Warm Beet Salad with Beet & Red Wine Emulsion and Feta Cheese over Arugala

Though I’ve been evolving this dish over the last several years, I created this particular version for a wedding Foodisima catered earlier this month. The bride’s colors were “fig” and green and the gorgeous red of the beets on the bold green of the arugala fit the bill perfectly.

It’s fun when you can tailor a wedding menu to not only suit the wedding couple’s lifestyle and tastes, but the colors they’ve chosen for their special day, as well.

This salad is at its most delicious when served just slightly warm. Warmth brings out the earthy sweetness of the beets and the rich, salty flavor of the feta while arugala’s sharp bite provides a welcome counterpoint. Vegans take note: without the feta, this is a gorgeous vegan first course.

2 pounds beets
1 cup red wine
½ cup balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
4 wedges feta cheese

Scrub beets, remove greens and roast beets in a casserole with a tight-fitting lid at 425 F for 90 minutes or until beets pierce easily with a fork.

Allow beets to cool before removing skins. The cooked beets should slide easily from their jackets. Slice beets in ¼-inch rounds, set aside reserving approx. one quarter of the cooked beets. Place the reserved beets in a medium-sized pot with the wine and balsamic vinegar. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook until liquid reduces by half: approximately 15 minutes.

Puree beets, wine and vinegar with an immersion blender or food processor, adding salt and pepper to taste. When puree is very fine pour mixture through a fine sieve, pressing with a wooden spoon until as much liquid as possible has been pushed through. Set aside.

To assemble, warm cooked beet rounds slightly.

Arrange a bed of arugala on the plate. Mound one quarter of the sliced beets at the center of the plate. Surround this with about two big tablespoons of the beet and wine emulsion. Top with wedge of feta and serve.

Photo by David Middleton.

Cookbooks: The Geometry of Pasta by Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kennedy

I was absolutely astonished to discover that The Geometry of Pasta (Quirk Books) is not some obliquely named self-help book, but that it is actually about... pasta. Not only that, it takes a sober, educational -- and even a little art school -- approach to the subject. The end result is the kind of cookbook that seems likely to find resting spots on chef’s bookshelves for a long time to come. It’s just very, very good.

The Geometry of Pasta is a collaboration between designer Caz Hildebrand (who has, among other things, designed the tastiest of Nigella Lawson’s rich and lovely cookbooks) and Chef Jacob Kennedy, co-owner of London’s very successful Bocca di Lupo.

The resulting book is, I think, probably one of the definitive works on pasta of all time. It is, as I said, low-key and considered. It is as much discussion about food as it is creation of it as Kennedy walks us through the history and evolution of hundreds of pasta shapes and recipes. And so we learn that corzetti are “large coins of pasta from Liguria,” and that fusilli “are an industrial semolina pasta, a triple helix, like an elongated propeller or fan blade.” There are tips for making pasta, for choosing it and for plumbing it for maximum enjoyment.

Many of the pasta entries are accompanied by Hildebrand’s gorgeous black and white illustrations. In her introduction to the book, she writes that the duo here offer “a guide to the geometry of pasta; pasta at its simplest and best, to be enjoyed as the Italians do.”

Found in the Forest

I have to mark my calendar right now: set it up for next year. On this date, I found 2010’s first serious armload of chanterelles. Remember.

I won’t share the where with you. I can’t. The location is a secret so great, I only barely whisper it to my dog. But my delight -- year after year -- is unchanging. There is something so promising about that first glimmer of gold. The edge of that first cap. And then another nearby. And by the time I’d gathered my armload, visions of what they will become were dancing in my head. Back in my kitchen, I discovered I’d scored a generous half pound of perfect, golden forest chanterelles. Certainly enough to take a run at something wonderful.

So what will they become? Though the possibilities are vast, this time I think they’re speaking to me about meat. On my last visit to Salt Spring Island, I brought home some really special locally produced beef. The last steak from this terrific find is even now defrosting for my dinner. Some time later today, I’ll slice my beautiful mushrooms -- not too thin! Then, after I’ve cooked my steak in my favorite cast iron pan, I’ll let the chanterelle slices tumble into some melted butter I’ll have added to the pan juices. Sauteed briskly, I’ll add a bit of wine, then still more butter, finally pouring the result over the steak and some haricot vertes that I roasted while the steak and mushroom cooking was going on.

With a grind of sea salt and a glass of a big, velvety red I’ll sit on my deck and contemplate the view and the coming fall. One so filled with promise, it takes my breath away.

Curried Squash and Apple Soup

You have to love the versatility of this smooth and delicious curried squash and apple soup. Sure: the character of the soup will be different if you use zucchini or pumpkin, but both results will be delicious. It’s forgiving, fast and so easy to make.

This soup is gorgeous in the bowl, served just as it is. For an elegant touch, add a swirl of balsamic reduction or a nice, heavy red pepper sauce. Or give it a delicious caloric boost with a dollop of crème fraiche or even sour cream or yoghurt. Sans the dairy products, though, this soup is vegan. But if you don’t tell anyone, they’re not going to notice: it’s rich on the palate and satisfying in every way.

3-5 lb. Squash – summer squash, butternut squash or pumpkin
1 large apple, chopped
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion – chopped
2 cloves garlic – chopped fine
1 tablespoon good quality curry powder
1 teaspoon good quality garam masala
8 cups vegetable stock
2 cups coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut squash in half, lengthwise. Remove seeds. Place, cut side down, on baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes or until the squash is soft.

Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Saute onions for 3 minutes or until soft. Add garlic and sauté a further minute. A curry powder and garam masala and sauté another minute.

Scrape squash from skin and add to onion and spice mixture. Add chopped apple. Stir. Add vegetable stock and coconut milk. Cook covered on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Blend soup with immersion blender or potato masher. If the soup appears too thick, add water until, ¼ cup at a time, until desired consistency. Add sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve and enjoy.

Photo by David Middleton

Discovering The Locavore Way

So many people are talking about green issues these days, alternative lifestyles have gotten to be mainstream. Long gone are the days when a hostess could plunk a steak down in front of dinner guests without first asking about food preferences and considering the social and moral implications of such an act. In the West, we are critically concerned with the consequences of our actions and while, in broad strokes, that’s a good thing, on a micro level, it can get a little cloying. And you’ve encountered those books. Self-righteous finger-pointers waggling correctively at us while we choke on the meat fiber that would otherwise have been enjoyed.

Amy Cotler’s The Locavore Way (Storey Publishing) isn’t that book. Quite the opposite, in fact. Cotler brings the uninitiated joyously into the fold, while taking those already moving towards a slower food lifestyle more deeply into a world she is comfortable with: both to travel in and to share. She explains herself and her mission succinctly, then shows us how to get to where she’d like us to go: to a place where fresh food is simply cooked and joyously shared. She makes this sound like an attainable place. She makes it sound like Nirvana:

Imagine a healthy landscape, dotted with small farms raising food without ravaging the land, water and air, promoting better-nourished communities and local economies, and creating less dependence of the fossil fuels needed to transport food from afar.

As idyllic as she makes it sound, in subsequent pages she demonstrates that this is more than a distant vision. For many people, it’s a growing reality. With stories, profiles, recipes and tips, Cotler engages us with possibilities and ideas.

Here, from a slender book filled with great real-world examples of how to bring local and organic into your life, a list that breaks things down to its most essential components (something this author does very well):

Why Bother?
10 Reasons to Eat Locally Produced Food:

1. For the sheer pleasure of it.
2. To connect.
3. For the health and safety of your family and yourself.
4. For the health of our planet.
5. To boost the local economy, community and region.
6. For an open, working landscape.
7. To maintain biodiversity.
8. To support our neighboring farms and farmers.
9. To prepare our culinary heritage.
10. To give us a just choice.

The End of Gourmet

Shock waves are ringing through the foodie world today on the news that Gourmet Magazine -- an American staple since 1941 -- would cease publication. The mainsrteam press has been zinging with food metaphors. From The Globe & Mail:

In media interviews, the chief executive of Condé Nast Publications Inc., said the reason was simple: Gourmet, the oldest culinary monthly in North America, was losing money. Ad pages had fallen like an overdone soufflé, down nearly 45 per cent between January and September. With a staff numbering around 100, circulation stubbornly below one million, and its corporate sister Bon Appétit proving both cheaper to produce and far more appetizing to advertisers, Gourmet was taken out back and slaughtered like a terrified Thanksgiving turkey. Readers reacted as if they had lost a loved one. "Gourmet is like a bible," the Toronto-based chef Susur Lee said yesterday. "I'm a little depressed. When I heard, I called my wife to tell her the news. Something like that, you want to share with your family."

On Twitter, Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl was necessarily -- and characteristically -- succinct. “Dishes done,” she tweeted. “All gone. Great gathering at the house tonight. I so love the people I've worked with at Gourmet. Hard to believe it's over.”

Indeed.