BBQ Spot Prawns with cilantro salt and green papaya salad at the supper club.

Tip: Buy them at T&T Market live if you want to save a buck $8.99/lb right now.

It's spot prawn season in Vancouver and they are bloody tasty. Last year, I made a video (link below) on how to properly prep live spot prawns. This year, I've been shelling hundreds for various catering jobs and, by God, they are so lively. I've never experienced the jumping craziness before. What is in the Ocean this year, ephedrine? I had 10 of them actually jump out of the sink. It usually doesn't freak me out, but I had to put gloves on to steel my nerves and behead them all. If you are experiencing a similar squeamishness, I just want to tell you, "You are NOT alone!"

Here's how to clean and prep them... Video

Definitely not the Grocery Store - Deer Hunting 101 with Chef Robin - Update 3

My First Deer Hunt...
Hunting is not like picking apples or like guessing when it's going to rain in Vancouver. It's more like fishing, sometimes your lucky. I was almost lucky on my first hunting excursion last week. Ha. Almost doesn't cut it, does it. This gorgeous bull moose wandered lazily in front of our hunting party. He paused about 70 yards away (well within shooting range) and slowly turned his big head to assess us. I looked at him, he looked at me and, I think, we both understood that I couldn't shoot him. My father and boyfiend (no that's not a typo) didn't think I'd see any moose, so I didn't get any moose tags*, sigh. As well, moose are so rare and otherworldly, I don't know if I could have shot him even with the licence. Deer seem more like cattle. There's lots of them, so it might easier emotionally to shoot one, maybe? I'll venture into the hills in the next two weeks again, and we'll see.
*Tag - a purchased license to hunt a particular animal, cheap for BC residents

So, this session was like hunting bootcamp, then. I learned a bucketful from my father, uncle and grandfather (87!) who came out with me and the girls to wander the hills of the Okanagan. Grandpa drilled us in walking a line to scare up any deer hiding in the hollows. Dad coached me how to shoot from standing without shaking, holding your breath and squeezing the trigger slowly. My uncle passed on his 408 rifle to me and provided his blue water cooler for shooting practice. Helen and I shot the shit out of that nasty water cooler. In the end, it was amazing to be up at 6am and see the sun rise, to be quiet all day and to wander the woods with friends. Stay tuned for next week when, hopefully, the Gods will smile upon me and send me a 4 point!


Hunter photo by Shannon Mendes Photography
Link to Update 2 - Deer Hunting with Chef Robin

Wild Edible BC Mushrooms you've never tasted...

Buying "Money's Mushrooms" at Costco is akin to putting margarine on toast. It's not going to kill you, but it is so boring. Head out into BC's backyard to find the real treasures. A handful of them you may know and see on occation in the high end grocery stores in Fall; yellow chanterelle, matsutake (pine), lobster, king bolete (porcini) or oyster mushrooms. These will run you about $27/lb for chanterelle or pine. Ouch! It's far more fun to find them on your own, plus to gain access to hundreds of other edible and delicious mushooms at the same time (here's my shameless plug for Mushroom Hunting Trips in Vancouver).

Above is a shot of seaweed risotto with wild califlower and porcini mushrooms by Chef Ted of Refuel at our last supper club.

This is a puffball - edible and gorgeous...

Oyster Mushrooms - Angel Wings to be exact, there are several varieties of oyster type mushrooms.
You have never eaten these before I would wager - honey mushrooms...

A gorgeous chanterelle... one of the more than a dozen varieties that grow in BC (blue chanterelles, yellow foot, white chanterelles... the list goes on)

Definitely not the Grocery Store - Deer Hunting 101 with Chef Robin

I am not a girlie-girl, but, honestly, shotguns scare the shit out of me. I got dressed up in my best plaid shirt today to venture out to get comfortable with guns. Shotguns and rifles are the only metal that I'm interested in, handguns are for weirdos and psychopaths (just joking, all you psychopaths out there!).


As a chef, I love venison and I want to be able to kill my own deer. Cause really, when you go to the grocery store and buy a lovely, juicy steak... you are part of an animal's death. Being an urbanite, most of us never get anywhere close to understanding what the cost is of eating the amount of meat that we do. We never think about it (which makes it easy), but there is a huge impact on the world and on our bodies of eating meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sorry to get all preachy, that's not what this is about. I just think about my role and awareness in the whole cycle and am not comfortable with it. So this is just my personal, mental challenge. Luckily, I have a solid farming line of uncles, father and grandfather to help me explore hunting in British Columbia.



Today, I got my first dose of reality when I went to an indoor shooting range in PoCo. I've never been good with loud noises and I'm pretty bony (T-Rex arms), this is not boding well, eh. The recoil on the shotgun almost removed my arm from my shoulder. With practice and my dad's thoughtful instruction, I maybe got a bit better, solid aim, but still killing my shoulder with the kick back.

Sunday, I'm going for my firearms safety course and then my hunting license from there. I'll keep you posted on this strange and mind twisting experience as I get closer to the forest, and then, to the table (hopefully, if I manage to bag a deer, I will host a grand fall feast at the supper club). Now, I gotta get me to the gym and pump some iron into my wee, bitty arms.

ps. Just thinking of hauling a super heavy rifle through kilometers of bush, managing to actually find, and then accurately shoot a deer. Then, gut it and pack all 100+ pounds of it out is making me... tired or hungry, I'm not sure which.

Baby Oyster Mushrooms are soo cute!

The Urban Forager - Wild herb walk in Vancouver - book it while the sun still shines and the mushrooms are still peaking out.

Confused in the Aisles - How to choose a great Balsamic

A good, aged, traditional balsamic vinegar is like the blood of the Gods. Combine that with ripe, sweet strawberries and you have IT. Yes, IT, the thing you've been waiting for all your life. I ate two portions of angel food cake with balsamic at last nights supper club and skipped dinner.



Okay, here's a bit of a rant about "the blood of the Gods" as you can find it in Vancouver. It is really hard to pick balsamic at the grocery store unless you know what you are looking for. Just because it says Modena on the bottle doesn't mean it's going to taste good. Look for Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena to find traditionally aged balsamic which will naturally be more expensive and WAY better quality. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. It takes 3-50 years of age to make a proper balsamic and it must be aged in several types of wood casks.
Check the ingredient list if there are no artificial flavours/colours or sugar added, then you are getting closer to God.


My favourite balsamic is made by Venturi-Schulze on Vancouver Island of all places. Giordano Venturi is originally from Modena, Italy. He prides himself on making the only real balsamic in BC. It's $50 a bottle and can be ordered online (delivered right to your door). You may be scared off by the price, but the fact is that it's so flavour packed that you use way less of it. Their balsamic is rated as the top 100 things you should taste before you die by Vancouver Magazine. I for one, believe them.

Go for a Forage: Wild foods near Vancouver...

Elder flowers
Miner's Lettuce

Cleavers

Sweet Cicely

Watercress

Spring has pounced upon us, even though the warmth seems to have left us, lately. All sorts of tasty snacks are growing out of the ground. Wandering the forests and meadows of the Lower Mainland there are a few rules you should follow if you are interested in some unusual eats.

1. Take note of the water sources surrounding your planty prey. Watercress, for example, is very nutritious and grows near running water. It also absorbs toxins quite readily. So, if a stream has pollutants in it (near a non-organic farm for example) the plants may not be safe to eat. Unless you'd welcome the growth of a third eye.
2. Take plant cuttings, try not to disturb the roots, that way the crop will be replenished.
3. Be sure of what you are eating. Buy a plant book like Plants of Coastal BC (Pojar/MacKinnon) to help with identification.
4. Don't harvest near the road or sidewalks, unless you like dog pee and car gunk in your food.
5. Harvest with the seasons. Generally... spring = new shoots, spring/summer = flowers/fruit, fall/winter = fruits/nuts/roots

Plants to look for around now (May); licorice fern (sweet cicely), watercress, miners lettuce, silver dollars, cattails, sorel, cleavers, stinging nettles (taste like spinach, but harvest with gloves and steam before eating), blackberry leaves

Sauteed Cattails - BC Wild Foods - Experiment #1

I'm always on the hunt for new and unusual food sources that you can pick in British Columbia. Apparently, cattails can be eaten two ways; the female (non flowering) head can be cooked and eaten like corn (it doesn't taste like corn) and the young shoots can be cooked like asparagus.
I'm going to pick and try this out today, I will report back!
Anyone tried them before and have a good recipe? I would love to hear from you.
Okay, I'm off to get my boots wet... chat soon.