Hot Shots - July 14, 2023
Hot Shots - July 14, 2023
Severin R-B Danieli
Hello all,
I hope everyone's week went by smoothly, and you ate a fruit or vegetable that you haven't had before, or maybe a new recipe was cooked up?
We spent our weekend in Victoria and Sooke, with the main event being the Van Gogh immersive experience in Victoria for a belated birthday excursion for Jonathan. Van Gogh is one of his favourite artists, and when I saw this exhibit I knew we had to go. We arrived in Victoria mid-morning on Saturday, made a few pit stops which included a few thrift stores and visiting Market Garden (the most beautiful produce store I've ever been to), and then we headed to the exhibit.
From there, we drove to Sooke, checked into our Airbnb in East Sooke, Jonathan did a few rounds of cold plunge and sauna, and then we headed into Sooke for dinner at Wild Mountain. Wild Mountain is part of the Slow Food chef alliance, and every ingredient is organic.
When I tell you this was one of the best meals I have had in YEARS - probably since Italy?
I am not exaggerating. Of course, I was thinking about you, dear reader, and had to photograph the courses. The first was a simple green salad but the dressing was next level, then a small charcuterie board - Jonathan said the meat and pate's were delectable, and the crostini's and aged cheddar was top notch as well. Then we got a margarita pizza, they've got a pizza oven outside, and then a gnocchi dish. The handmade gnocchi had a green sauce, pea shoot tendrils, fresh peas, zucchini, morel mushrooms, capers, chopped up bits of garlic scapes and was topped with shaved pecorino romano cheese. If that wasn't enough, for dessert, we ordered an ice-cream bar and some strawberry and rhubarb sorbet. Classic, easy, always good. When I tell you these two desserts were next level delicious, oh my goodness. The ice cream bar had vanilla and salted caramel ice cream with candied almonds in it, and at the bottom of my sorbet dish there was crumbly oats, white chocolate, edible flowers, fresh raspberries, and basil leaves!
Broccoli.
Now, if you're like me, broccoli doesn't inspire me to cook, but I was struck with a craving for a veggie chow mein dish. I cut up broccoli, carrots and white onion, fried those up, boiled the chow mein noodles for 3 mins and then tossed them into the pan with the veggies. I added minimal seasoning and a splash or two of soya sauce, and voila! Dinner was served.
This broccoli is from Snow farms, who have been farming certified organic veggies as a family since 1995. Their 110 acre farms, in various locations throughout South Delta, boasts over 40 varieties of certified organic vegetables
Cauliflower.
Another popular member in the brassica family is the cauliflower. Pictured above are a trio of cauliflower in the classic white, the cheddar yellow and the rich purple.
These cauliflower cases come from Lina's Garden up in Cawston, BC, and their products always show up looking beautiful, fresh, and you can just tell by looking at the packaging that these veggies have been handled with great care.
Lina and Art Nugteren's farm has been operating in the Similkameen Valley since 1997, starting with just two acres of squash, their farm has grown into 24 acres of a variety of organic vegetables. Throughout the summer we receive beans, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, varieties of peas, peppers (both bell and hot) and a variety of squash. Next time you are looking for some local BC product, ask one of our sales reps what is in stock from Lina's! I promise you won't be disappointed.
Pluots.
Now, you might be thinking, what a funny name to call a plum, but I am here to tell you that a pluot and a plum, though closely related, are indeed different. A pluot is a cross of about 75% plum and 25% apricot. I know, I know, it is exciting stuff.
This cross-bread was created by Floyd Zaiger of Zaiger Genetics in the late 20th century, and has been received very well and increasing in popularity in commercial markets since its release. The name takes the p-l-u from the plum and then o-t from the apricot. These pluots come from Homegrown Organic in California in a bulk 28# case.
Recipe wise, pluots lend themselves very well to tarts, pies, cobblers and crisps. Lately I've been wanting to cook a bit more, mostly due to the abundance of peaches, nectarines, strawberries and rhubarb we have here at Disco, and a fruit crumble has been calling my name. The only issue is that it is so hot here in Vancouver that it's a struggle to even turn on the stove, let alone the oven. There may be some past 10pm baking happening sometime soon in my house... stay tuned.
As I was taking my weekly Hot Shots inspiration walk through the warehouse, our QC/Rec team was receiving a few pallets of Secrest. Naturally, I stopped to take a look and lend a hand if needed, and as I walked over, this pallet whizzed past me. I chased it down (well, I waddled over, lets be honest here), and took a photo.
Last week, I talked a bit about Secrest and their products, so I won't go too in-depth this week, but currently in stock from Secrest we have: zucchini (yellow and green), english peas, garlic scapes, eggplant, field cucumbers, jalapeno (green and yellow) and patty pan squash.
Garlic scapes are a unique item, and are only available for a short time each season. If you are unfamiliar with garlic scapes, they are the long green shoots that grow from the garlic bulk that is hidden under the soil. It is a great way to add a subtle garlic flavour to a dish, and maybe impress a few culinary friends along the way.
My favourite recipe for these curly green sprigs is garlic scape pesto. I'll outline a recipe below:
Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe
5 garlic scapes (woody ends cut off)
1/4 pine nuts (or a nut of your choosing)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice plus some zest
salt
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1.5 oz basil leaves
1/5 cup extra virgin olive oil
ground pepper to taste
Blitz that all up in a food processor, and you are good to go!
New product alert!
Last week we talked about Moonshine Mama's, and this week we will talk about Anita's Organic Mill dry good items that we now have stocked here at Disco.
Anita's mill is located in Chilliwack, BC and operates in a 34,000 sqft warehouse. They have a dedicated gluten-free section of their warehouse, as well as an on-site bakery which is used for education, development and test kitchen activities.
Currently in stock at Disco we have:
White unbleached flour 20kg or 10kg
Spelt flour unbleached 10kg
Quinoa flakes 11.34kg
Rye flour 10kg
Spelt flour (stoneground and fine ground) both 10kg
Whole wheat flour 10kg
Einkorn whole kernels 10kg
Rolled oats 11.34kg
French green lentils 11.34kg
Green lentils 11.34kg
Flax seed brown 10kg
Brown rice flour 11.34kg
Hard red spring wheat kernels 10kg
The photos above are from Anita's website, and the bottom right photo are the types of bulk bags we have at Disco which would be delivered to your store if you bought some of Anita's products from us.
Anita's works exclusively with Canadian farmers, and all of the milling happens right here in BC. There is a nice quote from the website that I feel like encapsulates the ethos of Anita's:
"THAT NO MATTER WHAT THE UNCERTAINTIES…
FLOUR, WATER AND SALT WILL ALWAYS BECOME BREAD,
THAT DOUGH BETWEEN OUR KNUCKLES WILL ALWAYS GROUND US,
AND THAT A PIE FOR THE NEIGHBOURS WILL ALWAYS MEAN “WELCOME HOME.”
As always, thank you for reading along this week.
I've got a prepping-to-move filled weekend ahead with organization, some packing, picking paint colours for our new place, and maybe some Wimbledon. I am randomly a huge tennis fan, and so I have been following all that is happening in jolly ol' England on that famed grassy court.
That's all I've got for you this week, so enjoy your weekend, and I will talk to you all next week.
Big love,
Severin R-B Danieli