23. Fun Foraging.

It's the season for hops!  Most people think of hops as what beer is made of, but the tips are delicious to eat as well.

Mamma took me to her secret spot today to pick a bunch.  You want them when they have just emerged and there is a satisfying snap when you pluck the tender tips.

Once they have been rinsed, blanch, squeeze excess water and freeze until you are ready to eat them or quickly fry in olive oil with garlic for a fresh and delicious risotto.

22.

Here are some photographs of another tablecloth my mom transformed with some embroidery and needlework.  Friends had changed dining room tables and had no more use for the round cloth.  It was very good quality cotton, only washed a couple of times, and my mother said she could do something with it.  She also said she needed something to do with her hands while she was away on holiday.

That is something I rarely if ever hear someone of my generation or younger say.  We are fine to zonk out in front of the TV with absolutely nothing to occupy our hands.  But to this very day I cannot remember ever seeing my mother just sitting and watching TV.  She has always been either darning something or cooking something or knitting something or crocheting something or....well, you get the idea.  She keeps herself busy.  And what's the result?  Well, a discarded tablecloth was born again.

21. Easter

Albino's salmone affumicato and my paltry contribution to this feast: sardines with roasted red peppers. Just to whet the appetite

Mamma's gnocchi fatti in casa

Just part of the meal. (Note to self - must get wide-angle lens).

Yorkshire pudding? Well, what else to serve with...

Prime Rib roast?

It won't all fit on one plate so this is serving #1

Save room for Raspberry Tirimisu!

20.

Recently my husband underwent an allergy test by a naturopath to see what food allergies could be responsible for some persistent skin problems he had been experiencing. The test came back showing a strong allergy to eggs and moderate allergies to gluten and cow's milk. The naturopath asked him to avoid these foods entirely for at least a month to see how his skin reacted with these irritants removed from his diet.

He came home a little subdued by the thought of everything he would be giving up but also excited that he may once and for all lick his itchy, painful, skin problem without medication. As he presented me with the list of banned foods I think I went a little numb. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely inflexible. But telling an Italian that she has to cook without eggs, wheat or cow's milk is pretty much like telling her she'll be cooking with her hands tied behind her back.

I certainly wasn't going to cook two seperate things for each meal, so I was along for this culinary ride too. No parmigiano? No bread to sop up sauces? No pasta, for God's sake? What are we supposed to eat?

I have always found it odd that some vegetarians will buy fake bacon or Tofurkey. It just seemed counter intuitive to me. If you don't want to eat meat, then why would you want to eat something that is supposed to look, smell and taste like meat? So I didn't want to rush down the path of buying prepared foods as substitutes for what we would missing.

I also have a very vivid memory of a lovely older relative visiting from Italy that was bewildered by the obsession he witnessed in Canada for all food Italian. Rather than shipping in all of this food that is then no longer fresh and is now exorbitantly priced, he asked, why not focus on what is readily available here?

Every Italian grocery in the City lines their shelves with tiny packets of dried porcini mushrooms and mascarpone cheese flown in from Italy. But the mushrooms have no smell and and everyone knows mascarpone should be eaten fresh. By the time the plane hits the ground in Canada and the specialty items are shipped all the way across the country, they ain't fresh any longer. That I can tell you.

But he was astounded by the beauty and the taste of the salmon abundant here - a rare delicacy in Italy. And there are lots of mushrooms to be found in B.C. Sure, the porcini are different - the trees whose roots provide food and a place to grow are different. This makes all the mushrooms in the Boletos family smell and taste different than their European cousins. Still, rather than buying a packet filled with dehydraded mushrooms collected in Italy, wouldn't it be better to spend a day outside mushroom hunting and then rush home to make a beautiful risotto ai funghi misti, all the while anticipating that first bite of firm, fresh mushroom you picked yourself?

So when faced with this challenge I knew two things: I was going to have to say bye-bye to some of my old standbys like pasta and some cheese. I just wasn't willing to eat pasta made without eggs or flour. And, I was going to have to experiement with other kinds of cuisine that depended more on the ingredients Matt could eat.

As soon as I opened my eyes options were everywhere. A friend had me over to dinner and made the most wonderful dhal. Over the last several weeks I have had a lot of fun playing with her recipe and recipes for other Indian dishes. Rice is fine for Matt's system and we are enjoying exploring the many things you can make with beans and lentils to top it. In addition, the amount of fresh vegetables we have been eating has gone through the roof. We have cut out all pasta and bread and we both feel so much better. We are less bloated and feel lighter and healthier. As an unimagined but welcomed consequence - I have even lost weight!

Last weekend was Matt's birthday dinner. I invited my entire family (17 people) to celebrate with no idea of what to make. In the end, I went with jambalya made from organic, free-range chicken from Pemberton, the sausages we made ourselves last summer, frozen BC spot prawns from our favourite seafood shop and Hungarian Farmers Sausage smoked and dried on site at J N & Z Deli just down the street. The base was a broth made from chicken bones and prawns heads and shells I'd been stockpiling in the freezer. In the cornbread I used flax seed powder instead of eggs, rice milk, gluten-free flour and plenty of corn kernels. All of it turned out great.

But I was worried about the cake. Cakes are a big deal around these parts. Especially when there is a birthday involved. Luckily I found a wonderful blog with plenty of cake recipes. I decided on this wonderful egg-free and gluten-free chocolate cake and even got some tips from the blogeress and chef herself. The cakes (I made two since there were plenty of mouths to feed) rose just as well as any others I've made and smelled delicious. The recommended chocolate icing/glaze looked beautiful, as did the garnish of last summer's cherries. I sprinkled the adults' cake with rum and layered the kids' cake with chocolate pudding. Everyone really enjoyed them and the kids gobbled up their portions. The cakes were moist and chocolaty and everything you could want from a birthday cake.

Our family get togethers are different than the ones I experienced when I was visiting my family in Italy. There is always a lot more food, for one thing - I think most Italians would be shocked at the amount of food we consume in one sitting here. But on my last visit to Italy I was lucky enough to attend my nonna's 90th birthday party. The food was extraordinary, but what I remember most was the sight of her surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her hair nicely dressed and a beautiful scarf around her neck. She beamed. Though she was barely eating anything by that point, I could see that the real joy of the meal for her was being surrounded by her family. I felt that same satisfaction last weekend when everyone jumped in to try eating in a new way. There were no complaints or refusals - even the kids didn't balk.

That's family.

19. Seafood Carpaccio

We are just back from visiting my parents in Bucerias, Mexico, where they have a home that serves as a sanctuary from rainy Vancouver winters.

While there we enjoyed plenty of fresh ripe papayas and mangos, avocados, tomatoes and cilantro. Our weekly trek to the Sunday open air market yielded us as much beautiful fresh queso panela as we could eat. What better setting for fish carpaccio is there?

My parents know when and where the fishermen come in and off we went in search of fresh Mahi Mahi (Dorado), a beautiful white fleshed fish. We learned how to make this from our friend Giovanni who is a sea captain, spearo, fisherman and cook all rolled into one. Below is his recipe:

To make the carpaccio use the 2 fillets that start at the head and run on the back
along the dorsal fin up to half the length of the fish. This is the best part of the fish. The rest of the flesh has lots of ligaments and is best cooked.

Freeze it for a few hours to tenderize the meat, kill any parasites, and make it
much easier to slice. Basically the thinner you cut the slices the earlier you can eat them and the more delicate and beautiful they are. About a 3mm thickness is a good compromise. Slice the fish and put the pieces in a non reactive container with plenty of lime juice. Leave it covered in the fridge for around 4 hours (the time is dependent on the acidity of the lime and the quantity of it). Basically you want the outer part of the slice to turn whitish because it has cooked in the lime juice.

Then you put the the fish in a fine sieve and gently squeeze/drain all the lime completely - you don't want it to be too sour or to continue cooking.

Mix plenty (I mean plenty!) of fine salt, good olive oil and freshly ground pepper with the fish. Gently mix the whole lot together and lay the slices on a large flat serving dish.

Now the important part.

Be patient. Although it is technically ready don't eat it right away! If you leave it for at least an hour or two in the serving dish the enzymes unleash their power and the salt, lime, fish juices and olive oil react magically together to produce a delightful treat.

Giovanni assures me that salmon carpaccio is also delicious, and I will definitely try it when salmon is abundant. Meanwhile, my parents are bringing a Mahi Mahi back with them from Mexico and we're planning carpaccio as an opener for Christmas dinner.

18.

We live in a duplex so our tiny city lot is subdivided into two even smaller portions. Our neighbours have the sun rich south facing back yard and we have the north facing front yard with a long walkway along the eastern side of the house that leads to our side of the shared garage in the back. We don't have a lot of space to garden.

The first thing we did when we moved in was dig up the whole right side of the front yard to make a little herb garden for a bay laurel tree, rosemary and sage bushes, basil, chives, green onions, thyme, sage and a small red currant bush, all planted in a traditional pattern and separated by stepping stones. This little area is my favourite part of the front yard. It gives us all the herbs I need year round and red currants for jam.

Along the front of the fence, Swiss chard and kale seedlings are already inches high, ready to feed us in the winter when fresh vegetables are sparse.

Along the east facing walkway leading to the garage Matt dug up and built two small plots. We plant one with beans in the spring, adding parsley in the summer and sowing mixed greens at the end of August. We nailed the back gate shut and dug up the walkway beside the garage to make a second, larger plot for tomato plants and radicchio. It's also where we keep our compost.

In this back plot my stepfather came and build a plastic cover to create a greenhouse, using the side of the garage and the fence as walls. When he came by the other day to visit he suggested we plant the tomatoes in the middle of the plot, but then, as they grow, train them along the ground until they reach the side of the garage. This enables the tomatoes to develop extra roots over the nutrient rich soil and to stay moist during the hot summer days, while the plants themselves are leaning up against the wall that has absorbed the day's heat, keeping the plant warm after the sun goes down and extending the growing days.

Usually August is all about tomatoes, but this spring was so cold and wet that ours were green throughout August. I've only just begun enjoying them in my salads the first week of September. To make up for our pathetic show, my mom brought me 20lbs of plum tomatoes from the Okanagan and we canned them together last weekend. Ananda is planning on bringing down another 20lbs this week just to make sure we make it through the winter.

17.

On Sunday Catherine and Trevor of Wheelhouse Seafoods & Specialty Meats held a party to celebrate their 10th anniversary in business.

As part of the celebration they held a salmon burger contest. Anyone was eligible to enter; all he or she had to do was make a burger and bring it to the store. Chef Luis Montalvo from El Barrio Restaurante Latino cooked the burgers on the grill, and the judges were Debbra Mikaelsen and Philip Solman, Editor and Publisher of Edible Vancouver magazine.

My mom and Matt both entered, and I suffered as intermediary to their boasts and threats all week long. Of course, I also was delighted to serve as Matt's guinea pig for different recipes and really enjoyed being served fresh and interesting salmon burgers when I got home from work.
Mom's two entries - one served with roast peppers and one with fried onions.

The judges hard at work: tasting, conferring and noting.

Matt and Catherine

Luis paying very close attention to the burgers.

It got ugly for a while there when Matt went after my mom and fellow competitor with a plastic fork.

Matt's Asian style burgers with ginger, cilantro and sesame oil.

In the end, neither of them won. The ingenious goat cheese stuffed burger took it all. But it was a really fun time and excellent eating nonetheless.



Afterward, Matt and I met my sister and her family at my parents' place for dinner.

What did we eat? Salmon BBQ of course!