Read This! The Edible City

Think you love food? Think you know your city? I think not.

Though the title reads "from farm to fork", this is NOT just another book persuading you to buy local, sustainable, fair trade, organic, ethical, rah, rah. It’s a story about FOOD, and TORONTO. Rather, a collection of essays about craft beer, indie coffee shops, world culture, food policy, history, gardens, food service, street food, migrant workers, food sanitation practices and life as a rat. Just to name a few.

This book is easily one of my favourite reads this year. One of the best essays came from Wayne Roberts, Toronto’s own food policy darling. “How Toronto found its food groove” celebrates Toronto’s food movement past, present and future in a way that makes you truly feel proud of our city.

But really, they are ALL fantastic reads. Read one, read them all.

Recipe: Tomato Confit

Wish you could store all those ripe roma tomatoes for another day, but the thought of canning repels you? Try roasting them. It's super easy, and so tasty. The roasted tomatoes, or "tomato confit", will keep in the fridge for at least a week, and freezes well.

I used the instructions on the blog Chocolate & Zucchini, but didn't include the chili flakes or herbs. When packing the confit into jars, I layered with roasted garlic since I had it on-hand.

The confit has been incredible in sandwiches, omlettes, pasta, or even on their own. My favourite, though, is using the confit in a caprese salad. One slice of roasted tomato, one slice of buffalo mozzarella, one fresh basil leaf, salt, pepper, a glug of olive oil... there's nothing quite like it.

Pickles and Party

This year's canning event was the biggest yet! Meaning, one more friend joined our party of two. Zing! We had a full day of peeling fruits and vegetables, packing into sterilized jars, making syrups and pickling liquids, boiling jars and listening to lids pop.

To avoid the scramble to find the right ingredients and quantities the morning of, I pre-ordered the produce from the Withrow Farmers Market a week in advance. Haystrom Farms from Picton, The Fresh Veggies Farm from Brampton, and Weber's Meats from Paisley were the Ontario producers that supplied the eggs and vegetables I needed to get my pickle on.

In total, we made over 40 jars of preserved peaches, beans, eggs, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes and pears. The jars now stand in a line above my kitchen cupboards, soldiers of food preservation ingenuity.

One Little Bugger

The leaves on one young plant went missing. Only a single stem was left. It puzzled me for a moment, until I noticed a chubby green caterpillar sitting on an adjacent plant.

You can see him in the background at the top of this photo, directly above the pathetic looking single stem left from the plant that used to have leaves. If you look closely at the caterpillar, you can see the self-satisfied smile on his smug little face.

Recipe: Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup

The summertime is the perfect time, if not the only time, for chilled soups. Sure, you don’t get the same heart-warming, snuggling-by-the-fireplace vibes that you do drinking a hot soup in the dead of winter. But a chilled soup is still delicious as f***.

But don't just stop at gazpacho. How about cucumber? Or this zucchini and basil soup. It's the perfect mid-summer harvest soup. Super simple, but tons of flavour. Serve it with a side of garlic cheese bread, and it's your new favourite summertime meal.

The recipe is adapted it from Emeril’s website, and will make about 4 to 6 meal-sized servings. Ideally you would make it a day in advance to let the flavours develop. Enjoy!


Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup
Season: Mid-summer, autumn

Ingredients:

1 onion --- roughly diced
4 cloves of garlic --- minced
6 zucchinis --- roughly diced
4 cups vegetable broth
A generous handful of fresh basil --- chopped
2 tbsp butter (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a pot on medium-high heat, sauté onion with some oil (or butter if using) for 2 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté until onion turns transparent. Add zucchini, and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add broth, boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend with hand immersion blender, or in traditional blender in batches. Cool, cover and chill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Kale Chips

The kale was growing really well, but in the past few weeks its taken on a load of diseases and pests: unknown fungus (causing the leaves to yellow), leaf miners (causing white spots and tunnels), aphids, and now the new leaves are growing in stunted and deformed. Poor suffering plants. So I chopped it all down and will plant something in its place. Arugula, peas and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) are the top contenders, due to their quick growing and cold tolerant nature.

Now I have a serious amount of kale to consume. I can’t give them away; some of the leaves are diseased and deformed. Enter kale chips.

A friend at work turned me onto this recipe. I made a batch from 2 big handfuls of kale, and the resulting chips just disappeared into my mouth. You can also make the chips in a dehydrator, if you like raw food. You can substitute for other green leaves, like chard or spinach. I love recipes that are versatile like that.

Kale Chips
Season: Late spring, summer, autumn

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale
Vegetable oil --- e.g. olive, or locally sourced oil
A sprinkle of salt
Seasonings (optional) --- e.g. cayenne, curry powder

Directions:

Wash, dry and cut off the thick stems from the kale. If desired, tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.

Brush leaves with oil. If you don’t have a brush, oiled fingers also does the trick. Lay on a flat cookie sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle salt and seasonings if desired. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until leaves are crisp and slightly browned. Cool.