Archive for September 2013

I'm the world's slowest eater. I like to take small bites, chew lots, and chat. It's excruciating to watch, I'm sure. The one exception is when Lily's crying. There's a mix of urgency and indigestion that forces me to either eat quickly, or not at all.

Many would argue that eating slowly is the healthier way to do it. Your brain has more time to process things, you tend not to overeat (I may have to debate that point) and you really get the chance to enjoy your food.

I have recently learned about Slow Food, and subsequently, Slow Fishing. It's one of the many initiatives that's teaching the world to step back, slow down, and take a look at how we get the food to our plate. Slow Food breaks the concept down into good, clean, and fair. The good food means tasty, seasonal, local. Clean refers to respecting the environment, our health, and the product. And being fair applies to both pricing for the consumer, and pay/conditions for the workers.

Hooked is one of many fish mongers in Kensington market, but the only one (that I'm aware of) that has partnered with Slow Fish, Oceanwise, and other sustainable-fishing focussed organizations.

I popped in after work last week to talk about fish options for my Farmhouse Retreat, and I walked away with a beautiful, super-fresh rainbow trout caught just a day earlier from a local, fair, and clean source.

My go-to method of cooking fish is always steamed, chinese-style. But for the Farmhouse Retreat, I wanted a less ethnic flavour. I've always been skeptical of salt-baked fish but have heard over and over that although it might be a bit wasteful, and it's not a magical flavour that you can't get any other way, it is incredibly forgiving. This sounded perfect for my retreat, where I will likely be overwhelmed with things to do since I tend to be overambitious with my plans whenever food in involved.

I didn't do anything fancy to the salt. Just added 1/2 cup of water to 1kg of sea salt, which was just barely enough to cover my 2lb fish.



I stuffed the trout with a bunch of thyme and slices of lemons (they pop one in the bag for you at Hooked! How nice.) The trout was gutted and scaled, but I left everything else intact: skin head, fins.

It really is as simple as laying some of the salt on a sheet pan, placing the fish on top, and then covering the fish.

Into a 350F degree oven. 25 mins later (my trout was about 2 lbs) I took it out of the oven and I wasn't ready to deal with it for another 15 minutes because I forgot that Brussels sprouts always take longer than you think.

Removing the salt is easier than I thought. I was a little too eager and did the good ol' Larry Trick (Larry is the guy in a safety video we watch at work every year about "Winter Driving" and instead of scraping his entire windshield of his car, he only scrapes a tiny hole and ends up in an accident. Silly Larry.) so I exposed a small section of the fish, peeled back the skin, stole a piece, decided it was delicious and then went back to taking the salt off the other parts. Mistake. the exposed part of the trout was covered in a dusting of salt. So just like Larry, I learned from my mistake and resisted the temptation to remove the skin before all of the salt was pushed away.


I really do feel bad about the wasted salt. I even googled to see if someone had devised a plan for reusing the salt in some way, but no forum exists for "uses for leftover salt crust".

I've decided that if you don't have the attentiveness to bake a piece of fish perfectly, removing it from the oven at the right time, and serving immediately, then this is worth the salty waste. Think of it as a biodegradable, disposable cooking vessel.

I reused the lemon wedges to squeeze on top. No additional sauce added. I served the fish with a simple side of bacon sauteed Brussels sprouts.

And then I ate it really slowly. Mmm.

Salt Crusted Rainbow Trout

1 2lb rainbow trout
1kg salt
1/2 cup water
1 lemon, sliced
1 bunch thyme

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, mix the salt with the water and mix. It should look like slushy snow.

Spread a thin layer, about 1cm thick on the bottom of a sheet pan, just bigger than the size of the fish. Set aside.

Wash the fish and pat dry. Fill the cavity with the slices of lemon and the thyme. Place on the salted sheet pan.

Using the rest of the salt, completely cover the fish.

Bake in the oven for 25 mins. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before completely removing the salt crust. Squeeze the baked lemon wedges over the fish and serve the fish in large chunks, or scoop the entire fish onto a platter and serve family style.

My commute to work these days has been depressing. There is excessive construction on my usual bus route so I now walk the 1.5 km to the subway station instead of catching what used to be a quick 5 minute bus. The subway has also been unusually packed including multiple delays in all directions. I can only assume this is all due to the start of the new school year.

When I need a pick-me-up, I usually switch my iPod to play broadway musicals. I think God has fun with me and my choice of music sometimes because I was listening to "Class" from "Chicago" when I witnessed an truly unclassy scene.

The lyrics are jazzing away in my earphones: "Whatever happened to Please may I? And Yes Thank you?" and then three teenagers rush onto the subway. The girl that got on first cuts off an old man and sits down in the middle of three empty seats. She then holds her hands out to reserve the seats so her friends could catch up and sit next to her. I don't mean a nonchalant stretching of her arms; it was a full blown wing span stretch. The old man is stunned. I think I tried to make stink eye with any of the three punks. They never looked up. They didn't even talk to each other. They took out their various electronic devices and emailed, ninja'ed fruit, or knocked down some green pigs. "Nobody's got no class!"

You know what's classy? A really big scarf. Here are two more that I finished, including the original yellow polka dot flannel. The other two didn't turn out as big because they were made with a knit side rather than a flannel side, but they're just as cozy, and just as classy.

The tutorial I used as a guideline was from Anna Maria Horner. If you're looking for fabric measurements, 1 meter of each fabric (front and back) is plenty. If you're using 60" wide fabric (as with most knit fabrics) you may only need 1/2 meter because I ended up shortening my scarf to 60" long. I highly recommend testing out the length before you finish sewing the scarf.

Too much math? Maybe I'll make a tutorial when we make them at the Farmhouse Retreat.

For those attending the retreat and are still deciding whether or not to join me for the workshop, check out these beauties!

I know that some sort of quiche will be on the menu at the Farmhouse Retreat. That is a must. Being September, I feel like everything besides asparagus and rhubarb is in season.

I've posted about quiches before on done-well, so nothing new to share. I'm not even sure I'll practice before the retreat. But I have been keeping an eye out for interesting salads to accompany the quiche.

Although my recipe for a quiche is relatively light, (I prefer milk to cream, and don't like a lot of cheese in the filling,) it is still a plateful of deliciously flaky, buttery pie crust. So I always find the side salad needs to be light, acidic, and colourful.

My go-to salad with a quiche is arugula. Arugula plus whatever I have in the fridge. Oh, I have nothing else in the fridge? Then plain arugula with salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil. Yum.

But that's no fun for a retreat of crafty ladies.

The Mexican quinoa salad that I made at my birthday picnic is an obvious choice.  It's tangy and colourful, light and healthy. A great make-ahead. It's even good spicy.



But I'm reminded of another quinoa salad I tried recently from la prep, a Montreal based fresh and healthy mini-restaurant. The salad had deliciously tangy marinated hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, chickpeas and parsley, all surrounded by crunchy al dente quinoa.

With a couple revisions to accommodate my pantry, this white bean quinoa salad is still light and refreshing, but filled with healthful ingredients.



Two vastly different quinoa salads. Both equally tasty. Go make them both and tell me which you like better. And then imagine it alongside a fluffy cauliflower and roasted red pepper quiche. Ooo, or maybe a caramelized fennel and onion quiche. Or! a spinach and wild mushroom quiche! Man, oh man, I'm excited for lunch at the retreat...

Mexican Quinoa Salad

Tangy White Bean and Quinoa Salad