Old friends... and aged beef

A couple Saturdays ago, some old friends (the best kind) came for dinner. I planned the kind of meal that encourages you to sit, and munch, and taste, and chat, and rest, and munch again... the kind that goes very well with bottles of vino and conversation. The first time I had this meal was with my good friend Yani. She made this for me when she was visiting from Vancouver in February. We spent hours eating and drinking and chatting and then went dancing. Since then, I've enjoyed it with a number of good friends. I'm sorry, I don't have a photo for you, but here's the gist:

Calamari & Tomato Stew
(this dish may have a real name, but I'm not sure what it is... perhaps it's something Italian...)
-For four people, you need about 2 pounds of squid, cleaned and chopped
-Garlic - at least 6 cloves
-One medium sized onion, diced
-Four carrots, grated or diced
-Bay leaves
-Fresh thyme
-White wine - about half a bottle
-Capers
-Chili flakes
-Fresh parsley
-Pitted Kalamata olives
-One tin of whole tomatoes
-One tin of tomato puree - not tomato paste. I used puree I made last summer, and it's much more liquid than the puree you buy in the grocery store. If you have a grocery store tin, you should thin it out with some water. You want a soupy/brothy stew

In a large pot, saute the onion, carrot and garlic (about three cloves minced) in olive oil over medium heat with a teaspoon of salt until they start to turn translucent and are aromatic. Don't caramelize the onions. Add a teaspoon (or more if you like it spicy!) of chili flakes and stir until aromatic. Remove the leaves from your fresh thyme and add to the pot (as much as you like). Pour in about 3/4 of the wine to de-glaze. Add your tomatoes; mash the whole tomatoes up with a wooden spoon. Add bay leaves and let simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning (I like to add a dash of balsamic vinegar and/or some brown sugar to cut the acidity of the tomato).

In a skillet, saute garlic (the other three cloves minced) in olive oil over medium heat until aromatic - do not burn. Add chopped squid and lightly saute. Add the rest of the white wine and let squid cook until lightly firm but not rubbery. Pour the contents of this skillet into the pot with the tomato and wine. Let these flavours meld together for a few minutes. Add the capers and olives to taste (remember they are salty), and some chopped fresh parsley. Serve with fresh bread and a green salad.

Another great meal to share with friends is a traditional Sunday supper. It's one of our favourite meals to cook for friends. Recently, Roland and I served roast beef and Yorkshire pudding to friends for dinner. I'm very in-favour of aging beef before it is roasted. This is very easy to do, and truly improves the flavour of the roast. While I don't have any photos of this fabulous Sunday supper, I would like to share with you how to age a lovely piece of beef in your refridgerator.

We get our meat from a local farmer - we participate in their meatshare. We give them a little sum of money, and they give us Angus beef - pastured raised, Tamworth pork, Shopshire lamb and free-range chicken. The meat is so good, that all it needs is to be roasted with a little salt and pepper. Aging this meat only enhances its deliciousness.

This couldn't be easier: take your thawed piece of beef and place it on a cooling rack set over a rimmed baking tray. Cover the roast lightly with a few pieces of paper towel or a clean tea towel. Find room in your fridge, and set the tray (with beef) in the fridge. Leave it alone for a few days - the longer the better. The day you plan to cook the beef, remove it from the fridge and carefully slice off the dry, leathery bits on the outside of the roast. Let come to room temperature before you roast using your preferred method.

Garlic! and tomatoes! and raised beds! Oh my!

It is growing time.

This year, Roland built me some raised beds. They are gorgeous.

The best part about raised beds is that they are easier to maintain. Little to no weeds (fingers crossed), no deep bending at the waist (takes a toll on your back), lots of sunlight - I placed them in the sunniest part of my yard.

Going into these plush growing plots are tomatoes, basil, parsley, lettuce, salad greens, beans, peas, radishes, carrots and cucumbers.

In other parts of the garden... garlic is growing.

I just finished a piece for Pearl Magazine (www.pearlmag.ca) about garlic scapes and some favourite Peterborough Farmer's Market vendors, Christine and Romeyn Stevenson of Ashburnham Farms and Gaelic Garlic.

Christine and Romeyn are lovely people, committed to sustainable farming. They plant all their garlic by hand, and raise all-natural pasture fed beef. Christine told me their cows are essential to their garlic production - they need the manure in order to grow their fantastic garlic. I love that - the circle of life.

Last fall I planted 12 cloves of garlic. They are shooting out of the ground now - leafy, layered green flora promising scapes by mid-June and garlic by mid-July.

Planting garlic cannot be easier:
1. Separate the cloves - leave the cloves whole!
2. Plant late September/early October. Timing is everything. It's important that the plant develops a root before the ground freezes, but doesn't start shooting out of the ground until the following spring, when there is no chance of fatal frost.
3. Plant about 1 inch deep and about 6 inches apart with the sprouting bit down.
4. Wait all winter long...
5. Visit your garlic plants in the spring - hopefully they are peaking through the ground.
6. As they grow, they'll develop layers of foliage. From the centre of the garlic plant a firm, green, curling extremity will grow. This extremity is the scape, and it will develop a bud at its tip. Snap this scape off - it will encourage the plant to put most of its energy into developing the garlic bulb. The scape is delicious fresh or fried (there's a great pesto recipe in Pearl).
7. The layers of foliage will start to brown and wilt. This is a good sign your garlic is ready to be picked. Pull a bulb out. If it looks large enough to you, it's ready for harvesting.
8. Once harvested, the garlic needs to dry. Choose a well ventilated spot, out of the sun.

9. Trim the tops and bottoms of the bulb and enjoy! New garlic is called green garlic and is fresh and juicy. Garlic can also be dried and braided, something I'm going to try this summer.

This is a very exciting time at the Mak/Hosier homestead. I'm on the edge of my seat - this weekend will be very productive. Digging and planting and weeding and mowing and staking and watering and cutting and harvesting... it all begins this weekend.

While waiting out the winter for fertile summer we like to exercise our cooking skills. It's become a mission to perfect homemade pasta. We may be getting close. Roland is the pasta maker in our home, and I'm the saucier. It's very rewarding to watch him improve his technique with each crank of the pasta roller.

Over time he has developed a feel for fresh pasta, but his basic recipe is an unmeasured amount of tipo "00" flour, one or two eggs and an occasional splash of olive oil. Soft wheat flour type "00" is essential to getting the right texture. You can find this type of flour in gourmet food shops.

I realize Roland's recipe isn't helpful for first time pasta makers, so I've included a great starter recipe from Jamie Oliver. This recipe makes a load of pasta, so you may want to half or quarter it. He uses much more egg than Roland, which will contribute to the flavour of the pasta, but will also result in a wetter dough - something that's more challenging to knead and roll.

A basic recipe for fresh egg pasta dough
from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver

5 cups tipo 00 flour (pasta flour)
6 large free-range or organic eggs or 12 yolks

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead the pieces of dough together until you have one big, smooth lump. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in fridge for 1/2 hour.

Jamie's excellent recipe goes on to provide detailed instructions on rolling out pasta and shaping it. I'm going to offer my own advice here:

The secret to rolling out pasta is to constantly fold it over itself and roll it through the machine until its rolling out in a symmetrical shape. Once you have a relatively flat and square lump of dough, you can begin to roll it into a sheet of pasta.

As you tighten the gauge on the roller, the pasta will become thinner and longer.

You're looking for a long, nearly transparent sheet of pasta, 4-6 inches wide. Depending on your pasta roller, you can now slice the pasta into spaghetti, linguine or fold it and slice by hand into thicker pappardelle, or use as is for lasagna.

We like to make ravioli by dropping spoonfuls of filling onto the sheet, folding the sheet over the filling and slicing into neat packages.