The Tooth Fairy suggests you exercise caution during cherry season. She advises you to slow down when approaching a bowl of fresh juicy pit-filled cherries. Please enjoy this classic eggy French Clafouti dessert responsibly and make sure everyone knows you left the pits in the cherries or the TF will be left to pick up the pieces.

Whole Cherry Clafouti

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 cup cream

3 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla or almond extract

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp room temperature butter

2 pounds of fresh dark cherries, stems removed

In a medium bowl whisk together the sugar, cream, eggs, vanilla extract and salt. Add the flour, trying to whisk out the lumps but don’t worry about getting all the little lumps. They’ll soften up while the batter rests.

Cover the batter and leave it out at room temperature for 1 hour. Don’t freak out, just cause there’s an egg at room temp isn’t the end of the world. It’s going to get cooked and it’s necessary for a good batter to have a resting time so it can get cohesive.

Remove the stems from all the cherries but don’t take out the pits. It’s imperative that you leave the pits in so they can release the almondy and clove-like flavour compounds. It also helps to get your eaters to slow down when they know there are pits in this dessert.

Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Get your baking pan very buttered up. The more butter the better. Your baking dish can be metal or ceramic. The size and shape can range from a 10-12 inch round cake pan to an 8-12 inch pie or tart pan. The important  thing is that all the cherries are in a single layer and there is enough wiggle room for just a little bit of batter to weave around them. Also make aure there a bit of room around the edges. If you use a smaller pan, just put fewer cherries in. You can eat them immediately as a consolation prize.

Pour in the batter and start placing the cherries in, leave room between and a nice 1 inch clearance around the edge.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Obviously depending on the size of the pan this might vary. So just make sure that the center of the flan is cooked by inserting a toothpick into the middle, if it comes out clean, it’s ready.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool down to room temperature before serving.

Make sure to warn people about the pits or the tooth fairy will be left to pick up the pieces.

Leaving the pits in makes this dessert easier to make and the pits impart a pleasing almondy and clove-like aroma to the dessert. It could also be argued that because people have to slow down to eat the cherries, the clafouti will inevitably taste much better than wolfing it down. Leaving the pits in will save you from having to add thumbtacks or marbles…

Life isn’t all peaches and cream, but sometimes it can be.

It’s the truly perfect peachy micro-moments of unquantifiable bliss that make life worth living. Don’t get caught up in trying to beat the monotony of life with canned peach-attempts at happiness, pick the perfect moments and savour the sweetness while it lasts. Enjoy those juicy bursts of peachy perfection that give us the real warm, fuzzy navel feeling inside.

Peaches and cream chilled soup perfection

6 very ripe peaches (can also be over ripe, or slightly bruised for this recipe)

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

2 Tbsp runny honey

500 ml 2% or homogenized milk

250 ml of whipping cream

pinch of salt

honey as needed

Get a large pot of water on to boil.

Meanwhile fill a large bowl halfway with ice and add enough cold water to fill the rest of the bowl ¾ of the way up. Leaving enough room for the peaches to fit in the bowl.

When the water is boiling rapidly, drop all the peaches in at once. Careful not to get splashed with hot water.

Boil the peaches for 30-60 seconds to loosen the skin and then  scoop them out with a slotted spoon and dunk immediately into the ice bath to cool for 1 minute.

Use your fingers to peel away the loosened skin and discard. If the skin does not come away easily simply pop it in the boiling water for another 30 seconds and back into the ice bath to cool.

Now you can tear open the peaches using your fingers and discard the pits. Pile all the peaches in a medium pot and add the milk, honey, pinch of salt and fresh grated ginger. The whipping cream goes in much later.

Over medium heat bring the pot to a bare simmer. When you see little bubbles forming quickly around the edges of the pot and some steam rising from the middle you can remove it from the heat and get ready to purée the soup.

Using a stand up blender and blending while hot makes your soup super smooth, much better than a hand blender. However, puréeing hot soup in a stand up blender requires kitchen know-how so you don’t end up splatter painting your kitchen and face with the hard to colour match “peach explosion”.

Remove the little plastic thingy center hole from the lid of your stand up mixer, and cover the hole with a folded dry tea towel. (This stops it from being airtight, which would cause an ugly kick at the start—although the steam can sometimes get slightly warm on your hand.) Fill up your blender only half way and do batches. Start on low, and build up the speed incrementally.

When the soup is looking smooth, turn it off.

Pour the soup into a container, wrap the top tightly with plastic wrap and get it into the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to serve get a large bowl and a big whisk and beat the whipping cream until it is nice and thick. Soft peaks if you want to get technical.

Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the peach purée and mix it in until smooth. Add another 1/3 of the whipping cream and mix in. Now add the last of the whipped cream and stir it all until smooth.

To serve, simply pour the thick creamy soup into lovely chilled bowls or teacups. You could also add a splash of champagne to each serving or dig out that bottle of peaches schnapps.

As seen in Swerve Magazine…

City Rat is constantly food-blogging about trending ingredients he orders online, bristling at the latest TV food battles and going to eat at restaurants with yearlong waiting lists. Country Rat enjoys the aesthetics of leisurely reading a cookbook in a comfy chair, ambling through farmer’s markets to pick food by smell and sharing his food with friends. City Rat wants Country Rat’s ratatouille recipe so he can blog it.

Slow roasted country ratatouille

INGREDIENTS

3 vine-ripened tomatoes, quartered

2 sweet bell peppers, seeded

4 small zucchini

2 small eggplants

2 onions, quartered

6 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 Tbsp dried herbes de Provence

Or 2 Tbsp of assorted fresh herbs like basil, oregano and parsley

½ cup of really good olive oil

sauce

1-398 ml can of tomato purée

½ cup assorted pitted olives

olive brine to taste (salty liquid the olives are kept in)

Preheat your oven to 375˚ F.

Get a large metal baking dish.

Use the size of your quartered tomatoes as a guide. Cut the sweet pepper, zucchinis and eggplant into large chunks the size of the quartered tomatoes.  Quarter the onions and place everything into a large metal baking dish in one even layer.

Drizzle on the olive oil, scatter on the herbs and whole cloves of garlic.

Toss to make sure everything has a little oil and a little of the herb sprinkling on it.

Blap it all in the oven and roast for 1 hour, tossing it all once half way through roasting.

Remove from the oven and pour on the tomato purée and the pitted olives. Mix it all up to make sure the ratatouille is nicely covered.

Crank the oven heat up to 450˚F and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens and the flavours all get together and love one another.

Serve in a large ceramic bowl with a wooden spoon along with pretty much anything.

Here’s an article I recently wrote for Impact Magazine. For the complete article and more recipes pick up your copy at any of these places.

Hop back to the Paleolithic Stone Age and you’ll find that great-great-great-grandpa Grug was hunting and foraging for local, seasonal and organic food.

Since agriculture only became part of our existence 10,000 years ago the food we now produce and consume has been evolving at a faster pace than human evolution can keep up with. This food cannot be processed efficiently so we are not functioning properly. It’s not biologically appropriate to be snarffling all this nouveau cuisine.

The Paleolithic Diet, or Paleo, originated as a diet for athletes, offering peak performance through even energy access, reduced inflammation and faster recovery. It has gained traction through the growing legions of Crossfit athletes who strive for ‘constantly varied, high- intensity, functional movement’.

“It’s about getting leaner, meaner and more importantly healthier.” touts Crossfit Ramsay coach Ken Andrukow. His gym conducts 90-day Paleo Challenges to keep his athletes motivated and to help introduce new athletes to the diet. Andrukow offers recipe ideas, shopping guides, fitness tests and a body assessment to monitor results of the challenge. Andrukow admits “it takes guts to question the status quo and ask ‘Is there a better way?’”.

The Paleo principle is simple, eat the types of food we evolved for 2 million years to eat and avoid most of the stuff we started eating 10,000 years ago. Paleo concentrates on three big food groups to avoid: grains, dairy and legumes.

Say goodbye to grains like rice, wheat, corn and other refined starches. Dump out the dairy like skim milk, yogurt and cheese. Let go of the legumes like lentils, soy, beans and peanuts.

These foods cause inflammation of the gut and digestive system, which limit your cells from absorbing essential nutrients. Grains especially cause havoc on your glycemic levels, resulting in uneven energy and superfluous fat storage.

So what’s left to eat? Free-range meats, wild fish, seasonal vegetables, fresh herbs,  spices, seeds and nuts. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be a little more evolved than our foraging ancestors. Like all lovers of good food and grandpa Grug you can start foraging the markets for local, seasonal and organic food.

Some ingredients are not as black and white as say, the all-zebra diet. There are exceptions to the rules. Reading the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf will sort out all the finer details and offer better understanding of the science.

With so many people out there eating Paleo, there are a growing number of recipe resources available to athletes looking for healthy and satisfyingly familiar foods that will help you perform optimally in a mammoth fur gonch.

Mammotherd’s pie

With any dietary adjustments, it’s the nostalgia of familiar comfort foods that will drag you back to your old ways of eating. Make this when you need a big batch of food for the week, when you need to feed people who don’t know what Paleo is or when you have a mammoth-sized appetite. It’s actually better than a classic Shepherd’s pie with more tasty flavours and the comforting warm-blanket mashed topper to make you feel all warm and wooly inside.

INGREDIENTS

500g ground lamb, beef, mammoth or any ground meat

2 onions, finely minced

2 ribs of celery, finely minced

1 butternut squash, peeled and grated or minced

1 Tbsp Worcestershire

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 glass red wine

250 ml vegetable stock

¼ cup fresh chopped assorted herbs (rosemary, mint, thyme, oregano)

zest of 1 lemon or orange

mashed topper

2 head of cauliflower, quartered

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered

olive oil and salt

PROCEDURE

Get two large pots on the stove.

Fill one with water and bring it to a boil for the mash. When the water comes to a boil drop in the peeled sweet potatoes and the cauliflower. Boil on a gentle simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are nice and tender. When the veg are tender remove from the water and leave them to release steam for 10 minutes out of the water.

To mash the cauliflower you can just use a potato masher. For a smooth topper transfer the cauliflower and sweet potato to a food processor and blitz until very smooth. You may need to do this in batches. Set aside in a bowl and adjust seasoning with salt to taste.

In the other pot brown the lamb over medium high heat. Toss in the grated squash, onions and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste, Worcestershire, red wine and stock. Taste it and add salt as needed.

Preheat the oven to 425˚ F.

Bring the whole thing to a simmer. At the last minute, stir in the herbs and citrus (zest and juice) and pour the whole mess into an oven safe baking dish.

Spoon the mash onto the meaty filling and smooth out the top until evenly distributed. Use a fork to make lines and ridges that can get crispy on top. Drizzle the top with oil and sprinkle on some salt.

Blap the whole thing into the oven and bake until the veg are nice and golden and crispy on top.

When the mammotherd’s pie is done let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

To freeze, divide into small plastic containers and freeze in small packs.

Mammoth freezes really well for defrosting and eating later.

Here are some Paleo resources that will help you get started and keep going.

robbwolf.com

everydaypaleo.com

marksdailyapple.com

nomnompaleo.com

paleofood.com

The parsley was looking straight vibrant after a huge deluge.

Mezmerised by the little sparkly green emerald of water on the leaves I thought it a little insulting to consider parsley as a lame plate garnish. It’s got jade deposits of chlorophyll that brighten up the flavour and colour of a plate, of your food, of your disposition.

Here’s a light, bright dish to replenish your chlorophyll after the  rain storm.

Chuck a couple good sausages (These are Spragg’s Meat Shop Bangers) in a cast iron pan over medium low heat. Might as well toss a jalapeno in there like they do at Charcut. Meanwhile get the tomato salad going with some halved cherry tomatoes tossed with a buncha green stuff from the garden like little bits of parsley, pea shoots,  arugula, chives, thyme, whatever you can find. Or just keep it simple with the parsley.

Giver a good pinch pinch of salt (something grey and possibly from the French sea), some cracked pepper. Toss it about and get it on a plate with the sausages whenever the get around to being cooked.

Wanna look good in a bikini? Quit stuffing yourself with fettuccini. Instead stuff yourself with slimming summer squash transformed into a very satisfying zucchini linguini. Or for the gentlemen you can just put a zucchini in your bikini…

zucchini linguini

Serves 6 for a taste or 4 for a course

pesto

1 bunch fresh parsley

a large handful of arugula

1 clove garlic, grated or finely minced

1 cup walnuts

zest and juice of 1 lemon

salt to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

zucchini

2 large zucchinis

pinch of salt

scallops

12 large (U-10) scallops

garnish

½ bunch of chopped fresh parsley

fresh cracker pepper

really good olive oil

To make the lemony pesto

Combine all the pesto ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture is consistently smooth. Scrape down the sides if needed. Use what you need for the past, and save the leftovers in the fridge topped with a lid of fresh oil and some plastic on top for up to a week.

To make the zucchini pasta.

Get a good vegetable peeler or a mandoline and start trimming off long ribbons of zucchini. Once your peeling hits the zip-strip of seeds in the center of the zucchini, rotate and peel the other side until all you have is the center core of seeds. Pile a couple of the ribbons on top of each other and slice them lengthwise into the desired thickness.

Get a large frying pan on the stove and let it warm up for 5 minutes. Dump all the zucchini into the pan, scoop on lots of pesto all over and toss to coat. Put a lid on and cook for 3 minutes to warm it through.

For the scallop

Get a large frying pan on high heat. Preheat the pan for 5 minutes.

Place all the scallops on a plate lined with paper towel. Lay some more paper towel on top and pat the scallops dry.

Get a small plate with oil ready. Dip the scallops lightly in the oil before placing them into the dry pan starting at 12-oclock (clock-face location) and make your may around clockwise. That way when you start flipping the scallops you can do them in order.

Cook the scallops until the bottoms are brown and seared, about 3 minutes. Flip and continue cooking the other side for 3 more minutes. Serve immediately and don’t let your scallops get over cooked.

Discard the dipping oil.

To serve

Serve up six piping hot bowls of zucchini ribbons and top each pile with a bit more pesto and two or 3 big scallops.

Crack on loads of pepper and a drizzle of good olive oil.

Serve zucchini linguini with a martini in your bikini.

This corn mutt goes up against the big dogs…

Today at the CBC Stampede pancake breakfast, I will strut along side some top pedigree chefs in the first annual CBC Radio Corn Dog Competition.  I will have to compete against proper chefs like Chef Mike Dekker from Rouge Restaurant, winner of the San Pellegrino #60 restaurant in the world and Chef Grant from Wurst who has no shortage of beer and sausage. It will be an honour to cross sausages with such distinguished gentlemen.

But this cornmutt will give the big dogs a run for their money. The twist is an assortment of Spragg Meat sausages skewered, tossed into the same beer batter and fried to golden perfection. The small rounds of surprise sausage encased in crispy batter make it easy to bite without having to gnaw it like a chew toy.

The judges, distinguished food critic John Gilchrist and food writer extraordinaire Julie Van Rosendaal will sample the corn dogs to determine the winner.

I will announce the winner when the results come in…

Corn mutt with Heinz 57

INGREDIENTS

4 assorted uncooked sausages from Spragg Meats

Ideally your sausages are all the same size, but don’t stress if they are not

-       Bratwurst

-       breakfast sausage

-       smokie

-       garlic sausage

-       chorizo

-       Luinguica

-       Weisswurst

Batter

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup yellow cornmeal

1 egg

1 cup beer, Wild Rose SOB

1 tsp baking powder

oil for frying, preferably cheap canola or corn oil

serve with Heinz 57

You’ll need 4 large wooden skewers

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 450˚F.

Place the sausages on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and plenty of space between the wieners.

Bake sausages for 12-15 minutes until they are cooked through. You can check to see if they are done by cutting one open and checking inside to see if it’s cooked.

Transfer the cooked sausages to a plate and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

When the wieners are chilled you can start preheating your oil in a deepfryer or a deep pot.

Bring the oil to 350-375˚F.

Cut the cooked and chilled sausages into 1-inch rounds.

Alternating between sausages, place rounds of each sausage onto long skewers. It should look like a rainbow sausage kebab. Pack the rounds closely together so they form a tight bunching. Now make the batter.

For the batter combine the ingredients in a tall deep, vessels like a beer mug or a jug. You may need to double or triple the recipe in order to fully submerge the corn dog. In the vessel combine all the dry ingredients. Add the egg and beer while whisking to incorporate. If you are being picky you may want to strain out the lumps, but don’t get too finicky, it’s a corndog afterall.

Let the batter rest for 10 minutes, then dip the skewered sausage into the batter making sure it is super thoroughly coated in batter. Remove the sausage and let the last few drop drip off. Give it a little twirl to make sure it all stay on and to add a little flourish to the proceedings.

Submerge the corn dog  completely into the hot oil and hold it by the wooden skewer. Cook until the outside forms a nice golden crust, about 5 minutes

Let the corndog cool before chomping it down with some Heinz 57.

Each bite will be a tasty surprise and you’ll be sure to win best in show…

The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned his pet dog to expect a treat every time the he rang a bell. Eventually all Ivan had to do was ring the bell to get the dog drooling.  We have been conditioned to think that Rhubarb is a fruit because we associate it with sweet desserts and just the mention of a rhubarb pavlova should be enough to get you drooling.

Drool-inducing rhubarb pavlova

4 egg whites at room temperature

pinch of salt

250g sugar

2 tsp of cornstarch

1 teaspoon of white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste

250ml of whipping cream

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces

2 Tbsp white sugar

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to a very low 180˚F.

Get a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Use some kind of electric beating device like a hand beater or ideally a standup mixer to beat the egg whites until they are slick and satiny. If they get dry and chunky you’ve mixed them too far.

Beat in the sugar ¼ at a time until incorporated.

Turn off the electric device and add the corn flour, vinegar and vanilla.

Usually folks use a rubber spatula to fold ingredients, but if you use the same gentle technique of scopping underneath the pile and bringing up through the middle using a whisk it will incorporate things much faster and deflate fewer bubbles.

Get a parchment paper lined baking sheet and using a large spoon scoop out and arrange even piles on the baking sheet. Once all the meringue are portioned out use the spoon to create a little divot in the center. It will look somewhat like a fly nest cloud.

As you put the pavlova into the oven, reduce the temperature to 150˚F. Bake for 45 minutes. Without opening the door, turn off the oven and let the meringues dry out and cool to room temperature.

If your oven does not go down as low as 150˚F, just bake at your lowest possible setting until they just start to get a little colour and then turn off the oven to let them dry out and cool to room temperature.

For the rhubarb. The more tender and young the stocks are the more they will want to fall apart. It’s okay if they do fall apart.

Get the sugar and water in to a small pot, bring to a simmer until the sugar dissolves. Add the rhubarb and vanilla cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to a bare simmer, place a lid on top and cook until the rhubarb is just tender, 5-10 minutes. Let it rest and cool down to room temperature while you make the whipped cream.

Whip cream in a cold bowl until thickened but still kinda pourable.

To assemble. Place pavlova on a plate. Fill the nest area with a sloppy scoop of rhubarb and flop some whipped cream on top.

gets along with

Pavlovas get along smashingly with fresh fruit like kiwis, strawberries and oranges. Also try topping with citrus curds like lemon and passionfruit. Top with booze infused whipping cream and enjoy making a sweetly sticky mess.

fresh pick

Rhubarb is known as ‘the pie fruit’, even though it’s a vegetable. With Russian origins, it has taken the dessert world by storm with it’s tart flavour, prolific early growing season and adorable pink colour.

If you are picking from the garden, grab hold tight and tug each stalk individually out of the ground. When buying in the store, pick rhubarb that is nice and pink and about as thick as your thumb.

The leaves of the rhubarb plant are poisonous, so don’t eat your greens.

If you can dedicate a big patch of backyard to the prolific plant, then you can plant it and reap the bounty. Or buy it at local farmers’ markets or roadside fruit stands.

If you have kids in Calgary and want to send them to a super fun cooking camp this summer check out the classes I’ll be teaching at the Cookbook Co.

Call the shop at 403-265-6066 for more details or to register.

The concept of an immortality-inducing ‘golden apple’ has been woven into folklore since the ancient Greeks. When tomatoes first showed up in Europe they were small and yellow so the Italians called them golden apples (pomo d’oro) and since then they’ve been calling tomatoes of all shapes and sizes Pomodoro. Although these yellow tomatoes won’t make you live forever, your life will still be  longer and happier if you eat them. An apple a day, afterall…

Giallo (Yellow) risotto

risotto

6 cups chicken stock

large pinch of saffron

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 yellow pepper, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 cups arborio rice

1 cup white wine

2 Tbsp butter

4 oz Parmesa

tomato salad

4 yellow tomatoes, seeded and diced

juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 Tbsp really good olive oil

1 clove garlic, grated

1 Tbsp grainy mustard

Good pinch of salt

fried egg

4 eggs, sunny side up

3 Tbsp of butter

Start by making the tomato salad dressing. In a medium bowl whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and Dijon mustard. Set aside for a bit.

Cut the tomatoes in half through the equator. Scoop out the seeds with your fingers being careful not to squeeze the flesh and turn it to mush. Dice the tomatoes and place it in the dressing, tossing to coat.

Get 2 large pots on the stove. Put the chicken stock and saffron in one and bring to a boil on high, then reduce to low heat so it stays warm.

Place the other pot over medium heat. Heat the oil, and sweat the onions, yellow peppers and garlic until soft and translucent, using a wooden spoon. Don’t let them caramelize and turn brown.

Add the arborio rice and stir to coat the individual grains with oil. Add the white wine, and stir until the boozy smell evaporates.

Add 1 ladleful of the hot stock and stir to distribute. When the liquid evaporates and the rice is no longer soupy you can ladle in more stock.

Continue this progression of ladling and stirring and ladling and stirring (about 35 minutes) until the rice is creamy and cooked through with just a little bite to it. Now add the rest of the stock so the risotto is quite soupy and pourable.

Finish the risotto by stirring in the butter and grated cheese. Remove it from the heat while you fry some eggs.

Get a large frying pan on the stove and let it preheat for 5 minutes over medium heat for the sunny side up eggs. If you have metal ring molds you can use them to make perfectly round eggs. Crack the eggs into bowls.

Add butter to the pan and once melted gently tip each egg into the pan, shaking the pan ever so slightly to make sure they don’t stick.

Season the eggs with salt and pepper and continue cooking until done to your desired egginess. Place a lid on top if you need to have you egg cooked more on top.

Serve the risotto in flat bowls or a large plate with an edge. Ideally, it should be runny enough to slowly spread out in the bowl. But if you prefer it thicker, that’s okay too.

Place an egg atop the risotto and arrange some of the lovely salad around the risotto. Swizzle around a little spoonful of the dressing.

* You can make this entire recipe using red peppers and red tomatoes.