greens of June

tortilla chip dinners and galette vs. pie

The cool, rainy weather of the past week has been comforting, to be honest. The last few years it’s been so sunny and hot already in May and June that by the time the solstice arrives I’m already getting weary of summer. If it’s hot where you are, I am sorry! As a lifelong Lower Mainlander I graciously accept hot weather from mid-June until labour day weekend and that is all. This is our first summer in a fourth-floor apartment— it hasn’t been too bad so far, and I’m hoping the angle of the sun will continue to protect us from overheating come July.

On Saturday, my mom had the night off, so she and Jimm came out to treat Jeff to a belated birthday dinner. We went to The Gull in our old neighbourhood, a place that has great cocktails and changes their menu often enough that it’s rare I eat the same thing twice there. (They do have a few mainstays on both the food and drink menu, like their very good sandwiches and fries, and the St George soda.) I didn’t take any photos, but the falafel with sumac-tahini labneh was excellent. Jeff and I each got the luxury of having two drinks, since Jimm was driving. I loved the On Fuego, which I can’t remember if I’ve had before, but it uses tequila, limi, chili liqueur and charred pineapple syrup. A perfect hit of spice and sour with a little bit of smoke and sweet.

My mom mentioned she has next week off and no plans, so we’re taking a quick trip to Oregon to visit a winery or two and spend a couple of days eating good food in Portland. I haven’t been since 2019, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s changed and what’s still around. And I’m excited to finally visit my friend Claire, though we are both devastated that the Star Trek: Discovery-themed tearoom is closing forever only two days before I arrive. Claire’s secured some of their raktajino tea blend for me to try, but I’m still heartbroken I’ll never get to see the Michael Burnham mural in person.

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I made it my mission this week to use up our remaining bags of tortilla chips, starting with the Indian-ish nachos, another hit from Priya Krishna, inspired by papri chaat. These are a bit involved compared to regular nachos, being that they have a few different sauces to add to them when they come out of the oven, but it’s no different than making your own guacamole or salsa, and they’re so, so good that I promise it’s worth it. I forgot to cook the beans this time until it was much too late, so I added corn instead. The cilantro-jalapeño chutney is easy enough to make in a little food processor or blender, though mine always comes out more like a pesto rather than a thin sauce that can be drizzled, even when I add more liquid to it. I just kind of scatter it over the top with a fork while whispering “it’s fine, this is fine,” to myself.

I was out of tamarind paste, which I prefer to use to make the sweet sauce, but the maple syrup and lime juice mix suggested in the recipe worked in a pinch. The best part, though, is the chhonk (or tadka, depending on what region you’re in): ghee or oil in which you toast spices and then add to a completed dish for flavour. In this case, these are cumin seeds and hot chili powder. I love the little extra crunch from the cumin seeds, and of course, ghee always makes things better. The addition of yogurt is great, but you won’t miss it terribly if you don’t have any (we didn’t).

For further chip eating purposes, we made another hummus, this one with roasted sweet potato. My mom made this for a family gathering a few months ago and I really enjoyed it, despite being pretty lukewarm on sweet potato in general. While the chickpeas cooked, I wrapped two smallish sweet potatoes in foil to roast for an hour, went to the gym while they cooled, and then peeled them to combine with my usual hummus method. I needed to add a little more liquid here to get the texture I prefer, and some extra lemon juice is nice anyway to balance the sweetness.

The recipe here is the one my mom used and is fairly similar, but will make half as much as what I made. A tip, if you’re using this one: cooking the chickpeas a second time as in my instant pot method (or in a pot on the stove, if you don’t have one) will still get you a very smooth hummus without the hardship of trying to pull all the skins off the chickpeas. Personally I felt using pumpkin pie spices might be kind of weird, so I went with my usual choices of cumin, coriander, and smoked paprika on top, along with some smoked Maldon salt which I always forget I have. I like cinnamon in other savoury dishes, I just thought it might end up feeling too dessert-like here, given the sweetness factor. So if you do try the pie spice in this, let me know what you think of it!

I made this cabbage and mushroom galette, for no other reason than I felt like spending a couple of hours making something, and the flavours in this are so great. This is a beloved recipe but I am certainly no Deb Perelman: I do not find a galette easier or quicker to make than pizza. And that’s even with me adapting her dough recipe. I hate working with frozen butter, so I straight up skip the freezing the flour and butter step, working the butter in cold from the fridge with my hands like I do for pie. I’ve found a full hour’s rest time in the fridge makes the dough too stiff to easily roll out, so I make do with thirty minutes. I think Deb is just a stronger person than me, mentally.

Anyway, galette dough is more forgiving to work with than pie dough because of its higher moisture content, and it still comes out really nice and flaky. The filling is pretty easy to make: slice half a cabbage (or use the slicer attachment for the food processor, if you’re lazy in the same way as me) and cook it down with some onion and chopped shiitakes and a few herbs. Tarragon is the one that comes through the most here, but I also really like the more subtle dill and thyme. And if you don’t have an herb-infused vinegar, just use white wine vinegar. No one will know. I love the horseradish sour cream, and usually add whatever fresh dill I have leftover to it, too. It takes about half an hour in the oven— just the right amount of time to clean up the mess you’ve made of the kitchen, pour a drink, and sit down moments before the timer goes off.

Local rhubarb and strawberries are starting to show up at the produce store, so I ushered in June in my favourite way: making them into a pie. This was the first pie I’ve made in this apartment after years in a basement suite, which is a scary thing, since pastry dough can be so temperamental. Will it stick to the counter? Is the humidity different? Is it too warm in here to rest at room temperature? (Answers: yes, yes, and not yet.) So my top crust came out pretty ugly, because it kept crumbling apart while I tried to roll it out, but I don’t mind so much. I’ve eaten pies that look great and taste whatever, and I’d much rather make a hideous goblin of a pie so long as it tastes amazing. This pie, I’m pleased to inform you, tasted amazing.

I have a guide here to making a butter crust (including vegan modifications), and if you want to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie, you’ll need about five cups total of chopped fruit for the filling— a little more than a pound of each. Mix with a cup and a half of white sugar and a quarter cup of corn starch. Yes, the sugar sounds like a lot, but remember rhubarb and strawberries are quite tart! In an apple pie, for example, you would need closer to six cups of fruit, but only about a cup of sugar. Sometimes I feel like adding a pinch of cardamom or cinnamon, but it really doesn’t need anything more; it’s a simply delicious pie as it is. Serve it warm with whipped cream or plain vanilla ice cream, like Steph and I did while watching Star Trek.

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Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations, especially while I’m still looking for work, are greatly appreciated. I’ll likely take next week off since I won’t have cooked while I’m away, but if I have lots of culinary adventures to share from Portland, I’ll see you next Friday.

In the meantime, happy Pride month, and incidentally, happy 40th anniversary to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the most romantic movie of all time!