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Some noodles and other ingredients ready for a simple lunch of Japanese yakisoba. I made this one with some sliced pork and cabbage.

Still trying to perfect the meatball. Mine are getting pretty good and have been solidified as my daughter’s favourite food. They’ll come in handy now that we’re socked in with snow in New Brunswick.

A lamb samosa from Prashad’s on Loch Lomond Road in Saint John.  Heated and served simply with some chili garlic sauce and coriander chutney, Prashad’s are still the best samosas’ around.

I’ve mentioned my gardening skills, or complete lack thereof, on this site a few times.

I can’t grow a tomato or zucchini to save my life but one thing I’ve had inexplicable luck with is herbs, especially the hardy fall herbs which seem impervious to my attempts to kill them with my gardening skills.

If the only thing you saw in my garden was my sage plants, you’d be pretty impressed with my incredible green thumb ability.

I’ve got loads of wonderful sage and rosemary (watch for a post on that in the near future).  And it’s peaking at just the right time, as I get my hands on some other great fall ingredients such as squash and potatoes.

I learned to make gnocchi years ago while watching Biba’s Italian Kitchen on CBC back in the early 90s.  Her recipe used to call for something like 8 potatoes so it was a huge batch.  I scale it down quite a bit but still stick to that tried-and-true classic Italian method, producing a hardy dumpling that is a favourite in my household.

I’ve served gnocchi in all kinds of sauces – after all, it’s as versatile with flavour as pasta – but among the simplest, is brown butter and sage. Besides the obvious seasoning of salt and pepper, brown butter and sage are the only other ingredients.  Give it a try and serve with your favourite salads, roasted meats or other great local ingredients you can find through the fall.

Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Sauce:

1/3 cup butter

12-15 leaves of fresh sage, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Gnocchi

3 large russet potatoes

salt

1 egg yolk

2 cups all purpose flour

Start by washing your potatoes and placing them on a baking sheet. Heat the oven to 400 F and add the potatoes.  They’ll need 1 hour in the oven.

Prepare the brown butter and sage sauce. Heat a stainless steel fry pan over medium heat for a few minutes then add the butter.  Let it melt and sizzle, then stir as it begins to brown after it’s stopped sizzling (the sizzling is from the water content. It’ll start to brown after the water’s gone).  Watch it carefully to acheive a nice nutty brown, removing the pan from the heat if it’s going too fast.  Add the chopped sage, then salt and pepper, stir well and remove from heat.

Once the potatoes are ready, remove from the oven, let cool for 10-15 minutes then cut each in half and pass through a potato ricer.  If you don’t have a potato ricer, get a friggin’ potato ricer.  It makes the best mashed potatoes ever so you’ll get a lot of use out of it.  Season the potatoes well with salt and add the egg yolk.  Add a cup of flour and mix it well with a fork.  Begin adding more flour, switching from the fork to your hands as the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a well floured board and begin to knead more flour into the dough, trying to get it as dry as possible over the course of about five minutes.  Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes. Have a glass or wine or something.  Now’s a good time to get a big pot of generously salted water on the stove to boil.  Okay, it’s playdough time kids. Cut a piece of dough off and begin rolling it out into a long cylinder.  Cut in half and keep rolling if your board isn’t wide enough. You’re looking to get the gnocchi fairly small because they expand as they boil.  Cut the cylinder into one-inch pieces. Roll each piece up the tines, yes, tines, of a fork. This creates ripples on one side and a dimple on the other which helps sauce adhere.  Move the cut gnocchi to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. When they’re all done, carefully add them to the boiling water.  Allow to boil until they come to the surface of the water. Pluck them out to a collander (in a bowl) with a slotted spoon.  Once well drained, add the gnocchi to your butter-sage sauce and return to low heat until ready to serve.

There’s nothing quite like a vegetable straight from the garden, so when I was recently invited to check out some carrots and potatoes straight from the ground, I jumped at the opportunity.

Our friend Christine is an avid gardener and has, over the years, helped us with our feeble gardening efforts.  Her garden produces a selection of great produce from spring to fall, including asparagus and herbs, leading to cucumbers and tomatoes and into carrots, potatoes and other fall treats.

On this sunny harvest day it would be my job to do some cooking.  Since the ingredients were going to be of such high quality, I decided going simple was best.  I brined some chicken early in the day – a few bone-in chicken breasts – that would be pan-roasted and baked with garden-fresh herbs.  That would be paired up with some awesome potatoes that were literally just boiled, mashed and seasoned with salt, plus some carrots that were boiled, drained and tossed in a sweet herb sauce.

For some foodies, this is the most wonderful time of year.  Get your hands on some fresh local produce and dive in.  I’ll do the cooking.

Glazed carrots

1 lb or so carrots, scrubbed and trimmed

salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried dill or a teaspoon fresh chopped dill

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to the boil and season well with salt.  Add the carrots and boil until just tender, about 10 minutes. Taste them once in a while, they’re delicious. Drain well in a collander.  Heat a fry pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes and drop in the butter and brown sugar.  Stir together to melt, then add the dill, salt and pepper.  Toss the carrots in the sauce and simmer then for a few minutes, lowering the heat to low.  Add a few tablespoons of water or wine if the sauce begins to harden or dry up.

Herbed chicken breasts

4 bone-in, skin on, chicken breasts

salt for brine

2 tablespoons olive oil

ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1/3 cup good white wine

If you have the time, brine your chicken ahead.  Dissolve a half cup of salt in a couple of litres of water and add the chicken to it.  Let it brine, covered, for at least a couple of hours or up to four.  Drain well and pat the breasts dry. Preheat your oven to 375F. Season the chicken with pepper.  Heat a fry pan over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes and add the olive oil.  Lay the chicken breasts in the pan, skin side down.  Cook until nicely browned, about four to five minutes, then turn over and brown the other side, about another four minutes.  Sprinkle on the fresh rosemary and sage and pour in the white wine.  Let this simmer for a couple of minutes.  Transfer the chicken to a baking dish.  Scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the fry pan (add more wine if you have to) and spoon the sauce over the chicken.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  Serve topped with the pan sauce.

Alexandra had a blast picking fresh potatoes and carrots right from the garden.

Lunch and dinner options are always a snap when I’ve got a big bowl of chicken stock in the fridge.

This golden liquid, made from simmering leftover chicken carcasses, carrot, celery, onion and garlic for hours to extract every last bit of goodness, is the basis for so many great meals. From soups and stews to anything with a sauce, a good chicken stock lifts regular food into some very cool culinary territory with relative ease.

A few days ago I opened my fridge to see what I could slap together for a lunch.  A big bowl of chicken stock and a zip-loc bag of pre-soaked rice vermicelli made for an easy decision – pho.

The great soup of Vietnam is very accessible, completely customizable and simple to prepare.

Enhance the stock with some Asian-inspired goodness from fish sauce, soy sauce and spices, simmer a few simple vegetables until tender-crisp and add in some sliced pork or beef and one of the world’s great soups is ready.

Pho is a soup that eats like a meal (I just coined that phrase – neat eh?).  It’s stock, vegetables, noodles and as much meat as you like.  It can be mild or wildly spicy, whatever you prefer, so it’s a soup for all appetites (even my daughter likes it).

With a bit of care – and restraint – you can make an incredible pho in your own house.  Restraint is key to a delicate, purely-flavoured pho.  Too much spice or other seasoning can wreck a good pho. Here, the rule of less is more should be adhered to with diligence.

My Pho

3 cups good homemade basic chicken stock

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 knob of fresh ginger. Think car stereo volume knob.

1 star anise

2 whole cloves. Just two.

8 whole peppercorns. Just eight.

1 teaspoon sugar

1 small bunch rice vermicelli

two or three ounces thinly sliced pork loin

thinly sliced daikon radish (lo bok)

thinly sliced carrot

thinly sliced cabbage

2 green onions

1 or two hot thai chilies, or an Asian hot sauce to taste (Sriracha, garlic chili sauce or sambal olek are  good choices) (optional)

Toasted sesame oil (optional)

Heat the chicken stock in a soup pot over medium high heat.  Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, star anise, whole cloves, peppercorns and sugar. If using fresh chilies, add them to the stock as well.  If using a hot sauce, just add that to the bowls when serving.  Bring just to a boil then reduce heat immediately and let simmer for at least a half hour (an hour is ideal).  In the meantime, soak your rice vermicelli in hot water for 30 minutes, then drain well.  The noodles should be soft and ready to eat but if they’re not, just add them to your strained stock and let simmer until tender.   Strain your stock with a fine strainer and return the stock to the pot.  Check the seasoning of the stock and add more fish stock, soy sauce or salt to taste.  Add the finely sliced pork to the stock and let simmer for just a few minutes until cooked but still very tender. Remove pork and slice into strips.  Add a bunch of noodles to your bowls, top with sliced daikon, carrot, cabbage, green onions and sliced pork, then ladle on piping hot stock.  Add hot sauce and toasted sesame oil if desired.