I almost called this recipe Pate Chinois, which is the Quebecois equivalent to Shepherd’s Pie that I grew up eating at least once a week. Of course a rare few would know what I’m talking about, and really this comforting casserole is more than Pate Chinois, and more than Shepherd’s Pie too. It’s loaded with fresh shucked sweet corn, delicata squash,fresh tomatoes, purple potatoes, sage, aged cheddar cheese and tender lamb, all locally procured and stunningly seasonal. Oh I’m in love with purple potatoes, they taste just a little more purple, if that makes any sense! Delicata squash is true to its name, delicate and buttery.
A tale of manifestation…Last night J was talking about how he really wanted a thermos. This morning we awoke to the neighbours clearing out their garage for a yard sale, they were bringing out a BBQ to sell which we jumped on. Totally excited to start making all things grilled! We checked it out and realized it’s a thermos brand BBQ. Moral of the story, be specific with your wishes, however, awesome things happen with non-specificity as well. It’s like asking for a trip to London and suddenly winning a trip to London,Ontario…ha.
We delighted in the wholesome and wholly nourishing Shepherd’s Harvest Pie amongst the giant Maple trees, slowly shedding their leaves. Baby Mav adores leaves, they are his favourite thing in the whole world, no toy could compare. Except maybe the books he is presently pulling off the shelves to chew on. A lot can happen in one year, we’ve moved 5 times, had a baby, started this website and learned a million things in the process. A quote that I love about Autumn;
The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go.
Embracing change and growth has never felt so good. How grateful I am to share all of this wonderment with you, life is just filled with magic in the simplest of things. Like a piece of pie, with many hidden treasures.
3 small purple potatoes (or regular), very finely sliced
2 Tbs butter or ghee
⅓ C cream or coconut milk
splash of preferred oil (for frying onions and garlic)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot or white onion, finely chopped
1 lb ground lamb (you could substitute ground beef)
8 sage leaves, finely chopped
2 corn cobs, use a sharp knife to shave off the kernels
½ delicata squash, seeds removed and cubed
4 small tomatoes, sliced
⅓ C finely shredded aged cheddar
1 tsp sea salt
generous amounts of fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F
Boil water and cook the red potatoes until they are really nice and soft.
Heat a skillet and add your oil, onions and garlic, cook until translucent, add ground lamb and sage, cover until lamb is fully cooked.
Drain water from the cooked potatoes, saving a few tablespoons worth. Add butter and cream with a generous amount of sea salt and cracked pepper, stir until smooth.
In a deep casserole dish (I used 8x12) add an even layer of cooked lamb, next add the corn, squash and tomatoes. Cover with mashed potatoes, pressing evenly into all the spaces. Top with a layer of sliced purple potatoes.
Bake at 350 for half an hour.
Add the cheese and broil for a few minutes until nice and golden.
Spaguetti squash, and Creamy Pine Mushrooms with Crispy Shallots and Sage is a lovely pine mushroom recipe
We’re fortunate to live in a place with an abundance of wild mushrooms. Many people make a living around these parts picking and selling gourmet wild mushrooms such as Matsutake or Pine mushrooms and Chanterelle. I’ve been learning about foraging for mushrooms for a few years now. There’s a lot to know, you certainly don’t want to take chances when it comes to mushroom identification. That being said, I know a lot of people are afraid of picking mushrooms, fear not! There are a multitude of great reference books, online forums, and most areas have local experts who can help you to learn your regions edible mushrooms. There are few things I enjoy more than finding delicious wild mushrooms in their natural habitat, it’s like finding gold!
The white mushrooms are pine and the orange are lobster- also a delicious and easy to identify edible mushroom
Matsutake and Pine mushroom are terms often used interchangeably, but in actuality they aren’t the same mushroom, although the taste and appearance are very similar. Matsutake mushrooms grow in Japan and Korea, although very rare. Here in the Pacific Northwest, what we sometimes refer to as Matsutake, are actually Pine mushrooms and they are different, though commercially picked Pine mushrooms are mainly sent to Japan. Some say a perfect specimen can cost up to 100$, for one mushroom! Around here they still fetch a handsome price of about 22$/lb.
Hsiao-Ching Chou wrote, “The matsutake resembles the truffle, which lends its perfume to any preparation it encounters. A broth with several slices of a pine mushroom would be served in a lidded bowl or pot, for example, so that the scent of earthy pine with a tinge of cinnamon swirls within the container until it is finally released.”
“These edible mushrooms are prized in Japan, both for their flavor and meaning. To this day they’re still given as important gifts, meant to symbolize fertility and happiness One of the earliest records of Japanese matsutake is a 759 A.D. poem celebrating its virtues. ” This proved true when I gifted some Japanese friends with a bag of pines. The acclamation I received was beyond my expectations. They took big whiffs of the mushroom filled bag, their faces beaming with the smile of a mycophile. One last thing- the aroma of the of the matsutake is absolutely incomparable to any other mushroom. They are potent and unmistakable, once you’ve smelled one you will not forget. David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified (the BEST North American guide to wild mushrooms), describes the smell of a matsutake as a combination of wet socks and red hots. It’s a cinnamon, pine, wet forest soil smell that is just absolutely narcotic in my humble opinion. Cooking with such an ingredient is a dream, every few minutes I stop and just smell, breathing in the forests underground essence, it’s truly intangible.
We harvested quite the bounty, and let me tell you I have been noshing on mushrooms all week long. Thou shall not waste! I’ve cooked with pine mushrooms in many different ways. I try to keep it simple, this recipe is one of my favourites, the broth is infused with pine mushroom essence and a touch of cream. The crispy shallots and sage offer a robust combination of tastes on top of the creamy mushroom sauce. Spaguetti squash is so lovely this time of year and keeps things light but regular pasta is delicious as well.
This recipe is for 2 large portions or 4 smaller portions, It's also delicious alongside some grilled chicken or fish!
Ingredients
1 medium sized spaguetti squash, cut in half, seeds removed
drizzle of olive oil
3-4 medium sized pine mushrooms- alternately you could use your favourite mushroom, thinly sliced
2 Tbs butter or ghee
1 shallot, thinly sliced
20 sage leaves
1 C chicken stock
⅓ C heavy cream or coconut cream
1 Tbs tapioca starch
fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F
Place squash open side up on a baking sheet with a drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 1 hour.
In a skillet or frying pan melt 1 Tbs butter and add a touch of olive oil, get it nice and hot and bubbling and then add the shallots and sage leaves, turn the heat down a bit and let them get nice and golden brown before stirring. About 10 minutes.
In a separate saucepan add another Tbs of butter and let it get nice and hot, add the mushrooms and cover for 2 minutes.
Add the chicken stock and let the mushrooms simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix the cold cream with tapioca starch and add to the mushrooms. If you're using coconut cream, mix the tapioca with 1 Tbs of cold water and add to the mushrooms.
Add a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper and sea salt.
Remove the insides of the spaghetti squash with a fork, cover with the mushroom sauce and top with crispy shallots and sage.
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Check out Fat Tuesday a collection of amazing links to recipes and articles, I’m submitting this recipe over there too!
I’m totally open to answering any and all wild mushroom questions you may have. Happy foraging!
Just like momma used to make… a little smoky, a touch of sweet, a lot of spicy,a flavour bomb explosion to douse all your favourite foods. My momma didn’t make hot sauce, but if she did I imagine she’d opt for a simple and delicious recipe such as this. Tomatoes, garlic and a whole whack of hot chiles are roasted together and blended with some sugar,salt and apple cider vinegar. The resulting sauce is excellent, I love to slather it all over fried eggs, sourdough bread, as a hot wing sauce, roasted potatoes oh the simple hot sauce really makes everything better. Might I say how affordable making your own hot sauce is, you get about 6 times as much for the same price and it’s way way better, for reals. Believe me because I am a self-proclaimed connoisseur of hot sauce, love the stuff.
Secrets of the Spice
Most spiciness is a hot pepper lives in the seeds.
Green chiles will give you a more bitter, grassy taste as they are still unripe.
Red chiles are ripe and at their peak, they offer a bit more heat and a more rounded out taste.
Wear gloves when processing hot peppers especially is you have young children or plan on picking your nose later…
Utilize your hood fan if you have one when you open the oven door, wofts of roasting chiles can be intense!
Homemade hot sauce is pretty much the best thing ever.
The beauty of this sauce is that it doesn’t really matter which kind of chiles you use. If you want a mildly spicy hot sauce you could go with green jalapeños and make sure to take the seeds out.
If you’re style is more medium spicy, try using cayenne peppers, with most of the seeds taken out but you could save about 2 tsp worth and add them back in when you puree.
If you’re not afraid of a little kick, try a hot pepper combo of those little cherry hot peppers, cayennes and jalapeño with the seeds left intact. It isn’t too intense but it does wake you up a bit.
And if you are one of those insane people raised on spicy foods and you have no fear than just throw a few habaneros or scotch bonnets in the mix!
The versatility of this hot sauce is another thing that makes it so great. To make enchilada sauce, just roast a whole tray of tomatoes at the same time, and add blend about 1/2 C of your hot sauce with the roasted tomatoes, salt to taste, add a touch of cumin, et voila!
This version is for a HOT hot sauce, for less spicy variations see above in the post.
Ingredients
1 lb. assorted hot peppers, de stemmed
5 whole tomatoes, halved
1 whole garlic bulb, separated into cloves
drizzle of olive oil
1 Tbs sea salt
½ C apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs raw cane sugar or palm sugar
½ C water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F or 200C.
Line a baking sheet with parchment, lay tomatoes flat and spread hot peppers and garlic around, drizzle with olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt. Roast for 30 minutes until the peppers skin starts to brown.
In a blender or food processor add the chiles, tomatoes and peeled roasted garlic. Next add the apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and water. Blend until smooth.
Add a bit more water for a runnier sauce.
Optionally you could strain out the seeds in a cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer.
These little raw tarts and adorned with the last local fruits of the season, oh how it pains me to type that. The sheer beauty of the grapes, blackberries and plums demanded something precious and extravagant to adorn. What better than a little chocolate tartlet with an intensely amazing creamy centre, no added sugar, not necessary, just an emphasis on the natural tastes present in every bite of bursting fruit. The base is brazil nuts and dates with raw cacao and the luscious filling is the smoothest creamiest vanilla cashew cream sweetened with a touch of wild honey. Absolute perfection I tell you my friends, just do yourselves a favour and make these for the people you love the most. They are little bites of heaven and I thought 12 would be enough to last a few days but I’m sorry to say they are too good and J has already devoured, errm, 5 in the last 12 hours, sigh. It’s okay though, because good things are meant to be enjoyed.
don’t mind my exceptionally old muffin tin…
It was the last farmers market on Wednesday and I went absolutely bonkers and bought ten of everything. I can’t say I hold any restraint or fiscal responsibility when I step foot on market grounds. The colours draw me in and my mind goes a mile a minute thinking of all the beautiful creations I could make and of all the hard work and love these organic farmers put into their food. I must do it all justice, it’s only proper. If I burn the garlic, I burn them, and I just couldn’t do that to these hard working passionate people. The tomatoes are at that point where they ooze unspoken songs begging to be used. The apples have finally arrived in all their glory. Grapes provoke stories of old, that dusty ephemeral morning harvest way back when, frozen fingers and the promise of wine. My mind wanders, I can’t help but swell with gratitude for all this bounty, memories flush of fall times past and how that same feeling always hits me almost all at once. Then I come home and lovingly unpack it all and actually take a picture of the contents of the fridge because it isn’t too often that it is so overflowing with possibilities. Dreams of my own someday garden start to dissipate and I am just content that other people do it, I wish I could cook them all dinner.
The first order of business this morning was to adorn everything with shiny bubbly blackberries. These Cookies and Cream Tarts do more than justice to blackberry beauty. Tomorrow we will bring some of these divine little tarts on a wild mushroom hunt in the proverbial woodland. Please people send me good juju so that I will find the treasure- yes the matsutake or pine mushrooms- they grow here in abundance, if you can find the spots that is. I’ve yet to hit upon a huge score but I know the next big patch could be just around the corner!
1 C brazil nuts (you could also use walnuts or almonds)
¾ date paste, softened in some warm water for a few minutes, or about 8 dates softened in warm water
½ tsp sea salt
2 Tbs+2Tbs melted coconut oil
2 Tbs raw cacao
1 C cashews, soaked for 6-8 hrs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract or ½ a vanilla bean pod,seeds scraped out
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs wild honey
¼-1/2 C water
pinch sea salt
various local seasonal fruit- berries, grapes, pears,plums...
Instructions
In a food processor or blender add the brazil nuts, followed by the soaked dates,salt,2 Tbs coconut oil and cacao. Pulse until the nuts are totally broken down and it looks like brownie batter, nice and smooth.
Fill a muffin tin with this mixture about 1 Tbs per section. You can use paper muffin cups for easier removal. Press the mixture up the sides to form little cups. Put it in the freezer to set while you make the cream.
In a food processor or blender add strained cashews, vanilla, lemon,2 Tbs coconut oil, honey, salt and ¼ C of water. Blend on high until super super smooth, adding a touch more water until desired consistency is reached. You want it to mix easily and be light and creamy.
Remove muffin tin from freezer, if you didn't line the tin you may want to remove the formed cups before adding the filling. Just let the tarts sit out and unfreeze a bit before using a fork to scoop them out onto a plate.
Fill the tarts with a Tbs of cashew cream, top with preferred fruits, or nothing at all.
For a firmer filling, refrigerate for an hour before serving.
Oh yes, this salad is a rainbow of yum- crunchy, zingy, and super satisfying. There are times when I look in my fridge and think I have nothing and it’s like this separate section of my brain chimes in and goes, but wait, you have cabbage, you have leftover roast chicken, you have sesame seeds and carrots, you have yourself an epic Korean style salad! Have I ever told you how much I love kimchi? It seriously is one of my favourite fermented foods, the delightful umami flavour is hard to compare to anything else. You can buy it at most asian markets and health food stores and if you haven’t tried it I urge you to give it a go. Making it from scratch is a little more involved than a basic ferment like sauerkraut but well worth it! I have a recipe for making your own kimchi here, check it out.
I’m not going to lie…the cabbage you see has been waiting to be used for some time now. Thankfully cabbage lasts a long time, because I tend to use it sparingly. Then there are times when the satisfying crunchy nature of cabbage is the only thing that will do. I like to break it down yo’ by really getting in there and massaging the dressing into it, along with the kimchi, this helps make it easier to digest and really helps the umami flavours work their magic.
2 C cooked chicken torn into bite size pieces (I used leftover roast chicken)
4 C purple cabbage, shredded
4 C napa cabbage, shredded
3 medium size carrots, grated
½ C kimchi
2 Tbs sesame seeds (preferably toasted)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 small chile, deseeded and finely chopped, OR 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp lime juice
½ tsp fish sauce
1 tsp tamari or coconut aminos
1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp coconut sugar or honey
1 green onion stalk, finely chopped
2 eggs, fried to your preference (optional)
Instructions
Combine cabbages, carrot,kimchi and sesame seeds in a large bowl and set aside.
Mix together garlic, ginger, chile, lime juice, fish sauce, tamari, rice wine vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil and sugar, whisk together until well slightly emulsified (you could also do this in a blender)
Add half the dressing to cabbage and massage it in with your hands until cabbage starts to soften.
Fry your eggs and warm up your chicken in a frying pan with some of the leftover dressing.
Top with chicken, a fried egg, green onion and a generous drizzle of dressing.
Yes I just made that word up, Manguac, it’s great right, hilarious, it’ll be the next hummus I swear you’ll love it that much. Because what grows together, goes together, not that mangoes or avocados grow in my backyard,though maybe someday. So here goes, you’ve had mango salsa, now welcome mango guacamole, a new hero sidekick to top your grilled summer goodies. Manguac is splendid with grilled fish, BBQ chicken, pork chops, on a burger or veggie burger. I also just eat it with some fresh local greens as a salad, pack it to the beach and you are set!
An amazingly seasonal addition to this dish would be fresh local corn, honestly the corn right now is bonkers. Every summer I get that max. 1 month of the freshest, tastiest corn on the cob, I add it to everything. The best way in my opinion is grilled corn covered in butter or ghee. Yum. But grilled and added to this manguac is divine and makes it all the more delicious.
If you haven’t seen this video on how to easily peel a mango, check it out, the method of scraping the mango against a glass actually makes perfect sense.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
