Cookbook Review: Earth to Table

There was a ton of buzz about this Canadian effort by chef Jeff Crump and pastry chef Bettina Schormann on places like Twitter, and I was really looking forward to getting my copy. As the title suggests, Earth to Table: Seasonable Recipes from an Organic Farm celebrates the simplicity of bringing food from the garden or farm directly to your plate in a world where such a process is usually overcomplicated by corporate agriculture.

The authors run the kitchens at Ancaster Old Mill in Ancaster Ontario, and funny, thing I actually ate at this restaurant when I was 19 years old as it was where my uncle held his wedding reception. I remember it as being the swankiest event I'd ever attended in my life (there was an open bar!), and even 16 years later, it's still up there in the rankings.

But back to the book. The flap reads: "Having learned the secret of local cuisine working in world-famous restaurants like Alice Waters's Chez Panisse, Jeff Crump set about developing a network of farmers to keep his own restaurant's kitchen humming all year round. It was not long before he was out in the fields himself, alongside pastry chef and collaborator Bettina Schormann, planting onions and harvesting the heirloom wheat that would form the backbone of her menu's breads and desserts."

Starting with spring, Jeff & Bettina take us on their journey as their forage and farm their way through seasonal, local, and sustainable cooking. Also members of the Slow Food movement, their passion about their mission jumps off the page. Highlighting other chefs, restaurants, and their earth-to-table relationships in the USA, Canada, and the UK, the book exposes how a quiet movement is beginning to become main stream in the industry.

As a baker, Bettina's wheat story was particularly interesting to me. She sourced out an heirloom strain of wheat, planted it, tended it, harvested it, ground it, and baked with it. Her trials and tribulations were a fascinating read, and even though she didn't get much wheat in the end, what came across strongly to me was just how much we take a staple such as wheat for granted in our society.

As for the recipes, they are simple, not full of fancy ingredients, and I'm looking forward very much to cooking with this book. I have a whole bunch of recipes bookmarked for future reference, and with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm going to be trying some for our two family dinners.

Earth to Table is far more than a cookbook; the information about foraging, farming, and sourcing local ingredients is well-presented and I got a lot from reading the non-recipe sections of the book. Of particular interest to me was Jeff's explanation of the difference between dirt and soil - something I'd never thought of, and something I need to reconsider as I continue with my own gardening and earth to table journey.

This is an amazing reference book I'll definitely be keeping on my shelves.

Transparent Apples & Magazine Monday Reminder

First, the reminder: Monday is once again Magazine Monday, and this will be the last time I host, as our usual host, Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice, will be back from her travels and will return to her MM hosting duties for the Sept. 21 edition of MM. So, if you've made a magazine recipe recently and would like me to feature it in my own MM post on Monday, send me an email at wandering_coyoteATyahooDOTca with the link to your post and I'll include it.

Onto apples. It's apple season here, and the other day my roommate said she'd spoken to the neighbour, who owns the house right next to ours, and the neighbour said we were welcome to the apples on the tree there. I didn't realize they were ripe as they were still a pale green colour, but apparently, that's just the variety. My roommate, J, said that she & her family call this particular type of apple "transparents" and some of her family members say that these transparents are excellent for apple sauce and apple pie. So, off I went to pick a bag full and bring them home.

The tree was absolutely laden with apples, and there were lots of the fruit on the ground, too. The apples on the tree were in generally good condition, not very wormy-looking. But it appeared that I'd gotten there a tad bit too late, because some of the fruit were rotting on the tree and the apples left were very soft. I picked a cloth grocery bag full and took them off home, where I planned on turning most of my booty into apple pie filling. I'm not a huge user of apple sauce, and I thought it would be cool to have some pre-made, homemade apple pie filling around over the winter for pies & crumbles.

Well...I had good intentions, for sure. But the apples wouldn't co-operate. After peeling & corning for what seemed like ages - and soaking the peelless apples in a lemony water bath to keep the browning at bay - and then slicing, I had two pots full of apples.

I added a bit of water, and a cup or so of sugar and brought the apples to a boil. I didn't think they'd disintegrate into much so quickly or easily. I added ginger, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg, and let them simmer. I then made a slurry with some flour (cornstarch thickened stuff sometimes doesn't freeze well) and added it to the bubbling apples. The mixture tightened up right away, so I put the whole sha-bang out on the porch to cool down as quickly as possible. This attracted some wasps, even though the lid was firmly on the pot.

Here is what the end result looked like:

And here is the pie filling ready to freeze. I got 14 cups plus a little left over for snacking on.

Yes, it's mushy & doesn't look like the greatest pie filling in the world, but it'll do, and I was grateful for the free apples!

I also made a tart with the apples, but that is for an upcoming post, so you'll have to wait & see the results (hint: excellent)!

Huckleberry Pikelets

As you might have read, I have an abundance of huckleberries kicking around my freezer and I'm looking for new and interesting things to do with them. I came across a post by Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast, a fellow BC foodblogger, featuring blueberry pikelets, and my interest was piqued. I had all the ingredients on hand, so I went down and made them immediately.

For an explanation on pikelets, you can read Bellini Valli's information about this treat here. I also found an interesting article on pikelets here, baking up Bellini's assertion that there are a lot of contradictions around these things. The Hub UK site has a recipe for pikelets that uses yeast, and this seems far more crumpet-like to me than the recipe I used. I grew up in a pretty British household, but had never heard of pikelets before; I must ask my dad if he remembers them.

The pikelet batter I used, got from Bellini's site here, was very much like a pancake batter, though slightly thicker. Initially, I didn't use rings because I didn' think they would be necessary, but I had a bit of a disaster with my first batch that made me rethink that strategy. I then unpacked my English muffin rings, buttered them well, and had far better results.

These are, essentially, a thick pancake. They were wonderful! Not terribly exciting or exotic, as the name might suggest, but they were certainly yummy. Thanks Bellini Valli!

Full Flickr set here.

Pork Tenderloin, Starring....Huckleberries!

So this is my first kick at the can using my lovely huckleberry bounty, locally picked by yours truly. I wanted to do something different; muffins are so pedestrian! I whipped this pork tenderloin idea up on my own...divine inspiration out in the berry patch or something... My dad donated the tenderloins, of which there were two, and initially four were supposed to partake in the meal, but then plans fell apart, as they do once in a while. So, I knew there would be a ton of leftovers, I just didn't yet know if that was a good thing or not. Here's how it went.

For the rub:

1/3 cup brown sugar
ginger, cinnamon, allspice, garlic powder, salt & pepper - all to taste (I didn't measure)

For the filling:

1 package (140g) unripened goat's cheese (i.e. not feta), softened
a whole bunch of huckleberries
4 cups of spinach
3 cloves garlic
1tsp or so of the rub mixture

I was going to just put the spinach in raw, but decided against it. In fact, I wasn't going to put any spinach in at all, but I had so much left over from a salad I made that I decided what the hell. When my SIL does pork loin, she usually puts spinach in the stuffing and it's always awesome. Anyhoo, I sauteed the spinach because I wanted to cook the water out of it first. It was worth it to spend the extra few minutes to do this, I think. I sauteed the spinach in olive oil and the garlic.After the spinach was wilted, I added it to the goat's cheese & huckleberries. What I got was not particularly appetizing...But this was an experiment after all, right?Yeah, great colour, eh? At this point I was thinking, Hmmm...was this a good idea? But I soldiered on, and stuffed the tenderloins, after making a cut along the length in order to flatten them out and create a pocket for the filling.After that came the rub...I realized too late I should have rubbed first and filled second, but we live and learn, don't we?

Then, truss truss baby. You can see my blue silicone trussing thingies in this picture. Very cool gadget.Then into a 375F oven, covered with foil for about half an hour, then off with the foil and continue baking until an internal temperature of 180F was reached. And voila...While my meat rested (it took about an hour to cook, and I set my fancy-wancy thermometer with probe 180F so it would beep when the temp was reached) I made a sauce, using, what else? Well, yes, huckleberries, but also POM! The last of my POM (I have one coupon left). This was the one with blueberry juice in it as well.

Pomegranate Huckleberry Sauce

juices from the roasted pork loin
about 1/2 cup POM juice
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
a whole bunch of huckleberries

I dissolved the cornstarch in the POM as the drippings, brown sugar, and ginger came to a boil in a small saucepan. Once the drippings boiled, I added the huckleberries and the POM. I simmered for a few minutes... And forgot to take a pic of the sauce. Sorry. It looked like...blueberry syrup. Use your imagination.

Slicing the tenderloin proved difficult - it was very delicate and the filling so soft that it squished out the sides. This is what I got:Yeah...presentation-wise, I don't think this is a winner.The overall verdict, however: a hit! I loved it right away. Everything went really well together, from the rub on down. The sauce was great. The spinach, however, I could have lived without. It didn't really add any flavour and made the presentation less than stellar. I'd leave it out next time. Additionally, I would use feta cheese the next time, for a couple of reasons. A) I think the flavour contrast between saltiness of the feta and tart-sweet of the berries would be killer. B) It's a firmer cheese and would probably slice & present better than this goat's cheese.

My dad took a bit more convincing. He's not used to having sweet things mixed with his otherwise savoury dishes, and I get that. It's not everyone's cup of tea. He did, however, have seconds, and by the end of the meal, he was converted! He has half of the second loin we didn't even touch for leftovers, as do I. (I served this meal, by the way, with a barley & bean salad that will be the subject of an upcoming Magazine Monday post.)

Definitely a successful experiment! With a bit of tweaking, I might just make this my signature dish! And - I still have a ton of huckleberries frozen for future kitchen experiments!

Enjoy!

Huckleberry Time!

On Saturday, I got to go out into the bush and pick huckleberries. You can read more about that here.

I got 10 cups of huckleberries! So, now what? Well, yesterday morning I made huckleberry pancakes, using Nigella's homemade pancake mix. The pancakes were totally excellent and I still think this recipe makes the best pancakes I've ever had.

So, now what do I do with all these other remaining huckleberries? Yeah, there's muffins and pies...But I want to do something different.

Hucklberries are quite tart in comparison to blueberries. I'm thinking goat's cheese; I'm thinking pork loin; I'm thinking spinach!

Any ideas? Let me know!

Full Flickr set from the berry-picking spree is here.

Becoming a Localvore: Local Eggs

One of the things I wanted to do to help green up my kitchen and my eating was to buy local eggs. The eggs at the local overpriced grocery store are not necessarily local and they are most definitely overpriced. The cheapest eggs, which are, honestly, the ones I usually buy because I'm on a budget, also come in a non-recyclable styrofoam container. The yolks are pale yellow and the eggs are pretty tasteless. They go for $2.79 - $2.99/dozen. The next cheapest ones are $4.99/dozen. I get way better eggs from Wally World in Colville, WA, for a far better price.

Luckily, there are a couple of people who sell eggs from their farms in this area, and one of them happens to be a co-worker of my SIL's. My SIL regularly gets eggs from this gal, who lives right near the border in a small farming community called Paterson, which is about a five minute drive from town. These eggs come from free-range chickens who are not pumped full of chemicals at all, and she charges $3/dozen. I got my first dozen last Monday!

These eggs are beautiful, huge, and have bright yolks! I am in egg heaven!