Recipe: Pasta with Grilled Market Veggies

a few thoughts
Lorraine Turchansky submittted this recipe for our recipe contest. Tying for third place, we loved this recipe for the variety of veggies it uses from our market, for its use of fresh herbs, and for its summer time use of the barbecue. 

Barbecuing vegetables is not something that people immediately think of when it comes to summer time grilling adventures... but it can add a wonderful smoky flavour to the vegetables, and the intense heat can sear in the juices nicely, so that the vegetables don't become dried out. What is surprising about this recipe is that it barbecues tomatoes... a vegetable that people often think of as being far too soft and wet and fragile to grill But it works beautifully in this recipe.


Right now, the market stalls are overflowing with vegetables that are perfect for this recipe. Lorraine's submission to our annual recipe contest is a healthy & creative one that makes a perfect summer evening meal.

pasta with grilled market veggies

This is a great recipe for summer because it is good hot, room temp or chilled the next day.

ingredients

2 red or orange bell peppers

1 medium onion, halved

4 tomatoes

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and halved

¾ tsp salt

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar or white balsamic

¼ cup chopped fresh basil and/or flat-leaf parsley

1 large garlic clove, crushed

½ tsp fresh ground pepper

170 grams (about half a box)  rigatoni or rotini pasta

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

instructions

Rub peppers, onions and tomatoes with olive oil, about a tablespoon, and place on hot or medium-hot barbecue grill. Remove jalapeno as soon as it starts to blister.

Grill the tomatoes, turning them, until skin is beginning to split and tomatoes are slightly softened, about 3-5 minutes.

Keep turning the bell peppers until they are blackened all over, about 10-15 minutes. Remove and place the bell peppers in a paper bag for 10 minutes.

Grill the onion, turning occasionally, until the cut sides are browned and the onion is softened, about 15-20 minutes. Times will depend on how hot your barbecue is and whether you close the lid while cooking.

Remove the charred skin, stems and seeds from the bell peppers.  Dice the peppers and onions, and finely chop the jalapeno. Remove the skin and cores from the tomatoes and dice.

In a large bowl, combine the peppers, onion, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until tender but still firm, about 8-10 minutes, Drain well, add to sauce in bowl, and toss.

Serve with Parmesan cheese on the side. Serves 4.


Recipe from Lorraine Turchansky, 
3rd Placed Winner in our Annual Recipe Contest

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Intro by Sheri Hendsbee

Recipe: Cucumber and Fennel Salad

a few thoughts
This recipe, created & entered by Stephanie Betts, garnered second place in our recipe contest. A recipe that introduces people to simple home cooking, we loved it for its sheer simplicity and audacity... just 2 market ingredients! (well.... not counting the dill and honey). It is simple and fresh and super easy to make. And it uses fennel... people hardly ever know what to do with this wonderful plant! 

Imagine a recipe this simple winning a recipe contest! It's like the intro I was reading to the Local Bounty cookbook that talks about a chef getting sneered at by other chefs at a cook off for bringing beautiful seasonal veggies and assembling a salad with a very simple vinaigrette... 

We live in an age of celebrity chefs and televised cooking competitions sporting elegant plates of expertly stacked entrées. But you don't need to create elaborate preparations or use complicated techniques in order to prepare wonderful food. The better your ingredients, the less you really need to fuss with them. There is a famous story about Alice Waters, founder of the venerable Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, long-term food activist, and pioneer of the fresh, organic, local foods movement. She travelled across the country to act as a guest chef for an event featuring various eminent culinary professionals. For her contribution, she brought freshly picked, heirloom salad greens and prepared a simple dressing. A fellow chef sneered, "That's not cooking, that's shopping!" And Waters responded, "Exactly!"

So with just fennel and cucumber and a simple vinaigrette, this recipe is sheer simplicity itself. And audacity. This recipe has it!

Ingredients for this recipe can be found at all four vegetable vendors at our market: Riverbend Gardens has fennel, dill and cucumbers; Dargatz Family Farm and Holden Colony have cucumbers and dill; Good Morning, Honey and Holden Colony both have honey. 

Thanks, Stephanie!

Cucumber and fennel salad
Eating this salad with fresh cukes and fennel from the farmers market is the best.
Veggies:
ingredients
1 fennel bulb cored and thinly sliced
1/2 a larger cucumber or 2-3 small cucumbers, thinly sliced (you could also add in some celery or radishes in here too)
Dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 tablespoon red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar 
1 teaspoon freshly chopped dill
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon mustard
instructions
Mix up the vegetables in a medium sized bowl. Place all ingredients for the dressing in a jar, seal and shake until it is all combined. Pour dressing over veggies and toss. Salad should be served within a half hour of dressing, but will hold up in the fridge overnight for leftovers in lunches the next day. Serves 4 when used as a side dish. 

It's light, fresh and easy to play with depending on what you have in your pantry or fridge. I've been making it all the time because it's so easy to put together! 

Recipe from Stephanie Betts, 2nd Placed Winner in our Annual Recipe Contest
Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Intro by Sheri Hendsbee

Recipe: Nova Scotia Hodge Podge

our 3rd place winner: peggy doyle 

We are posting our recipe winners out of order, because this recipe is one that should really be made right now... while the beans and peas are still in season and the potatoes can be found on the smaller side.

We love Peggy Doyle's recipe for its definite cheekiness, personality and attitude! This is a recipe filled with character! We love its language and the tone of its advice and comments... the way this recipe is written. We love its cultural background... its regional character and biases. And we love its educational angle... it has the potential to teach something to our market goers about the maritimes (and goodness knows there are a lot of displaced maritimers living here in Edmonton! Lol), adding another layer of richness and complexity to the market community that we are working so hard to build.

photo from eat-this-town.com

Hodge Podge is the best of traditional, home cooking: heavy dutch ovens, cream and the nuts and bolts of a farmers' market: potatoes, carrots, beans and peas. It is more like a soup than a stew. Using the freshest of vegetables selected at the market, and not allowing them to overcook is the secret to this being a health-filled recipe, despite its use of cream and butter. Notice that the lack of flour to thicken this recipe means that it is gluten free!

Many a maritimer would insist that this is a perfect summer recipe, best made when the beans just start appearing at the farmers' market and the potatoes are new and tiny and can be added to the recipe whole, or simply cut in half. But as long as the beans are in season... and at our market that means into the fall (with T.R. Greenhouses' green broad beans)... the recipe can be adapted & it can still be made! It is a celebration of fresh vegetables, and a winning combination of great taste, age-old tradition and wonderful comfort food.

Veggies for this recipe can be found at the booths of any one of three vegetables vendors: Dargatz Family Farm, Riverbend Gardens and the Holden Colony. And don't forget that Peter's Lakeview Farm also has beans... they're not just about saskatoons. Delicious bread for sopping up its juices can be found at Prairie Mill Bakery, or if you'd prefer something gluten free, at Celebrate, Gluten Free. Perfectly in season as fall approaches, now is the time to explore a well loved Canadian maritime tradition... Dig in and enjoy!

nova scotia hodge podge 

- a traditional recipe 

Peggy writes, Simple. Fresh. Delicious. No hiding behind fancy schmancy ingredients, or over seasoning. Just a little salt and pepper to round things out. If you’re looking for a recipe that is brimming with complex flavours and seasonings, this isn’t it. Hodge podge is all about the vegetables. We like to let ‘em shine.

Once you’re done eating the veggies, I think most Maritimers would tell you to sop up the extra broth up with some hearty bread. I’m also betting that most would like me to mention that hodge podge is just as good – if not better – on the second day. And that it tastes mighty fine alongside a juicy steak.

Makes enough for 4-6 people.

ingredients
10-12 new potatoes – scrubbed/not peeled, and halved – quarter any large potatoes, and don’t cut the small ones – you want the potato pieces to be about the same size
2-3 cups chopped new carrots – scrubbed/not peeled, cut into bite sized pieces (you can peel them if you like)
1 cup chopped yellow beans – 1 inch long pieces
1 cup chopped green beans – 1 inch long pieces
1 cup shelled pod peas – you want just the peas, not the pods
1 cup blend – you want something around the 10% fat mark (FYI – some people
use a higher fat cream, and up to 1.5 cups of it)
1/4 – 1/2 cup butter (I use 6 tablespoons)
salt and pepper to taste

instructions
Note: the cooking times listed below are what I use. Generally, you want the veggies – especially the beans – to be tender crisp. Some people like their veggies softer, and will cook longer – thus the frequent use of the word “about.”

1. Fill a Dutch oven about halfway with water, and salt lightly (about 1/2 teaspoon of salt). Bring to a boil.
2. Add the potatoes to the boiling water. Cook for about 7 minutes.
3. Add the carrots to the pot, and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.
4. Next add the yellow and green beans to the pot, and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.
5. Finally, add the peas, and continue cooking for about 3 minutes.
6. Drain off most of the water – leave about an inch of water (no more) in the bottom of the pot with the vegetables. Return the pot to the stove, and reduce burner heat to low. Add the blend and butter, and some salt and pepper (I start with a 1/4 teaspoon of each). 
7. Gently stir to combine, allowing the the blend and butter to heat through. As you’re stirring, the potatoes might break up a bit. Not to worry. As the the blend and butter heat through, the broth may begin to thicken. This is normal. Don’t allow the mixture to boil. 
8. Once the mixture has heated through, it is ready to serve. Season with a little salt and pepper to taste. Serve with bread to sop up the extra broth.

Store any unused portions in the refrigerator, and re-heat before serving. 

Recipe from Peggy Doyle, 3rd Placed Winner in our Annual Recipe Contest

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca

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Intro by Sheri Hendsbee (in maritimer speak, a true CFA... Come From Away)

Recipe: Ruby Fruit Salad with Pomegranate Glaze

about our recipe contest... We had no idea just how difficult it would be to choose our winners! The submissions we received were outstanding recipes, showing us that we have some very savvy foodies in our midst! Our contestants were people who know food, know how to create with food and are very talented when it comes to combining the fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey available at our market into satisfying, delightful, healthful and surprising combination dishes.

We will showcase our winning recipes over the next month, starting today with our first placed winner... When Margaret was notified of her win, she was thrilled and said, "I love your market - it has such a welcoming, homey, family feel while at the same time being very upbeat and buzzing with lots of energy. All the vendors are so friendly - it's what I imagine farmers markets to be like long ago, when life was simpler and our connection to food was much more direct. It's an honour to be connected with the SWEFM, even in this small way."

a few thoughts about new recipes, cookbooks & experimentation...

I have a confession to make. I love reading cookbook introductions. They are full of intriguing information and inspiring creativity. They cajole, explain and refute standard beliefs. They develop your understanding of cooking and food science, and they are often teeming with thoughtful introspection and solid nutritional information. Reading them is like sitting down with a good friend and having a fascinating conversation. Cup of tea in hand, pondering the terrific recipes that we'd received in our recipe contest, I escaped for a bit and revisited an old favourite: Williams & Sonoma's Essentials of Healthful Cooking. 

There Mary Abbott Hess writes, We tend to appreciate food more when our sense of taste is stimulated and surprised. When we get bored, as often happens when restricting any part of our usual diet, we crave flavour, which can lead to bingeing on foods high in fat or sugar. Artfully flavouring food is an easy way to keep cravings under control.

Margaret Bose Johnson is the winner of our first placed recipe contest prize: Birds & Bees organic wine and a bottle set. In her recipe, she masters the art of flavouring food and surprising and stimulating our tastebuds with her recipe for Ruby Fruit Salad with Pomegranate Glaze. An artful take on the traditional fruit salad, we loved her recipe its beauty, for the variety of ingredients it uses from our market and for its versatility & adaptability (you can use any fruits that are available and change the recipe as things move in and out of season), and because it appeals to our inner artists (the colours! the textures! the shapes! the creativity that it allows the cook!).

Margaret Bose Johnson is a food blogger and a shopper at our market. You can read her blog at www.kitchenfrau.com. There she writes about the recipe she created with fruits purchased at our SWEFM market: 

a bowl full of sparkling jewels. This ruby red fruit salad expresses the bounty of summer with the rich palette of colours and tones only nature can provide. Just look at those wonderful shades of red and crimson and scarlet and burgundy (I love listing all the ‘red’ words.)

I’m sure you all make fruit salads many different ways, and many of you probably make them like I usually do – as a means of using up any unused fruits sadly lurking in the fruit bowl and crisper drawer. They make rainbow coloured fruit mixtures that are all delicious and refreshing. Anything goes when making fruit salads – there really are no bad combinations. Just peel, pit and dice the fruit into a bowl. Quick, easy – no thought required.

But sometimes, I want to make a fruit salad that I have deliberately planned, one with a purpose, and one that looks especially beautiful. Sometimes I want to feel like Monet or Cezanne or Van Gogh, and I want to play with nature’s brilliant colours. Sometimes I want to feed my soul. After all, we do feast first with our eyes.

This single-hued ruby salad is as stunning as a beautiful piece of art – but much better tasting!

It’s a still-life in a bowl.

and now, without further adieu, Margaret's recipe...
ruby fruit salad with pomegranate glaze
ingredients

6 cups assorted diced red fruits - use a combinations of watermelon cubes, quartered strawberries, diced red-fleshed plums, cherries - halved and pitted, raspberries, red currants, etc. (if using red currants, use no more than 1/2 cup of them as their flavour is very intense)

1 cup pomegranate juice

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon rosewater (optional)

instructions

Pour the pomegranate juice into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let gently boil until reduced to about 2 tablespoons. This will take from 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your saucepan and degree of heat. Watch it and reduce the heat as it gets nearer the end so that it doesn't start to brown and caramelize. 

While the pomegranate juice is reducing, prepare your fruit and place it in a serving bowl. Leave the raspberries out to add at the very end so they don't get broken up.

When the juice has reduced to about 2 tablespoons, stir in the honey and lemon juice. Pour the glaze over the fruit and toss gently to coat everything. Add the raspberries and toss once more, very gently, to mix them in.

Serve as is, or with a dollop of plain yogurt or whipped cream. The ruby fruit salad can also be served over ice cream, or pancakes, or angel food cake. It's great over a bowl of greek yogurt for breakfast. 

And it looks so beautiful.

Recipe from Margaret Bose Johnson, 1st Placed Winner in our Annual Recipe Contest
Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Intro by Sheri Hendsbee

Announcing.... Our First Annual Recipe Contest Winners!

we are excited to announce the winners of our first annual recipe contest 

We had no idea just how difficult it would be to choose our winners! The submissions we received were outstanding recipes, showing us that we have some very savvy foodies in our midst! Our contestants were people who know food, know how to create with food and are very talented when it comes to combining the fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey available at our market into satisfying, delightful, healthful and surprising combination dishes.
Stay tuned each Friday over the course of the next month as we upload their fabulous recipes to our website and blog.