Vancouver: The Bog, The Park, and Food!

Ah, Vancouver--this is the weather on the first day of my trip. Bright, sunny, and gorgeous! Boy did it have me fooled, because for most of the rest of my trip, it was cool, cloudy, and rainy. Although it did end on a sunny weekend so really, I can't complain, and hey, any vacation is a good vacation! But I'm getting ahead of myself, because even before I got there things were looking up because for the first time ever, I got upgraded to business class on the flight out. Woo-HOOO!! I was very, very excited, because Cathay Pacific has got those individual cubicles with seats that recline completely flat into a bed. Oh man, they are so roomy compared to economy! And then of course, the food in business class is about 1000 times better...and they even set your tray with a tablecloth.


Dinner started with seared scallops on salad. This was really pretty good!


And then I had fried rice and prawns in XO sauce--this looks more like regular airplane food, but was also pretty tasty.


And then a cheese plate! I thought for sure I would stay awake through the whole flight (I mean, it is only 5ish hours) and watch movies on my relatively giant screen, but the lure of the completely reclining chair was too much to resist, and I got a couple of hours of shut-eye and almost too soon we were landing in Vancouver (they have one awesome airport, by the way.)


The next day, we went out for breakfast to The Elbow Room, which I gather is something of an institution and certainly is a place with character! I can't seem to find their rules anywhere on the Internet, but when I went up to pay, the proprietor lectured Pyota on letting a woman pay. Heehee.


Anyway, here is a picture of my breakfast, the Big Ben. Totally hit the spot!


And then we rented a Zipcar and drove out to the Camosun Bog which was smaller than I expected, but was a nice walk nevertheless. Most of the ground is, well, boggy, so there are boardwalks that run above it, with helpful signs about the kind of plants you see in a bog.


Like blueberries! Above are blueberry blossoms, and below, wild blueberries (I was very excited, but restrained myself from eating them.)




On another day, we went to Stanley Park and saw some wildlife in the form of a great blue heron (we also saw a whole lot of nests! But I didn't get any good pictures.) over by the Lost Lagoon. And of course, my favorite, the resident raccoons:



You can see a video of racoons that Pyota made, too. I love them, they're so cute!


I had lunch with Py a couple of times during the work week, at places like Boss, which is a totally HK style cafe where I had the most enormous serving of pork chop rice noodle soup ever (it came in a pie plate!). Above is a more reasonable serving of Taiwanese style beef noodle soup from Favor Eat in the Crystal Mall. So delicious.


And of course, a bubble tea. But really I just wanted to take a picture of the lid, as it depicts one of my favorite activities--eating watermelon. And on that note, time to go! The really good food pictures are coming up in the next post....

P.S. I cannot wait to see the last Harry Potter movie. I know I'm going to cry like a little girl. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that....

Sour Cherry Cobbler

So it took me a few days, but I finally figured out what to make with the sour cherries from last week's CSA haul: cobbler! I suppose I could have made pie, but it's a bit hot to be making pie dough. The butter in it would probably have melted before I could get it rolled out, and who wants to eat greasy pie crust? Not this girl. But cobbler is easy to put together, especially when you use a cream biscuit topping (woohoo, no cutting in of butter, just stirring!), and hey, even if it is hot, I can survive turning the oven on for half an hour or so.


But before I got to that part, I had to pit all the cherries, and man, did that take a long time. I lack a cherry pitter, so made do with a small piping tip, which worked well, but still! It's a lengthy process. And I got cherry juice pretty much everywhere, but at least the juice was clear so didn't stain.


And here's the cherries all ready for the oven, topped with biscuits. I didn't add much flavoring to the cherries, just some sugar, a splash of almond extract, and a bit of lemon juice (plus instant Clearjel for thickening). It's really amazing how well the almond flavor goes with these cherries! And the flavor definitely is superior to anything I've ever baked with sweet Bing cherries. Very happy with how this came out, and I've got a bunch left (hiding in the freezer so I don't eat it all in one shot)...

It's been a very nice weekend! I had my first pottery class yesterday and made a fish-shaped plate and a cup. I'll have to wait a few weeks to show you the results, but hopefully they will be cool. And then today I had brunch with a friend, followed by some (unsuccessful) shopping, followed by gelato, and then a relaxed evening at home. I wish it was Sunday again tomorrow...

Sour Cherry Cobbler
Filling:
1 quart sour cherries, washed, stemmed, and pitted (make sure you save the juices!)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons instant Clearjel* or cornstarch

Topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup cream (plus an extra tablespoon or two, if needed)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Stir together the cherries, sugar (use less if you want it very tart), lemon juice, extract, and Clearjel or cornstarch in a medium bowl. Set aside while you prepare the biscuit topping.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar into another bowl. Stir the cream in just until the dough forms clumps. If there are still dry bits, add a bit more cream until you can gather the dough together into a ball. Pat the dough out gently to about 1/2" thick, and then cut out shapes as you like (I used hearts, but you could also just freehand it). Pat the scraps together and cut more shapes out. How many you can fit will depend on your pan dimensions, but any extras can be baked separately.

Turn the cherry filling into an 8" pan (or a pie plate, or whatever pan you have that will hold the filling with a bit of extra space--this would probably have been nice baked in individual cups as wel). Top with your biscuit cut outs. For a prettier finish, brush the biscuits with a bit of cream and then sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.

This is very important--let this cool a bit. It's hotter than the sun when it first comes out of the oven, and you like the skin inside your mouth, right? Then trust me, and wait. And if you have vanilla ice cream to go with it, bonus!

*Clearjel is modified food starch. I bought mine at King Arthur Flour, but you could substitute cornstarch with no problem.

CSA Week 4 (and hello, I'm back)

I know, it's been a while--well, I just got back earlier this week from vacation (a fab week in Vancouver, filled with lots of great food, and quality time with Pyota--will be writing about our adventures later) and I've been busy with work since! Do you know how many emails I got while I was gone?? 279!!!!!!!!! Sheesh, don't these people know I'm out of the office?

Anyhow, I arrived back on a CSA pickup day (my brother picked up week 3 for me, but I forgot to ask him to take a photo), which helped ease the pain of not being on vacation anymore. You can see from my fancy collage that this week's share consisted of beets, radishes, fresh garlic, basil, lemon balm, peas, komatsuna, rainbow chard, mixed lettuces (not pictured), and the fruit share was sour cherries.


I still had a bunch of radishes left from a previous pickup; I have to admit, I am not a big fan of radishes. They're too peppery for me! So I thought cooking them would help and I found this recipe for braised radishes over at The Kitchn. Oh boy! They don't look as pretty, but gosh are they delicious. I substituted some waxed Chinese bacon for the salt pork, which was a stroke of genius on my part, if I do say so myself. I hope I get more radishes next week.


The basil and garlic scapes (from previous week) were turned into pesto. Can you believe this was my first time making pesto? I can't believe I waited so long, and I can't believe how dead easy it is to make (once I got around to buying a food processor). This pesto also contains almonds, olive oil, and parmigiano. I couldn't resist eating some of it with a spoon right after I made it. (Don't you like my little storage bowl? I picked up a set at Fishs Eddy, one of my favorite stores in NY, and a place I can spend HOURS in.)


Then I boiled up some fettuccine and tossed it with more pesto--oh gosh. SO GOOD. So good that I actually ate this for breakfast this morning, too (I know, I'm crazy. I eat dinner leftovers for breakfast all the time.)

So far, I have also cooked the komatsuna (stir-fry) and plan to make some kind of pasta with the peas (and probably some shrimp). I am a bit at a loss for what to do with the chard though, so if you have a favored chard recipe, please do share!

The beets are also presenting a bit of a problem. It's so freaking hot right now that to turn on the oven would be unthinkable, so I can't roast them. I'm starting to wonder if maybe I could just steam them in my rice cooker...of course, this does not solve the problem of my sour cherries, which I am dying to make into a pie, but again, sigh, the oven! Maybe I just need to buy an additional air conditioner unit.

Posting and running (CSA Week 2!)

Here are week 2's spoils! One quart of strawberries, 3 apples (selected by a cute kid), more scapes, more spinach, chard, komatsuna (also labelled bok choy, although it doesn't look like it!), a bunch of mint, a huge bunch of scallions, more lettuce, and woohoo, a giant napa cabbage.

I must post and run--I'm leaving for a trip to Vancouver iiiiin....oh, 45 minutes or so. Hooray! I hope there are still some spot prawns left. In the meantime, I leave you with a portrait of what happens when one finds oneself awash in garlic scapes:

CSA Week One!

A couple of years ago we joined a CSA for the first time and loved the experience--so much awesome produce! (Too much in some cases--there is only so much corn you can eat, and I probably still have an ear in my freezer somewhere.) Anyway, after skipping last summer, I decided to join a CSA again, and this was the share from week one. (For those who aren't familiar, CSA stands for community supported agriculture and is a program where you basically purchase a share of a farm's output. It's great because you're directly supporting a farm and in return, you get many, many weeks of extremely fresh produce. It is not great if you don't like or are picky about your vegetables!)


Week one spoils: scallions, garlic scapes, cilantro, radishes (extremely peppery!), spinach, dandelion greens, mixed salad greens, and arugula. Plus two quarts of strawberries and an apple, from the fruit share. (As a bonus, you get to see my extremely cluttered windowsill where I take most of my photos. Unfortunately, that is also where most of my plants are now living...)


I am determined to make use of everything! The scapes have already gone into a stir-fry with some pork.


The dandelion greens, spinach, and some of the cilantro got turned into saag paneer (thanks for the suggestion, Jack); making paneer at home is the easiest thing in the world! The scallions will become scallion pancakes. And as you might have guessed, I will be eating a LOT of salad this week.

There are lots of CSA programs out there now; this is a good site if you want to find one near you. For those who are in NYC, Just Food is a good resource. And if you're interested in Chubby Bunny specifically (which is the one I've joined!), you can visit their blog. I'm looking forward to a summer (and fall) of vegetable goodness!

When Life Gives You A Strawberry

I mentioned a few posts ago that I bought a strawberry plant--and it's been producing strawberries! Hooray! However, there is one problem with only having one strawberry plant--it seems like only one strawberry wants to ripen at any given time. (Okay, it looks like two in that photo, but really only one of them was fully ripe.) So I had a dilemma--if I ever wanted to eat strawberry shortcake, I was either going to have to save and freeze strawberries until I had enough (boo) or I was going to have to make one tiny strawberry shortcake. I bet you can guess what route I took ;) (Also, I have finally named my strawberry plant--meet Margaret!)


I know people have different preferences when it comes to strawberry shortcake, but for me, it's not real shortcake unless it's got a biscuit base. (I mean, not that a cake based one wouldn't be tasty, but it's not the same!) Cream biscuits are great for shortcake and literally take 15 minutes to make from start to finish. You don't even have to cut any butter in, because the only ingredients are flour, salt, baking powder, a pinch of sugar, and heavy cream. Super easy! I cut out rounds with a small cookie cutter; these baked for about 8 minutes. Of course, after they're done baking you have more choices to make--butter or no butter? Sweetened whipped cream or plain whipped cream? Macerate the berries first or not?


My choices: no butter, sweetened, not macerated. Mostly because I was in a hurry. And here is my tiny shortcake, just slightly bigger than a quarter. One bite and it's all gone!


These are not from my plant, I bought these at the local farmer's market this morning. $7 a quart, can you believe it??? Too expensive for me to make jam from...I'll just enjoy these fresh.

Umaimono Fair at Mitsuwa

So I mentioned in Monday's post that I was home this weekend for serious zongzi production...well, there was also time to take a trip to Mitsuwa for their Umaimono Food Fair! I love their food fairs, they usually bring in different vendors from Japan and you can pick up some really neat things. Of course, the chirashi don above is just a regular one from the actual supermarket section...but it was really yummy and hit the spot!


And to go with that, we got a box of takoyaki as well. They had a stand set up and were making them on the spot, and all of the guys were really goofy and seemed like they were having a great time. I tried and failed to get a picture of them shaping the takoyaki--boy do they move fast!


I know this picture is a little messy looking, but that's because we didn't eat them until we got home, and they had gotten a little banged up in transit. Delicious, though!


And for dessert? (Restaurant dessert, to be precise.) Why, this mysterious box bearing the name of Hiroyuki Sakai...(that's Iron Chef French, my favorite!)


Containing this gorgeously wrapped green tea roll cake...


With a surprise core of pudding (yes, pudding!)! Exciting, no? I think this is totally cool! And it was quite tasty. I think I will try to replicate this should I ever summon the courage to try making a roll cake....

Alright, that's enough babbling from me, happy Wednesday!