The importance of stock

High quality ingredients and a proper stock are the foundation for so many delicious dishes. This is a classic example of the simplicity of a great Italian recipe: fresh tomatoes and stock make up the bulk of the dish.

Chickpea Soup

(Zuppa di Ceci)

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

6 whole garlic cloves, peeled

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, wrapped in cheesecloth

375 ml (1 ½ cups) fresh tomatoes (approximately 3 medium tomatoes), cut into pieces

250 ml (1 cup) cooked chickpeas, seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil

375 ml (1 ½ cups) homemade chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parmesan cheese (lots!)

Directions:

1. Place a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and whole garlic cloves. Cook the garlic until it becomes a light golden colour (don’t let it burn or it will impart a bitter flavour). Turn the garlic cloves over and repeat. Remove the garlic cloves from the oil.

2. Add the rosemary and tomatoes to the pan. Let the tomatoes and rosemary simmer for about 20 minutes. The mixture should appear slightly dry with the oil sitting on top of the tomatoes. At this point, remove the rosemary bundle. Using a hand blender, blend the tomato mixture to break up the tomato chunks.

3. Put the rosemary bundle back in the tomato mixture. Add the chickpeas and chicken broth and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

4. Adjust the seasoning.

5. To serve: Place a ladle full of soup into 4 bowls. Grate a generous helping of parmadammer cheese on the top.

What do you do with duck confit?

So what's all the fuss about duck confit (and duck fat for that matter)? Well, if you've ever had duck confit, you know the answer to that question, but for those of you who haven't tried it, it's something pretty special. Here's a description of confit and a recipe to follow.

What is it?

Duck confit is a French dish made with the leg of the duck. The word 'confit' literally means 'preserve' and is a centuries-old process of preservation that consists of salt curing a piece of meat (generally goose, duck, or pork) and then poaching it in its own fat.

To prepare a confit, the meat is rubbed with salt, garlic, and sometimes herbs such as thyme, then covered and refrigerated for up to 36 hours. Prior to cooking, the spices are rinsed from the meat, which is then patted dry. The meat is placed in a cooking dish deep enough to contain the meat and the rendered fat, and placed in an oven at a low temperature. The meat is cooked until meltingly tender (generally four to ten hours).

What you end up with is two-fold; an amazingly tender piece of meat and a well seasoned fat. Serve your confit with salad, as a side with beans (as in the classic cassoulet), as a stuffing for pasta (or served with pasta), a filling for spring rolls - the possibilities are endless. Plus, you have a well seasoned fat that is excellent for roasting potatoes, braising cabbage or frying eggs in. Now before you gasp in fear at frying an egg in duck fat you should know, it's lower in cholesterol than butter!

We have duck confit available at Tria: Gourmet Eats to Go, downtown at the Butcher's Block, 319-4th Street, Courtenay.

Here's a simple recipe for a lovely salad featuring duck confit. You can find local pears right now in the Comox Valley and Little Qualicum's Bleu Claire cheese is amazing with this salad.

Duck Confit with Pears and Blue Cheese

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon shallot, finely chopped
• 1 duck confit leg
• 1 Anjou or Bartlett pear
• mixed greens
• 1-2 ounces Roquefort or other blue cheese
• salt and pepper.

Method:

• Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the duck leg and cook until well browned on all sides. Transfer to a cutting board. When cool enough to touch shred the meat into bite size pieces.
• Combine the vinegar, shallot, mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Slowly whisk in the oil.
• Halve the pear, remove the core, and slice thinly.
• Toss the greens, duck, pear, and dressing into a large bowl. Stir until combined and then sprinkle on the Roquefort cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Tria: Gourmet Eat to Go is located at 319-4th Street, Courtenay (inside The Butcher's Block). Our hours of operation are Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. Our menus are growing and changing, keep checking back for updates or drop us an e-mail if you'd like to be added to our newsletter

Lunch Menu

You can grill any of the following sandwiches. Please note: it takes approximately 6-8 minutes for grilling. We happily take phone in orders.

THE DELISH - Fiesta Greenhouse roasted and house-smoked peppers, red onion jam, Pattison Farm’s basil pesto and goat cheese cream on our house baked focaccia
7.50 + TAX

MUFFULETTA – Butcher’s Block in-house smoked ham, a mixed olive salad, Natural Pasture’s boerenkaas cheese on our house-baked focaccia
7.50 + TAX

THE ROCKIN’ MOROCCAN – oven roasted chicken, roughly chopped and mixed with our blend of toasted Moroccan inspired spices, feta cheese, Nature’s Way Farm arugula pesto and charred green onion on our house baked focaccia
7.85 + TAX

DOUBLE MEAT LOVE – Loads of our own roast beef AND the Butcher’s Block in-house smoked ham, caramelized onions, cheese, roasted garlic spread, mixed greens, tomatoes and cucumbers
8.25 + TAX

THE CLUCKIN GOOD TIME! – 4 oz of our house brined and roasted chicken, layered with our house-smoked ham and slathered with aged white cheddar, served on our house baked ciaguette bread with a brown butter-mustard dressing. Broiled to perfection until hot and gooey! Only served from noon-2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday
9.25 + tax

THE VEGGIE – Simple and lovely! Lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, mixed greens, cheese, our roasted garlic spread and sundried tomato pesto (veggies change with the seasons)
6.50 + TAX

Daily Soup
8 oz – 3.75 + tax
12 oz – 5.25 + tax

Side Salads
8 oz – 3.50 + tax
12 oz – 5 + tax

Tria's Take Home Dinner Choices and Sides

This is a new and growing component to Tria so keep checking back for our ever-growing and expanding take home dinner options. Our take home dinner menu will change with the seasons but you'll always find the following in our display case:

Deluxe Shepherd's Pie - We start with a chuck roast that we sear until golden, add onions and carrots and cook until they are caramelized and heavenly and then we add red wine and our house made chicken stock and cook for 4-5 hours until we have a decadent beef ragu base. We top this ragu base with our outrageously creamy and lightly truffled mash potato. Not your regular Shepherd's Pie!

Decadent Mac N' Cheese - Five different cheeses make this mac n' cheese something to behold! Topped with panko crumbs that have been toasted in brown butter and mixed with parmesan cheese.

Smoky Maple Baked Beans - White beans that we've smoked and then cooked for several hours with a mixture of onions, maple syrup and slow roasted tomatoes. Grab some Kassler loin or some pork ribs from the Butcher's Block and you've got dinner!

Twice Baked Potatoes - Excellent with a side salad and a steak. We take B.C. potatoes, bake them, scoop them, and combine with a mixture of smoked boerenkaas cheese and roasted garlic and then top them with smoked paprika. Smooth, creamy and delicious.

Recipe of the Week at Tria at the Butcher's Block

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Basil and Feta and Roasted Chicken Breast

Tomatoes and basil are in at their peak right now, here’s a great recipe for a complete and healthy meal.

Ingredients:

3 whole cloves of garlic

2/3 cup olive oil

2 lbs cherry tomatoes

1 loaf focaccia bread or 1 loaf French bread, heated

6 ounces feta cheese

1 bunch fresh basil, cut chiffonade

6 oz greens

6 chicken breasts marinated in olive oil and lemon zest

Directions:

· Place the oil in a small pan; add the garlic and let steep over low heat for 30 minutes. Take care not to burn the garlic.

· Preheat oven to 400°F. Place a large pan over medium-high heat; place a small amount of oil in the pan and sear the chicken. Turn the chicken and transfer the whole pan to the oven to finish cooking (make sure you’re pan’s handle is not plastic!).

· Wash and stem tomatoes. Put tomatoes in a shallow baking dish, pour olive oil and garlic over and toss lightly. Bake 10 minutes.

· While the chicken and tomatoes are roasting, cut feta cheese into small pieces and place the feta and basil in a serving dish.

· Once the tomatoes come out of the oven, pour tomato mixture over chunks of cheese and slivered basil and stir gently.

· On six plates, divide the greens; place the chicken breast on the salad and top with the tomato-feta mixture.

· Serve with bread to mop up juices.

Toum, toum, wonderful toum!

Garlic at its very best!

First of the season garlic from my garden!

Toum is a middle eastern dipping sauce/condiment that contains uncooked garlic, lemon, salt and oil. It packs a punch and is probably not something you'd want to eat on a first date, but it is a delicious addition to everything from bread to roasted chicken - and of course, savoury crepes!

My favourite garlic for toum is green garlic (fresh, uncured garlic) and my favourite variety is Northern Quebec, which we sell at Nature's Way Farm. Northern Quebec has very large cloves and is surprisingly mild when raw, which is why I like using it for toum. 

I usually only have toum on the menu when garlic is in season or when we've got our own garlic on hand (that we've stored). The garlic from China and California is WAY too strong and ends up producing a very hot, bitter and unpleasant toum. 

Traditionally, toum is made in a mortar and pestle and produces a delicious, textured sauce. I make it in the blender for a smoother more cream-like texture. Either way, it's delicious.

Here's the recipe, give it a try. Just remember, it's strong, no speed dating after eating. Enjoy!

Toum:

Ingredients

1 whole head of garlic, peeled (if the garlic is very small, use two heads)

1 tsp salt

juice of one lemon

30 ml (2 tbsp)water

140 ml (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) grapeseed oil

Directions

1. Place the garlic cloves in a blender with the salt, lemon juice and water. Turn the blender on and combine for 1 minute. Turn the blender off and scrape down the sides. Continue blending until the mixture is smooth.

2. With the blender running, slowly add the oil to the mixture. Don’t pour the oil too quickly or the sauce will separate. Let the blender run for another 3 minutes. You should end up with a sauce that resembles a fluffy, light cream.

3. If you don’t have a blender, the sauce can be made in a mortar and pestle.

You can't escape the scape ...

They're everywhere right now ... garlic scapes.  What the heck are they and what do you do with them?

My cat Rupee certainly can't escape the scape ...

A garlic scape is the flower of the garlic plant.  You'll see them poking their pointy heads out the top of your garlic plant and curling around into an attractive coil.  If left in tact, it will eventually open into a flower.  The flower draws energy from the growing garlic bulb, so growers harvest the scape in order to send more energy into the bulb.  

Scapes are milder than garlic itself and are extremely versatile.  They will last for weeks in your fridge if wrapped up in a plastic bag and they freeze very well, especially if you vacuum pack them.  

So what do you do with them?

• You can eat them raw
• Toss them in olive oil and grill them on a barbecue
• Mince them and add them to butter to make garlic scape butter
• Saute them with mushrooms and add them to your steak
• Mince them raw and add them to sour cream as a topping for baked potato

The list is endless!  My favourite thing to do with garlic scapes is to pickle them and use them in Caesars (the drink, although, they would be good in the salad too!).

Here's a basic pickled scape recipe; I like them spicy so I often add chili flakes in addition to the cayenne.

Pickled Garlic Scapes

Yields about four pints

2 pounds garlic scapes

1/4 cup canning salt
2-1/2 cups vinegar
2-1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided
4 heads dill, divided

Trim the ends off the tips of the scapes (the pointy end); they are very woody and they won't break down.  Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Pack scapes lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/4” headspace. Add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and 1 head dill to each pint. Ladle hot liquid over scapes, leaving ¼” headspace.  Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

3 Nights to Choose from for the 2011 30-Day Food Challenge

Last year's sold out event

We're back for the 2011 30-Day Food Challenge!  Join Tria Culinary Studio, Blue Moon Winery and Pentlatch Seafoods at Nature's Way Farm for a magical evening of food, farm and wine.  To register for the event go to www.eatlocalcomoxvalley.com

We'll be hosting 3 evenings, July 29, 30 or 31 each beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Arrive to a Blue Moon cocktail paired with an hors d'oeuvre created in Tria's kitchen.  Wander out to the farm and stroll through the blueberry patch where you'll have a chance to pick fresh berries.  Those freshly picked berries will be featured in your delicious dessert crepe prepared later in the evening.

The Komo Gway

Join us at our outdoor table where we will treat you to a Blue Moon wine tasting and an oyster bar hosted by Pentlatch Seafoods featuring their delectable Komo Gway oysters.  This will be followed by an artfully created, and seasonally inspired appetizer prepared in Tria's kitchen.  The evening will culminate with fresh dessert crepes made-to-order.

We have 28 spaces available each evening and participants must reserve spaces.  The cost is $35 + HST ($39.20).  To register for the event go to www.eatlocalcomoxvalley.com 

Please note:  We are happy to accommodate any dietary concerns or food allergies but we must know in advance.  Seafood and shellfish will be heavily featured on our menu; please inform us of any seafood or shellfish allergies. 

Phone 250-218-5012 or e-mail info@triaculinarystudio.ca

30-Day Food Challenge

Get ready for it!  The 2011 30-Day Local Food Challenge runs from July 2 to August 2 at venues throughout the Comox Valley and you won't want to miss a thing!

The Comox Valley 30-Day Local Food Challenge is an immersive community experience, hosted each July in the Comox Valley.  It connects people to the agricultural traditions and potential of this region. Each year, local residents are challenged to spend 30 days experiencing local food through farm and food producer tours, restaurant events, educational activities and demonstrations that showcase the work and bounty of the nearly 500 farms, food producers and food-related organizations in the Comox Valley. The event, now in its third year, is produced by Our Big Earth Media Co. with the help of corporate, organizational and local governmental sponsorship.   To register for any of the events, go to www.eatlocalcomoxvalley.com   Tria and Blue Moon will be hosting a series of evenings on July 29, 30 and 31 and we'll feature the best of the Comox Valley.  Pentlatch Seafood will be partnering with us to host an oyster bar each night as well.    Don't miss this fabulous event!