Flavourful Saskatoon, May 13, 2019


I had supper at Little Grouse on the Prairie this week with my brother and sister in law and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. We shared asparagus risotto with 3 stalks of tempura asparagus (yum!) and a mushroom tagliatelle. The grilled artichoke, ricotta, arugula, pickled onions, pine nuts, and herb dressing salad was packed with flavour. The staff were very accommodating, adjusting the dishes to ensure they were vegetarian and giving us large individual plates so we could help ourselves to our shared options. The desserts were all good, but the best was the raspberry sorbet with limoncello and the chocolate ganache layer on the peanut butter pudding satisfied the chocoholics. 


Local Happenings 
Adrian Werner from the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre will talk about the Garden Patch and why the Food Bank is promoting urban agriculture in Saskatoon at 7 pm, May 21, at 9 Mile Legacy Brewing. (Check the listing before attending this event as the place and time are currently double booked so something will have to change.) CHANGED TO WEDNESDAY, MAY 22

Pulse-based burgers and other vegan options are creating a new market for Saskatchewan pea and lentil farmers. While most of our lentils are exported to India, there’s a growing opportunity to process them closer to home.

Recipes 
I feel guilty every time I follow standard advice and discard the green leaves on the leek. Apparently, it’s not necessary. Just finely slice the tougher green leaves against the grain and add to soup, toast, crisp, or wrap around a bouquet garni.

Food for Thought
Background noise in some restaurants is as loud as a lawnmower or motorbike. Why? And can it be changed?

The history of the modern kitchen is rooted in class divides, gender politics, and time/motion studies: “One reason American women have felt literally and metaphorically trapped in suburban kitchens may not be those rooms’ smallness—since they’re mostly not small—but the opposite. . . . ‘Dream kitchens’ invite, even insist upon, the transformation of dreams into reality through elaborate baking projects and holiday meals, and all the cleaning, maintenance, and organization that goes with them. Big kitchens have dirty secrets: drawers full of lid-less Tupperware, jar upon jar of stale spices, never-used bundt pans, and stacks of books containing new cooking ideas that we’ll definitely get to one of these days.”

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post articles about food that is good, clean and fair; travel; and books. You may also enjoy EcoFriendly Sask profiling Saskatchewan nature/environmental initiatives and events. 

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