The Whole Beast - Artisan Salumeria

I have been meaning to write about the amazing new charcuterie on Oak Bay Avenue, the Whole Beast.   I am very much impressed with the product and even more so at how reasonable the prices.  Cory Pelan is doing something amazing at his shop.

The space was previously the bakery/coffeeshop Kadalima, a decent enough place but not one I would cross the city for.   The Whole Beast shares the space with the Village Butcher, to which there is a natural synergy.  


The whole foodie movement going on is creating a lot of new decent suppliers of all manner products, but I find most of them very expensive for what you get and often the quality of the product is only slightly better than existing products.  The Whole Beast is not like that at all.   The product is very good and the prices are very reasonable.

So far I have had some of the salami, the chorizo, some other sausages, and bacon.  I have yet to have anything that was not of a superior quality.

The one thing I should note is that their salami is nothing like the commercial varieties.   It is not a fat and evenly round tube of  meat.   Cory's salami is much thinner and not uniformly round.  He also uses a much coarser grind/chop of the meat.   This means his salami is not really well designed to be a sandwich meat.   This does not mean it is a bad salami, it just means it is a different product which has different uses.

My single big problem with the Whole Beast is the location, and this is my problem and not something that is the fault of the shop.    Being on Oak Bay Avenue means it is not close to where I live and actually not close to any other place I shop at.   Getting there is something I do at most once every few months.  I am certain that over the next three weeks I will get there to buy cured meats for Christmas but after that it is likely to be months before I get back.

That said, there is an increasing number of suppliers located over in Oak Bay that I do like - Slater's Meats, Octavio and now the Whole Beast.  

Here is their list of products:

Our rotating product list:
SALAMI TOSCANA
SALAMI FINOCCHIONA
SALAMI BASTARDO
SALAMI “THE BEAST”
LAMB SALAMI WITH SUMAC AND LEMON
LARDO SALAMI
FAIRBURN FARM WATER BUFFALO SALAMI
SALAMI VENETA
SALAMI LIMONE E FINOCCHIONA
COPPA
LONZINO
PROSCIUTTO (about six months away)
WATER BUFFALO BRESAOLA
GUANCIALE (smoked or non-smoked)
PANCETTA
SMOKED PANCETTA
COPPA DI TESTA
MORTADELLA
LARDO
MAPLE ROSEMARY BACON
SOY AND 5 SPICE BACON
BUCKBOARD BACON
SMOKED GUANCIALE
SMOKED PANCETTA
DOUBLE SMOKE BACON
POLISH HAM SAUSAGE
GARLIC COIL
WATER BUFFALO PEPPERONI
BEEF AND PORK PEPPERONI
ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE
CHORIZO
BBQ SMOKIES
EUROPEAN WEINERS
KABANOSI
SMOKED WATER BUFFALO SAUSAGE
HEAD CHEESE or COPPA DI TESTA
TROTTER BRAWN
KISZKA (liver and heart)
SMOKED CORNED BEEF
CORNED BEEF

Kefir Grains For Sale

The grains I have are multiplying like crazy, enough so that I have excess I need to sell.    What I am offering is 200 grams of grains in a 500ml jar filled with 1% milk for $10.

A different kind of cooking....

In my work world I have been learning about and playing with aromatherapy products since my student days. I have often found essential oils and products derived from them to be effective, gentle, natural and affordable options for health and beauty uses. This may seem a strange addition to a food blog but I find when I work with the oils the process is much the same as cooking. I use many of the same tools and much the same premise. I take good ingredients, pick ones that suit my purpose and that should mix well and then I work to create a product that is appealing to the senses.

Recently I decided to turn aromatherapy into more of a business than a hobby. I have created a line of products for sale in my office and am selling some baby products at the Mothering Touch. I have also been welcoming custom orders for products and providing access to direct order essential oils from my supplier.

For Christmas I have decided to put together a few small gift packages and welcome custom orders of the same. I am also happy to discuss putting together products for corporate giving or fundraisers.

Follow the links throughout this post to learn more and then contact me to order or to ask more questions.

The London Chef

I had waited with anticipation the opening of The London Chef, at 953 Fort Street. The concept of this space is of a foodie's haven of cooking classes and food parties. Despite my curiosity I didn't get into the shop until late in the summer as I just wasn't in that part of town often. Since I began teaching infant massage next door at the Mothering Touch (975 Fort) though I have weekly opportunities to be in the shop.

My first visit was actually my job interview for the teaching gig when I was surprised to discover that a small cafe and retail area was attached to the shop, something I hadn't known. This cafe is where I will start. Selling coffee, pastries and lunches the cafe is an expanded breezeway really but it is filled with things to intrigue every foodie.

On the retail front the fridge is stuffed with house made sausage from Stage restaurant and there are frozen stocks and sauces too. The shelves to the left of the sales counter are filled with cookbooks from some of the most prominent chef's of today (Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck caught my eye especially). There are also vinegars, reductions and flavoured salts (coffee?!?!?) to tempt you too.

In terms of the actual cafe items I have tried a selection. The coffee and espresso is definitely up to standard and the soup I had one day was delicious. Some of the baked goods though haven't been so overwhelming. I have had one of the savory open tarts (leek and goat cheese) and though tasty enough the puff pastry was quite pale and, as a result, lacked the crisp flakiness I prefer. Same can be said of the "breadsticks", which are actually puff pastry sticks with a small sprinkling of cheese and caraway seeds (Bernard was pretty pleased with the caraway) but that didn't compensate for the slightly limp pastry. I have tried some of the sweet pastries to and the same applies. Nothing bad, but I am still waiting to be dazzled.

The bulk of the space is set up in a squared "u" of work stations with a larger teaching station in the open side of the "u". There is also a large (like sit 30 large) beautiful wooden table to the side for dining. There is selection of cooking classes taught here and you can book private cook and eat events in the evenings.

Tuesday at noon is the event I have been most intrigued by. Called "lunch and learn" and running from noon to one this event allows you to come in and get a lunch that you get to watch being made. The menu shifts and focuses sometimes on a culture (i.e. Arabian) or a food (ie. the hamburger). There are munchies for you when you arrive and you then get an interactive demo by the chef and his assistant that culminates in the delivery of your main course (usually around twenty or quarter to one to give you some time for eating). I haven't actually attended but I am often in the cafe during the classes and the atmosphere seems fun and friendly. Judging by the papers the audience are generally clutching I am guessing you get recipes too. At a cost of $25 it is an expensive lunch - but a pretty good deal for an hour long cooking class/entertainment.

Lasagna and the new ricotta

My brother-in-law recently gifted us with a copy of Air Canada's en Route magazine's annual food trends issue. An interesting read and I was tickled to discover that several of BC's best restaurants are on my "I've been there" list. Part of the interest was the discovery that one of the new restaurant trends this year is "house-made ricotta". I found this interesting because on a recent trip to one of our friendly neighbourhood warehouse stores I saw, for the first time ever, a ricotta that didn't come in a tub. Intriguing, even the warehouse stores are getting trendy! This ricotta came shrink wrapped in plastic and looked closer to mozzarella in texture.

Of course the real interest for foodies is - what did I do with this new item? Answer - I made lasagna.

I made the pasta dough, made the meat sauce, and finally cracked the ricotta. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would I be able to slice this new ricotta? Would it mix well with the spinach, egg and cheese or would I have to use it separately?

When I opened it I discovered that it would slice, and dice well enough, but that it also crumbled into a much drier version of the tub ricotta's small pieces. I was able to mix my ricotta/spinach layer easily though I came out with a drier result - not a bad thing from my point of view. I dislike runny lasagna.

After assembly and baking we ended up with a lovely lasagna that was not runny at all. I can not say I noted any flavour difference, but it was nice to created a drier ricotta mix. Thicker sauce and drier ricotta made for a nicely cohesive and stable lasagna. The bit of lemon zest I put into the ricotta mixture though came through beautifully.

Working with the kefir

I do not have pictures of the kefir, when I get a chance I will post some.   So how is it going with the kefir making?   Very well.

I am working the kefir heavily and this means my grains have more than doubled since I got my grains.  I have grains to spare now and if you want some, drop me a line and I can give you some.

Many people drink it kefir, but this does not appeal to me, it might work as part of a smoothie, but on its own it does not do it.  I like the tang of the kefir better than the normal yogurt flavour and I am trying to eat 250 grams of kefir yogurt per day.  

I am letting it get quite firm and then I separate out the grains.   Once the grains are out, I strain it through a jelly bag to get it to a fairly thick consistency.   There are two consistencies a I aim for, one about the consistency of yogurt or sour cream, the second the thickness of ricotta.

I process between 1.5 and 1.8 litres of milk every 24 to 48 hours.  The jars I use can hold up to 2 litres but the grains take some space and I leave some space at the top.   For the yogurt consistency I get about 50% of the volume of the milk I started with.   For the ricotta consistency it get about 35-40% of the volume of the milk I started with.

The kefir has more or less replaced all of our yogurt, sour cream and soft fresh cheese uses in the house.   It works very well as a replacement for sour cream, and has a much lower fat content.  I work with 1% milk, which means my sour cream consistency kefir has about a 2% milk fat content.

The ricotta consistency kefir is about 3% milk fat, making it a very low fat fresh cheese.    I could make it firmer still by pressing out more of the whey.   Adding a bit of salt and herbs and you have a very nice cream cheese.

Meanwhile, I am getting all this whey, what do I do with it?  I am throwing it out because I have no idea what I can use it for.  In a quick internet search, I have some interesting uses for it.  I guess I will not longer be throwing it out.

Cost of yogurt consistency is about $2.30 a litre, for the fresh cheese consistency it costs about $3.40 a kilogram.   This is dramatically cheaper than what it costs in the store and it is better for me.

Why did no one tell me about this place?

I apologize for the bad photos as my smart phone camera sucks

 I was walking down Johnson Street and thinking I needed to do something about lunch when I stumbled on Skinny Tato.   I saw that it was Polish food and given my background as a Baltic German, Polish cuisine is a cousin of the food I grew up with.

I have been dreaming of having a Russian restaurant in this city, the Baltic German food experience is most heavily influenced by the Russians.   In the absence of Russian food, Estonian, Finnish, Swedish or Polish is the next tier of home cooking for me.  To suddenly find a Polish restaurant made me stop and walk in.

The owner is a friendly woman originally from Poland 25 years ago.  She spent 24 years in Edmonton and has been here for the last year and opened the restaurant seven months ago.   The space is nothing fancy but that does not matter where there is good food.  There are only seven tables and total seating for just over 20 people.  My fear is we will be seeing lineups soon enough here.

The menu was short but what I expected.  Potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, perogies, and goulash were all there on the menu.   I happen to love a good potato pancake and I will never get bored of goulash, so I ordered the goulash filled pancake.   It came with a cup of soup to start which was wonderful, though I can not remember exactly what it was now!  It was a tomato soup with orange in it, sounds a bit off, but works really well.  I am going to have to consider the orange/tomato combo in cooking.

The funny thing is I just made potato pancakes and goulash for dinner on Sunday night so ordering it for lunch today allowed me a very good comparison.   The meal is a single large pancake with the goulash inside it.   It reminded me of the look and feel of meals I have eaten in Poland, Finland, and Estonia.

The pancake was light and crispy, better than most of the ones I made on Sunday.   The goulash was mildly spicy but reminded me that a good goulash has a bite to it and I have been keeping mine too mild.   The goulash was also light, though that is the wrong.  My goulash on Sunday was bordering on stodgy, this was the opposite.

The potato pancake with goulash came with two small salads out of a choice of four on the menu.  I chose the potato salad and the Skinny Tato salad, which is a light white cabbage based slaw.

The potato salad was the best I have ever had in my life, period.   It has all the stuff I would put in a potato salad, but the results are amazing.   Light and refreshing are words I would never connect with a potato salad, but that is what comes to mind when I think of it.

I am not a fan of cabbage based slaws.  Whenever I get them I simply give them to Sheila but since I was alone I ate it.   It was light and refreshing (yes I am repeating myself) and I could have eaten a whole bowl of it for lunch.  It was the perfect rendition of a Polish style cabbage salad/slaw.

Sharlotka Cake

I had to have the desert as it was a Sharlotka cake.   It is very reminiscent of the sort of cakes my Tante Nata used to make.  It was good and not overly sweet and something I do not think I could make

Once again to my question of every restaurant, could I do better at home or would it be easier?   No.  I might be able to equal the pancake and goulash, but the soup, salads and cake are beyond what I could do.