Garlicky Lamb Stew

On Saturday, my friend had her annual celebration of garlic. It's a potluck party where every contribution to the feast must have garlic as an ingredient, including deserts. It's a fabulous evening and you wouldn't believe all the garlicky combinations that people come up with. Garlice cream anyone? It's actually delicious.

This year my contribution was a garlicky lamp stew made from local ingredients that are easy enough to find at this time of year. It was a big hit. Here is the recipe.

Slow-Cooker Garlicky Lamb Stew
1 kg local lamb or mutton (stewing cut)
ca. 1/2 cup flour
ca. 2 Tbs Epicure Tuscan Rub*
ca. 3 Tbs Champy sunflower oil
1-2 heads organic garlic (according to taste), crushed
1 bottle mild scotch ale, like LochNess
500 g organic red potatoes, cut
salt and pepper to taste

Combine flour and Tuscan Rub in a bowl. Cube lamb or mutton. Toss meat in flour mixture to coat it.

Heat oil in a heavy-bottom pan. Brown the coated meat over medium-high heat, in batches if necessary. Put the potatoes in the slow cooker on high. Add the meat, then add about half the garlic. Add the rest of the garlic to the remaining oil in the pan.

Reduce the heat for the pan to medium-low and stir-fry garlic for a few minutes, until soft. Add the scotch ale to the pan. Let it warm for about a minute and then pour the ale mixture over the meat and potatoes in the slow cooker.

Stir the mixture in the slow cooker. Make sure liquid covers the top of the meat and potatoes. If not, top up the slow cooker with boiling water.

Cover and simmer on low 2-4 hours, or until meat is tender, the potatoes are cooked, and the gravy is thick. Stir occasionally as the stew is simmering. Add more water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper towards the end of the cooking process.

Serve over a bed of greens, and with fresh crusty bread.

* I used this because it was what I had on hand. Originally I wanted to use rosemary, but when I looked in the cupboard I was out of it. I still think rosemary would work really well.

Local, Organic and Gluten-Free

I seem to be having an epidemic of friends and colleagues being diagnosed with celiac disease these days. Gluten intolerance can really challenge your dietary and shopping choices. If you're also someone who prefers to shop local or organic, your choices are further limited. Unfortunately, many of the gluten-free products sold in supermarkets and health food stores are mass-produced and shipped in from across the continent. What is a mindful consumer to do? Fortunately, there are local gluten-free products.

One product line that comes to mind immediately are the pâtés available from Les Viandes Biologiques de Charlevoix. I'm not sure if they're all gluten-free, but certainly the pâté de campagne and a version of the cretons de porc are. (Seriously! They've replaced the traditional breadcrumbs in the cretons with rice flour.) I also recall that some of their dry sausages are gluten-free. Look for their products at Fromagerie Atwater and Maitre Boucher.

Another local supplier with some gluten-free products is Boucherie Valens. Check the label. Increasingly available around the city, all of the their meat comes from from small family farms in the Huntington region that are devoted to raising their animals humanely and sustainably. I've recently seen their meats, cold-cuts, bacon and sausages at Maitre Boucher, Pousse Ananas, and PA. You can also order from them directly.

While not totally local, GoGo Quinoa is a Quebec-based business that offers organic, fair-trade and gluten-free products imported from cooperatives in South America. Their products are widely available in health food and grocery stores across the province.

For take-home meals to reheat, Restaurant Marché Serafim opposite the Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal offers some gluten-free choices. All of their food is organic and wheat-free. A lot of it is also local. Prices are reasonable, especially considering the location!

I'm sure there are other mindful, gluten-free products out there. If you know of some that I've missed, leave a comment or drop me a note.

Celebrating St-Jean with Quebec Food

This St-Jean we spent a lazy--and hot--day at home. I enjoyed some time in my garden. I also headed down to Atwater Market to pick up some yummies to enjoy with friends later in the day. My main stop was Fromagerie Atwater. They have a great selection of cheese, beers and local charcuterie products, as well as a helpful and knowledgeable staff.

The last few times I've visited, I've been eyeing their selection of organic "bâtons" from Fou du Cochon, an artisinal sausage-maker in Kamouraska. The bâtons look like pepperettes, and are all organic, low salt and made without nitrates. This time I indulged. Being a bit of a spice freak, I chose the "bâton piquante." Although my dining partners found it a bit greasy, we all agreed that it had just the right amount of chew and a fabulous flavour. None of us found it exceptionally fiery, however it was subtly spicy and worked beautifully sliced thinly on a piece of baguette. A little went a long way. The bâtons don't require refrigeration, and I plan on picking up a few next time I go canoe camping or backpacking!

Of course, being in a cheese shop, I couldn't leave without a piece of cheese. I asked for a firm Quebec cheese with a strong flavour, and was offered a taste of "Alfred, Le Fermier," a raw-milk, washed-rind organic cheese from the Charlevoix region (Fromagerie La Station de Compton). One bite and my taste buds were doing the happy dance. Alfred, Le Fermier is produced with milk from a single herd and ripened over eight months. It is described by the producer as having a flowery and nutty flavour. I found it less nutty and more earthy.

My shopping trip was rounded out with a trip through their truly diverse beer section. I almost always come away with at least one beer I've never tried before. This time it was La Blanche à L'Absinthe, a absinthe white beer brewed by Le Micro du Lièvre in Mont Laurier. This is definitely a summer sipping beer! The absinthe herbs give it slightly bitter and lemony taste. Also, it may have been the hot day, but I found the alcohol really going to my head quite quickly with this brew. I found it paired really nicely with the cheese, sausage and bread.

We rounded off our backyard picnic with local strawberries, which are just starting to arrive in the markets. They were red, sweet and succulent. I haven't found any one grower at Atwater market to have consistently better strawberries than another, but do ask if the strawberries are indeed from their own (or a neighbour's) farm.

Stretching Out the Meat

There is no denying it. Organic or small farm, local meat is not cheap. I order mine in bulk once or twice per year directly from the farm. This helps keep the costs down, but the price per kilogram is still much higher than what I'd pay at the grocery store for the conventionally-farmed variety. To stay in budget, preparing meat in the quantities common in many North American recipes is simply not an option for me. Neither is buying conventionally-farmed meat. So what to do?

One of the simplest solutions is to stretch out the meat. The trick is to make the recipe still feel meaty. This is easier in some recipes than others.

Stews are simple. For example, over the weekend I made a crock-pot stew for six using about 500g of stewing beef. To stretch out the beef, I added 2 cups of pre-cooked red kidney beans and 500g of mushrooms. The stew was served along-side baked potatoes and green beans. We all left the table full from a hearty meal. None of us missed the smaller portions of meat in the stew. We even had leftovers!

The addition of beans and mushrooms is one of my favourite ways of stretching out meat. They both tend to have a hearty flavour and texture, and are a good source of B-vitamins, folate, and some minerals. Beans are also relatively high in protein and add valuable fibre to our diets.

Meat loaf is another favourite in our household. Here I tend to do one of two things (or sometime both): mashed black beans or 'ground' TVP (textured vegetable protein) soaked in a Marmite broth. My preference is for the black beans since these are less processed. I use canned or pre-cooked beans, and mash them with a potato masher before adding them into the recipe.

Mashed black beans, TVP or crumbled tempeh are great additions to bulk up chili, spaghetti sauces or hearty stews and soups. I tend to avoid prepared vegetarian ground-beef substitutes because of the high sodium content and the high processing factor.

If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.