December Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: December 2014

This is the final dinner in our 12-month series.   We set out to the Winter Market, hoping to find a new ingredient.  We decide on oxtail, which the farmer explains should be cooked over the course of the day.  We decide to make a stew, including some other market vegetables and some of our hardy garden vegetables.

Ingredients:

Oxtail (Surrey)

Frozen Kousa dogwood (East Vancouver)
Squash seeds, green vorlon tomato (frozen), garlic, celeriac, cabbage,  brussels sprout and rosemary (garden).

Eggs (Maple Hill Farm - Abbotsford)
Butter (The Farm House, Aggasiz)
Potatoes, kale (Cropthorne Farm, Delta)
Carrots, onion (Glorious Farm, Aldergrove)

Blueberries (Geldeman Farms, Abbotsford)

Sifted Wheat Flour (True Grain Mill's Red Fife, Duncan)

Hazelnut flour (Poplar Grove Arbour, Agassiz)
Mushrooms (Richmond)

Macro Kelp (Bamfield)

Honey (Valley Gold Bee co. honey, Abbotsford)

Sea salt (Vancouver Island Salt Company, Bamfield)

Oxtail Stew:

Place chopped garlic, celeriac roots and leaves, green tomato, & water in stock pot.  Bring to boil.  Fry oxtail in butter for 10 minutes.  Add to pot.  Fry chopped onion for 5 minutes; add to pot.  Add carrots, potatoes, and rosemary.  Simmer for 2.5 hours.  Add salt, mushrooms, kelp, brussels sprout and cabbage.  Simmer for another half hour.

Kale Salad:

Stir fry kale in butter and garlic for about 5 minutes.  Add some stew stock.  Cook for 5 minutes or until kale is tender.  Drain, and add salt and squash seeds.

Rosemary Tea:

Steep a couple rosemary sprigs for 10 minutes.   Add honey to taste.

Dessert:

Filling:  Process dogwood into puree.  Mix puree with 1.5 eggs, a pinch of salt, and 2 tablespoons of honey.

Crust: Mix 3/4 cup of four, 1/4 cup hazelnuet flour, 1/3 brick of melted butter, 1/2 egg, and a pinch of salt into a dough.   Press into muffin cups, forming crusts.   

Pour in the filling, and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.   Garnish with blueberries, squash seeds and the balance of the puree.

Comments: 

The oxtail is delicious, and infuses the vegetables with flavour.   The dessert is a keeper as well.  A mildly sweet filling balances out a dry, crumbly crust.  A delight!

November Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: November 2014

This month we introduce some foraging into the mix: kousa dogwood fruit and acorn.  These will be key ingredients for our dessert and drinks. 

Kousa dogwood is a gorgeous tree, typically considered an ornamental, but the fruit has a slightly sweet pulp with creamy texture, and a taste that hints of plum.   The fruit is best in October as it turns a dark red.  It takes no time at all to collect a few kilograms.

The fruit was placed in a pot with a little water and taken to a boil.  Mash/smash the fruit up as best you can in this step.

It is then taken off the element and strained to remove the seeds.  This step is somewhat tedious, but you get the hang of it after a while.  From here you may substitute kousa into your favourite recipes, keeping in mind the kousa will have a low sugar content.   This month we make a frozen kousa dogwood yoghurt by mixing yoghurt, honey and kousa dogwood fruit.  Our mix combined 1/8th cup milk, 1/6th cup honey, 2 cups yoghurt and 1 cup of pureed dogwood fruit pulp.

Acorn is our second "exotic".   We collected acorns from English oak.   These were boiled for 15 minutes, and hand-shelled, discarding any darkened bits.  The nuts were dried overnight in a dehydrator and then baked at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.   

To make an acorn drink, grind up the result, and bake the acorn grinds for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  The toasted grinds can be placed in a coffee maker for 10 minutes or so.  Delicious!    

The spent grinds should not be thrown away!   Stir into water and place in the refrigerator, replacing the water twice daily for a week.  This will leach out the tannins and the bitterness.  Dehydrate, grind, and sift the result to yield a handsome, dark flour.








In addition to the "exotics" we introduced a few new items: chard (garden-fresh), figs, and Nanaimo-farmed Pacific Oysters.   

Ingredients: 

Pacific Oysters (Nanaimo)
Squash seeds, carrots (1),  garlic,  chard, rosemary, kohlrabi, chives, parsley and cucumbers (garden).
Kousa dogwood fruit, figs, acorn grounds and flour (from English oak).   These were foraged from the city of Vancouver.
Birchwood cream, & yoghurt (Abbotsford).
Eggs (Maple Hill Farm - Abbotsford)
Macro Kelp (Bamfield)
Sifted Wheat Flour (True Grain Mill's Red Fife, Duncan)
Mushrooms (Richmond)
Tomatoes (Langley)
Onion (Stein Mountain Farms, Lytton)
Honey: (Valley Gold Bee co. honey, Richmond)
Sea salt (Vancouver Island Salt Company, Bamfield)

Drink: Toasted acorn drink (see above)

Appetizer: Fresh salad.

Slice carrot (raw), figs, cucumbers, squash seeds.  Mix with yoghurt, and a pinch of salt.

Dinner: 

Butter: According to the July Dinner instructions make butter from cream.

Pasta sauce: Using butter, stir fry onion, kohlrabi, chard, garlic, chives, tomato, kelp, mushrooms, rosemary and salt.

Pasta: Mix 1/2 cup  red fife flour, 1/4 cup acorn flour with an egg and knead until uniform.  Make into pasta with pasta maker.  Cook and add pasta sauce. Add parsley to garnish.

Oysters: bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes.  Remove the flatter shell, leaving the liquor. Add a bit of butter, chive, onion and garlic to the top of each oyster and cook until the butter melts.

Dessert: Kousa dogwood frozen yoghurt, as described above.

Comments: 

Pasta is a lovely, rich dark colour, although there was not much acorn expressed in the flavour.   The toasted acorn drink is reminiscent of coffee.  The longer you leave the hot water in contact with the grounds the more bitter the drink - perhaps 10 minutes is about right.   The drink is nuttier than coffee and it is even more pleasant with a touch of cream.   Kousa dogwood frozen yoghurt is peach-coloured and mildly sweet.  A winner!

October Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: October 2014

This month we use last dinner's squash seeds, and noting that October features Canadian Thanksgiving, we decide to work turkey into the mix.   Naturally, our garden is central to our efforts.   We take a celeriac, although it has little in the way of root.   On the other hand, the carrots and cabbage are a healthy size, and we are still getting tomatoes.  We take the last of our beans.

Ingredients:Turkey bacon (Vedder)
Squash seeds, carrots (1),  sungold tomatos, grapes, garlic, celeriac, cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke,  and beans (garden).
Butter (The Farm House, Aggasiz)
Potatoes (Abbotsford)
Cucumber, Apples , Onion (Stein Mountain Farms, Lytton)
Apples (Denman Island)
Fresh ginger (Shelfield, Cultus Lake)
Honey: (Jane's Honey, Fraser valley)

Drink: Juice  apples, cucumber, half carrot and ginger.  

Dinner: Bake the squash seeds at 350 for 15 minutes.  Shell the seeds.

Stir fry onion, garlic, ginger with butter for 3 minutes.  Add 3 cups of water.  Add cabbage, turkey bacon, potatoes, and celeriac leaves.  Bring to a boil and cook for a half an hour.  As a side dish, stir fry turkey bacon, beans, celeriac and Jerusalem artichoke.

Fresh salad: Slice carrot (raw), cherry tomatoes, beans, roasted squash seeds (shelled), .   

Dessert: Grapes, and baked pear.  The pear was baked with honey and butter at 350 for a half hour.

Comments: Juicing is a delicious way to keep drinks within our geographical limits, and this month's was a delight.    Turkey bacon is smoked and ready-to-eat, and the stir fried is perhaps preferred over stewed  (no salt needed).  

September Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: September 2014

September is another excellent garden month for 100 mile diners. Fraser River salmon makes this a month to savour.  Local butter has returned, and we apply it throughout our cooking.

Ingredients:

Sockeye salmon (Fraser River)

Sea salt (Vancouver Island Salt Company, Bamfield)

Carnival squash (1), carrots (1),  sungold tomatos, grapes, brussels sprout, garlic, chives, and parsley  (garden).

Butter (The Farm House, Aggasiz)

Cranberries (Pitt Meadows)

Raspberries (Abbotsford)

Broccoli (Burnaby)

Apples (Stein Mountain Farms, Lytton)

Fresh ginger, scallion (Shelfield, Cultus Lake)

Macro Kelp (Bamfield)

Honey: (Jane's Honey, Fraser valley)

Drink: Juice cranberries, apples, pear, grapes, and ginger.  

Dinner: Halve the squash, removing seeds. Bake half squash  at 375 degrees for an hour or until soft.   Cook broccoli, brussels sprout with butter, salt, seaweed, scallions and garlic at 375 for a half hour or until baked.  Cook salmon with butter, salt, cranberries, raspberries, chives, garlic, ginger and scallions at 375 for half an hour or until baked through. Brussels sprout and broccoli are enjoyed as side vegetables.  

Fresh salad: Slice carrot (raw) and cherry tomatoes.   

Dessert: Grapes, squash and honey (not shown).

Comments: The juice is sweet.  Local salmon is excellent / a delicacy and the baked vegetables beautifully complements the flavour of the fish.

Local ingredients (purchased)

Garden items (except honey)

Cranberry-Apple juice.

Baked salmon dinner

Close up of vegetables.

August Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: August 2014

It is August and the garden is bursting with produce. We decide to make a stew and a squash dessert to emphasize our garden of plenty. Local cream/butter were unavailable this month, but this is no problem for our chosen dish.


Ingredients:
Lamb Stew (Maple Ridge)
Sea salt (Vancouver Island Salt Company, Bamfield)
Carnival squash (1), carrots (2), cabbage (1), cucumber (1), potatoes (2), tomato (Vorlon (1) and sun gold (several)), plums, beans, garlic, rosemary, chives, strawberries (garden)
Blueberries (Abbotsford)
Watermelon, Onion, Crab Apples (Stein Mountain Farms, Lytton)
Macro Kelp (Bamfield)
Honey: (Jane's Honey, Fraser valley)


Appetizer: plums

Salad: Cut cucumber, some carrot, beans. Add strawberries, sun gold tomatoes and Vorlon slices.

Stew: Scald lamb. Put into wok, add 1.5 cups water. Add all other ingredients (cabbage leaves, carrots, onion, garlic, carrot leaves, chopped potatoes, beans, sea salt, rosemary, chives, macro kelp).  Cook for 45 minutes. Add some Vorlon tomato at the end.   Add a slice of cooked squash on the side.

Dessert: Halve the squash, removing seeds. Bake half squash with crab apples and blueberries in the cavity at 375 degrees for an hour or until soft. Add honey to taste.

Drink: Juice half watermelon with a handful of carrot leaves.

Comments: An easy dinner, and tastes great.   I think some fat is needed to round out a meal, so stewing lamb instead of a really lean meat works well.

Garden produce

Trout Lake Farmers Market items

Main course, salad and juice.

Dessert.

July Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: July 2014

July is a wonderful month for the 100 mile dinner.  Salmon has just shown up within our limits, and was immediately chosen for this month.  For carbs we made pasta, and our drink was a milkshake.  Many garden items were available for this month as well.  As it turns out, we no longer can buy 100 mile butter, so we made some from local cream.   We found 100 mile salt - what a surprise that was!


Ingredients:
Sockeye Salmon (Barkley Sound)
Sea salt (Vancouver Island Salt Company, Bamfield)
Elephant garlic, turnip, cabbage, carrot, raspberries, chives, peas (garden)
Light cream (10% fat) (Birchwood Dairy, Abbotsford)
Blueberries (Abbotsford)
Eggs (Chilliwack)
Sifted Wheat Flour (True Grain Mill's Cowichan Red, Duncan)
Honey: (Jane's Honey, Fraser valley)

Butter preparation: Put light cream into blender until whip cream appears on top.  Separate and process the cream into butter, saving the buttermilk for ice cream.  Add water to the butter and mix, discarding the milk/water mixture.  Refrigerate.

Ice Cream preparation: Combine 1 cup buttermilk (left over from preparing butter), 1 cup light cream and a quarter cup of honey.  Process 2/3 cup of blueberries/raspberries in food processor and add to mixture.   Place mixture in ice cream maker, adding another 2/3 cup of berries as the ice cream solidifies.  Place in freezer.

Shake preparation: Mix equal parts buttermilk and ice cream into refrigerated glasses.

Salad: Stir fry cabbage, garlic, chives, turnip in salt and butter,  and add together with raw tomato, carrots and raspberries.

Salmon: Wrap in cabbage leaves and steam for 18 minutes.

Pasta: Mix 2/3 cup flour with and egg and knead until uniform.  Make into pasta with pasta maker.  Cook and add garlic, butter and salt to taste.

Comments.  This was a delicious dinner.   The salmon and shakes were very tasty, and the pasta worked out perfectly.  If we had local heavy cream we would have used it to make the butter, but none was available.  Maybe we would pre-make the butter and ice cream to spread the preparation out a bit if we were to make this again.
  

Light cream: to be separated into butter and buttermilk

100 mile homemade butter!

Backyard raspberries and local blueberries!

Ice cream!

Garden produce.

100 mile homemade pasta!

Fresh caught sockeye salmon.

Local salt and elephant garlic from the garden.

Dinner!

Milkshake :-)

June Dinner

100 Mile Dinner: June 2014

June marks the beginning of Summer.  The new season's produce is here.  The last crop of asparagus, the usual greens, new strawberries,  and new potatoes are all available.  Ominously, 100 mile butter was not sold at the Trout Lake Farmer's Market and this month we used the last of May's stock.  It may not be available in the summer.  

In this month's effort, there is a focus on garden items and simplicity.

Ingredients:
Ground pork: Gelderman Farms (Abbotsford)
Macro Kelp (Bamfield)
Rhubarb, garlic scapes, strawberries, strawberry leaves, grape leaves, brussel sprout leaves, baby turnip & chives (garden)
Mushrooms (Richmond)
Butter, yoghurt (The Farm House, Aggasiz)
Asparagus (Cultus Lake)
Strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes (Abbotsford)
Radishes (Farmer Koo, Surrey)
Honey: (Hardie Honey, Duncan)

Dinner preparation:
Strawberry Leaf Tea: Steep tender strawberry leaves for 10 minutes.  Add honey to taste.

Dessert: Yoghurt/Strawberries/Honey to taste.
  
100-mile Dolmades:
Choose the most tender grape leaves.   Scald in boiling water.  Mix pork, steamed/chopped potatoes, raw chives, scapes, turnips and kelp for filling.  Wrap a spoonful of filling in each grape leaf, cover in water and boil for 20 minutes.  Add chopped rhubarb to the water and continue boil for another ten minutes.  Remove dolmades from hot water.

Salad: Stir fry asparagus, sprout leaves, turnip leaves, scapes & mushrooms in butter,  and add together with raw tomatoes and radishes. 

Comments.  We found the strawberry leaf tea online: it is very bland. Strawberries/Yoghurt/Honey is a terrific dessert and it is a pleasure to have fresh fruit again.  The 100 miles dolmades were good, although the grape leaves were sometimes chewy since it is a bit late in the season.