Vert-à-Go

(right: photo by HarlanH)

A few of us co-hosted a baby shower a couple Sundays ago for friends who are imminently expecting their first baby. Here’s part of the menu, which consisted mainly of organic and locally-grown food, and which featured those vanguards of spring, fresh rhubarb and asparagus.

• hummus (homemade with organic tahini sauce and lemons) & whole wheat mini pita breads
• pickles (my sister’s, homemade with last year’s Farmers’ Market cucumbers)
• cheddar cheese puffs
• salsa (my mom’s, homemade from her garden) & hand-cut organic tortilla chips (Que Pasa from Sobeys)
• crudité (grape tomatoes, carrots, sweet peppers, and cucumber from the Farmers’ Market)
• asparagus, chive & goat cheese mini-quiches (Farmers’ Market, Safeway, Herbs & Health, Bulk Cheese, my garden)
• rhubarb cake (homemade) with organic strawberries (Safeway) and pineapple (Dad’s Nutrition Centre)

Asparagus, chive & goat cheese mini-quiches

• pastry
• thin asparagus
• chevre
• chopped chives & shallot
• eggs
• milk
• salt & pepper

I first blanched the asparagus spears for about a minute, then dunked them in cold water to revive them. They could be marinated at this point with something nice (lemon juice, white wine, salt & olive oil)–I didn’t do that and think they could have used a bit more zing. I then chopped off the tops of the spears, reserving them for later, and chopped the stems into cm-long pieces. I then filled pre-made quiche shells (pastry is not yet my forte, but I have vowed to master it this year) with the chopped asparagus stems, sprinkled in a bit of Canadian chevre and chopped fresh chives & shallot (I found the shallot lurking in my onion bin from last year’s farmers’ market and grabbed chives from the garden).

Then I poured in a mixture of egg, milk, salt & pepper (2TB milk to each egg–I used 3 eggs and 6TB milk to fill 29 shells), topped each quiche with an asparagus tip, and baked them at 400F for about 15 minutes, until the crusts were nicely golden.

For a non-vegetarian version, I would have added a smidgen of chopped bacon (pork from Pine View Farms or beef from Benlock Farms). Next time I will marinate the asparagus beforehand for extra tang! If I had found fiddleheads at the market that week, I would have tried them in the quiches too (I did see some later at Bulk Cheese–they are an amazing local spring delicacy that I only tried for the first time last year).

My sister also made this delicious spring-y coffee cake, which she found in the food column of the Western Producer a few years back, with the first rhubarb from her garden:

Ladies of the Western Producer rhubarb cake (with posthumous thanks to Emmie Oddie)

• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 c. flour
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1-1/2 c. fresh rhubarb, chopped
• 1 egg

Topping: 1/4 c. white sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Mix flour and salt together. Put baking soda into the buttermilk, then add to mixture, along with flour and rhubarb. Pour into a greased 9×13 pan. Sprinkle top of batter with the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.

Posted June 2nd, 2008 under Cooking, Farmers' markets, Local food, Local food ideas, Menu, Recipes, vegetarian. Tags: food, garden, Local food, Menu, Recipes
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