harvest Archives - The Curated House

Foodie Friday | Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Baked Prosciutto: A Simple Autumn Comfort Food

I must confess that I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. I love that Graham and I were married on the first day of Fall, so for me it will forever be a season of romance. I love the changing colours, the crisp air and the warmth of the sunshine. I love the harvest vegetables and the season of hearty, heart-warming cooking and natural gatherings with friends and loved ones. I love pulling out all the blankets and cozy sweaters and spending evenings snuggled up by a roaring fire. I strongly dislike the fact that winter is on Autumn’s heels. Every year. Without fail.

Rather than focus on what I don’t like {note that I didn’t actually say “hate,” because I actually hate the word “hate”}, I am increasingly aware of the power of focusing on what I’m grateful for. It’s possible in any season – weather it be a calendar season or a season of life – to find gratitude that outshines the proverbial “winter of our discontent.” Some days it may feel like a stretch. OK, lots of days it does feel like a stretch to sort through the struggles to find those gratitudes. But it’s the right kind of stretch, like an amazing yoga class or Pilates session after a stressful week. It stretches me in the right direction. I need to stretch more.

Today’s soup is a gratitude for me. A gratitude because of the flavourful comfort of simple and delicious ingredients. A gratitude because it’s something I can make on weekends and have in mason jars in my fridge for quick and easy lunches during the week. A gratitude because I have friends and family to share it with. And a gratitude because my 10 year old really, genuinely loves this soup. It’s a mama win, and I’ll take it! After all, have you tried getting a kid to eat cruciferous vegetables recently and be happy about it? Exactly.

I made a few of batches of the soup in my “test kitchen” before posting this recipe because I wanted to get the balance of flavours just right. My first batch produced a really pretty photo using red onions, and while I loved the slightly blush colour of the puréed soup, the sweetness of the roasted red onions added to the subtle sweetness of the roasted cauliflower was just too sweet for me in the end. I wanted more of an earthy, savoury undertone to compliment that naturally delicate sweetness of the roasted cauliflower. So, a couple of simple tweaks, and here’s the recipe!

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SOUP

with baked prosciutto

THE INGREDIENTS:

1/2 head of cauliflower, sliced into 1/2″ thick wedges
1 large vidalia onion, sliced into 1/2″ thick wedges
8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 c. butter, cut up into knobs
salt + pepper
1 c. organic whole milk
2 c. organic chicken broth
1/4 c. Greek yoghurt
2 c. finely and freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh or freeze-dried herbs
2 slices of Parma prosciutto per person for garnish

THE METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Place the wedges of cauliflower and onion and the garlic cloves on a baking sheet and distribute knobs of butter on top. Finish with salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes. Once you’ve pulled the veggies out of the oven, bake the prosciutto slices {laid flat on a cookie sheet} for 5 minutes until crisp.

Place roasted veggies, milk, broth and Parmesan cheese into a good quality blender {I use a Blendtech} or add everything to a large soup pot and combine using an immersion hand blender. After blending, reheat gently, being careful not to let the milk and cheese burn.

Garnish with freshly chopped chives or freeze-dried herbs and break up the prosciutto into pieces to garnish. I like leaving the pieces big enough to crack with my spoon because it reminds me of the experience of breaking the surface of gorgeous crème brulée {which I can no longer eat}. Sometimes it’s the little things, right? You can also crumble it up into tiny bits, which Noah loves to do. Either way, that caramelized salty goodness is the treasure hunt in this creamy soup, providing the perfect contrast to the natural, savoury sweetness.

It really is fast, easy and super delicious and I hope you’ll try it in your own kitchen sometime soon!

Wishing you time with friends and loved ones over a bowl of something comforting this weekend. And more than anything, I’m wishing you the awareness you need to gather the gratitudes and recognize the meaningful moments that punctuate the season you’re in right now. They are there if you look for them. I promise.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|September 27th, 2013|0 Comments

Giving Thanks

Today being American Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to share my thoughts on gratitude. While those of you south of the border gather around the harvest table and give thanks for all that makes your lives abundant, my reflections will be quite simple. In fact, my gratitude can be summed up in two words: my family.

My amazing husband is truly my best friend and my partner in love and life. There’s nothing better than the kind of unconditional love that presses in through good and bad {and the truth is, we’ve had plenty of both}. He’s that kind of guy in spades, and I am very grateful for his love, encouragement and belief in me.

Our now nine-year-old and insanely tall, sweet boy has personality in spades and a wicked sense of humour. Life is just a bigger adventure with him in it, and his perspective continues to teach me to see the world with fresh eyes and a sense of possibility. I am a better person for being his mom.

We are all three very different personalities, really, representing a fascinating spectrum of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, pragmatism and dreaming, adventurous spirit and the need to just nest and snuggle at home and be together. I guess you could say that we are continuously finding a balance in the way we do life with each other, always learning and growing because of the way we give each other wings while being rooted and grounded in love.

If all I had was my sweet family, I would have enough. But I am blessed beyond that with amazingly supportive friends and creative collaborators who draw out the best in me {and I hope I do the same for them}. From friends who love to join me on foodie adventures in the kitchen, design excursions on the road, hands-on projects and spontaneous, creative discoveries to amazing talents like Gabriela Hansen who took these beautiful family photos for us this year, the simple truth is this: I. Am. Blessed.

As Marcel Proust said, “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” In this bountiful season of harvest, that is the garden most worthy of cultivation. So go love your people, friends. Let them know the difference they’ve made in your life. Plant seeds of hope. Harvest joy together. Give thanks by giving love, for it is the loved ones in our lives who make us who we are.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 22nd, 2012|1 Comment

Thanksgiving Table Décor | Part 2 | Flowers

I love flowers. In fact, before launching my interior design career, I spent a few years working in the floral design industry. The thing about floral design is you’re really just transforming beauty into beauty, giving form and structure to something whose natural form and structure are already spectacular. It’s always a delicate balance between design and overdoing it while showing respect for Nature’s splendour.

For this year’s Harvest gathering, I really wanted the flowers to have a slightly wild and natural feel to them. My inspiration was the concept of a fallen tree that had become a nest into which some of the beautiful flora and fauna of the forest would be nestled.

Working with my amazing wholesale floral rep, I found this incredible cork bark. It is carefully peeled from the trees, leaving the trees unharmed and producing exactly what I was looking for! A natural, hollowed-out, rustic, tree-looking base to cradle my Harvest flowers.

I started by soaking my wet oasis in warm solution water {you can use the packets of dry solution they give you at your local florist to create yours}. *Side note: Make sure you place your oasis into the water with the holes up and let it naturally sink into the water. This process ensures it absorbs water all the way through.*

I cut the oasis into pieces that would fit the organic shape of the cork and then wrapped them in cellophane to hold in the water. I added an extra layer of folded cellophane underneath the oasis as well. I needed the top layer to be penetrable by the stems, so I was less concerned about perfection there as I knew the process of arranging would pull it apart anyway, but I wanted a good seal on the bottom so the water wouldn’t leak all over the table. It worked! Phew.

Next, the flowers. I purchased everything but these Dahlias from my wholesalers, but the Dahlias were in short supply and in bad condition there and I thought I was going to have to go without. Dahlias are my favourite Fall flower, so I was rather heartbroken about it, but the harvest wasn’t good this year and that’s the reality of dealing with nature. It often reminds us that we are not in control, and that really is a good thing, even when it means not getting what we want.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I went to St. Lawrence Market that Saturday and met a huge and charmingly gruff Amish farmer who was exclusively selling fresh cut Dahlias. This was the only bunch left in a colour that would work with the rest of my flowers, and what a colour! Radiant, mouth-watering blood-orange Dahlias, ready to take centre stage in my arrangements. As his massive, work-worn hands offered me these delicate blooms, my heart swelled with gratitude at the sight of beauty coming from an unsuspecting source. It was a good reminder to always be on the look out for it, even when I don’t expect beauty to be there, it’s probably waiting to surprise me. It’s a constant exercise in transforming the way I think, this search for beauty in everyday life. So good for the soul.

Paired with some Bittersweet Orange, orange thistles and some Ecuadorian roses as big as cabbages, these gorgeous and unexpected gifts made my floral palette complete.

Starting with this kind of gorgeousness, how could I go wrong? Right? Seriously. Nature is amazing.

I must admit that once I’m into the arranging of things, I get into a bit of a zone and inevitably forget to take process photos. You will have to use your imaginations and I will use my words to the best of my ability to describe how I got from the raw materials to the finished product. I started with the thistles and used them as I would typically use greens to create the “frame” for the arrangement, creating a base and an organic shape as a starting point. This step is VERY important, as your base of greens {or thistles, in this case} are usually what hide your mechanics. I don’t like to use the word “hate” much, but I HATE it when people can see my mechanics {i.e. the oasis and whatever else I used to craft the arrangement beyond the featured elements themselves}. Needless to say, this step is important.

Next I added a layer of the bittersweet orange, carefully leaving spaces for the roses and dahlias to nest. The roses were next and I used them to create a beautiful line through the arrangement, finishing with a glorious “centrepiece to the centrepiece” of the precious and prized Dahlia’s from my lovely Amish farmer friend.

I then went back to the bittersweet orange and created a few more carefree lines arching away from the arrangement to offer a delicate, organic flourish. Here’s how the finished product looked.

PHOTO BY GABRIELA HANSEN

I’ll show you more photos of the arrangement tomorrow when I show you the table setting, the napkins I made and the gorgeous menus designed by my friend Melody!

In the meantime, have a cozy, happy Tuesday, and keep your eyes peeled for beauty in unexpected places! You never know what gorgeous surprises might await you around every corner.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 6th, 2012|0 Comments