Now here's the Catch...

This past weekend I had the extreme pleasure to be involved in the first ever Catch Nova Scotia Seafood Festival.  I spent two full days shucking, slurping, wining and entertaining.  I am going to venture a guess and say that my co-shuckers from Little Fish Oyster Bar and I must have shucked over 1500 Black Point, Eel Lake and Bay Enterprise oysters, as well as some sweet ass little-neck clams.  At the end of our shifts, we all raised our palms, tattooed with big, circular bruises (ouch..quite painful!) and hailed each other to a job well done!

I was also involved with Taste Of Nova Scotia, and spent Saturday and Sunday doing on stage demonstrations.  For both of my demonstrations I decided to make a simple salad with golden and candy cane beets, celery root, radishes, walnut oil and smoked mackerel from Willy Krauch. I felt that this recipe was a success. Not only was is super simple, but it was very crunchy and fresh!  I was lucky enough to have great interactive crowds on both days that were kind enough to chuckle at my horrendous jokes.

Beet and Smoked Mackerel Salad Recipe

So, a shout out to all those suppliers, organizers and volunteers that made Catch a great place to be..Merci!

I'll "Beet" It Outta Ya!

I recently did some demonstrations at the Catch Seafood Festival on the Taste Of Nova Scotia Culinary Stage.  Here is an adaptation of that recipe witch includes golden, candy cane and bull's blood beets.  Hope you "beet" it up!

Beet and Smoked Mackerel Salad

• 1 candy cane beet; peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 golden beet; peeled and julienned
• 1 bull's blood beet; peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1/4 of a celery root; peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 Jonagold apple; julienned
• 6 radishes; thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup basil; roughly chopped
• 2 lemons; zest & juice
• 1/4 cup walnut oil
• Salt & pepper
• 1 cup micro-greens
• 3 fillets of smoked mackerel; flaked

Thinly slice your beets and radishes on a mandolin if possible; I use a "Benriner" which is a Japanese mandolin.  Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl and serve.

Mother's Day at Sugar Moon Farm

One of the great things about moving to Halifax four years ago, was that I discovered the little gem that is Sugar Moon Farm. I recently went back for my third "appearance" and had a blast! This time around, I not only had put together a menu based on maple (as they are a sugar shack), but I also had to incorporate all things "Spring". What a task... spring goodies that are found in Nova Scotia; lamb, rhubarb, asparagus, fiddleheads, baby spinach & sorrel. So, those were my ingredients, and what follows was the finished product. Behind the scenes I had a little help from my usual sous-chef/driver/psychiatrist/husband, Doug, as well as two of my favourite cooks in the world, Johnny "The Mad Scientist" and Darrick "Mr. Rock ‘n' Roll".

The meal started off with an amuse bouche of Roselane Farm Westphalia ham, fiddleheads, That Dutchman's Old Growler Gouda & a lemon vinaigrette..very pretty. Next, for the first course, a soup of Jerusalem artichokes with maple roasted shitake & oyster mushrooms..silky smooth with nice, sweet & salty roasted mushrooms. The third course was a salad of baby spinach with sorrel from Riverview Farm, smoked halibut from Scotian Halibut and a mint, maple and barberry vinaigrette. As a main course, I was asked to use lamb, and as always I purchased it from Bill Wood of Wood'n'Hart Farm in Tatamagouche. I had been experimenting with lamb bellies, and came up with the following dish; lamb belly stuffed with ground lamb, sultana raisins, pine nuts, mint, fresh coriander and a plethora of mid-east spices including sumac, cumin, zataar. This was roasted, thinly sliced and served atop a quinoa salad with grilled asparagus, goats' feta from Ran-Cher Acres and a ton of fresh herbs. We topped off the evening with a trifle of maple custard, stewed rhubarb and maple soaked brioche...very decadent! All this was graciously paired with wines by Bishop Cellar's sommelier, Alanna MacIntyre. What a night!