Rapini and feta pasta

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This is what fast food should look like. Full of flavour (the feta) and nutrients (the rapini) and made in a single pot in under 10 minutes (calculated from the time the water boils). The salty feta melts into the pasta and is the perfect creamy complement to slightly bitter rapini. I am going to try mixing the leftovers with a bit of vinaigrette for a lunch-time salad. I used vegetable fusilli for this (to sneak a little bit of spinach into the kids) but any kind of pasta would do as long as there is a enough texture to hold of the feta.

Rapini and feta pasta

1 bunch rapini trimmed and chopped

1 package vegetable fusilli, about four cups

1 1/4 cups crumbled feta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili

Salt to taste

A few grinds of  black pepper

In a large pot, boil well-salted water for pasta. While the water is heating, trim the bottom half-inch or so off the rapini and roughly chop. Set aside.  Crumble the feta and set aside.

When the water is at a rolling boil cook the pasta for 5 minutes, add the rapini and cook for another two minutes or, until the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta/rapini, retaining a little of the water, return to the pot and add olive oil, pepper and crushed chili flakes. Taste before salting. Add a little of the cooking water if it is too dry.

Serve with crusty bread.

Empty Bowls and an empty nest

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According to family tradition, this is the second weekend of cottage season for us. According to our 14-year-old daughter, traditions “evolve” and we shouldn’t expect to drag her to the lake every Saturday when she could be at the mall with “normal” people.

Just about everyone we know who has a summer place warned us this would happen. I guess I was naive enough to believe that our daughter would be the exception that proved the rule or, cynical enough to believe that I could overcome her reticence with bribes.

I’m learning that it takes a lot to bribe a 14-year-old girl. When did kids’ clothes get so expensive?

We did mange to get to the lake last Saturday (our daughter had a sleepover birthday party) for the most important part of our cottage-opening tradition, the Festival of the Maples. On the last Saturday of April the main street of the beautiful little town of Perth, Ontario fills to capacity with thousands of people. Residents say hello to the folks they haven’t seen since fall and the first summer migrants, like us, stop in on the way to the cottage to have a bite and stock up on a fresh batch of syrup for the (we hope) long summer ahead. The weather gods always seem to bless this festival and by mid-afternoon the season’s first sunburns are starting to show. But it’s worth it, if only for the fudge.

All really good traditions have component parts and, for us, the one thing we absolutely must do at the maple festival is have lunch at the Empty Bowls tent. For a $20 donation you get a bowl of soup and a hand-made bowl (made by a local potter) to take with you.

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Celery root remoulade

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This is the Cinderella of salads. Take one plain (if you’re generous) or ugly (if you’re honest) root vegetable, basement-dwelling sibling to an elegant sister, strip off the gnarly beige attire and dress it up in French fashion. And, voila, something magical happens.

Okay, maybe not magical, but tasty. Celery root, the least attractive member of the carrot-parsley-dill  family is too often overlooked. It has a subtle celery flavour (as you might expect – it is related to the celery stalks we all have going soft in our crisper drawer) with none of the wateriness or stringy texture.  Also called celeriac, this bulbous root can be boiled like a potato and puréed  on its own or mixed with mashed potatoes (and a little horseradish, if you please).

But to really get a sense of just how elegant folate-rich celery root can become, grate it into matchstick-sized pieces(using a mandolin or the coarsest blade on a grater) and mix with a little mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.

Feel free to add a little chopped garlic, some capers or some prepared horseradish if you like.

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Chili (the secret recipe)

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When a friend innocently asked me for my chili recipe I froze, then I panicked. Then I lied.

“It’s a secret.”

That was simply boneheaded and I apologize. There is no secret to this chili, just a mystery. A mystery because I have been making it for so long that I hardly think about what goes in it. And, more importantly, I have been making it in increasingly larger batches – moving up from a four-quart slow-cooker to my feed-the-crew-of-a-warship-sized stock pot (24 quarts) – and my brain and math don’t get along. Reducing the vast quantities of ingredients I use down to something manageable for sane cooks is a challenge.

Don’t ask me why but I’ve always started my chili  like a gumbo with the “holy trinity” of onions, celery and green bell peppers. A little beer gives it body and lots of spice gives it zip. I’ve often made it with canned beans, but I prefer to cook my own (less recycling and none of that goopy liquid that has to be rinsed off).

This chili has become a staple around our house – I freeze it in two-cup containers because my son will take it for lunch and it’s the few ways I can get tomatoes and legumes into him.  Make it in big batches like I do and you’ll be all set if a division of marines stops by for lunch.

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Dried beans, fast and slow

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Dried beans are great to have on hand and are just about as easy as canned. If you plan ahead.

If you have some time, cover dried kidney beans with at least three times their volume of water leave on counter overnight. Drain.

If you’re in a hurry, put dried beans in a deep pot and cover with about three times their volume of water and bring to boil. Boil for two or three  minutes and  remove the pot from heat. Cover and set aside for an hour or so. Drain.
In a deep pan, add drained beans and cover again with three times their volume of water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about and hour until tender. Keep an eye on them, you may need to add more water.

Nigella Lawson’s baked chicken and sausage

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You know you’re a bad parent when your teenagers beg you to stop ordering pizza and cook something.

It was one of those weeks; I was sick (and tired) and the will to eat, nevermind cook, was gone. But, by Friday I realized my kids had consumed enough sodium and bad mozzarella to warrant an intervention from the Children’s Aid Society.

I’ve always admired Nigella Lawson because she can cook an appetizer, a main and dessert without getting a single stain on her form-fitting sweater (Not that I was looking), but I am not often inspired to make her recipes. This dish is the exception that proves the rule. It is my number-one go to meal when I do not feel like being in the kitchen.

Chicken in a simple marinade, sausage (pick your favourite I usually use Italian), onions and sweet red pepper baked together with sage and garlic and served family style straight from the oven. I roast a few potatoes on the side or serve it with rice or couscous. It is delicious every time, but I’ve never managed to do make it without getting my shirt dirty.

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Early summer slaw

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The Brits call it the weekend, North Americans call it a weekend (with a weaker end) and the French call it le weekend, although their language mavens try to get them to say fin de la semaine.

Call it what you like, the last one was glorious and I can hardly wait till Friday to start one all over again, although last weekend’s record breaking temperatures are not in the offing.

When we saw the Easter weekend forecast we headed straight to the lake. Our little cottage shone in the sun and we basked in it too. It was a taste of summer that will last until the real one arrives.

To heighten the summery mood, I made a big bowl of coleslaw – tangy, creamy, crisp and cold, that constant companion of summer barbecues. It helped cap a beautiful day.

Most often subordinated to side-dish status, this simple slaw deserves a place in the sun right along with the rest of us.

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How to make your own buttermilk

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No buttermilk? No problem. Here’s a quick substitute that works like a charm (and you don’t have leftover buttermilk going to waste in the fridge). Simply add one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice (I use white wine vinegar, but plain old white vinegar will do) to one cup of milk. Let it stand five minutes and voila, buttermilk.

Dutch baby bunnies

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The annual plan to have rabbit for Easter dinner fell victim once again to the family veto. They don’t know what they’re missing; I love the firm, white meat, which, done properly, is a great change from other white meats like chicken or pork. This year, however, I at least got the word bunny on the menu. It’s a start.

Dutch baby bunnies (often called Dutch babies) are made from a batter very similar to Yorkshire pudding but served with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit or preserves. I have no idea where they got the name baby or bunny or whether they’re even Dutch. All I can say for certain is they are delicious and that no bunnies (or babies) are injured to make them.

Most often these fluffy pancakes are made in a cast-iron skillet and then sliced into wedges. I make mine in the same extra-large muffin tin I use for Yorkshire pudding. After 15 minutes in the oven (a little less than Yorkshire pudding) they are high and fluffy and just a little crisp on the edges while still custardy in the middle. I fill them with fresh fruit but ice cream or whipped cream and preserved fruit work well also.

This recipe was inspired by one in Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food

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Boil fish

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First of all, the view from Sip Sip. If only I could make this at home

“No, no, no” the waitress said forcibly removing the fork from L’s tightening grip. “We don’t do it like that.”

We are sitting at Sip Sip, the dune-top lunch spot on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, and, up till now, everything has been perfect. The view from the terrace is right off a postcard, the temperature is just right, the Kalik is ice-cold, the kids are behaving.  And, to top it all off,  our timing is bang on; we are about to have boil fish, the Bahamian classic that Sip Sip only serves on Sunday.

The terrace is packed and it’s easy to imagine how the lively chatter gave the restaurant its name (sip sip means gossip in Bahamian), although I think the ample bar just inside could be another reason. Another sip of Kalik and the food arrives – a steaming bowl of broth with onions and peppers surrounding a beautiful piece of meaty grouper. The requisite johnny cake and bowl of grits on the side. I can smell the lime already. The server moves deftly through the maze of guests and the food is in front of us.

Time to eat.

Except we don’t know how. Or, at least L doesn’t.

In the end I thought the waitress was firm but fair. If L had only loosened her grip, there wouldn’t have been that moment of white-knuckled arm wrestling as the fork was pried from L’s hand. That’s what caused the sudden silence as everyone turned to watch. We the free entertainment for a moment until the waitress, victorious, pocketed the fork and showed L how to use her spoon to scoop a little of the grits into the broth and then break off a piece of the spoon-tender grouper.

“That’s how we do it.”

I could hear the sip sip around us as the other diners returned to their meals, disappointed the show was over. I held up my own spoon of boil fish with a grin. No northern rubes on my side of the table.

The boil fish we had at Sip Sip was simple, bright and delicious. The dominant flavour of lime gave it a citrus lift that added to the freshness of the fish. There was a bit of peppery heat, a hint of onion and, really, that was it. We all agreed that, except for the near brawl, it was the best lunch we had on the island. It was the first meal I tried to recreate when I got home to my own kitchen.

Boil fish is very easy to make and is most often served for breakfast or brunch with grits and johnny cake. I used halibut because I couldn’t find grouper. It was just fine.

I think there are as many recipes for Bahamian boil fish as there are Bahamian cooks. You can add  sweet peppers, omit the potatoes,  add more hot peppers or substitute lemon for lime depending on your tastes or what you have on hand. There are no rules. Many recipes call for goat peppers, which are commonly used in the Bahamas. I used a Habanero pepper because  that’s what I had on hand. Almost any fiery pepper would work just as well.

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