Tag Archives: vegetable

Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian

Candied Yams

The flavour of yams baked in their skins and then mashed with brown butter and maple syrup is like caramel candy; nutty, sweet, and delicious. The vegetable referred to as a yam in North America is actually correctly identified as an orange sweet potato. Slaves, on encountering the tubers in the South, were reminded of the true yam, a tuber found in central Africa, and bestowed the name upon the variety of sweet potato they commonly used.

Preheat oven to 375 F

6 medium yams (orange sweet potatoes)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
pinch nutmeg

Bake yams for 1 hour, until tender.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cut in half and scoop flesh from skins and transfer to a bowl
Heat butter until golden brown and pour over yams
Add maple syrup and nutmeg
Mash together until well combined
Season to taste

Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian

Mashed carrots and parsnips

Nothing can be simpler or more tasty than sweet carrots and parsnips mashed together as an accompaniment to a simple meal. If you want to puree them instead of the more casual mash, that’s fine as well.

2 lb carrots, preferably a sweet variety like Nantes
2 lb parsnips
2 tbsp butter
salt

Wash and peel carrots and parsnips.
Cut roughly into 1 inch pieces and place in a saucepan, cover with cold water and add a healthy pinch of salt.
Bring up to a simmer, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.
Drain, add butter, and mash together or puree, depending on the consistency you prefer.
Season to taste.

Recipes, Salad

Summer Vegetable Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

During the summer, we eat salads of crisp raw summer vegetables with great regularity, as the main vegetable portion of the meal, especially if we are cooking outside. A bit of fresh bread and something off the grill rounds out the menu nicely. Cucumbers are a nice addition to this as well, either in as well as or in place of the carrots, in which case I usually serve a creamy dressing instead of the vinaigrette.

1 lb assorted coloured carrots
1 lb assorted coloured peppers
1 lb mixed cherry tomatoes

Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup basil, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced

Wash and peel the carrots and slice thinly on a slight bias.
Wash the peppers, core and seed them, and dice into 1 inch pieces
Wash and stem the cherry tomatoes and halve them if large (1 inch diameter or more)
Combine all vegetables in a bowl and mix well.

Combine all ingredients for the dressing, season to taste, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Toss salad with enough vinaigrette to coat the vegetables lightly and serve immediately.(Any extra dressing may be kept for a few days in the refrigerator)

Appetizer, Cooking, Dessert, Entree, Food, Menus, Poultry, Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Writing

The Striped German

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The first of my Sunday Dinner series…

Last night, Milan Djordjevich from Stoney Paradise brought me a gift. Not just any gift to mark my new direction in life, but the tomato to end all tomatoes. Twelve years we have known each other, and there have been many fine specimens to grace my kitchen, but none quite as impressive as this. I opened the paper bag to see what was inside, and there was THE tomato, a 2 1/2 lb Striped German. It sat on the counter for the remainder of service while I contemplated its fate, knowing we were having friends over for dinner tonight, and wanted to see how that one tomato could inspire a meal.

the tomato in question

I woke this morning to see it proudly perched on my kitchen counter at home, and decided that I would hollow it out and use it as a vessel to serve an appetizer, reserving the flesh for something, perhaps the filling. A trip to the market in the morning provided a few complimentary items; peppers, sweet onion, and basil. I had picked up a few chickens in the hope of barbecuing, and figured we had a good start. Once home again, I noticed quite a few windfallen apples on the ground from one of our two trees, and went out to gather them. Not quite perfect, but great for applesauce or something along those lines. The tomato plants provided a few cocktail sized red tomatoes suitable for roasting along with the peppers and onion to add to the filling, and by now, the menu was starting to take shape.

Roasted vegetable relish (served in the Striped German, with fresh baguette)

Roast chicken of some description ( I had given up on the barbecue as it looked pretty gloomy outside)

Something with apples, still under consideration

Half a dozen cocktail tomatoes, halved, one sliced sweet onion, and two peppers, seeded and quartered made their way onto a sheet pan and into the oven with a splash of olive oil and salt. An hour or so at 300 degrees, I figured, and started carving the tomato. The flesh was soft and sweet, so I chopped it lightly, salted it, and placed it in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of chopped basil.

I let it sit while I split the chickens and removed the thigh bones, and put them into a large pyrex pan to marinate. A couple of tablespoons each of honey and grainy mustard whisked together with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a quarter cup olive oil provided a good rub down, topped with a few sprigs from the garden: rosemary, oregano flowers, and thyme, followed by a healthy pinch of coarse salt and about teaspoon of chili powder. Birds comfortably in the fridge, I returned to the tomato flesh, decided to puree it and go from there. The resulting liquid was magic, and it seemed a shame to toss it in with the roasted veg, fresh out of the oven. Maybe just a shooter of cold tomato soup? By the time it was strained, there was only about 10 ounces, not quite enough for the eight of us, so I decided to make some gnocchi, and toss them in the golden elixir.

Back to the roasted vegetables, now cooled to room temperature: a brief chop, a splash of balsamic, a healthy dose of chopped basil, a pinch of salt, and into the shell of the German. Potatoes on, things really were shaping up. The windfallen apples were peeled, into a pot with some brown sugar and cinnamon they went, just a splash of water to keep them from sticking, and onto a low simmer. I figured a bit of fun would be nice for dessert, so settled on making some sweet cinnamon waffles, topping them with the applesauce, vanilla ice cream, and caramel. Popped the waffle batter together quickly and put it in the fridge, brought out the birds to be transferred to a sheet pan to go in the convection oven for an hour or so, and took the potatoes off the stove, strained them and allowed them to cool and dry out for a bit.

stuffed and ready to go

By this time, our guests were arriving, so I sliced the bread to go with the tomato relish, and sat down for a drink and a visit. Only the gnocchi to make yet, so we were in good shape. Once cooled to room temperature, I riced and weighed the potato, gather the prescribed amount of flour (1/3 the weight of the potato), a couple of eggs, and put the dough together while I waited for the water to boil. There was still a couple of tablespoons of chopped basil there, so I tossed it in, and rolled, cut, and shaped the gnocchi, laying them out on a sheet pan. By this time, the water was boiling, so in they went in batches (so as not to crowd the pot), and once they floated to the top they were cooled in cold water, strained, tossed in a touch of oil, and set aside.

The chicken was looking pretty good by this point, so I pulled it from the oven to rest, cleaned some yellow beans, and went back to our guests. the tomato shell was all that remained, and it looked quite juicy once all the roasted vegetable relish had been spooned out of it. As I carried the platter back to the kitchen, it seemed a shame not to make good use of the rest of the German, so I diced it up and threw it into the food processor, and strained the resulting liquid to add to the previous batch from the flesh of the fruit.

Beans went into the steamer, and two large saute pans were brought out for the gnocchi. Once heated to medium-high, I baptized them with a splash of olive oil, and divided the gnocchi among the two. Just a nice browning, then I tossed in the golden tomato puree and just cooked it enough to heat through. Dinner was served!

Following a respectful break for digestion, it was time to move forward on dessert. The waffle iron was heated, plates were laid out and the waffles cooked and quartered. A generous helping of the not too sweet applesauce on the hot waffle, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, and a fair drizzle of caramel sauce over everything put the finishing touches on a great Sunday dinner, the last before school starts and the first in my new-found existence. The kids went back for seconds, thirds even, polishing off the rest of the waffles and applesauce.

What a way to end the summer with good food and good friends, and to think it all started with one tomato, but what a tomato it was! I can’t wait for next week, I’m starting to get hungry again. Actually, there may still be some gnocchi left in the fridge…..

Appetizer, Recipes, Sauce, Side dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian

Roasted Vegetable Relish

This vegetable relish is a favourite of ours to serve as the beginning of a summer meal. If I’m cooking on the barbecue, I will grill the vegetables instead of roasting them. I usually slice some fresh baguette, and guests can spoon the relish on as a very informal bruschetta, but it can also be used as a condiment or sauce for grilled chicken or fish. Select ripe cocktail sized tomatoes (no more than a 2 inch diameter) from a thick walled variety such as Cascades.

6 small tomatoes (about 1 lb)
1 sweet onion
2 yellow peppers
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
2 tbsp basil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 300 F

Halve tomatoes and arrange cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Peel and slice onion into 1/4 inch thick slices, and arrange on the same baking sheet
Quarter peppers, remove seeds, and arrange on baking sheet as well
Drizzle vegetables with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper
Place baking sheet in oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until vegetables are tender and slightly browned. (Turn peppers and onions halfway through baking)
Remove tray from oven and allow to cool to room temperature
Chop all vegetables into a 1/4 inch dice and mix together with basil and balsamic vinegar
Adjust seasoning, if necessary, and serve at room temperature