KANPAI! HAPPY SAKE DAY!
Our friend Masa Shiroki will be busily preparing tonight, for it is the eve of Sake Day. Every October 1st marks Sake Day in Japan. And Masa, Sakemaker at Granville Island’s Artisan SakeMaker, will be celebrating with the release of the 2008 vintage of Junmai Ginjo Nama Genshu.
The 2008 Junmai Ginjo is robust, clean and drier with 17.0% alcohol by volume. It’s ready to drink now but can be cellared for another few months or longer if you so choose. It will continue to develop and deepen in complexity in the bottle and will add complexity.
Handcrafted in his Railspur Alley artisan studio, Masa’s Sake line – Osake – is the first “fresh premium” Junmai Sake [Namazake] of its kind produced in Canada. Fermented from top-quality Japanese sakamai, then hand-pressed and hand-bottled, Osake is left unfiltered to optimize its fresh, delicate, fruit-like aromas and flavours. Unlike premium sakes imported from Japan, which are typically produced once a year in winter, Osake is made in small batches several times a year in cycles roughly corresponding to the changing of the seasons. This departure from tradition allows Masa to explore and produce versatile wines that complement the varied in-season bounty of our local west coast cuisine-from fish and shellfish in spring and summer to heat-warming braises and stews in fall and winter.
Truly a Vancouver gem, local foodie favourite, and one of the nicest fellows we know. If you’re in the area, stop by tomorrow and wish Masa KAMPAI! (CHEERS!)
11:30 am – 6 pm Wednesday through Sunday
1339 Railspur Alley on Granville Island
604-685-7253
EBC PRODUCT PROFILE: LILY PLAIN SUMMER JAMS & JELLIES – By Kim Peterson
Jam is a surprisingly versatile food. But despite having so many varieties to choose from – particularly at your local farmer’s market – this under-valued condiment rarely gets further than the crust of a dry piece of toast. Those with a more adventurous palate will know that the right jam can make a cheese platter, roast meat, or dessert extraordinary. Lily Plain Summer is a Denman Island company specializing in wild fruit and berry jams, jellies and sauces, and Edible British Columbia is excited to add to the line of products we already carry in our retail store. Over the summer, Lily Plain’s Wild Red Huckleberry jam flew off the shelves, enticing customers with its ruby-red colour and tangy-sweet flavour. So we brought in six new varieties to add to our wall of BC jams and jellies: yellow plum, wild blackberry, black raspberry, Oregon grape, wild rose petal and a rose petal syrup.
Dianne Grehan, who started Lily Plain a year ago, explained the that wild rose petals are some of the most difficult things to harvest, being that there’s only five to a flower and they’re very delicate as well. The petals go through a specialized cleaning process and are cooked in small batches, with a technique mastered by the pioneers. The result is a wonderful floral jelly, perfect with a sharp cheese, pate or paired with roast pork. Dianne also recommends pouring some over ice cream or pancakes.
The wild yellow plum jam is also one of the more unique products we carry from Lily Plain. The Mirabelle plums she uses are not native to BC, but were brought over from Spain in the 19th century. The trees flourished, with especially large populations deep in the forests of Denman Island. The finished jam is low in sugar, and pairs well with fowl and any kind of cheese.
Lily Plain Summer jams and jellies are available at the Granville Island store, and on our online store.
SAVE THE DATE – SLOW FOOD FILM FEST
November 14 & 15
University of Victoria
Details to Come (slowly)
http://www.slowisland.ca/filmfest
13TH ANNUAL BLACK BOX COMPETITION
Up and coming chef Anna Yeh of The Fairmont Vancouver Airport looks set for culinary success after finishing in first place at the 13th Annual Black Box Competition on September 23, hosted by The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Vancouver. 24 emerging chefs took part in the biggest event in the competition’s history, which tests competitors’ culinary expertise and creative skills, and has consistently identified the cream of Vancouver’s rising culinary talent.
Competitors were given just under two and a half hours to create an appetiser and an entrée, using the mystery items revealed in the Black Box; the key ingredients to be used this year were red snapper and pheasant. After two intense heats, guests from the finest of Vancouver’s hospitality scene witnessed the awarding of second place to Coleman Harrington of the Bluewater Café, one of ten International Culinary School alumni in this year’s competition, with third place going to Thomas Cruise of The Fairmont Vancouver Airport.
Tom Kim, President of The Art Institute of Vancouver, who presented the awards, told guests, “The talent displayed at today’s event is captivating, and reinforces that Vancouver is the place to go for great food.” He also acknowledged how rewarding it was to see graduates of The International Culinary School competing and “keeping up the reputation of culinary excellence in BC.”
David Wong, competition judge, International Culinary School Instructor, and soon to be representing Canada in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or competition in France, said, “It’s great to see such creativity, which bodes well for the teaching out there. The unexpected can always happen, which is what makes this competition so exciting.” Dino Renaerts, competition judge and Executive Chef at Diva at The Met acknowledged how high the standard was this year, saying, “The Black Box competition shows what great shape our culinary talent is in.”
Anna, who took third place in the Black Box competition last year, rates education highly as part of culinary training, “College pretty much taught me everything that I needed to know about cooking, the rest was up to me.” She has ambitions to travel and hopefully be a chef with her own restaurant in the future, but acknowledges that Vancouver is “the best place to learn– there are so many different cultures, fusions and traditions; everything you need is here.”
Anna’s winning dishes were an appetiser of seared snapper with butternut squash ravioli, leek puree, sherry gastrique and a sweet butter sauce, and an entrée of sous vide pheasant breast and comfit leg of pheasant, served with potato stuffed with mushroom duxecelle, zucchini pave, tomato relish and a pheasant broth.
COOKING WITH BC’S BEST – A NIGHT WITH THOMAS HAAS – by Stefan Posthuma
I am one of those people who always have a spot for dessert no matter how much they have eaten already. Imagine a dinner that consists of desserts only, paired with champagne and ice wine. Now imagine this dessert being prepared by Thomas Haas for you and 19 other lucky people. Well, this happened last night at the Edible British Columbia store in Granville Island and I had the good fortune to be one of the guests.
Anyone who knows Thomas Haas knows he is a very amicable and chatty fellow. He was at his best on Friday, he started giving us pretty much his life story as a pastry chef, starting as an apprentice at the age of 14 at his father’s pastry shop in a small town in Germany. While he talked he prepared his dishes while the EBC staff was handing out glasses of Gray Monk Odyssey Brut until we sat down for the first course. This was a savoury starter, some smoked salmon on Thomas’ own brioche bread followed by a small tart with Asiago cheese and heirloom tomatoes from the oven.
I think dessert making is the most demanding and exacting discipline in cooking, the amount of time involved in making the small plates of petit fours or chocolate creations you will find on your plate after a fine dinner can be astonishing. Thomas said he needed to get up the next day at 4am to start his double baked croissants for example.
The next dish was a pineapple Carpaccio with coriander sugar, fresh raspberries and some syrup.
He told us about his early days as a pastry chef in Europe while preparing these deliciously refreshing plates. It was a very classic story with Thomas living above a busy shop and working pretty much every waking hour for board and lodging. As the stories unfolded, he tackled a large batch of apples, peeling and slicing them, then piling them high onto rounds of puff pastry covered in almond cream. These went into the oven and came out some time later, the apples meltingly tender on top of the crispy pastry with a center of almond goodness. This dish was paired with Raven Ridge 2007 Ambrosia Apple Ice Wine, which was something I tasted for the first time and was very interesting. Eric said they are working on pear ice wine that is supposed to be even better.
After the apple galettes it was time for some serious chocolate. By then, Thomas had moved on to a lively account of his life in North America where he quickly gained fame as the pastry chef at Daniel, the legendary restaurant in New York City. It was shortly after that when he decided to move to Vancouver much to the benefit of all of us here J
The chocolate dish in question was a chocolate soufflé made with 70% dark chocolate, lots of egg yolks and a very generous amount of butter. This raised some questions about skinny chefs (Thomas is one of those!) and he then mentioned his personal record of 32 minutes and 17 seconds on the Grouse Grind. Here is a guy who gets up at 4am to make croissants, has a family with young children and Vancouver`s busiest chocolate shop. How he manages to then also be fit enough to achieve a near-record time on the Grouse Grind is beyond me.
The chocolate soufflé was divine, it was paired with Sandhill Small Lots Three. While we were devouring the soufflés, Thomas started rolling Kirsch-infused marzipan around small booze-soaked cherries and dipping the resulting balls in sliced almonds before baking them off in the oven. These were served with some chilli-chocolates as the final dish of the evening.
This was one of my favourite “best of BC“ events at EBC so far. Thomas is a true entertainer who will make you laugh with his stories while casually preparing exquisite desserts. I am once again in awe of his talents.
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