Recipe: Barley Risotto

When it comes to eating local foods you sometimes realize that substitutions need to be made.  Risotto is one dish that we’ve found we can eat in a 100% local version, so long as we replace the rice with a local grain.  

Barley lends itself well to replacing rice in risotto for a number of reasons.  Although the final taste and texture are fairly different from rice, it does just as good of a job at soaking up the flavours of the dish and holding its form.  Barley actually takes more liquid than rice which gives it a bigger opportunity to take on the surrounding flavours of the risotto.

There are a decent number of variations on this theme on the internet, including bacon barley risotto and mushroom barley risotto.  This recipe keeps it very simple and vegetarian, with just some onions and carrots for the additions.

We used our own hard cider instead of wine and it worked well, but you can just use whatever is easiest to find or whatever you already have.  You can serve the risotto as a main dish or a side.  We had it as a main but felt that the whole meal was sort of a meal of sides.  

A similar use for barley is in tabbouleh, where it replaces the bulgur wheat.  Another use is in a beef stew with lots of veggies.  We bought Oak Manor pearl barley (this barley is great for cooking as the husk has been removed) in the 12kg size from Bailey’s and assume this means we’ll be eating barley dishes all winter!  

Barley Risotto

Recipe from The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, available at KPL.

• 4 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
• 4 cups water
• 1 tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 ½ cups pearl barley
• 1 cup white wine or hard cider
• 1 tsp. thyme (fresh or dry)
• 2 ounces parmesan or other hard cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
• 1 tbsp. butter
• Salt and pepper

In one pot bring the broth and water to a simmer.  In a second larger pot or Dutch oven heat the oil and add the onion and carrot.  Cook the vegetables until they are soft.  

Add the barley to the veggies and stir until they are beginning to get lightly toasted, a few minutes.  Add the wine or cider and cook until it is fully absorbed.

Add the thyme and 3 cups of the warm broth.  Over the next hour or so continue adding broth to the risotto and stirring occasionally.  Any time the broth has mostly been absorbed add more.  As it cooks you’ll need to stir more frequently.  I recommend having a book nearby to read for a few minutes at a time between stirs….

When the broth is all cooked into the risotto or the barley is cooked sufficiently turn off the heat.  Stir in the parmesan and butter and season with salt and pepper to your liking.  

Serve with an Ontario white wine or a very local KW Craft Cider!

Recipe - Tofu Báhn Mì

My first memory of a Báhn Mì comes from about 5 years ago, and it is one of amazement.  A friend in Atlanta and I were going to a concert and she brought along some Vietnamese sandwiches from a shop near her house.  

I was seriously amazed.  How did I not know this existed?  It’s like the original fusion food, from long before the invention of Korean burritos and Mexican pizzas.

It was another few years before the thought occurred to me to make my own and I have to say that too often I forget about what a wonderful meal Báhn Mì sandwiches make.  Recently I remembered them and made them for dinner and we all enjoyed just how fresh and bursting with flavour they are!

You can make these with meat, tofu, tempeh, eggs, or even just a ton of delicious veggies.  As one blog has pointed out, a good Báhn Mì is the sum of its parts, thus the important thing is to have a nice array of super fresh fillings. 

Summer is the best time for these sandwiches because veggies are at their most abundant and tastiest.  Fresh cilantro, mint, lettuce and other greens, thinly sliced carrots, radishes, and cucumbers, peppers, grilled zucchini and other veggies, there is no limit to what you can put on these guys!  For garnish a bit of mayonnaise and sriracha sauce (Vietnamese sweet hot sauce) is enough, but you can certainly add more.

The marinade for the meat or protein can be a simple mixture of soy sauce, garlic, oil, and lemon balm (if you have it growing rampantly in your yard like we do!).  

This recipe is loosely modeled on The Kitchn’s recipe for Báhn Mì with Lemongrass Tofu, but we added a half pound of bacon for some extra fun and crispiness.  Almost all the ingredients can be sourced through Bailey’s, including the tofu!  Substitute a locally made hot sauce or salsa for the sriracha to keep things really local.  

Tofu Báhn Mì Sandwich

Serves 4-6

Tofu and Marinade:

1 package firm tofu, sliced into 6-8 long slabs

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon local oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

2 handfuls lemon balm, minced (or lemongrass)

1 clove garlic, minced

Veggies (this is flexible so use what you have):

1-2 carrots, julienned (sliced in matchsticks)

1-2 cucumbers, julienned

1 daikon radish, julienned

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Rice wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Cilantro

Mint

Lettuce

Jalapeño peppers, sliced

French bread or ciabatta bread

Mayonnaise

Sriracha sauce

Optional (but definitely voids the vegetarian/vegan aspect!):

Bacon!  

To make the marinated tofu, mix together the soy sauce, oil, lemon balm, and garlic, add the tofu and marinate in the fridge for an hour or more.  

Mix together the julienned veggies, add a few splashes of rice wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.  Remove long or tough stems from the cilantro and mint.

Fry the marinated tofu in a bit of oil over medium-high heat until it is golden brown on both sides.

Serve by putting all the fillings on the table, slicing open the bread, and let everyone make their own sandwich.

Recipe: Spinach Strata

Spring is finally here!  And while there are still winter storage vegetables left to use there are also new vegetables becoming available weekly.
Spinach is one of this year’s first spring vegetables and we’ve been loving having it.  It’s an easy one to throw into whatever you’re having for dinner, either fresh or cooked.
In this dish it is just one of many flavours present, accompanied by sautéed mushrooms, onions, carrots, and a bit of bacon.  And everything in this dish is available from Baileys! 
A strata is sort of like a frittata combined with French toast.  You chop up stale bread, throw it in a casserole dish with vegetables and some meat (if you like), and cover everything with a mixture of eggs and milk.  Then you refrigerate it for a day or more allowing the stale bread to soak up much of the egg mixture.  When baked it takes on a bread pudding sort of consistency—very custardy—but in this case nothing like a dessert thanks to the savoury vegetables.

Spinach Strata
2-4 slices of bacon (optional, otherwise use oil to fry veggies)
½ onion, sliced thinly
½ lb mushrooms, chopped
½ carrot, sliced into very thin sticks, or grated
Several handfuls of spinach, roughly ¼ - ½ lb (or more!), chopped
Salt and pepper, herbs
½ loaf of stale or several-days-old bread, chopped into 1 inch pieces
8 eggs
2 cups milk (or mixture of milk and cream)
½ cup grated cheese (your choice, but something on the stronger side is nice)
Heat a frying pan or skillet and fry the bacon.  (If omitting the bacon heat oil in the pan).  Once the bacon is finished cooking remove it and chop it up (leaving the bacon grease for frying).  Add the onions, mushrooms, and carrots and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the veggies are nicely caramelized and the mushrooms have released some of their juices.
Add the spinach and salt and pepper and fry for another minute or two, until the spinach is wilted.  Mix together the eggs and milk.  Put the chopped bread into a 9x13 casserole dish, add the cooked veggies and chopped bacon, and pour the egg and milk mixture over everything.  It’s okay if some of the ingredients are not covered completely with the egg mixture.  Top with grated cheese, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. 
Preheat the oven to 350◦F.  Bake the strata uncovered for 30-35 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  Let the strata sit for about 10 minutes before serving.  Serve with different garnishes to add some more colour and interest, like salsa, hot sauce, sour cream and chives, etc.

Hot Carrots

I’m a newbie to the world of fermented vegetables, but I’m finding it addicting!  Joel MacCharles of Well Preserved describes strawberry jam as the “gateway drug” to the world of canning, and I now feel the same about kimchi (or KW-chi).  Kimchi made me realize how easy it is to ferment vegetables and soon after making it I decided to make some spicy fermented carrots. 

You can get all the fresh ingredients needed from Bailey’s!

"You can see one garlic clove and the cabbage leaf in the midst of the carrots, after fermenting for 2 weeks."

Minimum ingredients needed:

·        Carrot(s), peeled and sliced

·        Salt Water Brine –2 cups warm water with 1.5 tsp. salt

·        1 cabbage leaf (optional)

·        1 glass jar with lid (like a mason jar, or old honey jar)

·        Seasoning, like garlic, spicy peppers, or classic pickle spices

No real recipe needed here, just chop up carrots into lengths that will fit somewhat uniformly into a jar.  You want them to be roughly an inch less in length than the height of the jar. 

Then decide on your seasoning.  I used two whole cloves of garlic, lightly smushed with a knife and one sliced habanero pepper (still using those I got from Mark Brubacher).  You could use any of your favorite pickling spices, it’s very much up to you! 

Drop the seasonings in the bottom of the jar and pack the carrots in, standing up right on top of them.  You want them fairly tightly packed.  Then take the cabbage leaf and pack it around the tops of the carrots, covering them.  The role of the cabbage leaf is to help provide extra beneficial lactic acid-producing microbes!  Since you’ve peeled the carrots you’ve likely lessened the amount of microbes that are available to help ferment your carrots, but some recipes don’t use it. 

Pour the brine in around the carrots until everything is submerged.  Then find a weight—I use a small mason jar that fits inside the mouth of a larger jar, filled with a bit of water to help weigh it down.  The goal is for all the veggies to stay submerged under the water.  Cover the jar(s) with a cloth to keep dust and bugs (not a problem right now) out.  Monitor the progress by sight and smell every day.  After 2-3 days there should be some bubbles and the smell should get that nice fermented smell, slightly acidic. 

I let mine ferment about 1-2 weeks.  At two weeks the carrots are a little bit softened but still have that nice carrot crunch to them.  When you decide they have fermented enough transfer them to the fridge where they ought to keep for several months, unless you eat them before that!  And I should add that with the one habanero they are very spicy, but it is mellowed a bit by the fermentation.  I would like to try a more kid-friendly (as in less-spicy) fermented carrot next, any suggestions for best spices to add? 

Jon Spee is an enthusiastic and committed member of Bailey’s Local Foods who blogs about his adventures in localism at The Local Kitchener.  Every few weeks he likes to giveaway something homemade to local KW residents!

Moosewood's Perfect Protein Salad - A Local Adaptation

According to cookbook author Molly Katzen, this recipe was the result of looking in the fridge and finding only some cooked soybeans and wheat berries.  Not bad for such humble beginnings, and this salad is a new family favourite!  The key for me was the addition of one habanero pepper from Mark Brubacher.  Be careful with those peppers, they are extremely hot.  But they’re worth it too, they have such great flavour and the spiciness helps warm your whole body!  But even if you leave out that extra kick of spice you’ll still find this a very satisfying salad. 

The name of the salad refers to the combination of a grain and legume, which results in the full range of amino acids we need.

Moosewood’s Perfect Protein Salad

Adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen

Ingredients:

·        ¾ cups dry soybeans

·        ¾ cups dry wheat (or rye) berries

·        ½ red onion, minced

·        2 medium carrots, finely chopped 1 cucumber, seeded & finely chopped

·        1 hot habanero pepper, seeded and minced (optional)

·        1-2 cloves garlic, minced 1 Tbs. dried parsley 1 tsp. dill

·        ¼ cup mayonnaise (you could make your own if you want it local)

·        ¼ cup cider vinegar

·        ¼ cup tangy yogurt 

·        ¼ - ½ cup crumbled feta cheese 2 teaspoons salt

·        freshly ground black pepper, to taste

·        optional: add other diced vegetables like celery, tomatoes, or anything else that sounds good.

Soak the wheat berries and soybeans overnight in separate jars or bowls.  Rinse them several times the next day.  Cook the soybeans in one pot, covered completely with plenty of water, and the wheat berries in another pot with 2 cups water, over low heat simmering for 1 – 1.5 hours.  The wheat berries should be soft, while the soybeans will retain a bit of a crunch.  Drain, rinse, and allow to drip dry for a few minutes in a colander. 

While cooking the grains and beans chop your vegetables and mix together the vinegar, mayonnaise, and yogurt.  Mix these together in large bowl, adding in the spices and seasonings.  Add the grains, beans, cheese, and mix all ingredients together.  Test the flavour and adjust spices and seasonings to your liking.  Serve or refrigerate for later.  Makes a great lunch or dinner!

And by the way, look what ingredients Bailey’s has right now for the salad (basically everything you need to make it):

·        dry soybeans (from Round’s)

·        wheat berries (from Oak Manor)

·        red onion(from Bowman’s or Stevanus)

·        carrots(many options)

·        cucumber(from Roseland Produce)

·        habanero pepper(from Mark Brubacher)

·        garlic, (several options)

·        dried parsley (from Brenda Knechtel)

·        dill (from Brenda Knechtel)

·        mayonnaise (you could make your own if you want it local)

·        cider vinegar (from the Cider Keg or Filsingers Organic)

·        yogurt  (several options)

·        feta cheese (several options)

From Jon Spee, who shares more of his KW Locavore adventures at localkitchener.ca

KW-Chi (A Kimchi for KW)

I’m very new to the world of fermentation, especially when it comes to foods.  I didn’t grow up eating sauerkraut and still find it a bit odd.  However, the first time I had kimchi I knew I’d have to learn how to make it (because I’m kind of cheap, but mostly because I love learning how to make new things!).  So I took two recipes and made my own version using as many local ingredients as I good.  The result is KWimchi, or KW-Chi, or a Kimchi for KW. 

Trying to emphasize the ingredients we have available from local farms this kimchi is a bit more of what Sandor Katz would call a Kraut-Chi.  Regardless of what you call it, it is delicious enough to eat by itself (which I’ve been doing lately!).

You need most of the following to make it turn out:

·        1 cabbage (napa is the traditional, but I’ve just been using standard cabbage), coarsely chopped

·        3-6 carrots (depends on their size and how much carrot you want), chopped into thin sticks

·        1-3 daikon radishes (same as carrots, it’s your choice how much), chopped into thin sticks

·        2-4 green onions (optional, use them if they’re seasonally available)

·        ¼ cup salt

For the paste:

·        Buy a kimchi chili paste from New City Supermarket in Kitchener (that’s what I did for my first batch)

*Or*

·        50g fresh ginger (a decent sized chunk)

·        3-6 cloves garlic

·        1 tbs. fish sauce

·        1 tbs. honey

·        25-100g chili peppers (you’re going to have to experiment to find your desired heat level, and it also depends on your peppers)

Chop up the cabbage and sprinkle with most of the salt, saving a bit.  Massage the salt into the chopped cabbage, then cover with water.  If need be place something heavy on top of the cabbage to keep it submerged.  Leave it in the salt water for at least 30 minutes and as long as 2 hours.  Rinse it under cold water and drain all the water. 

Make the paste by pureeing the ginger, garlic, fish sauce, honey, and chili peppers.  Add the remaining salt.

Squeeze any remaining water from the cabbage then mix it together with the carrots, radish, and optional green onion in a large bowl.  Wearing rubber gloves work the ginger chili paste into the vegetables until all are coated. 

You could eat it now and it would be like a super spicy coleslaw, and you might as well taste it at this point, but press on (pun intended) to the next step.  Pack the kimchi into a large jar or crock, pressing down with your gloved hands or some sort of food masher, until brine begins to rise from the vegetables.  This takes a while, and if you absolutely can’t get enough liquid from pressing you can add salt water to top up your kimchi. 

In order to ferment properly, the vegetables must be submerged below the liquid.  Place a weight of some sort on top of the vegetables to keep them submerged, some people use a smaller jar filled with water, others use a clean stone.  I ferment in a large crock and use a ceramic coffee container to weigh down the veggies.  Cover the jar (loose enough to allow gas to escape) and let it ferment for about a week.  Experiment with length of ferment by tasting it as it progresses.  When it tastes good (to you or your friend) put it in the fridge to slow fermentation.  If you don’t eat it you might keep it for several months.  Mine lasted one week because we ate it that quickly!

Adapted from these two recipes:

The Kitchn's How to Make Easy Kimchi at Home

Nourished Kitchen's Hot, Salty & Sour: My Kimchi Recipe

From Jon Spee, who shares more of his KW Locavore adventures at localkitchener.ca