in a 275 F oven for 45 minutes. Increase temperature to 300 F and bake for 75 minutes. Let sit for several hours or overnight before cutting.


***

Man. I could have done some fun stop motion animations with those gumdrops, but no time for that this morning, off to work! Just a quick photo of the cake before it gets gobbled by my co-workers. (Looks quite Christmassy doesn't it?!)

Buckwheat Ravioli

I’ve been dreaming of having a farm and growing my own food for as long as I can remember. Somehow I’ve ended up living and working in downtown Toronto, but the dream is alive and kicking. It’s not so much that I’m ignoring it, as nursing it quietly, until its time comes. Part of keeping the dream alive was taking a week off work back in May to volunteer at Everdale Farm and learn a few things from the fine and knowledgeable folks there. Everdale is a non-profit teaching farm that has trained many new farmers. It’s certified organic and a tremendously inspiring place to be. Despite a rainy week, I got my hands in the dirt, did a lot of mulching and weeding, cooked some lunches for the staff and interns, and got to take a permaculture workshop. The instructor, Jessica Roder of Wild Craft Permaculture started off the course with this video which is an awe-inspiring example of sustainable living architecture.

This weekend I got to work at Everdale’s stand at the Brick Works Farmers' Market. It was so great to see my old friends from back in May and see their bountiful harvest. 

Selling freshly picked veggies brimming with life is something that just makes you feel good. Like really really good. The whole stand smelled like earth and a medley of fresh greens and herbs. And the basil, oh the basil. I was basically on a basil high the whole morning and couldn’t stop thinking of all the things I was going to make with my veggies when I got home. The thing that needed immediate attention though was a bag of beet greens. A lot of customers had been asking me all morning for their beet tops to be removed. And I’m the kind of person who buys beets more for the greens than the root so... I couldn’t let them go to waste and I came home with a bag full of discarded greens. Dear rejected greens, you are welcome in my kitchen, and I will eat you up in a flash. Usually I just steam them with butter and garlic but I decided to try a beet green ravioli... and for the simple reason that buckwheat and I seem to be having a lifelong love affair (this is something I will come back to in another post), I decided to make the pasta dough with my favorite grain (which is not really a grain!). But you can also use wheat flour or do a half and half mix for a less intense buckwheat experience. (I know everyone is not as fanatic about buckwheat as I am ;-)

Buckwheat Ravioli from Kitchen Vignettes on Vimeo.

BUCKWHEAT RAVIOLI

La Pasta

2 cups buckwheat flour 

2 eggs

1 tbsp olive oil & salt to taste

water as needed

Filling

1 to 2 pound of beet greens, steamed & chopped 

About 1 cup ricotta cheese (I found buffalo ricotta which was lovely)

1/3 cup grated parmesan

1/3 cup walnuts

1 egg

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

½ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt & pepper (to taste)

Butter

¼ cup butter

Fresh sage leaves (I used thyme because that’s what I had in the garden, but sage would be ideal)

Chopped garlic

Mix the dough ingredients together and add small amounts of water until you get a smooth but not sticky dough. Knead and shape into a ball. Let it sit while you work on the filling. Make sure that all the water is fully squeezed out from the steamed beet greens. Mix all filling ingredients. Roll out the dough, cut into circles or squares, add a teaspoon or so of filling and moisten the edges with water so you can press the edges shut. Bring water to a boil and cook the pasta for around 5 to 7 minutes. Melt the butter with the sage and garlic, let it brown a little, and drizzle over the ravioli. Top it all with grated beet or parmesan.