Soup Week 1 - PEAR & SQUASH SOUP

In keeping with my New Year's resolution ~ to make a pot of soup every week, preferably a different soup each time ~ I made this pear and curry flavoured soup for guests ~ Tom and Eva, with their daughter Magda and her husbad Lars. I used local pears I picked and canned last August. Mmmm a bite of summer...

Curried Pear and Acorn Squash Soup
1 acorn squash
2 tbsp butter
1 large onion in thin slices
1-2 tbsp curry powder
Salt & white pepper
4 cups water
1 cup chopped canned pears and their juice (about 1/2 cup juice)
1/2 cup cream
cooked wild rice

Peel, seed and chop the squash into small chunks. You should have 4-5 cups of squash.

Melt the butter in a soup pot and sauté the onions. When the onions have softened, stir in 1 tbsp curry powder, salt and pepper. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the water and the squash. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, covered, until the squash can be pierced with a fork (about 30 min). Add the chopped pears and juice. Cook another 15 min.

Remove from the heat and cool. Purée the soup in a blender. Return the soup to the pot. Taste for seasoning and add more curry powder if you like it hotter. Stir in the cream and heat, but don't boil. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and place a spoonful of rice in the centre.

Newspaper Column - WILD RICE & DRIED CHERRY SALAD

Published in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 20 November 2006.

As we enter the gift-giving season, I would like to extol the virtues of presenting gifts of food. I am not referring to boxed chocolates and imported Christmas cakes in cellophane. I am talking about gifts from our own larders.

I love getting gifts at the best of times, but a gift of food produced by your own hands is the most personal gift of all. No need to buy it, wrap it or return it. Just eat it! Not long ago, my neighbour Andrea popped her head over the fence to give me a container of her crabapple butter. I reciprocated with some wild blueberries I had picked up north. We gave chanterelle mushrooms to Ramesh and Karen and they gave us two bags of their fingerling potatoes. Eva gave us her lingonberry sauce made with wild cranberries. Berni’s dad gave us the most delectable little frozen strawberries in syrup. Gail and Mark gave us ‘biltong’, a South African venison jerky.
My sister-in-law Tallie came begging for a big zucchini to make her favourite chocolate cake. I was happy to oblige.

My list of food-getting and food-giving is long and delicious, and there is nothing I like better to give or receive. I think sharing the produce of our land, and the fruits of our kitchen labour, is the most generous and thoughtful gift we can give from the heart. The only thing that might make it even better is when accompanied by a favourite recipe that makes the most of the gift.

For instance, a reader of this column, Genevieve Salamon, gave me a couple bottles of her homemade vinegars and the technique for making them. One was flavoured with saskatoon berries and the other with herbs from her garden. I was tickled pink. In my quest to celebrate Saskatchewan foods, I have tried to source every staple product, whenever possible, from local sources. So, a couple bottles of flavoured vinegars were much appreciated.

Genevieve says they are easy to make: Purchase pickling vinegar from the grocery store. (She uses pickling vinegar because it has 7% acidity as opposed to 5% in regular vinegar.) Warm the vinegar on the stove or in the microwave. Pour one litre of warm vinegar over 1 cup of saskatoon berries (fresh or frozen), cover and leave at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. After it is well steeped, drain the berries from the vinegar and discard them. Using new berries, fill bottles at a ratio of four parts vinegar to one part berries. Seal and steep another week or two before using.
For herb vinegar, follow the same technique using mixed herbs such as sage, savory, dill, tarragon, coriander seeds, etc.

My mom makes a terrific berry salad with a raspberry vinaigrette. It is her new favourite recipe for family gatherings, and we all love it, too. So, I decided to try it with a vinaigrette made with Genevieve’s saskatoon flavoured vinegar instead. Mom’s salad calls for lettuce, but I substituted wild rice. Instead of dried blueberries and cranberries, I used Saskatchewan sour cherries I had picked and dried myself. And so, in the end, it really wasn’t my mom’s salad anymore, but that is how a new favourite recipe comes to life. I took it to a potluck dinner at our friends, Jo and Kevin’s place, which we had with grilled smoked salmon, pumpkin soup and a bumbleberry pie made by their kids.

I believe it is important and creative to adapt recipes for the foods we have on hand, rather than running out to the grocery store for every little thing. That way, our dinner table is always fresh, in season and if we’re lucky, a real gift of the land.

Not Quite My Mom's
Wild Rice & Dried Cherry Salad
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 cups small broccoli florets
2 cups small cauliflower florets
3 cups cooked wild rice
1 cup dried sour cherries
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup thinly sliced almonds

Mix everything together in a serving bowl. Dress with a homemade fruity vinaigrette (I made it with raspberry syryp) or do as my mom does and use a store-bought raspberry vinaigrette.

Week 50 - SPICY LENTIL AND WILD RICE SOUP

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week – 27 March 2006

Breakfast – Yogurt with cherries
Lunch – Leftover homemade pizza
Dinner – Spicy Lentil Soup

SPICY LENTIL SOUP
Nothing chases away the end of winter like a cracking fire and a pot of soup! I used lentils from the Cerridwen Farm at Medstead, wild rice from La Ronge, and tomatoes from my own garden (frozen last fall). I also used my own paprika (which I made by grinding several hot Hungarian peppers) and coriander seeds. The lemon peel isn’t from Saskatchewan, of course, but I pickled it myself.

2 cups crimson lentils
1 cup wild rice
1/4 cup canola oil
1 stalk celery, cut into a small dice
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 large carrots, peeled, cut into a small dice
10 roma tomatoes (thawed and peeled)
3 tbsp. tomato paste
several cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. paprika
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tbsp. crushed coriander seeds
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste
10 cups vegetable stock (or water)
1 piece pickled lemon peel (or fresh peel) - optional
plain yogurt
fresh chopped cilantro

Rinse the lentils and wild rice. Soak covered in water for one hour. Drain.

Heat the oil in a soup pot on medium heat. Sauté the onions, celery and carrots. When they are soft, add the garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook lightly, stirring, about 5 minutes. Stir in the spices: paprika, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

Add the drained lentils and wild rice. Cook, stirring, as the grains soak up the liquid and absorb the flavour of the spices. When the grains are hot and starting to stick to the pot, add the liquid. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer until the grains are cooked, about 45 minutes.

Before serving, remove the lemon peel and add more spices as necessary to create the level heat that you like. Ladle soup into bowls, top with a dollop of plain yogurt and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.

Week 3 - FOUR GRAIN SOUP

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week - April 30.

Breakfast - Two scrambled eggs and toast with honey.
Lunch - Yogurt, apple and cheddar cheese.
Dinner - Four Grain Soup with crusty buns.

Saskatchewan Four Grain Soup
This is a superb soup for a cool day. My recipe doesn't call for meat, but you can add cooked sausage or shredded beef to make a heartier soup. Conversely, if you want a vegetarian soup, replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock or water.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
2 tbsp canola oil
1 spt dried thyme
1/3 cup wheat seeds
1/3 cup lentils
1/3 cup wild rice
1/3 cup pearl barley
1 can tomatoes (I used 12 roma tomatoes from my freezer, thawed)
6 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Sauté the onions and carrots in canola oil until softened. Add the crumbled thyme. Stir in the wheat, lentils, wild rice and barley, coating the grains in oil. Turn up the heat to medium high and cook, stirring frequently, until the moisture is absorbed and the grains begin to stick to the pot.

Add the tomatoes and stir to incorporate. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the grains are soft, about 45 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Sources: Wheat from my family farm; wild rice from La Ronge; pearl barley from Daybreak Scheresky Mill; lentils from Cerredwin Farm; carrots from the Sakatoon Farmers' Market; my own garden thyme and tomatoes; homemade chicken stock.