not in front of the klingons
zucchini season, long weekend barbecue, and the perfect pie
Hello, my friends. Despite being only a four-day work week, hasn’t it somehow felt incredibly long? We’ve witnessed multiple heads on the social media hydra being cut off and regrown (do not join Threads; certainly no good can come of a Posting app run by the Brand-Related Content mill). It’s also been quite hot the past few days, which basically turns my brain to sand. All I want to do is sit in the shade in the yard with a nice cold beer and a good book, but sadly there are only so many hours in a day to accomplish all else that needs to be done.
Jeff and I were both too hungry and whiny to think of something to cook on Friday, so we went up to the Shipyards night market and waited in line at Kyu Grill, the Hawaiian-Japanese food truck, which we’d been to once before in the River District. I got the spicy mayo hero, and Jeff got the mango chicken one with okonomi fries on the side. It seemed like we got the end of a batch of fries because they were a bit overdone, but the sandwiches were excellent; although a giant hero was probably a bit ambitious for me, only ten days out from having a tooth extracted, but so far nothing bad has happened.
Afterwards we went to Copperpenny, the gin bar & distillery, for a drink. I looked over their new summer menu for ages before deciding on something simple, tried and true: the dirty martini. It comes in an ice-cold glass with two castelvetrano olives and is perfectly balanced. Jeff usually gets the French 75 which is his favourite gin drink, but he opted for one of their signature cocktails this time, and we walked back home at sunset pleasantly buzzed, full of food, and very happy. Oh, and a hot tip: if you’re having a drink at the bar and planning to buy a bottle to take home, you can add it to your bill and get 10% off. You really can’t beat that for locally-made gin.
On Saturday, Jeff and Natalie and I went on a bike ride out to Mount Pleasant. It was a bit hard for me as I’ve barely ridden more than just to the store and back in about eight months, especially compared to Jeff who regularly bikes to work, and Natalie who lives in Lynn Valley and bikes around the mountains for fun. We won’t get into my experience crossing the Lions Gate, but other than that, I enjoyed myself and it felt good to go around some parts of the city I don’t spend much time in these days.
Our dinner spot was Pizzeria Grano, a vegetarian neapolitan-style pizza joint that has a full vegan menu. We shared the caesar salad and two pizzas: the bee sting (spicy pepperoni and honey) and the tartufo (creamy mushroom with roasted garlic). I thought the caesar could use a little more bite in the dressing, but the pizzas were fantastic and I can’t wait to go back and try some of the others. Natalie was very excited about the dips you can order for your pizza crusts— she and I are both fans of ranch, and as a vegan she rarely gets to enjoy it. Jeff was content with the chili oil that was brought out along with the pizzas.
I took my bike home on the seabus while the other two rode the whole way (I was not facing that bridge again), and I only beat them back by about five or ten minutes because I’d just missed the boat when I got to the station. But I didn’t mind a few minutes of cooling down alone in the shade of the yard while I waited.
On Sunday, we had a couple of friends over to sit in the yard and eat barbecue for dinner, and then watch that masterpiece of camp known as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. We provided veggie burgers and Chris and Denai brought corn on the cob and German-style potato salad (Steph brought beer). I made a smoky chili butter to go with the corn: just add salt, garlic granules, smoked paprika, and cayenne to a few tablespoons of butter. It’s almost no effort but it totally elevates the corn, which will be sweet and just lightly charred in places if you do it right. Leave a couple layers of the husk in place so that the leaves shrink back as they crisp in the heat, letting most of the corn steam inside and stay juicy, with some of the kernels blackening on the grill.
We harvested the (small) amount of rhubarb from our yard last week, and Jeff bought a few more stalks at the produce store to supplement it so I could make an apple-rhubarb pie for dessert. Strawberry-rhubarb is of course the classic, but I like this one too— it’s one my dad always made with his homegrown rhubarb when I was a kid, presumably because apples were cheaper than strawberries, so it’s nostalgic for me as well as delicious. Making pie is sort of a production, yes, but I’ve made so many now that I have it down to an organised routine: make the dough, then make the filling while the dough rests, then roll out the dough while the fruit macerates and assemble the pie, preheating the oven and tidying up while it chills in the fridge. My basic guide to a butter crust (with vegan adaptation) is here.
To go with the pie, Jeff made a vegan vanilla ice cream. He accidentally added a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a teaspoon and was worried, but I told him it’d be fine, and when he tasted it he agreed he’d be making it this way from now on. He also added in swirls of leftover apple wine reduction, so the ice cream itself tasted a lot like an apple pie. I don’t care how meta it is, the combination was incredible. And I think this may have been my most beautiful pie crust to date.
There was one ear of grilled corn left after the barbecue, and the first two yellow zucchinis from our garden were ready, so I made the version of zucchini butter pasta we’d enjoyed last summer, cutting the corn off the cob and adding it to the cooked-down zucchini along with some chopped kalamata olives and basil. I also used the remainder of the chili butter I’d made in this, which was pretty great. It’s almost nothing like the original dish this way, but that’s how some of the best recipes are: a jumping-off point for an ingredient or a flavour profile, where you can work in other tastes and textures as you like.
I had a rare craving for chicken, and because we are deep into barbecue season now, decided to make souvlaki. You don’t really need a recipe for such a simple marinade, just mix together some olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper, oregano, and maybe a little wine vinegar or yogurt if you want more acidity. But this is one you don’t want to marinate more than a few hours (rather than overnight) because the acid can make the meat tough if it’s in there too long. I used boneless chicken thigh pieces which are a bit more forgiving on the grill than breast meat, and they came out really juicy and flavourful.
To go with it, I made this grilled flatbread which I’ve enjoyed in past summers. I really like this recipe because it doesn’t have a lot of prep work involved and only an hour of rise time, but cooking it on the grill gives it a great chewy texture and taste. The za’atar isn’t necessary, but it is fantastic if you have it around. I also made tzatziki using a few Persian cucumbers and the last bit of plain Greek yogurt I had in the fridge. It was only enough for a half batch of what I’d normally make (the link above goes to my recipe), and it was just enough, but I was still bereft not to have leftovers because it’s so satisfying to eat. I meant to make a little tomato salad to go with this dinner, too, and forgot. But I’m pretty sure tzatziki counts as salad.
The Tuesday after a long weekend is always a tough one, so all I did after work was chop and roast some cauliflower for tacos. I mixed cumin, smoked hot paprika, salt, and coriander into a few tablespoons of olive oil to toss the cauliflower, then roasted at 450°F for about 25 minutes. They get nicely browned that way, and if you want the florets extra crisp and charred, you can put the pan on the bottom rack instead of the centre one. You could also halve the cauliflower and drizzle it with the oil instead, and cook it on the grill rather than turn on the oven when it’s hot (we’re in a basement so it’s still pretty cool in here).
We didn’t have crema or sour cream which I’d have liked to use in these, but I did have some fresh mayo I’d made for the burgers on the weekend, which was okay too. I made green cabbage slaw to top them with, and added avocado, feta, and pickled red onion. I ate leftovers the next day without even bothering to warm up the cauliflower again, and they were still delicious.
The first grape and cherry tomatoes in our garden are starting to ripen, though someone (or something) has been snatching them out of the yard before we’ve been able to eat any, which is frustrating. We also have lots of black raspberries on the bush at the moment, and I’m planning to make these bars with them today or tomorrow, but am accepting other ideas because there are way more berries outside! I always tend to make jam and then never use it, so not that.
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 donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Anyway, who else is excited to see the Barbie movie?