Last weekend I made Stev and I a Swiss chard omelette. I was inspired by some beautiful organic young Swiss chard I had bought at the Kingston Market.

I have been wanting to get some more potassium in my diet and Swiss chard has is high in potassium, as well as, fiber. I was a little intimidated cooking an omelette for Stev, because in the chef world an omelette is a test of how well you can cook. And Stev can make a perfect one for sure! Me, I wasn't so sure, but I need not have worried. I passed the test and Stev loved his omelette.

I started by sauteeing one finely diced shallot in a pan, on medium heat, with a tablespoon of olive oil. After it got going a bit, I added the chopped stems of the Swiss chard.

I seasoned with salt and pepper. Once the shallots and Swiss chard stems were soft from cooking, about 5 min, I added the chopped up leaves and cooked them till they were wilted.

I made us each a two egg omelette, one at a time. I mixed two free range eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper, then poured the egg into a preheated non-stick pan, on medium low. I stirred the eggs gently for 30 seconds or so, then put the Swiss chard in a line down the center of the eggs. I then added some grated old cheddar. I  shook the pan and worked around the edge of it with a heat proof spatula to loosen the omelette. Once the egg was almost set, I flipped it in half for a minute on each side. Stev doesn't like any coulor on his omelette. Definitely lower heat and gentle cooking produce a lighter, softer texture and more sublime taste. 

Here it is....I was pretty proud of myself.

Bella Bistro News

There is a new place to buy local food in Collins Bay. The Farm Store opened just down Bath Road from us. It is at 4080 Bath Road, the old Clark's By The Bay location. Clark and Lori Day have created a lovely little shop selling local products and growing and raising their own. Check it out.

Lobster Thursday's are back. For $25 we are selling whole boiled lobster with flavoured butters, vegetables, and a baked potato. I'll keep this special going for three more weeks or longer if it continues to be well attended.

Sunday June 26 is the next Wendy's Hoe Down. We will be there selling Tacos and Mel will be there too, selling some delicious baked goods. We will also have some of Durest Metal Works garden stakes and Harry's Thing-a-m-jigs. Bring the family out to Lyndhearst. Visit the Green Gecko for some fun shopping. There is a strawberry theme for this month.

Hola Amigos

This Sunday May 29 Bella Bistro presents Taco Bella! We will have a booth set up at Wendy's "Hoe Down at the Farm" in Lyndhurst. At Bella Bistro we buy local naturally raised meats from Wendy and Rick who source ingredients locally and deliver to homes and businesses in the Kingston area. I am preparing pork and bean tacos with pulled Hanover Farms pork, Forman Farms Tomato Pico De Gallo, Wilton feta and home made hot sauces. Wendy is hosting a Hoe Down on the last Sunday of every summer month, the theme for May is heritage seeds and seedlings. There will be other vendors there selling local products, crafts and more. Bring the whole family. This is a fantastic opportunity for the kids to see where their food comes from and to buy local products from the folks who produce them. And to eat tacos! My pork is marinating right now in a wet rub of chipolte peppers, cumin, coriander, and chili powder.  I will be slow cooking it all day tomorrow. Stev and I brushed up on our corn tortilla making skills at dinner tonight and our supper was soooo delicious. I can't wait till Sunday. We will be serving tacos from 11 till we run out. When you come out to see us in Lyndhurst don't miss the chance to drop in and see Peter and Terry at the Green Gecko. Peter has spent many of the last few summers working with us at Casa Bella and Olivea. In the winter Peter and his lovely wife Terry travel the world bringing home unique one-of-a-kind things to sell at the Green Gecko their awesome store in Down Town Lyndhurst. So make a day of it. Come to Wendy's farm (directions), buy some heritage seedlings, have a taco, breathe the country air, shop at the Green Gecko. This Sunday.

Paul has been serving a spaghetti squash dish as a special at Bella Bistro and some of our staff have really enjoyed it and are cooking spaghetti squash at home. So we have been talking about it at work and I thought I'd share with you how to prepare it. Using spaghetti squash instead of wheat spaghetti is a fun gluten free and lower calorie option. When I cooked the 2 squash pictured below we had enough squash for a few meals. We served it as a side vegetable with the aglio olio one night and the next night with a bolognese sauce. Stev loves it, me not so much but I am happy to eat healthy food, so I would say I liked it and definitely recommend cooking one because it is fun and easy to prepare. It goes without saying that we cooked regular pasta for the kids, they are not interested in gluten free lower calorie options.

I have a little line of frozen meals available at Bella Bistro. I have been making dishes that freeze well in small batches with local naturally raised meats. So you can get some of our Bella Bolognese sauce to go at Bella Bistro. I also have a meat ball dish with artichokes and olives that would be great with the spaghetti squash or pasta.

Stab the spaghetti squash all over with a slim pointy knife 8 times.

Roast the squash at 350 in the oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The picture above is from half way.

The  spaghetti squash are done when they feel soft.

Let the spaghetti squash cool a bit then cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.

When they are cut in half you can see the strands of spaghetti, I used a fork to loosen and separate them and scoop the the strands of squash out on to a plate. The strands of spaghetti squash at this point are ready to use like spaghetti. They are warm but cool off quickly. If you are using a bolognese type sauce the hot sauce will warm the spaghetti squash back up if it has cooled off. But you can also sauté the strands with a sauce to warm them up. The night we served the spaghetti squash as a side dish we tossed it while it was still warm with aglio olio.

Aglio olio is one of my favourite sauces of all time its a garlic olive oil and chilli sauce.

Aglio Olio

1 clove of garlic finely chopped (1 tablespoon)

1 Thai chilli finely chopped (1/2 teaspoon) if you don't have fresh a chilli then use dried chilli flakes 

5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put all the ingredients in a pot and cook it on medium high heat. Keep a close eye on the pot. When it starts to simmer let it go for 20 seconds then take the pot off the heat. Its done. If the garlic browns or burns then it will not taste good the garlic should still be a pale colour.

This aglio olio recpie makes enough for 2 to 3 people.

In 2009 just before Christmas I was reading a food magazine that was recommending some great books to give as christmas gifts. One of the selections was My Bread By Jim Lahey. I have always been interested in bread, eating it and making it. Growing up one of my favourite food memories is cutting the end off a home made loaf of bread, still warm, and slathering it with butter whicb begins to melt as you eat it. I love the book My Bread. It gives detailed instructions on the no knead bread method that Jim Lahey developed. The no knead method uses time instead of kneading to develop the gluten in the flour that gives bread it structure. I've spent the last year and a bit practising his method and trying out some variations inspired by this method. The following recipe is one of the results. It's a no knead pizza dough that can be made the night before or morning of the night you want to have pizza for dinner. It makes 8 6 inch pizzas.

No Knead Pizza Dough

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon yeast,  quick rise instant yeast (if you only have regular dry yeast dissolve it in a half a cup of warm water then use that water and yeast as part of the 1 1/2 cups of water in the first addition of water to the dough)

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 cups room temperature water

This dough works with as low as a 6 hour rising time, but 8 hours is better, and between 12 and 24 is best. The day I tested this specific recipe my dough had a 7 hour rise and it was good but a longer rise would have given it more of a pleasant chewy texture.

Step 1- Put the 2 flours, salt, sugar, and instant yeast in a bowl and stir to combine.

Step 2- Add the olive oil.

Step 3- Pour on 1 1/2 cups of water and with your hand stir around the bowl till the water is absorbed.

There will still be dry flour in the bowl.

Step 4- Now add another 1/4 cup of water and stir around till it moistens more of the flour and then another 1/4 cup. This is how much I used but depending on how old your flour is and how dry your house is, you may need another tablespoon or 2 of water or you may need slightly less. 

In the picture above its almost there. I usually don't measure the water, adding enough till its just right. Just right occurs when all the flour is moist and a ball of dough has formed with no dry bits in the bottom of the bowl.

Step 5- Give it a quick knead of 4 to 6 mixes with your hand rubbing the edges of the bowl to collect all the bits of flour and form a ball. The dough should feel moist and sticky, but not wet.

Step 6-Cover the bowl with saran wrap and leave on the counter till an hour before you want to use it. 

Step 7- After 6 hours it will look like this and it is fine to use now or any time up to 24 hours. When you are ready to start preparing dinner sprinkle it with flour and with your hand scrape it from the edges of the bowl, knead it a few times and then form it into a ball. 

Step 8 -Put the ball on a floured counter and cut in to 8 pieces then roll the 8 pieces into balls and place them on a floured counter and cover them with saran wrap.

Step 9- Rest the balls of dough like this for half an hour. They can sit for up to 2 hours.

Step 10-Half an hour before you plan to bake the pizza turn the oven on to 450 and get some cookie sheets ready. I put parchment paper down on my pans because it makes the clean up easy but if you're not using parchment then lightly oil the pan or you can sprinkle it with flour and/or cornmeal. Now its time to roll. Lightly flour the counter, push the ball of dough flat with your fingers then use a rolling pin and roll out to your desired thickness.

Step 11- Place the rolled out pizza crusts on the pan and top with what ever you like. Bake for 10 minutes or so. The cheese should be melted and the crust starting to brown around the edges.

At Bella Bistro we make our tomato sauce with imported Italian tomatoes and a little garlic sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil. At home sometimes I make Bella's pizza sauce but I also use the jars of tomato puree just as it comes straight from the jar.

Right now Costco has some great tomato products, 100 oz cans of imported Italian San Marzano tomatoes and tomato puree. I really recommend this brand of canned tomatoes. They are rich and less acidic than the brands at the grocery store. Costco also has Victoria tomato sauce. Victoria is a California company that makes pasta sauces with imported Italian tomatoes and all natural ingredients. In the tomato sauce isle at Costco they also have Garofalo brand pasta. This is an imported Italian pasta that one of our foodie friends in Umbria said was the best pasta. And Costco is selling it! At a great price!

When I made the pizzas on Thursday this week, there were two balls of dough left. I squished them back into a firm ball and wrapped them tightly and individually in saran wrap. Then popped them in the fridge and pulled them out and made a couple of pizzas with them for lunch on Saturday. They worked great. After step 7 when you have formed the dough into a ball, you could wrap it tightly in saran wrap and refrigerate it for a couple of days or freeze it and use it later. If its frozen let it thaw at room temperature then carry on with the next step.

Well this is it. Christmas is almost here. I have completed just enough of my shopping and hand making so I can safely leave the rest to the last minute. I like having something left to do then.

I like handmade gifts. This year I made a bunch of fruit preserves, jams and ice cream toppings. I had never preserved much of anything before (mabey a few tomatoes back in chefs school) but I was inspired by a new cookbook I bought, Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook by Sarabeth Levine.  It inspired me to make fruit preserves and bread, and muffins, and chocolate pound cake and buttermilk biscuits. It has also inspired my daughter Bella to mark the pages of the recipes she'd like me to be inspired to make. This is my favourite new cookbook this year.

I also made caramel corn. I gave some to my sister for her birthday, like my mom and I, she has a December birthday. I also knit her a scarf which ended up in the lost and found at her yoga studio. I left it at the front desk unwrapped with a verbal instruction that it was her birthday present. After teaching her class she didn't get the message that it was her present and she admired it and tried to find its rightful owner. I just mention this since it makes a good case for wrapping and labelling gifts. A good thing to remember at this time of the year. My sister doesn't eat wheat so I thought caramel corn would be a nice treat. Turns out she's not eating sugar at the moment either but could make an exception for her birthday.

I called my friend Mel for her caramel corn recipe. She made this and brought it to our Christmas staff parties out at Casa Bella and everyone loves it. I was reminded of caramel corn while reading Orangette, a blog I've been reading, her recipe is here. She recommends you don't make her recipe without a candy thermometer but you don't need one for Mel's recipe. The recipe on orangette instructs you to boil the caramel till it reaches 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Mel's recipe instructs you boil the caramel for 5 minutes then proceed. I followed Mel's recipe but I also have a candy thermometer so I was taking the temperature as well out of curiosity. After 5 minutes the caramel was at 220 or so and the caramel corn turned out perfectly. 

Caramel Corn

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup of corn syrop

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 quarts of popped pop corn (24 cups, about 2/3 cup unpopped)

Step 1- pop the corn. I did mine in a 6 quart pot with 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Then measure the popped corn into a large roasting pan.

Step 2- combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrop, and salt in a pot and set it on the stove.

Step 3- measure the baking soda and vanilla and have them handy with the popcorn. Also have two wooden spoons or heatproof spatulas. Turn the heat on high under the pot and stir till all the sugar is dissolved and the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup is rapidly boiling. Then stop stirring and turn the heat to medium and leave it alone to boil for 5 minutes. 

Step 4- after the 5 minutes turn off the heat and add the baking soda and vanilla. The boiling sugar and butter will sizzle and boil up in the pot a bit when you do this. Stir carefully to incorporate the baking soda and vanilla then pour the caramel over the popcorn. Stir it all around to coat the popcorn with the caramel.

Step 5- then bake the caramel corn in the oven for 1 hour at 250 stirring every 10 minutes or so.

Step 6- after 1 hour in the oven I poured my caramel corn on to a peice of parchment paper to cool because I was worried it would stick to the pan and I also wanted to get the pan soaking so it would be easier to clean. After doing that though I think it was unnecessary. You could just leave it in the pan to cool. Once cool break up the caramel corn gently and keep in a air tight container or ziplock bag. I think it will last a week like that but you will eat it all before then.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

We had one of my favourite meals this week and I took pictures so I could share it with you. I think this would be an a excellent meal to have, if the ingredients were on hand, for over the holidays. That way, if you tire of rich, sugary, and fatty foods, you will have a refreshing and healthy option. Stev and I were introduced to this fun, healthy dinner by our great friends Suzanne and Bernie who own and operate the Victoria Rose Inn , in Gananoque. Suzanne and Bernie lived in Ottawa before they bought the Victoria Rose Inn and while living there, discovered a Vietnamese restaurant that offered this meal for take out. One night, several years ago, they brought this take out meal (from New Mee Fung, 350 Booth St., Ottawa) to our then home, in Gananoque and a new favourite supper was born.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls are fun, fresh tasting and easier than you think to make. You basically take fresh herbs, vegetables, rice noodles and meat or shrimp or tofu and wrap them up in a sheet of softened rice paper. Hoisin, sambal, and fish sauce are used for seasoning and dipping.

To start, here's what you need to have: thin rice vermicelli noodles, rice paper sheets (they are thin and round and come in two sizes, we use Rose Brand), Hoisin Sauce (Asian Ketchup), Sambal Oelek (fresh ground chilli paste), and fish sauce (recipe below).

You can use any fresh herbs you like, however, we used basil leaves, coriander leaves, and mint leaves. The herbs add a significant liveliness to the taste, so they are definetly worth getting. Don't worry if you only have one or two of these on hand, you can still make the salad rolls.

Julienne (match size cut) fresh vegetables. We used yellow and red peppers and cucumbers. Bean sprouts are good too, but we didn't have any.

Grill/cook the meat or seafood. You can use chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or any meat/seafood/tofu you like. Once cooked, thinly slice. Stev and I shared one chicken breast and we cooked another for the kids.

Add the rice vermicelli noodles in a small pot of boiling water. Stir often and boil for 2 minutes. Then drain and rinse in cold water.

Fish Sauce Recipe 

We make ours in a measuring cup.

Ingredients:

-1/3 cup lime juice (approx. 2 limes)

-1/3 cup fish sauce (we like Lucky Brand)

-1/3 cup water

-1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

-1/2 teaspoon finely chopped Thai chilli, or more to taste.

Stir all ingredients together. It will taste pungent and strong and mabey a bit weird if you haven't had it before, but don't worry it works as a dipping sauce for the rolls.

Assembly

Make a platter with the washed and dried fresh herbs, julienned vegetables, cooked rice noodles, and sliced cooked meat/seafood/tofu.

Put the platter on the table with individual dishes of fish sauce, and have some Sambal and Hoisin sauce on the table as well.

Take a pie plate of warm water to the table and the rice paper wrappers. 

Dip the rice paper wrapper in the warm water for approximately 30 seconds. Remove when it is slightly softened but not limp, and lay flat on a plate.

Once you have selected the filling for your salad roll, roll it up.

This is is the finished Vietnamese Salad Roll.

I shop at the Asian Market at 354 Princess Street in Kingston. This store has all the ingredients I've mentioned, including the fresh herbs and chillies.

When we had these salad rolls this week, I also cooked some rice in the rice cooker. Olivia, our daughter, had rice, chicken and soy sauce wrapped up in her rice paper roll. Our son Harry asked me to take a picture of his dinner. He food styled this picture himself, so I'll leave you with this lovely picture of his nutritious dinner.