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!

Asparagus and Rhubarb Salad

When spring finally arrives in Southwestern Ontario, the first vegetables seem to hold so much promise.  If you grow rhubarb it is a beautiful and slightly mysterious looking thing that emerges, unfurling from the ground.  Asparagus is stranger still, coming out simply as odd individual spears working their way skyward. 
These perennials are wonderful vegetables but they often seem to get stuck in the same roles; asparagus gets roasted or fried and is served as a side, while the rhubarb gets thrown in desserts and baked goods, never being allowed to truly stand out by itself.
This dish gives both vegetables a chance to be part of a main course in the form of a very hearty salad.  With the addition of spring greens, lentils, and bacon there are lots of flavours at play, but the asparagus and rhubarb are both in the forefront, with the rhubarb giving a wonderful tangy zing and the asparagus a hearty crunch.
This is a very Bailey’s friendly dish, enjoy!  The recipe was inspired by Green Kitchen Stories’ Maple Tossed Rhubarb & Puy Salad

Rhubarb and Asparagus Salad

Salad
1 cup lentils
2 cups water
½ tsp. salt
1 bunch asparagus, chopped in 1 inch pieces
3 stalks rhubarb, sliced thinly
½ lb spinach, chopped
Handful young kale leaves, chopped
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes
½ lb bacon, fried and chopped
½ cup of your favourite local cheese for salads – goat cheese, feta, etc.

Dressing
3 tbsp. oil (sunflower, soy, canola, or other local options)
3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp. maple syrup
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper

Cook the lentils by bringing them to a boil with 2 cups of water.  Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until they are soft.  Drain any remaining liquid and add the salt.
Meanwhile fry the bacon and save the grease to add to the greens (optional, but very tasty).  Steam the chopped asparagus using a steamer or a covered pan or pot with a bit of water.  Steam the asparagus until it is bright green but still crunchy.  Remove them from the steamer or pan and allow them to cool and dry on a plate.  Chop the greens, tomatoes, and herbs.  Make the dressing and then toss all the ingredients together in a large salad bowl.  Serve with some hearty rustic bread and butter, or with rice. 


©2015 The Local Kitchener

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.

Recipe: Potato Mushroom Pizza

Although Spring is finally beginning there is still a month to go before the first true spring vegetables arrive.  In the meantime I find it nice to keep cooking with the year-round vegetables.  These include all the wonderful root crops that have been stored since the  fall, as well as the ones that are grown in greenhouses or are simply grown indoors year-round, like mushrooms. 
So really this pizza recipe is one that can be made all year long!  You just need some potatoes and mushrooms, along with some dried or fresh rosemary and your favourite cooking oil or butter.  The roasted potatoes become the base for the pizza, so make sure they are thick enough that while they are crispy on the outside they are creamy on the inside.

Ingredients:
1 medium potato, sliced in thin rounds (a bit thinner than 1 cm)
1-2 tbsp. oil
Salt and pepper
Several sprigs fresh rosemary, or 1-2 tbsp. dried
½ pound Crimini or Button mushrooms, sliced thinly
2-3 tbsp. butter or oil
Pizza dough
Shredded mozzarella
Balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400◦F.  Toss the potato slices and half the rosemary with oil, salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a baking sheet and roast until the potatoes are beginning to turn gold but before they turn brown.
Meanwhile heat a frying pan over medium heat with the butter (or oil, but butter is better in this case…).  Add the mushrooms and remaining rosemary, a dash of salt and pepper, and fry until they have released their juices and are very fragrant.  Turn off the heat and add a few glugs of balsamic vinegar and toss the mushrooms around with it. 
Raise the heat of your oven to 500◦F.  Stretch your pizza dough (here’s a how-to video), and top the pizza with the roasted potatoes.  Cover the potatoes with a layer of shredded mozzarella followed by the fried mushrooms.  Make sure to get all the melted butter out of the pan and onto the pizza! 
Bake the pizza until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to turn gold.  Remove, slice, and enjoy!  For some extra decadence drizzle some truffle oil on top of the finished pizza.

Kohlrabi & Pak Choi Pizza

Sometimes there are vegetables that are readily available, in season, fresh, healthy, and um, well we don’t know what to do with them.  That’s how I felt about kohlrabi and bok choy recently.  But I got them anyways and through them on a pizza! 

Pizza is the great dumping ground for veggies that I am unsure of what to do with but I try to do some research before I get to that point.  As a leafy green the bok choy was at least similar enough to more common leafy greens that I’m used to.  With a bit of internet searching I found that bok choy had many good options beyond what I had already thought of… but then I forgot it in the bottom of the fridge for a few days and it lost some of its fresh-looking tastiness.  The kohlrabi was a bit more mysterious although there were plenty of recipes on the internet for it as well. 

It turns out that kohlrabi is part of the cabbage group of vegetables, thus the “kohl” in its name, like the “cole” in coleslaw.  Where it seems to differ from cabbage is that it’s a bit starchier and thus can caramelize a bit when cooked, and it kind of looks like some sort of alien.

Going back to the pizza I found one other person who had put kohlrabi on their pizza but pre-roasted it a bit to get some of that caramelizing action going on!  Since forgotten bok choy wasn’t the only leafy green lurking in the bottom of the fridge it seemed like a good idea to make a greens pesto, consisting of the larger leaves of the bok choy, some old kale, walnuts, goat cheese, and oil.

The pesto was the base for the pizza topped with a bit of mozzarella (Goatsarella actually!), the roasted kohlrabi, some chopped green onion, and one slice of crumbled bacon.  It made a wonderful pizza, full of rich and unexpected flavours but with the familiar taste of crispy chewy pizza crust and good cheese.

Pak Choi and Kale Pesto

·        1-2 small bok choy

·        2-4 large kale leaves

·        2-3 tbsp. goat cheese or goat cream cheese

·        ¼ - ½ cup walnuts or heartnuts

·        2-3 tbsp. oil

·        salt

In a food processor puree all the ingredients until smooth.  Adjust quantities to achieve the desired consistency—if you like it a bit chunky vs. very smooth.  Make it creamier by adding more nuts and cheese.

Kohlrabi and Pak Choi Pizza

·        ½ kohlrabi, sliced thinly

·        1 tbsp. oil

·        1-2 slices of bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled or chopped (optional)

·        Bok choy or pak choi and kale pesto

·        Mozzarella or Goatsarella, enough slices to cover roughly half the pizza

·        Green onion, chopped

·        Crushed red chili flakes (optional)

·        Pizza dough

Preheat the oven to 500.  Toss the kohlrabi slices in the oil and roast them on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes while the oven is preheating.  Stretch out the pizza dough.  Spread the pesto on the dough then arrange the slices of mozzarella on the pesto leaving plenty of space between them because this pizza is not just about the cheese!  Top the pizza with the roasted kohlrabi, crumbled bacon, and chopped green onions.  Add a bit of crushed red chili flakes for some extra huzzah or a bit of salt and pepper. 

Bake the pizza at 500 until the dough is starting to turn golden brown and the cheese is bubbling. 

Jon Spee loves local food and seeks it out constantly.  It makes it hard for him to have very many favourite restaurants because he’s so obsessive about where the food is from.  Luckily he can cook and blog

Last Year’s and This Year’s Veggies!

This is an amazing time of year, when the full promise of the growing season is before us.  And yet there are things left to eat from last year!  So why not make a meal that celebrates last season and this new season?

Beets, potatoes, and many other storage vegetables are still in good supply having lasted through the winter.  But maybe they’ve lost their appeal (and grown thicker peels) after a long winter and many meals.  Here are two ideas from the new Oh She Glows Cookbook* that might help these vegetables make one more lap around your table.  And what about the new fresh vegetable?  Make an easy side of fresh asparagus, by lightly steaming it and then briefly frying it with a bit of butter and salt.

The whole meal is: fresh asparagus, Roasted Beet Salad, and Taco Fiesta Potato Crisps.

Beet Salad (Adapted from the Oh She Glows Cookbook)

4-5 medium beets

½ cup walnuts or other local nuts

4 tbsp. Balsamic Reduction

1 tbsp. oil

6-8 sprigs fresh thyme, minced

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Place the beets in a covered ovenproof bowl, like Corningware.  Roast for 45-90 minutes, it really depends on the size of the beets, “until a fork slides easily into the largest beet.”  Let the beets cool until they can be handled, then rub them under cold water until their thick skins fall off. 

Slice the beets as thinly as possible.  Toss the beets with the balsamic reduction, oil, thyme, and nuts.  Alternatively, arrange them on a plate and drizzle with the vinegar and oil, topping with the nuts and thyme. 

Taco Fiesta Potato Crisps (Adapted from Oh She Glows Cookbook)

Potato Crisps:

1-2 large potatoes, sliced into ¼-inch rounds

1 tbsp. oil

Salt and Pepper

Walnut Taco Topping:

1 cup walnuts, toasted

1 tbsp. oil

1 ½ tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. cumin

¼ tsp. salt

Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Additional toppings:

Sour Cream or thick yogurt

Salsa

2-3 green onions, sliced

Pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon baking mat.  Place the sliced potatoes in a large bowl, drizzle with oil and toss by hand until the oil is evenly distributed.  Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet in a single layer, with none touching.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 30-35 minutes, flipping halfway through, until they are golden, bubbly, and tender. 

While the potatoes are roasting prepare the Walnut Taco Topping: In a food processor, mix together the walnuts, oil, chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne, processing until they form a fine crumble. 

When the potato crisps are cool enough to handle arrange them on a plate (or leave them on the baking sheet) and top with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, followed by the walnut mixture, salsa, green onions, and pepper.  Serve warm. 

*Oh She Glows is a vegan food blog written by Angela Liddon of Oakville, ON, that focuses on meat and dairy-free foods that appeal to all eaters.  Angela’s meals are often also free of gluten, soy, and processed foods, so put a hold on the book from WPL or get it on Amazon. Even if you’re not at all interested in vegan eating, the meals are worth trying for their abundant and delicious use of seasonal vegetables!

The Beet Goes On… The Pizza!

This is the follow up to the previous recipe, in which roasted winter vegetables were loaded onto a simple sandwich.  This version takes the same idea of roasting beets and potatoes but puts them on… pizza!  It’s an amazing pizza, and for our family, the realization that potatoes make an awesome pizza topping has been a game changer!  If you’re not up to trying this with beets consider substituting mushrooms and onions.

The Beet Goes On… The Pizza!

Ingredients:

·        1 large or medium potato, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        1 large beet, sliced into ¼ inch rounds

·        local oil (soy, canola, sunflower)

·        pizza dough

·        pizza sauce (about ¾ cup)

·        mozzarella, grated (about ½ - 1 cup)

·        very sharp cheddar, grated (about ½ cup)

·        1-2 scallions or leeks, sliced into small rounds

Preheat the oven to 400.  In a bowl toss the potato slices with a little bit of local oil and a bit of salt and pepper.  Arrange the potatoes on a baking sheet, and toss the beet slices with oil (this prevents the beets from dying everything red!).  Add the beets to the baking sheet and roast at 400 until the potatoes are beginning to turn golden and bubble, about 30 minutes. 

Remove the vegetables from the oven and allow them to cool slightly while stretching your dough.  (And turn the oven up to 500).  Top the pizza with pizza sauce, then the roasted potatoes, next the mozzarella and cheddar, finally the beets and scallions.  Bake the pizza until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is beginning to turn golden or brown.  Every oven is a little different so keep an eye on the pizza, it will probably cook in about 4-7 minutes.

Recipe from Bailey’s member, Jon Spee, who blogs about localism at The Local Kitchener.