August: Success!

The Slow Food Movement is now almost 25 years old. It was founded in Italy back in 1986 when MacDonald’s was planning to open an outlet near the historic and beautiful Spanish Steps in Rome. From the beginning it was a reaction against everything that “fast food” represents: unhealthy food from unknown sources, unhealthily prepared, and eaten in plastic, uncomfortable environments. With this as its guiding principle, the movement has developed many goals and objectives over the years, including
• Encouraging local and traditional food products, along with the culinary traditions and recipes that accompany them
• Encouraging family farms and small-scale production and processing while educating consumers about the dangers of monoculture, agribusiness, and factory farms
• Preserving traditional and heirloom varieties through seed banks
• Promoting organic, sustainable, and holistic farming
• Encouraging consumers to shop at local markets and to buy ethically
• Encouraging people to eat in convivial, comfortable surroundings with friends and family… while warning of the dangers of a “fast food” lifestyle.

In this column for the past couple of years, I have tried to bring some of these principles and goals to Pelham readers at the local level, reflecting the philosophy of the local chapter or “convivium” of the Slow Food Movement. Slow Food Pelham is a very active and enthusiastic group of folks (not all of them from Pelham) who love food, value wholesome food products, honour local growers and producers, and enjoy sharing the bounty of Niagara with like-minded enthusiasts. Our activities range from the annual Featherstone Lamb Roast (coming up soon) to buying food-related books for the Pelham Library, from convivial meals featuring local produce at Pelham restaurants, to educational tours of growers, producers, wineries, and facilities.
Now comes proof that our efforts to promote the ideals of Slow Food have succeeded!

Brandspark, a Canadian market and brand strategy outfit, went out and surveyed some 400 chefs from across the country to find out what they see as the current trends in Canadian eating habits. The results, as posted in The Toronto Star, reveal that the top ten current Canadian menu trends are
1. Locally sourced food
2. Sustainability
3. Organic products
4. Artisanal cheeses
5. Simplicity/back to basics
6. Nutritional/healthy cuisine
7. Free range poultry and pork
8. Small plates/tapas/dim sum
9. Bite size mini desserts
10. Exotic super-fruits (such as acai, goji berry, mangosteen)

Of course, I can’t say that this column (and accompanying blog: www.pelhamslowfood.blogspot.com ) has been entirely responsible for the amazing shift that has taken place in the eating preferences and attitudes of Canadians over the past couple of years… but the first seven out of ten menu trends are recurring and constant themes of SnailSpace!

To learn more about the Slow Food Movement, go to www.slowfood.com and for information about the many Canadian chapters, see www.slowfood.ca , and while you’re there, check out Slow Food Pelham’s space, which includes upcoming events, news, recipes, and reports on past events. If you’d like to join Slow Food Pelham or get more information about our activities, write to Renée Girard at prima_renee@hotmail.com

July: Newfoundland fare: berry, berry good

If any population can be said to have embraced the principles of Slow Food unconsciously, naturally, without paying dues, having meetings, or publishing columns or blogs, it’s the Newfoundlanders. People from The Rock are natural locovores, not just making do with what the unfriendly climate and poor soil can provide, but relishing it and making the rest of us envious for their enthusiasm and joy in consuming it. They are among the most convivial people on earth, and family meals are an ingrained tradition rather than a weekend special event; add a few guests, and the meal becomes a celebration.

A quick look through a Newfoundland cookbook reveals example after example of local food that people from a more privileged climate might never consider, but that Newfoundlanders have turned into an island gourmet delight. Cod, for example, is a delicious fish, and dipped in flour and fried in pork fat, it becomes a delicacy. But the Newfoundlanders, out of necessity, not only use every bit of meat on the fish, but turn those less gentile bits into celebrated treats: cod tongues, cod cheeks, and “britches” (cod roe) are sought-after gourmet items in Newfoundland restaurants.

Make flour, water, and salt into a hard slab and you have a dish that most of the world would find unpalatable; but give it to a Newfoundlander, and he’ll cook it in the same pork fat as his cod, add “scrunchions” (crisp bits of cooked pork back) and serve you a delicious meal of “cod and brewis”. Moose meat is a staple, thanks to the overabundance of moose on the island, and it turns up in roasts and stews, sausages, and even burgers. Bake apples or cloud berries are the local fruit, and there are so many savoury recipes for the preparation of these sweet berries (see below) that Newfoundlanders would never notice the lack of strawberries from Argentina or raspberries from California. Add “lassy mogs” (molasses cookies) and “jam jams” (cookies filled with jam) to the dessert tray, and why would you long for imported fare?

An aside: There’s a story that when the Queen Mother visited Newfoundland in 1967, she was taken to see the Purity Food plant where jam jams are produced. As she walked the production line, she paused and asked one of the workers, “And what are we making here?” To which the Newfoundlander replied, “Five-fifty an hour, Ma’am, five-fifty and hour.”

My most recent visit to Newfoundland and Labrador was last summer when Valerie and I had the fly-fishing trip of a lifetime to a remote fly-in camp in the interior of Labrador (“remote” doesn’t do it justice!) The camp cook provided amazing meals, including all breads and desserts from scratch, with a natural flair and expertise usually found in only the very best urban restaurants. Shawn is in the process of assembling his amazing repertoire into a cookbook, so I don’t think he’ll mind if I provide here his version of berry pie… the best I’ve ever eaten (including, I am sad to admit, my own). Bake apples are Shawn’s favorite, but in their absence, any berries will do.

Crust
½ C butter
1 C all purpose flour
1 tsp icing sugar
Roll out and place in pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown, using a fork to prick holes in the bottom during the first ten minutes.
(I find this crust difficult to work with. Use lots of flour and patience… the result is worth it.)
Filling
Mash ½ C berries and add ¼ C sugar. Bring to a boil. Add enough corn starch mixed in water to make the berry mixture very thick and heavy. Cool 5 minutes. Fold enough fresh whole berries into the mixture to fill the shell. Let set until firm in the fridge and top with whipped cream if desired.

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

Charles de Gaulle, in a moment of frustration, once said “How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?” We in Canada don’t have this particular problem, and maybe we are the more governable because of it. However, while we may not have 246 different kinds of cheese being produced here, we certainly enjoy cheese from around the world, and do produce a fair amount of our own… mostly in Québec, but with significant and increasing production in Ontario, Alberta, and elsewhere.

Here in Niagara, we are fortunate to have Upper Canada Cheese in Jordan Station, where cheese is produced from one specific herd of Guernsey cattle, rendering cheese that is distinctive in flavour, colour, and fat content. Their Niagara Gold is a delicious semi-soft cheese with buttery, nutty flavours that develop more pungency as the cheese ages. Comfort Cream (named for the Guernsey herd at Comfort Farm) is a soft, camembert style cheese with a creamy interior. Recently added Guernsey Girl is a Scandinavian bread-style cheese that doesn’t melt when heated, so it can be fried or grilled with delicious results. Upper Canada Cheese is also now making fresh cheese curd every Friday, so those who love the mild flavours of this product can enjoy it as a squeaky snack or melt it onto their poutine.

Another local treasure for cheese-lovers is Chez Fromage Etc. in downtown Fenwick, right beside the hardware store and across from Da Vinci’s Italian eatery (worth a visit in itself). Natalie Kita brings in a mind-boggling assortment of cheeses, mostly from Québec artisanal producers, but with a fair sampling of cheese from other Canadian producers as well as a fine international selection. The word is out, and some days you may have to wait awhile to make your selection as customers are driving in to Fenwick from as far away as Hamilton to buy cheese from Natalie, but one of the charms of the place is that she never hurries anyone, and takes great delight in suggesting (and providing a taste of) her current favorite or something she thinks the customer will enjoy.

Smaller selections of special cheeses can be found in other stores around Pelham and further afield in Niagara. For example, I was delighted to see that Lorenzo’s Fine Foods on Haist Street is carrying a few carefully chosen varieties, including Sir Laurier and the absolutely decadent Sauvagine from Québec… a creamy cheese that Natalie introduced me to awhile ago, and I find irresistible.

Making cheese is an art in the same order as making beer or wine, and requires the same dedication to ingredients, preparation, cleanliness, and process. If you would like to learn to make your own cheese, or just see what is involved in cheese making, Niagara Falls is home to a small enterprise that is dedicated to revealing the secrets of home cheese production. Doreen and Peter Sullivan lead day-long classes limited to eight participants through the steps in making two cheeses, a camembert-style and a Roquefort-style blue, which the students get to take home with them to finish, age, and enjoy. Peter is a former teacher in the hospitality field at Niagara College, and has been featured in these pages before as the master-cook on some of my fly-fishing trips (he’s a pretty good fly fisherman, too). Doreen is also a former teacher and dental hygienist, and their classes come very highly recommended. For more information, have a look at www.makingcheeseathome.ca or call Peter or Doreen at 905 354 8873.

The Bread Recipe

For about 30 years I've tried to bake bread that approximates the chewy, crusty, full-flavoured breads I gobble up in Europe. I have tried different recipes and techniques, and often have limited success with an acceptable baguette or loaf... but too often the bread I produce is in the shape of a boule or baguette, but still tastes like ordinary white bread.

Then, recently I have discovered a recipe that is not only dead simple and seemingly unfailable, but consistently produces a loaf that is everything I want... and others seem to agree. At a recent meeing of the Pelham Slow Food Convivium, Reinholt raved that it tasted like the breads of his childhood in Germany... high praise indeed! Others have said it reminds them of an Italian loaf, and others that it has the texture and taste of a French country bread (not to be confused with the delicate and fine-textured French baguette... this is coarser, though there is a taste similarity).

Anyway, it's so easy and foolproof you can try it for yourself and see if it meets your requirements. Note: this recipe does take time... about 24 hours, so you do have to plan ahead!

The recipe is adapted from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery as reprinted in the New York Times in November, 2006.

No-Knead Bread

3 Cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (I have found that regular yeast also works)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 Cups water

1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add the water, stirring until blended. The dough is sticky and messy... but it's supposed to be. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 to 20 hours.
2. The dough is ready when it is bubbly on the surface. Flour a work surface and pour out the dough onto it. Flour the top and fold it over on itself a few times, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
3. Flour the dough again so it doesn't stick to your fingers as you shape it into a ball. Put the dough seam-side down on a floured surface, cover with floured tea towel and let it rise for about two hours. By then it should have doubled in size.
4. Put a heavy, lidded pot or casserole dish in the oven and set the temperature to 450. (I use a cast iron le Creusset pot and find it perfect, but any heavy enamel, cast iron or ceramic pot should work.) When the dough is ready and the oven is up to temperature, plop the dough into the hot pot. It is still soft and... well, doughy... so you can shake the pot to even it out before covering it with the lid and putting it in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes or so, until the surface is dark brown. Cool on a rack.

May: Niagara’s Farmers’ Markets

As any vacationer who has traveled in Europe will tell you, one of the highlights of any trip is a visit to the colourful, bustling markets that once or twice a week transform every town and village into a food festival. The idea of getting fresh food directly from the producer and creating meals around what is available or particularly appealing at the market is the very essence of Slow Food. Here in Niagara, we are lucky to have a variety of markets to visit, and lots of local producers who are eager to supply us with fresh, nutritious, delicious ingredients for family meals. While our markets don’t take over the centres of towns, and our market days are not quite the festive social occasions that European markets are and have been for hundreds of years, the Niagara markets do provide us with excellent local produce, a chance to meet and chat with the producers, and a social occasion for the community to get together in an informal celebration of good food.

Pelham Market: Our local Thursday afternoon market right beside the Town Hall in Fonthill features produce from greens to bread, from delicious snacks and full meals to fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and root crops… much of it organic. Add the evening concert in the adjacent pavilion, and you have An Event.

Welland Market: The biggest market in the region, Welland’s Saturday morning market features more than 65 vendors in and around two permanent buildings. Look for excellent meat and bakery selections along with the mounds of produce, flowers, cheese, herbs, and even local handicrafts. Don’t miss the elephant ears!

St. Catharines Market: A part of downtown St. Catharines since the mid 1800’s the St. Catharines Market puts about 40 vendors under an attractive glass and steel structure in the heart of the city. While it’s open Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday is when the place hums.

Smithville Market: Right in the heart of Niagara’s cash crop farming country, Smithville attracts a wide variety of producers to its market in the Convenience St. parking lot on Saturday mornings.

Grimsby Market: A very lively market that features 25 fulltime vendors and a community tent for local clubs and not-for-profit organizations, the Grimsby Market provides another Thursday evening option for shoppers. Look for cooking demonstrations by local chefs using ingredients right from the market on the Thursdays before a long weekend.

Brock University: Friday noontime, Brock is the place to be for an expanding market, intended to provide fresh, local food options for the students… but everyone is welcome. It’s in the Jubilee Courtyard behind Inniskillin Hall.

Port Colborne Market: Right at City Hall on Friday mornings, the Port Colborne Market is a lively outdoor collection of vendors who bring a wide variety of products to market, including baked goods, meats, and cheese, along with fresh local vegetables and fruit.

Niagara on the Lake Market: Held on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, this small but growing market is actually between the Old Town and Virgil across from Jackson Triggs winery on Niagara Stone Road.

By shopping for our food at these markets, we can not only put fresh, nutritious food on our tables, but support local farmers and producers who add so much to the rural environment and character of our region; Regional Councilor, Brian Baty, pointed out in a recent column that if each resident of Niagara spent $10 on local groceries, we’d collectively pump $226 million into the local economy. And, the more people who shop for local goods at farmers’ markets, the louder the cry to supermarkets and those restaurants who haven’t yet got the message: “Give us locally produced, fresh, tasty, nutritious, good food!”

April: Home Gardening

Slow Foodies are locovores. This does not mean that they are “loco” (though it doesn’t mean they aren’t either!); it refers to the emphasis that the Slow Food Movement puts on eating locally grown food. While we in Pelham are fortunate in having an abundance of local food producers, from farm gate and fruit stand sellers to the Pelham Market, there is nothing more local than a backyard garden.

This is the time of year to consider turning some of that useless grass in the backyard into a beautiful, useful, nutritious, and delicious vegetable garden. Have you ever stopped to consider how much time (not to mention gasoline and oil) we waste cutting grass in the name of a green carpet that has no use other than to look like everyone else’s green carpet? It’s estimated that between 30 and 60 percent of urban freshwater use goes into watering lawns, and the cost of keeping North American lawns beautiful is well over $25 billion annually. Converting even a little of your lawn to garden is not only satisfying and productive, it’s downright environmentally responsible!

Late April is a good time to plan your garden, decide what plants you’d like to grow, and choose a plot of land. In early May, you can turn the soil over, breaking up the turf as you go, and then turn it over again and rake it out before planting around the Victoria Day weekend. This is the traditional planting time in southern Canada, as it usually ensures that the last frost of the winter is behind us and the tender young plants have a good shot at growing up.

Avid gardeners will have already begun raising their tomatoes and peppers and herbs from seed in a cold frame or home greenhouse, so on the 24th of May they can transplant their seedlings into the prepared soil. For most of us, this is advanced gardening, and we are much more likely to bypass the seed stage in favour of buying seedlings from a grower just before putting them in the ground. Several growers have seedlings for sale at the Pelham Market, and they are always happy to give suggestions for planting and nurturing the young plants. Other vegetables like lettuce and carrots and beans and peas are grown right from seed, and the seeds, in infinite varieties can be purchased from garden centres or specialists like Tree and Twig (see below).

If you’re like me, an impediment to home gardening is a combination of laziness and travel. I’m not home for stretches of time during the summer months, and when I am around, I’m more likely to want to go fishing or cycling or hiking or… just about anything than plucking weeds out of the garden. As a result, I have become a big believer in biodegradable mulch. This stuff comes in long rolls of post-consumer recycled paper, and can be laid out between the rows of plants or used to cover the whole garden before holes are punched in it where the seedlings are planted. The mulch prevents weed growth, holds water in the soil, and attracts solar heat… all of which make your plants thrive. OK, it isn’t as pretty as well maintained, weed-free soil, raked and hoed to perfection, but it makes home gardening a do-able proposition for folks like me.

Here are few resources for home gardening information:
www.treeandtwig.ca This is the website of Tree and Twig in Wellandport… an absolutely fabulous resource for organically grown seedlings, including many heirloom varieties. Make note: Tree and Twig has its annual seedling sale on May 22and 23.

www.canadiangardening.com This is the website of Canadian Gardening Magazine and has dozens of articles for everyone from the rank beginner to the semi-pro, geared to conditions in Canada.

www.vegetablegardeners.com This is the site for beginning gardeners. It contains all the information and advice you need for getting started.

March: Breakfast

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day, as folk lore (and probably your mother) would have it? For those of us who find eating breakfast a chore and would just as soon skip the meal entirely except for a couple of cups of coffee, the answer is depressing. Yup. Studies clearly show that eating breakfast has a multitude of benefits… more than either of the other two main meals of the day.
Several studies of school children have made it clear that for children and adolescents especially, a healthy breakfast is a huge factor in the ability to concentrate, problem solve, and perform tasks requiring hand-eye co-ordination. Additionally, breakfast provides increased strength and endurance for physical tasks.

There is also clear evidence that a healthy breakfast is an important factor in weight loss. Those who skip breakfast calories more than make up the caloric intake later in the day, either by eating high sugar snacks (like doughnuts or candy bars) to keep them going during the morning, or by having a larger lunch. The National Weight Control Registry reveals that of people who lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for a year, more than 80 per cent regularly eat breakfast.

There’s an important factor here: not just any breakfast will produce the beneficial results. We’re talking about a nutritional breakfast, one high in lean protein and fibre. No doughnuts, no high-sugar processed cereal, no white bread with jam. Many nutritionists say that the best way to get a good shot of lean protein in the morning is to eat an egg with pea meal (Canadian) bacon, while fibre can be added with whole grain cereal or bread. How you cook your egg and bacon also has an effect: a McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin with Egg, for example, gives you 51 per cent of all the saturated fat you should have in an entire day, 86 per cent of the cholesterol, and 39 per cent of the salt! Boiled or poached eggs are best, but any preparation that uses a minimum of fat and salt will provide the protein you want without the nasty stuff.

So, according to nutritionists, an ideal breakfast might be two boiled eggs, a slice of Canadian bacon, whole wheat toast, and an orange. But what about those of us who find breakfast a) a chore to undertake first thing in the morning, and b) more than we care to put in our stomachs before heading off to work or school? While it isn’t perfect, a thoughtfully concocted Smoothie will supply many of the benefits of the ideal breakfast without the hassle or bulk.

My recipe for a breakfast Smoothie is infinitely variable, and there are lots of good recipes out there (try www.breakfastrecipesbymom.net for example). But I’ve been enjoying this morning drink for years, and find it (along with two cups of strong coffee) both gives me a good start to the day and keeps me from snacking until lunch. Far from being a chore to drink, it tastes like a fruit milkshake.

Breakfast Smoothie
Put 1 to 1 ½ cups of orange, pineapple, or other juice in a blender. With the blender running, add ½ cup of yogurt, ½ frozen banana, ¾ cup frozen fruit (strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are favorites), ¼ cup of whey protein (available at health food and other stores), and ½ cup of granola or other whole grain cereal. When all the ingredients are dissolved and the shake has a smooth consistency, it’s ready to drink. Hint: While the blender is running, make sure you have the lid on and add the frozen stuff through the feed tube, or you’ll redecorate your kitchen.