Sharing a Kitchen in an Ingredient Desert

[Kerry Beal]

Anna N and I are up in Manitoulin Island for a couple of weeks so I can earn the 'big money'. The government pays a little extra if you doctor up here in the north. So we packed up our stuff and drove up yesterday. Takes a bit of travel - I picked up Anna at 6:30, we hit the ferry line around 12:30, were at the other end of the island at 3:30 and made it here about 5pm. So a long day.

Not a lot of exciting food along our route I must say - a rather sad breakfast in Markdale - a whitefish lunch in Tobermory while waiting for the ferry - which reminded me once again that I really don't like fish much!

We arrived famished - unpacked what we'd brought and headed out quickly to the grocery store which closes rather early once the tourist season is over. Had to hit both grocery stores in town in order to get all the necessities for the first meal - but Anna very quickly grilled us a couple of nice steaks and some portabello mushrooms.

On the trip up we stopped in Owen Sound to hit the farmers market to see what was fresh and good. As we walked from the parking lot we saw this fellow monitoring our progress.

At the market we grabbed a nice pot of a mixture of thai and regular basil - we'll be making larb one night for sure. And we also got some dinosaur kale (keep wanting to call it elephant kale) and celeriac.

This morning I woke up with a bit more energy and started a bit of baking - I'm on call today so of course had to have a little something to take along when that phone rings. I made a buttermilk Impossible pie - I'm too cheap to buy bisquick so I replace it with flour, baking powder and butter.

I was getting bit peckish so made us some shirred eggs. A bit of chopped grilled fennel that I'd brought along from home (cause you know hubby isn't going to use that up while I'm away), a drizzle of cream and some nice old cheddar.

[Kerry Beal]

Oops - apparently I forgot to put the sugar in the impossible pie!

[Anna N]

So I am learning to overcome my trepidation about sharing Kerry’s kitchen here on Manitoulin. I had to bite the bullet this time as I was much too timid to actually dig in the last time I spent a couple of weeks with Kerry! To me it’s very odd to take over someone else’s territory and I am hoping I am not too annoying.

Kerry is on call today which means she may or may not be here at dinner time so I suggested a dish that could be re-heated if necessary. One of my signature dishes is a chicken and sausage stew rife with a variety of mushrooms.

In this ingredient desert one soon learns that items that are available in even the smallest grocery store in southern Ontario are just too exotic to make an appearance here! Fortunately I brought dried porcinis with me and finding button mushrooms was not a problem but shiitakes – no such luck. Already I know the dish is suffering from this lack but it is still tasty. The other ingredient that posed a challenge was mild Italian sausage. I thought I had found some but when I went to use it, DAMN, it’s turkey sausage – who knew such an abomination existed. Ah well.

The dish calls for boneless, skinless chicken thighs but I deliberately bought bone-in and skin-on thighs. I skinned them and we had crispy chicken skin as a treat and I boned them and made the required stock.

Here's the chicken skin frying:

And then there's Kerry's anxious fingers hovering over the treat:

While I prepped the stew, Kerry made this amazing celeriac puree in the Thermomix.

In this remarkably well-equipped and well-stocked kitchen the one item I am missing is a gravy separator so I will wait until the stew has cooled a bit and use a re-sealable plastic bag to drain off some of the fat.

I am hoping to dig right into Dorie Greenspan’s new book, Around My French Table, while I am here and my first attempt will be the Savoury Cheese and Chive Bread – but not until I discover where the a/p flour resides!

Edited to add:

I should have mentioned that between calls into emerg, Kerry and I dropped into the two local grocery stores for the following:

Amazingly, though shiitake mushrooms are too, too exotic for Manitoulin, apparently, black garlic isn't! The pack of bacon ends weighs close to a pound but was only a couple of dollars so we grabbed it for future meals. Also in the photo is a pack of lime and black pepper potato chips which are not particularly good but we are still seemingly addicted to them. At least we alternate chips and chicken skin.

Edited September 26, 2010 by Anna N (log)

[heidih]

Celeriac puree looks inviting. Was the chicken skin just frying in the rendered chicken fat or did you add oil? On the black garlic- amazing what strange items pop up in markets. There was some at my Safeway derivative chain market- I asked the produce guy and he said either a rep was really persuasive or a customer was quite demanding. He had not seen it move. They had not even educated him on what it was.

[Anna N]

Celeriac puree looks inviting. Was the chicken skin just frying in the rendered chicken fat or did you add oil? On the black garlic- amazing what strange items pop up in markets. There was some at my Safeway derivative chain market- I asked the produce guy and he said either a rep was really persuasive or a customer was quite demanding. He had not seen it move. They had not even educated him on what it was.

No added oil or fat. I just lay the skin in a dry pan and slowly let it render. We still have not decided what to do with the black garlic. I suspect I am a little afraid of it! But we are exploring possible uses and I am sure it will show up in this topic eventually.

[onrushpam]

Blackgarlic.com tells all about it and has a bunch of recipes. I'll be interested to hear what you two ladies think of it! Edited September 26, 2010 by onrushpam (log)

[Kerry Beal]

We'd picked up some corn en route yesterday - threw it on the grill for a few minutes.

The chicken and sausage with mushrooms that Anna made - yummy! along with the celeriac puree.

Forgot I had some bread proofing in the kitchen - went out to get another cup of tea and realized I'd better get it in the oven before it was totally overproofed. Should go over well at work tomorrow. In the am if I'm not up all night on call I plan to make some cheese biscuits to take for rounds.

[Kerry Beal]

Blackgarlic.com tells all about it and has a bunch of recipes. I'll be interested to hear what you two ladies think of it!

Was looking at those recipes - the risotto called to me. Also noticed something online about a japanese company that was making a chocolate center with it for valentines day.

[Kerry Beal]

Cheese biscuits for this mornings rounds. Only had to run in once overnight and that wasn't until about 6:45 so I'm in good baking shape. Anna and I have been discussing the name for the little cheese bits that ooze out of the biscuits and get nice and crispy brown. I suggested 'cheese scroff' - but we both agree that it's the cooks share!

[nakji]

I call them "cheese feet".

Kinda gross if you think about it too much, though.

[Anna N]

So while Kerry went off to work I got to stay home and play and I’m learning to do so without feeling too, too guilty! I brought Dorie Greenspan’s new book with me and this is the recipe that called out to me from the moment I opened this fabulous book:

It is the Savoury Cheese and Chive Bread. I had bought Gruyere cheese to bring up here but forgot it and, of course, there’s no source here for Gruyere so I used some of the Cabot Cheddar that Kerry brought with her. I couldn’t find chives though I have loads in my planters at home so I picked up some scallions yesterday at one of the local groceries. I also added a few sun-dried tomatoes to the batter.

It went together easily which for someone who is baking-challenged was a real plus. I have not yet cut into it but will do so when Kerry gets back from work.

Here it is ready for the oven:

And here’s the finished loaf:

[Kerry Beal]

Tried the risotto with the black garlic - lovely risotto, but I have the feeling it wouldn't taste much different without the black garlic. Tasting the black garlic on it's own - it's tastes a little like wine - and I think the wine you add to the recipe simply overpowers it.

Need help with this one - I bought this huge honking bottle at Costco in the summer while I was up here. Decided to open it today and send Beth home with some - but what are we going to do with the rest of these? Of course we are trying to stay relatively low carb so not adding them to pasta.

[patris]

Antipasto? Assuming you can get some sort of sausages/charcuterie, that might work.

[Porthos]

Need help with this one - I bought this huge honking bottle at Costco in the summer while I was up here. Decided to open it today and send Beth home with some - but what are we going to do with the rest of these?

Have you ever heard of artichoke nibblers? They're like a crustless quiche. Definitely not lo-cal though.

[Kerry Beal]

Need help with this one - I bought this huge honking bottle at Costco in the summer while I was up here. Decided to open it today and send Beth home with some - but what are we going to do with the rest of these?

Have you ever heard of artichoke nibblers? They're like a crustless quiche. Definitely not lo-cal though.

Tell me more - don't need lo-cal, just low carb!

[Kerry Beal]

Antipasto? Assuming you can get some sort of sausages/charcuterie, that might work.

I like them straight out of the bottle too - but I'm not sure I'm prepared to drag them home where the good charcuterie might be found.

However I do bring up fabric sausage casings each trip for one of the butchers here who makes his own summer sausage - he gave me a nice one in the summer - if I could get my hands on some of that it would be tasty with them for sure.

[Porthos]

Tell me more - don't need lo-cal, just low carb!

I don't know what omitting the bread crumbs will do to the texture but here it is:

Artichoke Nibblers

Ingredients:

2 small (maybe 8 oz) jars marinated artichoke hearts

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

4 large eggs

1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs

1/4 teaspoon each salt, pepper, oregano, and Tabasco sauce

1/2 lb. (2 cups) shredded Cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons parsley, minced

Directions:

1) Drain marinade from 1 jar of artichokes into frying pan. Discard juice from other jar.

2) Chop all artichokes, set aside.

3) Add onions and garlic to frying pan. Saute until limp.

4) In a bowl, beat eggs, crumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, and Tabasco.

5) Stir in cheese, parsley, artichokes, and onion/garlic mixture.

6) Turn into a greased 7 x 11 inch baking dish

7) Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

8) Let cool.

9) Cut into 1 inch squares. (or, just stuff your face as we did)

10) Serve cold or warm.

[Tri2Cook]

You two are awesome. You've done more cooking the past 24 hours than I've done (outside of work) in the past 2 weeks.

[Kerry Beal]

Spatchcocked a chicken and cooked it on the mini BGE - nice and moist. Had rubbed it with a bit of olive oil and some Dizzy Pig Raging River rub - a nice rub with a hint of orange in it as well as a bit of heat.

Along with it we had some low carb colcannon - probably better named caulcannon. I roasted a whole cauliflower, reduced it to a puree in the thermomix, cooked it a bit further with butter, milk and a bit of cream until it formed a very smooth puree and added the steamed and chopped dinosaur kale. Very satisfactory! Leftovers will be fried for breakfast I think.

Earlier today I roasted a red pepper on the mini - for a project later in the week.

Another challenge - Beth brought us some damson plums soaked in vodka. We need to figure out what to do with them - ice cream is out - I could bake with them - but I wonder if there isn't some other ideas.

[Beth Wilson]

Dinner was delicious! You forgot the dessert!! My first try of oven roasted Strawberries!! Who knew such a thing could be so good!

[Kerry Beal]

Dinner was delicious! You forgot the dessert!! My first try of oven roasted Strawberries!! Who knew such a thing could be so good!

Anna is sacked out already - she plans to post about these in the am.

[Tri2Cook]

Another challenge - Beth brought us some damson plums soaked in vodka. We need to figure out what to do with them - ice cream is out - I could bake with them - but I wonder if there isn't some other ideas.

A boozed-up pflaumenkuchen might be tasty but that would be baking. No baking or ice cream... hmmm. Plum jello shots? Mousse? A parfait with layers of chopped boozed plums, cream whipped with a touch of blue cheese and a little sugar and something crunchy? I don't know, I've never had boozed plums.

[andiesenji]

Those artichoke hearts (sliced) are a lovely addition to a strata, along with ham, cheese and caramelized onions, layered with slightly stale bread and soaked with savory egg custard.

I don't have a recipe, I just wing it when putting one of these together.

Here's some suggestions; stratas.

[Anna N]

When we learned that Beth Wilson (another eG member) would be joining us for dinner last night, we had to do a bit of shopping so we dropped off the quick bread (here you see it sliced) at the hospital for a staff treat.

The menu, as you already know from Kerry, was a spatchcocked chicken on the Big Green Egg (actually a mini Green Egg), a riff on Irish Colcanon using riced cauliflower and kale and a mushroom and black garlic risotto done in the TMX. I only contributed dessert – roasted strawberries

with this amazing Northern Whisper vinegar which Kerry will tell you more about.

The chicken was amazing and the caulcannon very tasty but I just can’t get into risotto.

Won’t be much time for cooking today as we will be heading out fairly early this morning but I’m betting Kerry will still manage to bake something before we leave!

[Kerry Beal]

Another challenge - Beth brought us some damson plums soaked in vodka. We need to figure out what to do with them - ice cream is out - I could bake with them - but I wonder if there isn't some other ideas.

A boozed-up pflaumenkuchen might be tasty but that would be baking. No baking or ice cream... hmmm. Plum jello shots? Mousse? A parfait with layers of chopped boozed plums, cream whipped with a touch of blue cheese and a little sugar and something crunchy? I don't know, I've never had boozed plums.

Baking's OK - I'll take it to work. Ice cream would dictate I eat it myself!