Back with some Sustainable Seafood

Already a month ago but still in good memory is my visit at a sustainable Sushi restaurant in Seattle. I don’t want to say” THE” sustainable Sushi restaurant because there are three in total on the North American west coast. But only three and so much Seafood and Sushi, that makes it worth enough for me to tell you about it. Beside the sustainability aspects of Mashiko it was also one the best experiences with Japanese sushi cuisine I ever had.

Hajime Sato opened Mashiko in 1994. In 2009 it became a full sustainable sushi bar. On the website he defines what he understands about sustainability when it comes to Seafood: “Some key factors to consider are traceability, fish populations, fishing methods, and farming practices.” Learn more about Mashiko at http://www.sushiwhore.com/

Of course Mashiko had to get rid of many traditional Japanese Menu items in order to become sustainable, but the menu isn’t small or boring at all. Another challenge was to find the right suppliers who were able to track how their Seafood got caught.

Already before my short trip to Seattle I found out about this different Sushi restaurant. At my arrival I was  prepared for a “dinner for one”. But my seat at the bar close to the friendly staff made my visit at Mashiko not only a culinary experience but also a very personal one. I can say it felt  like I spent the evening with friends.

A big advantage was also my close seat where the action happened, at the open sushi bar. Chef of the night Ryan prepared during the evening all kind of tasty little bites for me after I told him he had my full trust and could start serving now what he ever thought would be good for me. I kept it the same way with how the service staff provided me with Sake…

An old Japanese tradition to pour out Sake till its overflowed, to show generosity.

King Salmon Sashimi

One of my favourites of the “Super Japanese” menu part. Ikura, Yamaimo (mountain yam) and raw Quail egg

Besides many other highlights during my feast, this one was very delicious: Saba Oshizushi (Mackerel)

I was very glade that I visited this place. It showed me how tasty Japanese cuisine can be if made out of sustainable Seafood. And that it still can be original even the species in danger are banned of the menu. Even if Japan is unable to change its diet habits – we can change the way how Japanese cuisine gets served in our countries, by choosing sustainable Sushi restaurants like Mashiko.

BC’s Herring season

Maybe you are a big fan of Herring maybe you’re not. But don’t judge because you never had it right prepared, however if you don’t appreciate Herring you miss a fish that’s good for you, Omega 3 source, Vitamin D, Vitamin D12 and  besides being good for your health I didn’t mention yet that Herring is a sustainable fish and locally caught,  all that for a very very cheap price.

The plan is to do several creation with the dozen fish we got.

For that we need 5 whole Herring, scaled, clean belly and 7 fish as filet.

In Germany Herring is commonly salted and  better known as Matjes. The pickled version is called Rollmops (only if rolled)

This is the link for an overview of the sustainability of Pacific Herring.

http://www.seachoice.org/profile/7

Small chunks of Herring filet quick marinated for about 15 minutes in 2 tbsp  soy sauce, 1 tsp miso paste, 1 tbsp honey, 1 Thai chili no seeds. Spring roll pastry cut in stripes gets loosely wrapped around the drained fish chunks and slightly pressed. In a little bit of oil crispy fried from both sides and finished in the oven for about 2 minutes. Served with a ginger mayonnaise and spicy kumquat ragout. Wash the kumquat, cut in half and get out the seeds. In a saute pan stir 3 tbsp of sugar into  200 ml of water, add 3 lime leaves, 1 chili with no seeds and about a pound of the prepared kumquat. cook em down for at least 30 minutes on medium heat, if necessary add a little bit water again. The end product is a gleamy ragout and the kumquat to be cooked but still with texture. serve warm or cold.

Of course we need some pickled herring tonight too. Fine chopped Shallots and cubes of a solid apple like Honey crisp getting a simmer in a pot with water and white vinegar 2 : 1 and some bay leave and black pepper. Afterwards add the rolled and toothpick stabbed herring filet and let it cook there on  low temperature for about 15 minutes, let cool down in the pot.

Pickled herring is down, next is a Herring butter like a spread. 3 filet of salt-herring  fine chopped, (salt herring is cured in 10% salt to water brine for at least 24 hours, we did it a bit faster) , whip 200 g butter, 3 chopped shallots, 50 g sour cream, chopped chives and parsley, blend everything together and season with pepper, mustard, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and little bit sugar.Taste great on a hot fresh cooked potato or roasted rye bread.

Long time ago that I had a whole fish cooked in a salt crust, I have to admit that a herring is because of its size not perfect to be surrounded by salt, besides i also need to use an even more coarse salt than I already did. Anyway we had to do it, here is the recipe for the crust.

1 kg coarse salt (cheap sea salt would be good), 150 ml water, 1 egg white. stir everything together and build a sarcophagi for the herring.

The herring  is stuffed with fresh thyme and lime and orange zest all over it.

After 20 minutes cooking time at 400 F the fish gets a 10 minutes rest in the turned off (door slightly open) oven. After that we crack the crust and thanks to the fatness of the fish the filet is very juicy, flavours are great but maybe try it with a bigger fish…

The salt crusted fish is served with  saute vegetable of green asparagus, fried artichoke bottoms, shallots, garlic and basil.

The left over 3 whole herring are pan-fried in Olive oil with aromatics. Served with a marinara sauce, the recipe isn’t a secret and easy to prepare:

Fry 3 chopped shallots and 3 cloves of Garlic in Olive oil, add 100 ml white wine and let it cook down for a minute.

add 250 ml canned crushed Tomatoes, bring to a simmer.

add some slices of black olives, 2 tsp chopped capers, zest of 1 Lemon and juice of a half.

finish with chopped parsley, black pepper

Check out the update on the linking page….

Rabbit introducing Tafelspitz to Canada

Appetite for great meals comes not only from big hunger, the exceptional product brings the joy which starts already with the cooking.

in this post I want to show two meals; cooked, photographed and eaten just recently.

Rabbitsausage, Polenta, Onion and Pear

Cooked down Onions are great to give a dish richness and a luscious component as an alternative to adding fat.

sliced big white onions saute in Olive oil on low heat, caramelize slowly with no much colour, add ground black pepper, bay leave. cook down with 100 ml of white wine per 2 Onions. stirring all the time. there might be a little bit water to be added.  After 45 min. are cooked to be soft. Depending on the other parts of the dish, add some honey for extra sweetness or white vinegar to compensate  a fatty dish. tonight’s Onion ragout had some sliced pear. They were cooked with the onions for another 10 minutes.

The rabbit sausage itself was a gift from Rino, owner of Cioffi’s Meat market and Deli on Hasting st. in Burnaby. The sausage had chunks of rabbit meat in it chopped apricots,  a fine sweet taste that balanced the spices.

Polenta, pan-fried, similar to this recipe:

http://thepananimal.

wordpress.com/2011

/02/16/polenta-fries/

In a deep bowl all components getting arranged like a warm salad. We also made some grilled Zucchini. the bowl was only served with a fork which was the only tool for tonight and also useful for opening tonight’s liquid match.

A good dish, but I would add one more flavour next time. Parmesan: brought up as a fluffy Foam or warm Espuma, just to make it perfect.

Anyway, the drink of the night was (as an exception) an easy decision in the liquor-store: beer –  ST. Ambroise apricot wheat ale from Quebec.

Tafelspitz, horseradish, potatoes and root vegetables

Tafelspitz is a meat cut of Beef from the bottom sirloin close at the end of the back. In English it’s called tri-tip (it has a triangle shape) and is mostly, if used as a separated cut, roasted. In Brazil they use it for the churrasco, in Argentina for the asado. because of the nice  fat marble great for grilling as one piece. Using it as ground beef like Americans used to do is stupid. As much as I like it roasted medium rare, today I want to introduce boiled meat (which isn’t popular in Canada) Germans and Austrians know this cut as Tafelspitz. And the most typical way to prepare is cooking the whole piece in Water for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Spices and Vegetables are added. You end up with beautiful tender meat for dinner and a hearty clear beef soup for next days lunch.

I had a hard time finding a butcher that can help me with this cut. Lucky that Granville Island’s Public Market  has  Experts indeed (like they advertise) and so I found Armando’s finest Quality meat where the butcher master knew what I was talking about and was cutting the tri tip fresh to my order out of the sirloin. It had 1, 2 kg at its birth…

For the boiling broth I need

3 whole Carrots, just peeled

1 root celery (celeriac), slice the peel of, cut in half

1 washed whole leek (or cut in two)

2 white onions, peeled, cut in half and in a pan with no oil roasted on the flat side for about 8 minutes to give them a dark brown colour which will go over into the soup later and give extra flavour too.

5 All spice, 3 cloves, 10 black pepper corns, 3 bay leaves, 3 cloves of Garlic, no salt for now.

The Idea of the dish is that all the vegetables are getting (and giving too) great flavour from the beef broth and that they can be used as the side dish later on.

the cooking time is set on around 2 hours at a temperature of 70-80 C, so that it just simmer.

After the meat is tender (meat fork proof) I turn the heat of and let it rest in the broth for around 20 minutes.

Cook some small potatoes, peel, glaze with butter and add chopped Parsley. There is also a kind of “dip” for the meat called Semmelkren, very Austrian, an add-on my cousin has to take care of:

200 gram white bread, no crust (can be 3 -4 days old and a bit dry) – cut in chunks. add a bit of the beef stock to make it a mushy paste, season with lots of fresh Horseradish or processed out of the jar, 50 gram of liquefied butter, Salt, Pepper, fresh-cut chives.

As an alternative sauce would work Mustard or Horseradish creme sauce, some people like capers.

The broth gets strained, and served the next day with some left over vegetables and meat cut in small cubes, seasoned with a little bit of salt. The best medicine to fight a hangover!

Gold Medal Plates 2011

Last weekend the Canadian Culinary Chef Competitions 2011 took  place in Kelowna, BC. Lucky I am I had the chance to be a part of it.

For all Canadians who never heard about this event and also for everyone back home in Germany who is interested how a very different cooking competition works, I will explain in this post about the idea of Gold Medal Plates.

5 years ago the  decision was made that Vancouver will organize the 2010 Winter Olympics, Gold medal plate founder Stephen Leckie and Karen Blair came together to  develop an event that “Celebrates Canada’s Olympic team from coast to coast”. What was planed to be a fundraiser became soon also an important culinary event. Canada didn’t have a serious nationwide competition for chefs  neither at this time. Gold medal plates was born in 2006 and is successful beyond last years Olympics.

The idea is simple but brilliant. Every year the biggest Cities in Canada hold the regional competitions (Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, St. John’s, Toronto). Several chefs of each town and region compete for Gold, Silver or Bronze. Big Companies sponsor those events what is one part of the fund-raising, and tickets for the public are high-priced but popular since many great chefs come together at one event to present all their skills. Besides great food the guests  have the opportunity to meet Canadian Athletes and experience entertainment and show trough the evening. Every Chef/Restaurant competes also as a team with a Canadian Winery (or brewery, distillery,etc). The Chef has to pair a perfect dish with the wine in order to win the competition. All participating wineries donating their Wine for the event. Not a small donation for an event of 600 people. What is huge advertisement for the winery is also a big bonus for the fundraiser. After every city found its winner, all Gold medal chefs come together for the national competition ( this year the first time in Kelowna, which will be also the venue for the next 4 years)

Fund raising happens here again also trough companies, Guest which purchase tickets (I heard 700$ per person) for the events, a big auction at the final evening, donations and the  participating wineries. The number doesn’t lie, since 2006, Gold medal plates raised 4.1 million dollar for the Olympic team, supporting athletes all over Canada.

Because my former chef’s from C Restaurant Robert Clark and Lee Humphries won November last year the Vancouver regional competition with a beautiful rabbit and spot prawn terrine they were invited to the national event in Kelowna. And I got a call to be the driver and kitchen helper during the event.

It was very impressive how the 3 day event was organized and how the actual competition was build up. Everything started very relaxed, all the chefs (each of them came with two sous-chefs) arrived, some on Wednesday some on Thursday, from all over the country to meet in Kelowna at the Eldorado hotel right at  lake Okanagan. The atmosphere was relaxed, all competitors were  happy to introduce each other and  to have a little chat. No ugly competitors atmosphere or stupid games of that kind and I can already tell that this friendly together hold till the end of the event! Like I said everyone was very relaxed, the night was already packed with fun activities for us,  like a visit at the Tantalus Winery with dinner and afterwards more snacks at Quails gate winery with of course more wine, no one of us knew at this point how beautiful hectic and busy the next 2 days are going to be.

A relaxed sit together in our hotel room with Jeremy Charles and his two sous chefs from Newfoundland:

Dinner was served Family style on big platters on one long table in the Tantalus tasting room.Chef  Mark Filatow from Kelowna cooked for us that night, food and wine were great, and it was the best choice to use mostly local ingredients showing  chefs from other parts of the country what BC has to over. That I like Tanatalus winery I think I mentioned already in another post last year as we did the Canadian Culinary tour.

https://thepananimal.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/last-winery-before-the-eastcoast/

The actual competition started then at the Quails gate winery, the jury got introduced, the chef introduced their selves and the organizer of the event handed a unlabeled bottle of Red wine to the competitors. The Mystery Wine competition was about to start!

Idea of the Mystery Wine competition: taste the wine and trust your palate to find the perfect food pairing. The chefs have to leave the hotel early the next morning, allowed to move only by taxi (and a maximum of 50$ of total cab fare) to buy all the products  they need to cook for 350 people the same night.  The budget for this two-bite dish for 350 people is 500$ per chef. All required products need to get bought, besides tap water there will be nothing else available in the competition kitchen. Everything else than a boring competition!

After Quails Gate Winery every team moved back to their hotel room to start tasting the wine with intense discussions about tomorrows dish, at least that is how it was in our room. Luckily we had our special weapon, C Restaurants sommelier Kim Cyr with us. She was able to identify the wine and give advice for the food pairing. Chef Clark and Lee Humphries decided to go with a Bison tartar filled in a deep-fried Pasta cannelloni which was seasoned with a staranis and cinnamon salt. On top a slice of warm pancetta and below a spiced wild berry sauce to perfectly match the wine. The judges use a rating system of 100 points total, categories are for example: texture, presentation, taste, and of course pairing with the wine.

Since I don’t have an own picture of the dish I use the one from C restaurants Facebook page:

Every chef prepared after the shopping tour together with their sous-chefs  for around 5 hours in the kitchen of the okanagan culinary college. As I look around in a free minute what the other guys are doing I see that the skill level of all competitors is very high. What is great!

Dan Walker (sakatoon), Andrew Fung (edmonton) and Martin Juneau (montreal) having a chat before 350 guest breaking the doors.

The Newfies are also ready for action…always…

The Wine of the night is at this point still top-secret, even if we would know it now it wouldn’t change a thing. The food is cooked, the stations are set up and everybody is waiting for the guests to come. So do the guys from Niagara on the Lake who compete for Toronto. Frank Dodd and his guys prepared 350 small individual Meat pies for tonight, with Ice wine  flavoured cooked red cabbage and cherries.

But now the fun part started and we were busy to plate our dish for the 350 guests. Lucky we had a cold dish, most other chefs must have had a hard time serving everything hot because the room we were in was pretty chilly  and at this point it was not allowed to warm anything up in the kitchen. Only Chafing dishes and small portable stoves were allowed at the stations.

There was also no chance to taste any food of the other guys, also for pictures was no time. I heard from some of the guys what they did, and many dishes sounded promising. Martin Juneau from Montreal was even able to get fresh pigs blood in Kelowna to produce a blood-sausage terrine for the evening. If you want to read more about the competition, the chefs and their dishes visit the link. James Chatto was one of the judges, he is a food critic and a great food writer too, I very enjoy to read his reports!

http://www.goldmedalplates.com/ccc.html

http://jameschatto.com/

We didn’t find out how the judges rated our dish that night, tomorrow after the last event the winner with the most points of all three competitions will be announced. Only one trophy for now, the public choice award for the dish of the night went to Jeremy Charles from St. John’s for roasted Onion potato ravioli on creamy Polenta with braised Short rib. I had it too and it was super delicious!

Next morning, Chef Clark and Lee leave for the Black Box competition. I had better things to do, cooking, peeling and pre- deep-frying 1000 quail eggs for tonight’s final event. Check out the James Chatto report to find out more about the Black box event. All I know is there was dungeness crab, yellow beets, Asian pear, smoked Wild boar shank and liquorice in the box. The chefs had then 50 minutes time to create 2 dishes and serve 10 plates of each for the judges. Busy competition early in the morning – a perfect start into the day!

Tonight is the final event for 650 people. For this event every chef was allowed to prepare parts of his dish in the restaurant back home. Of course there was still a lot mice en place need to get done. So all the chefs came together at the Delta Hotel in Kelowna to finish their final dish.

C restaurants dish for Kelowna 2011: Fraiser valley Quail from “tip-to-tail” : sous-vide cooked breast with citrus flavours, classic golden brown french toast made out of Brioche, ballotin of the leg stuffed with a kumquat farce, crispy soft cooked quail egg seasoned with the crispy quails skin and coriander.  On side served in a little shot glass was the quail consomme with some little shimeji mushrooms and a slice of fresh kumquat. An impressive and tasty dish that perfectly matched the white Bordeaux-style 2008 Alibi from Black Hills Winery in the Okanagan.

The following picture of the quail dish is only missing the glass of consomme….

Chefs happy to plate 600 times…

Busy. Dirk, Micheal Moffatt and Katie from Beckta (and Play) restaurant in Ottawa.

St. John’s, Wild Newfoundland rabbit variation, the loin frenched…

Lots of smoke under the cloche at Hillebrand restaurant and winery, Frank Dodd’s creation how James Chatto describes it (copy and paste is high in fashion right now in Germany…)

“Frank Dodd, representing Toronto, wowed us once again with his technical skills and imagination. In the centre of his plate sat a miniature glass cloche filled with smoke pumped in from a tray of smoldering vine wood. We lifted the cloche and there was a slice of succulent salmon that had been cured in icewine and smoked, then wrapped around a finger of pickled golden beet and a small bundle of seedlings and baby spinach leaves. Beside it was a tiny perfect spherical croquette made with potato and Monforte Toscano cheese, a few dots of icewine syrup and a sweet-tart popsicle made of beet juice and icewine sorbet. The fascinating little collation worked brilliantly with Dodd’s chosen wine, the fruity Brut Rosé sparkling wine from Trius”

After 2 hours serving the final plate and another hour of cleaning and packing our stuff together the work ended for us chefs. We switched to other activities like having a glass of Wine and beer in the hand and watching the event coming to the award ceremony.

On the Podium: Robert Clark from C restaurant for bronze, St. John’s gets silver with Jeremy Charles from Raymond Restaurant and gold goes to Martin Juneau from Newtown restaurant in Montreal.

Looks like everyone feels relieved now that the competition part of the weekend is over. This years competition showed high skills from all participating chefs, that is what the judges said. Unfortunately they never published the score of each chef after the three competitions, would have been interesting to know how tight it was.

The after party last till the early morning. Especially the rising blood alcohol content showed again what funny characters are to find here in Canada, we had a plenty of fun.

For all participating chefs of the past weekend: If you like more pictures from the event, leave your e-mail at the comments.

No matter what, I will follow the  next years Culinary Championship at Gold medal plates.  And I think we should have that in Germany too, any unemployed event manager out there…?

More pictures of the food and the chefs on the Flickr of the judges….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmp_2011/sets/

And another link is a product recommendation: Every chef on the podium got a very special knife. Handcrafted from Salt Spring Island!!

http://www.cosmoknives.com/itoolkit.asp?pg=products&specific=jnqprqq8

and how they make it  http://www.cosmoknives.com/itoolkit.asp?pg=MAKING_SAN_MAI_STAI