Who is Top Hobby Chef?

No.  I'm not talking about a television show or a television audition.  I'm talking about a real life food competition being hosted right smack dab in Vancouver on Commercial Drive.  I'm talking about Slow Bites on the Drive, a celebration of the slow food movement, locally grown food and getting to know your neighbours happening on October 20.

Sounds pretty cool right.

How does it work you ask?  Please let me explain.

We start with the hobby chefs.  Each hobby chef gets a free box of beautiful certified organic produce, think eggplant, zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, garlic, onion, etc. etc.  Using this box as a foundation the hobby chef creates an awesome dinner menu.  There are two seatings with four diners at each seating, meaning that the hobby chef needs to make enough food for eight people.  Your guests bring the bevvies, you provide the food, both of which inspire the conversation.  All of the foodies are local so you also get a chance to meet other people in your 'hood.

That's not even everything.

At the end of the night, after the diners have tried two separate chefs, everyone wanders on over to a dessert spot for the crowning of the Hobby Chef winner.  Trust me chefs, putting in your best effort will pay off with prizes and of course the satisfaction that winning brings.

And to top it all off???  A portion of the proceeds goes to Slow Food Vancouver in support of their mission to spread the pleasure of regional cuisine.  To learn more about the event, please visit Social Bites, the partner business helping to produce the event.

If you think you have what it takes to be the Top Hobby Chef, send an email to infosfv@slowfoodvancouver.com for more information and to register.  

Food lovers around the Drive who want to attend as diners can use the same address to sign up.  It's sure to be a delectable evening full of inspired cooking.

P.S. The pics are from the Klipper's stand at the market last week.  Those are just some of the beautiful veggies you could be cooking with.  Just sayin'.

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Shonagh explores the guts of food in An Offal Experiment.

Late Summer at the Market - On the Cheap!

The summer is moving into fall, slowly, as each day gets a little cooler.  In Vancouver we tend to stay hot through September so it is not quite time to mourn.  It is time to start snapping up late summer deals at the market.

There are two main deals at the market right now: seconds and large crops.

It is the height of the stone fruit growing season and stone fruits ripen fast and don't transport well.  If you want to make jam or pie or any sort of baked good with stone fruits, ask the vendor if they sell stone fruit "seconds".  This is code for damaged fruit that is perhaps not a consumer's first choice, however, it tends to be ripe and sweet meaning it is perfect for canning and baking and saucing.

The best way to score deals on seconds is to, again, get to know your farmer.  Let them know you are wanting to make jam or preserves or what have you and that you are looking for seconds.  Of course be polite and wait until they aren't super busy with other customers.

The heat wave also leads to large amounts of some produce ripening at the same time, this is what I mean by large crops.  Cucumbers, for example, were plentiful last weekend at Klipper's and were on sale for a buck a cucumber, any size!  That is a great deal for a certified organic, locally-grown cucumber.

As with the seconds, just keep your eye out for possibilities and ask your local farmers.  Because we don't really live in a bargaining culture we can think that it's rude to ask for discounts, it's not.  Just let them know that you are trying to feed yourself and your family healthy food on a limited budget and ask if they are expecting any large crops.  Maybe they have bulk discounts and you can pair up with a few friends?  It never hurts to ask.

Good luck and happy hunting!  I would love to hear about success stories!

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Shonagh explores the guts of food in An Offal Experiment.

Volunteering at the Market and Roasted Kohlrabi

So I volunteered again at the Farmer's Market with Klipper's Organics.  Well I've volunteered several times but I don't post enough to detail every single volunteer experience!

I am continuing to enjoy my time at the market, falling into the days rhythm of unpacking, stocking, re-stocking and packing.  Taking breaks for chili or scones or just general wandering.  I've watched cooking demonstrations, listened to wonderful music, and sampled, sampled, sampled!  Oh what fun!

At the end of the day this week I took home some beautiful purple kohlrabi.  Kohlrabi, according to my good friend wikipedia is also known as the german turnip and is a cultivar of the cabbage.  It tastes like a cabbage with a hint of turnip flavour, a bit spicy, a bit sulphurous (in a good way) and a lot juicy.  A fresh kohlrabi is really a delicious thing.

Normally I just eat mine raw, chopped up in salad or sliced thin and eaten with hummus.  The larger the kohlrabi the coarser the texture so if you are planning on eating it raw, get 'em small.

While I love raw kohlrabi, I thought it might be interesting to try it roasted.  I wasn't sure what roasting would do to the flesh or the flavour but I do love roasted food so it seemed worth a shot.

Let me tell you I have a new favorite dish.  So simple, so quick, so tasty.  Perfect for the BBQ if you are throwing some meat on and need a nice side dish, great with other roasted veggies to add a different flavour profile and texture.

Directions

1) The oven should be preheated to 400 degrees fahrenheit.  Sometimes I go as high as 425 or as low as 375.  If you cook a lot then you should know your oven fairly well.  A higher heat will give you a nice browning on the outside, something I rather enjoy.

Cut the outer peel off the kohlrabi.  I know it is a bit tragic to lose all of that beautiful purple peel.  It is just gorgeous, but has the texture of wood.  You are left then with a bright bulb of white that needs to be cut into roasting size pieces.  This could be a couple of inches across or one inch across - use your preference.  If the chunks are too small though they lose their rustic feel and who wants that.

2) Once the kohlrabi is chunked and in an oven-proof dish, pour a bit of olive oil on top and sprinkle with a good amount of salt.  Get your clean hands in there and massage the oil and salt into the kohlrabi, making sure the oil is on every surface.

A roasted vegetable without oil is like meat without salt.  There is no point.

Pop the dish into the oven and keep your eye on it.  Periodically (every ten minutes or so) take the dish out and move the kohlrabi around so they get brown on all sides.  The kohlrabi are roasted when they are easily pierced with a fork with golden brown edges.  I don't put any pepper on this dish because I like the look of the white flesh, if you have white pepper you could sprinkle a bit on, adjust for salt, and voila! ready to serve.

The verdict: I have already mentioned that I love this dish but you know it is good when I forget to take an "after" shot for my blog!

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi

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Shonagh writes An Offal Experiment exploring the guts of food

Volunteering at the Market and Spinach Salad

This is my last semester of classes before I finish my Masters degree.  While I still have a practicum to finish and thesis to write I am beginning to feel like I am close to the end.  In honor of this ending, I wanted to really celebrate the student life this summer, by this I mean not working full time.  One of the many activities I have scheduled is volunteering at the farmer's market for a small certified organic farm called Klippers Organic Acres!

I am planning to profile the lovely couple that runs the farm in a later post, however, until then I am continuing my farmer's market series by describing my volunteer experience.  The program is simple: Come to the market super early in the morning, help them set up all the produce, and then keep it stocked during the day, while chit-chatting with market-goers.  Then, at the end of the day, you fill up your bags with certified organic produce.  Sounds good to me!

I have volunteered twice now and I absolutely love it!  I am a chit-chatterer and I seem to run into about a dozen people I know at the market and it is lovely catching up.  The owners are really relaxed and give all of the volunteers time to wander off to check out the other vendors.  I am sold.  Check out the website and email Kevin and Anna-Marie if you are interested in helping them out at the markets.

So to celebrate my second week of volunteering I am using the delicious, crunchy spinach as inspiration for a delicious spring salad.

Ingredients

• Certified organic spinach - two cups
• Olive oil - two teaspoons
  
• White wine vinegar - one teaspoon
• Orange zest - one orange
• Orange segments
• Avocado - half and avocado, cubed
• Sea Salt - to taste
• Parsley - just a sprig or two
• Walnuts - chopped roughly

Directions

1) Rinse the spinach (or not if you like the extra minerals that the dirt brings) and chop it finely.  I like my greens chopped finely.  If I don't do this I get oil all over my face.  In fact, I've always wondered how other people eat salad and don't get oil all over their faces???  Seriously it mystifies me.

2) To make as little mess as possible I pour the oil and vinegar in the bottom of the bowl I'm using to serve the salad.   The oil is Palestinian from a company called Zatoun.  I heard about Zatoun when I attended a lecture on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  The olive oil is fair trade and some of the money goes to replanting the olive trees that are being destroyed by the occupation.

3) I like to grate the orange peel straight into the bowl using the small setting.  Looking at the picture below, you can see the spray of orange essence on the gray of the bowl.  If you grate the orange peel onto a cutting board or into a bowl then you lose all of this loveliness.  Don't lose the loveliness.

4) At this point throw the spinach leaves into the bowl and toss, toss, toss.  I like to dress the greens without the rest of the salad for two reasons.  First, it is nice to pile the "meat" of the salad on top - it looks really pretty.  Second, you don't want to mush the avocado or crush the orange pieces.  They will migrate into the rest of the salad as you serve it.

5) To segment the oranges, first cut the top and bottom off so that it sits on the cutting board without rolling around.

6) Then cut the peel off deeply enough so that the inner flesh of the orange is exposed.  Don't compost the outer orange peel until you have squeezed the juice into the tossed salad.

 7) Using a knife, cut the segments out leaving the membrane behind.  You will end up with gorgeous segments of orange with no peel or membrane.  For my salad, I like to cut each segment up into three pieces for ease of eating.  You don't have to.

Again, squeeze the orange membrane onto the spinach salad to get all that delicious juice.

Arrange the segments onto the top of the salad with the cubes of avocado.

8) Run out to your garden or reach up to your window sill and pick a few nice pieces of parsley.  Place them on top of the salad.

At this point you can add the chopped walnuts and a twist of black pepper.








I love the slight bitterness of the walnuts against the fattiness of the avocado and the bright juiciness of the orange with the crunchiness of the spinach.

If you have time to stop by the Trout Lake farmer’s market, make sure you take a swagger by the Klipper’s booth and chit-chat with me!

Now on to the most important question: What am I going to make the next time I volunteer?  Check back to find out!

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Shonagh writes An Offal Experiment - exploring the guts of food

Early Spring at the Market - On the Cheap!

When people talk of visiting the Farmer's Market they don't often exclaim over its cheapness.  More usually you hear grumbling and groaning over the prices, so much more expensive than the supermarket, is it actually worth the money...

All opinions aside over whether it really is that much more expensive, I am here to offer the market through another lens - my Scottish thrifty lens.  My Scottish thrifty lens is an inheritance from a long line of thrifty Scots.  When it comes to sniffing out a deal or using the very last drop of dish soap, few do it better than the Scottish.  So if you are heading towards the market, make sure to keep your eyes out for these smokin' early spring deals.

1) Apples - In Vancouver, apples are a fall fruit.  They are at their peak as the air crisps up, signalling the oncoming winter.  So the spring is the best time to find deals on apples.  They have been in cold storage and aren't at the height of crunchiness but who says you have to only eat apples raw.  Stock up on big bags of apples and make apple sauce, apple pie, apple chutney, etc. etc.  I found big bags of certified organic apples for only $5 bucks! 

2) Beet Greens - So I've actually been volunteering at the market and I've discovered that most people don't want the beet greens.  They ask the farmer to strip them off.  I know!  Crazy!  All that delicious and nutritious greenery going straight into the compost bin.  So what is a thrifty person to do?  Well you have two options: 

• Option 1: Stand by the beets and start makin' deals.  Ask people if they are going to eat the greens and if they say no, offer to take them off their hands.  You are doing them a favour by relieving their "throwing it away" guilt.  
• Option 2: Speak to the farmer directly.  Explain that you are a beet green fanatic and are horrified that people don't eat them.  As you ask what they cost train your children to chime in with a "mommy I'm hungry" and I am sure you will get them for free.  Ethics you say?  You're talking to a thrifty Scot.

3) Frozen Tomatoes - Farmers don't throw stuff away, especially small-scale organic farmers.  They process it, freeze it or compost it.  Certified organic frozen tomatoes are the way to go.  Way cheaper than fresh and perfect, perfect, perfect for making tomato sauce and paste.  Early spring is the time to find frozen tomatoes because that year's crop isn't quite in yet.  Snap them up!

4) Market Membership - With all the hustle and the bustle of the market many things escaped my notice in the past.  Now that I am volunteering I have time to soak in the market culture.  Lesson from last weekend?  Get a membership to the farmer's market society.  Then, as you wander around the booths, you will get deals on specific items.  It's a win-win situation.  Get on it.

I would love to hear about other deals and steals that people find at the market either through commenting or email.

Check back soon to hear more about my experiences volunteering at the market this summer.