Carrot 3 Ways

carrot_bunch

If you are like me you may tend to fall into a routine and continue for a long time without a clear purpose: in this case, I’m talking about the drinking coffee routine. When mindlessly following a routine, you may lose sight of the fact that what you’re doing isn’t at all healthy. Examples of this phenomena are shown in the movie “Food Matters,” which sends a strong message that what you eat is what you are. In the last few years since I started my garden, my partner and I have totally changed the way we live and eat, mostly for the better. However, if we are not paying attention, our best efforts to live more healthfully and consciously could be subverted.

For the longest time, I’ve woken up in the mornings and immediately begun looking forward to a cup of coffee. That is, until my friend suggested that I cut back on my morning intake to improve my health. For sure, I love coffee’s aroma and richly sweet taste, but mostly I love the idea of enjoying a cozy morning routine, which for so long has featured a cup of coffee.

After discussing “Food Matters” with yet another friend, we both decided to majorly cut back on coffee. We still haven’t finished watching the whole movie yet, but definitely got the message in the first 20 minutes. My routine shifted from a cup of coffee to a cup of matcha latte and then to freshly made raw juice, thanks to our friends’ influences. However, I still allow myself a cup of coffee now and then when I have the chance to visit BEAUCOUP BAKERY & CAFÉ, Le Marché St. George, or a few other neat places in Vancouver whose artistry and cozy atmospheres are just too hard to resist! So try this juice, slaw and if you need the coziness, I also baked for you a decadent cake made with another harvest from the spring cleanup.

carrot_juicecarrotscarrot_slaw gratingcarrot_cakecarrot cake

Carrot Juice

Serves 2

1cup carrot, washed, peeled and roughly chopped

1 small apple, peeled and cored

2 large oranges, peeled

¼ of whole pineapple, rind removed, cored and roughly chopped

2 ice cubes

Place all the ingredients in a blender (we adore our Vitamix for this), and blend until smooth. Add water to achieve your preferred consistency and serve.

 

Carrot Slaw

Serves 4

4 large carrots, peeled and julienned

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 small knob ginger, chopped

A handful of chives, roughly chopped

¼ cup rice vinegar

½ teaspoon cane sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, roasted in a skillet

2 tablespoons tahini

Combine garlic, ginger, chives, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and tahini in the bowl of a food processor and proceed to blend well. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry, but just chop everything fine, place in a jar and shake well to blend.

In a large bowl, mix the carrots and the dressing well and chill. You can serve in a couple of hours. If you have leftovers, the dish is indeed very tasty the next day. I would sneak this slaw into a sandwich made with leftover cold pork tenderloin sliced along with lots of cilantro leaves or whatever is on hand (or in the fridge) the next day.

 

Carrot Lemon Cake

Makes 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan

1 cup butter plus extra for greasing, room temperature

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten

1 cup grated carrot

2 tablespoons sour cream

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

1 ½ cups cake flour plus extra for dusting

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Icing

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice

¾ cup icing sugar

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, mix well and set aside. Grease the pan with extra butter, dust flour removing the excess and keep refrigerated until the batter is ready. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter with an electric beater in a large bowl until fluffy. While continuously beating, add the sugar in a few installments and beat until well combined. Add eggs gradually and beat to blend. Switch to a whisk, add the carrot, sour cream, ½ lemon zest and orange juice, and stir to combine. Proceed rhythmically by beating the batter each time you add an ingredient.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter and incorporate. Switch to a spatula, add the rest of the flour mixture and gently combine until no flour is visible.

Bake until tested skewer comes out clean, for about 50 minutes. In the meantime, make icing. Place the sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon juice and the rest of the lemon zest a small amount at a time. Stir well, making a smooth consistency.

Let the cake stand for 10 minutes, and then remove from the pan to cool. Drizzle the icing over top. Slice and serve at room temperature.

 

Thoughts About Eating

Halibut with Genovese pesto and red cabbage carrot salad

By now, you know I like food. In fact, I enjoy the act of eating as much as the food itself. It takes a wee bit of courage to share my feelings here but lately, I have found it difficult to maintain equilibrium in the act of “eating.” Do I eat to sustain myself or do I eat to please my mind as well as savouring the taste of delicious food? I recently realized that I was in the latter situation. I was drowning in a big bowl of food.

However, I had an opportunity to participate in a Reiki class last weekend where I learned a great deal about myself. When I was told by a Buddhist Reiki master practitioner that “Anything is normal” and “Everything is okay in this world,” I thought whew, what a relief: after all, it is okay to be myself. It is okay to be just me. In this fast-paced society, it is hard to gasp a breath in order to try to catch up with the rest of the crowd. When I started to become overwhelmed by this rhythm is when I started losing balance in the act of eating. The same could be said in photography too. I remember reading Brian Ferry’s post “Honesty” in which he talks about how photographers are trying to be similar in terms of styles in the hopes of succeeding as others did. I totally agreed with what he stated. It is not necessary to make our work look like someone else’s because we have our own voices. This is what I learned at the meditation class. I have so much energy within me and I can redirect this energy for healing my tired soul. I have everything I need in me. I have all the tools I need within “Me.”

Halibut

This class not only taught me that we have energy within us to heal illness or pain by redirecting the energy where needed with intention but also made me realize the importance of mindfulness in every aspect of our life. Such as: eating mindfully. What a coincidence to learn something I was having trouble with. The eating experience starts from when I harvest food, and then continues as I prepare, cook and serve it. Observe the food, smell the aroma, feel the texture, hear the subtle sound and taste umami. And most of all, appreciate every bite of it. Rest your chopsticks, forks or knives while discerning the flavour of food. Chew it and be mindful of what you are eating. Good nutritious food makes these actions very enjoyable.

hazelnuts

With this in mind, I started to practice slow eating, which led to satisfaction with just the right amount my body needed. Indeed, the old adage that less is more was proven in this moment. No more thinking about something else or flipping on the iPad while eating in order to obtain inspiration for the day. There is something more to this act of “eating.” This is what we do everyday whatever you do and wherever you are as long as the human being exists. So far the experience has resulted in building a good relationship between food and myself. This is how I’ve come to find peace and happiness in my food life. The class was an eye-opening experience. We all know about mindfulness but how easy it is to forget if we are not aware of it.

We do eat everyday but the question is how do you eat each meal in your day?

Have a great mindful Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada!!!

Genovese basil pesto

Halibut with Genoves basil pesto and red cabbage carrot salad

Halibut with Genovese Pesto

Serves 2

2 pieces halibut

Salt and Pepper

6 tablespoons or more Genovese pesto (recipe follows)

Lightly sprinkle the halibut with salt and pepper and lay on an oiled baking sheet.

Broil at 400F until flakey, for about 7 minutes or so depending on the thickness of the fish. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and test with a knife. The centre may still look slightly pink but that’s okay.

Smear the pesto on top of the fish and broil until top nicely browned and the centre of the fish is no longer pink but moist, for about 5 minutes. Don’t overcook. Take the fish out of the oven, cover with a piece of aluminum foil and let stand for a few minutes.

Serve immediately.

 

Genovese Pesto

Thank you to the Heather Hills Farm Society for taking me on a tour and showed me around their beautiful hazelnuts trees and vibrant coloured heathers. It was fun picking the nuts off the branches too. I ate the fresh nuts in a salad on the same day, and they had a texture reminiscent of water chestnuts; however, I used the roasted nuts that I purchased from them in this recipe.

Makes 1 x 350ml jar

2 cups fresh Genovese basil leaves

1 cup parmesan cheese, grated (I mix Padano and Romano half and half)

2/3 cup hazelnuts

5 garlic cloves, peeled

7 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Roast the hazelnuts lightly on a baking sheet in the 350F oven until a nice aroma emerges, for about 5 to 7 minutes.

Place the basil, cheese, hazelnuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the mixture becomes coarse paste. In the meantime, add oil in a steady stream. Pulse a few more times until emulsified and stop when your favourite consistency is achieved (I like keeping some hazelnuts in large chunks). Adjust with salt and pepper.

Store in an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to a week. Or you can freeze any leftovers right away.

Adapted from Linda Collister’s Sensational Sauces.

Sheep at Heather Hills Farm Society

Red Cabbage Carrot Salad

Serves 2

2 large carrots, peeled and julienned

½ small red cabbage, thinly sliced

½ red bell pepper, sliced thinly

A few leaves of Thai basil, cut in strips with scissors

Juice of 1 lemon

A pinch of cane sugar

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon Tamari soy sauce

Salt and black pepper

Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl.

Make the dressing by combining the lemon juice, sugar, oil and soy sauce in a small jar. With a lid on, shake well until emulsified. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the vegetables with the dressing. Toss and let stand for about 10 minutes.

Serve immediately.

 

Goodbye Peaches and Hello Roasts

peach

While I am still lingering on the remnants that summer has left behind, it is impossible to deny that the air has turned cooler. Peaches are finishing their season, Fameuse apples are ready for harvesting after having matured for four years in my garden and undoubtedly, it gets dark at 7:30 at night.

peach crisp and homemade vanilla ice cream

With the peaches I have picked up at the farmer’s market, I made peach crisps to say farewell to summer (or at least tried to). I like this time of year; no longer summer, not yet fall, the season in between. It is the time for preparing our minds and bodies for the coming season. So I welcomed the chilly evening with a kind heart and a pot of roasted beef with gobo roots. I feel that we are going to have a good autumn.

Fameuse Apple & Gruyère CheeseCross Rib Roast in White Wine Tomato Saucewhite whine tomato saucegobo rootsroasted carrotsBraised Cross Rib Roast with Gobo Roots

Peach Crisp

Serves 6

6 large peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into ½ inch thick wedges

2 tablespoons cane sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ cup water

½ cup rolled oats, roughly milled using a food processor

½ cup all purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour or spelt flour

½ cup cane sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

In a large bowl, toss the peaches, sugar, vanilla and water. Mix well, then let stand for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. In the meantime, place the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until flaky.

Squeeze the flour mixture in your fingers, form into small patties and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Butter a shallow baking pan. Place the peaches inside, and lay the patties over them.

Bake until top becomes golden and juice is bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

 

Braised Cross Rib Roast and Gobo Roots with White Wine Tomato Sauce

Serves 2 plus leftovers

4 lb cross rib roast

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

3 tablespons vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 large onions, cut into 1 inch wedges

2 x 1’ lengths gobo root

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon cane sugar

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

A sprig of fresh rosemary

1 ½ cups dry white wine

1 cup water

Clean gobo by scraping the skin with the back of a kitchen knife under running water. Cut into 2 inch pieces and cut in half in lengthwise. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes and change water. Repeat this process a few times until the water no longer becomes yellow. Drain well.

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 325F. Pat dry the beef and rub the salt and pepper all around.

In a heavy bottomed ovenproof large pot, heat the oil until hot but not burning and brown the beef on all sides. Transfer to a large plate.

In the same pot, sauté the onion, garlic then gobo until golden over relatively high heat. Stir constantly so as not to burn the vegetables. Add the tomato paste, thyme, and rosemary and adjust with salt and pepper. Add wine and water, and then bring to a simmer.

Return the beef to the pot, cover tightly and braise in the oven, turning the beef once in the mid way until done about 80 minutes to 1 ½ hours or a meat thermometer reads 145C for the medium rare in the centre of the meat. Adjust time to your liked doneness.

Take the pot out of the oven. Let the beef rest on a plate covered with a piece of aluminum foil. Transfer the vegetables to a serving plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much the liquid in the pot as possible. Reduce the tomato-y liquid over medium high heat to half of the amount, stirring occasionally until it attains a thick consistency. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.

Carve the meat into ½ inch thick slices and serve immediately with the wine tomato sauce and the vegetables.

Adapted from www.epicurious.com.

 

Roasted Carrots

Serves 2 plus leftovers

10 large carrots, cut in half or quartered lengthwise

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the carrots in a large baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes.

Serve immediately with the cross rib roast. Follow by the peach crisp with ice cream.

Brut