Here are some recipes we've collected over the years. The dates refer to the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park newsletter they were first published in.
On this page:
- Preserved lemons
- "Christmas" Bread Pudding
- Heidi's Red Cabbage
- Jessie's Ukrainian Borscht
- Low Calorie Caesar Salad Dressing With Shrimp
- Pan de Muerto, "Bread of the Dead."
- Dufferin Grove Park Green Tomato Chutney
- Canadian Living Magazine's "Best Oatmeal Cookie Mix"
- North Ontario Winter Potato Soup
- Lamb's quarters potato curry
- Slow cooking at the park
- Braised collard greens (or kale, chard, turnip, or other greens) for four people
Preserved Lemons
Hamad M'Rakad
Preserved lemons
4 lemons (choose them with thick skins)
4 tablespoons sea salt
Juice of 4 more lemons, or more
Wash and scrub the lemons. The classic Moroccan way is to cut each lemon in quarters but not right through, so that the pieces are still attached at the stem end, and to stuff each with plenty of salt. Put them in a glass jar, pressing them down so that they are squashed together, and close the jar. Leave for 3-4 days, by which time the lemons will have released some of their juices and the skins will have softened a little. Press them down as much as you can and add fresh lemon juice to cover them entirely. Close the jar and leave in a cool place for a t least a month, after which they should be ready. The longer they are left, the better the flavour. (If a piece of lemon is not covered, it develops a white mold which is harmless and just needs to be washed off.)
Before using, rinse to get rid of the salt and scoop out and discard the pulp - only the skin is eaten.
From Claudia Roden, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
From our neighbour Mary Wigle:
"Christmas" Bread Pudding
adapted from a recipe in the Globe and Mail
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries
2 apples, peeled and diced into large pieces
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup water
7 cups of cubed bread (challah, cranberry focaccia, raisin bread, or Dufferin Grove whole wheat!)
2 cups whipping cream (or light cream)
1 cup (whole) milk
6 eggs
1+1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup brown sugar (or Sucunat)
Combine raisins, cranberries, apples, rum & water in a pot and let simmer for 3-5 minutes until most of liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat and let cool. Liberally butter an 8-cup stainless steel bowl. Place a round of buttered parchment in the base of buttered bowl.
Beat cream, milk, eggs, vanilla and brown sugar together thoroughly. Layering bread then fruit, fill the bowl, finishing with a layer of bread on top. Pour custard mix over top and let sit for 15 minutes to absorb.
Preheat oven to 325F. Place bowl on a baking sheet (in case of spills) and bake uncovered for about an hour until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.
Heidi's Red Cabbage, from our Weekly Market Notes, October 14, 2004
The Arosa Sun
And here is one more recipe, to mark the fact that 48 years ago today, the ocean liner Arosa Sun docked in Montreal and a boatload of just over 900 new immigrant hopefuls came down the gangplank -- including my mother Heidi, my brother Henrik, and I. To celebrate that feat of migration, I offer my mother's recipe for German-style red cabbage. Germans, as many will know, are also called krauts, and they do know how to make cabbage taste good. (Both Sosnicki's and Greenfields e-mailed that they'll be bringing red cabbage to this market).
1 kg red cabbage, approx. - cut finely
3 med. apples - peel, cut thin slicesSaute in:
60 g lard (is best!) or butter for 15 - 20 min.Add 1 whole peeled onion
1 bay leaf
5 cloves
salt
sugar (be generous)
3 - 4 Tbsp white vinegar
125 ml waterCook (lid on) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on old or new harvest
Throw out the onion and add more sugar / vinegar to taste.Freezes well.
Jessie's Ukrainian Borscht:
-3 large Beets
-pkt. Onion Soup (I make my own!!)
-3 large Potatoes (red ones are nice, leave the skins on, less work, more vitamins!)
-1/2 head green Cabbage
-2 large handfuls of Green Beans (optional)
-1 large cooking Onion
-2 large carrots (or a bunch of our small NEW field carrots!)
-1 heaping tablespoon Sea Salt
-2 tablespoons Vinegar
-1.5 Cups Tomato Juice ('tis the season, use our Roma's, make your own fresh juice!)
-2 Cups (tub) Sour Cream
-6 Slices Bacon (optional - but adds great flavour if you're into meat.) *Ben's mother stews all ingredients with a Ham bone, very tasty!*
Chop or shred (I prefer shredding) beets and onions in a large soup pot. Just cover veggies with boiling water. Add onion soup mix & sea salt. Cook until beets are almost done. Add chopped or shredded potatoes & carrots and add more boiling water to cover veggies (you may not need more water, the point is to keep all veggies submerged in liquid) Cook until potatoes are almost done. Add chopped cabbage & beans. Cook until cabbage is cooked and all vegetables are soft. Now, take your pot off it's heat source. YOU'RE DONE COOKING THE SOUP! Add tomato juice and vinegar. Fry up your bacon and chop. Add bacon AND the grease (I know it's bad, but it's just soo good!) to your soup. In a separate bowl add sour cream and about 2 cups of beet broth from your soup pot and stir together. (If you attempt to put sour cream in with all the veggies and broth it curdles and doesn't turn out as nice.) Add sour cream and broth back into your pot and stir together. Your borscht is done! After it begins to cool, it will turn a beautiful 'pink' colour. (When I was a little girl I LOVED 'PINK' soup.)
Low Calorie Caesar Salad Dressing With Shrimp
From the Farmer's Market: Teresa Snively (Jessie Sosnicki's mother) introduced us to her salad dressing, served on Ted Thorpe's lettuce when the park staff went to visit Sosnicki's farm for a barbecue. This is what Teresa wrote when we asked her for the recipe:
"I was kind of surprised when I went to pick up my jar from Jessie's and almost every bit of the salad dressing was gone!
I'm very happy you all liked it so much - I have been known to hurt people with the strength of the garlic in my dressings/recipes so I try and be careful.
I have no idea where I got this recipe - likely from the internet - what a treasure trove I find there - I usually write down where I get them from but not this time. I get a lot of recipes from the TV Guide - so maybe it even came from there.
This recipe actually came, as you can see, also as a marinade for shrimp, to then grill and serve on the salad. I've made it with the shrimp and it is ABSOLUTELY SCRUMPTIOUS!!! I doubled this recipe and added a bit of water to make the 500 ml jar that I brought along to Jessie's."
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LOW CALORIE CAESAR SALAD DRESSING WITH SHRIMP
In food processor:
mince 2 large cloves garlic then add:
1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese (1% is great) (I didn't have cottage cheese on Sun so I used fat free sour cream)
1/4 cup low fat mayonnaise (I didn't have it so I used 1/2 miracle whip and 1/2 Hellmans - I usually like to make mayonnaise from scratch but was in a hurry)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp. Worchestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon of your favorite oil
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper
Puree until smooth. (After standing a while it may get very thick so I usually always add some water just before serving to make it the consistancy that I need it to be.)
Serve on one romaine lettuce with the bitter centre of the leaves out and ripped small with bacon bits and homemade croutons.
Some shrimp that have been marinated in a bit of this dressing for 30 minutes and then just grilled until done (about 1 1/2 min per side) are wonderful on this salad.
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[October 2000] A recipe from David Anderson, director of Clay and Paper Theatre and the Night of Dread parade:
Bread of the Dead
Pan de Muerto, "Bread of the Dead."
In celebration of Mexico's Day of the Dead, this bread is often shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough rolled out and attached to resemble bones.
- ½ cup of butter 5 to 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup of milk 2 packages instant yeast
- ½ cup of water 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon whole anise seed ½ cup of sugar
- 4 eggs
In a saucepan over a medium flame heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling. Meanwhile, measure out 1½ cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1½ cups of flour, the yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1½ hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons, or round loaves with "bones" placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.
Glaze:
½ cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of fresh orange juice, 2 tablespoons grated orange zest. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush. If desired, sprinkle on coloured sugar while glaze is still damp.
[November 2000] By popular request, the Dufferin Grove Park Green Tomato Chutney recipe (we have to use our park garden tomatoes green because the red ones always get stolen):
Dufferin Grove Park Green Tomato Chutney
- 16 cups diced green tomatoes 8 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 8 cups onions, sliced thin 4 minced garlic cloves
- 8 cups apples, coarsely chopped 20 juniper berries
- 3 cups packed brown sugar 16 cloves
- 2 cups raisins 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 chili peppers, left whole 2 cups water.
Mix all together in a big pot and cook slowly for 2-3 hours, until everything is very soft. If you don't want your house to get smelly from the vinegar, cook it outside over a fire like we do in the park. This freezes well so we don't can it. Excellent with fresh bread and cheese.
[January 2001] Some people think the recipes for rink house cookies and the potato soup are a secret. They're not.
1. Canadian Living Magazine's "Best Oatmeal Cookie Mix":
(Donna Bartolini, who used to work for the magazine, brought this recipe to the park, four years ago. It's enough for four batches of oatmeal cookies).
- 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 4 ½ cups quick-cooking oats 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 4 cups firmly packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons salt.
Mix these things and store in an air-tight container for up to two months. To make one batch of cookies, take:
- ½ cup softened butter 4 teaspoons water
- 3 ¼ cookie mix 1 teaspoon real vanilla
- 1 beaten egg 1 cup chocolate chips
In a large bowl, beat butter into cookie mix until blended. Stir in water, egg, and vanilla. Form dough into balls and squash onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes or until golden. Makes about two dozen large cookies.
2. North Ontario Winter Potato Soup:
(Jutta Mason learned to make this soup from an overworked farm wife near Matachewan. It was so cold in those parts that the trees cracked at night, which made the wolves howl.)
- 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup of cauliflower pieces, if you have some
- 1 medium onion, chopped 1 small can of corn
- 2 medium potatoes, chopped into half-inch pieces
- 2 medium carrots, chopped into half-inch pieces water to cover (about 3 cups)
- 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour 1 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon of salt 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
- 1 small bay leaf 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne
- fresh ground pepper
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy pot and slowly cook the onion until it's translucent, about five minutes or more. Add the potato pieces and the carrot pieces, stirring to coat them with the butter. Cover with the water, bring to a boil, and then turn down to simmer. After about 6 minutes, add the cauliflower. After another five minutes, add the corn.
While the soup is simmering, make a white sauce in a small saucepan or a double boiler, by melting the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, mixing in the two tablespoons of flour, and then slowly adding the cup of milk, stirring continuously. When the sauce is smooth, add the salt and the bay leaf and keep at a very low heat until the potato-vegetable mixture cooking in the other pot is tender. Then remove the bay leaf, pour the white sauce into the soup, add the parsley, the cayenne, and the pepper, and taste for seasoning. Serve with fresh bread.
When the weather is so cold the trees are cracking, or when you've been skating at our rink for two hours straight, you need the cayenne.
[June 2001] This month's recipe: May and June are the season for young "lamb's quarters," the greenish-silvery weed that comes up everywhere and tastes similar to spinach. There was plenty to weed out in the park's native species gardens, and instead of being thrown on the compost, it ended up in Jane Price's Indian potato recipe, Aloo Gajjar.
Lamb's quarters potato curry:
- 2 Tablespoons ghee or butter
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 3 medium potatoes, in cubes the size of your thumbnail
- 3 cups lamb's quarters, (just leaves, no stalks) coarsely chopped
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- salt
- juice of one lemon
Heat the ghee or butter (high heat) and add the cumin seed. When the seeds begin to crackle, add the potatoes and turn the heat to high medium. Fry and cook the potatoes until mostly cooked (about 6 minutes), then add the lamb's quarters. Mix well and sprinkle with chili powder, coriander, salt and turmeric. Stir to coat spices evenly, cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 minutes. Add lemon juice just before serving.
[October 2001]
Slow cooking at the park:
Barbara Kerr and her family came and picked elderberries in the park in early September and Barbara made pies. She followed this up at the end of the month by cooking a cassoulet in the residual heat of the smaller bake oven. This slow-cooked dish is a French specialty containing white beans, tomatoes, and various kinds of meat. In parts of France the pot was never removed from the oven except to dish up some for dinner and then to add some more ingredients and put it back in to cook again. One of Barbara's recipes said that the cassoulet of Mere Clemence in Montparnasse simmered for twenty years, while another one in a nearby town was cooking for over a hundred years, until it was interrupted by the German occupation in 1940. Barbara's clay pot was only in for a day, and then the stew fed a large party of people, with none left over to keep cooking. Slow cooking like this can be done in the park oven on Wednesdays (overnight) and on Saturdays in the daytime. To borrow an oven key for your stew, call the park at 416/392-0913 and leave a message. (Recipes for pizza and slow cooking stews can be found in two scrap books at the rink house.)
[January 2004] People keep asking about how you cook the Greenfields farmers' market organic greens - here's how:
Braised collard greens (or kale, chard, turnip, or other greens) for four people
- 4 bunches collards or other greens, 1 onion, diced
- long stems and tough ribs removed 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- Salt 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 tablespoons butter (or duck fat, rendered from farmer Ute Zell's ducks)
Plunge the greens into a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook them for 10 minutes, then remove to a bowl. Reserve one half cup of the cooking water. In a wide skillet, heat the butter or duck fat, add the onion, garlic and red pepper flakes, and stir over medium heat until the garlic is lightly coloured and the onion is soft. Add the greens and their reserved cooking water and 1 teaspoon salt. Turn down the heat, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Taste again for salt. They can use a lot. (Recipe adapted from Deborah Madison).