A Year in Lucy's Kitchen

For those not in the know, Lucy Waverman is the food writer for the Globe and Mail. She is the author of eight cookbooks. The newest one is called "A Year in Lucy's Kitchen". A common trend in some new books coming out is the idea of cooking in season. Of course this is not a new idea, but recently, things have come full circle. With the wide spread Slow Food Movement and the emergence of Farmers Markets, cooking in the season and becoming more aware of the foods available locally is on more peoples radar.

Lucy Waverman's new book is not only divided by season, but month to month. Being that the class was in April, I decided to keep in the early spring months with recipes from March, April and May sections of the book. Here is what we cooked:

Lyonaise Salad
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Fiery Fiddleheads with Penne
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Maple Infused Salmon with Watercress Salad
Fingerling Potatoes with Herbes de Provence
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Banofee Pie



A traditionally French salad. Nothing really different in this. A classic mixture of crisp lardon, mixed greens, garlic croutons, a poached egg, and a simple vinaigrette.
Tasted as you would imagine it would.






Next was something a little more interesting. Fiddleheads are common this time of year in Quebec, parts of Ontario and New Brunswick. But most people are a little confused as what to do with these young ferns. I loved the fact the author adds a few recipes for fiddleheads in the book. In this case we made a quick pasta incorporating the fiddleheads, sun-dried tomatoes, anchovy and chili. To finish we grated on some pecorino cheese. For fiddlehead fans, this is a winner, colourful and fresh.




The main was another simple seasonal dish that incorporates one of Quebecs favorite ingredients, Maple Syrup. We marinated the salmon and a mixture of maple, vinegar, wine and lemon and then seared in a pan. It had a nice balanced flavour with the sweet and sour.
The side for this was a salad of watercress. We also roasted some fingerling potatoes spiked with Herbes de Provence. I figured I would combine the 2 and make a warm fingerling and watercress salad. Came out very nice.



Dessert on the other hand was more of an experiment. I think I chose to make this purely out of curiosity and the name "Banofee Pie" intrigued me. In my mind, I could not imagine this would turn out that great. I'm pretty good at reading recipes now. Lets just say it was an acquired taste. Also, it would be a diabetic nightmare. A mixture of sugar, sweetened condensed milk, bananas and milk. Now I like sweet, but this was off the charts!