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Armiko is a traditional Sephardic dish that is usually made during the summer months when the tomatoes are sun ripened and plentiful. It’s a simple vegetarian dish that can be served as a side dish or like an appetizer. Armiko recipes change from city to city, some are eaten cold, some warm. The recipe below is my favourite, growing up, my mom made this version fairly often, it’s a great summer dish, and it definitely gets better the next day.
- 3 lb. tomatoes
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 large white or yellow onions, diced
- 2 green peppers
- Kosher salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/3 cup uncooked rice
- Parsley
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Wash and cut a small X on the tomatoes, blanch in boiling water for about 30 seconds, remove the tomatoes, let cool for a few minutes. Peel and core them, cut into small chunks, set aside.
Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large pot, add the onions and cook for 5-6 minutes, add the peppers and cook for a few more minutes, add the tomatoes and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, add the sugar, season with salt, turn the heat to medium low, cover with a lid and cook until the tomatoes are soft and some of the liquid has evaporated. Add the rice; turn the heat to low and cook until the rice is cooked. Let the armiko rest for a few hours at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.
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I made these zucchini fritters using the leftovers from the stuffed zucchini. I often toss the centres into a big pot and make my special potage which consists of all the vegetables and herbs I have in the fridge or make a zucchini gratin but every once in a while I make these fritters. They are always a hit with dinner guests; they can be served hot or at room temperature. The fritters are simple to make but there is a crucial step, as soon as salt is added to the zucchini, they release all of their liquid and by the time the third fritter is placed on the skillet, the mixture looks like a shredded zucchini soup. So, try to squeeze as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible and start with only 3 tablespoons of flour and add another one only if you think the fritters are going to fall apart. Adding more flour makes cakey fritters, rather than crisp ones. As for the cheese in the mixture, you could use any hard cheese or even feta or you could leave it out if you want to make the fritters dairy free.
- 1 lb zucchini, grated
- 2 eggs
- 3-4 tbsp all-purpose unbleached flour
- 2 oz. kasseri or kashkaval cheese any other hard cheese
- 1/3 cup dill, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup green onion, chopped
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup canola oil for frying
Wash and trim the zucchini (or use the leftovers from the stuffed zucchini), grate with the coarse side of the box grater, place in a colander and sprinkle with a little salt, let stand for a few minutes, and squeeze as much liquid as you can. Mix the zucchini with the eggs, 3 tablespoons of flour, cheese, dill and green onion, season with salt.
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large skillet, place about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and cook on both sides until golden brown. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
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Tian originated in Provence, the south of France. It’s a simple vegetable dish that usually includes vegetables like summer squash, tomatoes, eggplants, onions, potatoes and peppers, and it’s baked in a clay oven dish. The word tian actually refers to both the baking dish and the roasted vegetables. Since I had zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes from the farm, I thought I would use those three vegetables. The tian can be topped with shredded cheese or pieces of goat cheese but I wanted to keep it simple. The recipe below makes enough for 4-6 to enjoy as a side dish. I served it with roasted chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and thyme.
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil plus more to drizzle over the vegetables
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 large yellow squash
- 3-4 Roma tomatoes
- Herbes de Provence
- 2-3 thyme sprigs
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan, add the onion, sauté for a few minutes, add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes, add half a teaspoon of herbes de Provence, and season with salt, layer the onion mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Slice the zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes. Arrange the vegetables tightly over the onion mixture, sprinkle with thyme, herbes de Provence and kosher salt. Drizzle a little olive oil over the vegetables and bake until the vegetables are cooked and tender.
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I have a brown thumb, and everyone around me knows this! We have house plants but I don’t think I have watered them more than once in my life and my husband who loves them and takes care of them trusts our neighbours more than me to water them when he goes away on a business trip. I had never planted anything in a garden, or harvested anything until I moved to Canada, well, if you don’t count picking a few figs from the tree in the garden of our summer house. I look forward to the month of August all year long, especially the last 10-15 days of August as that marks the time of the year when the vegetables start to make their appearance at the farm. As I said, I have a brown thumb but I can pick vegetables, in fact, I almost become euphoric by the sight of all the eggplants, tomatoes and peppers, oh and onions, let’s not forget onions!
The farm, Jardins Deslauriers is located about 60 km South East of Montreal, in a village called Sainte Madeleine, they have berries and all kinds of different vegetables. The season for Jardins Deslauriers starts in June with strawberries, then they have raspberries and for the first time this year they had blueberries. In August, they open the farm for you pick vegetables. When you arrive, you go to the little kiosk and get bushels or smaller baskets and you are given a map, you can then drive to the field you like, pick the vegetables and pay on your way out.
This year, the farm opened on Saturday and we left home as soon as baby Sara woke up, so did our friends Robin and Will. It was so much fun picking vegetables with them, especially little Georgia, she had a blast. Our first stop was the eggplant field; she picked both baby and giant eggplants. Our second stop was the pepper field, we picked lots of different peppers, and then we stopped at the red and white onion field before we went to the kiosk where they sell other vegetables. After all, you can only spend so much time at a vegetable farm carrying a little munchkin in your arms.
Once we arrived home, baby Sara went down for her nap and I found myself in the kitchen with a bushel each of eggplants, peppers and tomatoes along with a few other vegetables, I first made our absolute favourite, I call it an eggplant spread, it’s basically a mixture of roasted eggplant, tomato, pepper, onion and garlic. It’s a great topping on a piece of baguette or as part of an antipasto platter. I really, highly recommend it.
If you decide to stop by and pick a few vegetables, the farm is located at 2325 Rang St-Simon Est, Ste. Madeleine, St. Hyacinthe, PQ, J0H 1S0.
- 4 large eggplants
- 8-10 red peppers
- 1-2 green peppers
- 4 large red onions
- 6-7 tomatoes
- 12 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
Preheat the oven 450°F. Wash and cut all the vegetables into large chunks, add the peeled whole garlic cloves, season liberally with salt and toss with extra-virgin olive oil. Bake for about 20 minutes, mix and return the baking pan to the oven, cook for another 20-25 minutes and mix again, reduce the oven temperature to 425°F, check every 10-15 minutes and stir the vegetables. The vegetables will release a lot of liquid first, cook until all the liquid has evaporated, place into jars, let cool to room temperature and refrigerate.
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We had an amazing luck with stone fruits this year, they look good at the farmers market and they are still good when we come home! I first made this stone fruit tea cake a few weeks ago and the other day, we bought lots and lots of apricots, and all the way home I imagined using some of the apricots in an apricot almond tart. I didn’t have a recipe for it and a quick search on Google led me to this recipe, it looked so good! I decided to make it right away. I didn’t have all the ingredients to make the gluten free tart crust and not being very familiar with gluten free baking, I didn’t want to start making substitutions. I thought I would use a pate brisée for the crust and it worked wonderfully. The filling itself is quite simple, just butter, honey, almonds, eggs and some cream. Instead of making one large tart, I made individual ones and there was some extra filling, I was not going to waste that! So, I washed a few more apricots, halved and pitted them, dropped a teaspoon or so of the filling on each apricot and baked them with the tarts. The tart was just scrumptious, not too sweet, and very fragrant with the honey, apricots and almonds, it was just the perfect fruit dessert. We liked the filling so much that I am sure I’ll make just apricots filled with the delicious filling for an even simpler dessert before the end of the apricot season.
Crust:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 stick (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 4-5 tbsp ice water
Filling:
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 cup ground almonds
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup (60gr) heavy cream
- 8-10 apricots, halved and pitted
To make the crust, place flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor, pulse for 2 seconds to combine, add the cold butter and pulse until the butter cubes are the size of peas. Start with 2 tablespoons of ice cold water and add 1 tablespoon at a time pulsing, try to avoid adding too much water, the dough should come together when you squeeze the mixture in your hand. Gather the dough together on the counter, form a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the dough and fit into one large 9 inch tart pan or in 4 4 ½ inch individual ones, using the rolling pin or a sharp knife, remove the excess dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, dock the dough with a fork, and line the tart shell with a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil and use either pie weights or beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature.
Wash and pit the apricots, if you are using a large tart pan, leave the halves intact, if you are using smaller tart pans, slice the apricots. Arrange the apricots in the tart shell(s), set aside.
Meanwhile, mix the softened butter, honey, ground almonds and eggs with a whisk, fold in the heavy cream with a spatula and pour over the apricots.
Bake until the almond mixture sets and the top is golden brown. Serve warm with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.
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