This salad is a great way to welcome spring. Cha soba are buckwheat noodles that have matcha green tea added to them. They can be easily sourced next to the regular soba noodles in the Asian section of some grocery stores. To make this into a more substantial meal, serve topped with some slices of tempeh or tofu.
This salad is easily customizable to incorporate whatever vegetables are hanging around in your refrigerator. Ribboned carrots, julienned peppers or thinly sliced celery would all add a great crunchy contrast to the soft noodles.
Per serving:
Make the salad dressing: In blender, place matcha powder, ginger, rice vinegar, olive oil, water, miso paste, soy sauce or tamari and sesame oil. Blend until well combined and smooth. Alternatively, you can whisk these ingredients together in bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Make the salad: Bring large pot of water to a boil. Cook soba noodles according to package directions. Drain cooked soba noodles and rinse well under cold water until chilled, about 2 minutes. Allow to drain for a couple of minutes before transferring to large bowl. Drizzle noodles with half the dressing and toss until noodles are well coated.
Using vegetable peeler, slice asparagus into long ribbons and add to bowl with noodles along with radishes, cucumber, green onions, peas or edamame and sesame seeds. Gently toss until well combined. Drizzle with remaining dressing before garnishing with microgreens and edible flower petals, if using.
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.