Cooking Canadian with Food Day Canada's Recipes for Soups and Appetizers

Jun06

THE Classic Icewine Martini

Icewine has been synonymous with Canada since Donald Ziraldo, a University of Guelph graduate (and football quarterback), and his late business partner Karl Kaiser won the Grand Prix d’Honneur, Canada’s first international wine medal, at Vinexpo in Bordeaux, in 1991 with their 1989 Vidal Icewine. Teaming up with a newer Niagara entrepreneur, Geoff Dillon of Dillon’s Small Batch Distillery, this cocktail is perfect at the...

Pickled Pacific Mackerel and Lentil Salad

Pickling fish is a very traditional way of preserving it but one not as widely used in Canada as it should be. If you cannot find really fresh mackerel, any firm white fish will work. This Lentil Salad, provided by Vancouver chef Jefferson Alvarez, could easily stand on its own as a filling for pita or as a topping for warm flatbread. 2 lbs (1 kg) whole mackerel, heads removed, fillet and deboned. 3 whole cloves garlic, peeled...

John Bil’s Oyster Mignonette

The late John Bil was Canada’s oyster shucking champion in 2006 and one of the most knowledgeable (and modest) seafood experts we’ve seen. “The first 20,000 are the hardest.” he quipped. But Bil is also very serious. “Oysters are the essence of the ocean…and they are environmentally very sensitive. So if there are any chemicals around, they die.” He shucked Malepeque, the branded oyster of Prince Edward Island which he called...