The Empress Hotel’s Scones

June 15, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

The Empress Hotel's Scones | Korena in the Kitchen The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. Visit Valerie’s blog, A Canadian Foodie, on the 15th for a round-up of this month’s posts.

This month marks one year since the beginning of the Canadian Food Experience Project, and subsequently, its end as a monthly challenge. Our host and the master-mind behind the project, Valerie, has asked us to close off this phase of the project by reflecting on and identifying our own Canadian voice, hopefully honed through participating over the past year. I admit that I haven’t been the most engaged participant, sometimes barely even taking the time to read the monthly round-up of posts, but simply having this project in the back of my mind for a year, mulling over the theme for each month, has certainly opened up my awareness of Canadian food. And by that I mean more than just Canadian cuisine or particularly “Canadian” dishes, but also the ingredients that grow locally and regionally and the people who cultivate or farm them. I have to say that a lot of this illumination comes from reading the blog FEAST, which details the journey of two food writers eating their way across the country on a Canada-wide road trip. They write about the food they eat, but also about the place and the people cooking and growing it. Perhaps that is what makes Canadian food? The unique intersection of person, place, and ingredients? I guess the same could be said about any kind of food, anywhere in the world, but maybe that’s OK? Obviously I have no answers, just some questions to throw out into the ether. I have no idea if any of this has altered my “voice” to be more Canadian (has it? you tell me!), but I do think it has become part of my own personal food philosophy, and as such, will continue to be something I consider when I cook and eat.

The Empress Hotel's Scones | Korena in the Kitchen …

Kate’s Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

May 12, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

Kate's Rhubarb Upside Down Cake | Korena in the Kitchen

May’s theme for the Canadian Food Experience Project is “The Canadian Garden”, which frankly seems like a bit of a joke at this time of the year. Even living in one of the most temperate places in the country (“Cowichan” means “The Warm Land” in the local First Nations language), my garden is mostly bare dirt at the moment… save for my rhubarb plant.

Rhubarb in my garden | Korena in the Kitchen …

How to Eat Popcorn Like a Salt Springer

March 10, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 33 Comments

The Salt Spring Island movie theatre opened when I was about ten – I remember because one of the first films shown was the digitally re-mastered, re-released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was probably only the third film I’d ever seen in a theatre. [Edit: Apparently my memory is faulty, because Nate remembers the movie theatre being open waaaaaay earlier, and unfortunately for me, it turns out he’s right. It changed hands in the early 1990s so I must be remembering the re-opening, because I swear I never saw any movies there when I was really young…! Anyway, back to the story.] Community hall by day and movie theatre by night, when I was twelve it was also the scene of my very first ever date with a boy (I wasn’t allowed to see Dangerous Minds so we watched Babe), where we sat on folding chairs because only the first few rows were proper theatre seats. Instead of the celebrity gossip and pop culture “entertainment” that precedes movies these days, they would show slide shows featuring community events, and more often than not you’d see yourself or someone you knew on the screen while you waited in line at the concession, which brings me to the best part of the Salt Spring movie theatre: the popcorn. Real popcorn with real butter instead of a coating of yellow “butter flavour”, it only cost a few dollars a bag rather than upwards of $15 for popcorn and a drink. And to season it, instead of dill pickle or cheese flavouring, there were big shakers of nutritional yeast – because on Salt Spring, we eat our popcorn yeasted. And it’s delicious.

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Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival at the BC Forest Discovery Centre

February 7, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Last Saturday was the Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival held at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan. I was pretty excited to go last year, but I got my dates mixed up and missed it by a day. I was so sad. So when I saw this year’s festival advertised, I made sure I had the right date. Nate and I arrived just as the festival opened, and I’m glad we did because by the time we left a few hours later, there were line-ups to get in. Seems like everyone is as excited about maple syrup as I am!

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Bread for a New Year

January 8, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 16 Comments

This month on the Canadian Food Experience Project, Valerie has asked us to make a “Canadian Resolution”. I’m not a big resolution maker or goal setter (this article outlines my preferred method of forward momentum), but a little food-related one can’t hurt, right? So, my Canadian resolution for the year is to bake bread with Canadian grains, milled at home in my WonderMill grain mill when possible. This list of Canadian heritage wheat varieties is kind of astonishing – I had no idea there were that many varieties, and that’s only the wheat! I’m excited to see what’s out there, who’s growing what and where, and most of all, how it tastes. Bonus: one of the great local food discoveries I’ve made in the Cowichan Valley is True Grain Bread, a bakery that not only bakes gorgeous bread but also sells locally grown Vancouver Island wheat, both in grain form and as house-milled flour.

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The Canadian Food Experience Project: The Christmas Eve Potluck

December 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

This month on the Canadian Food Experience Project, we are talking Canadian Christmas traditions. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that for me, Christmas means cookies, cookies, and more cookies. From a “Christmas tradition” stand-point, that topic has pretty much been covered… so I tried to think of something else to talk about. Christmas dinner? My Mum’s bacon-covered turkey and stuffing. Christmas dessert? Yule log. All already documented, and none particularly specific to the West Coast of BC or Salt Spring Island. I finally turned to Facebook and asked my friends: What food-related holiday/Christmas traditions do you celebrate with your family? Is there something specific to the West Coast/Salt Spring Island?

Predictably, I got a varied response – everything from the traditional Canadian fare of tourtiere and buttertarts to sushi to smoked salmon eggs benedict to stollen to a breakfast bake of bread, egg, bacon, sausage, and cheese called either “busy woman’s breakfast” or “wife saver” depending on which of my friends you ask – but one commonality was the number of people who mentioned a Christmas Eve gathering of family, friends, and food. Growing up on Salt Spring Island, potluck dinners were the preferred social gathering and were as abundant as gumboot-wearing hippie sheep farmers (ie, very abundant). As an only child with a fairly small extended family, our family Christmas on December 25 was (wonderful but) pretty quiet, whereas Christmas Eve was always a rockin’ potluck at our family friends’ house, with tons of food, kids, and Christmas carols. For the past five or more years, I’ve spent Christmas Eve at my friend Lynette’s family dinner, which includes several other families all contributing to the meal, resulting in some of the tastiest Christmas food ever – I still dream about the creamy, cheesy scalloped potatoes from a few years ago, and Ghislaine’s frozen chocolate orange mousse is to die for. My preferred potluck contribution is usually dessert, but one year I brought these bacon wrapped, almond stuffed apricots with balsamic syrup and Stilton as an appetizer, and they were pretty darn good – worth a spotlight on the blog, for sure. Plus, they are super easy to put together – no recipe needed – and they come on a stick, which makes them great finger food and perfect to take to your next holiday potluck.

To make, cut some slices of bacon in half and cook until not quite crispy – it still needs to be pliable. Stuff dried apricots with a whole almond (you should be able to find the opening in the apricot where the pit was removed), then wrap each in a half-slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Bake in a hot oven or broil a few inches away from the broiler element (watch the toothpicks so they don’t burn) until the bacon is crisp, turning them over once during cooking – this shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Put them on a plate, drizzle with crema di balsamico (make a homemade version by simmering some balsamic vinegar with a spoonful of honey until thickened), and sprinkle with crumbled Stilton or blue cheese. To eat, pile some Stilton on top, or spear some with the toothpick. These could easily be assembled ahead of time and then popped into the oven when guests arrive, or warmed up on site if you are taking them to a potluck.

What’s your favorite holiday potluck offering?

Harvest Apple and Almond Tart

November 11, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

As usual, I’m a few days late with this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project post… but it’s because I wanted to get this recipe right before sharing it. This month, Valerie has asked us to talk about the Canadian harvest and what it means in our lives. For me, the harvest means apples. For as long as I can remember, autumn has brought with it falling leaves and a large box of apples sitting in one corner of the kitchen, perfuming the house with their sweet-tart scent, until either my Mum finally got around to making apple sauce or apple crisps, or I baked them into pies. When I was young, the apples came from my grandparents’ trees, and in more recent years they came from friends of my parents. This year, I scored some truly gigantic Bramley apples from a co-worker’s trees.

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The Canadian Food Experience Project: Experimental Lacto-Fermented Dill Pickles

October 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.

This month’s topic for the Canadian Food Experience Project is “Preserving: Our Canadian Food Tradition”. One preserving memory from my childhood is the smell of sun-warmed dill growing in my Mum’s garden every summer, destined for dill pickles. The dill plants would spring up randomly all over the garden, waving their frilly fronds in the breeze, until their yellow flowers started to get heavy with seeds and they would be stuffed into glass jars along with dozens and dozens of tiny lumpy pickling cucumbers. These days I love making jam and and canning fruit, but I’d not yet ventured into the pickling arena.

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The Canadian Food Experience Project: Making Pie

September 12, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity.

So, I’m a few days late for this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project, the theme of which is “My Most Cherished Canadian Food Recipe”, but better late than never, right? I’ve already written about my scone recipe, which is probably my most cherished one, but making pie – pastry in particular – is a close second. And when I’m thinking of Canadian recipes, there’s only one thing that comes to mind: Canadian Living.

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An Afternoon at Teafarm (plus a chocolate cake!)

August 7, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. The theme for this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project is “A Regional Canadian Food Hero”, which can be broadly defined as anyone involved in food growing, production, education, activism, or the like, working to preserve local foods, skills, traditions, or to define the local terroir.

{For some reason, I had a hard time writing this post – sometimes it’s difficult to put an experience in words. I wrote several drafts, one of which accidentally got published a few days ago, so apologies to anyone who got a bunk notification in their reader or email. This is the real post!}

The Cowichan Valley is home to many farms and artisanal food producers, one of which is Teafarm, located just north of Duncan in the Westholme area. My friends Lynette, Ang, and I visited on a beautiful Sunday in July for their “tea + sweet pairings” menu, and ended up having a pretty wonderful afternoon, sipping tea, enjoying chocolate goodies, and basking in the farm’s pastoral bliss. Believe me when I say I am not at all exaggerating about the bliss part.

Welcome to Teafarm!

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