The Tomato Food & Drink January February 2018

Take a bite of your city | January February 2018 | thetomato.ca

The Comfort Food Issue

CULINARY BOOT CAMPS PREPARE FOR YOUR NEXT CULINARY ADVENTURE!

NAIT’s Culinary Boot Camps reveal the secrets to cooking and baking like a pro through hands-on practice, lectures and demonstrations in our state-of-the-art kitchens. Get your culinary skills in shape through lessons on planning, preparation and flavour pairings. Learn from NAIT’s celebrated chefs. Registration opens in February.

PASTRY BOOT CAMP [BAKG330] | Mon – Fri | July 9-13 Fee: $1,475 (+ $500 material fees)

GOURMET BOOT CAMP [CULG306] | Tue – Fri | July 17-20 Fee: $1025 (+ $400 material fees)

CULINARY BOOT CAMP [CULG305] | Tue – Fri | July 10-13 or July 17-20 Fee: $1025 (+ $400 material fees)

CURED MEATS, CHEESES AND PICKLES BOOT CAMP [CULG330] | Tue – Fri | July 10-13 Fee: $1025 (+ $400 material fees)

Registration opens in February. Enlist today!

Call NAIT at 780.471.6248 or register online at nait.ca/bootcamp

A LEADING POLYTECHNIC COMMITTED TO STUDENT SUCCESS

Contents Editor Mary Bailey marybee@telus.net

Features

Publisher BGP Publishing

Copy Editor Shauna Faragini

What do chefs find indispensible in the kitchen?

Contributing Writers Peter Bailey Jack Danylchuk Myles Mellor J.P. Priest

Illustration/Photography

Design and Prepress

Departments

For advertising information call 780.431.1802.

The Tomato is published six times per year: January/February March/April May/June July/August September/October November/December

14 Beer Guy Highway 16 Revisited | Peter Bailey

Distribution For editorial inquiries, information, letters, suggestions or ideas, contact The Tomato at 780.431.1802, fax 780.428.1030, or email marybee@telus.net.

5 Dish Gastronomic happenings around town

Printer

Greenline Distribution

18 Rocking the Cradle of Cacao Adventures in Peruvian chocolate | Jack Danylchuk

Bossanova Communications Inc.

WebMeister

10 Cheap and Cheerful Healthy recipes for the mid-winter blues

Daniel Costa Jack Danylchuk

Gunnar Blodgett, COPA Jurist

6 Tools of the Trade

16 Priest Vittles in Viking | J.P. Priest

24 Feeding People Soup Season | Mary Bailey

26 Wine Maven Mary Bailey

32 Kitchen Sink What’s new and notable

34 The Crossword Myles Mellor

by BGP Publishing 9833 84 Avenue Edmonton, AB T6E 2G1 780.431.1802 Subscriptions are available for $25 per year.

On the cover: Hibernating bear, VectorStory iStock

thetomato.ca

Celebrating Edmonton’s

20 YEARS

Food Culture Since 1996 The Tomato | January February 2018 3

Un nuovo inizio. (oon noo-OH-voh ee-NEAT-zee-oh) A new year means ‘a new beginning’, and that means you get to try all kinds of new things from our shop.

Also, Valentine’s Day is coming.

Grocery. Bakery. Deli. Café.

EDMONTON Little Italy | Southside | West End CALGARY Willow Park

italiancentre.ca

you know you want more...

Dish

gastronomic happenings around town kudos to ernest’s

fresh pasta with sauce

Congratulations! NAIT restaurant Ernest’s has been voted a 100 Best Restaurants in Canada 2017 by OpenTable. The winners are based on more than 500,000 restaurant reviews submitted by diners using OpenTable between November 1, 2016 and October 31, 2017. Dishes prepared by second-year Culinary Arts students under the supervision of NAIT’s seasoned chef instructors provides students with critical real-world skills along with a terrific dining experience.

Francesco Saccomanno has taken over the north end grocery store and deli started by his grandparents in 1965. Now it has a new look, a new chef, the talented Joshua Dissanayake, and a new menu featuring house-made pasta, sausage and pizza dough.

“I was a finance manager, but I have been helping out here for a long time,” says Francesco. “My grandfather and grandmother had been running it forever, so the family sat down to discuss, are we going to close or should we continue? We decided to invest some money, change it a bit, hire a chef and give it a good run.”

“It’s the students who put us in the top 100, because it’s the food they create and the hospitality they provide that puts us among the best restaurants in the country.”

Mitch McCaskill, maître d’, Ernest’s. This is the second year the restaurant has been recognized by the online reservation system, Ernest’s, 10701 118 Avenue, 780-471-8676.

The new look is contemporary — grey and white with wood accents, Metro shelving and a concrete epoxy floor. “Instead of the steam table everything is made to order. We’ll have veal marsala, chicken cacciatore, braised short rib, fish, lasagna, spinach ricotta, rabbit cannelloni as features,” says Francesco. “The chicken parm ($13) is still our staple, but now it will be on fresh pasta. In the morning we have Italian Centre pastries and biscotti from Canova.” Café 65 by Saccomannos (named in honour of the grandparents) features a spiffy new hand-pull espresso machine sourced by Ace Coffee. Café 65, 10208 127 Avenue, 780-478-2381, Monday-Saturday, 9am-6pm.

something fishy

to make a clowded creme Writer and educator Kristine Kowalchuk has long been fascinated with food. Her PhD thesis is now the book Preserving on Paper (U of T Press, $33.50). In it she helps us understand the work of Constance Hall (circa 1672), Lettice Pudsey (1675), and Mary Granville and Anne Granville D’Ewes (1740), who wrote books of receipts (recipes) by hand with homemade ink. Surprisingly, several of the recipes are similar to what we make today. (Others, not so much. The glossary created by the author helps.) The book is a fascinating look into the lives of women, especially important because history often seems to put home life on the sidelines.

If you treasure your grandmother’s scrawl on an index card with a list of ingredients and not much else (because of course you know how to bake a cake) you will love this book.

Meet Kristine Kowalchuk at the 17th Century Dinner at NAIT, Saturday, January 27 — three courses paired with wine and a copy of Preserving On Paper, to benefit Food For Thought. TIX, $105/p, twright@nait.ca, or 780-471-8685.

Photos from top: Francesco Saccomanno’s Cafe 65; a mouth-watering dish at Ernest’s; three new cookbooks.

s u s ta i n a b

le

seafood recipes from the west coas t

L U R E

There is probably no one better than chef Ned Bell to help us understand fish. His culinary journey has led to an embrace of ocean sustainability, and his cookbook Lure (Figure.1 Publishing, $38.95) will help us feed our families better, more sustainable fish more often.

NED BELL It will become your go-to cookbook on fish. It has buckets of great info packed into its 239 pages — how to shop for and store fish, basic cooking techniques, species profiles, a seasonality chart. The recipe section, divided up by white fish, fatty fish, shellfish and sea greens, holds fairly straightforward recipes highlighted by a refreshing juxtaposition of ingredients (think halibut burger with blueberry relish or seaweed brownies). Ned Bell suggests we need a national conversation on ocean protection. Lure will get you started on that in the most delicious way. with va l e r i e howes

bread and butter Brad Long on Butter (The Harvest Commission, $28) could be the definitive book on butter. Why we love it, why it’s essential in the kitchen and why we no longer need to feel guilty about it. Chef Long concentrates on the amazing power of butter to transform, and its ability to bring deliciousness (the greens, beans and brown butter recipe is an epiphany). You will learn to make your own butter (a bit of a workout, but why not) and his technique for brown butter explains everything. The chatty methods, which give the impression of a kind and voluble older brother walking you through the dish in person, will make you smile. Woven around the shaggy dog stories is solid technique and a deep respect for farmers and the ingredients they grow.

The Tomato | January February 2018 5

Tools of the Trade Winter is the time for some serious cooking, the time to pull out the cast iron Dutch ovens and other major accoutrements in the kitchen. It got us thinking — what do chefs find indispensable in their kitchens? What can’t they live without or what is something new and different? The answers may surprise you.

Blair Lebsack, Rge Rd

Eric Hanson, Prairie Noodle

I have two favourite tools. One is my small folding Opinel knife. This thing is sharp.

It goes where I go, hunting, fishing, camping or for a casual cheese board that Caitlin and I decide to have.

Now that I spend more time in office and less in the kitchen, my tools certainly have changed. Otherwise I would have been raving about my tiny tweezers and vintage gold tasting spoons. I’m on a laptop now more than on a cutting board. The step away from the stoves and into the office is important, so I can become informed and aware of all the costs and risks associated with every decision in a restaurant. When I am in the kitchen these days it’s a digital scale that I’m using the most. I’m constantly checking weights and recipes to get the most out of every ingredient. Using a digital scale keeps us accurate instead of eyeballing. Now, I’m the one who ensures not only that all the dishes taste good but that they are priced correctly as well — something most cooks, myself included, don’t focus on as much as flavour and presentation.

The other is the classic Kunz spoon, but now I like the slotted version. The handle and the bowl are the perfect size. Getting poached eggs out of water, no problem; plating mushrooms with extra liquid, it does that too without any drips. Two simple tools with so many uses.

Andrew Fung, XIX Nineteen My favourite tool is a very good quality fish spatula. Every piece of fish we cook deserves a good spatula to lift it off the frying pan.

Kelsey Johnson, Café Linnea The most indispensable thing in our kitchen is our combi oven. It does a multitude of things. We use it for canning which makes the job relatively mess-free, easy and quick, as we don’t have to boil the jars. The combi also steams to perfection. We do tons of root vegetables in it, instead of having huge pots of boiling water on the stove. We just found out we can blanch tomatoes for a minute and a half in it too. Otherwise we use our Vitamix a lot, it’s cheaper than a Thermomix and great for purees and soups. We have an older 120 volt machine that came from Giselle’s (Giselle Courteau, co-owner of the Duchess Bake Shop) kitchen.

Lino Oliviera, Sabor My favourite kitchen tool right now is a three-tooth, anti-slip handle Deglon oyster knife/shucker from France. I’m not a real fancy guy when it comes to kitchen tools and gadgets, so when we built our new raw bar at Sabor over the summer, I was using an old wooden pointed oyster knife. The raw bar was a hit and shucking almost 500 oysters a week got really hard on my wrist. When chef Ned Bell from Ocean Wise joined us during our annual seafood festival he busted my chops for using an antique. So, I upped my game.

My new oyster shucker fits nicely in the hand, it gives me a solid grip and I can shuck a lot faster than ever before. I’m ordering a few more because my staff like it too.

Shane Chartrand, Sage I enjoy using my juicer. You get the best extension of clean and vibrant flavours from vegetables to make amazing broths, sauces, soups and of course drinks.

Deglon oyster knife/shucker

Kunz slotted spoon

Oxo digital food scale

6 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Rosario Caputo, Cibo Bistro My favourite tools are the ones we use to manipulate shapes or to cut pasta. It’s really hard to pick a single one — I love using the ravioli cutters I picked up when I was in Bologna and I have a customized single-hole rigatoni die which was made for our hand-crank bigoli press. It’s a time-consuming procedure because every piece of rigatoni is individually extruded and cut by hand — a lot of love goes into the pasta alone. But, at times the simple butter knife is my fave tool to make orecchiette.

Tracy Zizek, Kitchen by Brad My favorite tool is a miniature offset spatula. I prefer the small size because they take up less space in a drawer and it sits well in the tool pocket of my chef jacket. Offsets in general are great for transferring food from pan to plate, they offer good control when icing cakes and they work really well to smooth and even thick batters for baking. And, if you bake with kids (my niece and nephew) like I do, the minis work well in their small hands. Most important? Easy to clean.

Larry Stewart, Hardware Grill Our favourite tool at home is a panini grill. Ours has panini plates and flat plates and can fold flat for griddling. We use it for quesadillas, grilled sandwiches (everything from grilled cheese to Ruebens) and garlic bread.

Continued on next page

Zwilling J.A. Henckels offset spatula

Breville panini grill

The Tomato | January February 2018 7

Scott Downey, The Butternut Tree

Continued from previous page

Roger Létourneau, Bar Clementine A Japanese mandolin is probably my most indispensable tool, but I definitely use the Bamix a lot. With the flat blade attachment you can make a French meringue on the fly.

We purchased a Hawos Grain Mill to be able to make our own flour. We found that we could get the grains we really wanted to use but couldn’t find a commercial mill to make the flours. I researched to get the right machine in house. The Hawos has been such an amazing contribution to the work we do. We are learning just how much we can do with it, which is expanding our use of grains here in the restaurant.

Kaelin Whittaker, The Ruby Apron

Shelley Robinson, Zenari’s

This has been topic in Ruby Apron cooking classes recently — what I could (Vitamix) and what I couldn’t live without in the kitchen. Can’t live without: bench scraper to cut my dough, shape my loaves and clean the work surface after shaping.

A dough scraper to get every last little bit of dough out of my mixing bowl and to keep bowls tidy if I’m hand mixing. A kitchen scale, I use it everyday. A good sharp microplane. And, especially, my Ankarsarum mixer. It’s the closest thing (in my opinion) to a professional mixer that fits in a domestic kitchen. It is quiet, it is strong, has a timer and a lid, the bowl is brilliant. It kneads dough as well as kneading by hand.

Lindsay Porter, London Local Right now we are house-grinding everything. We make our own sausages, burgers and black pudding. We use a heavy-duty grinder called Tre Spade. This one came with the restaurant, but you can get a good grinder at kitchen supply stores like Russell Hendrix.

I don’t leave home without a couple of amazing silver spoons. I have picked them up over the years when traveling. No other spoons will do the trick. They are just the right size for tasting, serving, mixing, basting. They are very old and look beautiful.

I bought a commercial grade vacuum packer a couple of years ago.

I use it for everything, to break down meat, package soup, make dog food. It’s indispensable and really practical and not just for modernist cuisine. My other favourite is my growing collection of all carbon steel knives from Knifewear. I started down that slippery slope a few years ago. I have boxes of old German and Swiss, but once you start with the Japanese knives there is no going back. They really hold an edge.

My custom hardwood cutting board isn’t a tool so much, but I love using it. It’s the perfect height and perfect size with little non-slip legs so you don’t have to put a towel underneath. It was a gift from someone I used to date, a furniture maker who got tired of hearing me complain about cutting boards warping and slipping.

Daniel Costa, corso 32

Bamix blender

I bring these puntarelle cutters back from a market in Rome. Puntarelle is a type of chicory that makes a delicious winter salad — you peel away all the leaves then put the base through this special cutter. I haven’t been able to find that particular type of chicory here, but we use the cutter (mostly at Uccellino) to slice zucchini and asparagus. It cuts differently than a mandoline or a knife. I like it too because the tool looks like it was handmade in someone’s yard.

Fujiwara Maboroshi Santoku knife

Ankarsarum mixer

Puntarelle cutter

Tre Spade grinder Good Grips dough scraper

8 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Christine Sandford, Biera Other than, of course, a sharp knife, I’d have to go with a microplane zester. I seem to always be using the microplane to garnish and add another element to a dish. A second favourite would definitely be a digital scale.

Rafael D’Alcazar, The Holy Roller My favourite tool in the kitchen right now is the Mexican mortar called a molcajete.

This traditional tool is great for spices, grinding cocoa, roasted coffee beans or sauces — it keeps the textures we sometimes lose with the high-speed machines these days.

Tony Krause, Revel A favorite tool of mine is been a really good saucepot. I picked up a really nice one quart Mauviel copper saucepot a couple months ago, with a cast iron handle. The thickness of the pot is really awesome for slowly sweating vegetables, but also is amazing for keeping my food or sauce from scorching if I want to blast it on a very intense heat source. I have found that a one- or two-quart pot works best for me, although a three-quart is nice to have on hand for things like pasta. I also have a really great All-Clad pot that has been quite enjoyable to cook in.

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Joseph Joseph zester

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Mauviel copper saucepot

We have a unique Taste From accordion mariachi to crystal decanter class, there’s an event for everyone in our tasting room.

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The Tomato | January February 2018 9

Cheap & Cheerful healthy recipes for the mid-winter blues What do we want to eat in January and February? Food with fresh flavours and interesting textures yet a little lighter after the excesses of the holidays. The emphasis is on healthy, good food with less butter and cream. It’s time to enjoy some less familiar grains and winter vegetables like endive and thrifty beans. The bonus?

Some of these recipes are super affordable and made with easy-to-find ingredients from the pantry.

10 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Roast Beet and Squash Salad “The chimichurri adds a nice freshness and brightness to the dish and the seed crunch is great for a little bit of texture. When I make this dish at home I like to top it with a few pickled rose buds for a little extra acidity and floral aroma. Pickled mushrooms are pretty tasty too,” –Tony Krause, Revel

Fennel-cured Sea Bream Crudo with Crabapple and Elderflower Vinaigrette “This is a nice light dish for after the holidays.

Talk to your local fish monger to ask which fish they recommend if they don’t have sea bream.

Always use fresh.” – Christine Sandford,

Biera

Roast Salad 5

whole beets

For the vinaigrette

1

kabocha squash

2 sprigs

thyme

3 cloves

garlic, smashed

180 g nice cloudy farmer’s apple juice (Try Steve and Dan’s, or juice your own apples)

grape seed oil

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place beets on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until tender.

Once beets are cool enough to handle, use an old dish towel to rub the skin off the beets. Quarter the beets.

Peel and rough chop squash and toss with grape seed oil, salt, thyme and garlic.

Spread on a baking sheet and roast until tender and golden.

Chimichurri ½ c

red wine vinegar

1 t

salt

4 cloves

garlic smashed

1

shallot, quartered

1 t

crushed chili flakes

½ c

cilantro

¼ c

parsley

2 T

oregano

½ c

olive oil

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on medium speed to make a chunky paste.

Seed Crunch ½ c

sunflower seeds

½ c

sesame seeds

½ c

pumpkin seeds

½ c

deep fried quinoa

Lightly toast all seeds in separate pans until golden brown. Let cool and toss together. Mix in fried quinoa.

To serve: Place spoonfuls of chimmichurri on a plate. Top with a mixture of room temperature beets and squash. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of the seed crunch.

Serves 4-6.

180 g apple cider vinegar (use good quality vinegar, it’s essential in this dish) 1 t elderflower syrup (if you don’t have this you can use a floral honey) 50 g thinly-shaved shallots 50 g small-diced crab apples (alternately you can slice them thinly on a mandolin) 5 g

salt

200 g olive oil

Whisk the apple juice, vinegar, elderflower syrup or honey, shallot and diced crab apples together. Stir in the olive oil. Reserve a bit of the vinaigrette to lightly cure the fish. Let mixture sit to marinate the shallot and crab apples.

For the fish 45 g

salt

45 g

sugar

2 g cracked fennel seeds (use the back of a pan to smash the seeds) 16 oz

(approx) piece of sea bream

Mix together. Wearing gloves, rub the mixture all over the fish and let sit in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, turning over once. Remove and gently rinse. Dry the fish with paper towel.

Take your fish and, using a very sharp, thin-bladed knife, make long thin strokes with the knife towards you. Place the slices into the reserved vinaigrette for 1 minute. Remove and place onto your plate. Season the fish with Maldon salt.

Cover with the vinaigrette, getting lots of the shallots and diced crab apples over top. If you like extra crunch, you can add some fresh apples on top as well.

S AT I S F Y A L L H E R APPETITES ST ALBERT

D I N E N I N E T E E N .CO M

T E RW I L L E GA R

78 0 . 5 69. 1 8 19

I N FO@D I N E N I N E TE E N .CO M

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The Tomato | January February 2018 11

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Spiced Bean Dip

Garnish with a herb and shoot salad: Use a mixture of picked fennel fronds, popcorn shoots and nasturtium shoots (you can find most of these at Sunrise Organics in the Old Strathcona Market).

Kelsey Johnson, Café Linnea 2 c dry white beans, soaked overnight

Serves 4 as a starter.

Oatmeal-crusted Smoked Trout Cakes Shelley Robinson, Zenari’s

steamed yam, mashed

½ c smashed potato (leftovers work great)

1 clove garlic, roasted and mashed egg, whisked

1 t

capers, chopped

1 T

cilantro, chopped

3 T

corn meal

1 t

horseradish

1 t

lemon zest.

1

bay leaf

1

carrot, peeled and chopped

1

celery stick

1 head

garlic, halved

6 T

olive oil

1-inch

fresh ginger, grated

1 t

turmeric powder

1 t

smoked paprika

¼ t

cumin

¼ t

cayenne

1 bunch fresh parsley

½ leek thinly sliced, washed and sautéed until soft 1

onion, quartered

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 lb hot smoked rainbow trout; skin, bones removed, crumbled (or use diced coldsmoked char or salmon)* ½ c

1

Daniel Costa’s Endive Salad

Drain beans of their soaking water and put in a stockpot with 6 cups of water.

Add chopped vegetables, minus the lemon, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the beans are nice and tender. Drain and discard the vegetables (or snack on them, whatever floats your boat).

2 egg whites whisked to frothy

3 fillets olive oil-preserved anchovies

2 c large flake oatmeal, buzzed in food processor for 5 seconds to mulch up

¼ c

extra virgin olive oil

Put your beans in a food processor and blitz to your desired consistency, thick and chunky, or a smooth puree, streaming in your oil and lemon juice at the last minute. Scoop your beans into a large bowl and stir in all your spices, lemon zest and ginger. Season to taste with salt and pepper and you’re done! It can be enjoyed with a crisp winter veg crudite, or spread on toast and topped with a poached egg. Finish at the last minute with fresh parsley and more lemon and olive oil.

1 T

sparkling water

Makes about 4 cups.

Prepare breading station with 1 bowl each for the flour, the egg whites and the oatmeal. Dredge each fish cake in the flour, then dip in egg white and last, roll in oatmeal to coat. Repeat with all cakes.

Chill.

Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)

Combine all ingredients except the trout; fold the fish in last. Form the cakes into desired size and chill on a sheet pan for 1 hour before breading.

Breading 1 c flour seasoned with salt and pepper

Pan fry the cakes in oil with a small knob of butter until evenly browned on both sides and on the edges. Serve right out of the pan or cool and re-heat in the oven.

Eat with corn relish and a big leafy salad.

Makes 4 small or 8 large fish cakes. * Smoked trout is available at K&K Foodliner, 9944 82 Avenue.

Endive Salad with Anchovy and Lemon Vinaigrette “This pungent salad is inspired by the classic Puntarelle Salad found throughout Rome during the cold winter months. You can eat this dish as a starter or with grilled meats such as lamb chops or sirloin steaks. I really like having all of the ingredients quite cold when eating this salad as it keeps the flavours fresh and the textures crisp.” –Daniel Costa, Corso 32.

4-5 heads Belgian endive, first layer of outer leaves removed and discarded 1 clove garlic, medium-sized, peeled 4 T freshly-squeezed lemon juice

sm. handful freshly-picked Italian parsley leaves

fresh-cracked black pepper

Mince the anchovies very fine and place in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Using a microplane, grate the garlic clove into the bowl. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, sparkling water, a few cracks of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Whisk until emulsified. Season to taste. Set vinaigrette aside until ready for use.

Remove all of the leaves from the endive heads, trimming the base as you go. Using a puntarelle cutter, or a sharp knife, cut the endive leaves lengthwise in thin strips. Place a damp cloth or paper towel over the cut endive and chill in your fridge for at least 15 minutes to ensure the lettuce is crisp and cold.

Toss the endive, parsley and vinaigrette together. Season to taste with more lemon and salt. Grate a little Parmigiano over the salad and finish with a few cracks of black pepper.

Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

12 January February 2018 | The Tomato

kosher salt

Farro and Winter Vegetable Salad “This vegetarian dish is economical, easy to prepare and packed with color and flavour.

Farro is high in fibre, protein and calcium and it has a nice firm texture when cooked.” –Tracy Zizek, Kitchen by Brad 1 c

farro (uncooked)

2 c

vegetable stock

1

pomegranate

1

/³ c

toasted pumpkin seeds

2

carrots, large dice

½ small acorn squash, large dice 2-3

small red beets, quartered

1-2 T fresh chopped herbs (your choice)

cold-pressed canola oil

kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Lightly oil and season vegetables and place of a sheet pan. Save beets for last and keep separate on the pan to avoid bleeding colour on the other vegetables. Place in oven and roast until vegetables are tender, about 30-40 minutes. While vegetables are roasting, bring vegetable stock to a boil, add farro, reduce heat to low and cook until tender (about 40 minutes). While vegetables and farro are cooking, remove arils from pomegranate and set them aside. When everything is ready, place farro, root vegetables, pomegranate arils, pumpkin seeds and fresh herbs in a bowl.

Toss. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little cold pressed canola oil and toss again. Just before serving, drizzle again with cold pressed canola oil. You can serve this dish hot or warm and it’s good cold for lunch on the go.

Serves 4-6.

Holy Roller Fruit Salad “This fruit salad makes a refreshing lunch. Add some nuts such as pecans for texture if you like and, for a more substantial meal, top with a piece of grilled salmon. In the summer, use fresh strawberries and blueberries, whatever looks good at the farmers’ market.” –Rafael D’Alcazar, The Holy Roller ½ c

sliced pear or apple

½ c

quinoa

½ c

orange segments

2

kiwis sliced

mint leaves

pinch cinnamon to add to quinoa water

Take 1 part quinoa, 2 parts cinnamon and water and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Take a portion of cooked quinoa and add to the centre of the mixing bowl.

Fold in the fruit, then plate, taking care to distribute colour throughout the dish.

Garnish with mint and drizzle with your favourite vinaigrette or serve with yogurt and honey.

Serves 1.

Gold Forest Grains Wheat Berry Seafood Risotto “This seafood risotto uses local wheat berries instead of rice.” –Andrew Fung, XIX 1½ c

wheat berries

1 qt

chicken stock

½ c

dry white wine

1 med

shallot

3 T

butter

1 T

vegetable oil

¼ c

grated Parmesan (optional)

1 T

chopped Italian parsley

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz

tiger prawns, diced

8 oz

salmon belly, diced

8 oz

clam meat

8oz

cod fillet, diced

Sweat shallot in butter and oil for few minutes. Add wheat berries and coat with fat. Deglaze with the wine. On medium heat add stock mixture, one ladle at a time, constantly stirring. As grains absorb stock, add more and continue stirring, Cook until grain is soft, about 20 minutes.

In a separate frying pan, sauté seafood in butter, oil, salt and pepper. Strain and set aside.

Check wheat berry seasoning, then gently stir in seafood and parsley. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired and chopped chives Serves 6 to 8.

Potatoes with Arugula and Tomatoes and Caper Vinaigrette “This is the perfect side dish to have with grilled chicken, salmon, scallops, shrimp, flat iron steak, or grilled vegetables.” –Larry Stewart, The Hardware Grill 1½ c

baby tomatoes

2 c

potatoes

2 c

arugula

1¼ c caper vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Use any small potato (red, white or fingerling) boiled to knife tender (when you poke a knife into a potato it falls off slowly). Cool until they can be handled, then cut in half.

HITS THE SPOT WITH 2 EDMONTON LOCATIONS PLEASANTVIEW 11004 - 51 AVENUE GLENORA 10103 - 124 STREET www.bernardcallebaut.com

Please see “Cheap” on page 28

The Tomato | January February 2018 13

Nourishing Entertainment!

Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society devoted to the exhibition and promotion of Canadian, international, and independent film and video. metrocinema.org La graine et le mulet (The Secret of the Grain)

January 15 @ 6:30PM | STAFF PICS As the shipyard where a Tunisian immigrant works is winding down, he plans to use his redundancy to open a couscous restaurant with food cooked by his ex-wife, who is renowned among family and friends for the quality of her food.

Canada Top Ten Film Festival

January 25 - Ferbuary 4 Established by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2001, the 17th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival celebrates and promotes contemporary Canadian cinema and raises awareness of Canadian achievements in film.

Black History Month

Throughout February Come celebrate Black History Month at Metro, with screenings of: Kirikou and the Sorceress, Whose Streets?, The Brother from Another Planet, Step, Get Out, Unarmed Verses, In the Heat of the Night, and NFB short films.

Metro Cinema at the Garneau

Metro Cinema receives ongoing support from these Arts Funders:

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14 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Beer Guy Highway 16 Revisited At Alberta taverns in 1974, the price of a standard eight ounce glass of beer was 20¢. Five glasses for a buck. On the down side, the beer was not ale or lager, it was just draft. Watery, tasteless draft.

These memories come from Neil D. Martin in his autobiographical novel, This Ain’t the Ritz. Martin recalls touring Alberta in the seventies as the drummer for Captain Nobody and the Forgotten Joyband. In 1971, the new Lougheed government set about modernizing Alberta’s liquor laws. Dancing remained illegal, but the Alberta drinking age was lowered from 21 to 18, which meant an influx of young people into beer parlours where they wanted rock ’n roll with their beer. Bands like Captain Nobody could make a decent living playing music. Martin wrote that each small town “had at least one hotel with a tavern and every tavern had a stage. We played ‘em all.”

One of them, the Gainford Hotel, about an hour west of Edmonton along Highway 16, was legendary by the time I had a beer there in 1983. It appeared not to have changed since it opened in 1958, including the stuffed coyotes, rabbits, lynx and birds watching you drink. In an obituary for the Gainford’s owner, Joan Kereliuk, upon her death in 2012 at age 90, musician Danny Hooper called her the Iron Lady of Alberta Bar Rooms. Alas, the Gainford Hotel only outlived Joan by a year as in 2013 Alberta Health declared it “dangerous to public health” and ordered it closed.

We need not mourn the loss of small town taverns like the Gainford. Rural Alberta is showing the way with new craft breweries and taprooms. Back in the day a ski trip to Jasper via Highway 16 meant a coffee in Edson, a burger in Hinton and a lager in Jasper. Today there’s Bench Creek Brewing in Edson, Folding Mountain Brewing in Hinton and Jasper Brewing in Jasper.

I was sceptical when I heard someone was planning a brewery located in the woods near Edson. But since their launch in 2015 Bench Creek has made me a believer. Their White Raven IPA has joined Alley Kat Full Moon as a house beer in my fridge. Behind the great brews are owner Andrew Kulynch and Head Brewer Warren Misik.

Andrew was a serious home brewer with 37 acres of land north of Edson. Warren was part of the first graduating class of the Olds College Brewmaster program.

Together they are making some of the best ale in Alberta.

Folding Mountain are the new kids on the brewery block. Founders and coowners Aric Johnson and Jason Griffiths grew up in Hinton and both headed to Calgary for school. They shared an interest in beer and home brewing.

Over the years, they talked about opening their own brewery, as one does.

Eventually this talk became serious, and in 2016, they decided to run with it. As with Bench Creek, they tapped into some Olds College expertise, hiring Dave Mozel, brewmaster at Olds College Brewery, as their brewmaster.

Aric and Jason knew the brewery had to be in Hinton. As Aric told me, “from the beginning, this is where we wanted to build. The mountains are home.”

They are inspired by the mountains, designing the taproom and brewery with a ski chalet feel and locating north of town, close to The Overlander Lodge, with a gorgeous view of Folding Mountain and the Rockies to the west.

With strong local support, they’ve grown quickly, canning in fall 2017 with province-wide distribution.

Hardworking towns along Highway 16 have lived (and died) with the ups and downs of a resource economy – coal, oil and gas, lumber, pulp and paper. Craft breweries are an exciting, sustainable economic development option relying on renewable resources like world-class barley, clean water, beautiful scenery and the ingenuity and smarts of Albertans.

And the beer is delicious!

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Folding Mountain Parkway Porter, Hinton Three hours west of Edmonton, just before the Jasper National Park gates, you will find Folding Mountain Brewing. Their Parkway Porter is a medium-bodied American porter with delicious chocolate and coffee notes. It pays tribute to the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93) between Jasper and Lake Louise.

Jasper Brewing Crisp Pils, Jasper Located in downtown Jasper, Jasper Brewing launched in 2005 as Canada’s first brewery in a national park. Crisp Pils is Jasper’s nod to Canada’s 150th, with packaging evoking Canada Parks branding from the ’70s. A lip-smacking German pilsner brewed with Saaz and Hallertau Blanc hops at Big Rock in Calgary.

Three Ranges Snowdance Porter, Valemount, BC If you stay on the Yellowhead through Jasper and Mt Robson Parks, 90 minutes later you can be at Three Ranges Brewing in Valemount, British Columbia. Partners Michael Lewis and Rundi Anderson launched Three Ranges after Rundi was laid off by Parks Canada in 2012. Snowdance is their winter seasonal, a creamy, robust, warming Baltic Porter.

Canmore Brewing Ten Peaks Pale Ale, Canmore From Jasper you can head south on the spectacular Icefields Parkway, breeze through Lake Louise and Banff to Canmore. Already home to Grizzly Paw Brewing, Canmore Brewing launched in January 2017, showing two breweries in town are better than one. Ten Peaks is an amiable and moderate American pale ale, focused more on the malt than the hops.

Peter Bailey usually buries his lunch beer in a snow bank near Marmot’s Eagle Chalet. He’s @libarbarian on Twitter and Instagram.

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The Tomato | January February 2018 15

Priest Vittles In Viking

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Priest was in Viking, just passing through. Viking and district have a population of just 1,080.

Viking was begun more than a hundred years ago by North European settlers. Right, Vikings — smack in the middle of rural Alberta.

Where was Viking’s classiest eatery? A young trucker on the highway wearing a huge rodeo buckle had said he had indeed heard that there was one. He reported it to be downtown right next to the bank.

And so, when he had driven the length of Viking’s ancient and dusty street, had duly noted the Swedish, Swiss and Norwegian flags blown out straight by an evil wind, Priest found it. Yes, right next to the bank. What was he letting himself in for?

So, just to define things, food was what Priest was after. Some of the quirkiest eateries in the world are in small towns, but they have to be found and dug out.

They do not have golden arches, nor will the local populace gush to passersthrough about them.

Priest has sympathy with truckers who wear big belt buckles. They have to grab lunch at convenience stores, which offer mostly garbage to eat. And parking. One could not park a semi-trailer downtown and leave the engine running through lunch. Pizza and fries, hamburgers and fries, hot dogs with ketchup in little plastic sachets. And all on paper plates.

If plates at all.

Priest was chuffed to be able to escape the heartburn which inevitably followed upon any of that. And he was not, today, here for grabbing anything at all.

Flair. The hole in the wall right across from the handsome old red-brick bank had something about flair in its title.

Just before noon, which is the right time to hit these places, Priest slid in through

16 January February 2018 | The Tomato

the glass doors and sat himself down in a corner. He had hunger, he was sharpset, he had a keen desire for lunch.

He had done his part in bringing an appetite; could he expect that he would be rewarded?

There was a hot table which had, just minutes before, been loaded up.

Not a banquet. Just a few items. Simple.

Simple is good.

This day’s offerings were of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn and over-salted gravy persuasion. And carrots. Wonderful carrots. Three kinds of salad in glass bowls all of them swamped with mayo. Also cabbage rolls, according to a peculiar Viking formula. Cabbage rolls in the vernacular, and make no mistake — the Ukrainian style.

Lots of dark meat, the turkey slices had somehow been kept moist and were tasty.

Which is quite a trick. Turkey has a suicidal way of drying out, it becomes chewy and gives up its flavour to the air. Gone forever. And then it is unfit for anything but soup. Around Thanksgiving, tomorrow’s soup is always anchored to turkey.

Mayo won’t kill you but it will make you fat. A cook with any creative imagination can mix together a dressing for a salad, which beats mayo. What do you need? Vinegar, oil, dry mustard, a whiff of soya sauce, some piri piri, not much salt and a whiz in a blender.

There!

You know about piri piri? Priest will tell you. But not right here.

Corn is a cop-out on a hot table. Dull and tough going. A microwaved writeoff. On the cob and straight out of the garden, it is a dream rolled in butter.

More than two cobs will get you cardiac hassles. Watch out for butter.

Priest really tucked into that bird meat. But, without doubt, the carrots

were the best part of the meal. Those dark-orange, thick-sliced, flavoursome carrots were not from a plastic sack in Super Foods; they were from someone’s garden. Crisp, al dente and again with butter.

The cook, the harpy with the flying hair, had steamed them with a handful of fresh dill weed. Carrots and dill should always go together. A proper and a formal wedding. A blissful and enduring union. Give us this day our daily carrots: and this day’s carrots at the flair were delicious.

Enough poetry, what about the food?

Two items which make food taste truly notable and memorable are grease and salt. A pygmy in the Kalahari bush, eating eight pounds of giraffe haunch at a sitting, will tell you the same: grease and salt. Both are murder on your pump. Pygmies do not live all that long.

Grease will clog up the delivery side of your heart. And salt will entrain far more liquid than is needed to be pumped around. That will give your heart far too much work to do; it will get tired, it will feeble out, it will flutter and miss like a miled-out beater. And then where will you find another and who will then undertake to install it?

Butter is likely the best tasting grease there is and the most versatile. Most French chefs should stand trial for their lethal use of butter. But butter and dill, no doubt about it, make a dish of carrots taste really fine.

It was the potatoes. The potatoes made this meal truly distinctive. Alone on the hot table, they had not been contaminated with butter. Mashed? No, they had been smashed. They had been busted up. Those potatoes had been subdued with a two-handed, doubleedged Viking broad sword. The variety had been chosen well. A waxy type, not floury and prone to blow away. And there was not a fleck of darkness in the whole pan. The spuds were as cleanpeeled as the plates were polished. Work had gone into these. And they were much appreciated, at least by Priest.

J.P. Priest

We are in deep-dug, hundred-year-old rural Alberta, he reflected: we are not in Calgary’s Cattleman’s Club where the steaks are as big as the foot size of the patrons. Who knows what weapons this culinary Valkyre kept in the backseat of her SUV? But she had used a method of prepping spuds clearly unknown to Auguste Escoffier.

Say Escoffier to any fancier of the beloved potato and you are suddenly talking a special language. Old Auguste lived for 88 years in Paris and, mercifully, was spared the shame of witnessing that grisly second world war.

Escoffier spent his very productive life persuading the feinshmeckers of Paris that potatoes were not just peasant food.

They could be posh.

Potatoes could be classy in many manifestations, light and heavenly in their flavour. Sublime. He cooked spuds in a lot of different ways but he clearly hadn’t come upon the Viking method.

Escoffier was a digger-out and a developer of new stuff in the culinary world. He might have posted on facebook, had he lived longer: does the two-handed broadsword have a place in the kitchen? That would have got something going.

There was a dessert (a canned-fruit and suspicious pastry creation) but Priest had gone back for extras of those exceptional carrots. No dessert for him.

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A grand meal in a lot of modest ways.

No, not grand but certainly good and worthwhile stopping for. Twelve bucks.

And tipping, it seems, is not the done thing in Viking. Spoken compliments, neither. They are a tight-lipped lot in good old Viking.

No, he can’t tell you the name of the place. That would bring on a lawsuit at least. Or, worse, he might get a chopping up from that broadsword. But there is more of Viking to get under the skin of. Priest will surely stop there again to see what’s cooking.

Priest is the mayor of a small Alberta town, a grower of vegetables and cooker of epics, when his wife lets him.

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The Tomato | January February 2018 17

ROCKING

cacao the cradle of Jack Danylchuk Story and Photos

Chuncho cacao bean pods

18 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Chazuta town’s main street (left) and general store (right).

Five of us sardined into a road-weary Toyota sedan for the six-hour journey from Cusco to Quillabamba, a small town in the shadow of Machu Picchu, and according to a Belgian researcher, the original source for Chuncho, the progenitor of all the fine, fragrant cacao in the world.

As the condor flies, the distance to Quillabamba is barely 100 km, but between Cusco and the lush valley of the Urubamba River looms Abra Malaga, a windswept 3,200 meter pass that squeezes the two lanes of pavement through endless hairpin turns and brief, steeply pitched straightaways.

Altitude, scenery and adrenalin make for a breath-taking ride. The downhill run from the summit to the Amazon jungle draws scores of mountain bikers. Our driver was no less thrilled for making the journey twice daily, and threw the Toyota into corners with the passion of a Formula One driver racing for the championship.

Peru had just defeated New Zealand to secure a berth in the World Cup and the country convulsed with a euphoria that registered on seismic devices in Chile.

So conversation naturally focused on football, Peru’s chances and the crazy money it would take to see the games in Russia.

The afternoon of the match in Lima, the team checked into the hotel where I was attending a symposium on cacao research and I snapped some candid photos. My fellow travellers, farmers returning from

a day in the city, were impressed, and no less proud to hear of the fame of their local cacao, even though they, like many Peruanos, almost never eat what the outside world calls fine chocolate.

“Five of us sardined into a road-weary Toyota sedan for the six-hour journey from Cusco to Quillabamba” My trip to Quillabamba was the final leg in an interrupted journey that began a decade earlier, in a rural market in Ecuador, which has long held a reputation for fine chocolate. Several women were offering thin slabs of what appeared to be broken slate. It was chocolate, they insisted. After 10 years of tasting chocolate in Mexico, Central America and Peru, it lingered in my memory as the worst. Now, I was on my way to taste what might be the best.

The conference, sponsored by the International Organization for Cacao and Chocolate, was opened by Peru’s president, Pedro Kuczynski, a clear indication of the importance the government places on cacao. For more than 20 years, cacao has been on the front line of a program to replace coca in subsistence economies of Peru’s vast tropical hinterland.

The US government has poured millions into the effort to plant thousands of hectares of disease-resistant, high-yield hybrids like CCN-51. As a direct spinoff, processing co-operatives have been established and thousands of agriculture engineers have been schooled in the details of cacao cultivation, harvest, fermentation and drying.

Eradicating coca has proved difficult: drug cartels have moved operations into ever more remote areas of the Amazon.

But cacao production has soared. Valued at just $8.5 US million in 2000, cacao exports topped $230 million in 2014 and are expected to reach $500 million by 2021.

The conference touched on every aspect of the $110 billion dollar a year global chocolate industry, from long-term sustainability in the face of persistent issues like child labour and meagre rewards for subsistence farmers, to the impacts of global warming on a crop that grows only within 20 degrees of the equator, and the search for new diseaseresistant hybrids.

I was there at the urging of Peruvian chocolatiers to hear the presentation by the Belgian scientist Evert Thomas. It was a conference centrepiece, and got an enthusiastic reception from Peruvian government officials, who welcomed the message as a further endorsement of the country’s status as the cradle of cacao and the leading source for much of the very best.

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According to the hypothesis Thomas has drawn from a growing mound of genetic evidence, cacao found refuge from the last ice age in the deep valleys of southern Peru. It was spread from there, mostly by human intervention, throughout the Amazon and Mesoamerica, and with the arrival of the Spanish, around the world.

The progenitor of all fine cacao, according to Thomas, is Chuncho, a variety native to the valleys of Peru’s southern-most departments. It’s a name derived from long-vanished original inhabitants of the region. It’s also a derogatory term Peruvians apply to rural bumpkins. Chuncho comes in several varieties, with pods that might be narrow and elongated, like a rough banana, or small and round with a delicate shell.

The beans range from pale violet to deep purple, and the flavour profile leans toward fruity.

The cacao blossom, awaiting pollination by a nasty little biting midge known as Forcipomyia.

Thomas was building on a paper he published in 2012 in PLOS ONE, an open scientific journal, and the work of fellow cacao investigator Juan Carlos Motamayor who turned the chocolate world on its head in 2008 with the assertion that there are not just three cacao types — Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario — but at least 10, and many more waiting to be found in the Amazon. According to Motamayor, all of the cacao in Mexico and Central America, Colombia and Venezuela is Criollo. Curray and Nacional are the dominant cacao in Ecuador. Chuncho is Contamana. The upper Amazon, cacao’s area of greatest genetic diversity, also nurtures extensive stands of cacaos that Motamayor identified as Iquitos, Maranon, Nanay and Purus. The chocolate world quickly righted itself and moved on without adopting the new nomenclature, staying with the term single origin.

Motamayor wrote in PLOS ONE, in 2008, that cacao survived the ice age just off the equator, near the borders of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, in its area of greatest genetic diversity. The area is near the Chinchipe River where archaeologists have found evidence of cacao use 5,000 years ago — oldest on record, so far.

Cacao drying on black plastic at a co-operative in Santa Fe, Piura Department. Experts say the plastic will invade the flavour of the beans.

20 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Samir Giha with drying Piura White cocoa beans in Santa Fe, Piura Department.

Sonia Zarrillo, an archaeologist then attached to the University of Calgary, found traces of cacao, chiles and maize

in a stone jar unearthed in southern Ecuador, suggesting a beverage that might have been similar to the drink favoured by Aztec nobility.

Motamayor speculated that cacao seeds were part of ceremonial and diplomatic exchanges between the people of the Chinchipe and early cultures on the Pacific coast and eventually reached the Olmecs and Maya.

When Pizarro invaded South America the Spanish were already sending cacao beans from Mexico across the Pacific to be planted throughout the Philippines and south Asia. The conquistadors reported no evidence of cacao veneration or use among the indigenous people of the Andes and the Amazon.

Peru has always ranked high as a source of fine cacao. Piura White, or Piura Porcelano, identified by its creamy white beans and its terroir in Peru’s hottest department, is known for its mellow flavour, and the intensely fruity and buttery Chuncho with its violet to deep purple beans, have long been exported to specialty chocolatiers in Europe.

A decade ago, Dan Pearson and Brian Horsley, two Americans sourcing fruit and produce for Newmont Mining’s giant Yanacocha gold mine at Cajamarca, stumbled across a large swath of a white bean cacao in the jungle east of the Maranon. Tests by the US Department of Agriculture determined that it was Nacional, a type of cacao that made fortunes in Ecuador before the First World War but was thought to have been lost to disease 100 years ago.

“Until I saw those strange trees, with pods growing from the trunks like so many footballs, I thought chocolate was a Hershey bar,” said Horsley, who lives in Cajamarca with his family and travels to remote farm communities on the Maranon River once a month during the harvest season, to gather and process the beans. It’s a 17-hour commute, by road and riverboat.

Making the best chocolate is not unlike making fine wine. Variety and terroir, bean selection, fermentation and drying are all critical in determining flavour and quality of the finished product. Horsley and other artisanal producers have found that most farmers are best left to farming.

“They are good at it,” said Horsley, but most were conditioned to selling beans in bulk to buyers who mixed the harvest from hundreds of sources to make the anonymous bulk chocolate that goes into cheap bars and bonbons.

The solution — paying a premium for properly ripened cacao and managing fermentation and drying — is a tactic used by many of Peru’s artisanal chocolate makers who have stepped into the supply stream and pulled other wild cacaos out of the anonymous pile of chocolate mass.

They have created a new grade of chocolate, tree to bar, that exceeds the capabilities of bar makers who buy their beans already fermented and dried.

“If I could do bean to bar I would,” says Samir Giha, a partner with Eduardo Lanfranco in Cacaosuyo, which poured its first bars in 2013 and two years later made its mark in London and Paris, winning gold and silver medals.

“It would cost much less in time, effort, and money. But if we want to have the flavour of the bean and preserve it, then we have to be hands on, all the way. We are tree to bar. We want the chocolate to reflect the flavour profile of the fruit.

That is the new way. The old way, the European way, relied on beans that were not in the best condition. They were heavily worked to create texture and mouth feel. To me, that chocolate dies on the palate, where it is replaced by sugar or vanilla.”

Many bean to bar makers now label their product as ‘single origin’ cacao, which sidesteps the question of genetics. Unless the cacao comes from an orchard of known hybrids, there is no easy answer to ‘what is it?’ Some make the considerable effort to spend time with the farmers and cooperatives, to see the beans harvested and processed, and buy directly from the producers, which is more relevant to the quality of chocolate than organic or fair trade certifications. The best information about a bar is the contents list.

Lisi Montoya of Shattell Chocolate was the very first of Peru’s new wave of artisanal chocolate makers. The former travel agent turned to making chocolate in her home almost a decade ago when the internet swallowed her travel business.

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“As long as buyers insist on $2.50 a kg for all cacao, CCN51 will dominate,” he says. “Wild cacao doesn’t even taste like chocolate. If you believe the experts, it’s fruit and flowers and nuts. Chocolate makers reach for CCN-51 when they want to create the familiar flavour that everyone recognizes.

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Montoya took a different route to sourcing beans for their extensive line of organic, single-origin bars, touring Peru’s many cacao co-operatives, inspecting their processes and testing samples of their beans for flavour and quality.

The line includes chocolate made with CCN-51 beans from Tingo Maria.

CCN-51 is something like Dr. Frankenstein’s sensitive monster. CCN51 (Collection Castro Narjanal) takes its name from its developer, Homero Castro, and its place of origin, Naranjal, Ecuador.

It has a reputation for being bitter and astringent, better suited for cheap bulk couverture than fine, and expensive, chocolate bars in fancy packages.

“The criticism of CCN-51 and other hybrids is unfair,” says Montoya, whose bars made from Chuncho beans garnered an armload of gold medals at the recent chocolate salon in London. “I think our Tingo Maria bars prove that hybrids can make good chocolate if they are processed with care.”

“And who will pay to keep the wild exotics going? A poor farmer with two hectares and a family to feed?”

Giha thinks the rich flavour of dried fruit makes the wild beans that go into Cacaosuyo’s Lakuna bars worth the effort required to reach the supply of wild cacao harvested by an isolated band of recently contacted Awajun; they live in small villages scattered in the jungle east of the Maranon River, hours by boat from the nearest road.

Ross Figueroa reaches for the fruit of a prized chuncho cacao known as Cascara de Juevo, La Signorita, and Chuncha. It is renowned for its intense fruit flavour.

Montoya isn’t alone in her opinion, but the proof is in the tasting. The sharp flavour of the Tingo Maria bar fades quickly, while the deep, rich fruit of Shattell’s gold medal bar made from Chuncho beans is long and satisfying.

The conference ended with excursions to Quillabamba or the germ plasm bank in Tarapoto. On Sam Giha’s recommendation, I chose a less expensive option, a farm tour and a night at El Mangal, a small agro-tourism lodge at the trailing edge of Maranura, a farm village a few kilometres short of Quillabamba.

Many artisanal chocolatiers see the hybrids as a threat to wild cacaos that may gradually be overwhelmed through interbreeding with the sturdier hybrids.

Brian Horsley thinks Peru’s cacao farmers would be better served if the US Agency for International Development and NGOs like TechnoServe that deliver the coca-suppression program in Peru, planted native cacaos instead of hybrids.

El Mangal is so discreet that the taxi driver couldn’t place it, even though he passed it twice a day. The farmers had never heard of it, but after a false lead, I was pointed in the right direction. There is no sign on the long, white wall that deflects traffic noise, but an open gate beckoned. Beyond it, a spring gushed from the rocky hillside and wound through a lush tropical garden.

“The hybrids are big producers, but they require fertilizer or they quickly deplete the soil. If the farmers can’t afford it they lose all their effort and the quality of the dirt. They are also creating a monoculture that is at risk of being wiped out by disease, just as Nacional was in Ecuador,” says Horsley.

Victor Ganoza, chief of mission for TechnoServe in Peru, is unapologetic for the CCN-51 program and dismissive of wild cacaos in general: they don’t put enough money in the pockets of farmers who might produce 700 kilos of cacao a year.

22 January February 2018 | The Tomato

“It’s a different world,” said Giha.

“These are people who have no word in their language for company. The Awajun eat only what they harvest or hunt. There is nothing else. They are wary of outsiders so contact with the rest of the world are usually brief.”

Adolfo Figueroa and his family have been developing the farm for more than 40 years. It holds more than 250 species of plants, most of them native to the Amazon, and groves of Chuncho cacaos, some of them 100 years old and still producing fruit.

Amanada Jo E. Wildey, owner manager of El Cacaotal, the only store in greater Lima devoted exclusively to Peru’s artisanal chocolate makers.

Ross Figueroa led me down a winding garden path, sampling passion fruit and crushing aromatic leaves of cinnamon and cloves. She pulled a ripe yellow pod from one of the hybrid cacaos and broke

it open against the tree trunk, revealing a cone of beans surrounded by white pulp.

The taste of the pulp can foretell the character of the bean and the nature of the chocolate. This was acidic, almost sour — okay for chocolate mass. We spit out the seeds and, followed by a silent and barely visible cloud, moved on to her baby — a rare and much sought type of Chuncho.

Theobroma cacao, the food of the gods, is fertilized by just one insect, forcipomyia.

Related to mosquitos, the tiny biting midge is almost visible as it makes its feeble flight among the trees, extracting blood tribute from all who enter with exposed legs and arms.

Ross’s baby is a prime specimen of Cascara de Juevo festooned with small green globes about the size of an orange.

When ripe sometime in January, the pods with their eggshellthin walls will be filled with purple seeds so dark they are almost black.

space on shelves dominated by cheaper domestic products and well-known imports.

Until recently, buying bars by Cacaosuyo, Shattell, Nina, or Marana would require a treasure hunt through upscale boutiques and restaurants in half a dozen of Lima’s 30 plus municipalities. That changed when El Cacaotal, a one-room boutique, opened late this year in Barranco, with shelves full of bars from new and established bar makers. Shattell’s gold medal win touched off a buying frenzy that required special production runs.

Wong’s, Peru’s premium food retailer, agreed to stock Cacaosuyo and Shattell. The company’s store in central Miraflores, Lima’s richest municipality, in late November had a selection of Cacaosuyo bars, easily missed on the bottom row of a shelf dominated by cheaper chocolate from Europe, the US and Peru.

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“Until I saw those strange trees, with pods growing from the trunks like so many footballs, I thought chocolate was a Hershey bar.”

El Mangal will send 20 or 30 kilos of the beans to favourite customers in Italy and France. The rest will be retained for use in El Mangal’s kitchen and made into barely sweetened bars of dark, dense chocolate.

There was a late lunch of vegetable salad supplied by the abundant garden and Aji de Galina, a Peruvian standard of shredded chicken breast in a cream sauce of the country’s distinctive yellow chile.

Dessert was a dark nugget of chocolate ice cream made with Cascara de Juevo, 95 per cent pure except for the hint of sugar to accent the deep fruit of the cacao.

Anthony Bourdain, eat your heart out!

For all their success at international competitions, Peru’s artisanal chocolate makers are largely unknown and untasted at home, despite some clever marketing and enthusiastic support from culinary luminaries Gaston Acurio and his partner Astrid Gutsche. The government has subsidized travel and display space at international trade shows, including one in Ottawa last January, but in the domestic marketplace, Peru’s artisanal chocolatiers are on their own, fighting for

Samir Giha has an explanation: “Until we won medals in London and Paris, Peruvians didn’t think it was possible to make good chocolate here. They tend to look elsewhere for quality and they are famously stingy with money. They would rather buy a European bar, even if it isn’t as good, because it’s cheaper.”

Want to taste chocolate from Peru, or bars made in Canada with chocolate from Peru? Sweet Lollapalooza Confections in Edmonton has won prizes for their chocolates enrobed in high-quality Peruvian chocolate. SOMA Chocolatemaker in Toronto and East Van Roasters in Vancouver have won prizes for bars sourced in Peru. A wide selection of Peruvian chocolate is available through a British online store: CocoaRunners.com.

Jack Danylchuk is a writer with an aversion to winter and a writer’s memory that is triggered by the flavours of the places he has passed through. His curiosity about chocolate has taken him through Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

The Tomato | January February 2018 23

Feeding People Soup Season Nothing says dead of winter like making soup. Soup is tasty, can be quick and is pretty forgiving.

A New Destination for Unique Home Decore 10943 120 Street | 587.460.9988 | wabisabihomedecore.com

All you need is stock or miso, a can of tomatoes, or even some Walter’s Caesar mix to make delicious, warming and substantial soups. Homemade stock is best and not hard to make with the carcass of a cooked chicken and some bay leaves. Canned will do in a pinch; try the President’s Choice brand of organic, low-sodium chicken stock.

Ned Bell’s West Coast Bouillabaisse “Bouillabaisse—a fisherman’s stew from Marseilles—was traditionally built around whatever was pulled up in the nets and traps that day. The fishers would sell their catch in neat fillets, then toss all the trimmings and bycatch, along with some shellfish, into a broth infused with aromatics such as fennel and garlic. Just about any firm white fish or shellfish would be delicious in this tomato-based broth.

You can keep it simple with just halibut and clams or follow in the fishermen’s footsteps and add a little of everything.” –Ned Bell, Lure 1 T

Tomato Soup with Onions and Herbs

1 sm

red onion, sliced

2 stalks

celery, sliced

2

carrots, sliced

1 can San Marzano Italian tomatoes

6 cloves

garlic, finely sliced

1 c

dry white wine

5 T

butter

1 med

onion, chopped

4 c Walter Caesar Mix (or 3 c tomato juice and 1 c clam juice)

pinch

dried oregano

3 c

chicken or vegetable stock

sm

handful basil leaves

kosher salt and freshcracked black pepper

10932 119 Street | 780.758.1160 | cafelinnea.ca

Put a large knob of butter in a stockpot over medium-low heat. Sweat the carrot and onion with the oregano in the butter until soft. Deglaze with a splash of white wine. Raise the temperature slightly to cook off the wine. Add the rest of the butter, the tomatoes and stock. Simmer for about half an hour to 45 minutes.

Check for seasoning and add the torn up basil. Simmer on low for about another 20 minutes, then use an immersion blender to break up the tomato chunks.

(You could put in a blender instead but watch the hot soup.)

Serves 4.

EXPANDING MENU, EXPANDING HOURS, THIS FALL 10933 120 Street | 780.660.1051 | thelocalomnivore.com

24 January February 2018 | The Tomato

1 bulb fennel, sliced and fronds reserved for garnish

This is a riff on Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce.

It makes a very rich soup. Drizzle with sour cream or plain yogurt if desired and serve with a grating of Parmigiano. It’s also nice with fresh parsley or chopped fresh fennel.

½ sm carrot (about a ¼ c, chopped)

Comforting French Food · Fresh Scandinavian Feel

extra-virgin olive oil

1 yellow, red, or orange bell pepper, sliced

4 c fish stock (page 69) or vegetable stock (page 41) 1 T chili flakes, plus extra for garnish 1 T

fennel seeds

2

bay leaves

2 T

canola oil

6

scallops

sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper 2 T

unsalted butter

½ lb

live clams, scrubbed

½ lb live mussels, scrubbed and debearded 2 lb skinless firm fish fillets such as halibut, salmon, or lingcod, cut into 1-inch cubes ½ lb mixed shellfish such as peeled and deveined shrimp and/or crabmeat tender celery leaves, for garnish 4 scallions, chopped, for garnish

chopped fresh chives, for garnish 6 T chili mayo (page 34), to serve

crusty bread, to serve

lemon wedges, to serve

Heat the oil in a large pot over mediumhigh heat. Add the fennel, onions, celery, carrots, and bell peppers. Sauté for 5 minutes or until onions are tender and translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the wine and stir to scrape up the browned bits. Pour in the Caesar mix (or tomato juice and clam juice), stock, chili flakes, fennel seeds, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium-low, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and flavours are more concentrated.

Heat the canola oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Pat-dry the scallops and add to the pan. Allow to sear undisturbed for about 2 minutes or until browned. Season with salt and pepper, flip the scallops over, and sear for another 2 minutes. Add the butter and baste. Transfer to a plate.

When ready to serve, add the clams and mussels to the broth. Cover and cook until they just begin to open, about 3 minutes. Add the fish and mixed shellfish. Cover and cook another 3 to 5 minutes or until shells are fully open and fish is cooked through. (Discard any clams or mussels that haven’t opened.)

Stir in the scallops.

Divide soup among bowls, or serve family style from the cooking pot or a warmed

Mary Bailey

tureen. Sprinkle each bowl with fennel fronds, celery leaves, scallions, chives, and chili flakes. Top with 1 tablespoon chili mayo. Serve with crusty bread and lemon wedges on the side.

Serves 6.

Winter Greens and Mushroom Soup This is a great way to use up less than stellar veg. Add beans or barley for protein or texture.

This recipe could be halved and you can leave out the pancetta if you desire a vegetarian option.

2 T

olive oil

4 slices smoked pancetta, chopped into small cubes 2

shallots, finely diced

1 sprig

thyme, finely chopped

2 c assorted wild mushrooms (you could use dried, soak for 20 minutes first) 1 scant T butter 1 t

dried red chili flakes

5-6 c greens such as kale, Swiss chard or beet leaves, chopped or torn into bitesized pieces.

1

/³ c

white wine

5-6 c

chicken or vegetable stock

kosher salt and freshcracked black pepper

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook pancetta for about 5 minutes, until slightly browned and crispy. Add shallots and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms and butter.

Cook for about six minutes until brown and slightly crispy looking. Deglaze the pan with wine. Add chili flakes and chard stems. Add stock, and cook for about 20 minutes until stems are tender on medium-low. Add greens and cook for another 20 minutes or so. Add beans or barley at the same time as the greens if using. The barley may take a bit longer.

Season.

To serve: Grate Parmigiano over and drizzle with a good olive oil.

Serves 4-6.

Please see “Feeding People” on page 30

The Tomato | January February 2018 25

Wine Maven Joan Cusine of Parés Baltà was in Edmonton recently, tasting through some of the wines his family makes in the hills near Barcelona. I am a huge fan of Parés Baltà, especially after visiting the property in Penedes a few years ago. The wines define value, and deliver so much quality. For example, the Cava Brut NV. The traditional Cava grapes, Xarel-o, Macabeo and Parellada that make up the blend are grown in vineyards that are no more than 10 k from the sea with altitude. The estate is completely organic and certified biodynamic by Demeter — sheep nibble between the rows, birds and bees flutter through the air. (The site dates to 1790). After a cool fermentation in stainless, the wine has a second fermentation in the bottle for 12 months.

It’s a textbook example of Cava (Spain’s sparkling wine), pale yellow, dry, with subtle toasty aromas of pear and apple along with some attractive floral notes and almond. Look also for their equally affordable and delicious still white and red, the Blanc de Pacs and the Mas Petit.

Three new sparkling wines from Italy are on the market, imported by Christina Masciangelo, Salivate Wines. All are made by the traditional method in Franciacorta, the northern Italian wine region that rivals Champagne in quality.

Nothing says total luxury like a great Champagne, and that would be Ruinart The history of the house dates back to the early days of sparkling wine in the region. In fact, you might call Ruinart the ur-champagne. In 1729, Nicolas Ruinart founded the first Champagne house, Maison Ruinart. He was the great greatgrandfather of Madame Clicquot (as in Veuve Clicquot). The Blanc des Blancs is especially lovely, ethereal with a lovely aromatic freshness.

The pale lemon colour is displayed in the distinctive clear bottle. Cavern often has the Runiart available by the glass; indulge for an affordable treat.

26 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Barone Pizzini was one of the wineries that helped establish the DOC in 1971 (the property dates back to 1870) and was certified organic in 2012.

The Animante Franciacorta DOCG is 78 per cent Chardonnay, with citrusy floral notes on the nose and on the palate. It finishes with a long-lasting, savoury creaminess. The Animante comes in the half-bottle size, ideal for a January aperitif, under $30.

The Franciacorta Rosé Edizione is round and rich, yet slightly austere, with its precise acidity wrapped in velvet. It spends three years on less, which contributes to the depth of flavour, with well-balanced tannin present.

There is an effortlessness to it, which we find only in the best wines. This wine could easily be drunk at dinner, let’s say with roast duck or Salmon. It was also voted best organic wine in the world at the International Wine Challenge in London.

And now for something completely different, a sparkling Verdicchio called Perlugo Zero Pievalta.

Barone Pizzini grows the organic fruit in Le Marche, then the wine spends 10 to 20 months on its lees in Franciacorta, producing a traditional method sparkler that is super fragrant, with nutty, biscuity, toasty and fresh apple notes, with juicy acidity and zero dosage. It’s a delicious refreshing wine worth trying, around $23.

Mary Bailey

It’s a great time to be a spirits lover.

Strathcona Spirits (10122 81 Avenue) in Old Strathcona now has tours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, $10. “It’s more of a turn and point experience, as we are the smallest distillery in North America,” says owner Adam Smith, “but we will introduce you to the stills, the process, our unique ingredients, and the history of Edmonton’s first distillery, not since prohibition, but ever.”

We are big fans of the Badlands Gin made with juniper from the Badlands and Edmonton-foraged seaberry and the Single Grain Vodka, made with hard red wheat grown 23 k from the distillery.

EVENT CALENDAR THURSDAY, JANUARY 18

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Roadtrippin’ with Beer Thirst Tasting, $10, Sherbrooke Liquor, Sherbookeliquor.com

Cavern Cheese School: Old World Wines, $75, The Cavern, cavern.ca

SUNDAY JANUARY 21 Cavern Cheese School: Winter Wines, $75, The Cavern, cavern.ca

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24

(Un)Pretentious Pairings Tasting, $10, Sherbrooke Liquor, Sherbrookeliquor. com

Island Hopping One Whisky at a Time, $60, Aligra Wine & Spirits, aligrawineandspirits.com

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8

(Un)Pretentious Pairings Tasting, $10, Sherbrooke Liquor Sherbookeliquor.com

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27

Eau Claire in Turner Valley released the very first Single Malt Whisky to be made in Alberta (in modern times) with fanfare — a parade of pipers leading a carriage filled with bottles of the whisky pulled by the Eau Claire draft horses. The release was 1,000 bottles so it may be hard to find, but don’t worry they have more quietly resting.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16

Wine, Women & Song Fundraising Dinner, $195, Ernest’s, 780-471-8685

Ricasoli Estate Winemaker Dinner, $105, Ernest’s, 780-471-8685

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

17th Century Dinner at NAIT, $105 Ernest’s, 780-471-8685

Chocolate & Wine Dinner, $105, Ernest’s, 780-471-8685

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Big Bottles in the Butchery, Rge Rd, 780-447-4577

Cavern Cheese School: Old World Wines, $75, The Cavern, cavern.ca

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Beerios Breakfast Beer Tasting, $5, Sherbrooke Liquor, Sherbrookeliquor.com

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6 Roadtrippin’ with Beer Thirst Tasting, $10, Sherbrooke Liquor Sherbookeliquor.com

Around the World with Pinot Noir Tasting $40, Aligra Wine & Spirits aligrawineandspirits.com

WED, FEBRUARY 21 Monkey Business Dinner, $79++ The Glass Monkey, 780-760-2228

All Alberta craft distillers, meaderies and fruit winemakers are rejoicing at the new regulations announced late last year.

It allows them to sell their product at their location or at farmers’ markets and pay less of the heavy government markup.

The Tomato | January February 2018 27

Cheap Continued from page 13

DOGWOOD CAFE AT VICTORIA Now open for dinner and weekend brunches featuring our new Sunday Brunch buffet for $21pp.

DINNER WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY 5:00-10:00PM A LA CARTE BRUNCH SATURDAY 9:00-2:00PM BRUNCH BUFFET SUNDAY 10:00-2:00PM

Place potatoes cut side down in a hot pan with a little bit of olive oil and cook until golden and crispy. Toss in tomatoes and arugula; add caper vinaigrette and toss a few times to warm veggies (should hear a sizzle). Mound on a plate. Place your protein on the side. Garnish with pine nuts, chopped bacon or grate some Parmesan over.

Serves 6.

Caper Vinaigrette 1 c

CULINA CAFE AT THE MUTTART Open weekdays for lunch and weekend brunches.

Join us for Thursday night dinners featuring a weekly dinner special by chef Daniel Fraser.

BRUNCH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 10:00-4:00PM DINNER THURSDAY 5:00-9:00PM

For catering inquiries, restaurant reservations and menus visit www.culinafamily.com

canola oil

/³ c

maple syrup

1

/³ c

apple cider vinegar

3 T

lemon juice

chopped zest of 1 lemon

1 T

capers, drained

1

1

/³ c

chopped parsley

1 t

salt

1 t

pepper

¼ c

toasted pine nuts (optional)

¼ lb. diced cooked bacon (optional)

Combine all ingredients (except the optional pine nuts and bacon) and blend well with a hand emulsifier.

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Store covered at room temperature. Can be refrigerated too. Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

Blanch the peels in boiling water for about 30 seconds then chill in an ice bath (50 per cent cold water, 50 per cent ice).

After it’s cooled, take the horseradish out of the ice bath and pat dry. If it’s wet, it can cause oil to flare up.

Heat up a pot of canola oil and fry the ribbons at 275ºF. Once crispy, set on a paper towel to absorb some excess oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Take the salmon and pat dry. Remove the skin and discard. With a small torch, torch the salmon gently and evenly until a nice charred, cooked outside forms.

Cook both sides until the salmon is about medium rare to medium. It will have a torched flavour, common in many sushi restaurants. Adds an interesting roasted flavour.

To serve: Spoon the warm beet sauce on to a coupe bowl, or choice of plate.

Gently place the salmon on top. Crumble the goat cheese around the salmon and top with the fried horseradish.

Serves 2-3.

Pork Sausage Torched Sockeye Salmon with Goat Cheese, Fried Horseradish and Chilled Beet Sauce “There is no butter or alcohol to this recipe.

Healthy and will add a different approach to your use of a juicer.” –Shane Chartrand, Sage 1 side sockeye salmon, deboned 2 pieces

fresh horseradish

1 lb.

fresh purple beets

1 sm. container goat cheese (3 oz.)

1 head

garlic

2

whole shallots

salt and fresh pepper to taste 1 litre

canola oil

Juice the beets, garlic, shallots in a juicer, then run through a fine strainer. Heat up gently in a pot and season with salt and pepper.

28 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Peel the horseradish and discard the outside skin. Keep peeling and try to make long thin ribbons, until you can’t peel anymore. (There will be a bit you can’t physically peel when it gets very narrow.)

“This recipe for pork sausage is easy to make using a meat grinder.” –Lindsay Porter, London Local 1 kg

pork shoulder

12 g

salt

5 g

allspice

4 stems sage (¼ cup chopped) ½

white onion

Cube the pork into chunks that will fit through the meat grinder, about 1 inch.

Grind the pork through the meat grinder keeping as chilled as possible. Lightly sauté the onion in a bit of oil to soften and mix the salt, allspice and chopped sage. When cool, mix with the pork. Fry a bit to check for seasoning. Then, either run through sausage casings or make sausage patties for serving.

Makes 4-12 patties, depending on size.

Family-style Roasted Leg of Lamb with Wild RicePotato Latke, Sautéed Spinach and Garlic Yogurt “Leg of lamb, served family style for a Sunday supper. The latke is like a rosti potato, cut in wedges, rather than individual latkes.” –Blair Lebsack, Rge Rd

Lamb 1 semi-boneless leg of lamb, aitchbone removed, fat trimmed and lamb tied.

Mix all ingredients together. Pan fry up a little bit to check for seasoning, adjust if necessary. Start when you take lamb out of the oven. Heat a 12-inch cast iron or heavy-bottomed pan to medium-high heat on burner. Add ¼ c canola oil. Put in the wild rice-potato mixture. Allow to cook for 5 minutes, then carefully shake pan to make sure latke is browning and loose in pan. Cook another 3-4 minutes.

Flip, cook another 5 minutes on burner then put in 350ºF oven for 5 minutes.

When done it will be crispy on the outside and very soft in the middle. Cut into 6 wedges.

3 T

kosher salt

Spinach

canola oil

1 bunch

washed and dried

3 cloves

garlic

½ t

cayenne pepper

¼ c

red wine

½ c

beef broth

2 T pickled onion (chopped), buy from farmers’ market

Using the tip of a knife, make a tiny pocket in the lamb leg. Push in whole clove of garlic, do this in 3 separate places. Rub the lamb with the salt and oil.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Put lamb in a roasting pan and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before putting in the oven. Roast lamb until instant read thermometer reads 130ºF or about 90-110 minutes. Pour red wine and beef broth into the roasting pan to deglaze, then strain into small pot.

Reheat and reduce before serving.

1 T

canola oil

salt

1 T

butter

Heat sauté pan to medium, pour in oil then add spinach, chopped cayenne and pickled onion. Season with salt, add butter and wilt. Take out of hot pan until plating.

1 c

1 T

canola oil

1 T

butter, melted

Wild Rice-Potato Latke

Mix together and reserve.

2 lg. russet potatoes, grated, soaked, drained and excess liquid rung out (reserve potato starch if you can)

Serve family style: Platter of sliced leg of lamb with the red wine pan sauce.Round platter of potato latke, with a mound of wilted spinach in the middle and a drizzle of garlic yogurt.

2 lg.

eggs

2-3 T

all-purpose flour

salt and pepper to taste

Edmonton

780-490-6799

juniperbistro.com

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Something PROUDLY PAIRING PEOPLE WITH WINES AND SPIRITS SINCE 2007 www.aligrawineandspirits.com West Edmonton Mall (Entrance 58, Beneath Simons)  (780) 483 1083

1½ T garlic elixir (a juiced and fermented garlic liquid)

Allow to rest for 15-25 minutes before slicing.

1 med. onion, sliced, sautéed, cooled

9514-87 St.

plain Greek yogurt

kosher salt

cooked wild rice

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Garlic Yogurt

1 t

2 c

Comfort food created from scratch and made with love

Extra yogurt served on the side.

In-Store Tastings | Food & Wine Pairing • Fun and Education — it’s all about the experience • Wines for every occasion • Premium & Luxury Spirits • Craft Beers 5454 Calgary Trail South | www.bin104.com | 780.436.8850

Serves 6. * Beautiful Alberta lamb is available from Four Whistle Farm and Nature’s Green Acres.

Please see ”Cheap” on page 31

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The Tomato | January February 2018 29

Feeding People

chili oil for garnish, (optional)

Continued from page 25

Chicken Soup with Ginger and Turmeric This east meets west chicken soup is ideal when you feel the sniffles coming on. The turmeric and ginger add freshness and a depth of flavour.

If freezing, leave the noodles out.

1 sm (3½–4-pound) chicken, with most of the skin removed.

2 med onions, unpeeled, quartered 2 heads garlic, chopped 1 4-inch piece ginger, unpeeled, thinly sliced 3

bay leaves

1 T

ground turmeric

2 t

black peppercorns

2 t

coriander seeds

kosher salt

4 med carrots, cut into ½-inch pieces on diagonal 2 stalks celery, cut like the carrots 8 oz dried udon or spaghetti or egg noodles thinly-sliced scallions, for garnish

30 January February 2018 | The Tomato

squeeze lemon juice

Place all ingredients up to the carrots in a large pot. Pour in cold water to cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce heat and gently simmer until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 155°F, about 30-35 minutes. The chicken will look firm and white. Transfer chicken to a plate and let cool slightly; keep stock simmering. Remove the rest of the skin from chicken; discard. Pull meat from bones and shred into bite-size pieces; set aside.

Heat oven to 400ºF. Place bones in a roasting pan with ½ c white wine. Roast for about 20 minutes. Return bones to stockpot. Increase heat and bring stock to a boil and cook until reduced by about one-third, 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste. Strain stock into a large pot and discard solids. Add carrots and celery, bring to a simmer and cook until carrots are tender, about 5 minutes. Check seasoning.

If serving right away: Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Strain. Divide noodles among bowls. Add shredded chicken

meat to stock and cook just until heated through. Add squeeze lemon juice. Check seasoning again. Ladle soup over noodles.

Top soup with scallions and drizzle with chili oil.

Serves 4-6.

Roasted Squash Soup Love that you roast a few ingredients, put them in a blender and boom, you have soup! Adapted from Bon Appetit.

2 acorn squash (or kabocha, butternut etc) 5 med

shallots

garlic

1 Fresno chile (or 1 canned chipotle pepper)

olive oil

kosher salt

1 c

plain Greek yogurt

¼ c

(approx) water

1 T

white wine vinegar

1 t

curry powder

¼ t

cumin (optional)

Preheat oven to 425ºF Cut the squash in half, scooping out seeds and innards.

Rub the cut side with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and place the halves cut side down on a sheet pan in the oven. Roast for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, chop the garlic head across the middle and the shallots and chile in half lengthwise. Place on the pan holding squash and drizzle with oil and season with salt. Roast for another 20 minutes, or until everything is soft and coloured.

Scrape the squash meat (add the skin if you like) into a blender. Add the shallots, chile, roasted garlic (squeezed out of the head), yogurt and water. Pulse. Once it’s a bit less chunky, add salt to taste, the vinegar and spices. Blend until smooth.

Add more water if too thick.

To serve: Pour into bowls and top with a bit more yogurt, chopped chives or parsley, cracked black pepper, finishing salt and slices of toasted and olive-oiled bread, if desired.

Serves 4-6.

Mary Bailey is the editor of The Tomato.

Cheap Continued from page 29

Crab Tart

at 400ºF for about 7 minutes until tart is cooked and begins to caramelize. Cool in shell for 3-5 minutes and transfer out of tart pan to rack to cool.

Smoked Crème Fraiche

“In the summer we would serve this tart with a combination of edible flowers such as marigolds, mint, thyme, basil, rosemary, dill, fennel, carrot, and nasturtium or some of the some more uncommon wild herbs and flowers: shepherd’s purse, lemon Verbena, lemon balm, shiso, yarrow, bittercress, bedstraw.”–Scott Downey, The Butternut Tree

In order for the fermentation of the cream to happen, we need this amount of liquid, which makes more crème fraiche than you’ll need for this recipe.

Rye Tart

Combine heavy cream and buttermilk with a pinch of salt. Whisk together and let sit at room temperature for 3 hours +.

2 c

rye flour

7 T

cold butter

3-4 T

carawy seed

pinch salt

3 T

buckwheat honey

Mix all dry ingredients and cut in cold butter until pea sized pieces remain then add water until incorporated Form in 6-inch tart pan until 1.5 mm thick all around. Use bottom of other pan to have indentation/frill of tart pan on edge. Cool for minimum 20 minutes prior to baking. Bake in convection oven

1 c

heavy cream

1 T

buttermilk

4-5 drops applewood liquid smoke

In a bowl whisk and add smoke simultaneously until a strong smoke flavour is embedded into the crème.

Pour over vinegar and let sit for 1 day.

Toss 6 oz cooked crab meat with about a ¼-cup of the crème fraiche for each tart shell. Season with salt. Fill each tart shell to just below the top edge with crab meat mixture.

To serve: Add pickled crab apple coins and begin to build the bouquet of salad on top, alternating herbs and flowers ( or whatever herbs you have) until all the crab is covered. Fill in with a few more pickled crab apples and season with a good oil and vinegar. At the restaurant we like to use a riesling vinegar and Mountain View canola oil.

Finish it off with a nice pinch of Salt Spring Island Fleur de Sel. Makes two tarts.

Makes 1 cup.

Crusted Basa with Fennel

Pickled Unripe Crab Apple

“We don't need to eat expensive proteins every day of the week. More and more people are reaching for vegetables over steak. One protein that will won't break the bank is basa, an underrated fish that you can pick up for under $5 to feed two people. Superstore sometimes has fillets for less than a dollar. To add some flavour and to help keep the fish from falling apart, I like to crust them in just about anything. The

2

unripe crab apple

1 T

Riesling vinegar

2 g

salt

Shave apples 1mm thick, remove all seeds.

tops of radishes are my most recent favourite (a little trick I picked up from Israel Alvarez), but a long ways away in January. You can always get great arugula from the Italian Centre, or inexpensive spinach from No Frills. Serve with rice or quinoa.” –Eric Hanson, Prairie Noodle 4

basa fillets

2 cloves

garlic

1 sm. knob ginger handful

any greens

1 glug olive or canola oil

juice of half a lemon

1-2 T

seeds

salt to taste

*Add a fresh chili if you like things hot.

Mix all ingredients except the fish in a mortar and pestle until a paste-like texture forms. Pack it on top of the fish fillets. Get a pan get nice and hot and place the fish crust side down onto the lightly oiled pan. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes, flip the fish for 30 seconds and its done.

If you use a thermometer at home, and I recommend you do, aim for 130ºF in the middle of the fish, which seems like a joke on a fillet as thin as basa, but perfection still tastes the best.

The Tomato | January February 2018 31

Kitchen Sink restaurant buzz Think of the relaxed elegance at XIX Nineteen (5940 Mullen Way, 780-395-1119; 150 Bellerose Drive #104, St. Albert, 780-569-1819, dinenineteen.com) for Valentine’s Day. No menu details at our press time, but you know it will be deliciously romantic, just like Valentines should be.

Juniper Bistro (9514 87 Street, juniperbistro.com) is having their third annual Valentine’s Day Dinner, $75, with two seatings, 5pm and 8pm. The menu is still being determined. “Four courses for sure,” says owner Peggy Adams. For resos call 780-490-6799.

Rooster Café & Kitchen (10732 82 Avenue, 780-413-8045, roosterkitchen. ca) is now open! This casual breakfast joint and café is open seven days a week in the former location of the Artisan Resto-Café. Yaay! The Ave needs a good modern breakfast spot.

Chefs Levi Biddlecombe and Tyson Wright have opened the Why Not Café upstairs at 8534 109 Street (780-2975757, whynoteat.ca). This is their first independent venture. Levi is best known for the Atilla the Hungry food truck and Duck Tots.

Expect small plates intended to share, priced between $14-$25, with a focus on seafood and charcuterie with quality vegan options too. In their first 10 days they donated 10 per cent of sales to the Stollery. Also behind the stoves is Chopped Junior Champion Jonathan Giovannoni. Lunch Tuesday-Friday, 11am-2pm; dinner, Tuesday-Thursday, 4pm-10pm; Friday, Saturday ’til 12am.

Congratulations and good luck chefs!

We are loving Pip (10403 83 Avenue, 780-760-4747, pipyeg.com) the newest member of the Next Act family. It’s ideal for a glass of wine and a nosh before or after the Winspear. Compact menu, good choice of wines by the glass, intimate and cosy, nice people; what’s not to like?

32 January February 2018 | The Tomato

Expect some changes at Zenari’s (10180 101 Street, 780-423-5409, zenaris.ca).

Chef Shelley Robison has signed on “to help us get our kitchen under control.

It’s great to have a professional in here.

We call it Zenari’s 2.0!” says co-owner Elisa Zenari. Shelley is a flavour maven — we can’t wait to taste the new menu.

Looking forward to the refresh at Sage with a new name, new look, and new menu. Expect barnwood and a whole lotta local provisioning. Gold Medal Plates champ and exec chef Shane Chartrand didn’t have much more info by our press date, but you know it’s going to be good.

Check out the winter menu at El Cortez (8230 Gateway Boulevard 780-760-0200, elcortezcantina.com) featuring traditional Mexican dishes like the hearty pozole soup, savoury Mexican street corn and luscious pork carnitas tacos. Keep in mind half-price Taco Tuesdays and half-price Tequila Thursdays for entertaining on a January budget.

Sunday night is aperitivi night at Bar Bricco (10347 Jasper Avenue, 780-4245588, barbricco.com), a relaxed eating and drinking experience with small bites and great tunes. Order a cocktail or glass of wine while servers walk around with platters of spuntini and explain what delightfully delicious little nibble you are eating — sounds like the perfect Sunday evening. And, on Wednesday nights, it’s $8 Negronis!

Find your Galette des Rois at FanFan Patisserie (10330 80 Avenue, 587524-9899, fanfanpatisserie.com).

The French cake that celebrates the Epiphany has a feve (favour) hidden within. The person who finds the feve in their slice becomes king or queen of the day. The frangipane-filled cakes are $25, serve 8-10 people and are available from January 2-7 only. As well FanFan will have special St. Valentime boxes available in early February. Yum.

wine tastings, happenings and events The next Big Bottles in the Butchery at Rge Rd (10643 123 Street 780-4474577, rgerd.ca) is January 30. Think tapas-style dining and drinking. Come with a group and order a magnum, or enjoy a glass (wine really does taste better from big bottles) as well as growlers from local breweries. No reservations required; expect to make some new friends with their communal seating.

Winter tastings at Aligra Wine & Spirits (Entrance 58, 8882 170 Street): Wednesday, January 24, 6:30pm, Island Hopping One Whisky at a Time, $60/p; Tuesday, February 13; 6:30pm, Around the World with Pinot Noir, $40/p. Register and pay online at aligrawineandspirits.com/events.

product news

Upcoming tastings at Sherbrooke Liquor (11819 St Albert Trail, 780 455-4556, Sherbrookeliquor.com) Roadtrippin’ with Beer Thirst, 7pm Thursdays, January 18, February 15; March 15, $10/p. (Un)Pretentious Pairings, 7pm Fridays, January 26, February 16, March 9, March 23, $10/p; Beerios Breakfast Beer— because milk was a bad idea, 10am Saturday, February 3, $5/p. Visit Sherbookeliquor.com to book any and all tastings.

Cheese lovers will be thrilled with a Cavern (10169-104 Street, 780-4551336, thecavern.ca) bespoke Valentine’s Day gift box, filled with luscious cheeses and provisions, from $65-$150.

Love beer? Immerse yourself in the Jasper Beer & Barley Summit, the all-inclusive craft beer and craft spirit festival, February 2-4 at the Fairmont

January holiday breaks: Rge Rd (10643 123 Street 780-447-4577, rgerd.ca) is closed from January 8 until January 15.

The Hardware Grill (9698 Jasper Ave, 780-423-0969, hardwaregrill.com) is open Saturday, January 6, then reopens Thursday, January 11.

Jasper Park Lodge. During the day, learn from distillers and brewers in Alberta’s burgeoning craft scene and sample their wares in the evening.

Register at albertabeerfestivals.com.

Don’t miss the Wine, Women & Song Dinner at NAIT (10701 118 Avenue, 780-471-8676), at 6pm, January 20.

Not only will the evening showcase amazingly talented chefs, it raises funds for the Canadian Culinary Federation for professional development, education, and scholarships. Featured chefs are Davina Moraiko (Rge Rd), Kelsey Johnson (Café Linnea), Ashley Broad (Biera) and pastry chef Jennifer Stang (La Boule). Tix: $195/p, twright@nait.ca.

Meet Kristine Kowalchuk, author of Preserving On Paper, at the 17th Century Dinner at Ernest’s at NAIT (10701-118 Avenue), Saturday, January 27. TIX, $105/p includes a copy of the book, twright@nait.ca.

On Thursday, February 8, meet Francesco Ricasoli of the historic Ricasoli Estate in Tuscany at a winemaker dinner at Ernest’s at NAIT (10701-118 Avenue). TIX: $105/p. twright@nait.ca or call 780-471-8685.

On Saturday, February 10, enjoy the Chocolate & Wine Dinner at Ernest’s at NAIT (10701-118 Avenue). TIX: $105/p. twright@nait.ca or call 780471-8685.

The Glass Monkey’s (5842 111 Street, 780-760-2228 theglassmonkey.ca) first Monkey Business of the year is Wednesday, February 21, with five courses and five wines. TIX: $79/p++, call Janine 780-760-2228 to book.

Learn about cheese and wine at Cavern Cheese School at The Cavern (10169 104 Street, 780-455-1336, thecavern.ca) Sunday January 21, 2-4pm is Winter Wine and Sunday, February 11 is Old World Wines. From 2-4pm, $75/p+ for each event. Book at the cavern.ca.

what’s new and notable M

Embrace your inner baba (yes, everybody has one) at Kitchen by Brad’s (10130 105 Street, 780-7577704, kitchenbybrad.ca) Baba’s Ukrainian Cooking Class. It’s their most popular class of the year: Tuesday evenings, 6:30, January 9, 23 and 30 or Saturdays, 12:30pm, January 6 and 27.

These dates don’t work for you? Gather nine friends and have a custom class.

Book all at kitchenbybrad.ca.

The Pan Tree (220 Lakeland Dr #550, Sherwood Park, 780-464-4631, thepantree.ca) has several terrific classes coming up: Enchiladas with chef Israel Alvarez, 6pm, Wednesday, January 24, $95/p+; Robbie Burns Dinner with chef Richard Toll, 6pm, Tuesday, January 30, $65/p+, kilts welcome; Valentines Dinner with chef Richard Toll, 6pm, two nights, Tuesday, February 13 and Wednesday, February 14, $95/p+. To register: register. thepantree.ca.

We love the classes at the Ruby Apron, congenial, effective and fun: Stock, Soup, Stew and Biscuits, 6pm, Thursday, January 25, $95/p+; Fresh Pasta, 6pm, Thursday, February 15, $70/p+; Introduction to Sourdough Workshop, Sunday, 1pm, February 25, $85/p+. Find the full schedule and descriptions at therubyapron.ca.

Barb’s Kitchen Centre (9766-51 Avenue, 780-437-3134, barbskitchen. com, formerly called Bosch Kitchen Centre) offers several product demo/ cooking classes every season. Here’s a few that caught our eye: Thursday, January 18, 6:30pm, Hearty Soups and Chowders with the Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker, $10/p+. Thursday, February 15, Deutsches Fest; learn to make spaetzle, onion cake, red cabbage and some traditional desserts, $20/p+. Classes start at 6:30pm. Visit barbskitchen.com for more info.

The ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen (main level, 10035-105 Street, ATCOblueflamekitchen.com) is having

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three classes dedicated to New Years Resolutions. Each class is $85/p+ and runs from 10-1pm on Saturday; January 13, Planned Overs - Light Healthy Meals; January 20, Healthy Meals using your Pressure Cooker or InstaPot and on January 27, Meatless Meals.

On Friday, February 9, from 6–8pm, there is Tapas and Wine, $85/p+. On Thursday, February 22, 5-7pm, learn to make popular Indian dishes at Indian Food, $65/p+, 780- 420-7282 to book.

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people Dennis Vriend died late last year after a “short but valiant” fight against cancer. We will remember Dennis for his quiet sense of humour and unwavering commitment to organic growing and stewardship. For several years Dennis and Ruth Vriend’s stand in the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market was the only place to purchase organic vegetables. They introduced many to the wonders of garlic scapes, golden beets and different varieties of potatoes. After retiring, their business was carried on

by August Organics (Don and Kristine Vriend) and son James and wife Jenny Berkenbosch operate Sundog Organic Farm in north Edmonton with a stand downtown at the 104 Street Market.

Todd Rutter, A Capella Catering, Ryan Hotchkiss, Bündok; Cindy Lazarenko, Culina; Lindsay Porter, London Local; Clayton Folkers, NAIT Baking; Charles Rothman, Rooster Café; Steve Buzak, Royal Glenora Club; Shane Chartrand, Sage; and Gregg Kenney, vivo, are bringing breakfast and dinner to Peter Burgess as he camps at the Rainbow Valley Campground from January 7 to 12. Peter is the Freezing Father and he is camping there for the second year to raise funds for the Stollery in memory of he and wife Candace’s daughter Elan. Learn more and donate at freezingfather.org, or visit Peter at the campground.

Send new and/or interesting food and drink related news for The Kitchen Sink to hello@thetomato.ca.

General Admission $125

With VIP Experi en c e $ 2 0 0

The world’s choice for gluten-free is made right here at home.

Come taste why.

Open Tuesday to Saturday GetItFresh.ca

Kinnikinnick Fresh 10940 – 120 Street, Edmonton 780-732-7527

The Tomato | January February 2018 33

The Tomato & Drink The Tomato FoodFood and Drink

Tomato Crossword

Kitchen Design Awards

Kitchen Design Awards 2018

Built a new kitchen lately?

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Kitchen Design Awards

See submission rules and regulations at thetomato.ca.

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Theyour Tomato Proud of it? Enter kitchenFood in the & Drink Tomato Kitchen Design Awards (TKDA).

TKDA is open to architects, builders, contractors, designers, developers, and do-it yourselfers, offering awards in several categories, including outdoor kitchens.

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11 __ and don’ts 13 Rich dessert 15 “Under the Tuscan ___”

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19 ____ Kensington, for fine drinks and eats, 2 words

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20 Dish of stewed or fried meat served in a thick white sauce 24 Holiday month, for short

22 Drink that could be a fruit brandy or “flavored liqueur” – alternate spelling

25 It's used in the Medieval drink, mead

23 Bakes, in a way 27 Cook, as lobsters

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What’s the best thing you ate last year?

It could be: • a restaurant dish • a farmers’ market specialty • a product from your favourite local farmer • a snack food • a condiment

Whatever makes your mouth hum!

Enter January 8 - February 2

Tell us about your favourite thing to eat or drink We’ll add it to our list of the 100 best things to eat in Edmonton

Enter January 8 – February 2. Here’s how: • Visit thetomato.ca and click on 100 best things to eat • Send us a message: facebook.com/thetomatofooddrink @tomatofooddrink #TomatoTop100 Tag your photo: #tomatofooddrink • Email us: hello@thetomato.ca • Mail us a letter: 9833 84 Avenue, Edmonton, T6E 2G1 The top 100 best things to eat and drink will be featured in the March April issue of The Tomato food & drink. *For the purposes of this competition, Edmonton includes Sherwood Park, St. Albert and surrounding communities — we’ll drive for food!

Tomato guy illustration created exclusively for The Tomato by Darcy Muenchrath, www.darcymuenchrath.com.

Your source for professional-quality kitchen equipment and smallwares.

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