Bitten: Tim Horton's Pomegranate Danish

Posted by Jennifer

Say it ain’t so, pomegranate. Have you really gone from “It” fruit status to latest flavour of a Tim Horton’s cheese Danish? Scanning the display case, one finds it is only too true.

The glob of jelly in the centre of is certainly a deep, rich pomegranate-ish red. But, bite into this fancifully named bun and what registers? Why, only the unmistakable taste of a Tim Horton’s pastry. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is none of that uniquely astringent zip we expect from pomegranate.

Yes, you leathery red orb, your name is known on every street corner in Toronto, at every small town’s major intersection from Goderich to Cochrane(birthplace of the infamous Maple Leaf defenceman). But, you
sold your soul.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

Although there should still be another week for the markets, the one at Sick Kids is looking like a pretty pathetic shadow of its usual self.  There are only four vendors leftBosco/Sweetiebelle, Loffredo Fruit Farms, Leitchs Honey Farm, and a purveyor of herbal products.

Despite the table heaped with potatoes, cabbage, squash, onions, cucumbers, shallots and even some tomatoes, Bosco/Sweetiebelles Bozidar Toic says it is the last day for him although he might try to go to Liberty Village on Sunday. While frost has worked its evil magic on some of the crop, the tomatoes still look decent. Vowing one more sandwich before they are all gone, I have to buy a basket.  The Green Zebras are still tasty, the red tomatoes a bit cottony and bland.  Knowing its the last of the season, I savour the sandwich to the last bite.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

When the autumn chill descends, a market which is partially indoors offers a certain appeal. After a long hiatus, it seem like the perfect time to revisit the north building of St. Lawrence Market.

At first, the venerable market is a disappointment. After a summer of feasting on heirloom potatoes, baskets labelled simply red, white, or even Yukon Gold, just do not cut it. Although Rowe Farms has a large presence, the words that are so important at the newer markets: pastured, organic, humanely raised, heirloom are not so lavishly displayed here.
Just as I am about to give up and go home I spot something I have looked for ever since I first set eyes on Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook -- purple Brussels sprouts. Across the aisle, I also see the Holy Grail of apples, Cox’s Orange Pippins. Finally, the Mennonite farmer from whom I used to buy cream has a selection of potatoes that includes several I have not tried. I buy the Dutch Bintjes. Finally, I score, excitingly, with some local walnuts. So I leave loaded down after all.

The Bintjes make fluffy mounds of pure white mashed potatoes but they lack the buttery richness of German butterballs--even with lots of added butter. Supposedly a good frying potato, I will attempt French fries with the rest. Unlike purple beans which lose their colour when cooked, the sprouts retain much of theirs. To my taste they seem a little sweeter, a little less cabbagey than regular sprouts.

The Cox’s orange pippins? Just the sort of crisp, tart apple I love.

St. Lawrence Market has won me back.

"Carpaccio" with hazelnuts and pine nuts

We had to try to figure out this trick of the eye and palate. Leave it to the highly discriminating chef David Lee to realize that the carpaccio was actually a form of dehydrated watermellon!!! Fooled most of us intially.

Apple tart with reduced milk ice cream

Grilled white ventresca (belly) tuna with tomato from the resto garden. One of the best tomatoes I have eaten!

APPLE DAY/NUIT BLANCHE

Posted by Gina

COME ONE! COME ALL!

Join us tomorrow starting at 2pm with Chef JP Challet (One Pot French) to kick start our Apple Day!

The fun continues with apple treats and tastings, curtosey of Siloam Orchards and The Cookbook Store staff, throughout the afternoon and evening.

At 7 PM ElectroCurrent's jazzy performance takes place! And the apple festivities continue into the evening, along with a movie screening on the north side of our building!

Hope to see you all there!

NB: Due to drizzly conditions the screening is moved inside Crepes-A-Go-Go, across the street.

To market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

The number one reason that I make to effort to go to the Sorauren market: De La Terre Bakery. Located in Fonthill, it makes superb sourdough breads. While some of the artisanal sourdoughs can be heavy on the inside with such hard crusts that they are a danger to unsuspecting teeth, the breads from De La Terre have risen well but still have great body and lovely chewy crusts. My favourite is the Pelham sourdough with the honey/walnut a close runner up.

I went thinking I would only buy the bread. Instead, I left with a full shopping bag. One of my prizes was, at last, some decent peaches. From the Oso Leo stand, I got Red Havens and Loring varieties. If I have had a Loring peach before I was not aware of it. Given the opportunity, I will have one again. Usually peaches just
register as “sweet”. However, the Loring has a hint of both the tart and the floral along with the expected sweetness.

At Cutting Veg, I was seduced by perfect red onions, and bags of heirloom tomatoes for only $4.50. I also got zucchini to make Rose Murray’s zucchini almond cake. Even the zucchini-hating males in my household gobbled it up.

The Singhs, whose beets I have enjoyed, also had irresistible shallots, and the first Cortland apples I have seen this year. Usually when I leave a market with a bag this full, my wallet is empty. This time, even after buying meat, and two more Preston empanadas (beef, peach), there is money to spare.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

I feel as though I have hit the jackpot this week. My prizes? The first was a two quart basket of damson plums from Andrews Scenic Acres. Damsons are few and far between and usually only available for two or three weeks. I have used half of them to make a small batch of conserves -- just plums, orange juice, water, and sugar. The down side of damsons is the horror of pitting them, so anything -- such as these conserves -- in which you cook them, then skim the pits from the surface, is a bonus. A treat for the senses, the aroma of simmering damsons is absolutely intoxicating. The finished product is velvety on the tongue, and its rich blue/red a visual delight. Unlike many jams and conserves, it is quite tart.

My other great treat comes from my Potato Lady, Ayse Akoner, who offers me a handful of her newly harvested Peruvian potatoes. They are a dark, inky blue all the way through. Simply boiled, they, like German butterballs, combine a great sense of fullness on the palate with rich flavour. I cannot wait for more! On top of that, the long-awaited LaRatte fingerlings are finally ready. My over-indulgence in nightshade plants continues.

*Special Note*
Our commenting feature has just been activated, and we look forward to receiving your feedback about both our blog and our store. Please take advantage of this tool and share your thoughts and comments with us. We can't wait to get to know you better!

To market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

A sight I did not want to see just yet: winter squash. I do not want to know the end of summer is within sight when I still have not had a decent peach. That said, the peaches at the Bizjak Farm stand at Borden/Bloor last Wednesday were close to my idea of peach ripeness so they should be fine this week. Yet a peach I tasted on the weekend from another grower was still crunchy.

Potato Lady (Marvellous Edibles) at Bloor/Borden has ever more varieties of potatoes. Ruby Gold is almost as good as German butterball. She also has many heirloom tomatoes, as lovingly raised, and as proudly presented as the potatoes.

Another of my favourite vendors, Collins, have something I have neverseen before in a local farmers market -- artichokes. Caroll Collins says that although they are not alone in growing artichokes, there are not many people growing them in Ontario, especially for commercial sales. In California, artichokes are a perennial plant while here they must be planted annually. The Collins are at Sick Kids on Tuesday and Borden/Bloor on Wednesday.

********************************************************
On a rare Saturday off , I dash to two markets I have not visited
before. Historic St. Andrew’s, on Maude just below Richmond Street
west of Spadina is in its first year. Part of the MyMarket group,
most of the vendors here are familiar from Sick Kids, Borden/Bloor,
and Liberty Village. The Thames River Melons stand is here with its
great corn. I leave with a dozen cobs of their Navaho, some to eat off
the cob, the rest for a shrimp and corn chowder.

Either because it is a cloudy morning or because it is a new market,
the pace here is slow. If you want to get to know the growers, this
is a good place to start.

Spending more time than I intended, I get to Withrow Park just at
closing time. This is its second year, some of the vendors are also
at Brickworks, the Green Barn, and Dufferin Grove. Despite my
tardiness I still manage to get Webers eggs.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

I have just tried one of the best potatoes I have ever eaten. My “Potato Lady” aka Ayse Akoner, with husband Jens Eller, is at Bloor/Borden market on Wednesday afternoon. This week they had two varieties that they have grown for the first time this year: German butterball and Lindzer deleketess. The German Butterball tastes like mashed potatoes with loads of butter and cream -- but without actually adding the butter and cream. Not only do they taste great, but they have what I can only describe as a wonderful “mouth feel”, creating a delicious fullness. The Lindzers , a fingerling, have a really unusual flavour, rather mineralish, with an almost astringent
aftertaste. Both will be available for several more weeks. They also still have warba potatoes, a pretty pink-tinged cream. The French fingerlings are also just starting.

Thames River Melons, which is at a number of markets including City Hall on Wednesday and Metro Hall on Thursday, as the name suggests specializes in melons. But, they also have the best corn I have tried this year. Gourmet sweet is the variety currently on sale. Too late for “Navajo” but both are sweet, tender and require minimal cooking time. For melon fans, they expect charentais melons in about two weeks.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer


If this is Saturday morning it must be the Green Barn market. It is crowded but relaxed. Beans, potatoes, carrots, summer squash, mushrooms, and greens are in great supply. Strangely, I see no corn and few tomatoes. Also, unusual for this time of year, the Pine River booth, home of my perfect garlic, has mounds of asparagus.

There are peaches but the free sample I try is not ripe. Crunchy peaches? I don't think so. However, Bizjaks still have sweet cherries and apricots which I scoop up for yet another pie. I get my first apples of the season from them as well. Large, green and red, Bellevistas are tart and crisp.
A disappointment--the Stoddarts are AWOL. No duck eggs this week. Alas, I have already used up the last I had to make custard for gooseberry fool. So rich, so smooth, a lovely colour. I'll try again next week. In the meantime, It's Weber's chicken eggs for me.

The Moncktons, from Berkeley are at a number of markets including Liberty Village, Bloor/Borden, and East Lynn. They always have baked goods made from flour milled from their own wheat. Occasionally, they have flour for sale. I have rarely seen a bag of small-producer flour that I did not have to have, and this is no exception. A blend of red wheats--although not the icon Red Fife, it is a hard wheat flour that I will try in breadbaking.

There is now a vendor selling fresh Nova Scotia haddock and scallops. Since I am on my way to work I don't buy this time. They will be back and so will I.

To Market, to market

Posted by Jennifer

What’s available now:

Broccoli, cabbage--red and green, cauliflower, potatoes, plums,

peaches, melons, apples

Still available:

Strawberries, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries--sweet and

sour, greens from chards to lettuces, beets, carrots, onions, garlic,

summer squash, tomatoes…

In other words, if you want to try a hundred mile diet, this is the

moment to do it. My Monday night dinner consisted of Scotch Mountain

Meats blade steak marinated into tenderness, red and blue crushed

potatoes with a drizzle of non-local olive oil, purple beans, and

gooseberry fool for dessert.

Farmers markets are usually not the place to save money. All those

mounds of fresh fruits and vegetables are just too seductive , the

allure of duck eggs, the siren call of dry-cured bacon conspire

against me. However, Bosco Farms with a stand at Liberty Village,

Sick Kids, Borden-Bloor and others, offers a choice of five

vegetables, typically in quart baskets, for $10.00. They usually will

throw in a few extras, too. For my $10.00 at Sick Kids on Tuesday, I

came home with a bunch of red onions, three eggplants, two types of

cauliflower, and a cabbage. It is a great way to stock up on produce

staples.

The Bosco Farms Haul

To Market, To Market!

Posted by Jennifer

It is high season for soft fruit at the markets. At The Hospital for Sick Children on Tuesday morning I see apricots, red, black, and golden raspberries, strawberries, red, white, and black currants, gooseberries, and both sweet and sour cherries.

With environmentalists predicting that global warming will cause the extinction of sour cherries I’m cooking up as many as I can while they are still around. In the three quarts I have pitted this week, there was only a single cherry that was unusable. The result: two pies. The first was cherry, black raspberry, and apricot. The apricots looked perfect but turned out to be under ripe - though they cooked up nicely. The second pie was a classic lattice-top cherry.

******************

Beets and Carrots

I also found more of my new favourite beet, the rodina, at Sick Kids. These were larger than the first ones I tried, but just as good.


The Collins from Puslinch (Borden, Sick Kids & Weston markets) have one of the best selection of carrots around. The very best of a great lot are their parisiennes. Unlike the long tapered roots we are used to, these are short and chubby, rather like an orange beet. Though they do not resemble the carrots of my childhood, they do have all the earthy sweetness that is the carrot of my memory.

Bitten: Black Currant Sorbet

Posted by Jennifer

Who knew the New York Times could be so helpful? Just as I decide to buy a quart of black currants, an article on that very subject with a recipe for black currant sorbet appears in the Wednesday dining section. I purchase a quart of fat currants at the Marvellous Edibles stand at the Bloor-Borden market (Wednesday 3-7pm).

Until recently commercial cultivation of black currants was banned in many states because currant bushes carry a fungus which kills pine.With the ban lifted in some states, farmers are trying to reintroduce the tart fruit to American consumers. That tartness is another reason black currants are not popular in the U.S. Americans like their fruits sweet.

The sorbet is simply made by cooking the currants in a sugar syrup until tender then sieving to remove the seeds--no need to top and tip. With a sugar/water ratio of 1:1, the syrup caters to the American sweet tooth. The recipe in Elizabeth Baird’s classic Summer Berries has a 1:2 ratio and a squirt of lemon juice from which this sorbet would certainly benefit. It is, however, simple to make, a beautiful colour, and works well even without an ice cream maker.