Local Flavour (Book 1, the Local Flavour Series)

Bonus Section: Quinn's Notebook - Recipes

Lucy, these recipes are all easy. You can make any of them, just don't stress about it.

Maple Brown Bread French Toast with Local Berries

· Pick up some homemade brown bread from Evelyn; she has some for sale at the Inn (I'll teach you to make brown bread when I get back, it's easy).

· Bit of butter

· Two eggs

· Splash of cream

· Sprinkle of cinnamon

· Bit of powdered sugar

· Maple syrup

· Handful of fresh-picked blueberries

For the love of God, get a good cast-iron pan. You can make a million things in it. Season it well before you use it (just coat it with cooking oil and bake it in a 350°F oven for an hour. Dry it with paper towels when it's cooled).

Now that you've got a well-seasoned, oven-proof skillet:

Whip the two eggs, cream and cinnamon until frothy. Heat your cast iron pan over medium heat and drop a slab of butter in there. Soak two slices of brown bread in the egg mixture. When the pan's nice and hot (make sure the butter doesn't burn), lay them in. Leave them a couple of minutes until you get a nice golden crust, then flip and cook until crisp. Top with a bit of powdered sugar, a splash of maple syrup from the neighbor's farm and those blueberries we picked from The Lookoff :)

Homemade Anytime Pizza*

You can make your own dough, Lucy. Yes you can. Quicker than takeout, I promise (and much, much better).

Pizza dough:

1 cup of warm water
 


1 teaspoon of instant yeast


1 teaspoon of honey
A good splash of olive oil (don't skip this step, it makes for a crispier crust)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
Fresh rosemary and sea salt (crushed together — use the mortar and pestle above the stove)
A sprinkle of cornmeal

Homemade sauce:

Mince an onion and then slowly cook it in a pile of olive oil with a bay leaf (on medium heat). When the onion becomes transparent, add a pile of dried oregano and basil (don't skimp). After a couple of minutes, dump in three cans of crushed tomatoes, an entire bulb of minced garlic, a glug of balsamic vinegar (the good stuff I brought back from Modena) and salt and pepper to taste. Maybe even more olive oil. Set it on a back burner, covered, on low, low, low heat for several hours. Throw in a teaspoon of sugar. That'll mellow out the acid and sweeten up the tomato flavour a bit as all the ingredients get to know each other.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, so you can freeze some for pasta, etc.

Now, put it all together:


Make the dough. Combine the water, yeast, and honey and let stand about five minutes. Add in the oil after the yeast does its thing, before you fold in the flour and salt. Mush it all together until a soft ball forms.
Take the mixture out of the bowl and knead it for a few minutes (make sure to keep dusting the surface with flour to prevent sticking).

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with a clean cloth. Go have a glass of wine or a bath and come back in about a half an hour. Cut the dough in half to make two pizzas (or freeze one lump of dough till you're ready to use it).

Roll it out. Get out the pizza stone and sprinkle it with a handful of cornmeal — this will help the centre cook and crisp up the crust. Lay the dough on the cornmeal-covered stone. Spread on your homemade sauce and the toppings of your choice.