I knew that I wanted to hit up the Jean Talon Market for the ingredients for our first foray into conscious local eating, in part because there were a few items on my grocery list that I could only get there but also because we were going to be shopping for our Ethiopian dinner too. Talk about going in opposite directions at the same time! We spent the afternoon asking ourselves if every particular thing we bought had to be local or if it could come from elsewhere, constantly double checking where things were from and, while it made me a little dizzy, it was fascinating. Until I started looking for it, I had never noticed that so many vendors list where their food stuffs come from. Made my job easier, though at the same time it was a bit of an eye opener too.
I had timed the dinner to be after the "official" start to spring in the hopes that some of those plants I automatically associate with spring (dandelion leaves and mushrooms for example) would be available from local sources. Apparently I was more than a little optimistic. Hey, I grew up on Vancouver Island and the folks out there are already in full cherry blossom and picnic mode, so I thought that dandelions...? Maybe? *sigh* I was told that that would be more like mid to late April. Now, I did find dandelions from Texas, but needless to say, we left them at the market. I ditched my idea to use one of the recipes from the 100 Mile Diet book as a sort of homage and figure that I can always just send them a picture.
On to fooding!
From the get go, I knew that our first dinner was going to include duck of some kind. Why? I just really like duck. Fortunately, so does my husband. Sourcing local gave me a few moments of pause, but once I realized that everything at Boucherie Prince Noir falls into our parameters, we are pretty much now set for any meats we are going to need. One meat course - seared duck breast with a little sliver of foie gras and we were good to go. From there we turned to more practical matters. It's March, in Montreal, and we just got a nice dump of snow. As previously mentioned, our options for fresh green veggies were not so good. That made it fairly simple. We went with local potatoes and carrots, though the one real splurge were the forest mushroom mix we got from Jardins Sauvages. Ok, shameless plug here, but these guys are great! They have a kiosk at the market, and if you get a chance, pop in if only to say hi. I had quickly mentioned on a previous visit what we were doing, and the woman working remembered me on sight and greated me by asking what we were having for dinner! She was the one who suggested the mix we got, and it was just a really cool experience. We will so be going back there. Now that dinner was covered, there was no way we could overlook a dessert. With conventional baking out (at least for now) we knew we were going to keep this fairly simply, and while it might seem too easy, we decided to do maple baked apples. We even managed to randomly find organic dried cranberries from Quebec that made it that much better.
Before I get to the specifics and the booze, allow me to divulge the cost for our extravagance. I hear all the time about how expensive eating well is, and yes, food can cost a ridiculous amount. There is also a time factor involved. I know that I spend a ridiculous amount of time in my kitchen, but for me it's play so I don't mind at all. Would you be surprised if I told you that our dinner and dessert cost us $16.68 per person? We paid less for both of us than you would likely pay for one Duck Breast entree at most restaurants. The bonus was that it took us about 45 minutes to put the whole thing together, since dessert cooks while you eat. Score!
Now. The cooking. Since I haven't yet confirmed any local oil/fat sources that do not come directly from what I already happen to be cooking, we decided to just go with that. We scored the fat side of the duck and seared it in a cast iron pan till the skin was crispy and a nice dark brown, then flipped it to sear and stuck it on a plate. We tossed the quarted potatoes and small carrots directly into the pan, tossed everything to coat it in the fat and then stuck it into the oven at 375 for about a half an hour. Once the potatoes were easily pierced with a knife, we put the duck in the oven, directly on the top of the potatoes and allowed it to cook for about 5-10 more minutes (less for more rare as that's the way we prefer it). Once we had pulled the pan out of the oven, we tented the duck to rest for a about 5 minutes, but left the oven on. While the meat was resting, we sauteed the foie gras till browned on both sides, tossed the extra fat onto the potatoes and carrots and quickly sauteed the mushroom mix till hot.
While the potatoes and carrots were in the oven, I corred the apples and now I am going to admit to a cheat. If I were not dairy intolerant, I could very easily get local, farm fresh butter. But I am dairy intolerant, and until I can find something else, for the desserts at least, I will continue to use Earth Balance. My call, and I have some ideas for the future, but I am not going to feel bad about this one. I stuffed each apple (recipe at the end!) and then, once we had pulled the meat and roots out of the oven to rest, we popped the apples into the oven at the same temperature. We got the table set, plated dinner and just before we sat down to eat, we turned the oven off but left the apples inside until we were ready for them.
I like my booze. Anyone who knows me knows this, so not having to give up my glass of wine with dinner is wonderful. Being able to go to a store and know that everything in it is local, at least by the parameters we have set for ourselves, is heaven. At the Jean Talon Market, just as you enter Le Marche des Saveurs du Quebec is my new go to for 100 Mile Booze. The lovely lady behind the counter was very helpful in her suggestions for what I ought to pair with our dinner, making several suggestions and answering questions with honesty and a curiosity of her own. After we had made our choice, L'Orpailleur - a decent little white fut-de-chene that was quite nice with the stronger flavours of our dinner, she offered us some samples of other products they had and made devotees of us by introducing us to a Maple Cider from Coureur des Bois that is outstanding! The first smell has you thinking that you are about to take a sip of straight maple syrup (can a smell be described as thick?) but the first flavour to hit your tongue is apple cider. Divine!! My husband asked for a bottle after his first sip and the both of us simultaneously thought of a friend who will probably drink this straight from the bottle with a straw. Yes; it's that good, and I don't like ice ciders and wines. Get some.
All things said and done, I think that our first experience with the 100 Mile Dinner was a success. We ate very well, hardly felt deprived, and though I would have liked something green on my plate, every ingredient could stand on it's own while simultaneously fitting into a whole dinner. I think I knew it was a success as we were planning next months meal while we ate. I have a lot more research to do, but if this is our jumping off point, I'm looking forward to it!
Maple Baked Apples with Cranberries
serves 2
- 2 Cortland or other baking apples
- 6 pieces of maple sugar (we bought a little bag of pure sugar candies to use)
- 2 tablespoons of organic dried cranberries
- 2 small dollops of 'butter', we use Earth Balance
- drizzle of maple syrup
Enjoy!
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