BLOGS

Just like wine, honey tastes different depending where it comes from. Now, urban beekeeping has allowed us to taste Vancouver neighbourhoods. Honey’s a bit of mysterious food right? I know it comes from flowers but what the heck happens between the flower and the good part at the end when we get to eat it? To find out, I connected with Melissa Cartwright of Meliferra Bees, an urban beekeeping expert here in Vancouver. Ironically enough, the ancient greek root of the name Melissa means “honey-bee”. Melissa makes premium honey from hives in Chinatown, Mount Pleasant, and Kerrisdale. Chances are, you’ve seen her bees buzzing around this summer. Maybe they’ve even collected nectar from your front yard. When we met, she was wearing one of those awesome beekeeper get ups that look like space suits. Melissa didn’t waste any time letting…

I would love to find gold on the street, wouldn’t you:)? Ka-ching!  That’s what it feels like when I find a big, fat chanterelle mushroom poking it’s head through the underbrush.  I’m mushroom obsessed.  With the prime months of Sept to Nov coming up for foraging you may see me tromping around BC forests, dirty…

Blueberry & Lemon Verbena Jam   This weekend, I scored some lemon verbena from Chef Chashma of Pate Pastiche. I had some blueberries at home too and a recipe for a really nice looking jam recipe by Dorina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School. Been really having fun with the nostalgic feeling of preserves and jam making this year, so this was the next one on my list. Lemon Verbena is a beautiful smelling herb and this is the first time I’ve worked with it. I followed the directions in Dorina’s recipe and added rough chopped herb to the jam. It doesn’t work though…there’s chewy bits of verbena mixed through the jam and it’s not really nice. So I’ve altered the recipe and recommended you put the lemon verbena in a sachet. Or you could just scrap the fussy business and…

I went to the Okanagan last week and came back with oodles of Peaches & Cherries. Peaches go seamlessly into jam, pies & all sorts of things. But if you have more cherries than you can eat fresh and you need to preserve them, what to do? Cherry compote! It’s super easy, tastes great and really versatile. Add it to a cheese plate or use it like jam. You can fill chocolates with it to make chocolate covered cherries. Use it as a sauce for bbq pork or duck. Spoon over ice cream, scones, chocolate cakes. Or if you’re feeling fancy, just eat it straight out of the jar with the fridge door hanging open. There’s 2 parts to this recipe because I like having more sauce. You don’t need to do Part 2 but I recommend it. I’ve used…

  The BC Spot Prawns craze has started!  The little beasties are in season May to early June in Vancouver.  I went down to Fisherman’s Wharf  to pick some up during the prawn festival and was terrified by the line up.  Luckily, you can pick some up on the dock’s yourself between noon and 1pm…

Just what you need on a dreary Vancouver day to warm you up and get you giggling. Amontillado Sherry Hot Toddy Just what you need on a dreary Vancouver day to warm you up and get you giggling. I created this for the Down the Rabbit Hole – Alice in Wonderland pop-up restaurant last year….

Just got back from a trip to Quebec where I entreated the locals to suffer my butchered French. They were very kind and only gagged me once. Highlight of the trip: A culinary focused jaunt from Montreal to Quebec City with my lovely Francophone buddies, Marco & Eliane. We tasted at every cider house and cheese shop that we could rustle up from Ile d’Orleans to Rougemont. Don’t know if you can find any of their cider or brandy out here, but Cidrerie Michel Jodoin is tha bomb. Their brandy was like boozy liquid gold. Best cheeses included; The hard to find…Le Bleu d’Elizabeth, Le Baluchon, L’anceire 3 year, Fritz Vielilli, Louis D’Or (bit like a nutty Gruyere) and a few you can get in Vancouver; Bleu Benedictine (made by monks), Savagine, find them at Benton Brothers. If you are…

BBQ Spot Prawns with cilantro salt and green papaya salad at the supper club. Tip: Buy them at T&T; Market live if you want to save a buck $8.99/lb right now. It’s spot prawn season in Vancouver and they are bloody tasty. Last year, I made a video (link below) on how to properly prep live spot prawns. This year, I’ve been shelling hundreds for various catering jobs and, by God, they are so lively. I’ve never experienced the jumping craziness before. What is in the Ocean this year, ephedrine? I had 10 of them actually jump out of the sink. It usually doesn’t freak me out, but I had to put gloves on to steel my nerves and behead them all. If you are experiencing a similar squeamishness, I just want to tell you, “You are NOT alone!” Here’s…

Buying “Money’s Mushrooms” at Costco is akin to putting margarine on toast. It’s not going to kill you, but it is so boring. Head out into BC’s backyard to find the real treasures. A handful of them you may know and see on occation in the high end grocery stores in Fall; yellow chanterelle, matsutake (pine), lobster, king bolete (porcini) or oyster mushrooms. These will run you about $27/lb for chanterelle or pine. Ouch! It’s far more fun to find them on your own, plus to gain access to hundreds of other edible and delicious mushooms at the same time (here’s my shameless plug for Mushroom Hunting Trips in Vancouver). Above is a shot of seaweed risotto with wild califlower and porcini mushrooms by Chef Ted of Refuel at our last supper club. This is a puffball – edible and…

Seems simple, and it is. It’s all about the quality of the ingredients. Venturi-Schulze aged balsamic (Vancouver Island), Portuguese olive oil(Bom Dia), barrata -unripe cows cheese (Bosa Foods), fire roasted bread(homemade), the best in season heirloom tomatoes from the Vancouver Farmers Market, oven dried black olives and the most fragrant basil leaves that you can find.