The 2008 Grey Goose competition for best Canadian drink ended in Toronto, Ontario when Renata Clingen from the Rushton Restaurant was named best mixologist. Semifinalists were chosen from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal to compete in the Arbiter of Cool national final held in Vancouver, B.C. last Tuesday.

Renata claimed the title of Best Mixologist with her dessert martini called Toronto Autumn; a blend of lime, maple syrup and the secret ingredient – aged balsamic vinegar. Last year’s winner, David Wolowidnyk of West Restaurant, complimented Clingen and her cocktail. “Renata shows extraordinary skill in blending ingredients to create a flavourful, complex and ultimately drinkable cocktail,” he said.

I live down the street from the Rushton, I think I’ll pop in next week, congratulate Renata and give her cocktail a try.

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This week’s question is about cookies.

Sandra asks me: “What can I do/add to keep my cookies from flattening and spreading too much? I like them a little more domed.”

My Answer: When Sandra says “cookies”, I am assuming she means a drop cookie, like a chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. In this case, she should try chilling her dough for 30 minutes before she bakes the cookies and keep the dough in the fridge between rounds of baking.

There is one other, more complicated possibility for flat cookies. If Sandra’s home is located at a high altitude, this may be affecting her baking. At high altitudes, because of the difference in atmospheric pressure, leaveners (baking powder, baking soda, yeast, beaten eggs) work much faster than at sea level. To counteract this phenomena, Sandra could try raising her oven temperature. At extremely high altitudes, cutting back on the amount of leavener will also help.

I give another reader, Carmel, a detailed answer about the effects and fixes for of high altitude at this link here.

Thanks for the question Sandra. Disagree with my advice? Want to write in and try to stump me? Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you next Monday.

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This week’s Foodie-find is brought to you by our bleary eyed web editor Collen Tully who brought back this artisan moonshine (yes I said artisan and moonshine) from the lovely idyllic PEI (now that’s shattering the Anne of Green Gables’ image I’d say)!

Paul Berrow of The Myriad View is creating this heady distillation in Rollo Bay. He told Colleen that he started making hooch as a joke 4 years ago and it really took off. Paul and his wife, who run every aspect of their business, are making the real thing from a 200-year-old recipe. The old timers attest to it when they come by and tell him “This smells like shine!”

We test drove it in the test kitchen as an accompaniment to the cloth bound cheddar tasting. It is actually really quite smooth and has a very fruity taste, a bit like rum but not as spicy - we liked it! Paul suggests using it in a cocktail with lime and cointreau to make a “Shinerita.”

Paul is also making gin, we didn’t get to try it, Colleen kept it for herself!

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Week eight and the subscription drive has been a resounding success. Thanks for all of your great comments, glad you are liking the Foodie-file content. My favourite comment is from Gloria who tells me;

“Living out of the country makes this Canadian girl very homesick. This blog is like a letter from home. Thank you!”

Happy that Gloria and anyone else feels at home, the mark of a great hostess I would say! This week’s cookbook recipient is Mary Sue Miller in Etobicoke, Ontario. Congratulations, Mary Sue!

Last week I announced it was week 7 and I had two more cookbooks to give away - that was a faux pas - I actually had three more books to give away so you still have two more chances to win! Thanks to all who subscribed this week.

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I heard on the radio this morning that truffles are being grown in British Columbia. Actually, I should say that they are attempting to grow truffles in British Columbia.

Until recently, truffles have only grown in the wild and their subterranean existence makes them elusive and pricey. Black Perigord truffles, one of the most coveted truffle varieties, hail from Italy and France and fetch anywhere from $1,000 - $3,000 a pound. The unique, earthy and incredibly fragrant aroma and flavour of the truffle is nature’s way of insuring its propagation. Growing underground, living off of the deep roots of trees and far from harvesting hands, the strong aroma attracts animals who dig them up, eat them and then spread the spores. Truffle hunters have used pigs and dogs for centuries to locate the prized fungi.

It seems that a new technology has been developed where the roots of hazelnut trees are inoculated with the truffle spores and so they are able to be cultivated. They have been doing this in Europe but it’s still a pretty tricky business and takes five to ten years before the truffles can be harvested. It’s rumoured that a BC farmer in Comox Valley has harvested the perigords, but it’s has not been confirmed as of yet.

One of the problems is that the perigord truffles are so aromatic that placed in a closed container with inferior truffles, the imposter truffles take on the aroma and vendors try to pass them off as the real thing. It’s like getting a cubic zirconia instead of as diamond, it’s sparkly but it just ain’t the real thing. The truffle market is therefore pretty careful about embracing new truffle sources and will be a while I think before they are touting Canada as a truffle producing enclave. However, truffles thrive in areas where grapes are grown so we may have the makings for a truffle terroir.

Any one out west heard anything about these truffle findings?

Candycanejane e-mailed this week with this question:

Can red curry be used in place of curry for a recipe. Whats the difference? Thanks, Candy.

The word curry really refers to a blend of spices and aromatics and really could be based on an number of different spices. Asian countries tend to have curry blends that are particular to their cuisine. There are many different spice blends in Indian cuisine, either ground powders or pastes, that are all referred to as curry. What we think of as curry in North America is a powdered blend of spices derived from some version of Indian cuisine and containing predominately turmeric as its spice.

Red curry is a type of spice blend from Thailand or Vietnam. It usually contains very hot red chillies, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, lime and possibly a number of other spices. Red curry paste is quite different from curry powder.

The word curry also refers to the stew like dish that you make from these spice blends. Also, just to complicate things further, there is such a thing as a curry plant and the leaves from this plant are used in cooking by themselves (like a bay leaf) or within a blend of ground spices.

If you were to use red curry paste for something that calls for curry, you are going to end up with a very different flavour profile than the recipe intended and in equal quantities it would be mind-blowingly hot! So my answer is no – do not substitute.

Thanks for the question Candy. Disagree with my advice? Want to write in and try to stump me? Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you next Monday.

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The 4th annual Cowichan Wine and Culinary Festival, a celebration of Vancouver Island’s food and wine, takes place this Saturday and Sunday, September 20-21. The Cowichan Valley is 45 minutes north of Victoria, B.C. and boasts the longest growing season in Canada; it’s name actually means “warm land.”

At the festival you will find wine tasting seminars, dinners, theatre under the stars, and even glass blowing demonstrations. A lot of the events are free so head on down whether you have tickets or not.

The west coast version of Feast of Fields also takes place this Sunday at Victorian Epicure Vineyard in Victoria B.C. The original 19-year-old Toronto version took place last weekend and was, as usual, a rousing success (although I did have one report for a very good source that the portions were skimpy, but I was not there so feel free to dispute this opinion).

If anyone goes to any of these fetes, please update us foodies who are too far afield to participate. We would like to live vacariously through your foodie descriptions.

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Ontario’s Greenbelt is 1.8 million acres of protected countryside that wraps around lake Ontario from Niagara to Cobourg and as far North as Tobermory. The designation of this land was created in 2005 to protect the countryside, environmentally sensitive land and farmlands from urban development and sprawl.

The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation began in June 2005 as an independent, charitable foundation with a mandate to promote and sustain Ontario’s Greenbelt. In these days of eating seasonally and local, they are devoted to assisting farmers’ markets and have committed almost $1 million to promoting the cause. The latest venture was launched yesterday at Nathan Phillips Square with a “greenbelt” lunch being served to Toronto city councillors while greenbelt apples and other brown bag goodies were handed out to onlookers. The celebration was for the launch of Greenbeltfresh.ca, a website that makes finding your nearest farmers’ market easy by simply entering your postal code. The site also offers information on the greenbelt, seasonal growing charts, event calendars and lots of other interesting info. It is a great resource for those of us who look to buy locally but don’t always find the produce accessible.

I live close to Dufferin Grove park and love going to the farmers market there because they have built a wood burning mud oven where they make slices of pizza and bake bread for sale. Do you have a favourite market in the greenbelt or elsewhere?

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Only two weeks left to get a fabulous cookbook from me here at the Foodie-file. This week’s cookbook recipient is Nicole Berry from Lake Cowichan, BC. Congratulations, Nicole!

Thanks to all who subscribed this week, and remember, I still have two more cookbooks to give way – so, keep signing up to win.

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Heading out from our hotel in Charlottetown, P.E.I. I had the brilliant plan that we would skip breakfast and find a bakery shop where we would buy fresh baked breakfast treats, maybe a cinnamon roll or fresh currant studded scones. After many wrong turns and seeing almost all of the interior farm country of P.E.I., we finally were on our way on the proper scenic road when, of course, we needed a pit stop. I was still without my breakfast and getting crabbier by the second when I spotted a small hand written sign reading “Home Baking, Fresh Cinnamon Buns.” We pull over and knocked on the screen door of a country home’s back porch and entered a family kitchen that smelt of vanilla and cinnamon.

Sitting on the stove was a stack of lemon meringue pies, in one corner were racks with fresh baked bread, dinner rolls, squares and tarts, all packaged and ready to sell. The harvest table in the center of the kitchen was groaning under the weight of the rest of the home baking: current, cheddar, or cranberry-orange scones; cinnamon buns (iced and not); blueberry muffins; parker house rolls; bannock; banana bread; custard and lemon tarts are all on offer. How is it possible that this much baking goes down in a home kitchen? “Well she has a stove in the basement too” is what I’m told by the woman standing at the sink doing dishes. I chose 2 still warm cinnamon buns, 4 scones and she threw in soft oatmeal cookies stuffed with dates and raspberry jam. The whole lot sets me back five bucks! We drove away licking our fingers from those cinnamon buns.

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