Fresh Vegetables Galore!

A day set aside to enjoy a production at the Stratford Festival became much more than that on Saturday!  Dear Mary, Dear Elizabeth, which was being presented at the Studio Theatre,  was a fascinating reading of letters between Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, introduced and contextualized by Dr. Ted McGee.  It was fantastic.  Since it was a late morning production, our afternoon was wide open to make our way slowly home, and of course, every stop along the way involved food!  The rest of the afternoon included:

• a delicious lunch at a terrific little spot in Stratford, Canadian Grub . It's all fresh and all Canadian. The Lobster BLT was amazing! 

•  From there, we ventured down the street  a little further to one of our favorite shops in Stratford, The Butcher, The Baker, where we loaded up on steaks, bacon, smoked pork chops, sausages, house-made schnitzel,  pepperettes, gravlax....you get the idea!  We were slowly developing a plan.

•  Next stop, Herrles Farm Market. Here we picked up as much fresh produce as our carts could handle: tomatoes, corn, peppers, celery, leeks, carrots, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, beets, onions, herbs, garlic, lettuce, blueberries, apples, peaches...

The rest of the trip home was devoted to trying to decide what we would prepare for dinner that night, since we had a few golfers at home who would be hoping for a meal.

How to decide what to prepare? We started building the menu around some lamb loins that Bev and Tim had in the refrigerator- Mediterranean flavours seemed a good starting point!  As we often do in this case, we turned to the cookbooks- PLENTY and JERUSALEM, Ottolenghi and Tamimi, 2012, as inspiration.  The final eclectic menu included:

Gravlax on thin cucumber slices with herbed, lemony cream cheese

Roasted beet and leek salad with walnut vinaigrette

Grilled eggplant with onions and feta

Grilled zucchini with parsley sauce

Quinoa salad with tomatoes and cucumber

Grilled loin loins marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and oregano

 

Here are a few of the recipes.  Follow the link for a few the Grilled Eggplant recipe, that we published in a past blog post.

Roasted beet and leek salad with Walnut vinaigrette

We used an assortment of beets, golden, red and candy cane.

6 beets,  scrubbed

4 leeks, washed and trimmed

4 tbsp olive oil,

1 tsp sea salt

1 head leaf lettuce

Large handful of fresh coriander, chopped coarsely

To prepare beets and leeks, preheat grill on HIGH for 5 minutes, then reduce to MEDIUM. Place scrubbed beets in tin foil, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap and place on upper rack for one hour. The beets are finished when they can easily be pierced with a small knife. Do not over cook them, as it is nice when they still have some bite to them. While the beets are roasting, clean the leeks thoroughly and toss with olive oil. Place whole leeks on the bottom rack of the grill 45 minutes into the roasting of the beets. Turn every 5 minutes for a total grilling time of 15 minutes. Remove beets and leeks and let cool. Peel the beets when they are cool enough to handle.

 

To assemble the salad, arrange the lettuce on 6 salad plates. Top with beet quarters and leek segments. Spoon vinaigrette over top and garnish with chopped coriander.

Vinaigrette:

1 cup walnuts

4 cloves garlic

1 smoked chili pepper

¼ cup cider vinegar

2 tbsp tamarind water(soak ¼ cup dried tamarind in ¾ cup boiling water for 30 minutes)

3 tbsp walnut oil

1 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process for 15 seconds. The dressing should still be coarse.

Grilled Zucchini with Parsley Lemon Sauce

2 yellow zucchini, sliced cross-wise, ½ “ thick

2 green zucchini, sliced cross-wise, ½ “ thick

1 cup chopped parsley

2 cloves garlic

1/2   cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat grill on HIGH for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to MEDIUM. Brush with oil, then place on grids, turning every 2 minutes for a total of 8 minutes. Arrange on a platter and top with Parsley Lemon Sauce.

To prepare sauce, combine parsley, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper in the blender and process for 10-15 seconds. This sauce should be bright and fresh looking, so do not over process.

Eggplant waiting to be grilled

 

Lamb: remove from marinade and grill on MEDIUM, 4 minutes per side- rare and tender!

Can not wait to eat!

A beautiful evening to celebrate the end of August