Lobster Boil

If you could stop the hands of time, how would you wile the suspended moments away? I would cook up a feast, invite cherished ones and gather around a beautifully appointed table to enjoy for hours! Delicious decadence, rustic French linen, white china plates awaiting for the colours of food to descend upon them, a myriad glasses for carefully thought out wines and other libation, a hint of soft music in the backdrop, the gentle clank and clink of cutlery and the constant flow of talk and laughter. The idea of a lobster boil came up at our French pique-nique during which we had a very pleasant and successful outdoor lunch, all the while respecting the social distancing order. Starving for social interaction, we put the plan in motion. What can be more sanitary than boiled lobster and oven roasted baked potatoes?

Kaarina kindly offered to pick up everyone's lobster order from Diana's Seafood in the city. I would look after the potatoes. But as theses things do, the planning snowballed (a bit). Diane brought a delicious salad with a champagne, shallot and walnut dressing. The dessert most worthy of mention was most certainly Rob's homemade, chocolate Babka! Oh and I must not forget Diane's A.O.C. Camembert de Normandy!

The sun was shining oh so brightly and not a single cloud cast a shadow on the afternoon. Delicious decadence of sweet lobster meat dipped in butter, a mix and match of cloths weighed down with river rocks covered every table carried out of the house, white china plates, wine glasses and petite champagne flutes, yes, the clank and clink of cutlery and the constant flow of long awaited chatter and laughter. And who knows, maybe the hands of time did stand still...
 

 

Sourdough Country Rye Bake

Caroline

Thursday morning, I pull the starter out of the fridge and feed it. With half a loaf left in the bread box, it's time to bake again. Mill some rye kernels into flour; mix with 20 g of starter, bread flour and water. Repeat at bedtime.

What is it about sourdough? Challenge. Why settle for downhill when you can telemark! Crazy isn't it but, it's true. It's also a healthy choice. Good for the microbiome and all that jazz. OK, it's also delicious as heck!

Thursday morning starter feed.

Starter feeds and dough prep take place in the laundry room. Since the process stretches over 3 days, I like to keep the mess contained and out of the way.

An old pine hutch holds all the necessary tools: note book, Tartine Bread book, pans, flours, kernels, dough bowls, bannetons, utensils (and a spurtle to name one), flour mill, etc. Oh, I forgot the Brød-Taylor proofer. Since we keep a cool house at 19ºC, it was necessary to invest in this gadget to keep starter, levain and dough happy.

The right tools make the job much easier

Friday morning 8 o'clock finds me mixing my levain. I measured the flour the night before to expedite this step... after all morning coffee awaits. After 5 hours in the proofer, I start on the dough mix. I quickly realize that I have WAY too much levain. What to do? What to do? What the hoo let's make more bread. You know that feeling you get when you're about to step off the ledge. Well, I experienced it and guess what? I stepped off the ledge and found myself mixing, stretching and folding more dough than I cared to shake a spurtle at! It took sourdough bread making to an Olympic level. Arms of steel!

20 kg of wet dough!

Bulk fermentation comes to an end at 17.00.

Time to divide, shape and conquer.

 

Hero the dog is surprised to see me up at 7 bells on a Saturday morning. I turn on the oven and start scoring. I decide to keep it simple before coffee. Après café, I ramp things up with Anna and her lovely scoring tutorial.

I give it a whirl to discover that the scoring process
is very meditative and pleasant.

Sourdough has a life of its own. Truly. You can try your best. But in the end, the dough has the final say. Needless to say, I was very eager to see the end result.

Although the bread did burst out of the score lines...

...it is still visually appealing!

So, there you have it. That is how I came to bake 10 loaves of Tartine's country rye sourdough bread on Saturday morning. 

Vegetarian

A salad worthy of an impressionist painting!

Diane

My turn to choose the theme! Since I’m always on the look out for healthy alternatives to meat-based meals, I picked Vegetarian.

We are packing more into our Epitourist get-togethers. Our lunch was preceded by a day of foodie excursions to Aloette and Eataly. Sunday’s courses felt relaxed and restorative in contrast to the previous day’s pace.

When Diet for a Small Planet was published in 1971 it was a radical book that chronicled the harmful environmental impacts of meat production and its compounding effects on food distribution across the globe. Today the trend toward plant-based diets is also supported by people with concerns for the ethical treatment of animals and those who want to improve their own personal health. Change often takes time. When Canada revamped the Food Guide in 2019, the government still faced a strong lobby from meat and dairy interests threatened by the move away from animal proteins.

Today there are so many cookbooks and advocates for plant-based meals it’s hard to choose a definitive source: Michael Pollan, Jamie Oliver, Dr. Michael Greger, Angela Liddon… the list continues to grow.

Our own Epitourist menu was a wonderful mix of colour, comfort, simplicity and elegance. Didn’t miss the meat whatsoever!

Menu

Starter | Laura

Muhammara roasted red pepper dip with focaccia and goat chevre 

paired with Prosecco

Salad Course | Kaarina

Five-Spice Peach and Raspberry Salad

paired with Riesling

Main | Diane

Russian Carrot Pie  

paired with Golden Milk

Main | Caro

Steamed celeriac and mushroom pudding with Madeira sauce

paired with Madeira

Dessert | Laura

Lemon Pudding Cake

Digestif | Diane

Pousse-Café / selection of  liqueurs

Muhammara roasted red pepper dip ❦ Laura

Syrian Muhammara Dip

I was last to announce what I would make for our vegetarian feast. As often happens at these long lunches, we get so enthusiastic about what we want to make that we end up with way too much food. The others had already proposed hearty courses, so I thought an appetizer dip would be fitting. But I didn’t want to make a run-of-the mill hummus or cream-cheese based dip. Ottolenghi never fails to offer interesting flavour combinations. I chose his Muhammara/roasted red pepper dip. Muhammara dip comes from Syrian cuisine. I loved the idea of combining red peppers with pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and aleppo pepper. Diane has gas burners, so charring the peppers was easy on her stovetop. The resulting dip was spectacular. We served it with some foccacia and flatbread crackers purchased during our Eataly outing. 

Five-Spice Peach and Raspberry Salad ❦ Kaarina

A true chef d'œuvre!

Thinking outside the pot, I looked for fresh raw colour and bite to add to our menu. I didn’t need to look far. If anyone knows how to pull together a great vegetarian spread, it’s Ottolenghi and I had been reading and cooking from both Jerusalem and Simple this winter. I settled on Five-Spice Peach and Raspberry Salad from Simple:

In a large bowl, whisk together

1-1/2 tbsp. cider vinegar

1 tsp maple syrup

1/4 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced (1/4 cup)

1/4 tsp salt

Just before serving, add

3-1/2 oz raspberries

3 firm peaches, not too ripe, cut into 1/4 inch wedges

2 cups watercress

2 cups radicchio, cut into 3/4 inch slices.

Toss and serve.

What made this salad visually extra spectacular was the rosy radicchio we found in the produce section at Eataly, which was on our Epitourist winter tour of downtown Toronto the day before. The rosy leaves were so beautiful I couldn’t bring myself to tear them, so I tucked them in whole amongst the watercres and peaches. This loose leaf radicchio is less bitter than the tightly packed leaves of a standard radicchio but the watercress along with the shallot had enough bite to balance the sweetness of the fruit.

Wine can be a challenge with salads. What to pair? The peach? The bitter greens? Or the sherry vinegar dressing? Cave Springs off dry Riesling did the job brilliantly.. 

Russian Carrot Pie ❦ Diane

A very creative pairing!

Oh how I loved Molly Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook! Hand written, with simple instructions and whimsical illustrations, it inspired me to make some of my first vegetarian meals. Published in 1974, it may be dated when compared with some of today’s titles, but it still brings a smile to my face. I thought the Epitourists would enjoy Russian Carrot Pie, and they did, although next time, I would cut back a bit on the dill.

Delightful!

For this course, instead of pairing with wine I chose a concoction of coconut milk, oat milk, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon. The decision to serve Golden Milk was made on colour alone, but happily the taste nicely complemented the flavours in the pie.

Steamed celeriac and mushroom pudding with Madeira sauce  

❦ Caroline

Savoury Pudding!

  
I turned to Dani Valent’s In the Mix — Great Thermomix Recipes for Diane’s vegetarian theme. Australian based cook, Valent sourced recipes from chefs and bloggers far and wide to put together this beautiful cookbook. Steamed Celeriac and Mushroom Puddings, is British chef Madalene Bonvini-Hamel’s creation. Completely vegetarian, it is elegant, comforting and deliciously savoury.
 
Filling

50 g butter
70 g mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
20 g flour
1/2 onion, peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic
1/2 stalk of celery, cut into 1 cm dice
1 small carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
250 g celeriac cut into 1 cm dice
30 g Madeira
150 g vegetable stock
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 tbs chopped chives

Melt 25 g butter in a frying pan. Cook mushrooms with a little salt and pepper for 8 minutes at medium-high temperature. Set aside. Melt remaining butter, add onion, garlic, celery, carrot, celeriac and flour. Cook 10 minutes on medium-high until nicely caramelized. Add the Madeira. Cook for 4 minutes. Add the stock and cook on medium heat to reduce for 5 minutes. Return the mushrooms. Stir in parsley and chives. Adjust seasoning. Allow to cool on a cookie sheet.

Pastry

300 g flour
15 g baking powder
150 g frozen butter
salt and pepper to taste
100 g chilled water

Mix flour, baking powder, butter, salt and pepper. Add the chilled water. Gently knead. Lightly oil 6 ramekins. On a slightly floured surface, roll the pastry to about 4 mm thick. Line the ramekins with the pastry. Spoon the cooled celeriac filling into each ramekin, filling it to the top, dampen pastry rim with cold water and seal each pudding with a pastry lid. Make a team hole in the centre of the lid. Pour 1 litre of water into a pot. Set steaming basket in. Place the pudding ramekins on basket. Cook for 60 minutes on medium-high. Make sure that there’s sufficient water at all times. Keep a kettle of boiling water handy to top up.

Madeira Sauce

50 g dried mushrooms
30 g olive oil
1 sprig of thyme, leaves only
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
1 shallot
100 g madeira
500 g vegetable stock
100 g 35% cream
50 g butter

Pulverize the dried mushroom in a food processor. Add the olive oil, thyme, garlic and onion and chop. Transfer the mixture to a frying pan. Add bay leaf and cook on medium-high for 5 minutes. Add the Madeira and cook for 3 minutes. Add vegetable stock and continue to cook until stock has reduced by half. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve. Discard solids. Pour sauce into saucepan along with cream. Heat for 3 minute until it just begins to boil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Before serving, add the butter and whisk.


Lemon Souffle Pudding ❦ Laura

Because I can never resist making something as a sweet end to the meal, I chose to make a simple lemon souffle pudding. This is an old family recipe from the mother of Jason, my neighbour on Wolfe Island. He always makes it for impromptu neighbourhood potluck get togethers.

Digestif ❦ Diane

Lovely colours of a pousse-café

I came across Pousse-café when I was searching for a digestif to finish our meal. Literally "coffee-pusher" in French, it is an alcoholic beverage consumed after the coffee course. Pousse-café has now evolved to mean a layered drink composed of different  liqueurs.

I thought this would be a fun twist and an appropriate reminder that although people sometimes equate vegetarian with healthy and virtuous, it’s not always the case.

Besides, I have a cupboard full of different liqueurs to experiment. The heaviest liqueur is poured first on the bottom, and so on. We had the most success with a trio of grenadine, chartreuse and then Cointreau. Use a bar spoon and steady hand to pour the liqueur. Choose liqueurs that are actually palatable if you intend to drink your creation.

Salt Fat Acid Heat | Four Elements | Four Epitourists

Mastering the elements of good cooking!

This is not "your typical cookbook". Colourful charts and whimsical illustrations (rather than photographs to free the reader from the idea that there's only one perfect image for every dish!). The hows and whys content truly reflect Samin's energetic and creative self!

Menu

Pasta alla Puttanesca

Salad of Roasted Beet, Preserved Lemon and Tahini-Yogurt
—with Smoked Mackerel

Maiale al Latte with Roasted Squash, Sage and Hazelnut Panzanella

Amalfi Lemon Tart

Theme cocktail: Caesars!

The four elements celebrated!

Kaarina | SALT

Samin's Pasta alla Puttanesca

I settled on Samin’s own recipe for Pasta alla Puttanesca to showcase layering of salt in a dish. This Italian classic features salt in several guises — anchovies, capers, olives and (optional) parmigiana — each delicious in small doses. All together, all at once, they make a big statement. Huge umami delicious, salty statement.

Having spent the last 30 years searching for ways to reduce my salt intake, drawing Salt as my assignment was a challenge. Yes, of course I agree that salt is essential in good cooking, the basic seasoning for pretty much everything. But little goes a long way. I experimented for a month, following Samin’s directions but never quite got the knack of it. I found her approach with salt way too heavy handed and will return to using the salt grinder, shaker and a measuring spoon.

There’s nothing subtle about Pasta alla Puttanesca, so a bold wine is in order. California’s Seven Deadly Zins was up to the task. A rustic Primotivo from Puglia would be equally appropriate.

California's Seven Deadly Zins Old Vine Zinfandel!

Caroline | ACID

"Acid is salt's alter ego. While salt enhances flavours, acid balances them." 

Roasted beets with preserved lemon and tahini-yogurt from our beloved Ottolenghi's Simple (and he's on my menu two nights this week)! The preserved lemon and tahini-yogurt blanket the roasted beets with layers of acidity. As per the chef's recommendation, I serve this with a smoked mackerel. Wine pairings are Sancerre -- Henri Bourgeois Les Baronnes and a Mailly Exception Blanche Grand Cru Brut Champagne 2007! After all, Christmas is just around the corner. The acid component of the salad pair well with the Sancerre and highlight the wines butteriness. The Champagne takes the smoked mackerel to heaven! Interesting exercise in pairing.

Roasted beets with preserved lemon and tahini-yogurt

Diane

Michael Pollan, one of my favourite food writers, wrote the introduction to the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and revealed Samin gave him some cooking lessons after she attended his class on food writing. His observations on sauteing an onion: "...there was an intricate evolution unfolding in that pan as the rectangles of onion went from crisply acidic to clean and sweet to faintly smokey as they caramelized and then bittered slightly as they browned. Samin showed me how half a dozen distinct flavours could be teased from that humble ingredient, all depending on how you managed principle number four, heat."  

That insight motivated me to buy a copy of Samin's book and choose the element of Heat for the Epitourist feast. 

At the end of every one of her Heat classes, Samin shares a finished braise with her students. The book dedicates more than a few pages on classic braises and stews from around the world, however the dish I ended up preparing was a braise of pork in milk: Maiale al Latte, as it seemed we were trending to Italian flavours. Slow cooked over two and a half hours, the aromas wafting from the oven created a wonderful background to festivities.

Maiale al Latte!

Laura

I really enjoyed this month’s theme, which diverted from our usual focus on regional cuisine. All four of us really enjoyed Samin Nostrat’s Netflix series and wanted to delve more into the themes and recipes.

I was tasked with exploring fat. In her book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Samin writes, “Fat adds its own unique flavor to a dish, and it can amplify the other flavors in a recipe. Simply put, fat makes food delicious—and one of the most important things any cook can learn is how to harness its magic.” I wanted to explore this idea by detouring from the obvious meat fat. I chose to make a salad and focus on using butter instead of oil in the dressing.  I wanted to make a hearty salad that would reflect the season as well as working well as a side dish, so I chose her Roasted Squash, Sage and Hazelnut Panzanella. Browning the butter adds another element to the flavour of the fat, and it stands up well to the bold flavours in the salad. The recipe for the croutons and vinaigrette is here https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/warm-winter-panzanella-d-is-for-dinner-1.4983972. You’ll have to borrow or buy the book for the rest of the recipe. Failing that, just roast squash in the oven, sauté chopped kale in olive oil with some onion and garlic, toast some chopped hazelnuts and fry some sage leaves. Then put the salad together using the method in the link above.

Roasted Squash, Sage and Hazelnut Panzanella

Caroline

As this was a sleepover dinner, dessert was in order. I stick to my assigned element and opt for an Amalfi Lemon Tart from Oliver's Jamie Cooks Italy. The crust calls for 1/3 cup of Greco di Tufo white wine. It is a new wine for us. And as Jamie suggests: "If you're feeling the Italian vibe, a little slice for breakfast with a black coffee is a real treat." And so, the next day for breakfast, a little tart was enjoyed with an expresso and a tasting of the Greco di Tufo.

Boat Food

Diane

If Rob and I are Yondering...

Even when I have my cooking mojo working for me, I appreciate the ease of pulling together an appealing plate without needing to turn on the stove or fire up the barbecue. Especially if Rob and I are Yondering for a ten hour day, or have just dropped anchor after a long sail, I'm glad to have some cold cured meats, cheese, crackers, nuts and pickles for a refreshing quick bite.

So for my course, I chose a charcuterie board. As this was the Epitourists, I provisioned at St. Lawrence Market, with stops at Scheffler's Deli, Future Bakery, and Kozlik's mustards, to pull together a charcuterie platter:  saucisson (truffle and blueberry); salami (hot and not); provolone wrapped in sundried tomato; prosciutto wrapped feta; marcona almonds; pickled garlic, onions and mixed vegetable; hot gherkins; roasted artichoke; pretzels; and a selection of mustards (dijon, honey mustard, balsamic fig and date, triple crunch).

 

To accompany, a quick cocktail with lots of ice: Whisky Soda.

Kaarina

Medina, our 30-foot Ticon Sailboat

I learned early on that we like to eat on the boat the same kind of food we eat at home. But that hasn’t cured me. Spring after spring I carry a carefully curated supply of cans and packages of dried foods onto the boat. And every fall I carry the same cans and packages off the boat. Most of the stuff simply doesn’t get eaten.

We like our food fresh.

On Medina, our 30-foot Ticon sailboat, dinner has become a ritual, especially when we’re at anchor. I plan, shop and prep. Mike barbecues. The menu is simple: Meat and a salad, mini potatoes or fresh corn in season. Lots of tomato salads. Grilled peppers. Guacamole.

Wilted Spinach and Carmelized Onions with Feta Dressing was this summer’s new favourite. It’s quick - 10 minutes - to make. Simple, fresh and quick! No fancy ingredients required. Except for the sherry vinegar, everything is available in most supermarkets. Onions, spinach, olive oil, feta cheese. (You can substitute balsamic for the sherry vinegar, which has become hard to find. I picked it up at St. Lawrence Market, lower level.)

 

Wilted Spinach and Carmelized Onions with Feta stands up on its own as a salad course, which is how Epitourists had it on Ruby Tuesday. I also like to serve it together with a steak, pork or lamb chops and I’ve carted it off to potlucks on land and on the water.

Caroline

AB is a good ol' boat!

Seven consecutive weeks on the water this season! The more you do, the more things happen. And happen they did. A small shroud popped while I was under sail. It was more like a very loud bang. Needless to say, it scared the bajesus out of me. That put an end to the race around Waupoos Island. We managed to duck out without incident, lower the sails and limp back to the anchorage. Dang. Good thing she's keel stepped. Dave, the owner of Marine Outfitters had her fixed up in no time. He even gave me the keys to his car so I could re-provision. And then, she sprung a leak in her exhaust pipe. Carbon monoxide is a bad thing in a confined space like a boat. Had to get that fixed too. What can I say. AB is a good ol' boat. I will admit that madness overtook me and I put her up for sale and bought me a trawler. Yup. A trawler.

I do digress. This is suppose to be about Boat Food. Yes. I looove to cook onboard. The space is small and like a maestro conducting an orchestra, I can put together a fine meal while standing in one spot. I have, over the years, compiled a yummy repertoire of boat foods. Some from scratch while others are just plain cheatin'. And plain cheatin' is what I chose for our September Epitourist lunch onboard ma new trawler Ruby Tuesday (semi cheating... I did bake dessert.) This boat food is a no-brainer. It comes ready made. In a box. Requires no refrigeration. Keeps forever. Will overwinter nicely inside your galley pantry. Calls for a glass of ruby wine or two, fresh bread and a simple salad and like Bob's your uncle, dinner is served. What is it you ask? It is cheese fondue in a box! Dipping ingredients consisted of fresh sourdough bread, grape tomatoes, roasted baby potatoes and cauliflower florets, Granny Smith apple slivers. For libation, I experimented with cider but must say that the ruby won hands down!

Our Epi Lunches go on for a forever long time! After five hours of sipping and noshing, dessert is the last thing on your mind. BUT, I was very excited about this finale. I will admit that Ruby Tuesday is lacking a decent oven. Decent ovens on boats are hard to come by. On AB, I had an oven but could only cook/bake ingredients that stood no taller than 4 inches. Well, Ruby has, wait for it, a toaster oven! HA! Yes. I kid you not. Have oven will bake (but only when connected to shore power 😶). So, in my little toaster oven, I baked an Orange and Black Olive Chocolate Cake. Rich, moist and a flavour combination that will blow your mind! Try it. You will like it.

Salad Days

Summer solstice. The longest day of the year. The first day of summer! Light is at its peak with the longest day. Time for gratitude. From here to December 21, the days get shorter and shorter. Reason enough to get the most out of every summer's day.

I chose this date and time for hosting the Epitourists lunch, with the theme of Salad Days. In the culinary sense, not the literary: fresh, colourful, appealing, healthy, with a touch of ease and an element of surprise.

Caroline and Kaarina co-creators on the feast.

Home made sourdough foccacia fresh from the oven! Fresh burrata with grilled grapes! Fresh chèvre with basil! Grilled cheese!

Our meal was stretched over 6 hours, with courses that were light and fresh and full of greens and herbs. The most important ingredient overall: deliciousness.

Menu

Burrata with Grilled Grapes

Grilled Radicchio Salad and Sherry Mustard Dressing with 

Grilled Miso Glazed Scallops

Chargrilled Asparagus, Zucchini and Manouri

Green Herb Salad

Sourdough Foccacia

Coupe Colonel and Affogato

Kaarina

I said I’d come up with an amuse-bouche but really I just wanted an excuse to splurge on some decadent creamy burrata to enjoy with friends who appreciate the indulgence as much as I do. The beauty of Ottolenghi’s Burrata with Grilled Grapes is that it can be entirely prepped ahead.

The grapes marinate in olive oil, sherry vinegar, garlic and crushed fennel seeds for a few hours before they go on the BBQ or the grill pan. The resulting nectar is drizzled over each serving and is so heavenly that it threatens to eclipse the burrata as star of the show. Caroline’s freshly baked focaccia was just the thing for mopping up every last drop. 

Diane

For my course I prepared a grilled radicchio salad with sherry mustard dressing from Bon Appetit that had captured my interest. I tested it out with my family first, and although they initially scoffed at the idea of grilled lettuce, they enjoyed the mix of flavours. Kaarina and Caroline appreciated how heat had ramped up the flavours and brought a nutty taste to the plate.

Served alongside grilled scallops with a miso glaze. The course was paired with Garden Booch, (1.8 oz of Seedlip garden topped with ginger kombucha, on the rocks, garnished with fresh lemon verbena).

Caroline

We’ve come a long way from iceberg lettuce days. Growing up, a salad consisted of chopped iceberg lettuce tossed with sliced cucumber, tomato and shredded carrot dressed with white vinegar and Crisco vegetable oil. Thank goodness we have made progress. Nowadays, any vegetable can be made into a salad. Grilled asparagus are simply delicious. Generously tossed in salt and oil, they take no time to do up on a hot grill. Al dente and nutty, they are irresistible. Good ol' Otto strikes again with Chargrilled Asparagus, Zucchini and Manouri.  Manouri is uncommon. I had to make a special trip to the Danforth to find this Greek cheese. In a previous attempt, I used halloumi and found the end result too salty. This salad is elegant and delivers big on flavours.

Bread being a perfect accompaniment to this dish, I put a new obsession to good use and baked a Simple Sourdough Focaccia from The Perfect Loaf. 

 

Kaarina

My dream was that each forkful would be a different taste in my mouth - and that was pretty much how it turned out. Ottolenghi's Green Herb Salad was the first thing I thought of when Diane proposed Salad Days. What better time to pinch and pick through my garden than Summer Solstice when all the herbs are at their peak freshness?

Six herbs came from various pots and the raised herb box that runs along the sunny side of my ramshackle old garage: parsley, coriander, mint, dill, sage and tarragon. I added store-bought arugula (rocket in the UK) and watercress (to replace the purslane in the recipe). The slivers of snow peas (mange tout) added fresh crunch and the toasted sliced almonds and three kinds of seeds each contributed more texture and a new flavour explosion to each mouthful. 

The Herb Salad was the perfect palate cleanser served on its own just before dessert. We agreed that with its bright lemony dressing the salad could be a fitting companion for simply panfried fish. I might also try replacing the lemon in the dressing with red wine vinegar and serving it with thinly sliced rare filet mignon.

Diane

Dessert was simple and refreshing, with a choice of Coupe colonel (zesty lemon sorbetto with a splash of Ciroc) or affogato (bourbon vanilla bean gelato drowned in espresso). We decided to try both.

Literary Spring

Of course the Epitourists love to eat, but we also love to read. May’s gathering on Wolfe Island was a melding of food and literature welcoming the green of spring.

Menu

Spring Soufflé with Creamy Mixed-Cheese Sauce

2016 Alsace Pinot Blanc L'ami des crustacés classique

Kaarina's Sprout Salad and Elizabeth on the 37th Crab Cakes

Kunde Chardonnay from Sonoma County

Rhubarb Spritz

Chinese Pork and Shrimp Dumplings with Scallion-Soy Sauce

Madeleines



Caroline

The bones of my dish came form Jamie Cooks Italy / Spring Soufflé with Creamy Mixed-Cheese Sauce. I struggled with which spring vegetables to use. His recipe includes asparagus, peas, mint and sadly, zucchini. At my first attempt, I included the zucchini and found that it made things watery (besides, save the zuke for fall!). I excluded it the second time around. I must admit that Oliver’s spring trio of choice makes for a lovely mix: asparagus, peas and mint. But when Emilio-the-forager handed me a kilo of freshly picked fiddleheads, things changed again. Would a trio of fiddleheads, peas and mint work? No doubt it would.

We wait for them with excitement: Ontario grown asparagus! Upon seeing my first bunches “…tinged with ultramarine and pink, finely stippled in mauve and azure…”, I couldn’t resist: asparagus, fiddleheads and spring onions it would be. Forget the peas. And without peas, what’s the point of mint?

We wait for them with excitement:
Ontario grown asparagus

What makes this soufflé SO delicious is the sauce served on the side for pouring over. I chose whole goat’s milk, parmigiano reggiano and taleggio cheese to make mine. Divine! I paired my dish with a Pinot Blanc 2016 from Alsace: L’ami des crustacés classique.



Le soufflé et sa sauce!

 “…but what most enraptured me were the asparagus, tinged with ultramarine and pink which shaded off from their heads, finely stippled in mauve and azure, through a series of imperceptible gradations to their white feet–still stained a little by the soil of their garden-bed–with an iridescence that was not of this world. I felt that these celestial hues indicated the presence of exquisite creatures who had been pleased to assume vegetable form and who, through the disguise of their firm comestible flesh, allowed me to discern in this radiance of earliest dawn, these hinted rainbows, these blue evening shades, that precious quality which I should recognise again when all night long after a dinner at which I had partaken of them, they played (lyrical and coarse in their jesting as the fairies in Shakespeare’s Dream) at transforming my chamber pot into a vase of aromatic perfume.” — Marcel Proust In Search of Lost Time: Swann’s Way

My Spring Soufflé with Creamy Mixed-Cheese Sauce



3 spring onions

3 tbs olive oil

250 g asparagus

250 g fiddleheads

6 tbs pinot blanc

6 large eggs



Sauce

1 1/2 tbs unsalted butter

3 tbs all-purpose flour

2 cups whole goat’s milk

100 g parmesan cheese

freshly grated nutmeg

100 g Taleggio cheese



Preheat oven  to 350 F. Finely chop the onions and asparagus. Place in a large frying pan on medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the wine. Cook for 5 minutes.

 For the sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stir in the flour until combined, then gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Simmer for 5 minutes. Finely grate in 75 g of the Parmesan, nutmeg and Taleggio. Season to taste. Pour half the sauce in with the vegetables and mix, then leave to cool to room temperature. Put the remaining sauce aside for now. 

Separate the eggs, stirring the yolks into the vegetable mixture. Beat the whites until stiff then fold through the vegetable mix. Generously butter 4 ramekins and divide soufflé mix. Garnish with blanched asparagus spears and one fiddlehead. Sprinkle with the remaining 25 g of parmesan. Bake 25 minutes or until golden and puffed up. Warm the remaining cheese sauce and serve on the side for pouring over.

Kaarina



The Book Of Negroes by Lawrence Hill inspired my crab cakes. Sam Fraunce prepared them for Aminata when she arrived in Manhattan on the first leg of her journey to freedom.

"He said the way to make a decent crab cake was to roll just a touch of bread crumbs, melted butter and cream into the crab meat. It was so good that you wanted to treat it tenderly.
 (...) 'Crab is not something to overpower with energetic spicing,' he said. 'Crabmeat wants to melt quietly on the tongue.' "

I’ve never forgotten that advice.
 I rejected dozens of crab cake recipes trying to find one that met Sam’s exacting standard. My crab cake recipe is based on one from a Savannah, GA restaurant — Elizabeth’s on 37th.

The challenge is keeping the crab cakes from falling apart. I can never do it. Now I just push them back together to reshape and serve. I’d rather preserve the taste and texture than the shape.



In a salute to Wolfe Island spring, we picked dandelions from Laura’s Back 40, where just that morning I spied four deer grazing on the dew-kissed grass. The dandelion leaves added a bitter kick to the sprout salad accompaniment to the crab cakes.



The dandelion leaves added a bitter kick to the sprout salad

Kaarina's Sprout Salad

1 tsp garlic finely chopped

1 tsp fresh tarragon finely chopped

1 tsp honey

3-4 tbsp champagne vinegar

1⁄3 cup (125 mL) canola oil

Salt and pepper to taste
3-4 cups of sprouts (such as pea and radish) and bitter greens (arugula, dandelions, escarole, watercress

3 green onions, thinly sliced

A dozen violas for garnish (optional)



MEASURE the first  6 ingredients into a small jar and shake hard to emulsify (or use a blender). Toss with greens.



A lightly oaked or unoaked Chardonnay, such as the Kunde from Sonoma County, pairs well with the crab cakes. And a rhubarb Spritz is just the ticket if lunch runs into cocktail hour!



Rhubarb Spritz

 (from our very own mixologist, K)

1 tbsp rhubarb compote

1 oz Hendricks gin

2-3 oz Prosecco

In a champagne glass, stir rhubarb compote and gin. Add 3-4 ice cubes. Top with Prosecco. Stir.

Rhubarb Spritz

Laura

“Back home, I told the cook girl to boil enough pots of water and to chop enough pork and vegetables to make a thousand dumplings, both steamed and boiled, with plenty of fresh ginger, good soy sauce, and sweet vinegar for dipping.” – The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan

I love dumplings! They’re easy to make but time-consuming. The filling and pleating is relaxing when you have a chunk of time to devote to the process.

Dumplings and Scallion-Soy Sauce

And no literary feast is complete without a nod to Proust’s madeleines.

A perfect end with madeleines!