"Blueberries is one of the great forces o'good in the world" - James A. Owens

Late summer - and that's what we're at now, in case you blinked and didn't notice summer whiz by - is my favourite time of year.  There are many reasons why August is such a great month - cicadas are singing in the trees, meadows are in full bloom, back to school supplies are out, and nearly all of Ontario's produce is now available.  All summer long I await the arrival of two fruits more than any other: peaches and blueberries.  

Last week I paid a visit to Canaan Blueberries, which is located east of Ottawa.  It is a lovely, peaceful farm, boasting four varieties of highbush blueberries.  I have always enjoyed picking blueberries, I find them to be the most contemplative of berries.  I used to work on a berry farm when I was in high school, and the blueberry patch was my favourite.  Sitting quietly in the blueberry field, feeling the warmth of the sun pressing against me, listening to the birds chirping and the wind rustling through the trees, was like a kind of meditation.  In the blueberry field, my mind grows still (a rare occurrence), my heart swell with joy, and I am filled with appreciation. 

At Canaan Blueberries, the feelings of peace and happiness found me again.  With the branches bending under the weight of their fruit, picking was easy and plentiful - I came away with about 6 litres of blueberries!  A week later, less than a quart of berries remain.  So what did I do with them all?

Those blueberries lended their antioxident power to blueberry-peach smoothies, pancakes, turnovers, tarts, soy-yogurt breakfast parfaits, and one epic blueberry pie!  The blueberry pie is a combination of three separate from around the web, and let me tell you - it was friggin awesome.  

Epic Blueberry Crumble-top Pie

Flakey Vegan Pie Crust

From Veganbaking. Also what I used to make my turnovers and tarts. Excellent crust!

This recipe would do for a crust topped pie - since this pie uses a crumble topping, you only need to make HALF the recipe.  Or, make it all and use the leftover dough for tarts and other such goodies!

2 ½ cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¾ cup cold margarine
½ cup cold vegetable shortening
¼ cup cold water
3 Tbsp cold vodka 

Sift together flour, sugar, and salt (I like to cheat-sift by whisking my flour mixtures.  It blends everything really well and breaks up clumps).  Cut the margarine and shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter until crumbly (if you don't have a pastry cutter, a wire whisk also works really well! Whisks ftw!).  Drizzle half the water and vodka and toss.  The original recipe says to use your fingers, but I used a spatula to keep the warmth of your hands from melting the margarine/shortening.  Add the rest of the water and vodka and mix again.  Press the dough into a ball and refrigerate while you get the filling and topping ready.

Why vodka? The alcohol inhibits gluten formation (the protein in wheat flour that causes the stretchy breadiness), and it also provides moisture that will quickly cook off, both contributing to perfect flakiness!

Blueberry Filling

I used the recipe from The Joy of Baking. You really can't ask for a more perfect blueberry filling.

4 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and zest.  Add the sugar mixture to the blueberries and toss to combine.

Chemistry lesson: Pectin is a polysaccharide found in fruit and is used as a gelling agent when making jam.  In the presence of an acid (in this case, lemon juice), pectin chains bind together. Water is bound together by sugar and the pectin chains, creating a thick gel.  Blueberries are naturally high in pectin, thus the addition of sugar and lemon juice makes for a fool-proof pie filling.

Walnut Crumb Topping

I found this crumb topping on Epicurious. I'll be using this recipe for a peach crisp in the near future!

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp margarine, melted

Mix together all ingredients except margarine.  Add the melted margarine and mix with your fingers until crumbly.

ASSEMBLE!!

Place oven rack at the lower third and preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

Roll out pastry.  The crust recipe suggests rolling it out between two sheets of parchment paper (this is a great idea as it won't add additional flour to the crust). I however, have always make pie crusts using the add flour as needed method, and that's what I did here.  It worked out wonderfully.  Pre-bake the empty crust for about 10 minutes.

Fill the bottom crust with the blueberry filling, then top with walnut crumb crust.  PLACE PIE ON TOP OF COOKIE SHEET LINED WITH FOIL!  If you choose not to put a cookie sheet under your pie, prepare for a sticky blueberry mess on the bottom of your oven (and subsequent oven smoke).  If you don't line your cookie sheet with foil, prepare to scrape sticky blueberry mess off your cookie sheet.  Consider yourself warned.

Bake for a good hour or so, or until the crumb topping is doing some serious browning and there's lots of filling bubbling up through the gaps in the crumble (and likely onto your cookie sheet).  Remove from oven, resist urge to shovel scalding hot pie into your mouth, allow to cool, impress your friends.

Beavers and VeganTails

As I've told you before, the Rideau Canal is the world's largest skating rink, and a quintessentially Canadian experience.  In the spring, the snow melts to reveal bike paths that line the canal on both sides, meaning that skating the canal is not exclusively a winter activity.  I recently strapped on my roller blades and skated down the canal to the Tulip Festival (read more about my visit at my new nature blog!).  BeaverTail huts frequently appear at Ottawa festivals, and decided that a good skate always deserves some cinnamon-sugar goodness.  

Cinnamon-Sugar VeganTail!  Now with less guilt!

While awaiting our tails, Rick mentioned to the guy that I was vegan but I cheat for BeaverTails, to which he replies "We can make them without the butter, we make VeganTails all the time!"  As I mentioned in the post "A Tale of Tails and Zen", I e-mailed the nice people at BeaverTails to find out how vegan their products were.  They informed me that only the butter they brush on top right before adding the toppings is non-vegan.  The contents of the actual tail are fully vegan.  Now we can all request VeganTails and no longer make the tough choice between guilt and deprivation!  

While we were on our way home from Major's Hill Park that evening, we spotted this little guy touring the Rideau River in the Vanier area.  Don't worry buddy, I'm a vegan, your tail is safe with me.  :)

Oh yeah.... that

Hey!  Remember when I used to write in here on a somewhat regular basis? Yeah.... sorry blog.  Sometimes life gets in the way, the passion dwindles, and you start asking yourself if you're even interested anymore.  Well I'm determined not to let a good thing slip away, and I will do what I can to reignite the cooking fires!

It's not like I stopped cooking.  Ok, I have been doing less of it lately.  I could make excuses, try to explain away my absences... but lets face it, excuses are lame.  I want to pledge allegiance to my blog, to solemnly swear to update it weekly, but I'm not in the habit of making promises I can't keep.  I learned my lesson during my failed attempt at a "52 week challenge" (quite frankly I'm surprised I made it a whole 20 weeks before I gave it up).  Let's just say I'm going to try harder.

In spite of my apparent lack of ability to commit to a blog, I started a second blog, called "Ash Out of Doors".  This is where I intend to share my outdoor adventures, and primarily, the wildlife I encounter along the way.  Considering that I'm a biologist, this only seems natural.  I'm hoping that being drawn to blogger to show off my latest nature pics will also inspire me to show off my culinary prowess while I'm there.  It's worked so far, since I'm here after having written my latest Out of Doors post.

Ok, enough rambling, onto the food!

Last week I threw together a couscous tabouli that was fresh, bright, and super easy.  If you're not familiar with couscous, you ought to be.  It's just about the easiest thing to prepare and infinitely versatile.  Couscous is essentially tiny little balls of wheat.  Pour a cup of boiled water onto a cup of dry couscous, and in 2 minutes  you've got yourself 2 cups of fluffy couscous.  It's seriously that easy.  Since it's just wheat, it can be flavoured in any way you can imagine.  Use broth instead of water, stir in some fresh herbs, let it cool and mix in veggies, nuts, and dried fruit for a tasty salad, whatever!

Tabouli (or tabbouleh, depending on who you ask) is a Lebanese salad that traditionally made with bulgur, parsley (and often mint), tomato, onion, and lemon juice.  Bulgur requires a half hour to soak and another half hour to cook, and while that's not a lot of time, some days we just want to flick the kettle on and be done with it, you know what I'm saying?  So this is a little less traditional, but still totally delicious.

Lazy Couscous Tabouli

1 cup dry couscous
1 cup boiling water
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped (about a cup chopped)
1/2 cucumber, diced
3-4 roma tomatoes, seeds & slime removed, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 3 lemons
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt & pepper

Pour boiling water over couscous and let it sit for a few minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool.

Add remaining ingredients to cooled couscous, chill in the fridge and allow to marinate for an hour or so, if you want.  To speed up the preparation of this dish and augment the lazy factor, employ the use of a food processor for veggies and especially parsley.  Deviating from tradition once again, I threw cucumbers in here because I love them and think they belong in almost any salad.

Salad Challenge Countdown
Salads made: 21   Salads left: 31


Yeah, I'm still keeping track of the salads, even though the last salad recipe I posted was about 11 months ago.  I insist that 52 unique salads can and will be made.  You just wait and see!

Love at First Bite

It is now the 18th week of the year, and yet I have only blogged about 15 salads. That means that this week I will attempt to make 3 posts containing 3 new and delicious salads. I could make excuses, but I won't. That's not what this 52 week challenge is all about.

Last week I went away on an OBBN training course. The OBBN is the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network, and they are a network of researchers who collaborate, collecting and sharing data on the invertebrates that inhabit the bottom of freshwater bodies (streams, lakes, wetlands), for the purposes of assessing the health of freshwater systems throughout Ontario.

Ok, ok.... back to food. Whilst away for this course, inspiration was not in short supply. On the last day as we made our way home from Bracebridge, we stopped in Whitby for dinner. I had a hankering for sushi, but after parking and waiting to cross the street, we noticed a delightful looking Thai restaurant called i-Thai. I have to say, if you are ever in or near Whitby, you need to check out this place. We left that restaurant with full bellies, and smiles on our faces. Sometimes food really can bring immeasurable amounts of joy, and this place delivered. We started our meal with their mango salad, and it was love at first bite. I knew I had to go home and recreate it.

The key to this dish is using fresh herbs. This salad has both cilantro and mint, giving it a fresh bright taste. If you're one of those people who has an aversion to cilantro, I apologize, as it will appear in all three of this week's salads. It's not my fault really... if the grocery store would sell them in more reasonably sized bunches I wouldn't have this problem.

Mint belongs to a very prestigious

family- Lamiaceae. The mint family contains many delicious herbs including rosemary, oregano, lavender, sage, savory, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and catnip. There are many mints that are native to Ontario as well such as wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare), wild bergamot aka bee-balm (Monarda fistulosa) and a hat full of mountain mints (Pycnanthemum spp.). Mints have so many good things going for them. Mints aid in digestion, soothing the stomach and settling indigestion (ever wonder why Pepto-bismol and the like are always minty?). Mints are beneficial for asthmatics in two ways: first, rosmarinic acid blocks production of inflammatory compounds, and encourages the production of prostacyclins that keep the airways open. It's anti-inflammatory action also makes it a good choice for cold & flu season. And to top it off, they have a healthy dose of antimicrobial properties, suppressing the growth of bacteria (hence its presence in toothpaste).

Factoid: In Greek mythology, a nymph named Minthe was turned into a sweet smelling plant by Persephone

Enough rambling, and onto the salad!

Thai Mango Salad

Makes 2 servings

1 unripe mango

1 smallish carrot

1/4 red bell pepper

1 tbsp red onion

1 tbsp crushed peanuts

1 tbsp crushed cashews

5 or 6 fresh mint leaves

~2 tbsp fresh cilantro

juice of 1 lime

1-2 tsp agave nectar (or other sweetener)

Peel your mango and cut it into thin strips. Slice carrot, pepper, and onion as thinly as possible into thin matchsticks. Chop up herbs (Tip: an easy way to cut flat-leaf herbs like mint & basil - stack them on top of each other, roll them up along the long side, and slice thinly for even thin strips of herbs). In a small dish/cup, combine lime juice with agave nectar (or other sweetener). The amount of sweetener you'll need will depend on the tartness of the mango (less ripe = more tart), and your personal preference. Adjust as necessary. Toss all ingredients together. Allow the salad to rest for several minutes, allowing the flavours to get to know each other. Garnish with fresh mint leaves if you're feeling fancypants.

Salad Challenge Countdown

Salads made: 16 Salads left: 36

"Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom." Thomas Carlyle

You may not believe it, but we really wouldn't survive without fungi. Often unseen, fungi are all around us and exert a powerful influence on the world. They are the major driving force of the nutrient cycle, they possess the necessary enzymes to break down tough plant material, returning the nutrients to the soil. There's hardly a natural molecule in the world for which there isn't a fungus that can break it down. Mighty trees are no match for these potent decomposers. Many plants form important symbioses with fungi, known as mycorrhizae, without which they could not get all the nutrients they need to survive.

Mushroom overlooking UWO campus, London

We are no exception. Yeasts are fungi too, and they make up an important part of our intestinal flora. You know all those Activia commercials with the happy bellies? They're happy because they're getting good yeasts that help them digest food. Yeasts are used to ferment soy to create soy sauce, miso, and tempeh. Yeast is used to ferment beer and wine. It is added to bread to make it rise. It is grown on a nutrient medium to produce nutritional yeast, an important food additive for vegans with no other means of obtaining vitamin B12.

Factoid: Fungi produce awesome antibiotics, including penicillin, which is often celebrated as one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Millions of people owe their lives to the everyday genius of a simple fungus.

Many fungi produce fruiting bodies, commonly known as mushrooms. These fruiting bodies are like the tip of the iceberg. The mushroom is used only for reproduction, the main "body" of the fungus stays in the soil, and the mushroom is akin to a flower bearing pollen. There are major biological differences in the life cycle, and the life cycles of fungi are very complex, but this analogy will do for the purposes of a food blog. Mushrooms are quite beautiful and fascinating structures. When I photograph mushrooms I often feel that I am stealing a glimpse at a magical world that is hidden away from us. Some mushrooms are so tiny, and yet to some organisms, they would seem like towering trees. Mushrooms always serve as a reminder to me that there are millions of organisms in a teaspoon of soil, a thought I find very humbling.

Sunlit Mushrooms, Ojibway Park, Windsor

It may or may not surprise you to know that only 1% of the mushrooms we know of are edible. Most of the rest are actually poisonous. According to my mycology textbook, The Fifth Kingdom, all mushrooms contain carcinogens, even the ones we eat all the time. Lucky for us these are easily destroyed by cooking them. The author warns to always thoroughly cook all mushrooms before consumption, even though they are routinely served raw. Sorry raw foodists, but it turns out there is at least one thing out there that isn't better for you raw.

Not surprisingly, mushrooms are quite nutritious. Because they are soil organisms, they are good sources of many trace minerals. They are an excellent source of selenium, an element necessary for DNA repair, thus making mushrooms a good member of your cancer prevention roster. Mushrooms are also good sources of copper, manganese, zinc, potassium, and iron [1]. And they're a good source of B vitamins to boot.

Agaricus bisporus is the species to which button, crimini and portobello mushrooms belong. Portobellos are my personal favourite because of their large cap and rich savory flavour. They easily stand in for beef in many situations because of their flavour and texture. They also pair well with the same bold seasonings usually used with beef, such as Montreal steak spice. And it just so happens that these are the focus of this weeks salad challenge.

Entrée salads became popular a little while ago when the western world became obese and realized that it needed to eat healthier. So what did they do? They created the steak salad, often smothered in blue cheese dressing. Somehow people convince themselves that since it's served atop lettuce this is a health food. But you and I know otherwise. The thing that steak salads do have going for them is that they are bold and hearty, and those are good things. I've taken that inspiration and created a healthy and vegan alternative to this entrée salad favourite.

Week 7: Montreal Spiced Portobello Steak Salad

Serves 1 for a main, 2 for a side

1 large portobello mushroom

1 roma tomato

Robust greenery such as romaine and radicchio

cucumber, radish and green or red onion slices

Dressing

2 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce

(or roughly: 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp cider vinegar, pinch brown sugar, dash garlic & onion powder)

1 tsp montreal steak spice

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp olive oil

Remove mushroom stem. Heat up a lightly oiled pan or grill to medium-high. Fry or grill mushroom cap, about 10-15 minutes per side with a splash of balsamic vinegar or worcestershire sauce. Slice tomato into 4 thick slices, add to pan/grill during last 5 minutes. Slice portobello into thin strips. Assemble salad portobello and tomato slices arranged on top.

Whisk together dressing ingredients and drizzle over salad. Top with some freshly ground pepper. Enjoy with a glass of red wine and a clear conscience.

Salad Challenge Countdown

Salads made: 7 Salads left: 45