By Elizabeth Whalley, RHN

My favourite breakfast classic gets a market makeover in this recipe. Centered around A Bread Affair’s Love at First Bite; a delicious loaf of bread that incorporates the flavours and ingredients of the Lower Mainland. Best of all the rest ingredients can be found at the market year round.

Hazelnut Crusted French Toast with Blueberry Compote

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Love at First Bite from A Bread Affair
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup hazelnuts
• 2 cups blueberries (vendors often sell them frozen at the winter market)
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• Butter or coconut oil

Method:

Place the blueberries in a small sauce pan and simmer over a medium heat for about 20 minutes.

While the blueberries simmer, slice the bread into 1 inch thick slices.

Chop the hazelnuts into a small pieces, place on a plate and set aside.

Combine eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Whisk until light and frothy.

Melt 1 tsp butter(or coconut oil) in a frying pan over medium high heat. Dip once slice at a time into the egg mixture, once on each side. Press one side into the chopped hazelnut and transfer to the hot frying pan. Continue until all of the bread slices have been coated and cooked. Add more butter between slices if necessary.

Turn the heat on the simmering blueberries down to low and add the maple syrup.

Serve the French Toast with the blueberry compote and dollop of strained yogurt, plus maple syrup if needed

Serves 6-8.

By Dan McCash

Arugula Pesto

You don’t often need to read a recipe’s specific ingredient amounts like you’re translating Morse Code ( “2 Tbsps with 1 cup and ½ quart” does not equal “S.O.S.”)

Pesto is an exceptional recipe to flex your own personal taste buds by “approximating” the amount of each ingredient that’s combined and today we’re making it with arugula!

Ingredients

• 2 or more big bunches of fresh Arugula, stem to leaf
  1 or two Tbsp of citrus juice
• as MUCH raw garlic as you please (proportionally, probably about ¾ cup)
• A cup of any nuts, toasted (toasted almonds are dynamite, giving this pungent sauce a very nutty undertone)
• 1/3 cup of grated or powdered parmesan cheese (NO mac & cheese powder, yech!)
• Dash of salt
  Olive oil – however much you can work with adding but appox. 1 cup

Directions

Pack arugula into your food processor (or a friend’s processor if you haven’t got one)

-blitz at the leaves to give an initial chop

-drizzle some olive oil into chopping leaves to help speed it up

Add all your garlic, nuts, and keep pouring in some oil as you go. Drop in some citrus juice and taste. Season to your liking. Keep blending and pour in parmesan cheese.

Once the recipe’s saucy and to your taste, pour in a jar, drizzle a thin layer of oil, seal and refrigerate

Crostinis

Cheese, jam, olives, tapenade, sauces: including basil & tomatoes, there’s a myriad of pantry items that will sit atop crostini crackers to make your dinner party into a tapas lounge for the night!

Ingredients

• 1 bagette
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• some good ol’ S&P

Directions

With the baguette, cut 1/2 cm slices until you can cut no more. Lay slices on parchment-covered cookie sheet. Lightly brush them with olive oil and sprinkle your salt, pepper, and maybe there’s some herbs that you may fancy (ie- a pinch of rosemary is always a hit)

Lay another parchment over baguette tray and seal with a 2nd cookie sheet. Toast in the oven, preheated for 400 F for approx. 7 – 10 minutes.  Be sure to poke in to see how things are toasting–it’s a very short amount of time in the oven before Golden Brown skips to “Burnt Toast”

HINT: if your bread knife is dull, baguettes are much easier to slice when they’ve been in the freezer for an hour.

By Elizabeth Whalley RHN

As the conventional food industry is becoming more and a more globalized, I have opted for a more local diet, as I’m sure many of you have. I will continue to wait patiently for the first tomato of the season after a long winter of countless root vegetables. Eating local allows us to connect to the environmental changes going on around us, changes that are often as innate as the changing of the seasons.

Thus, you can understand my excitement in seeing the many varieties of peppers at the market last week after a long, pepper-less winter. All of the different shapes, sizes and colours were so alluring. If you’re lucky you’ll even get a history for your pepper varietal from your knowledgeable farmer. If you’re not so lucky (as I seem to have found myself), you’ll be led astray to the land of incredibly hot peppers. Not to worry, as  possibilities for peppers are endless and roasting helps to mellow out those spicy peppers. Here is my homage to local market peppers of any shape, colour and size;

Basil Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

• A few pounds of your favourite peppers
  
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small bunch basil
• 1 small bunch chives
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons goat cheese (I used feta, it added a great depth of flavour)
• 2 tablespoons quality olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the peppers for roasting; for smaller peppers chop off the top, for larger cut into quarters. Be sure to remove as much of the seeds and membrane as possible, after roasting hot peppers can actually be quite mild without them. Chop off a small portion of the top of the garlic cloves (this allows them to roast much better).

Arrange the peppers on a baking sheet, along with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil (reserving the remaining tablespoon for the filling), sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes.

While the peppers cool combine the remaining ingredients, along with the now roasted garlic in a food processor. Pulse until a smooth consistency is reached. Season to taste, I found with the feta no additional salt was needed.

Transfer the filling to a piping bag. If you don’t have one a zip lock bag with the tip cut off works in a pinch. Pipe the filling inside the peppers. Place tops on the peppers and return to a 375 degree oven for an additional 5 minutes. Serve warm with freshly cracked pepper and grated Parmesan or asiago cheese (optional).