Meyer Lemons

Meyer lemons are delicious, and here in Canada they're only available for a short time around Christmas. Each year I buy a bunch and preserve them in various ways. They're sweeter than lemons, their skin is more delicate, and they are very fragrant.

Here are some of my preserves:

Meyer lemon marmalade, which can be used on scones, bread, cakes, cupcakes, mixed into yogurt or ice cream (vanilla or sweet cream), or on its own; it's awesome.

Three ingredients: lemons, sugar, water. That little pouch of cheesecloth contains the lemon seeds, which provide all the pectin you'll need for this tasty treat. Canning time 5 minutes.

Candied Meyer lemon slices:

lemon slices, water, sugar, cook down until all the liquid is gone. You can lay out the slices on a plate/cookie sheet/ parchment paper to dry. I don't bother, just put the slices in a jam bowl with a lid.

Meyer lemon sugar:

Grated Meyer lemon skin and cane sugar. You can do this with salt (and some herbs) as well and use as a rub for fish and chicken, in salads, wherever you want a savoury lemon flavour.

Meyer lemon chutney:

Meyer lemon slices with maple smoked sea salt, shallots, and truffle oil. I kept these in the fridge for a whole year. Very strong, so a little goes a long way. Had both chutneys with various white fish at Christmas. You don't need to wait that long, just give it a week or two for the flavours to mingle. By the end of the 12 months all the oil had been absorbed into the lemons. The flavour was very intense and salty. 

Meyer lemon slices with crushed juniper berries, chilli flakes, maple smoked sea salt and oil.

Another thing I do is wash, dry, and freeze whole Meyer lemons (I do this with regular lemons as well). Then instead of squeezing lemon into my morning water, I grate the whole thing, so I get juice, pulp, and skin.  You can also dehydrate slices and use in tea or water, or dehydrate skins (peel off before squeezing out juice which you can freeze in ice cube trays and add to water) and then crush/crumble into salads, soups, tea. Another way to preserve is to slice the lemon and layer it in a jar with sugar (I use raw cane sugar) and store in the fridge, then when I feel like lemon tea I just add a slice to my cup. Just don't waste any part of these yummies.

Lunches, Snacks, and Bites

Some days I like "grazing", where I eat bits of food throughout the day, other days I have meals.  In the end they're all meals varying in size.  I thought I'd share what I eat for lunch when I'm home, some ingredients will repeat, and there is a "formula", usually some grain, mainly rye bread in various forms, meat, veg, and cheese, sometimes with soup, sometimes with tea, or a smoothie, a milk shake, or freshly squeezed lemonade.  At times, it's not only dinner ideas that people get in a rut with, it's boring to eat the same stuff for lunch all the time too.  Here are some examples of what I like to eat, very easy, nutritious and filling lunches or snacks:

Fresh carrots, savoy sauerkraut (home made), pickled beets (home made), and Smoked Sirloin Tip (Ogonowka in Polish) on a piece of pumpernickel.

Very crusty walnut cranberry bread with a slice of salted butter.  

Brussel sprouts, with butter and maple smoked unrefined sea salt.

Leek and horseradish sauerkraut (home made, one of my very favourite flavours), rye grilled cheese (Irish old cheddar), and carrots, made with butter.

Goose liver pate with cumin sauerkraut (made by me; I love sauerkraut).

Pumpernickel with lard, lardons, and raw maple smoked rock salt.

Rye with butter and a slice of pig skin sausage - amazing!  I get this sausage at Sausage Partners in Toronto; they make it on site.

Zucchini, smoked Polish sausage, parmigiano reggiano, lachsschinken, kale, sautéed in butter.

I'm not sure what this is called in English, but it's a type of blood sausage, with fat chunks, and tongue; it's delicious.  I find congealed blood tastes a bit like chocolate, the two go well together in recipes.

Here is the blood sausage from above, on rye, with fresh cucumbers, and tomato soup.

Avocado, my caraway bay sauerkraut, Calabrese salami, fresh greens and parsley, grown in my kitchen.

Pumpernickel, Calabrese salami, sauerkraut, creamy tomato soup.

Pumpernickel with lard, lardons, and my delicious home made sauerkraut.

Scrambled eggs with sausage, onion, and rye.

Pumpernickel with lard and lardons and dill pickles, which my dad made.  When I say dill pickles I mean real pickles in brine, not vinegar.

I hope some of my lunch and snack ideas will help you try new things, and keep lunch exciting.  When I work, I always make and bring my own lunch.  It always gets comments and people start making excuses why they don't make their own lunch.  In reality, tasty, healthy, and filling food doesn't have to take  a long time to plan or make.

Figs, tasty on their own, or with a variety of meats and cheeses, also great in tarts with caramelized onions and cheese.

Kalon Digor!  (Breton)

Pig lard and lardons

I love pig fat.  If you know me, you know that.  I love pig skin, whether it's cooked or roasted or in jelly.  I buy pig lard with the bits at a Polish deli, but sometimes I make my own.  I made some recently.  My bf got me this grease pot, which is for dumping grease into, it has a sieve, so the solids stay on top, then when it solidifies, you can scrape it out and dispose of it, without clogging your plumbing with hot grease.  Naturally when he gave it to me, and I saw it said GREASE on it, I was super excited, thinking it was a pot for my fat.  Then he explained the above to me.  I said, who does that?  Why would you want to throw out lard?  When I was a kid, my grandma always had a jar of home made lard.  Sometimes she would fry rye bread in it, and it was so good.

So every once in a while, I fry rye in lard, and either eat it with my home made sauerkraut, or with sliced dill pickles.  It's insane how good it is.  Just to clarify, dill pickles by my def, have no vinegar, just natural brine.  If you're buying "dill" pickles at the supermarket, read the ingredients.  Also, if you're buying rye at the supermarket, read the ingredients, wheat flour is usually a huge component, and to give the bread a denser feel and "healthier" look, they add caramel colour.  Food regulations should be much stricter, especially labeling.  Somehow though, the gov't seems to think that infringing on our privacy (SOPA/ACTA) is more important than labels on our food.

Here is my story in pictures  :)

Those lardons, skwarki (Polish) or scruncheons, as they call them in Eastern Canada, especially Newfoundland, are so yummy, they are like little crispy squishy sponges filled with pig fat.

Another option is just lard on rye with sea salt, I used maple smoked rock salt from BC:

Give it a try, let me know what you think.
Bon appetit!

Sausage Class and Black Pudding

Last Wednesday I went to a sausage making class.  It was fun, there were only six of us.  Class finished an hour early, so with that much time left over, I think it would've been better, if we were working on our own, instead of in two teams of three.  Anyway, at the end of the day, we each left with eight sausages.

We got to grind out own meat, and then stuff it into natural casings.  We didn't get to be creative with spices, only used salt and pepper.  The teacher said that he likes to taste the good quality meat.  I love meat, but using the right spices in the right amounts doesn't mask the quality,  it compliments it, giving the sausage depth.  He also didn't have set measurements as to how much salt and pepper to use per whatever amount of meat, and just poured both out of their containers.  That's how I do things, though I try to give some measurements here.

When I boiled the sausages, I added some marjoram, thyme, and garlic powder to the water.  Not the same as having the spices in the meat, but it still added a bit more flavour, and took the meaty edge off.

I sauteed the green and yellow beans in butter, and then sprinkled with maple smoked rock salt.  I added some 10% M.F. plain yogurt to the mashed potatoes.  Sometimes I use sour cream or butter.  I don't like using anything liquidy, like milk or stock, because of the taste and texture. 

I still have a few sausages left, so I will make a different dish with them, and post in another blog.

After class, I picked up some pig skin sausage, Cotechino, it's amazing, the texture and flavour.  It was pricey, but what a treat!  I also got a black pudding, because I love black pudding and blood sausage.  Depending on country of origin/ recipe, there are so many variations.  Sometimes they are too salty, but this one was great.

I fried it up with shallots.

I also fried up some zucchini in butter, and sprinkled with maple smoked rock salt (I love this salt).

It was a very tasty lunch, and very filling.