Duck eggs...

from the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. I like that they're blue.

Parmesan Crust Asparagus Quiche

1 lb asparagus

1 tbsp butter

1/2 small onion, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

Small bunch of chives, chopped

5 duck eggs (or extra large chicken eggs)

1/2 cup cream (or half and half)

Salt and pepper

3-4 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

12 pansy flowers (optional)

Snap off the thick ends of the asparagus. Discard or compost the thick ends. Choose 12 spears and trim to 4 inches (10 cm). Grill or roast the 12 spears until partially cooked. Reserve these spears for the garnish. Chop all the remaining asparagus into 1/2 in. (1 cm) pieces and steam until partially cooked.

Melt the butter in a pan. Sauté the onion, red pepper and chopped asparagus. Toss in the chives. Meanwhile, use a fork to whip together the eggs and cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Grease a pie plate with a bit more butter. Sprinkle on the parmesan cheese, pressing it into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Spread the onion mixture over the parmesan cheese. Top with the grated cheddar. Pour the eggs over all. Using a fork, press the cheese below the surface of the egg mixture.

Lay the 12 asparagus evenly on the top of the quiche like the spokes of a wheel. Set a pansy between each spear. Bake at 375F for 35-40 minutes. The quiche is done when a knife inserted into the centre comes out dry.

One person's weeds...

...is another person's dinner.

I did a bit of weeding at the community garden and made this "weed" fritatta for dinner. It includes orach, sunflower seedlings, dandelion leaves and johnny-jump-ups, all of which grow like weeds if unchecked. My gardening friend Karen has a carpet of fuscia-coloured orach in her garden. It was my first encounter and I must say, it is delicious. I'll be nipping back to her garden for more. Here's a closeup of the fritatta -- pretty as a piece of art!



















Weed Fritatta
8 eggs
a generous pinch of dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 handfulls of small tender weeds plus some baby spinach
a bit of butter

Scramble the eggs in a bowl with the thyme, salt and pepper. Gently stir in the baby weeds. Do not add johnny-jump-ups at this point.

Heat a non-stick skillet on medium heat. Melt a bit of butter and swirl it around. Pour in the egg mixture. Place the flowers decoratively on top, pressing gently. As the eggs solidify, lift the edges and tip the pan so the liquid egg runs under the fritatta.

When the egg is cooked on the bottom but still jiggly in the middle, place the skillet under the brioler and cook until the egg is just set. Allow to cool slightly before cutting and serving.

Newspaper Column - SUGAR SPARKLERS

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 15 Dec. 2008

I have way too many cookbooks but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a cookbook for Christmas. Cookbooks make great gifts for anyone who loves to cook. And if, like me, you love to cook with Saskatchewan flavours, there are a few special cookbooks that would be right at home in your kitchen.

One of my favourites is Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead by Habeeb Salloum, who emigrated with his parents from Syria to a homestead near Swift Current in the 1920s. It’s brimming with Middle Eastern recipes that can be made with Saskatchewan ingredients such as lentils, chickpeas, yogurt, lamb and mint, along with stories about his childhood on the prairies.

I can also recommend Fonos Fish Favourites by Jonathon Fonos, a fisherman from Dore Lake who sells his catch at the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market, with recipes for pickerel, northern pike, burbot and whitefish. If you’re trying to get more fish in your diet, as Canada’s Food Guide recommends, his fish and his cookbook will help out.

A couple of cute little cookbooks make good use of two abundant prairie ingredients— Zucchini: You Can Never Get Enough and Rhubarb: More than Just Pies. They’re published by Lois Hole and the University of Alberta Press.

I also like the cookbooks of Sam Hofer, who grew up on a Hutterite colony. They’re full of recipes for hardy German cooking adapted to the Saskatchewan experience. Lately, I’ve been dipping into his A Passion for Sauerkraut.

I also find inspiration in Vancouver chef John Bishop’s cookbook Fresh: Seasonal Recipes made with Local Foods. Even though he’s on the West Coast, many of his recipes are right at home in Saskatchewan, such as Dry Rub Pork Ribs with coriander and mustard seeds and Sweet Onion Soup with herbed biscuits.

My Saskatchewan cookbook collection also contains a few vintage examples. The Seasonal Gourmet was written by Barbara Logsdail, the food columnist in the Star Phoenix in the 1980s and early 1990s. She made the best of seasonal vegetables, wild game, honey and berries, but some foods produced in Saskatchewan today weren’t grown here yet, such as lentils and sour cherries. “Canola was just becoming popular at the time and I helped develop some recipes,” says Barbara, who retired to Kingston, Ont., with her husband Doug. “It was a very interesting province to be in as far as we were concerned coming from the east. It was all new—the foods, the tastes and the recipes—and the influence of the different ethnic backgrounds, Ukrainian, German and Italian. I thought it was more interesting than Ontario.”

Another of my favourites is The Prairie Cook’s Book published 25 years ago by Betty Ternier Daniels, then a young mother on the farm at Cochin. Apart from some flavourings and baking ingredients, the recipes are exclusively Saskatchewan. Betty was ahead of her time in the local food movement when she wrote this introduction:

“Self-sufficiency in food production would not mean deprivation. Rather, it would mean reduced fuel consumption (since food would no longer be hauled in from distant places). It would mean more local employment in agriculture and small food industries. It would mean freedom from the vagaries of the international food market. And it would mean that the food-rich prairies would no longer import food from third world countries whose inhabitants haven’t enough food for themselves.”

Here’s wishing you a delicious holiday season with a recipe from Betty’s cookbook.

Sugar Sparklers
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar. Separate one egg. Add yolk and second egg to the creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, blending thoroughly. Chill 1 hour. Roll out dough and cut into shapes. Place on baking sheet. Using a fork, whisk the remaining egg white. Brush cookies with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. (To make coloured sugar, shake in a container with one drop of food colouring.) Bake 10 min. at 350F.

Blue chicken eggs

My little freinds Ada and Emma asked if I dyed these eggs. No, they're naturally blue. They were given to me by my friend Eva, who got them from a local farmer. I'm not sure what kind of chickens give blue eggs, but I'm sure they're not blue.

Newspaper column - NICE SALAD

Publsihed in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Oct. 22, 2007.

Occasionally, there is a fine line between tenacity and hard-headedness. I admire tenacity in garden vegetables, like the rhubarb that refuses to be cut back and the squash that grows out of the compost.This past spring, my garden was full of renegade spinach in places that had never been planted to spinach. I admired that spunk so much I carefully transplanted it into a proper row.

But when a full-grown tomato plant is still in the garden in mid-October, with its yellowing leaves and spindly stem, and pinkish tomatoes struggling to soak up enough sun to turn red – well, that is sheer hard-headedness. And the hard head is all mine. Perhaps a psychiatrist would diagnose me as suffering from winter denial syndrome, but I can think of no better way to stave off the commencement of winter than to prolong the advancement of the summer garden.

So, every night I go out and cover my tomatoes with an old sheet and every morning I roll back the frosty sheet so the tomatoes can bask in the sun. Somewhere in between the sheets – preferably at dinnertime – I pluck off the ripest of the red tomatoes and eat them – preferably with the salad greens I planted in August which are now at their tender peak. (Lettuce and spinach can take a bit more frost than tomatoes, but I’m not taking any chances; I cover them at night, too.)

A few years ago, my husband and I spent the winter in a medieval mountain town in Italy where, right up to Christmas, gardeners were nurturing their tomatoes on the vine. These tomatoes were usually planted in front of a rock wall and staked to a tall pole, which maximized the warmth and exposure to the sun. It didn’t matter that the stems were spindly and the leaves were almost gone, those last few delicious tomatoes kept on ripening to the bitter end – which came with the first snow on New Year’s Eve.

I decided to try this principle in my own garden here in Saskatoon. I planted a few tomatoes up against the house (grey stucco, sort of like rocks) and attached them to tall stakes. And here it is, the latter half of October, and I am still enjoying fresh tomatoes from the garden. This may be hard-headed obstinacy, but there is method to my madness. Like an Italian grandmother, I prefer my vegetables to be fresh and in season. I want to eat what local gardens have to offer, rather than defy the seasons by buying imported vegetables from other parts of the planet. So, tomatoes and salad greens only when they’re fresh here in Saskatchewan (and, I hasten to add, you can still get both at the Saskatoon farmers’ market).

Here’s a great salad based on the French original called Salade Nicoise (nee-swaz), named for the city of Nice. I made it last week with tomatoes, salad greens and baby fingerling potatoes fresh out of my garden. The French version calls for tuna, but I use leftover Saskatchewan fish when I have it. It turned out so pretty and delicious, I called my version the Nice Salad. This recipe is a meal for two or a first course salad for four.

Nice Salad
3-4 cups of salad greens
Several thin slices of onion
(or 2 sliced green onions)
Two handfuls of baby potatoes, boiled
(or larger potatoes, cooked and quartered)
2-3 small ripe tomatoes, in wedges
3 hardboiled eggs, in wedges
1/2 green pepper, thinly sliced
(or steamed green beans/asparagus in season)
1/2 cup cooked fish

Dressing:
Juice of one-half lemon
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
Dash of salt and pepper

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Toss half of the dressing with the salad greens and onion. Arrange the potatoes, tomatoes, eggs and other vegetables around a platter. Drizzle with the remainder of the dressing. Mound the salad greens in the centre. Top the greens with the cooked fish. Serve with a big spoon and two salad bowls.

Take time to eat the flowers - DEVILED EGGS

Someone said my deviled eggs are 'retro'. Well, I know my mom never made them with flowers on top! Top your favourite deviled eggs with bachelor buttons or try this recipe (adapted from Saveur June/July 2004).

HEAVENLY DEVILED EGGS

6 hardboiled eggs

1/4 cup mashed potatoes

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp homemade relish

2 tbsp mayonaise

1 tbsp mustard

Peel the eggs, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the yolks. Mash the yolks with the rest of the ingredients. Spoon the filling onto the hardboiled eggs, covering the cut side of the eggs and pressing down with the tines of a fork. Garnish with bachelor buttons. (Blue borage flowers or tangerine marigolds would be nice, too.).

MERINGUE NESTS WITH FRESH BERRIES

This is a great dessert to serve after a patio barbeque.










4 large egg whites at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
Fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

Beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Turn the mixer on high and add the icing sugar one spoonful at a time, beating for ten seconds between each addition. When the whites are stiff, sprinkle in the cornstarch and vanilla, mixing well.

Scoop the meringue into 12 small mounds on the cookie sheet, using the back of a spoon to create a depression in the centre of each meringue circle. Bake 5 min. Turn down the heat to 200F. Bake for one hour. Turn off the heat and leave the meringues in the oven for another hour or two, until very dry. (The amount of time needed to fully dry the meringue will vary depending on the humidity that day.)

Whip the cream with vanilla. Just before serving, spread whipped cream onto each meringue and top with fresh berries.

Newspaper Column - MILANESE TOURTE

Publsihed in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 20 March 2007.

By recent misfortune I discovered a new take on the saying "don’t put all your eggs in one basket." Don’t bake a three-course meal in one oven. Should that oven suddenly conk out, as mine did, you will be stuck with a kitchen full of wonderful uncooked food just as guests are arriving for dinner.

My oven was very sneaky in this matter. While the top element was functioning well, the lower element had taken a hiatus. As a result, the oven got hot, but it only cooked from the top down.
I discovered this while baking baguettes, that long French bread that was to form the appetizer of our meal. That was to be followed by a sumptuous layered dish called a Milanese Tourte and, for dessert, a confection of cake, jam and meringue. All of it cooked in the oven.

I suppose I could have cancelled dinner, but that would be admitting defeat. So, after bawling on my husband’s shoulder, we decided to rise to the challenge of planning and prepping a completely new menu in little more than an hour. This was complicated by the fact that it had to be a Saskatchewan meal – just about all of it, with a few exceptions, had to be local food. Why? I am a big fan of the wonderful foods produced in Saskatchewan, so that is what I like to serve for dinner at my house.

Our guests that evening, Lisa and Ralph, are just as interested in local food. To serve anything else would feel worse than defeat; it would be a betrayal of that local food ethic. As our guests walked in the door, my husband was in the kitchen calmly rolling ravioli. I made the pasta dough with farm eggs and he made the filling of ground pork and lamb (from the freezer) and dried herbs. A tomato sauce was simmering on the stove (made last summer with our garden tomatoes). Instead of fresh bread, I revived a two-day-old loaf by toasting it with olive oil and turning it into Italian bruschetta. For dessert, I opened a jar of local pears I picked and canned last fall.

As for the Milanese Tourte, it is now tucked into the freezer for another meal. As for the oven, it has worked perfectly ever since. The Milanese Tourte is a good dish for company because it can be made ahead of time and baked before they arrive (if the oven co-operates). I adapted this recipe from the cookbook Baking with Julia, where the instructions take no less than three pages!

Milanese Tourte
Eggs:
10 big farm eggs
2 tbsp mixed fresh herbs such as chives, parsley, oregano, tarragon
(or 1 tbsp dried herbs)

Scramble the eggs slowly with the herbs until they begin to set but are still quite runny. Salt and pepper to taste. Scoop into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and cool.

Spinach:
1 tbsp each butter and olive oil
1.5 lbs fresh spinach or 1.5 pkgs frozen
2 cloves garlic, minced
dash of nutmeg

Blanch fresh spinach or thaw frozen spinach. Squeeze out excess moisture. Heat oil and butter in skillet. Sauté garlic. Add spinach, season with nutmeg, salt and pepper, and cook 5 minutes. Cool.
Other layers:
3-4 roasted red peppers, in strips
8 large thin slices of ham
8 large thin slices of Italian cheese, such as Asiago
1 pkg puff pastry

Butter a deep pie plate. Roll out half the pastry and place it in the dish. Spread the pastry with half the eggs. Cover with half the spinach, then half the ham, half the cheese and the roasted peppers. In reverse order, add the rest of the cheese, ham, spinach and finally the eggs. Roll the rest of the pastry and place on top. Crimp and seal the edges, and cut an air vent. Refrigerate for 30 min. Bake at 350F for about one hour, until the crust is nicely brown. Best served warm (not hot) or at room temperature.

Newspaper Column - SNOW DRIFT

Published in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 22 January 2007.

It was mighty cozy at my house during the blizzard last week. The wood stove was crackling, keeping warm a big pot of soup. If the power had gone out, we would have pulled open the sofa bed and slept near the fire. Food and fuel – we’ve got plenty of that on hand at our house. I’ve been stockpiling food staples for a couple of years. Not because I’m worried about survival, but because I discover such wonderful Saskatchewan foods that I want to make sure I have a good supply.

For instance, we have enough lentils and split peas to serve a small village for a week. Jars and jars of canned fruit. Half a pig and half a lamb. A sack of rolled oats. A ton of frozen tomatoes. A bucket of wild rice. But it makes you wonder… What if a blizzard or an ice storm closed the grocery stores for a few days? Or, prevented the food trucks from arriving in the city? Almost everything we buy in the grocery store comes from far away. A study in Chicago a few years ago found that most fresh produce travelled more than 2,000 km from the field to the store, and we are quite a bit further north of Chicago.

One day this past fall, while driving to Delisle, I counted all the trucks on the highway that were transporting food. The trucks were either refrigerated, labeled with a food company logo or involved in agriculture. Close to 75% of the transport trucks had something to do with food.

The evening of the blizzard, I was scheduled to give a talk for the Environmental Society on the environmental benefits of eating local food. Shipping food by truck is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, so it stands to reason that eating locally-produced food is better for the environment. It’s also good for the environment in that local food often requires less refrigeration, less packaging, fewer sprays and fewer non-food additives. There is less wear-and-tear on the roads and less going to waste. Many environmentalists are now concluding that eating local food is better for the environment than eating organic produce that is shipped in from distant farms in California, New Zealand and Mexico.

Perhaps we could all make a New Year’s resolution to eat more food produced right here in Saskatchewan. A local food potluck would be a great way to start. Here is the local food menu of my day-after-Christmas dinner: potato casserole, wild rice salad, stuffed goose breast and a funny-looking dessert that I call Snow Drift. I thought I might try to bag my own goose, but in the end it was provided by my hunting friends Sue and Vance (and their bird dog Belle). It was complimented by some Dolgo crabapple jelly from Boris and Anne.

I found the goose recipe on the internet attributed to celebrity chef Mario Batali. The recipe for the wild rice salad is here. Here’s that crazy-looking dessert, adapted from Food and Wine Magazine.

White Christmas - SNOW DRIFT

3/4 cups soft butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tsp grated lemon rind
Homemade jam or jelly
3 eggs whites
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract


Cream the butter and 1/2 cup icing sugar until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour and cornstarch. Blend into the butter mixture with the vanilla. Form the dough into a circle on a piece of wax paper, wrap tightly and refrigerate for one hour or more.

Flour the work surface. Place the dough on the flour, cover with the wax paper and roll with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1/4 inch (about 1/2 cm). Cut the dough with a 3-inch round cookie cutter (about 8 cm) and place each cookie on a baking sheet. Bake at 300F for 15 min., until the dough is just cooked but not browned. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Cover each cookie with a layer of homemade jam or jelly.

Whip the egg whites until frothy. And the vanilla. Whip until stiff peaks form. Scoop some meringue onto each cookie, swirling with a spoon to make peaks. Bake at 300F for about 10 minutes, until meringue starts to brown.

Greens coming out of my ears! - PERSIAN EGG PIE

This morning for breakfast I had yogurt with saskatoon berries. There -- I fulfilled my daily requirement to eat something picked by my own hand. I picked those saskatoons last summer at Last Mountain Lake. For supper, I tried a new recipe that I call a Persian Egg Pie. It's adapted from a recipe that I found in "Flatbreads and Flavours" by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford. Eventhough this dish originates in Iran, it's made with ingredients found here in Saskatchewan.

I met Jeffrey and Naomi a few years ago when I interviewed them for a radio documentary about homemade bread for the CBC program Ideas. They're my heroes - travelling the world, collecting photos and recipes, and writing fabulous cookbooks. If I were stranded on a desert island with a well-stocked kitchen, this is the cookbook I would want to have with me. In that cookbook, this dish is called koukouye sabzi.

PERSIAN EGG PIE
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1.5 cup spinach leaves, shredded
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 tbsp. finely chopped dill
8 eggs
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 tsp. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. plain yogurt
salt and pepper and vegetable oil

Mix together all the chopped greens. In another bowl, beat the eggs and pine nuts. In a cup, mix the flour and water to a paste. In another cup, mix the yogurt and baking powder.

Stir the flour paste into the eggs. Stir in the yogurt mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Pour this egg mixture over the vegetables and herbs and blend well.

Heat a cast iron skillet on low heat. Add the vegetable oil and swirl it around the bottom and sides of the pan. Pour in the egg mixture. Put the skillet in the oven (325 degrees F) and bake about 35 minutes, until the eggs are set in the middle. Serve warm or cold, as an appetizer or a light meal with bread.

Newspaper - CLAFOUTIS

This column first appeared in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on 17 April 2006

Every now and then, my husband and I go on the egg diet, during which we try our best to eat eggs three times a day. For instance, we may have pancakes for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for lunch and an omelet for supper. Or, scrambled eggs for breakfast, a spinach salad for lunch and Spaghetti Carbonara (an Italian dish made with eggs and bacon) at the end of the day.

When you think of it, it’s amazing how many different ways there are to eat eggs. Few foods can make the transition from breakfast to dessert as easily as eggs. When we talk about incompetent cooks, we say they can’t even boil an egg. When we talk about gifted cooks, we may think of the perfect, un-deflated soufflé.

My husband and I buy free-range eggs from a farmer, which means the eggs are laid by hens that eat grass and bugs and get their daily exercise. These eggs range in shades from pure white to fawn beige, and range in size from regular to double-yolk big. Every three or four weeks, the farmer arrives at my door in Saskatoon with 20 dozen eggs. I use what I need and resell the rest to my city friends who appreciate this little taste of country. Sometimes my friends don’t need eggs and so we have a couple dozen left in the fridge when the farmer is due to arrive again. Thus, the egg diet. We need to use up what we have before the new batch arrives.

It’s kind of funny that I should turn out to be an Egg Lady because my mother was an Egg Lady when I was growing up on the farm at Craik. We kept a pen of laying hens and mom sold the extra eggs to her friends for 25 cents a dozen. As children, we had to gather the eggs. Twice a day, we would slip into the chicken coop, shoo the chickens off their roosts and scoop up the warm eggs. I didn’t particularly like doing this and would often trade with my brothers – I’d do their dishes if they did my eggs. We all thought we got the best of that deal.

Many people will be eating hardboiled eggs this week, leftovers from the Easter celebration. However, eggs have been associated with spring festivals since long before Easter was inspired 2,000 years ago. The ancient Persians gave out coloured eggs to celebrate spring. The goddess of fertility was known, over time, as Ishtar, Ostara and finally Eastre in old Europe to denote her association with the sun rising in the east on the morning of the spring equinox. Her symbol was an egg.

One of my favourite ways to eat eggs is Clafoutis (kla-foo-tee), a sweet flan from France often served warm for breakfast or brunch. Unlike some French delicacies, it is wonderfully simple and easy to prepare. It is traditionally made with cherries, but I give it a Saskatchewan flavour by using a mix of prairie berries.

PRAIRIE BERRY CLAFOUTIS
2 tbsp. butter
3 eggs
3 tbsp. sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
2 cups mixed berries (sour cherries, raspberries, strawberries, saskatoons)
1 tbsp. flour

Heat the oven to 350 degrees C. In the oven, melt the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet (or a similar sized baking pan), making sure the butter doesn’t brown. In a blender mix the eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. With the blades running, gradually add the flour and mix well. Pour the batter into the buttered skillet. Toss the berries with a tablespoon of flour then scatter the fruit over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the centre of the custard is set (test by inserting a knife). Serve warm, perhaps with a sprinkling of icing sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup.

Week 9 - RICOTTA PIE

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week from 15 June.

Breakfast – Pancakes with stewed rhubarb
Lunch -- Bread with tomatoes and asparagus spread
Dinner – Ricotta pie, caramelized onions, green salad

Ricotta Pie














This is an Italian dish that can be served as an appetizer or a light meal. It's good warm or room temperature. Make your own ricotta cheese (see recipe here).

2-3 tbsp breadcrumbs
butter for greasing pie plate
4 eggs
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
2 cups ricotta cheese
3 slices of crispy-cooked bacon or equivalent ham
Butter a pie plate and sprinkle with breadcrumbs to coat the surface.

Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks lightly with the flour, salt and pepper. Stir in the ricotta cheese with the bacon or ham. (For a vegetarian version, add herbs instead.)

Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the cheese mixture until it is loosely mixed. Spread into the pie plate, smoothing the top. Bake at 400F for 25-20 minutes, until a nice brown crust has formed. I like to serve it with chutney or onion gravy.

Week 6 - PIPERADE

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week - May 21.

Breakfast – Yogurt with preseved apples.
Lunch – Bread with mustard and sliced tomato.
Dinner – Piperade.

Piperade
Here’s a great French egg dish called Pipérade. From May to December, I can find every ingredient produced locally.

1 small green or red pepper (or both), sliced thinly
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, crushed
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup cooked ham or smoked pork, small dice
fresh basil leaves (or dried)
1 tomato, chopped
6 eggs

Sauté the pepper, onion and garlic in 2 tbsp of the butter until soft. Stir in the ham, tomatoes and basil, and season with salt and pepper. Cook through, place in a small bowl and keep warm.

Melt the other 2 tbsp of butter in the skillet. Mix the eggs and pour into the pan. Cook, stirring now and then, until the eggs begin to set. Spread the pepper mixture on top and cook until the eggs are done to your liking. (I prefer them soft and moist.) Serve in wedges garnished with a bit of fresh basil.

Sources: Bennett eggs; vegetables from the farmers' market.

Week 4 - HERB FRITATTA

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week - May 13.

Breakfast - Oatmeal porridge with maple syrup.
Lunch - Chicken soup with homemade bread.
Dinner - Herb fritatta and a baby lettuce salad.

Herb Fritatta
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp fresh chopped chives
1 tbsp other fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, rosemary, etc.)
6 eggs
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
water
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan on medium low heat. Sauté the chives until soft. Add the other herbs and wilt.

Stir the eggs with the ricotta cheese, a dash of water, salt and pepper. Pour the eggs into the pan with the herbs. Do not stir. Cook, lifting the edges to allow the eggs to run underneath. Cook until the egg mixture in the middle of the pan is no longer runny.

Place a large plate over the pan and flip it, so the fritatta is on the plate. Then slide it back into the pan. Cook briefly until the bottom side is cooked and starting to brown.

Sources: Bennett eggs; herbs from the farmers' market.

The Bennett farm

Eggs come in many sizes and shades – and I prefer them all. Especially when they’re all mixed together in one carton. Big, small, white, brown. When a carton of eggs looks like that, you know it’s straight from the farm. Just washed and boxed.

I get my eggs from the farm of Al Bennett of Meacham. His chickens are free-range, which means they’re running around eating bugs and weeds (at least in the warmer months). That makes the egg yolks a rich golden-yellow. Every three weeks or so, he shows up at my door with 20 dozen eggs. I use what I need and resell the rest to my friends.

I also buy beef from Al. He raises his cattle on grassy pastures, moving them daily so they are always eating fresh greens. He says, "That's the way the buffalo roamed. You didn't see the Indians carrying a slop pail out to the buffalo!" Indeed.

Because this beef is not fed grain, the meat is very lean. When a recipe says "brown the meat and pour off the fat" I find myself adding oil to keep it moist. Al sells his beef by the whole or half animal, or you can buy it by the piece (ground meat, roasts and t-bone steaks). His phone number of 306-944-4340.

Counting Down - TOAD IN THE HOLE

There is green in my garden! The snow is slowly melting, exposing a small patch of damp, dark earth where, last October, I planted two short rows of seeds. Today, I can distinctly see two rows of tiny green shoots. I can’t remember exactly what’s there, but I think it’s a mixture of radish, lettuce and arugula.

This is exciting, because it means I'm one step closer to starting a new culinary adventure I'm calling "Home for Dinner." For one year, I'm going to cook almost exclusively with the foods of Saskatchewan, eating what’s in season and preserving the bounty for winter months. I plan to start the first day I eat something green out of my garden.

"Home for Dinner" is not just about Saskatchewan. It’s a philosophy and a lifestyle that can be embraced no matter where you live. If I can do it in Saskatchewan, you can do it anywhere! Here are some good reasons to be "Home for Dinner" no matter where you call home:

Tastier food – Local produce is usually picked just before it’s sold, so it’s fresher and more flavourful. Local farmers who aren’t mass producing for a distant market are more likely to care about the quality and flavour of their food.

Healthier food – Local produce is less likely to have been treated with preservation and ripening agents. If you shop for food produced with organic principles, you will be exposed to fewer chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Environmentally friendly food – Think of all the fuel that is used to truck lettuce from Mexico and bananas from Costa Rica. That's a lot of greenhouse gases.

Food for the local economy – Farming is a tough business, especially if you’re small and trying to do something unique on your land. Reward the farmers who are producing good healthy food and keep your food dollars in the local economy.

Tonight we had Toad-in-the-Hole with onion gravy, a dish from England made with Saskatchewan ingredients (adapted from a recipe in Martha Stewart Living). My version includes eggs and sausages from a local farm, rosemary and onions from the farmers’ market, locally-made mustard and a rich chicken stock I made myself.

Toad-in-the-Hole
2 large eggs
2/3 cups milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp mustard
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp butter
6 pork breakfast sausages
1 tbsp fresh rosemary

Whisk everything together but the sausages and rosemary, season with salt & pepper and let sit for 20 minutes. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour the batter into the dish, sprinkle with rosemary and arrange the sausages on top. Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes, until the egg is set. Serve with onion gravy or tomato chutney.

Onion Gravy
3 tbsp butter
2 onions halved and sliced
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
dash of Worcestershire sauce

Melt the butter in a large skillet and stir in the onions. Cook on medium heat until the onions are golden. Stir in the flour until completely absorbed by the butter. Add the stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer a few minutes until thick. Season with salt and pepper. Serve on Toad-in-the-Hole.

Sources: Bennett farm eggs, sausages from the Saskatoon Farmers' Market; rosemary from a pot in my windowsill.