Archive for July, 2009
Hey, we’re back. Sorry for the radio silence – my laptop decided awhile ago to be wireless intolerant, and won’t pick up any signals, let alone connect – so I’ve been unplugged since we left Tofino on Friday. (I would have been really hooped had it been last year.) Oh, we have so much catching up to do.
As beautiful a place Tofino is, it’s nice to be home.
I don’t usually backtrack on this blog – it’s all real time – but I feel the need for a recap in order to cover the edibles of our last days there and wander-through the BC interior en route to Calgary. Looking back, we ate a lot. The red huckleberries, for example – they turned into a mighty fine jam. I’m not going to even touch on the subject of how easy jam is to make – wait, I just did – but seriously, you don’t need pectin, you don’t need a chemistry degree, you don’t even need as much sugar as you think you do. I made one batch straight-up and it was wonderfully runny – I soaked the last half of grainy baguette in the last egg and cup of milk and made French toast to eat before making the early-morning run for the ferry, then used the wee toasts like dip lovers use those little corn chip scoops to load as much sweet-tart ruby red jam as they would structurally tolerate. It was like scooping as much summer as I could fit into my mouth before leaving the beachy place and going home to the tax audit, overgrown garden and messy office.
You’d be proud of me for how I managed to use up almost everything perishable before we left. (If you ever go grocery shopping in Tofino, you’d be thrifty too. It’s actually a deal to eat out.) At the very back of the fridge sat a tub of cottage cheese. My Mom loves the idea of cottage cheese – her good friend eats a dish of it every day for lunch with fruit, and she is the type I aspire to be – but whenever she makes up her mind to take cottage cheese on, the two of them don’t get along. She manages to down a bowl of the stuff and the rest goes soupy and eventually gets tossed. Such was the case with this sad tub.
On the day after we arrived, my parents’ next door neighbours popped by, and brought with them an immense, maroon leather-bound copy of The Gourmet Cookbook circa 1956 that her mother had given her. Talk about summer reading – it sat on the coffee table and we all thumbed through it throughout the week, pointing out gaudy-coloured photos, aspics and recipes like Cold-Glazed Ox Tongue, Marinated Brains Paysanne and Pigs’ Feet in White Wine Jelly, and noted that there is an entire section titled Innards. I decided that if any recipe book were to include recipes using cottage cheese, this would be it. I was right. It had a lovely recipe for Cottage Cheese Pancakes Brittany that turned out 6 dense, cheesy pancakes, which we topped with runny huckleberry jam, which made them sort of reminiscent of cheesecake. If and when I make them again, I’ll add a teaspoon of baking powder to lighten them a little (I’ve added it to the recipe below, but didn’t have any there). The original recipe also called for a few grains of white pepper and to sieve the cottage cheese, which I didn’t bother with.
Cottage Cheese Pancakes Brittany
adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook by Judith Price, 1956 edition (eighth printing)
1 cup cottage cheese
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. canola oil or melted butter
In a large bowl, beat together the cottage cheese, eggs, sugar and salt; mix until smooth, then add the milk and stir until creamy. Add the flour and baking powder and stir just until blended; stir in the oil or melted butter.
Preheat a griddle or skillet over medium heat and brush with butter or oil or spray with nonstick spray. Drop batter (I used a small ladle) onto the pan and cook until bubbles begin to break the surface and the edges no longer appear wet – flip using a thin spatula and cook until golden on the other side as well. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 250F oven until they are all cooked. Makes 6 good-sized pancakes, or twice as many dollar pancakes.
Flipping through my photos I just realized – could it be I’ve forgotten to tell you about Chocolate Tofino? The teeny little offshoot of a building tucked away beside/behind Groovy Movie, it’s the epitome of Mom n’ Pop shops, with Mom and Pop back there making waffles, then wrapping them around a little cone mold and twisting the tip ever so to prevent drips – one at a time. I’ve never had such good waffle cones – light, thin and crispy but never breaking. I had heard the ice cream was fantastic. You guys- there are no words. (They make it all themselves – when I inquired about this, Mom replied “I crack the eggs and simmer the cream!”.) Their maple pecan praline is near the best thing I ever ate. Besides their pecan turtles, that is, which are so much better than any other version I’ve ever eaten – I can’t figure out why (besides the obvious crisply toasted pecan halves and some sort of buttercrunch underlying the soft caramel) but I’m determined to keep up the research.
On the way back, we stayed overnight in Kamloops (rather than making the mad dash home) and had time to dawdle through the Shuswap on Saturday. This never happens. Usually we’re in a hurry to make the ferry, or Mike wants to make good time, or W is sleeping and we don’t want to stop the car at all the enticing fruit stands and U-Pick farms. Plus I’m a little gunshy, having stopped at one or two overpriced tourist traps. Yesterday we hit the jackpot.
Soon after leaving Kamloops (heading east on highway 1) I was lured in by handpainted signs on weathered wood scraps nailed to poles starting a couple kilometers away – they said things like “Eat Well”, and “Coffee and Pie $4″, and went by too quickly for me to reach my camera. But when I made Mike pull in I found pies – freshly baked and frozen in stacks ($10) with fillings like blueberry, apple-raspberry, peach and strawberry-rhubarb.
There were still-warm rustic loaves made by their new baker out of organic locally milled flour. Besides the obvious produce (cherries, corn, apricots) there were coolers with local cheeses, beef and bison, paper bags filled with flax and hemp granola, local honey and preserves. Luckily we had limited car space.
Further down the road we hit Sorrento, and their Saturday morning farmers’ market, almost like we planned it that way. I left with golden beets, beautiful lettuces, a roasted garlic and cherry tomato focaccia from a company called The Little Red Hen, a bag of the sweetest peas I’ve ever eaten – one honestly reminded me of vanilla ice cream – to eat out of the cup holder in the car, and jars of blackcurrant jam, organic hazelnut honey and black raspberry honey that rattled around by my feet for the rest of the drive.
Further down the road we found peaches – finally from BC! – but missed the U-pick cherry farm we saw on the way out. We stopped by a lake in Field and the boys swam and we ate focaccia, peaches and peas.
And for those of you who may be planning a trip out to Tofino – I highly recommend it, any time of year – here’s a recap of where to go and what to eat (in no particular order) in response to all the requests I’ve been getting:
Beaches:
Anywhere on Long Beach – Chesterman, Cox Bay, McKenzie Beach – they all sort of run into each other, are all different and worth a visit. Check the tide tables – when the tide is out you can see some great tidepools and living things up against the rocks, especially at the north end of Chesterman (where we saw the barnacles and starfish above). Further down you’ll get into Pacific Rim National Park, and you can go in at Incinerator Rock or the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre.
Tonquin Park (photo above) – access through the town, only a few parking spots and a nice short walk through lovely forest, it’s nice and protected – not too windy – nice sand for playing in, and cool caves.
Schooner – a stunning walk through the rainforest (about 1k, lots of stairs but totally doable even with young kids) brings you to an equally stunning beach – this is where we saw the whales.
Eats:
SoBo – no duh.
Tacofino – the adorable orange bus at the very back of the cluster of shops around Beaches Grocery.
Wildside Grill – straight from their boat to their kitchen – also to the left of Beaches – Crispy Cod Club!
Jupiter (look for the signs – it’s sort of in-between buildings and sometimes hard to find) – the very best muffins – haven’t tried the coffee.
Tuff Beans – we go here for coffee; like it better than the coffee at Tofitian (sorry Tofitian!) – the muffins are huge and cakey, but they have really good breakfast.
Chocolate Tofino – the best ice cream, made on the premises and if you opt for it, scooped into a handmade waffle cone (Sugar Shack in town is great too, but they use Foothills Creamery Ice Cream). Also try the pecan turtles (they have another name – but essentially the same thing).
Schooner and Shelter are also beautiful restaurants and worth a visit
Miscellany:
There are a ton of surf shops and surf schools in Tofino, but we found a really great guy named Jessro who taught Ben (6) and Emily (11) to surf one afternoon, and was patient and fun and wonderful, and not even expensive, and gave them a really cool Tshirt and hat, even. You can find him in the little surf school with the yellow awning on the right hand side on your way into town.
Every Saturday morning there is a market in the park from 10-2; I’m not sure if this is just a summer thing, but definitely worth checking out.
There is an 800 year old Western Red Cedar tree as you come into town – can’t miss it on the right.
There are lots of trails: The Wickaninnish Trail (6 miles/10 km return) runs between the beaches on Wickaninnish and Florencia Bays. There’s also Shoreline Bog Trail (0.5-mile/0.8-km loop), the Rain Forest Trail (two 0.6-mile/1-km loops), and the Spruce Fringe Trail (1-mile/1.5-km loop)
Ucluelet is worth a visit- don’t miss the tiny aquarium! And the Wild Pacific Trail is spectacular.
Tofino Time is a great resource if you’re looking for more info. (Or email me!)
Of course if I’ve missed something, please let us know!
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
One Year Ago: Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake and Crepes with Nutella
July 26 2009 | bread and breakfast and dessert | 23 Comments »
The property surrounding my parents’ house is thick with all things growing, as you might find most anywhere in BC – green things growing between the toes of other green things. I am not one for identifying plants, like my mom and sister are; they are the type to walk down the street and coo: “ooh, look at those hostas! Mine just aren’t happy this year. I’ve never seen asters that colour!” (I don’t even know if asters come in colours – see, I don’t even know enough about gardening to make fun of their smarts.)
But I do know my edibles. I scanned the grounds for any sign of blackberries (some, but not ready yet), blueberries or red currants. Halfway down the stairs I found a pair of treeish shrubs covered with ripe red berries, one so heavy it reminded me of a cow we saw at the dairy on the way here, her udder so full it nearly touched the ground. We had seen someone walking along the side of the road, branch of such in hand, snacking on the berries, so we figured they were edible. I still wanted to know what they were.
A flip through a copy of Mom’s PLANTS OF COASTAL BRITISH COLUMBIA identified them as red huckleberries – sort of a happy combination of red currant and Nanking cherry, without the pit. When I excitedly reported our positive ID to Mike, a look fluttered across his eyes that I recognized as “great. I’ve lost her for the rest of the trip to a tree.” He knows me too well.
Yes, I do tend to become obsessive in the presence of ripe, free-for-all berries. When we lived in Vancouver we had our secret spots where we’d go and pick blackberries for hours (I always wondered why more people didn’t do this – do they realize the street value of those berries in Calgary?) and I have been known to jump out of the car at a red light or make Mike pull over by the train tracks to go load up an empty Starbucks cup. Here, the loaded tree was just beyond reach of the wooden walkway, so that I had to venture out onto a fallen tree that was so deeply surrounded by ground cover I had no idea how far down it went below. I crept out further and further, lured by berry-covered branches, closer to a known raccoon den, until I half-filled my basket. (Actually the insert from the salad spinner – perfect for rinsing berries afterward.)
My dad suggested they might make a nice crumble paired with blueberries, and he was right. They are tart but not so much that they need sweetening, especially with blueberries as a buffer. I filled a larger bowl for us and a smaller one for our neighbours, one of whom is celebrating his 87th birthday tomorrow, and did absolutely nothing to them but scatter a crumble mixture over top – this time it was soft butter the size of an egg (this is the way my grandma would measure it in her hand-written recipes), about twice as much dark brown sugar, two or three times as much flour, and a shake of oat bran.
I never measure the crumble part – you can always add more flour or more butter or oil if you need it until you get a crumbly consistency – something that holds together when you squeeze it. I loved the addition of oat bran – not as much texture as full-on oats, but with the nuttiness and fiber. I baked them both at 375F until the topping was golden and the berries bubbled up around the edges.
I don’t think I quite captured the colour here – the berries burst and turned into a sticky, jammy, brilliant red-indigo sauce. We ate it by the fire, with whipped cream. (Oh whipped cream, I’m going to miss you most when we go home.) I was hoping for leftovers to eat for breakfast with vanilla yogurt – no such luck.
And – I’ve been holding out on you – we have been eating more than just fruity crumbles and coffee. We ate, for one, at the new Tacofino - (not actually the old purple SoBo bus, despite rumours to the contrary) – a catering truck painted orange, parked in the same place (at the back of the Tofino “mall”) and doling out burritos, tacos, salads (next time I’ll try the chipotle Caesar) and the like. My favourite, I think, were the bean gringas - sort of like a creamy, cheesy folded quesadilla, made, as all menu items, with chicken, pork or beans. The burrito was pretty fantastic too, and I liked that you had the option of a whole wheat tortilla. The tacos were made using soft corn tortillas. You had the option to add rice and beans, sour cream or guacamole. (I missed that part until it was too late.)
My favourite is W’s shot of the bus and sky – shot from our stump seats where we ate. I particularly like that little bird sitting in the tree.
One Year Ago: Pad Thai and Vanilla Barley Risotto with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
July 23 2009 | leftovers | 15 Comments »
Another clue in the Mystery of the Tight Pants: I had to run over to the gas station to buy cream to whip for our peach crisp the other night. Want to know why? Because the pint we bought earlier this week (in anticipation of a veritable parade of fruit cobblers, crisps and pies-we managed one, anyway) was used up by my SISTER while making us COFFEE every morning (and more than the occasional afternoon). Here I thought it tasted so good because the freshly ground beans were organic and from Salt Spring Island and I was sipping it on the porch overlooking Clayoquot Sound. Nope – apparently it had more to do with the 35% cream, in (according to my calculations) outrageous quantities.
We decided to launch a sort of coffee project this week, partly because both of us are a little bit workaholic and she, as a single mom of three and full-time teacher, grabs on to projects like lifelines when faced with a week completely devoid of structure. She decreed that we would test different beans from different roasters and sourced from various countries, then experiment with brewing processes (drip, perk, French press) until we came up with the perfect cup we could make at home, thus relieving us of our chronic Tim Horton’s problem.
One hurdle: although we have access here to several lovely varieties of beans, there is only a plain old $18 coffee maker in this house, and we drew the line at buying more than a new coffee grinder, purchased at the hardware store.
So we’ve been happily testing beans: Salt Spring Organic, Karma, Frog Friendly, thinking we may have to take care of the brewing method once back home. But then I remembered a story in the New York Times a few years ago about cold brewing, done simply by steeping coffee in water in a jar on the countertop overnight, then filtering it in the morning to make iced coffee. Although there’s nothing stopping you from cooling down your regular Joe and serving it over ice, cold-brewed coffee has a lower acidity and less bitterness than the heat-brewed coffee we’re accustomed to, allowing for flavour nuances in the beans to come through.
So, wait. Cold brewing gets rid of the bitterness? And requires no equipment, nor energy? Why is this not the preferred camping method (beats instant)? And might it further allow us to get rid of the collection of coffee machinery in constant rotation between our kitchen and basement? I mean, if it’s good enough for iced coffee (which by the sounds of things is more finicky), why can’t it simply be reheated in the morning to make a hot cup? Is it just me, or is it a revelation to know it’s possible to “brew” with nothing but ground beans and a jar?
Literally, all you need is some medium-ground coffee, water and a jar. The ratio is half a pound of coffee to 5 cups of water (or for a smaller batch, 1/3 cup coffee to 1 1/2 cups water); stir them together in a bowl or jar, cover and let the mixture steep overnight. It seems there is some debate over whether a 12 hour vs. 24 hour soaking time is best; either way, you have a 12 hour window in between, which allows about as much flexibility as anyone could ask for.
After steeping, strain the sludge; first through a fine-meshed sieve, and then through a coffee filter to get rid of all the grit. (Alternatively, this whole process could take place in a French press; let it sit for as long as you want it to, then press and pour it out.) Dilute the resulting coffee concentrate 1:1 with hot water from the kettle, or cool water or milk for an iced coffee, or pour it straight over ice and spike with cream.
We tested this method against the drip coffee maker, and my sister actually preferred it, even using the concentrate that we had strained in the morning, drank a cup of and then let sit around until the afternoon. (You get lazy after several hours in the sun and wind at the beach.) Turns out a cup brewed using the cold method has about a third less caffeine too – which may or may not be a good thing. She only noticed while trying to stay awake during the kids’ surfing lesson – I didn’t notice at all.
This homemade coffee concentrate will also suit the purpose if your goal is to recreate an Ice Cap in your blender: to ¼ cup concentrate add ¼ cup coffee cream (18%) or half & half (10%), 2-3 Tbsp. sugar and 5 ice cubes, and pulse until it’s a sippable consistency.
One Year Ago: Chili-Rubbed Salmon with Fruit Salsa
July 21 2009 | beverages | 27 Comments »
My capris are most definitely a tighter fit than they were when we arrived. I always think of Tofino as a healthy place, where in summertime there’s fresh fish to be had, and produce, and lots of grainy things at the bakeries, and beaches to walk on in the early mornings. I forget that I tend to come out here with my sister, and that there’s fish and chips, and pancakes in the morning, ice cream, SoBo (we went again last night. Yes we did.), bread and scones from the 600 Degree Bakery, and Cheezies to eat while we play Blokus.
It’s not all unhealthy. Blueberries are local and cheap, and at the rate little people around here are plowing through them, we’ve been averaging a couple 2lb boxes per day. We’ve been eating them on pancakes, with granola (from Jupiter) and yogurt, and by the handful; today I thought I’d stretch them a bit, and turn some into a crumb cake.
A basic crumb cake is a great recipe to have in your back pocket during the summer; this same cake is fantastic made with raspberries, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, or thickly sliced peaches, apricots or plums. The cake batter would take on finely grated orange or lemon zest very well.
Blueberry Crumb Cake
Cake:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose, whole wheat or some of each)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup buttermilk or thin plain yogurt
2-3 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) berries, or a few thickly sliced plums, peaches or apricots
Crumble:
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3/4 cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugar for 1-2 minutes, until fluffy; beat in the eggs and vanilla.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add about a third of it to the butter mixture and stir by hand or on low speed with the mixer just until blended. Add half the buttermilk or yogurt, another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and the rest of the flour. Stir just until blended, and spread into a 9″x9″ pan that has been buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray. Spread the berries overtop.
In a small bowl, blend the butter, oil, flour, sugars and salt and mix with a fork or rub between your fingers until evenly combined and crumbly. Sprinkle over the berries, squeezing the mixture in your hands as you go to create bigger chunks of crumble.
Bake for about an hour, until golden and springy to the touch. Serves 12-16.
One Year Ago: Vij’s Chicken Curry
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July 20 2009 | breakfast and cake and snacks | 14 Comments »
Finally made it to SoBo. Mike, my sister and I stuck the kids in front of a movie and snuck out.
Rather than try to decide on starters and mains, we ordered a bunch of small plates and shared them around: Smoked Wild Fish Chowder, Roasted Beet & Fresh Goat Cheese Salad,
Woodstove Oven Roasted Olives (Kalamata, Agrinion & Cracked Green Olives),
Natural Pastures Island Brie cheese, wrapped and roasted in phyllo pastry, with apricot apple chutney, walnuts and roasted bread,
Shrimp & Crab Cake (Vancouver Island pink shrimp cake layered with crab and avocado served with remoulade),
Seared Vancouver Island Scallops with sweet pea risotto cake, fromage a la creme, fresh watercress, preserved lemon & mint drizzle, and a Smoked Fish Trio (above – Mike ordered it, but A and I didn’t partake).
For dessert, Key lime pie with whipped cream, of course, and a flourless chocolate cake served with a scoop of the purest strawberry sorbet – it had the graininess of a granita, without the syrupy sweetness of a typical fruit ice that makes it reminiscent of a snow cone. It tasted like small, ripe strawberries, pureed and then frozen and scraped back into a ball.
Yum.
July 18 2009 | eating out | 11 Comments »
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