Fresh bread gets people excited before a meal, especially when they know it was made from scratch. Here is a recipe for quick bread that’s very similar to the one I use for flatbreads and pizza doughs. When making buns, the important thing is to let your dough rise properly; only that creates the soft, moist texture we all want in a bun. Sugar is added to give the bread that definitive “roll” taste.

While everything is out of the cupboard, you might want to make a couple of extra batches. Freeze them just after they’ve cooled, and next time all you will have to do is pop them into a hot oven for 5 minutes.

The dough should be sticky, but not enough to stick to the bowl when you move it around. Because every flour is different, your dough might need more or less water. Use your judgement.

Yields 10-12 buns

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups whole white flour
• 1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

In large bowl mix the flour, sugar, poppy seeds, and salt.
Stir together the yeast and water and let sit for a couple of minutes.
Add the water to the flour and mix with your hands until smooth. If too dry add a couple drops of water.
Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place (in the oven with the light on is a good spot) for 1-2 hours or until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the over to 450°F.
Take the dough out on a floured surface and cut it in 12 equal buns.
Work them gently to give them a round shape.
Place them on a floured baking tray and let sit for 10 minutes.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden brown on the suface.
Serve hot.

The peppery flavor of watercress and its juicy leaves are terrific in pesto. Think peppery, lemony, garlicy goodness together with toasted nuts and punchy parmesan. If you want a quick, crowd-pleasing appetizer or a spread for that grilled tomato sandwich, give watercress pesto a try. You even have the option of drizzling some with added oil on your meat or fish. Pesto is versatile, and since the greens and the garlic remain uncooked, it’s also very healthy.

Enjoy!

Yields about 3 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup pecans (or walnuts)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 cups packed watercress
• 1 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• juice of one lemon
• 3 garlic cloves
• salt + ground black pepper

Dry toast the nuts and seeds in a pan, shaking, until they’re ready.
In a food processor, whizz the nuts and seeds until finely shredded.
Add all the other ingredients, and whizz again.
Season with salt and pepper and adjust to desired consistency with olive oil.
Serve with fresh bread.

Soup days are not over here on Cape Breton Island. We’ve had a week of rainy-windy weather, interrupted here and there by brief periods of sun. Cook-outs are just around the corner, but there’s no rush. Just fill me up another bowl of that watercress soup. You can eat watercress raw as a salad leaf, or you can cook it. I made a soup with watercress and some roasted potatoes. I roasted the potatoes with herbs simply to give them (and the soup) a greater depth of flavor. You could also use any form of leftover potatoes–a rare sort, but hey, that’s us.

To make a good soup you need a good stock. That said, I really encourage you to make your own. Once you do, you won’t want to go back.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 medium potatoes, roughly cut in 1/2″ slices
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 5-6 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cups watercress, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• a few crushed red chili flakes
• 2 tablespoon cream
• salt + ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a bowl, mix the potatoes with oil, thyme, rosemary, chili, salt and pepper.
Lay them on a pan and roast them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.
In a medium pot, sweat the onions in a bit of oil until translucent.
Add the roasted potatoes and watercress, give it a stir and add the stock. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Blend the soup roughly with a hand mixer for a couple of seconds. You still want some potato chunks in there.
Add the cream, season with salt and pepper.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

The fishermen at Neil’s Harbour caught a 90-pound halibut, and we were the ones lucky enough to get our hands on it. Filleting and portioning something that size takes a while, but the taste and texture are so amazing.

After all the grunt work, I pan-fried a piece of the fish in butter, seasoned it with a squeeze of lemon, and placed it over a bed of dandelion greens. We had a bunch of dandelion greens ready to go for the salad course at the Slow Food Spring Dinner in Halifax, so I tested them.

Some of you might be skeptical about eating wild greens, but if you know where and when to pick them, and a little about how to prepare them, they really do taste good; for example, in the halibut dish the lemon complemented the dandelion greens’ bitter taste. Recently I also cooked some of the dandelion greens in butter and garlic, like you would saute some spinach, and then I put them on pizza with home made goat cheese. Yes, it was wonderful.

In the same vein as my other salads, it’s simple, because I think salads are better left alone. I usually add just a few selected seasonings to give them a boost. Here the sweetness of the honey and the toasty cumin seeds take care of that. If you want a quick and filling lunch, just toss all the ingredients together and serve the salad on a couple of crispy leaves or greens.

Since this salad is mostly beans, it’s a great source of fibre and protein. Worry not, it’s very good. Even if you’re not into the beans, give this combo a try. It might change your mind. You can also make this salad with chickpeas, red kidney, or any other bean really.

Soak beans overnight and cook or use canned.

Enjoy!

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups romano beans
• 2 cups black beans
• 2 cups lima beans
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• small handful parsley, chopped
• salt + black pepper

Dry-toast the cumin seeds in a pan for a couple of minutes. Set aside.
Mix the oil, honey, vinegar, cumin seeds, and parsley together.
Gently mix the beans and stir in the vinaigrette.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with a couple leaves of romaine lettuce or crispy greens.
Will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

We drove down to Halifax this weekend for the Taste of Nova Scotia Cutting Edge Chef Competition, a part of the Saltscapes Expo. What was I expecting to find? A lot of people, great food and wine, and a chance to cook. Ten chefs from around Nova Scotia were competing in the event. Each of us was given a black box containing secret ingredients, and we had 45 minutes to make something awesome. Well, everything went pretty well–yesterday I found out that I won!

My black box ingredients were pork tenderloins, honey, apples and quark cheese. I decided to keep it simple, as usual, so I made an apple-fennel slaw with a couple of greens, drizzled on a quark cheese and white balsamic vinaigrette, threw on a few pieces of crispy double-smoked bacon, seared off that pork, finished it with some honey and cream, and topped it all with a red wine onion confit.

Now, I could never have done it without my fantastic sous-chef who was assigned to me from the crowd. She made a point of telling me that she was not much of a cook, but Jee-whiz was she ever a wizard with the knife! We were both in good spirits and had a lot of fun cooking together. It’s always nice to work with people who enjoy food as much as I do. So Jill, wherever you are, thank you!

Also, a big thanks to Alain Bossé and to Christine and all the team from Taste of Nova Scotia for putting together the Cutting Edge Competition and for making it so much fun. Local Food is the best! I owe a huge thanks to Earlene Busch of the Chanterelle Inn, who has been throwing me opportunities left and right. Oh yeah, and thank you Grohmann knives. I now have all top-notch tools!

And here I am, giving a demo; Wild Mushroom and Cheddar Risotto

A couple of people asked me for the recipe of the slaw that I made during the competition, so here it is. Enjoy!

Apple-Fennel Slaw

• 2 apples, julienned
• 1 fennel bulb, julienned
• 1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 4 tablespoons almonds, rougly chopped
• juice of one lemon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients together and let sit for at least 30 minutes, stiring once or twice.
Taste, and add more lemon juice and salt to taste.
Serve on top of some greens or salad.

I made a feast for Easter. We ate garlic-parmesan potatoes, honey-whiskey carrots, barbecue-grilled veggies, homemade bread, a fall-apart leg of lamb, and a couple of salads. I barbecued the lamb on very high heat, mainly to brown the surfaces but also to give it a smoky taste. I did this a day in advance, and I would recommend giving yourself a similar head start. If you’re the last minute type, just start early morning on serving day. The size of the leg does not really matter, but you’ll have to reduce the cooking time a bit if you don’t have a whole leg to, say, 6-7 hours. You’ll know it’s finished when it comes straight off the bone.

You can use this Cajun Spice Mix.

Ingredients

• 1 leg of lamb
• 1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 cups tomatoes, crushed
• 2 cups red wine
• couple pinches of salt
• 3 tablespoons dijon mustard

Spice Rub

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 sprigs thyme, leaves only
• 1 tablespoon cajun spices
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 225°F.
Rub your leg of lamb with some oil, salt and paprika.
Grill it on the barbecue on all surfaces (or in a pan if you have one large enough), and make sure the grill is really hot.
Put the wine, onions, and tomatoes in a large roasting pan. Add the leg of lamb.
Mix all of the spice rub ingredients together.
Brush the lamb with the mustard, and rub the spices on the surface.
Cover and cook in the oven for 7 to 8 hours. Take it out a couple of times and baste it with the juices so that it doesn’t dry out.
Reserve the meat.
For the sauce, strain the liquid and reduce it by half on medium-high heat. Skim away the fat during reduction.
Serve.

I love toast for lunch. It takes under 10 minutes to make and you can top it with any satisfying combination of handy ingredients. Choose your flavors; anything you have in mind will probably work if you don’t over do it. For this toast, I went with garlicky chards, oyster mushrooms, and parmesan. You can also substitute the chard for spinach and the oyster for a different mushroom.

I can’t wait to make toast with chanterelles this summer…

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 large slices of bread, toasted
• 6 leaves red chard, roughly chopped
• 150g oyster oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• shaved parmesan
• salt + black pepper

Sauté the chard in two tablespoons of butter for about 2 minutes or until it’s soft. Near the very end, add the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a bowl.

In the same pan, heat the oil and sauté the mushrooms on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper while cooking. Remove from heat, add the cream, and give it a stir.

Put the chard and mushrooms on your toasted bread, top with shaved parmesan and a drizzle with olive oil.

It’s maple syrup season. Time to enjoy some local sweetness. Time to get sappy by surprising your loved ones with turnovers for dessert–or breakfast.

It’s also time to make more of your own pastry. Practice makes better! I usually make my dough/pastry a day in advance, refrigerate it, and then take it out an hour before using. Also, prepare your sauce while the turnovers are in the oven. You’ll have just enough time.
Enjoy!

Yields 8 turnovers

Puff Pastry

• 250g white flour
• 250g unsalted butter
• ~100ml cold water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• pinch of salt

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the salt and rub in the butter with your hands. Not too much, though–you still want clumps of butter. Add the water and work until you have a smooth dough. Add more water if it’s too stiff. Chill for 30 minutes.

Flour your work surface. Now the trick is to have nice layers of pastry. To do that you just have to roll the dough into a rectangle, about half an inch thick. Fold the left end towards the middle, and then fold the right end on top of it. Rotate the dough a quarter turn, roll again and repeat the folding. Do that 4-5 times. Then chill the dough for another 30 minutes or more.

Filling

• 4 medium apples, sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup maple syrup

Melt the butter in a pan and cook the apples with the cinnamon on medium heat for 7-8 minutes.
Add the maple syrup and simmer for another 2 minutes.
Set aside and leave to cool.

Putting it together

• You’ll need 1 egg

Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
Roll out your dough to a 1/4″ thick rectangle and then cut into 8 equal squares.
Roll each to about 4″ diameter square.
Fill each with a heaped tablespoon of the filling.
Bring the dough back over and seal with your fingers.
Brush the top with the beaten egg and cut up holes on top.
Put the turnovers on a pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until crispy.
Make sure to keep the juice that’s left from the apples.

Maple-Pecan Caramel

• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup maple syrup
• leftover juice from the apples
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

You can choose to chop the pecans a bit if you like.
Toast them in a pan for a couple of minutes then add the maple syrup and juice.
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Leave to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

While food shopping, I came across some quality chicken livers perfect for making pâté.
What’s nice about this kind of recipe is that you can experiment with it; swap the port for a different liquid or switch the thyme for another herb or spice. Don`t be scared. Making pâté is easier than it looks, and it can be done in under 30 minutes*.
Enjoy it with crackers, on toasted bread, or in a sandwich.

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken livers
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1/2 cup port wine
• 4 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons duck fat or butter
• salt + black pepper

In a sauté pan, sweat the shallots in 2 tablespoons of butter on medium heat until soft–about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
In the same pan, heat up a tablespoon of oil and once the oil is sizzling, sauté the chicken livers. Cook on each side for about 4 minutes.
Add the shallot mixture, stir, and add the port.
Let it reduce until you have a thick sauce.
Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

Transfer everything to a food processor and add the duck fat (or butter). Whizz until smooth.
Line a mold with plastic wrap and pour the mixture in. Seal it with the plastic.
*Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.