Late summer passion

  So summer is soon coming to a close in Van City but it certainly has it's claws digging to stay well into the end of the month. I have to say it is the best time of the year for local produce: peaches, nectarines, pears, eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, TOMATOES, peppers, you get the idea.

  Bartlett pears have been amazing this year and we purchased quite a bit so I pondered what to do with a few of them as a dessert. I knew pears and mint are nice together but I didn't just want a plain and simple crumble. Ginger and lemon are nice together and I imagined they would work with mint

and pear as well. So this became my creation: Bartlett crumble with mint, ginger, lemon and browned butter all with honey drizzled on top! I made sure to scale and write down measurements in case it was awesome...and yes it was; however, I am gonna take out the brown sugar.

Bartlett pear crumble

Baking baguettes at Terra Breads

  I work at Terra Breads in Vancouver and we go through a lot of baguettes but not nearly as much as they produce during the graveyard shift. These are ones I baked a week ago. Seven slashes is traditional, not five!

Baking rye at Terra Breads

Spelt sourdough pancakes

  So that beautiful sour that would have been a year old in a month went down the drain due to an invader, the dreaded house fly. What was I to do now? "Start a new one," I said, but after some procrastination I was handed an even better sour from a close and awesome baker. And so a few nights ago I made pancakes with it. Spelt with a nectarine, peach and rosemary compote topped with maple and butter :)

Halibut over pesto risotto

  I also love to cook, if you haven't noticed, and the other day showed a good friend of mine how to make southern gnocchi. I also craved me some halibut and risotto so I made a pesto risotto and subbed the pine nuts for almonds as well as crusted the halibut with pepper and coriander. It works really well as the spicy and citrus-like coriander pairs well with the cool refreshing pesto!

Pudding and shortbread

  The same night for dessert I made a sea salt dark chocolate pudding with a simple shortbread infused with peppermint leaves. A classic combo made new!

Ciao tutti!