Homemade Slow-Me-Down Poppyseed Buckwheat Noodles

It's always handy to have mason jars of homemade soup stock in your fridge. I also like to make sure we have some miso paste, so that even if there is a stock shortage, you can whip up a miso veggie stock a la minute. Today is a Family Day holiday in B.C., so I decided to embark on a slow food project to wind down and enjoy a day with a gentle pace. To make these homemade noodles, you have to have deep patience and a delicate touch. You just can't make them if you are rushed because it will all end in tears.

This dough is so simple it doesn't even have eggs in it. You could make it gluten free by omitting the wheat flour. I used flours from New Life Organics in Saskatchewan. My folks brought them to Vancouver when they came to visit at Christmas. (I felt guilty when I realized how heavy a suitcase of flour is to lug through the airports.) You may need to add a little bit more water to the recipe, depending on the how finely milled your flours are. These are rustic noodles with a chewy mouthfeel that are fantastic in soups. You are using buckwheat and poppy seeds, two plants that nourish bees and humans. So slow down, enjoy the process and enjoy your noodles!

1 cup organic buckwheat flour--the one I used was quite finely ground
1 scant cup coarsely ground organic whole grain flour
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup tepid water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, make a well and add the oil and water. Mix and knead with your hands until the dough is pliable. Divide dough in half. Roll out 1/2 the dough into a rectangle on a floured surface to 2 mm thick. Cut the dough lenthgthwise into 3 inch widths and then cut out each noodle, to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch widths. The dough shouldn't crumble, but it is delicate which is why you have to be slow. Pick up each noodle and put on a floured pan until you are ready to cook them. This also takes patience.

Set aside any noodles you'll be cooking in the soup. Just before you eat, pop the noodles in the soap and simmer until they rise to the top.

As for the noodles you won't be eating right away, cook only 1/2 the entire batch of noodles at one time. Put a pot of water on to boil with 1 tbs olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Put the noodles in the pot in the boiling water until they rise to the surface (about 2-3 min. or less). Drain and keep covered in the fridge. When you want to use them, just blanch to bring up to temp.

Kale Blossom Mango Lassis at Moberly Community Arts Centre

 Yesterday was a cold and wet Vancouver day, so the only bees out were the bravest bumble bees. This bee was drinking from this tiny snow berry blossom with incredible focus and it was shaking--almost as though shivering. I think the shape of this blossom protects the nectar from being watered down.

These nodding onions buds are just starting to open.

You can see why some varieties of this kind of lavender is called "butterfly lavender."

 So let's go into the kitchen! I demonstrated my way of making kale chips. Preheat the oven and pans to 350 degrees F. Masage kale with olive oil and salt. Turn off the oven. Put one layer of kale on the heated pans. Try not to let the leaves overlap. You will hear a slight sizzle. Put the pans in the oven for about 20 minutes or until crispy.

 I passed around the chips and then crumbled the rest to make the gomashio in The Book of Kale by Sharon Hanna. I coudn't find seaweed flakes, so my friend Lori Snyder cut some nori into strips. We served this on top of avocado on brown rice crackers. This is one of my favorite snacks.

 We used the gomashio to season naked pumpkin seed and kale blossom  pesto. The arugula is really spicy at this time of the year, so I mix it with the kale blossoms to mediate the heat.

 I hadn't used a blender to make pesto before, and had to add extra oil to make it work. I reccomend using a food processor so you can use less oil. Sometimes when you do workshops, you have to work with what's available!

 So I forgot the yogurt to make the mango smoothies, but I went with the flow and made vegan smoothies. This one is decorated with edible flowers from the Moberly Community Herb garden: calendula, borage, lavender, and cat nip.

Madame Beespeaker's Kale Blossom Lassis

For 1 big serving or 2 small servings:

1 large ripe mango

1 handful kale blossoms

3 tbs low fat yogurt

1 cup coconut water

1/2 tsp grated fresh turmeric

2 ice cubes

Garnish:

1/4 tsp freshly ground green cardamom seeds

Cut as much flesh from the mango as you can and put aside. Put the coconut water in the blender first, followed by the other ingredients. Pulse and blend until smooth. Add more yogurt or coconut water to your taste. If you want to keep this vegan, you could use coconut milk, coconut yogurt, or add more coconut water. If you want to keep the recipe more local, use dairy milk or your own nut milk instead of coconut water and substitute some of your canned or frozen peaches (if you're lucky have any left at this time of the year). Garnish with the cardamom and edible flowers. Enjoy!

 

 The little Labrador tea plant in the garden is blooming. Lori says it can be used to make a hangover remedy. I'll put that in my files!

 The shade garden at Moberly looks fantastic in the rain.

Oh poor sodden bee, hanging on to wallflowers waiting for the sun to come out. I know how you feel.

Mango Lassies for Bees: Avens Geum 'Mango Lassi'

I was in VanDusen Gardens on Sunday doing Citizan Scientist training with Erin Udall of the Environmental Youth Alliance. It was cool and overcast, threatening rain, but by eleven thirty the bees were out foraging. I discovered this amazing variety of Avens that would be wonderful in a bee garden. This little bee is one of my favorite solitary bees, with the big pollen pants and the buff hairs on its thorax. It is so calm that you can stick the camera right into the flower, and it just ignores you.

And here is what I deem the Vozzy Bear of Bumble Bees: Bombus vosnesenskii.

It's funny, because these days I am developing a recipe for kale blossom mango smoothies with freshly grated turmeric, fresh mango, yogurt, coconut water, ice cubes and kale blossoms. Manog smoothies all around!

Earth Cookies for Bees and Lady Bugs

We're getting pretty close to Earth Day, so it's a perfect time to work with clay and seeds and petals and pods. We had a wonderful group of curious kids who are going to plant seedy sculptures to grow plants for the pollinators and other beneficial insects.

 Since we were working in the kitchen, we decided these sculptures should be called Earth Cookies.

The teachers had just taken the children on a long walk to study ponds. What a busy day!

When it came time for clean up, I was amazed at how the children  tidied everything up quickly and quietly like little garden gnomes. You're all hired to be Madame Beespeaker's assistants!

Later the same day, at the edible flowers and herbs workshop, we made chocolate chai cookies sprinkled with fennel seeds.

Madame Beespeaker's Shortbread

Shortbread cookies are great for afternoon tea and using this basic recipe you can be creative using the herbs you find in your garden. Let me know what combinations you discover! The combination of lemon and lavender is nice, and if you really like lavender, infuse sugar with lavender buds and use that to make the cookies. Rosemary and lemon go well together too. If you like savoury shortbread, there are lots of recipes out there that you could also add in herbs from your garden.

The recipe is so easy:

2 cups flour,

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup icing sugar or 1/3 cup brown or white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Then you add ingredients depending on your taste:

Lemon verbena: peel of one lemon, 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger, some freshly chopped lemon verbena leaves

or

just a few lavender buds to taste

1/3 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

or

2 tbs ground chai spice (I use a locally mixed spice that includes the ground tea leaves)

1/3 cup bitterweet chopped chocolate

Cream the butter and sugar, mix in other ingredients until blended. Make dough into logs the diameter you want your cookies. Put them in the freezer or fridge to firm up. Cut them into slices and bake at 400 degrees F until the bottoms start to brown. (We dipped the chocolate chai cookies in sugar and fennel before baking). I bake them on my pizza stone.

A Queen Bee in the Washing Machine and My Super Soup Recipe

Imagine my surprise, dear reader, when I opened up my washing machine in the basement to discover a rather large queen bee resting in the lint trap. I immediately took her outside to the south side of the house where it was warmest. The trouble is, it wasn't warm at all. The poor bumble bee queen had to suffer the indignity of waiting it out in the lint trap.

I was relieved when at about afternoon tea time, the sun made a blessed appearance. I went out to run errands and when I cam back she had flown away, joining her sister Bombus Terrestris queens in foraging through the forsythia blossoms.

Now you may ask yourself how she ended up in the washing machine in the first place. Simple, my dear Watson! She made a nest in an abandoned (I hope) mouse nest that led into the basement of our old house. Instead of heading back outside, her majesty sought the relative warmth of the basement and ended up in the washing machine.

In other news, I have a new celebrity crush. I am so excited to have discovered by chance the show "How to Grow Your Own Drugs" with James Wong, a handsome(!) ethnobotanist who trained at Kew Gardens. (Lucky sod!) Having grown up in Malaysian he adds a Asian flair to some of his medicinal culinary creations. Wong is very charismatic and he makes his concoctions look accessible by going through them step by step and using ingredients that are close at hand--ie growing in your garden! He does things I've always wanted to try, but couldn't get up the nerve to deal with the mess and inevitable rate of failure. He's inspired me to take my kitchen experiments to the next level. Enter goji berries, stage right . . . .

Zucchini Mama's Goji Berry Chicken Super Soup

--a riff on a recipe by James Wong

Ingredients: (Use the amounts suited to your taste and the amount of servings you're making)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 inches chopped leek stalk

1 cup nettles

1 litre chicken stock from one roast chicken

1 (or more) tbs miso

1/2 cup Saskatchewan wild rice

1 cup chopped shitake mushrooms

one handful dried goji berries

We have roast chicken about once a week, so it's a weekly ritual to make chicken stock from scratch. This week I was inspired by ethnobotanist James Wong's recipe for goji berry x chicken soup. I am so excited because I just bought a little goji berry plant aka "wolf berry" (Lycium barbarum) to put in our garden. Apparently they grow really well in Vancouver. Wong says you can even grow them in planter boxes in a sunny spot on your balcony. Now apparently these plants are related to the deadly nightshade family, the plants of which are pollinated by (ta da!) bumble bees.

I had some nettles in the fridge and I used a fresh leek from our garden to add some more super-powered health benefits to this super-soup. After making the chicken stock you can soak the goji berries in water while cooking the wild rice in the stock. I sauteed the garlic and leeks in olive oil and salt, adding in the shitake mushrooms. Once the wild rice is cooked (about 40 minutes) you can add in the miso, dissolving it in the stock and then all the rest of the ingredients (including the water the goji berries have been soaking in).

All you need to do is simmer the soup until the nettles have wilted. Of course it always tastes better after a day in the fridge when the flavours have melded. This soup is very healing and grounding. You can add chile pepper if you have a cold and need to turn the wolf into a dragon!

Post Christmas Mandarin Chevre Cheesecake

My partner is lactose intolerant so he has been jealous of all the fabulous cheesecakes Ules and I have been bringing home from Mobius. When we received a generous log o' chevre for Christmas, he asked if I could make a cheesecake from it. I dug up a recipe I tried a while ago developed by chef Gayle Tanner for the Quady Winery dessert pairing competition. We are big fans of Essensia Orange Muscat, which is what this recipe was meant to be paired with.

I used some leftover Christmas oranges to make the fruit purée, and leftover Christmas cookies to make the base. (The original recipe doesn't have a base, which makes it gluten free if you leave out the AP flour.) I had some trouble with the egg whites today because the yolks kept breaking and leaking into the whites so they did not whip into stiff peaks, but no matter, the cheesecake tends to deflate somewhat in any case. I don't trust my cheesecake pan to be waterproof, so I didn't bake it in a water bath, but it still turned out all right.

2 cups orange Muscat wine such as Essensia (reduced to 1/4 cup) if available

About 8 leftover Christmas oranges squeezed and reduced (simmered) to 1/4 cup juice and pulp

11-12 oz (325-350grams) fresh chevre or cream cheese (1 cup is 8 oz cream cheese, 12 oz is 1 and 1/2 cups)

3 tbs. all purpose flour

1 tsp grated orange peel

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla

6 large eggs, separated

Crumb Base:

Approx. 1 1/2 cups crumbs made by putting leftover gingerbread cookies in the food processor

Peel of one lemon

1. I didn't have the dessert wine, but if you use it, you can put it in a pan over high heat, and simmer until it's reduced to 1/4 cup. This doesn't go in the cheesecake, but you can pour it on top as a finishing sauce. We're going to use Wendy Boys' Salted Caramel Sauce.

2. In a bowl with a mixer or food processor, beat juice and pulp, 1/4 c sugar, flour, orange peel, and vanilla and beat well until blended.

3. Oil a 9 inch cheesecake pan and dust with sugar

4. Pulse leftover cookies with lemon peel and then press the mixture into the base of the pan.

5. Put egg whites in a narrow, deep bowl. Beat egg yolks into cheese mixture.

6. Whip egg whites on high speed until thick and foamy, gradually adding 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until whites hold soft, round peaks.

7. Fold whites into cheese mixture, and scrape batter into pan.

8. Bake in a 325 degree F oven until cake begins to pull away from the sides and is browned on top and not gloppy in the centre, 45 minutes to one hour. Cool on a rack. Chill if you like and save up to two days. Remove ring and serve with reduced Essensia, mandarin slices, or salted caramel sauce.

This recipe is originally from the Sunset Annual 2000 Edition and the similar recipe here: http://www.quadywinery.com/goatcheesecake.html

Fresh Ginger Cake

 My host in Montreal is an amazing baker. One night her partner made a fabulous curry dinner and S made a cake with copious amounts of fresh ginger. I bought some local rosé sparkling cider to accompany the meal made by Michel Jodoin. Actually, our baker made two cakes, one for our dinner party and one for the café where she works called Santropol.

This summer S made cupcakes for a wedding, so she made these pretty cupcake stands out of found china and glasses.

 To  garnish the cake, she made her own candied ginger.

When I arrived back in Vancouver I put in a request for her recipe and in the meantime I made a ginger cake using David Lebowitz's recipe. Apparently it is his most requested recipe.

 

When she heard I was going straight from YVR to my FIL's birthday, S was delighted. "I can make him a cake!" She made a lovely chocolate cake with hazelnut pastry cream filling. It was awesome!

Missing S, M  and Kitty. Thanks again for your wonderful hospitality!

Ladies who Lunch on Lentils

 We've been having such lovely weather, I wanted to celebrate a sunny afternoon by inviting my friend Catherine over for a comfort food lunch. I know she shares my love of brussel sprouts so I steamed some up, coated them in Little Creek Dressing and then roasted them. My favorite bits were the leaves that had fallen off and browned and caramelized thinking there might be something in attempting to make tiny brussel sprout chips. Hmmmmm.

 I had some spaeztle I made in the fridge so I fried it in olive oil and butter.

 I also had some leftover lentil stew, which is always better the second day. I used organic green lentils I bought in Saskatchewan at the Witzaney Farm. First, I soaked them overnight, then washed them, covered them in home made stock and simmered them. Finally, I added a smoked turkey leg and stewed the lentils on low heat until they were cooked. (Make sure you have extra stock on hand to add if your need to during the cooking process.)

 I picked the last carrots and beets from the garden and we drank mineral water with our comfort food lunch.

We finished with Assam tea and chai shortbread, then took a tour of the garden. I am getting the raised bed ready to plant garlic.

As I write this, the sun is streaming in the studio window, so I need to get out there and enjoy it and do some comfort food foraging. Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Greek Salad with Purslane

When I was strolling through my mom's garden I pointed down and said, "Oh, you've got purslane. You can eat that, did you know?" My mom looked at me funny and said "That's just Portulaca. We've recently started getting it in our gardens." I didn't realize the Latin name for this weed is indeed Portulaca oleracea, so I did a bit of research. Turns out it is from Mediterranean countries, is an excellent source of Omega 3's and the Greeks saute it and put it in salad. Suddenly I saw purslane in a whole new light.

When I volunteered at the market garden at UBC we were always picking purslane out as a weed, whereas the Mayan Gardeners were selling it at their stall. Sure enough, this year UBC Farm has been selling healthy bunches of purslane, so I put it raw in a Greek salad. Apparently the lemony taste comes out depending on how dry it has been and what time of day it is picked. I now throw it in at the end of making a veggie sauté, for those extra vitamins.

I was looking at a bunch of purslane, thinking the texture might lend itself to pickling. Sure enough, the bloggers are on it already as you can see with this great post from Seasons at My House. Furthermore, Shelora (Cooking with a Broad) has been experimenting with purslane this summer to great effect. Have I convinced you yet, mom?

As a footnote to this post, I had a couple of curious women ask me about the purslane that was on top of my shopping bag. I told them what it was and offered a taste. "It's a bit of a weed," I said. "Smells like a weed," one woman said. "Yeah well, you know how it is," the other offered, "Some people smoke their weeds and some people eat 'em."

The Old Crabapple Tree

When we were visiting mom and dad in Saskatchewan the crap apples were at the peak of ripeness--so sweet you could eat them raw. My sister's kids like to eat them in their lunch, so we packed a bunch in the car to give to family and friends.

This is dad's Saskatoon berry picking bucket with harness.

 Some of the apples had blight, so they weren't as plentiful as they first seemed, but you can keep the seconds for making infusions.

 Ullie and I startled a bird in a nearby tree and her nest was full of perfect little eggs.

Dragonflies gobbled up the mosquitoes nearby.

The neighbors have a good crop of calendula. I'll have to ask mom to save me some seeds.

To make an infusion, cut the apples in half, boil enough water to cover them, then leave for 24 hours. I'll have to do some research and find a recipe for crabapple shrub. Drinking vinegars are all the rage these days, but I like to keep it simple.

Of course, the apples also taste good sliced on top of pulled pork.

We drink our crab apple infusion chilled with a splosh of Victoria gin. One of my friends says she misses her mom's crab apple tree in Saskatchewan. She says they used to cut the apples in half and infuse in vodka. I'm gonna try that with gin. Stay tuned!