We decided to pop into Cilantro’s on Thursday to snap up some fresh fish for Good Friday, and Emily was kind enough to send us home with 3 delicious seabreams, ready to be tossed over an open charcoal flame.  We placed the fish on ice overnight and the next day prepped the fish, stuffed them simply and cooked them over open flame for about 20 minutes.

What happened next was typical of our meal adventures:

Melanie “I don’t know if I should, or can, eat this whole fish to myself”

Andre “Me neither, but I bet we will”

……and we did. Every last piece of tender, flaky flesh.  So stop in at Cilantro’s (They’re at Highbury & Huron) and get yourself some fresh fish and use the recipe below for an exquisitely delicate meal.

Charcoal Grilled Seabream Recipe

(serves 4)

Ingredients

• 4 fresh seabream fish, cleaned, gutted, trimmed
• 2 lemons
• 1 bunch of fresh thyme
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil

Directions

• Rinse the fish briefly, pat dry and cover generously with salt. Rub the salt into the skin and inside the fish’s cavity. Let stand for 30 minutes
• Pat the fish dry once again, don’t worry about removing too much salt.
• Quarter the lemons and stuff the cavity of the fish with 2-2 lemon wedges. Along with the lemons place a generous number of thyme sprigs in the cavity. Either sew/stitch the cavity shut, or use a metal skewer to skewer the cavity shut.
• Brush both sides of the fish with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper (to taste). You may opt to leave out the salt…
• Place the fish on a hot grill, about 400F, and cook for 16-20 minutes until the flesh of the fish reads an internal temperature of 145F (63C).
• Remove the fish and set aside for 5 minutes.
• Enjoy!

This post is inspired by my recent Iron Chef competition and a tweet  by Joy of Joy’s Kitchen

Howdy folks! Andre here and have I ever got a dandy of a story to tell.  This past Friday saw me compete in my first Iron Chef competition in which myself and my competitor were given 2 secret ingredients and had to come up with appetizer dishes for our corporate Christmas party.  When it was announced weeks ago that we would be taking part in this I instantly began to stress out.  There aren’t many things in life that stress me out like this did, and many of my coworkers commented that they had never seem me in such a state.

At 1PM on Friday afternoon we were told the following:

• The 2 secret ingredients are Pear and Prosciutto
• We would have two sous chefs to help in the kitchen
• We could not reference any literature, website, phone contacts, etc…
• We had till 6:30 to whip up the appetizers using the 2 secret ingredients

And so, we set off on our separate ways and I must say I was having a hard time piecing everything together. And then, like a wave of brilliance it all fell in place. I had decided on my dish and I wanted to keep the natural shape and distinctive crunch of the pear intact (as much as possible). And that’s when I came up with the following dish:

Prosciutto skinned, Brandy poached Pears stuffed with herbed CestBon Cheese chèvre, topped with 8 year old balsamic and organic olive oil.

I wanted to recreate the pear’s skin by first removing it, and then molding the prosciutto to the pear, thus giving it a new skin. I wanted folks to eat the pear with their hands, I wanted them to interact with the food in a simple manner. The dish needed to be simple to hold, eat, look at and easily recognizable.

So I set off to seek the finest ingredients I could find. I bought some CestBon Cheese chèvre, Prosciutto di Parma (the real stuff!) and crisp bosc pears. After many stressful hours, my amazing team of super sous chefs and I came up with a rather impressive appetizer that instantly reminds you of summers gone by.

I learned so much through the weeks of prep leading up to it, the hours of stress on the day and about my ability to be creative and deliver an amazing product loved by all. I won the competition and already I’ve been challenged again, so we’ll see how the next one goes!

The weather was beyond perfect, especially considering the time of year. The drive from London to St Mary’s was enjoyable and we were in high spirits. Little did we know that upon meeting the mastermind behind C’estBon Cheese that we’d be on cloud nine.

C’estBon Cheese is a local cheese producer, nestled 20 minutes north of London and a mere 15 minutes from Stratford. We discovered the outfit at Cilantro’s Fine Foods in London, having purchased their Caprea to top fried eggs and salsa verde. In this day in age it’s challenging to find food producers that honor old world quality, while providing a distinctly new world flair. George Taylor, owner of C’estBon Cheese, and his products embody these very qualities.

Upon being greeted and entering the cheese factory, we knew George was a kindred spirit. His attention to detail, infallible sense of ownership, and love for fine food was on display and our mouths dropped instantly when we realized the feast George had prepared for us.

George held nothing back in telling us how he got into the dairy industry (post retirement love for the art of cheese making), why he chose goat’s milk exclusively (many reasons, one of which is the initial investment) and his successes (goat milk jack cheese) and flops (cheese experiments unfit for human eyes). The pride George talked about throughout the afternoon shone brightly in his finished product.  George personally touches every piece of cheese that leaves the factory. He is the reason for the company’s high standard of quality and his uncanny ability to reproduce quality time over time is second to none in the artisan cheese world.

We discovered that many of his cheeses never find themselves in retail environments, instead they are funneled into the hands of some of the province’s finest chefs (Paul & Jason @ The Only On King have been known to bake up a goat’s cheesecake). Cheeses like the Billy Jack are used nearly exclusively in restaurants for grating atop salads, as is done by Josh & Chad at Garlic’s of London.

The very fact these cheeses are ‘hoarded’, for lack of a better word, by Ontario’s finest chefs speaks tomes about the quality of products that are shipped weekly from the C’estBon Cheese factory.  The factory is small by many standards. With two 500L vats, the cheese process is controlled by George so that quality is never compromised, ensuring only the finest cheese and reducing the volume available for circulation.

As we started to sample the array of cheeses before us we were shocked at the delicate and contrasting flavors, aromas and textures provided by the many cheeses. I’m sure you’ll agree with us that when you hear ‘goat cheese’, you instantly think of soft, pungent cheese in a tube. It turns out, as we discovered, that this does not have to be the case; And it isn’t when you’re eating C’estBon Cheese. C’estBon Cheese  was the very first to package Chèvre cheese in a durable plastic container, doing away with the horribly messy and unsealable plastic tube packaging.

We tasted a more traditional Chèvre and a wonderful Greek Feta. Both were nothing like what we would have purchased at a local grocery store. The Chèvre was wonderfully balanced, with just the perfect touch of creaminess and flavor. It was mild, very mild compared to our expectations (again, we’ve been polluted with far too much bad Chèvre) and Melanie couldn’t hold back her enthusiasm at the warm cheese covered in Herbes de Provence. My oh my did she devour it.

As for my favorite cheese of the day, without a doubt in my mind, was the Billy Jack. George informed us that Jack cheese was Canada’s response to embargoed Parmesan and Romano cheeses from Italy during the World War. And let me tell you, this cheese is as Canadian as it is Italian in it’s roots. C’estBon Cheese‘s version is a rather spectacular cheese that is bold and biting on the outside, crumbly and moist on the inside. It presented a wonderful vision for the eater, and I simply couldn’t bring myself to stop eating it.

We left with more than we came with. George was a speaker of such eloquence that it felt like we were being draped in knowledge, knowledge carefully filtered through the years. We spoke with George for hours. We felt an honest connection, one that can only be shared between those who truly enjoy local artisan food and the commitment it requires.

George, you are a true artisan. You possess the curiosity of a child weaved with the knowledge of an old soul. What you create in your ‘lab’ is of the utmost quality, and it showed in many ways on Saturday. We hope, and know, this will continue for many years.

To all those interested, you can find George’s C’estBon Cheese products in many fine establishments, including Cilantro’s Fine Foods, Remark’s and Sunripe in London. You can also find his products used in many fine restaurants around town. The Only on King and Garlic’s of London jump to mind.

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Wholesome food is at the epicenter of any healthy household and it goes without saying that a love for food is a love for life. You may love food for it’s fueling, it’s flavor, it’s aroma or it’s ability to bring people together. You might love life for it’s many opportunities, it’s challenges, it’s surprises, or even for it’s ability to kick us down once in a while.  But for those who love food, and life, it’s hard to separate the two from one another.

We’ve found over the years that some of our greatest accomplishments, most memorable evenings and funniest/happiest/saddest moments have all occurred surrounded by food, drink, friends and family. If you find yourself feeling the same way, take a moment today to reflect on how your love for food, drink, cooking and baking might have affected your life. You will be surprised at how often food will have had an impact on your daily life.

There are so many positives that are derived from a life driven by food, and often times, we forget all too easily to recognize the people, teams, companies and cultures that fuel our bodies, thoughts and spirits. With the pending Canadian Thanksgiving weekend ahead of us, maybe you could…

…take the time to thank your father for the awesome grill cheeses he made you as a child.

…take the time to thank mom, or gran’ma, for her amazing fresh bread she’s provided you over the years.

…thank the chef at that fine dining restaurant you’re eating at.

…help out at a food bank, or even donate some time over the holidays to spread some cheer to those who may have a hard time finding it.

Whatever it is you decide to do, always remember how important a role wholesome food can, and likely has, played in your/others’ lives. Enjoy the weekend ahead with good food, drink, family and friends and stop for a second to thank those who have helped you along the way!

“A love for food is a love for life”

We’re in the process of launching our first recipe for the digital cookbook. We’re still a few months out from it’s publication, but we’ve been hard at work getting everything set up to make sure we can make your mouth salivate at the sight of our pictorials.

We hope you’re willing to sit tight for a few months, but rest assured that the recipes we feature on this site will be of the highest quality, featuring ingredients sourced locally and sustainably. Great food doesn’t need to be expensive, it doesn’t need to be stressful. Our first recipe demonstrates this perfectly, and as its slated for January 1st, it will warm you up and wrap it’s delicious arms around your soul.

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