Spring in the Garden

Half candied Kumquats

This is my first time purchasing Kumquats and wanted to do something special with them so after a bit of research I happened upon this recipe by Scrumptious South Africa and here they are...  Half-Candied Kumquats Dipped in Dark Chocolate !!

500 g kumquats, washed

water

2 cups (500 ml) white granulated sugar

a little extra sugar for dredging

a slab of good-quality dark chocolate

The whole process takes quite a while and a couple of days are involved if you're not using an oven to dry them out (which still takes up 12 hours on a low setting) I'm just writing this up front so you know ahead and plan a good time to start this "project"

You can head over to the original recipe here and read the instructions.

I'm just going to break it down as I have in my notes step by step below:

1 - Wash kumquats and slice lengthwise, remove seed (for me sometimes the entire middle/pulp came out and I tried to avoid this but they were quite full of  seed)

2 - Add them to a sauce pan, cover with water and boil for 24 mins or so. Drain kumquats and add back into the pot.

3 - Add three quarters of the sugar called for in the recipe (not 3/4 cup!) and just enough water to cover the fruit, melt the sugar slowly on medium heat heat until dissolved and simmer on low for another 35 minutes.

4 - Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 3 hours.

5- Back on the heat and add the remaining sugar (quarter of the initial amount called for) and stir gently until dissolved into the syrup.

6- Remove from heat, cover and let stand overnight.

Day 2:
7- Drain syrup for 30 minutes in colander, and reserve liquid/syrup for other uses.

8- Arrange fruit cut side up on a parchment lined baking sheet and allow to dry for 2 days in a warm place in your home OR set your oven on the lowest temp (mine was 175 convection with the fan running)  for 12 hours. 

9- Dredge the fruit with white sugar (or not?) I did half and half ..

10 - Melt your dark chocolate on a double boiler and dip the fruit half or fully (depending on your taste) using your finger or a small dipping fork.  Allow the chocolate to set and serve!

There you have it! 500 grams of Kumquats, some sugar and 10 steps later you've got yourself some elegant candied fruit!

Spring time Green Almond Salad

I've been trying to get my hands on these almonds forever! Ever since I've moved from Northern Iraq to Canada I haven't seen them here.  When I was little in Kurdistan (the northern region of Iraq) these fleshy fresh pale green almonds would show up in the market place at spring time... they weren't something we grew up with and my mother had no idea what they were but our guards would lay them on a flat tray and serve them with a heaping pile of salt which you'd then dip them into.

That's a lot of salt! We ate many other green foods like this, tiny little sour green plums and other rhubarb like stalks which were dipped in salt. As an adult now I can feel my blood pressure elevating as I think about the pile of salt, no doubt it's not healthy at all to be eating that much salt (and for children too!)

Salt balances out the sour taste and makes it palatable and delectable incase you were wondering why... so now when I got my hands on these (found them by surprise at T&T Asian supermarket in Markham) I was puzzled just looking at them and trying to figure out what I'm suposed to do with them.

I suppose you could enjoy them like Edamames and wash, dry and sprinkle with a bit of salt, just enough to season.

After a lot of searching I happened upon a blog post from Israel mentioning a salad with just a little bit of salt, good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, even a few shavings of red onion if desired! The recipe seemed so perfect so I busted out my mandolin and began shaving these guys (a medium slice is good, nothing too paper thin because you want to keep the delicate almond in tact in the middle)

Spring time Green almond Salad

- A handful fresh green almonds 

- Sprinkling salt

- Drizzle of olive oil

- Squeeze of lemon juice

- Thinly sliced red onion (optional) 

Shave the almonds using a mandolin - careful of your fingers! I shaved a bit of my thumb :(( 

Add the almonds to your serving bowl and drizzle lemon juice over (these almonds oxidizer and go brown very quickly so work as quick as you can and as close to serving time as possible) 

Add olive oil and sprinkle a good sea salt overtop

Toss and enjoy! 

Sheppard's Poutine

Sheppard's Poutine

I bought a bit of lamb shoulder so it just seemed fitting to make "Sheppard's poutine" opposed to regular poutine, even though my regular poutine is always made with beef gravy with tender chunks of stewed beef on top.

Picked up fresh Gun's Hill cheese curds  and baked up a batch of my favourite oven fries (peel, slice, toss potatoes with oil and salt, lay flat on a baking parchment and bake on convection or convection roast 400-425 degrees F and both sides will roast without having to flip them over)

Of course the cheese and fries are last minute elements, but let's start from the beginning and that's the lamb that was started several hours ahead.

Earlier in the day I pulled out my chunks of lamb shoulder ... 

- 2 lbs lamb shoulder
 (I bought half the shoulder and the butcher cut it into pieces and removed some fat)

- 1 tbsp butter (and drop of oil to prevent burning) 

- Salt & black pepper to taste

Final ingredient:  .....   Fat, lots of fat 

Now start in a small but heavy bottomed saucepan set on high heat.  Divide the meat between the pieces with lots of meat and the fatty/bone pieces. 

Add the butter to the pot and when it's hot brown the meaty pieces well on all sides. Add the rest and keep turning until it's all pretty browned.  Season with salt and black pepper. 

Now for the fat part.  The lamb fat will melt down but I added another 2 tbsp butter as well as enough olive oil to just cover the meat. 

Allow the oil to heat up then reduce the heat to low and simmer for a couple of hours until all the meat is tender and falling off the bone.

---------

Couple of hours later

Remove the meat from the fat with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.  When it's cool enough to handle without burning your hands remove ALL the tender meat from between the fat and off the bones. There is quite a bit, so don't be discouraged, some is even hidden in between the fat.

Set the meat back into the pot of fat until ready to use.

When ready to assemble poutine, which is as follows: A nice bunch of fries in the bowl or plate, topped with yummy cheese curds and a big ladle of hot gravy over top to melt all the cheesy goodness (chicken/meat... turkey gravy.. whatever you prefer) 

 Simply heat up the fat and remove the pieces of lamb meat and serve it on top of the poutine.

Enjoy!