Newspaper Column - Seeds of Spring

It's time to celebrate seeds - which, despite that fact that it snowed again last night - will be finding new ground soon! Saskatchewan grows a tremendous amount of seeds. Here's a look at four seeds we love to eat - mustard, flax, coriander and hemp - plus one more that's for the birds. Read it here in the Star Phoenix.

Seed bread is crunchy with seeds

 

Seed Bread

This recipe comes from “Inspired by Mustard” by the Saskatchewan Mustard Commission. You can download this and other cookbooks at www.saskmustard.ca/consumer/recipes.

1 large egg

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tbsp prepared mustard

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup finely chopped nuts (your favourite)

1 large carrot, grated

3 tbsp yellow mustard seed

2 tbsp whole flax seed

2 tbsp sunflower seed

2 tbsp poppy seed

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, oil and mustard and mix well. In another bowl, mix all remaining ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet, mixing until moistened. Spray a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Turn mixture into loaf pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool slightly on rack then slice into 16 pieces. This is nicest served warm, but it is also very nice toasted. Serves 16 people.

 

Penny's Mustard is Back!

Penny Koehn makes my favourite mustard in the whole world. She won't give me the recipe, but at least she gives me a jar now and then!! Here's a litle excerpt from my upcoming book, Prairie Feast:


"After my first jar of Penny’s mustard, I could love no other. All other mustards were mere dalliances, a little heat on the side, pale in comparison to my main squeeze. As I scraped the bottom of that first jar, I felt as melancholy as if I were saying goodbye to a summer love. Will you ever touch my lips again? Shall I close my eyes and smell you near me, and long for you with every tomato sandwich and sausage on a bun?
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Faced with that prospect, I decided that the best course of action was to ask Penny for the recipe for her homemade mustard so I could keep myself in the condiment to which I was accustomed.
.“It’s easy,” she said. “You just…”
.“Ahem,” interrupted her husband Rick. “That mustard is a secret family recipe, and you’re not family.”
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I suppose if I’d had a son I could have betrothed him to one of Rick and Penny’s daughters — marriages have been arranged over lesser treasures. But alas, a mustard alliance between our two families was not to be. Blackmail was out of the question. A ransom note was impractical. I could hold them at knife point — but all I really wanted on my knife was Penny’s mustard.
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“Okay,” I said, “but if you’re planning to go into business with that secret family recipe then do it quickly, because I have a habit to feed.”.
As soon as I said that, I realized how spoiled I’d become. Grocery stores are better than drug dealers when it comes to instant gratification. Supermarkets have wiped out all semblance of the seasons and eliminated the act of longing from our food vocabulary. When we want it, we buy it. We think nothing of eating asparagus in winter and raspberries in spring. In fact, we’re upset if we can’t have them whenever the fancy strikes. Just imagine how much better those raspberries would taste if we awaited their natural season with the same giddy anticipation as a child awaiting Christmas or a special birthday gift. Would Penny’s mustard seem less special if I never ran out?
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I decided to take the Zen approach, free my heart of longing and let desire melt away like Coleman’s mustard in a Welsh rarebit. I would treat all mustards with respect, appreciating their unique qualities, like Dijon in a homemade mayonnaise, or honey mustard on a baked ham, or warm potato salad with a grainy mustard vinaigrette. In this unjudgmental state, I might even revisit the bologna-and-yellow-mustard sandwich of my youth. At some enlightened moment, when I was least expecting it, Penny’s mustard to come to me. That was mustard karma."

Mustard is a Must

Did you know Saskatchewan produces half of the world's supply of mustard seed? I gleaned that fact from the new website of the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission. Check it out. It's got lots of recipes.

Saskatchewan InDemand

I can't resist an event featuring Saskatchewan food (especially when they invite me to give a talk). Here are some of the local food products featured at the show Nov 15 & 16 in Saskatoon:

Prairie Sun Orchard - Homemade ice cream from Saskatchewan berries. I can highly recommend their chocolate-cherry-almond bark. No website; call 306-242-7573. You'll also find them at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

Petrofka Bridge Orchard - I tried their apple cidre and bought a bag of apples, which were fabulous. So, I asked the owner why we can't buy Saskatchewan apples in the grocery store -- the answer had to do with lacking a storage facility to keep apples fresh in large quantities. So let's get on that...

Bluestone Homegrown Beef - Owner Karla Hicks was giving out samples of her delicious homemade beef jerky. Their Angus cattle are raised on grass, drug free and aged 21 days.

Cedar Creek Organics - Also raised on green pastures and certified organic. Ground, steaks, franks, smokies, roasts and jerky. They have an informative and professional presentation, for which they deserve kudos. I'm told their beef is available at Dad's Nurition Centre in Saskatoon.

Bedard Creek Acres - A unique family business that captures the flavours of wild flowers and herbs in products such as such as Black Pansy Syrup and Creamy Chickweed Salad Dressing. Yummm.

Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission - They were giving away little bags of mustard seeds - yellow, brown and Oriental - and offering food samples like this Freezer Cabbage Relish. I didn't know you could freeze cabbage!

Newspaper Column - HOT MUSTARD FISH

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 16 June 2008.

Hot enough for you? How I long to hear those words. When I’m asked, Hot enough for you? I never say yes. I love the heat and soak it up as if I’m stoking my fires for the long winter ahead. No matter how hot it gets, it’s not hot enough for me. Until recently.

Just the other day, I had to admit it was hot enough. Of course, I was not speaking of the weather because that has definitely not been hot enough. I was referring to the Droolin’ Devil Mustard Gourmet Habanero Hot Sauce that was slathered all over my hamburger. I have always been a fan of mustard, so it stands to reason I would be a fan of hot mustard, too – within reason. At 1,500 Scoville Units, this mustard hot sauce is mild, relatively speaking, which is just hot enough for my palate. But what makes it extra special is that it is – from start to finish – a local food. The mustard is grown here, the sauce is made here and it’s sold right around the corner from my house in City Park. It doesn’t get more local than that.

The mustard hot sauce is the culinary creation of Craig Lowenberg, a hot sauce aficionado who moved his business from Calgary to Saskatoon just in time to catch the wave of the economic boom. His other creations include Uncle Big’s Serial Killer Hot Sauce which, at one million Scoville Units, is the hottest hot sauce made in Canada. You might say, it’s a hot commodity in a hot economy.

“The trend is that nothing’s hot enough anymore,” says Craig, who grew up at Grenfell, near Regina.

He and his wife Lorein moved to Saskatoon in summer 2006 to escape the fast pace of Calgary, where they couldn’t afford the high price of retail space. They wanted to live and raise a family in the friendlier pace of Saskatoon. It was a good move. Their daughter was born last fall and sales of their hot sauces have jumped nearly 300%.

“It gives you more of a chance to focus on what makes you happy,” says Craig. “Since we’ve been back, the new hot sauce recipes we’ve created won three international awards.”

One of their hottest items (in terms of sales) is a green hot sauce commemorating the Saskatchewan Roughriders – it’s a big seller in Alberta, too. In fact, sales in Alberta have increased since he moved here because he has more time to focus on that side of his business. “I always thought at one point I would retire back to Saskatchewan, but I didn’t think it would be thirty years sooner,” he says, “I’m really glad we moved when we did.”

So am I. Small processors like the Lowenbergs are critical to Saskatchewan’s future as a food producing province – one that not only grows the raw product but also processes it into foods we can eat. Too often, raw foods produced here are shipped to another province for processing, and then shipped back to our grocery stores with nary a hint that they originated here.
No wonder it’s so hard to find the label “Made in Saskatchewan” on the grocery shelf. The Saskatchewan Food Processors Association has more 50 members producing hundreds of food products (listed at www.sfpa.sk.ca and sold at the Saskatchewan Made Marketplace). There are many more small food processors who aren’t members of the SFPA who sell at farmers’ markets and local stores.

I love to hunt down these locally-made products and, when I find something I like, I become a loyal customer. So, the next time someone asks if it’s hot enough for me, I’ll tell them that Saskatchewan’s food economy is just heating up.

Hot Mustard Fish
Slather fish fillets (Saskatchewan fish, of course) with Droolin' Devil Mustard Gourmet Habanero Hot Sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Press course fresh bread crumbs onto both sides of the fish. Generously butter the bottom of a baking dish. Place fillets in the baking dish. Dab the top of the fillets with butter. Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes, until the fish is flakey and cooked. Baking time varies depending on the thickness of the fish, so keep an eye on it.

Saskatchewan Food Trivia - Mustard

Where does mustard come from? Three countries together produce 70% of the world's mustard seed: Nepal, Russia, Canada. Place them in order of 1st, 2nd and 3rd largest producers. Answer

Week 23 - JUMPING MUSTARD TOMATO CHUTNEY

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week from 22 September.

Breakfast – Toad in the Hole (recipe) with Jumping Mustard Tomato Chutney.
Lunch – Bread and tomato, fresh pears.
Dinner – Pasta with tomatoes, basil and dry-cured pork, ice cream with cherry sauce.

Jumping Mustard Tomato Chutney
Okay, so the apricots and ginger are not from Saskatchewan. But the other ingredients are. I made this chutney last fall with my abundant garden tomatoes and have just one jar left. It’s delicious.

2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds
2 dry red chilies, crushed
6 cloves garlic, mashed
1 inch cube of ginger, peeled and slivered
1 lb tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
4-5 dried apricots, quartered

Heat the canola oil on medium-high. Pour in the mustard seeds and put on the lid. The seeds will sizzle and pop. When the popping stops, remove the lid, add the chilies and stir. Add the garlic, ginger, tomatoes, sugar and salt. Stir. Simmer until the chutney starts to thicken, 15 minutes.

Add the apricots. Simmer another 10 minutes until the chutney is thick and shiny. Cool. Serve at room temperature.