alberta on the plate starts this weekend: make a reso!
Check out the delish menus for Alberta on the Plate (August 9-18) during Local Food Week. London Local is offering scotch eggs and braised lamb leg; The Marc is doing sweet pea hummus and smoked pork tenderloin. Three Boars has pork hock cabbage rolls; Prairie Noodle is making summer veg risotto and a Boreal forest cake. And we love the Sunworks Farm fried chicken and the bee pollen sorbet at the Cave Beastro. Visit albertaontheplate.com and click on any of the restaurants. Explore the menus and book a reservation. Easy peasy.
check out the new kindred food + drink downtown
Jason Greene is the chef de cuisine at the new Kindred Food + Drink (10344 102 Street, 780-784-8576, kindredfooddrink.com), in the JW Marriott Ice District. Jason cooked with Corey McGuire at Tzin and Ryan O’Flynn (Canadian Culinary Champion 2015) at the Westin—we’re expecting very good things. Kindred has a special offer just for readers of the BITE—25 per cent off the food bill. Here’s how to access: add Bite25 to the special request field when you book a reservation at Kindred from today until August 31. The BITE special is valid for up to four people during the month of August.
cave beastro dinner series: flightless birds
Quail, ostrich, pheasant and chicken are featured in The Cave’s second Beast dinner—five courses with Bodegas Argento wines from Argentina. Tix: $100/+ on Evenbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com For more on Argento watch this beautiful film bodegaargento.com/en/.
garagiste north at sperling vineyards
If you plan to be in the Okanagan later this month don’t miss the Garagiste North event, Saturday, August 18 at Sperling Vineyards near Kelowna. This tasting is all about the little guys, the small lot, the just-getting going wineries that we rarely see here. Enjoy tasting with 22 winemakers, beer and cider, cheese tasting, music, food trucks and a pop-up wine shop so you can fill your trunk with liquid booty. Tix: $55, garagistenorth.com/
six easy ways with summer squash
We are starting to see summer squash in the farmers markets as well as zucchini blossoms if you are very lucky. (This is a great recipe for zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and mint: https://thetomato.ca/tomatoquarantwo.) Experiment with yellow zucchini, pattypan, other shapes and sizes. The young and tender can be eaten raw—sliced into a salad in rounds or in long ribbons. Summer squash partners well with all the other mid-summer veg; fresh tomatoes, peppers, Taber corn (coming soon), thyme, mint and especially oregano.
- Cut into ribbons and make a salad with lots of fresh mint
- Make a succotash with green and yellow zucchini, red onion, lima or broad beans, corn and chopped red pepper
- Cut zucchini into strips, grill and serve warm or cold
- Cut up a few pattypan squash (leave whole if they are tiny) and sauté on the stove top. Their slight bitterness is a nice foil for the sweetness of tomatoes off the vine
- Make skewers with small or halved larger pattypans, chunks of red or yellow pepper, mushrooms and tomato (add chicken if you like), brush with a tangy vinaigrette with lots of herbs and grill on the barbecue
- Make ratatouille—three versions! https://thetomato.ca/tomatoquarantwo
what to drink with summer squash: pagos de galir godello
If you love Chenin Blanc, or Gruner or Verdejo, Godello needs to be on your radar. Dry, citrusy, with floral aromas, a hit of salinity and a nice minerally backbone support a wine with a pleasingly dense texture and long finish.
Godello, a white grape native to Galicia in northwest Spain, is being brought back from obscurity by a few growers and winemakers. The Pagos de Galir Godello is a relatively new to the market bottling, ideal with summery foods, especially vegetables like summer squash.
