Grapefruit Guacamole

We got some avocados the other day. Despite being local, they were hard as hard things. I explained to Poppy, our resident guacamole La Jefa, that there would be no guacamole for a couple of days because of the state of the avocados. She, of course, forgot that somewhere in the midst of asking the next eighteen rapid fire questions in our daily never-stopping, seven-to-seven barrage of questions, forty-two minute songs and general, but demanding response, chit chat and she was was pissed when we got home and she couldn’t make guacamole.

Everybody had posted this, and we had also bought some grapefruits, so I suggested that we make our take on that but no, ‘if I can’t make guacamole I don’t want to make anything at all,' was shrieked while stomping up the stairs and threatening to never come out of her room. Yah, because that would teach Mommy a thing or two about making sure the frickin’ avocados are ripe, wouldn’t it? 

Our avocados sat ripening for a very long three days and our grapefruits sat near them, waiting for their time and purpose.

The avocados ripened and we still hadn’t used up the grapefruit and we had some tortilla chips waiting for some guacamole to dip themselves into. 

I had a hankering for something citrusy and I remembered an old school little grapefruit and avocado salad number from somewhere. It has been done but it sure was good. 

After no small amount of negotiation with La Jefa, a promise of three toppings on a chocolate frozen yogurt and three chapters of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 at bedtime bought me permission to guide and assist her in making a sunny tasting grapefruit guacamole.

The chief left this a little chunky and we added lots of the grapefruit juice which made it pretty juicy. I would be inclined to leave some out but she was enjoying squeezing that poor grapefruit so much, I just left her to it. It is so simple it could probably almost make itself and there are only four ingredients.

It was 80ºF that day, that’s around 27ºC, so it was perfect for a no-cook lunch. The ingredients are all pretty local to us as well, I know that isn’t the case for those enjoying a Northern January, believe it or not I am finding myself a little jealous of the snow. You can save this up for a grey day splurge. Add a margarita or two and you won’t be able to tell where you are.

And yes, when La Jefa wants to make guacamole and we can't find the stool, I let her perch on the counter top. You've got to pick your battles.

Grapefruit Guacamole

2 avocados peeled and sliced

1 pink grapefruit peeled and segmented and juice squeezed out of what remains

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped coriander

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste.

Eat with tortilla chips, on top of fish or chicken or on its own.

Grilled Ratatouille

It is that time of year again. The time which some greet with excitement and as a sign of summer abundance. The time which anyone who has a garden or anyone who knows someone who has a garden or anyone who has left their car unlocked or doorstep unguarded at this time of year is all too familiar with. It is zucchini(courgette) time.

People here in Nova Scotia say it is the only time of year people lock their doors here. Guarding against the product of the glut that even one prolific plant can provide. Everyone seems to have about fourteen recipes to deal with the stuff in all its forms - long or round, forest green to speckled pale, almost blue green to bright yellow - yes, I lump summer squash in here too.

Eggplants (aubergines) are starting here as well, shiny and jewel-coloured. So, in combination with the zucchini, it kind of shouts out ratatouille. But, ratatouille? Yawn, yawn, yawn. 

I think ratatouille is great but it isn’t very exciting, is it? I have spent many a month in the south of France looking at various renditions of the stuff on every menu. None of them bad, but few of them jumping up and screaming, ‘Eat me!’ Consequently, my mission was to revitalize the ratatouille concept for, well, for my family, I guess.

The days are still hot here and, as I far as I am concerned, it is never too late for another salad days recipe. This one is great hot or warm or cold. It travels well and is easy to eat with just a fork so ticks the ‘great for a picnic’ box as well. 

It is great on its own, with a hunk of feta and some olives and fresh bread but serves as a worthy side dish to any grilled meat or fish. Stephen and the girls had some grilled chicken with theirs’ and, at least in the girls’ case, the ratatouille disappeared first. I faintly recall Stephen declaring that it ‘wasn’t bad for aubergine’. I felt like I had done my job. 

‘Ratatouille renovated?’ 

‘Check.’  

I used garlic scape pesto in this but a clove of minced garlic would be just fine. The dressing uses the remaining mixture that you brush the vegetables with before grilling. 

I contemplated tomato for this. Had they been ready, as in ripe, I may have tried grilling some with the rest of the vegetables but, they weren’t. I then considered dicing some and adding to all the vegetables after grilling but we were eating this warm the first time around and I had a vision of tomato mush gluing the whole lot together. I did add some to the cold leftovers and it was a really good cooked/fresh contrast. So, if you are going to have this cold or when you re-purpose it, I would throw in a handful of chopped fresh tomatoes. I used some halved cherry tomatoes which I rescued from Poppy, who was about two-thirds of the way through the entire pint. 

I used summer squash here but any zucchini, summer, patty pan, etc. squash would do just fine. I also used some fennel fronds, because I have some growing but these are easily omitted.

Grilled Ratatouille

1 large eggplant (aubergine) sliced lengthwise in 1cm(ish) slices

3 medium summer squash sliced in half lengthwise

6 scallions (spring onions)

1 medium red onion sliced into 1cm rounds

2 red peppers tops, bottoms and seeds removed

Marinade

1/8 cup garlic scape pesto

1/8 cup olive oil

Dressing

1 tablespoon marinade from above

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley and fennel fronds (if you have fennel to hand)

Brush eggplant and zucchini slices with the marinade. Let sit while preparing other vegetables and heating the barbecue.

Grill over medium heat and in batches, if necessary, all of the vegetables until they are nicely marked and just cooked through. None should take more than a couple of minutes on each side. Remove from the barbecue.

Chop all of the grilled vegetables into bite-sized pieces and put in a mixing bowl.

Whisk all ingredients for the dressing together and pour over the vegetables. Toss to combine with the chopped herbs.

Serve warm or cold, with or without feta, on its own or as a side.

Roasted Potato Salad with Horseradish Dressing

A few weeks ago, I was visiting my friend and Big Daughter’s godmummy, Kirsty, in Toronto. We put our four girls to bed, with fewer tears and trips downstairs from the big daughters than expected. We breathed a big sigh of relief, poured some bubbly wine, probably too much bubbly wine, and went outside for a grown-up girl supper.

Kirsty had found a recipe, in The Globe and Mail I think, for potato salad. A recipe for potato salad? Is that really necessary? But, roasted potatoes and a horseradish dressing? Could there be any more perfect combination? How could you not want the recipe for this?

But, I didn’t write it down and I’m not organized enough to email and get it, or to follow it for that matter. So, I made one up, after being in the kitchen while Kirsty made her's, and this may just revolutionize your basic summer salads.

After I made this, I had to go to Toronto again to get more horseradish. I used the last and so the annual trip to Kozlik’s was necessary. Alright, I was doing other stuff too. But shopping for horseradish and mustard was very near the top of the to do list on Saturday. The only things above it were strong black coffee and peameal on a bun, to quell the effects of too much bubbly wine.

This would be really perfect with new potatoes and, if you are barbecuing, I would roast the potatoes on a grill tray on the barbecue. It is divine when it is warm but is also really delicious cold, so you could easily make it in advance.

I didn’t put as much horseradish in the dressing as I might have for two reasons. The first, I wasn’t making this for myself and I realize that not everyone thinks horseradish is as perfect a condiment as I do. And, the second, I didn’t have enough left.

Which brings us to the question, why didn’t I just go and get some more? Well, I have high horseradish standards and few jars will do. My favourite is not available here in Nova Scotia - yet, I'm told. I can’t abide any jar that has an ingredient list longer than: horseradish, vinegar, water, salt.

Fresh horseradish would have been good but, without spending two hours in the car with a teething nine month old and a stroppy four year old at supper time, there was none of that to be had either. Plus, it isn’t something that many people keep in their vegetable drawer, but they should.

I served the salad with some of Sheila's smoked salmon from our local and micro greens from the Friday market in Mahone Bay. It was a perfect summer supper. The salad would suit any grilled meat or fish. It would be great with burgers. It would make a nice little potluck dish as well.

Roasted Potato Salad with Horseradish Dressing  as inspired by Kirsty’s reproduction of a recipe from The Globe and Mail

2 pounds potatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons yogurt

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon good, hot horseradish (you might want less or more depending on your taste and your horseradish)

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1/4 red onion finely chopped

Handful of parsley and chives finely chopped

Preheat oven to 450º. Wash and cut the potatoes into bite size chunks. Toss then with the olive oil and some salt and pepper in a roasting pan. Put in the oven and roast for about twenty minutes for a convection oven, a little longer for traditional. They need to be completely cooked and getting golden and crisp. Remove from oven and cool just until they are warm. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Make the dressing by putting the yogurt, mayo, vinegar, horseradish and salt and pepper to season in a small bowl. whisk to combine. Pour over the roasted potatoes. Add the red onion, parsley and chives and toss to combine. 

The Hunger Gap Dilemma

Here we find ourselves in the middle of ‘the hunger gap,’ that time between when the fresh local food surviving from the fall runs out and when the new season of growing and harvesting begins. So, we make do with slightly old bits of cabbage and things that look okay at the supermarket and which have, with any luck, not traveled the length or breadth of the continent to be found on our plates. 

We have our own micro hunger gap at our house.  We get a box of fresh vegetables – sometimes organic, sometimes local, sometimes both, from our Organic Sue, but only every two weeks since there is, for most of the time, only two eaters in our house.  So, we have this period nearing the end of the veg box, but too close to the new one to go and get anything from the store where the pickings get pretty slim.

I will tell you now that I am extremely lucky and I know I am and I am grateful for it. My daughter, who is not quite four, will eat pretty much any vegetable. She has been known to respond to the to myself mumble, ‘what should we have for supper?’ by saying, ‘I think some salad would be nice.’ 

It was this comment that led us to search through the fridge drawers, thirteen days after our last bi-weekly veg box delivery, in hopes of putting something together to encourage those sorts of comments and behaviour.

What we found: ½ an avocado left over from Tilly’s lunch 2 days ago (and, no, not local by any stretch but good for my baby), 2 inches of cucumber (slightly mushy so decided the compost was really the best place for that), 3 button mushrooms, handful of carrots, ½ red cabbage, 5 chioggia beets, some fennel (purchased because of giant fronds to replace dill in another cooking escapade), 3 ribs of celery (on the limper side of life), a bunch of kale missing a few leaves due to colour addition to one meal or another earlier in the week, one very soft and sprouty red onion and 2 lost parsnips which were obviously missed in the last baby ‘stew’ making effort.  Grim, I thought.  But, that not quite past it red cabbage spoke to me. ‘Coleslaw, Poppy?’ I asked, hoping. 

‘Yabut, not the white kind that comes with fish and chips though, right?’ was the reply. 

‘Okay, we can not do that kind,’ I promised.

Hunger Gap Slaw – this does take a bit of prep time unless your beets are already cooked.

5 medium beets – we used Chioggia, the stripy ones, but anything will work.

1 bunch kale – any sort will do

3 large carrots

½  head red cabbage

½ bulb fennel

½ cup toasted pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds or sliced almonds)

Wrap beets in foil and roast at 325° until tender.  Peel as soon as you can handle them.  Slice or cut into wedges depending on the size of your beets. You don’t even have to cook the beets, if you don’t want to.  You can peel and cut them into a fine julienne and they will be lovely although you may not want to use all five in that case.

De-stem the kale.You can usually do this by grabbing the leafy green, or purple, bit at the bottom and pulling up and away from the hard ‘spine’. Steam the leaves just until tender, 5-10 minutes or so. When it is cool enough to handle, gently squeeze any extra water out and chop it into bite size bits.

Peel and slice the carrots. I used the vegetable peeler for little ribbons, but this can be finicky. Pressed for time, I would just grate them. For something more uniform, I would finely julienne.

Slice the cabbage finely.  You can actually use some vegetable peelers to sort of shave it, but your peeler needs to be really sharp and quite strong.

Take the centre out of the fennel and slice it finely.

Mix all the vegetables together and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over the top.

Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons honey

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons walnut oil (you could substitute sesame oil)

¼ cup vegetable oil (I like using grapeseed oil because it really lets other flavours do   their job)

Salt and pepper to taste (or for a toastier flavour, you can use tamari)

Put all the ingredients in a jar, I always have an empty Mason jar nearby for just these sorts of things, and shake until it looks like it is well blended.

Pour the vinaigrette over the slaw and toss just before serving.

And the verdict?

'This isn't very white at all Mommy.'