The Food Allergy Foodie

Vinho verde aka liquid summer

This light, young, fresh, floral and slightly bubbly wine from Portugal is one we should all be drinking more of.  It's so easy drinking and refreshing.  It goes great with appetizers, fish and chicken, salty snacks and even salad.  The lcbo sells a variety of vinho verde's, including the less common vinho verde tinto (red), ranging in price from $8.95 to $30.95  Those made of the alvarinho grape are the 'best' according to The Oxford Companion to Wine, and are most expensive.  I'm happy with the cheapest, and at $8.95 it's a recession proof summer beverage.  CHEERS!
 

 SOGRAPE GAZELA VINHO VERDE
  LCBO 141432 | 750 mL bottle

White chelsea chai ice cream continued

So I'm waiting and waiting to see if my ice cream will turn out even though I didn't use rock salt.  My head is spinning, it may because I am watching my ice cream freezer closely, in anticipation.  After 10 minutes I turn off the motor and check the ice cream mixture.  I see some freezing around the edges and feel a glimmer of hope.  After 20 minutes I check again and I see ice cream!! It worked! Here it is in all its frozen creamy glory.  It smells so strongly of the white chelsea chai tea I infused it with. mmmmmm

I'm going to serve it tonight with the chewy molasses spice cookies I made a few days ago.

Metro Hall Farmers' Market

 

 It was a cold and rainy start to farmers' market season.  I went downtown to the Metro Hall Farmers' Market, which opened today. I wasn't sure what to expect because it is right downtown between office buildings and Roy Thomson Hall.  It was a small affair but they still had a good selection of vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses and baked goods.

My cooking mind goes wild at a farmers market.  I pick up one item and a meal starts to form, then at each stall I add to the idea.  Today I bought rhubarb first. I think I'll make a simple compote and put it over angel food cake for dessert tonight.  Brantview Farms from St. George was there. They sell apples and apple products.  I saw their apple mustard and immediately thought of salad dressing.  The farmer I spoke to suggested I mix it with apple butter for a great bbq sauce, something I might try tonight on a roast chicken. 

There is nothing like fresh local asparagus, so I had to get some.  I'm going to blanche them and put them in the salad.  While I was buying asparagus I asked the farmer for advice about my green beans that are growing up on my window sill.  He said they are big enough now to go in the ground.  I feel like a mother hen, or I guess a mother bean towards them, I'm sort of fond of watching them grow and change everyday.  I think I will keep them indoors just a little while longer.  

By the time I arrived at The Cheese of Canada stall I already had a meal planned in my mind.  They have loads of different local Ontario cheeses.  I told them about the apple mustard and my plans for a salad.  They had two suggestions (and they seemed as excited about them as I was) I forget the first suggestion, but in any case I went with the second one.  Eweda Cru is a firm raw sheep's milk cheese similar to gouda produced by Best Baa Dairy.  It crumbles and has a nice nuttiness (like I know what nuts taste like...) it's going to be great in the salad.

It is such a nice experience to go talk to the farmers that grow the food you eat.  I think they have the single most important job there is.  Farmer's Feed Cities!

 

Metro Hall Farmers’ Market
  55 John Street, near King St.
  Thursdays, 8 am - 2 pm, May 28 to October 15, 2009

White chelsea chai ice cream

The June/July issue of Fine Cooking has a great ice cream tutorial by chef and fellow blogger David Lebovitz.  I had never thought of infusing ice cream with a flavour before reading it.  I had the idea to use one of my favourite teas, white chelsea chai.  It is so light, sweet and fragrant.  I used it to infuse the milk and cream before making the custard.  The magazine suggests using a fine sieve to strain the mixture if you're infusing.  I don't own one so I made a big tea bag out of cheesecloth.

2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 5 egg yolks, 1/4 cup sugar (not pictured), 1/4 cup tea and a pinch of salt.

You can see peppercorns and whole cardamon pods in with the tea leaves. mmmm

Warm up 1 cup of the cream, the milk, sugar and salt over medium high heat.  When small bubbles form around the edges remove from heat and add 'tea bag'.  Wait an hour...maybe watch the Flavour Wave infommecial starring Mr. T like I did.  It's almost as good as the one for the magic bullet, you won't be disappointed!
Remove the tea and warm up the mixture.  Add a small amount to the beaten eggs while whisking, to temper them, then add the eggs and cream mixture back to the pot.  Cook and stir until the custard is thick enough to coat the spoon and hold a line drawn through with your finger.

Add mixture to the other cup of cream, use an ice bath to cool everything down.  Stir occasionally as it cools.  Refridgerate for atleast four hours.
I made the custard last night so this morning I could just freeze it in my ice cream freezer.  When I woke up I was so excited to get it going, but then I realized I used the last of my rock salt last time I made ice cream.  You pack ice and rock salt around the canister filled with the ice cream mixture to help it freeze.  The paddle inside mixes it as it freezes and fills it with air.  It's like making whipped cream in a freezer. 

I ran out into the rain (after getting dressed and popping some minty gum) to pick some up at Loblaws.  My Loblaws doesn't carry rock salt this time of year.  The little old cashier lady suggested I use pickling salt 'because once last winter she used it on her front steps and it melted the ice fine, it'll be in aisle four, it used to be in a different aisle, but we're reformatting the store you see'.  So here I am waiting to see if pickling salt works just as well as rock/ice cream salt.  I wonder if Anne of Green Gables and Diana had rock salt when they made ice cream for the church picnic? ... 'it takes a tin pail, pack it with some ice.  Rock salt, sprinkle on it twice. Big spoon to see if it tastes nice'

uh oh


To be continued....

Chewy molasses spice cookies

I'm having a small dinner party on Friday and since I am working like mad in between now and then, I'm spreading out my prep.  I'm not sure what I'm making for dinner yet, but I've already decided what to serve for dessert.  I have an interesting ice cream flavour idea I want to try, and I think it will go well with these cookies.  The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Collectible Cookie Edition- Holiday 2006, phew!

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp) unsalted room temperature butter
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses

1. Preheat your oven to 350, with rack in the centre.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup of the sugar; set aside.
2. Beat butter and remaining cup of sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and then molasses. Reduce speed to low; gradually add dry ingredients, beating just until a dough forms.
3. using 1 level tablespoon per cookie, roll dough into balls.  Then roll each ball and reserve 1/2 cup sugar to coat.
4. Place balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart.  Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, 10 to 15 minutes.  Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

These are some good cookies!  Definitly worth giving this recipe a try.  Tomorrow I am going to make ice cream, and I still have to decide what to serve for dinner.

Brad's Takeout and Eatery for brunch

I have been walking past Brad's Eatery for a year, often stopping to check the menu, and I've always past it by.  My thought was that the food prices didn't match up with the way the restaurant looks inside.  There are plain black lacquered tables and chairs, checkered floors and what looks like an espresso bar towards the back.  I felt wary of a place that has $18 entrees but the feel of a coffee shop.  Maybe the food wouldn't be that good?

On Saturday we went for brunch.  I heard rumour of a sun room out back, so we walked the length of the restaurant and discovered a beautiful back room with whitewashed brick walls and lofty ceilings. While eating you can gaze into their sunny back garden.  It's a really interesting space that was such a pleasant surprise.

Everything on the brunch menu looked great, and ranged in price from $8-$13, it was hard to decide.  We started with an orange juice, $3 and a mimosa, $6.50 while we read it over.  The mimosa came in a wine glass, which I thought was strange, but halfway through I was glad of its largesse!  We finally decided on the omelette for $9 and the pancakes for $8.50.  The omelette comes with portobella mushrooms and rapini cooked right into the eggs which are folded over oven dried tomatoes and lots of goat cheese.  It was so much better than having all the ingredients in the centre, its exactly the way I like it.  I chose the salad, dressed with a light vinegrette, as a side and then ordered a plate of homefries for $2.75, to share.  The rye toast was a little chewy, but that was my only complaint.  One other comment, not so much a complaint but an question of personal taste; I thought the homefries tasted too much of paprika, while my friend thought they were delicious.

The pancakes are light and fluffy and come with a choice of two 'delicious toppings'.  He chose blueberries and caramelized bananas, which came sumptuously piled right on top.  They taste as gorgeous as they look!

The service was friendly but just the right amount of friendly, never intrusive.  The bill came to just over $30 before tip.  Next time I indulge in the Torontonian pastime of brunching you may just find me back at Brad's!  This experience was a reminder of the age old adage --don't judge a book by its cover.

Brad's Takeout and Eatery
325 Roncesvalles Ave
Toronto ON M6R 2M6
416 533-2723 

When I told our server about my allergies (to nuts, peanuts, seafood and fish) she told me that they couldn't gaurentee that food hadn't come in contact with nuts or fish because they have them in the kitchen.  I told her it would be a problem, for example that if my omelette was cooked on a flat top that had previously grilled fish. She spoke to the kitchen and told me I would be ok.

Nut-free dried fruit mission: find #1

I'd love the freedom of just walking into a bulk barn and scooping up cheap ingredients.  But bulk food sections are a no-go zone for people with allergies.  I've been on a mission this week to find safe dried fruit to use in granola, or cookies or whatever.  I'm embarrassed to say how easy it was.  I went into my local fruit and vegetable store, which I have come to love for the greatest fresh organic and/or local produce, and I found a small variety of 'nut free' dried fruits.

The first, 7D dried mangoes, $5.99 for 200g and from the Philippines, were really good.  They taste just like sweetened mangoes and are in big soft slices.  My concern is that the labeling laws may be different.  So far all I can find on allergen labeling rules for imported foods is that 'Importers are encouraged to identify these ingredients on food labels when they appear as ingredients or components.'  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is encouraging them to label foods safely.  Good, that's all taken care of then, wiping our hands of this issue....

My fruit market sells several Earthbound Farm Organic dried fruits. I wanted to try the mangos (to  compare with 7D) and the dates.  The mangoes have even more fruit flavour, but are not as pretty, they are in smaller, dryer, browner pieces.  I have never had a fresh date, but I'm guessing this is what it is like, these are soft and sweet.  This brand sells for $4.99 (85g) and comes in a resealable bag.  The company is from California and the FDA/USDA  insists that allergens be labeled on domestic or imported producuts.

The last product I tried was pretty horrible.  HaHa all natural tropical whole fruit chips have four  ingredients; pineapple, banana, jackfruit and vegetable oil.  Unfortunatley all I could taste, and what is leaving an awful aftertaste in my mouth now, is the oil.  They are the cheapest at $2.75 for 75g, but I wouldn't bother buying them.

So I guess my mission wasn't so easy.  I've only found one decent and definitley safe brand of dried fruit.  Aren't there any Canadian companies out there drying fruit (nut free)?  I'm going to keep my eye open...

Baby steps: backyard garden

 

Although planting a garden is something I have always wanted to do, when I read the ecoholic issue of NOW in March, I decided this was the summer I was going to try to grow some food!  I am not known to be able to keep plants alive, so I am taking baby steps.  I decided to grow heirloom green beans, beefsteak tomatoes, red leaf lettuce and herbs (thyme, tarragon, parsely, and rosemary).  My backyard is a mess, half haphazard concrete driveway and half jungle like forest.  I decided to go with the planting in pots option because I'm not sure about the quality or safety of the soil. 

I've started the beans from seeds, and I was   just about to give up and throw the little containers away when I saw a little green poking through.  I was so excited, I'd grown something!!  Here they are on my kitchen wildonw sill,it is the warmest and brightest place I have to offer them.

The other plants I bought as seedlings, and over the May 2-4 planted them in pots in the yard.  I built a fence out of a coil of fencing? I found in the jungle, to protect them from the raccoons I share the yard with. Remembering farmer Joel Salatins chicken coop on wheels (read Omnivores Dilemma, learn about Joels sustainable farming online), I grabbed an easy pour carton -- like milk, of hen manure when in the garden centre and confidently took it to the cash register.  Thinking, 'I may know something about this after all'.

  When you love food as much as I do, it makes sense to grow it.  If it works out this summer and I can reach my goal of growing a salad, I may just think about taking bigger steps next summer.  Until then I'll be dreaming big Micheal Stadtlander-esq dreams.  You know, the chef-farmer-gourmet guru, who's farm house restaurant near Collingwood is rated 9th in the world?  A girl has got to dream! and eat! time for lunch...

7 Numbers Restaurant

Imagine the greatest physical and mental sensation possible to man (and woman).  Now imagine it as something you can do with your mom. That's  7 Numbers!  Every time I visit this restaurant I'm reminded that these people really know what they are doing.   Their  decor is hip and mismatched; records on the walls, burlap and butcher paper on the tables, tapered candle holders covered in, it seems, years worth of dramatic and romantic wax drippings.  The staff is casual and easy going, yet concerned, and quite possibly part of la famiglia!

The menu varies daily, weekly and seasonally but it is always simple, true to ingredients.  The wine list is so well priced and easy to read with descriptions of how each one tastes, that it's hard not to go for a bottle, hmm, or two while visiting.  The menu is written on blackboards on the wall, separated into antipasti, primi, secondi, and contorni aka. appetizer, pasta course, meat course, and side dishes.  Usually we order a few of each course and then everyone shares.  If you have five or more diners they offer a $27 prixe fixe menu served up family style.  What a great way to eat!

I rave about this restaurant to everyone I meet.  Last night I took someone who had never experienced 7 Numbers before.  I hyped it up way passed the reasonable threshold of amazingness, so you can imagine my disappointment when our experience was anti climactic.

We started with two antipasti (and a pictcher of Sangria for $25).   The green bean and beet salad was quite nice, crisp vegetables, light lemon dressing and just the right amount of cheese.  We also had prosciutto with figs and aged balsamic.  The prosciutto, I hate to say it, tasted too much like what it is, raw, ok, I know, cured, pig.  The fig was great though, plump and bursting with juicy melony flavour.

 

I usually skip primi, because I find it too filling and I always want room for secondi!  Last night however we had a small portion of veal lasagna (they also offer meal size versions of their pasta for $9).  It was ok, a little greasy.  So far in my books it was still 1 for 3.

(we ate this before I got a picture)

Secondi and contorni.  Now I'm excited!  So many great choices.  We chose the braised lamb shank with onions and peas and the Newmarket sexy duck leg with thyme and white wine.  Grilled oyster mushrooms and braised favas and artichokes were our contorni picks.  The mushrooms were amazing, smoky and just the right amount of salty.  The fava beans and artichokes were good, but nothing to write home about.  It doesn't compare to their artichokes braised in a tomato sauce that they often have, although didn't last night.  Those, I always always write home about.  The duck lives up to it's name, crispy salty thyme encrusted skin over fall of the bone moist dark meat.  Ooooh, ahhhh.  It makes you want to close your eyes and take a moment for yourself.  Annnnd...regroup, its time for the lamb.  Oh no.  The lamb was dry, the peas looked dehydrated, and the flavour fell flat in my mouth while I was trying to summon enough saliva to swallow it.

Feeling defeated, I couldn't go without having the chocolate mousse, it would lift my spirits!  A creamy amaretto* spiked centre lovingly surrounded by thinner layers of the richest chocolate mousse.  (They get their dessert, with the exception of Tony's canolis, from Bake:Dessert Co).  As we ordered the mousse, a latte and a tea (that would come in a presumably stolen Country Style mug!) the sound of 'Nantes' one of my favourite songs from my new favourite band, Beirut, floated out to us on the patio.  This is going to be good.  The chocolate layers were divine, like your first french kiss (assuming your first french kiss was any good).  But, the usually amazing centre layer was gritty.  My heart sank again.  

We got the bill, which came to just under $100 for the two of us, before tip.  This is the only time that 7 Numbers has not exceeded my expectations.  I think it is safe to assume that something in the universe was not aligned as it should be.  Despite last night's experience I think I will remain a loyal patron.  I'll just cross my fingers and hope that we are not destined to be star-crossed lovers.

*I don't know for sure whether the dessert contains ameretto, it isn't however a problem for my nut allergies, but may be for yours.  When I told our server about my allergies at the beginning of the meal, they talked to the kitchen and then came back to tell me I would be safe.  They run a clean open kitchen in both their restaurants, and I always feel safer when I can see where my food is being prepared.

Granola and the dried fruit mission

Granola is one of my food staples, but has been only since I started making it at home.  For nut allergy sufferers, commercial granola is something that we'll likely never experience.  Nuts are a popular ingredient in granola, and even nut-free granola is processes in the same facilities as nuts, so usually is labeled 'may contain'.

Its my day off and I decided to make a fresh batch for breakfast.  The ratio I use for basic granola is 1 honey : 1 oil : 8 oats.  After that you can add anything you like.  Raisins and coconut are what I've added here (the coconut has a sulphite warning).  I have been known to live on the edge, and for me that's eating dried cherries that were processed in a facility with peanuts or tree nuts.  Since starting this blog I have decided to be more responsible and only cook with completely safe foods.  I am on a serious mission to find nut-allergy-safe dried fruit and seeds, and as I do I will post the products here.

My basic granola recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F.
2. Whisk the honey and oil together in a large bowl and add a pinch of salt and cinnamon (optional).
3. Add rolled oats (not quick cooking oats) to liquid mixture and stir until oats are completely coated.
4. Spread evenly on a baking sheet, or two baking sheets if you are making a large amount. (I often cover it in tin foil so I don't have to wash it afterward! Or you can  use parchment paper, like I have here.)
5. Bake granola for approximately 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and stir occasionally as it cools, so it doesn't become one big granola bar.
7. Mix in raisins, coconut, etc. and store in an airtight container (once completely cool).

 

I'll be eating my granola with fresh fruit while I track down safe dried fruits that you can purchase in the GTA.