This is a versatile dessert and can take any kind of fruit, although berries get mushy quickly and don’t travel as well as stone fruits. Cook the topping separately so it stays crisp.
Per serving:
For topping, place flour and butter in bowl. Using fingers, rub together to form coarse meal. Gently mix in walnuts, coconut, and sugar. Place in frying pan and set over medium-high heat. Stir often until mixture turns light golden. Set aside.
Toss fruit with syrup, flour, and ginger. For easy clean-up, line bottom of cast iron Dutch oven with parchment. Spoon in fruit mixture, then sprinkle with topping. Cover and bake over medium heat until fruit is soft, about 20 minutes. Or nestle Dutch oven in the side of ashy coals and slow bake for 30 to 40 minutes.
To cook in frying pan, melt 1 Tbsp (15 mL) butter over medium heat. Add fruit mixture, then cover and cook, stirring often until apples start to soften, 10 minutes. Stir in up to 2 Tbsp (30 mL) water, as needed, if fruit isn’t juicy. Divide among bowls and top with crumble mixture. Excellent with a dollop of Greek yogurt if you have any.
Double duty: Spoon leftovers over Pina Colada Pancakes the next morning or stir into breakfast oatmeal.
Tourtière is, for me, the dish that best represents Québec. It can be traced back to the 1600s, and there’s no master recipe; every family has their own twist. Originally, it was made with game birds or game meat, like rabbit, pheasant, or moose; that’s one of the reasons why I prefer it with venison instead of beef or pork. Variation: If you prefer to make single servings, follow our lead at the restaurant, where we make individual tourtières in the form of a dome (pithivier) and fill them with 5 ounces (160 g) of the ground venison mixture. Variation: You can also use a food processor to make the dough. Place the flour, salt, and butter in the food processor and pulse about ten times, until the butter is incorporated—don’t overmix. It should look like wet sand, and a few little pieces of butter here and there is okay. With the motor running, through the feed tube, slowly add ice water until the dough forms a ball—again don’t overmix. Wrap, chill, and roll out as directed above.
My love of artichokes continues with this classic recipe, one of the best ways to eat this interesting, underrated, and strange vegetable. Frozen artichoke hearts are a time-saving substitute, though the flavour and texture of fresh artichokes are, by far, much superior and definitely preferred.
Cervelle de canut is basically the Boursin of France, an herbed fresh farmer’s cheese spread that’s a speciality of Lyon. The name is kind of weird, as it literally means “silk worker’s brain,” named after nineteenth-century Lyonnaise silk workers, who were called canuts. Sadly, the name reflects the low opinion of the people towards these workers. Happily for us, though, it’s delicious—creamy, fragrant, and fresh at the same time. Cervelle de canut is one of my family’s favourite dishes. It’s a great make-ahead appetizer that you can pop out of the fridge once your guests arrive. Use a full-fat cream cheese for the dish, or it will be too runny and less delicious.