I’ve made a serious effort over the past few years to buy locally as much as possible. As someone who spent years working for small, locally-owned independent businesses, I’ve become intimately familiar with how important these businesses are to the local economy, and how much their owners mean to the community. Supporting locally owned businesses doesn’t only just strengthen the community’s economic base, but it has a number of other benefits, from supporting your neighbours to lessening your environmental impact.
When it comes to eating locally, the benefits are even more tangible. There’s nothing better than biting into a fresh tomato from the farmers’ market, or your own garden. According to the City of Calgary’s online guide to eating locally, buying produce from a local market can reduce your food footprint by 99 per cent. If you’re interested in getting started in eating locally, Green Calgary has a great list of local, sustainable food resources.
The following two recipes are completely sourced from local, independent businesses. I found it incredibly rewarding shopping at such friendly, community institutions for the ingredients, and the dishes were so much more delicious with ingredients this fresh. Obviously, not all of the food used is actually produced locally – until Calgary develops a better climate or a salt mine I’ll probably have to continue to buy spices and salts that come from elsewhere – but all of the ingredients were chosen from the sustainable, delicious offerings at local, independent businesses (I’ve listed the business each ingredient was purchased from in the ingredient list of each recipe).
I chose to make two types of pies: a savory pierogi pie and a sweet and traditional apple pie. Both recipes were made gluten free, and the apple pie can be adapted to be dairy free and vegan as well. If you’re not gluten free, simply sub the gluten free pie crust recipe for a regular pie crust.
My family is Ukrainian, and over the past few years I’ve been delighted to notice pierogies show up at our local farmers’ market. This is a twist on one of my family’s favourite dinners.
As for the apple pie, I thought I’d show a super simple, but delicious recipe that can easily be made with local ingredients. Best served with a scoop of Made By Marcus ice cream, of course.
Pierogi Pie
(Adapted from Eat Live Travel Write.)
Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
1.5 cups of gluten free all purpose flour (Big Star Bake House)
1/4 tsp. of xantham gum (Sunnyside Natural Market)
A pinch of salt (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
3 tbsp. ice water
1 egg, lightly beaten (Thompson Small Farm at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
10 tbsp. of cold butter. (Avalon Dairy)
Filling:
4 russet potatoes (Country Thyme Farm at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
8 slices of bacon (Second to None Meats)
2 medium onions (Country Thyme Farm at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
1 hot pepper (The Apple Lady at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
2 cups of cheese of your choice (goat cheese works particularly well, but something like cheddar is fine) (Peasant Cheese Shop)
2 green onions (our own plant)
2 cloves of garlic (our own plant)
1/4 cup of sour cream (Avalon Dairy)
Pinch of turmeric, and salt and pepper to taste (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
Instructions:
Mix dry ingredients for pie crust in food processor. Add cold butter and egg until mixture begins to clump together. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time. Ingredients should stay together when squeezed in your hand. Once consistency of dough is fine, press into a greased pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to one hour.
Bake potatoes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. Let cool, then slice into thin slices (I used a mandoline set to one centimetre). Fry bacon until crispy and set aside. Cut onion into half-rings, and fry in bacon fat. Add minced garlic cloves and pepper as onion begins to brown, then remove from heat. Crumble cheese into a bowl.
To assemble, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove pie crust from fridge, and cover in thin layer of sour cream. Layer about half of the potato slices evenly on top of the sour cream. Follow by layering half of the onion, cheese, and bacon. Layer on the rest of the potatoes, then top with the remaining onion, cheese, and bacon. Sprinkle with turmeric (mainly for colour), and salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm with chopped green onion and a dollop of sour cream.
Apple Pie with Coconut Sugar
Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
1.5 cups of gluten free all purpose flour (Big Star Bake House)
1/4 tsp. of xantham gum (Sunnyside Natural Market)
A pinch of salt (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
1 tbsp. coconut sugar (Calnan’s Organics at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
3 tbsp. ice water
1 egg, lightly beaten (Thompson Small Farm at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
10 tbsp. of cold butter. (Avalon Dairy)
Filling:
Approximately 6-7 apples (we used a mix from The Apple Lady at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
3/4 cup of coconut sugar (Calnan’s Organics at Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market)
1 tbsp. cinnamon (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
1 tsp. nutmeg (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
A pinch of cloves (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
1/2 tsp. of ground ginger (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
A pinch of salt (Silk Road Spice Merchant)
2 tablespoons of cold, cubed butter (Avalon Dairy)
Instructions:
Mix dry ingredients for pie crust in food processor. Add cold butter and egg until mixture begins to clump together. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time. Ingredients should stay together when squeezed in your hand. Once consistency of dough is fine, press into a greased pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to one hour.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add sliced apples and toss to coat. Pour apples into dough-lined pie plate. Dot with cubed butter. If using a non-gluten free pie dough, you can top the pie with a second, rolled out batch of dough and press around the edges. Unfortunately, gluten free dough is a bit too crumbly for this approach, so I’ve simply topped it with a crumble made of flour, sugar, and butter. Bake for approximately one hour, or until top is golden brown. Serve with a scoop of your favourite, local ice cream.
