Local Travel
Tofino Food & Wine Festival
If you're looking for a good excuse to head to Tofino for a few days, look no further - their 6th Annual Food and W ine Festival will be held the weekend of June 6 to 8 with a roster of tempting events. It's a celebration of local food and wine, featuring fresh seafood, extravagant dinners, live music, grape stomping, and of course, the beauty of Tofino and its people. Red Fish Blue Fish hosts guest speaker and local fisherman, Jeff Mikus in a presentation about local seafood, and celebrity chef Karen Barnaby will lead a wine tasting. Both Shelter and Long Beach Lodge Resort restaurants will be offering their superb winemakers dinners, and the main event, 'Grazing in the Garden' will showcase the spectrum of BC's best epicure, set in the enchanting Tofino Botanical Gardens. There will be plenty of music, wine, and conviviality -and the scenery's not half bad.
Click here for more details and suggestions on where to stay when visiting Tofino.
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Event
Farmer's Markets Open Around BC
Farmers' Markets are the ultimate Slow Food-loving, community-building, 100 Mile Diet-scavenging, small farm-supporting event. Get out on a spring morning to taste the very best of fruits and vegetables available. Here is where farmers bring their freshest supplies, where you can taste heirloom tomatoes, just-picked greens, and chat with the farmers and bakers about how they grow things. I wandered the Moss St. Market in Victoria last week and picked up baby brocolli plants as well as tips on why my peas weren't sprouting from one stand, had a great discu ssion on planting gardens in Victoria's front and backyards from another local farmer, and sampled a killer croissant and coffee, and the best damn chocolate cake I've ever had (that was not my mother's). Aside from filling up your basket with impeccable ingredients for a week of great cooking, the market is where you can chat with your neighbours, meet local artisans, or just sit down quietly and watch the very old, very important tradition of community members and visitors mingling among fresh-baked bread and jars of preserves.
BC is home to an abundancy of very well-run Farmers' Markets each with their own unique features. The Nelson market is situated beside a waterfall, UBC's farmer's market is right on campus, and the Island Chefs' Collaborative Bastion Square Farm Market bustles on Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 am in Bastion Square, Downtown Victoria. (For more information on the ICBC market, click here)
For a complete list visit of BC Farmer's Markets visit click here.
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Event
Sunday Winemaker's Lunch at Fairburn Farm
Sit out on the verandah at Fairburn Farm on June 8th and enjoy a seasonal six-course winemakers lunch. Chef Mara Jernigan will be creating homemade pasta, Giordan's ragu, and of course, the exquisite Venturi Schulze balsamic vinegar will be featured. Call Fairburn Farm to book a reservation at 250.746.4637 or click here for more information.
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Ingredient
Wild Morels Plentiful
"Morels are less predictable than most wild things, and their habits are maddening. They often grow where they shouldn't, and they don't grow where they should. You must enjoy the looking as much as the picking, or you will not last long as a morel hunter." So goes the cyptic warning from Mike Anderson of the Missouri Conversationalist.
In BC, mushroom-mongers know that morels, or Morchella, grow after a wildfire, come only in spring, and have a nutty, earthy flavour unlike any other mushroom. These qualities make them a rare and natural delicacy for the skilled and patient picker. Identifiable by their hollowed-out, honeycombed caps, wild morels are one of spring's most elusive and decadent yields. If you're not into tromping through the woods to fill your own sac, forage instead at your local foods grocer or nearest farmers' market.
The following sources carry morels when their pickers bring in yields:
Edible BC in Vancouver
Ottavio's, Market on Yates, and Ambrosia Markets on Vancouver Island
Choices Markets in the Okanagan
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Recipe
Fresh Mushroom Crusted BC Spot Prawn Salad
With Pea Tips, Baby Morels, Wild Mushroom Vinaigrette
(Serves 6)
Ingredients
· 18 Large BC Spot Prawns, or other wild
prawns depending on the season, peeled
(Salmon Shop)
· 2 Tbsp Wild BC Mushroom Powder (Edible BC)
· 4 Tbsp Olive Oil (Edible BC)
· 3 Packages Fresh Pea Tips (South China Seas)
· 18 Fresh Baby Morels (South China Seas)
· 1 tsp. Garlic, Finely Minced (Green Grocer)
· 1/4 C Wild Mushroom Vinaigrette (Edible BC)
· Salt & Pepper (Edible BC)
Please note that all measures are approximate), and all good chefs
improvise based on their mood at the moment!
Method
1. Soak the fresh baby morels in 2 tbsp of hot water for 30 minutes or more.
2. De-head and peel the fresh spot prawns leaving the tail intact (save the
shells and heads for making spot prawn bisque at a later date).
3. Place the prawn tails in a plastic bag and add the mushroom powder -
toss to coat.
4. Heat 2 tables spoons of oil in a non-stick pan and sauté the mushroom
coated spot prawns until 3/4 cooked (do not over cook them) and then
remove from the heat and leave in the pan.
5. Drain the morels.
6. In a second pan, heat another couple of tablespoons of olive oil and then
sauté the pea tips, garlic and baby morels for 1 minute then add half the
mushroom juice and the wild mushroom vinaigrette. Sauté until the pea
tips are just wilted.
7. To serve, plate the greens and mushrooms and then top with 3 prawns per
person. Finish with salt and pepper and serve.
8. Bon Appetite!
Our
friends at Edible British Columbia created this wonderful salad using
fresh, wild BC morels, local spot prawns, early season pea shoots and
products found at their Granville Island Market store. For more recipes and information on Edible British Columbia tours and events click here.
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Wine of the Week CFUN Radio Wine Talk
Each week EAT contributors Michelle Bouffard and Michaela Morris appear on CFUN radio to talk about wine and give their recommendations for the week. Inspired by the EAT newsletter Tapas, this week they are suggesting Spanish sherry.
"If you think that Sherry is nothing more than a cheap and cloying tipple that Granny used to drink, it's time to revisit this underrated wine gem. Sherry can be either deliciously sweet or mouthwateringly dry. Michaela will discuss why both styles should figure into your summer drinking regime."
To listen to Micheala wax poetic about Spanish sherry on CFUN click here
Gonzalez Byass, Tio Pepe, Extra Dry Fino Sherry $18.99
750ml - SKU#242669
Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry $18.49 750ml - SKU#215483
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Charity
BC OysterF est
The BC Wine and Oyster Fest is a sure sign that summer has arrived. While blues and jazz singer Maureen Washington and the Washington Cook Trio play on the waterfront patio, fresh oysters on the half shell will be served with BC wine and ales. The Blue Crab culinary team will be barbecuing oysters and pairing them with their own sauces. Breads, cheeses, deli meats, and other seafood will also be offered, with the grand finale of a Bernard Callebaut Chocolatiere fondue fountain.
Proceeds from this event will help the Greater Victoria Eldercare Foundation to improve residences and programs for seniors in the Victoria community. Tickets are available at Coast Victoria Harbourside Hotel Marina, Metro Liquor - Tuscany Village, Oak Bay Village VQA Wines, and through the Eldercare Foundation Office at 250.370.5664. The event has sold out early every year so get your tickets quick.
Click here for more details.
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Home Entertaining
Dream Stove
Can a stove be a thing of beauty? If it is made with artistic flair and eye to functional detail, then why not. At-home cooks who love their kitchens more than any other room of the house, should know about Heartland Applicances Legend Range. Offered in two different sizes and six beautiful colours, the Legend is made of real porcelain and thermo-infused enamel. The range features a large electric convection oven and gas cooktops with precise gas control for your persnickety sautéing, flambéing, and searing needs. Heartland is a Canadian company based in Cambridge, Ontario.
Click here for more details.
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Books
Get It Ripe: A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking and Living
After years of creating vegan recipes in professional kitchens, organic farming coast to coast, and studying to become a holistic nutritionist, Jae Steele has created a virtual vegan encyclopedia of good health and eating. In characteristic friendly and open-minded tone, Steele shares inventive recipes (check out the Chipotle Black-Eyed Peas with Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes) that are a far cry from the old vegan standbys of lifeless, rock- hard muffins. Drawing on her training in holistic nutrition, Steele emphasizes the nutritional background of the food she touts, and dedicates a chapter to navigating grocery stores and farmers' markets. Equally important to her recipes are her chapters on "Organic, Local & Other Food Quality Considerations" and "The Ins & Outs of Digestion."
Get It Ripe is available through Arsenal Pulp Press click here to view it.
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The Tapas Bulletin Board
Wine and Food Tour of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island has some of the most breathtaking landscapes populated by artisans who are making extraordinary cheeses, bread, wine, chocolate. Take advantage of the summer weather to acquaint yourself with the island's beauty and its abundance in good food.
Click here for A Wine and Food Tour of Vancouver Island recommendations.
Venturi Schulze Summer Employment
"We have some temporary summer positions in the vineyard beginning immediately for reliable, intelligent people in good shape willing to work in rain and shine. We especially need people at least 5¹7² tall, as they areable to reach the top trellis wire. This would be great for university
students with an interest in vineyards looking for summer work. It is very satisfying to see the care you take in our pesticide and herbicide free vineyard translate into a wonderful, healthy crop. We are not able to offer accommodation. Although previous experience is helpful, it is not necessary.
Interested people should send us a resumé with references, including height and available dates, as soon as possible." Click here for contact information.
EAT Posters: Get 'Em While You Can
There are still a few EAT posters available. Created by international poster designer Andrew Lewis, the six-colour lithographs are signed by the artist and available for $50 from EAT Magazine. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the BC Cancer Foundation to fund research in their fight against Breast Cancer. Call 250.384.9042 to order your poster.
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