Synopsis
- Québec Public Markets
Week - Culinary Presentations at Atwater and Jean-Talon Markets
- Time to Stock up for Winter
- “Les Dimanche Bio” in Outremont
- Demand for local product
- Delicious Seasonal Recipes
Delicious Seasonal Recipes
By Nicole-Anne Gagnon,
our resident chef and ambassador of the markets.
Dear friends and clients of the markets, here are our recipes of the month:
Vegetable Gnocchi and Fresh Herbs
Serves 4
Ingredients
-
¾ pound green beans cut into sections (or your choice of other green vegetable)
-
1 pound gnocchi
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsps chopped green onions
- 2/3 cup chopped parsley
- 1 clove of garlic
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 16 sundried tomatoes cut into strips
- 5 ounces blue cheese crumbled
Preparation
- Blanch the beans in salted boiling water, then cool and reserve.
- Cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water and add the green beans during the last minute of cooking. Drain carefully, keeping ½ cup of the cooking water.
- In the meantime, mix the herbs with the olive oil, salt lightly and add a generous amount of pepper.
- Pour the herb mixture over the gnocchi and vegetables with a little of the reserved cooking water (if necessary) and add the sundried tomatoes. Mix well and garnish with the crumbled blue cheese.
Lamb Brochettes with Sumac and Spinach Tahini Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
-
1 pound lamb cubed
- 1 small eggplant diced
- 1 red onion quartered
- 1 tbsp sumac
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 1 lb. spinach leaves
Tahini vinaigrette :
- 2 tbsps lemon juice
- 4 tbsps tahini
- 3 tbsps water
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- Salt to taste
Preparation
- Assemble the brochettes on pre-soaked skewers alternating between onion, lamb and eggplant.
- Brush the brochettes generously with a mixture of garlic and olive oil.
- Sprinkle with salt and sumac before grilling for two minutes on each side. Set aside.
- Mix together all the ingredients for the vinaigrette.
- Arrange the brochettes on a bed of spinach leaves and top with the tahini vinaigrette.
Watermelon Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
-
1/2 small watermelon
- 1 container of raspberries
- 1 container of strawberries, sliced in two
- 1 container of blueberries
- 2 tbsps vanilla sugar*
- 2 cups sparkling apple juice, very cold
- Shredded mint leaves to taste
Preparation
- Cut the watermelon in two (reserve half for another use), hollow out and cut the flesh into dice size pieces.
- Mix with the berries.
- Dissolve the sugar in the sparkling apple juice, and add to the fruit mixture.
- Pour the soup into the hollowed watermelon shell and garnish with mint leaves.
*To make vanilla sugar, place a vanilla bean that has been split in two into a bowl or jar of granulated sugar. After one week, the sugar will have taken on the aroma of the vanilla.
Reminder : Come meet me and my team Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at Atwater and Jean-Talon Markets. Come share your culinary successes and taste our delicious seasonal recipes and many others made from fresh produce, that arrives daily at the market!
« Go to the market…the public market ! »
L’Association des Marchés publics du Québec (AMPQ) (the Association of Public Markets of Quebec), in collaboration with l’Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) (the Union of Agricultural Producers), invites Quebecers to the first edition of Québec Public Markets Week, from August 22nd to 30th, 2009.Under the theme « Go the market…the public market! », no less than 44 markets across Québec will take part in this first week-long, themed celebration. Québec merchants, proud and enthusiastic about the idea of helping consumers discover the treasures on display in their kiosks, will offer the public numerous activities, culinary presentations, tastings, mini-conferences, and drawings for giveaways of Québec regional products.
In Montréal, at the Atwater and Jean-Talon Markets, clients will have the pleasure of attending culinary presentations prepared by resident chef Nicole-Anne Gagnon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of August, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The Québec Public Markets Week, an initiative of AMPQ, was born as a result of the recent trend supporting public markets and local products.
According to AMPQ president , Mr. Vincent Gadbois, « the exceptional freshness and the great diversity of products, the exchange between people, both sellers and buyers, agricultural producers (farmers), and Québec specialty product artisans, takes on its own exceptional dimension at the public markets ». In this regard, Québec Public Markets Week is predicted to become a major event for all the local markets, and the AMPQ has a mandate to promote the community spirit and friendliness of Québec’s public markets.
UPA president, Mr. Christian Lacasse, says « we are happy to be associated with this activity that highlights the importance of the public markets in promoting local-buying habits all the while focusing on the value and importance of Québec farmers ».
The slogan « Go the market…the public market! », promotes the many advantages of shopping at public markets and it’s as important for the producers as for consumers. In the economic and social realm, buying locally contributes to the vitality of Québec’s countryside, regions and suburbs, and moreover, ensures a better and brighter future for our family run farms. Also, Québec produce travels a shorter distance from the farm to your plate, giving it a far superior quality, freshness and taste, all the while respecting and improving the environment.For a list of participating public markets, schedule and description of the events offered at the various markets, visit the AMPQ website at www.ampq.ca.
We would like to mention the valued support of two partners, le Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) and le Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire (MAMROT), without whom this event would not have been possible.
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Culinary Presentations
Culinary presentations are ongoing at the Jean-Talon and Atwater Markets.
Come meet our resident chef, Nicole-Anne Gagnon, and her team of talented cooks on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Time to Stock up for Winter
by Michel Lambert, chef and food historian
« When mid-August rolls around, the public markets are brimming with fruits and vegetables, so what better time to take full advantage and stock up for winter! », as we would say in the 1950s. This statement is all but obsolete in 2009 as we now have year-round access to these fruits and vegetables thanks to cargo planes and thousands of trucks that bring us fresh produce from California, Mexico and Peru.
Yet, there is a lot to reflect upon with regard to the decision our society made some 50 years ago to do away with our gardens and find other uses for our storage areas once dedicated to winter provisions. There aren’t any attics to store our onions, garlic, hazelnuts, popping corn and squash. There aren’t any cellars to keep cabbage or potatoes in their bins, carrots in the sand, leeks in earthenware pots beside the big barrels of vegetables and pots of salted herbs. There isn’t any place left for the dozens of home-made jam jars, jellies, marinades and ketchups. These spots have been taken over by bins of clothes that we no longer wear and boxes of books that we no longer read.
And, in new houses, the master bedroom and bathroom are expanded at the expense of children’s rooms, storage spaces and pantries. This is indicative of how far our society has gone from the proposal I wish to table today.
Have we lost the wisdom of the ant? Will we become locusts?
Gladly, we are waking up to the fact, and becoming increasingly aware that the environmental position we find ourselves in, is telling us that it’s time to change our buying habits. Buying locally cultivated fruits and vegetables provides a livelihood for our neighbours and allows us to cook using local produce.
This style of cooking isn’t necessarily linked to the seasons; it can be the result of using our own provisions or those available through our local merchants.
So, today, I would like to propose that you send me an example of an old family recipe from the past. I will commit to noting your ideas or your recipes in the next volume of « l’Histoire de la cuisine familiale du Québec » (The History of Family Cooking of Québec), that will be about farm products and the St. Lawrence Plain. To encourage your participation, the public markets will hold a drawing for the first three volumes of « L’Histoire de la cuisine familiale du Québec. » It will also available at «la Librairie Gourmande» (The Gourmet Bookstore) at Jean-Talon Market, the beginning of October.
You have until September 30th to submit your recipes. Send me your recipe along with your name, telephone number and e-mail address to: info@marchespublics-mtl.com.
I invite you to participate, in large numbers, in this effort to find our collective heritage – regardless of ethnic origin!
Home cooking is not only cooking using local products, it is also cooking using family recipes, whether of French, Irish, Polish or Algonquin origin.
Organic Sundays in Outremont, sixth edition 2009
In Outremont from August 16th to October 4th, organic Sundays are back: come and take advantage of this selection of exceptional local products! Information : (514) 495-6220
“Products from down the road, that proudly flaunt their belonging to a particular region, respond to the need to affirm one’s belonging by support regional products. The closer to home that a product comes from, the stronger the feeling of solidarity, and the more people want to buy locally. I am reassured in seeing that people are becoming more aware of the need to buy locally.”
Translation of quote from Normand Bourgault, Professor of Marketing, L’Université du Québec en Outaouais, as cited in the article « Produits d’ici demandés », Le Devoir, August 17, 2009.
Corporation
de Gestion
des Marchés
Publics
de Montréal
155
Greene
Avenue,
3rd Floor
Montreal,
Quebec H4C
2H6
www.marchespublics-mtl.com
Director of Communications: Isabelle
Létourneau
iletourneau@marchespublics-mtl.com
Website: Jean
Gagnon
Doré
lesboxes@videotron.ca
Photographs : Yves Laberge, JGD | © CGMPM
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