Let’s Give Thanks For – Cranberries!!
We know cranberries are big in BC – they’re BC’s most economically important berry! And this is the perfect time of year to add some cran zing to your dining routine. At the EBC Retail Store, we have over a dozen crantastic products:
- Triple Jim’s – Pure Cranberry Juice
- Goodness of Garlic – Garlic Cranberry Chutney
- Bite Size – Cranberry Pepper Jelly
- The Jammery – Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly
- PJ Creations – Hot & Sweet Pepper Jelly – with dried cranberries
- Organic Fair – Heart of Gold Chocolate Bar – with dried cranberries, (w/blueberry, matcha, cinnamon, ginger)
- Tickleberry’s – Dark Chocolate cranberries
- Jules+Kent – Cranberry Cherry – citrus sauce
- Langford’s – Cransnaps – cranberries with edible flowers
- Where the Garden Grows – Spiced Pear and Cranberry Chutney, Cranberry & Raspberry Preserve, Cranberry Ale Mustard
- Fore + Aft Foods – Cranberry Sauce
- Summerland’s – Cranberry Syrup, Cranberry Marmalade
- Orchard Blossom’s – Creamed Cranberry Honey
- Honeyview’s – Cranberries & Honey
You can come down to visit us on Granville Island anytime over the long weekend and taste these – and many more – of BC’s finest products. Or you can purchase these items from our online store.
Here’s a great cranberry chutney recipe from Eric Pateman’s first cookbook, The BC Seasonal Cookbook
Best Thanksgiving wishes from all of us at EBC!
AN EBC FAVE MAKES IT TO THE CANADIAN COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS
And we’re not talking about musicians!
Fraser Valley Gourmet’s Almond Butter Crunch was a sweet sensation at last weekend’s 2009 Canadian Country Music Awards’ Official Gift Lounge. The exclusive backstage area featured a tantalizing array of celebrities, media and luxury gifting, and we’re sure the artisan candy company’s divine offerings made a number of new friends and fans alike.
“We are thrilled to be a part of such an incredible evening,” said Katherine Geiger, CEO and founder of Fraser Valley Gourmet. “We hope to see some of Canada’s most beloved stars reacting to our almond butter crunch with what we call ‘the body melt thing’-closing their eyes and relaxing as though they’re enjoying a massage!”
Fraser Valley Gourmet Almond Butter Crunch candy is made by hand, in small batches, with only the freshest of ingredients and absolutely no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Creamy butter is accented with toasted almonds and rich chocolate, and the soft-crunch texture bursts with fabulous toffee flavor in each bite.
It’s a favourite among customers – and staff! – at EBC. Read our profile of this yummy treat.
Fraser Valley Gourmet was founded in 2006, when Katherine Geiger finally allowed herself to be convinced that people were going nuts over the Almond Butter Crunch candy she’d been making as Christmas gifts for 15 years. It began leaping off trade show tables immediately, and can now be found doing much the same at various shops in the Vancouver area.
You too can live like a country music star – and try it yourself. Here is a link to Fraser Valley Gourmet on EBC’s Online Store.
Fraser Valley Gourmet
604.657.9385
abccandy@shaw.ca
EBC PRODUCT PROFILE: TAKING CARE OF THE ZUCCHINI – by Kim Peterson
Garden fresh vegetables are one of the best parts of summer in Vancouver. There’s really no excuse not to eat local produce, especially this year, with a super hot July fueling a vitamin-rich explosion of Okanagan fruit. Also cramming the crispers of thousands are, every novice gardeners favourite gourd: zucchini. So many zucchini! It’s difficult to remember, in the frosty, bleak days of March and April, that those three tiny zucchini sprouts you plant will yield dozens of veg come the summer. The zucchini gardener must also diligently harvest their crop, or else the problem turns into football-sized gourds spilling over the counter and into the arms of unsuspecting neighbours and friends. Good thing zucchini is so tasty, yet mild enough in flavor that you can pretty much sneak it into anything given a good puree in the blender. Here are three ways to use up your harvest without resorting to blending it into somebody’s smoothie:
Curried Zucchini: the subtle-sweet zuch acts as a great buffer for spicy dishes. Many curry soup recipes call for it, and it’s the perfect addition to a vegetarian curry dish. From our store, we suggest Daksha’s vegetable curry mix or Auntie Bev’s all purpose curry powder for that sweet, fragrant spice.
Zucchini Gratin: This one’s a suggestion from EBC Chef Gurj Dhaliwal, who recommends baking your zucchini with ricotta cheese, some fresh herbs and breadcrumbs. For flair, add any one of our gourmet mustards from Everything Done Right and Where the Garden Grows (three cheers for WTGG’s roasted garlic and porter).
Stuffed Zucchini: boil your zucchini halves, scrape out the fleshy middle and stuff them with a mixture of bread, spices (Maison Cote’s Tuscan Pepper?) and egg. Then get decadent with some reconstituted morels from the Wild. Bake and sprinkle with Parmesan.
Send me your zucchini ideas, successes and failures, and I’ll post them on our Facebook Fan page.
EBC PRODUCT PROFILE: QUINCE JELLY – by Kim Peterson
If you’ve visited our retail location on Granville Island, you may remember the “Great Wall of Jam” located at the back of the store. Here, to the discerning consumer of preserved fruit, we present a cornucopia of choice: basic strawberry, sometimes huckleberry (if we’re lucky), exotic loganberry, Saskatoon berry (to confuse the tourists), and maple jelly (to compromise).
Last week, a new resident full of fruit and pectin joined the ranks. Quince jelly (no seeds) sounds like something you’d find in a European import shop – and you probably would – but the ambery-pink fruit in these beautiful jars come straight from the local backyards of the chefs who produce them. It’s not a native plant, but quince trees do grow here. The quince fruit looks kind of like a pear, and the reason many Vancouverites may not be on familiar terms with this tart, apple-like treat, is that you usually can’t eat them straight off the tree. Quince are hard and sour if eaten raw, unless they remain on the tree past the point of first frost and left to ferment a little. Pick them in the summer, and one must roast, bake or stew them for a palatable dish. This is why you generally see quince in jelly, jam or paste form; the fruit is also added to apple pies and sauces to enhance flavor. As a jelly, it pairs well with cheese, and works as a garnish for pork and chicken. It can also be warmed and used as a tangy glaze for tarts, or braised meat dishes.
Our quince jelly is made by the team at Quince, a café/catering company/take-away store on the corner of 3rd and Burrard. Additionally, we’re carrying their hearty granola, toasted crostini or rye-currant crackers, and rhubarb rosemary jelly. Order all of these online here or check out everything, on display at our Granville Island location.
EBC PRODUCT PROFILE: SAKE DRESSING – by Kim Peterson
First-time visitors to Granville Island often ask for our opinions of what are the “must-see” shops. After encouraging them to thoroughly explore the Public Market (the best part, of course) I always send them to two places: Go Fish and Artisan Sake Maker on Railspur Ave. Owner Masa Shiroki produces Canada’s first Junmai Sake, a hand-pressed and unfiltered drink served warm and with a variety of Japanese dishes. Visitors can sample the sake for $2, learn about rice wine and get a real taste of what Canadian multi-culturalism means for Vancouver’s culinary scene. It’s an excellent visit for locals and tourists alike, and EBC is now teaming up with the sake makers to sell a product produced just minutes from our store.
One of the by-products of sake production is lees, what remains after the fermented rice mash has been pressed. Also known as kasu, it has a concentrated flavor and has been used in the past as a pickling agent for vegetables, as well as a marinade for fish and meat.
Here on the Island, the kasu is used as a flavorful addition to house-made dressings and sauces, two of which are now available at Edible BC. The Citrus Dressing is a tangy sauce, which would pair well with avocado, or sprout salad. Garnish shellfish, or use as a seafood dip. The Kasu Hot Sauce adds a medium heat and intense flavor to any dish that needs a savoury embellishment. These dressings are low fat, with no oil added and 100% vegan. Due to their perishable nature, we can’t ship these items, but you’ll find them in the refrigerated section of our retail store.
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