Hot Shots - September 23, 2022

Hot Shots - September 23, 2022
Severin R-B Danieli

Hello all,

Long time no chat! How is everyone? Enjoying the slow shift into autumn? I know I am!

This is my first week back at work, after a ten day trip in Hawaii with some family. It was a wonderful trip, one for the history books, and I was blown away daily by the wild beauty of those islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There was an abundance of relaxing, some exploring and lots of eating. The perfect recipe for a good holiday.

Now I am just settling back into the work groove, with the pull of the colder seasons growing stronger every day. Vancouver is still having mostly sunny days, which we are all soaking up, and the classic autumnal veggies are starting to arrive at Disco.

Carnival acorn squash.

In my opinion, one of the most aesthetically pleasing squashes of the fall season and a welcome sight every autumn. These squash are a hybrid between a traditional acorn and a sweet dumpling squash.

Best when roasted or made into a soup, one of my favourite ways to eat any type of squash is to roast in butter and brown sugar, but this recipe is also catching my eye: squash, fresh thyme, feta and pomegranate seeds.

Roma tomatoes.

Now, I am biased when it comes to roma tomatoes as my dog is named Roma, however, they are also great tomatoes for dehydrating.

My plan in the next few weeks is dehydrating the tomatoes I've grown in my garden (including roma's and san marzano's), sterilizing some glass bottles, filling those bottles up with high quality olive oil, choosing some herbs, and voila! Sundried tomatoes!

I love to add in these oily toms into a salad, or, if I am wanting some carbs, I will do some lightly fried pierogis, red onions and sun dried tomatoes.

Keitt mango.

Make way, there are big, juicy and deep golden coloured mangoes comin at ya!

A co-worker of mine cut one up for me a day or two ago for a quality check, and oh my goodness, one of the best mangoes I have ever had. I am usually partial to the ataulfo variety, as I love their taste, but these keitt's were a delightful surprise,

This mango is a late season cultivar, has mostly green skin (even when ripe) and occasionally a yellow/pink/orange blush. Once cut open, the flesh is smooth and the seed is thin, making even more delicious edible fruit.

The history of this mango variety started in India, and was first brought over and planted in Florida by Mrs. Keitt in 1939. The mangoes we have at Disco are from Artesanal brand, and arrived to us from Mexico.

Golden chanterelles.

Chanterelle mushrooms are found across the globe, and mostly grow on the forest floor, or near trees such as maple, poplar, oak or birch. Interestingly, when growers tried to cultivate this mushroom, they found that the taste was subpar as they could not master the symbiotic relationship between fungus and host plant. How. Cool. Is. THAT?

These chanterelles we have at Disco are wild crafted from West Coast Wild, and are available by pre-order only. They come in clamshells, as shown above, and in 5# bulk.

Chanterelles boast high amounts of ergocalciferol, also known as vitamin D, as well as protein, vitamin A, potassium, iron, chromium and eight essential amino acids.

Recipes can include lightly browning them and cooking in cream, or pureed into a creamy soup. This creamy pasta dish looks divine if you are interested!

Bartlett pears.

Local bartlett pears have arrived at Disco from Sundance farms in Cawston, BC, and they are ready to be made into a muffins, tarts, crumbles, galette's, crisps... the list goes on and on!

If any of you reading this want some delicious pastries, chocolates and coffee, you should make your way over to Thomas Haas in North Vancouver, or West Broadway, and treat yourself. A seasonal pastry that I love to order there is a pear galette. The pears are sliced so thinly sliced and fanned out so delicately on top of buttery crumbly crust, it is decadence.

Green himrod grapes.

Very delicate, soft skin, sweet flavour. These would go perfect on a charcuterie board, in a fruit salad or as a light dessert after a heavy meal - maybe that creamy chanterelle pasta recipe that I linked up above?

Himrod grapes are a versatile table grape, turn slightly yellow as they ripen and become sweeter, and were released to commercial markets in 1952 from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in New York.

Now, for a quick Hawaii food recap...

Of course, when I travel, stores and markets and farms are my favourite places to visit, to see, taste and experience the local cuisine.

Pictured above are dragon fruit, starfruit and papaya that were at a roadside market that we stopped at after we hiked the Waihee Ridge Trail on Maui (the photo at the top of this Hot Shots is from one of the view points on the ridge). The veggie burger I had was so delicious - it had a taro root bun (dark purple, almost black in colour) and a big slice of Hawaiian pineapple on top of the veggie patty. I paired the burger with some crispy potatoes and a dragon fruit juice. So. Delicious.

My mom, husband and I were driving to check out a bead store, and we had a quick detour to a little town by the name of Paia. There, we happened upon a health food store by the name of Mana. I took my time walking the produce section, and was impressed by all the local foods and how vibrant the displays were.

The photo at the top left was one of their veggie displays, and the flowers on the bottom right were all locally grown on Maui.

The purple fern, could maybe be considered a fiddlehead, was a cute little purple wave at me as I was huffing and puffing along the Waihee ridge, and the apple banana tree was on the property of the first hotel we stayed at.

I think one of the reasons I love Hawaii so much, is how deep and vibrant all the colours of the flora and fauna are. Living in BC, I am use to beautiful green, blue and brown. Being in Hawaii, you get those three colours, but even deeper and richer, and then you also get vivid fuchsia, golden oranges and yellows, endless turquoise, fiery red earth... the list is endless.

Thanks for reading along, I hope you enjoyed the veggies and fruit this week and were interested in seeing a bit of my travels.

Big love,
Severin R-B Danieli