Canadian Ingredients

[Lesley C]

Whenever I meet foreign food writers here in Montreal, I always make sure they get a taste of our best local ingredients and food stuffs. Quebec is know for its maple syrup, smoked meat, and bagels but people might not know that we are also renowned for our foie gras, raw milk cheeses, venison, veal, lamb, strawberries, scallops, apples and wild blueberries.

Every province has a few famous ingredients: Nova Scotia lobsters, New Brunswick salmon, PEI potatoes, Ontario peaches and ice wine, Manitoba wild rice, Saskatchewan wheat, Alberta beef, BC salmon, cherries and seafood.

Can anyone add to that list? What about Newfoundland?

[cabrales]

Nova Scotia offers oysters, although Prince Edward Island is another Canadian source. I think at least PEI offers Malpeques (??).

http://www.citarella.com/Product.asp?SubDe...18&Department=5

http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/zone/underwater_s...ster/oyster.htm

As for the West Coast of Canada, Fanny Bay is available from BC. However, they are not one of my preferred oysters (alas, I have to say I like French Marennes the best and I have a special interest in the tiny French "papillon" oysters).

http://www.bctravel.com/fannybay/

As Leslie mentioned, BC has great seafood, with crab, geoduck and lingcod being some items of particular note. Lingcod is perhaps an acquired taste, but it's plentiful in the region.

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sci/sa-mfpd/e...ing-Fishery.htm (on lingcod)

[Jason Perlow]

At Mike's Deli in the Arthur Avenue Retail market in the Bronx, they sell a really good Prosciutto Affumicato / aka smoked prosciutto or "speck" alongside all their prized imported salumis from Italy. Its from Canada.

And its awfully tasty too.

[Jinmyo]

What about Newfoundland?

According to several friends from Newfoundland: Screech (basically rum with alcool added). Fried baloney (thick cut, blackened). Cod tongue and cheeks with catsup sandwich (white squishy bread only). Red Rose tea boiled for about four hours with a handful of sugar.

I like cod tongue and cheeks in a butter and white wine reduction sauce on toasted sourdough.

[cabrales]

Ontario peaches and ice wine

Leslie -- If you have the information readily available, what are some of the brands of Ontario ice wine worth considering?   I have seen a decent selection of ice wine available at several shops in Vancouver's airport.

[Sandra Levine]

Newfoundland:  Cloudberries, ginger muffins and other ginger-flavored treats, capelin (a sardine-like fish), seal flipper pie

[Degustation]

Nova Scotia - fiddleheads, chanterelles, jerusalem artichokes, cranberries

Alberta - Peace River honey

Manitoba golden caviar

Caribou

Arctic char

Canadian Peameal back bacon

Butter tarts

Nanaimo bars

Beavertails

[SteveW]

Lesley, could you expound on Quebec scallops? I think I tried them on my very recent visit to the Toque! restaurant. I can't remember which part of Quebec, they said their scallops came from. They must be hard to find in retail shops.

 Nova Scotia has their digby scallops.

_

Steve

[Lesley C]

Cabrales, when it comes to Canadian Icewines there’s Inniskillin, which was awarded Le Grand Prix d'Honneur at Vinexpo, Bordeaux, in 1991. Also, Château des Charmes icewines are highly acclaimed. If you like sweet wines, you might be interested in trying iced cider if ever you come to Quebec – another product unique to our area (the temp has to hit something like -24˚ C before they can pick the apples).

SteveW, the scallops served at Toqué! are from the Magdalen Islands. You could contact La Mer to see if they carry them.

Degustation, aren’t butter tarts English?

We also have caviar and cranberries (major Ocean Spray country) here in Quebec. There are also all sorts of wild mushrooms in B.C.  I would think canned seal meat is another Newfoundland original. According to a chef I know who just completed a cookbook on Canadian wild meats,  seal meat is the ideal protein for senior citizens. People are just turned off by the black colour of the flesh. The flavour isn’t all that bad.

[cabrales]

We also have caviar and cranberries (major Ocean Spray country) here in Quebec. There are also all sorts of wild mushrooms in B.C.

Leslie -- When you have a chance, please consider discussing what caviar from Quebec is like. Is it from a different species of sturgeon, for example?  

On BC's wild mushrooms, below is an excerpt from Miss J's bio that hints at them:

Rather, I'm a 28-year-old transplanted Canadian. (From British Columbia. . . . Dad, being an accomplished woodsman, ensured that I could recognise edible fungi and wild berries as soon as I was big enough to wander into the bush on my own...

[Degustation]

Lesley - I'm not sure of the history of Canadian butter tarts though I have also seen recipes for English butter tarts. Most references I've seen refer to them as connected with Canadian culture. Perhaps it's a combination of the British / French (sugar pie) influences and the final concoction was the Canadian butter tart? This is the most common reference on the net.

Butter Tarts

ingredients for 12 servings:

1/4 c Butter

1/2 c Brown sugar; packed

1/2 ts Vanilla

1 Egg

1/2 c Raisins; or currants

12 Tart shells;lined with

Preparation: "These tarts were the basis for Butter Tart Pie and Butter Tart Squares which appeared in later decades. Another variation uses maple syrup instead of corn syrup. ...Butter Tarts are uniquely Canadian. There are theories whether they were adapted from southern pecan pie, old-fashioned sugar pies, or maple syrup, backwoods or vinegar pies. Squabbles arise whether or not the tarts should be runny or not, and just how runny. Opinions differ about the use of syrup or sugar only, eggs beaten or not, currants or raisins, and how the tart pans should be filled." In bowl, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat in egg and corn syrup. Spoon raisins into tart shells; pour in the filling, two-thirds full. Bake in 375F oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. MAKES: 12 TARTS

SOURCE: The 1st decade chapter in _A Century of Canadian Home Cooking_

[Jinmyo]

I would think canned seal meat is another Newfoundland original. According to a chef I know who just completed a cookbook on Canadian wild meats,  seal meat is the ideal protein for senior citizens. People are just turned off by the black colour of the flesh. The flavour isn’t all that bad.

Lesley, I've never heard of this. Could you please provide further information? Tinned seal is probably a very politically incorrect item but interesting.

[mamster]

Vancouver potstickers, from Hon's?

[Blue Heron]

British Columbia, add'l items:

Kamloops rainbow trout

Peachland & Summerland peaches

Penticton peaches, apricots

Okanagon region wine

Not an ingredient, but wish I could find it in the States: Old Dutch snacks, mmmmm.

[Lesley C]

Jinmyo, do you mean you've never heard of eating seal meat or tins of seal meat? Or that seal meat is a good choice for our aging population?

Politically incorrect yes, but at least they aren't just using the pelts and throwing away the meat.

[cabrales]

Lesley -- When you have a chance, please consider discussing what seal meat tastes like, if you have sampled it.  

[Jinmyo]

Lesley, tinned seal meat. Nor that seal is "a good choice for our aging population". What company sells it?

edit: Okay, I've done a Google search. Here is a site concerning this: clicke.

[Sandra Levine]

If I had a scanner (and more technical savvy) I could post a photograph I took of a food store in Newfoundland with a sign advertising fresh seal meat for sale.  (This was about 10 years ago.)  Of course, that doesn't tell us how it actually tastes.  Alan tried to order it from a restaurant menu, but they claimed to be out of it that day.

[Lesley C]

I tasted seal meat at a demonstration given by a seal specialist/chef who visits all the cooking schools in Montreal. I believe he was preparing the tenderloin, which was jet black. I hate to say this because I usually have a good memory for flavours, but I don’t remember the seal having much of a taste – more of a meaty texture really.

In the book on Quebec game cookery I mentioned in my last post (Gibier a Poil et a Plume, by Quebec chef Jean-Paul Grappe) there’s a picture of all the seal meat cuts, which include the thighs for roasting and braising, the saddle for roasting, grilling or pan-frying, the ribs and rack for roasting, grilling or pan-frying, lower ribs (basses cotes) for grilling, frying or roasting, the flank for ragouts or boiling, and the shoulder for ragouts, sautés or braising. The recipes in the book (published this winter by Les Editions de l’Homme) include seal pavés with green peppercorns, minced seal meat with mustard sauce, seal osso-buco (made with cuts from either the thigh or shoulder), and seal tenderloin with lobster. It all looks quite delicious.

About Quebec caviar: it comes from one producer in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and is apparently quite good. I have tasted it only as a garnish, not enough to make a lasting impression.

For an interesting example of a Quebec chef’s (Daniel Vézina) use of local ingredients have a look at the menu of the Quebec city restaurant Laurie Raphael http://www.laurieraphael.com/Frame7.html.

[Sandra Levine]

the thighs

Thighs? On a seal?  Oh, yeah, like loin of tuna.  I love these flights of fancy.  

[mamster]

Not an ingredient, but wish I could find it in the States: Old Dutch snacks, mmmmm.

They're not Old Dutch, but I think they sell dill pickle flavor chips at Trader Joe's, if those are the ones you miss.

[cabrales]

For an interesting example of a Quebec chef’s (Daniel Vézina) use of local ingredients have a look at the menu of the Quebec city restaurant Laurie Raphael http://www.laurieraphael.com/Frame7.html.

See the sample menu at Ouest in Vancouver for another example of the utilization of Canadian regional ingredients: Click here.

[Blue Heron]

A friend of mine just got back from an 11 day dog sledding trip on Baffin Island.  At the end of their trip they stayed in an Inuit village at the home of a couple who introduced them to raw Caribou meat.

mamster, the item I am craving is Old Dutch Popcorn Twists.  I usually have to bring 2-3 bags back with me whenever I go to Canada, as well as Marks & Spencer assam blend tea which we can't get.  I also love sea salt & vinegar chips, and I was so glad when Tim's started making them in the States (at least in WA).

[Lesley C]

I've had caribou and it's amazing, a lot like deer. In fact recipes that call for deer  can also be prepared with moose or caribou. I think caribou (also called woodland caribou) and reindeer are one and the same. Only the Inuit are allowed to sell it commercially in Canada.

[cabrales]

As for the West Coast of Canada, Fanny Bay is available from BC.

I recently saw the following types of British Columbia oysters offered on the menu of Joe Fortes in Vancouver (descriptions of flavors also from the menu):

Fanny Bay -- From Fanny Bay; salty, sweet, plump

Summer Ice -- From Jervis Inlet; salty, cucumber

Belon -- From Thynne Island, presumably brought over from France?; crisp, metallic finish

Kusshi -- Cortes Island; sweet, plump

Chef Creek -- Deep Bay; salty, sweet, cucumber

Gorge Harbor -- Cortes Island; fruity finish

Denman Island -- Denman Island

Cortes Island -- Cortes Island

Imperial Eagle -- Barkley Sound

Royal Miyagi -- Cortes Island

Oysters listed from other Canadian provinces were (1) Malpeque, Prince Edward Island; lettuce-like flavors, and (2) Caraquet, New Brunswick; salty, crispy. Note the oysters listed on Joe Forte's menu are not necessarily available on a given day; however, the daily selections available were considerable.

At Joe Fortes, a small oyster sampler of 6 oysters was priced at C$16 (less than US$12). Ordinarily, two oysters each from three varieties are offered, and US oysters could be included. When I requested that six different British Columbia oysters be included, the restaurant was happy to accommodate.  The large oyster sampler of 12 oysters was C$31.

I sampled the following oysters: (1) Local beach; (2) Chef's Creek; (3) Kusshi; (4) Belon; (5) Pearl Bay; and (6) Skookum.  The oysters were fresh, and appropriate-tasting. The accompanying sauce was a cocktail-derived sauce, with shards of horseradish (instead of diced or ground) and medium coarse grains of black pepper.   Note Joe Fortes is located close to Robson Street, a common destination for visitors to Vancouver.