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Hot Dining: Cranberry Bellini Recipe

Cranberry Bellini

Toast the new year with this festive Cranberry Bellini, an updated version of the Italian classic, created by Hendrick’s Gin Brand Champion, Charlotte Voisey. We think it will make the perfect addition to any New Year’s Eve party.

Ingredients
• 1 oz (30 mL) Hendrick’s Gin (which recently won gold for “Best Distilled Gin” at the 2011 International Spirits Challenge)
• 1 oz (30 mL) cranberry juice
• 1 oz (30 mL) simple syrup
• 1/2 oz (15 mL) fresh lemon juice
• 4 oz (120 mL) champagne

Method
• Combine ingredients in a mixing glass (except champagne)
• Shake well
• Strain into a flute glass
• Top with champagne
• Garnish with a sugared cranberry

Serves one

*To make simple syrup: Bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil. Stir to dissolve and then let cool.

Weekend reading list: The top stories from around our offices

Welcome to our new weekend feature, in which we bring you the top stories from around our offices at St. Joseph Media. Looking for fall fashion trends? Like cooking? DIYing? Check out our picks after the jump!

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Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet App Lets You Travel Back in Culinary Time

By Annemarie Dooling

Instead of using an app to locate a gourmet restaurant, why not download an iPhone app that will make you a gourmet chef?

Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet is like a trip to dine at the tables of Canadians from the 18th century to today. Browse through more than 70 recipes sorted by ingredient, themed menu, region or period for a list of Canadian traditional and modern delicacies. The app lists both little-known retro plates and old familiar favorites, such as Quebec’s Fort Chambly Pea Soup, an 18th century Halibut and Bacon dish and a recipe for traditional Sourdough Flapjacks, which were originally cooked over an open flame. The shopping list and bookmarking features make it easy to save meal picks on the go and locate every ingredient you need, and behind-the-scenes videos and cooking tips connect the dots between the past lives of the meals and your current kitchen.

But this isn’t just a standard recipe app, this is a traveling food-lover’s dream. Each recipe comes with a historic biography and timeline, detailing when the dish first made its debut. Plus, a “site” tab lists current travel information on the corresponding national historic site so that you have the most well-rounded and informed Canadian meal possible. Be sure to check the app often, as recipes are improved and added all the time.

The app: Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet (for iPhone)
Cost: Free
Where to download: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/parks-canada-heritage-gourmet/id451612819

Hot Dates: Family Fare

This cookbook is chock full of delicious recipes

You never know which celebrity chefs or popular cookbook authors might stop by Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks to teach a class in the bookstore’s demonstration kitchen. On May 9, James Beard Award–winning author Trish Magwood presents recipes from her latest release, In My Mother’s Kitchen (Harper Collins; $39.99). Much more than a mere cookbook, it draws upon lessons learned from her mother and grandmother and focuses on preserving the family table in our hectic modern lives. The class is limited to 16 participants and the cost is $105.—Sheri Radford

Food for Thought

A Feast for All Seasons by Andrew George Jr.

In the sustainability era, where people are increasingly choosing local over international and cloth over plastic, it seems appropriate that North American food adopt a similar eco-friendly stance. Canadian First Nations chef Andrew George Jr.’s A Feast For All Seasons (Arsenal Pulp Press, $24.95), available at local bookstores, features 120 recipes about creating authentic Aboriginal cuisine with organic ingredients, such as braised bear or blueberry cookies. Bon appetit or so’h ga nec kewh dalt!—Kendra Wong

Vancouver for Book Lovers

From bookstores to author readings to a thriving literary scene, this city has everything a bibliophile could desire

By Sheri Radford

The central branch of the Vancouver Public Library fills a full city block and sports a living roof. Photo by KK Law

Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival
Name a well-known author and chances are that writer has appeared at this annual festival in the past 22 years. Among the most celebrated previous guests: JK Rowling (Harry Potter), Salman Rushdie (The Satanic Verses) and Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife). This year’s festival (Oct. 19 to 24) showcases more than 100 authors in 67 lively events, ranging from a poetry bash to a literary cabaret to daytime events (some in French) for schoolchildren. It’s six days of heaven for readers.

A Salon with Yann Martel
Spanish-born Canadian author Yann Martel took the world by storm with Life of Pi, a novel about an Indian boy trapped on a life raft with a tiger. His new book, Beatrice & Virgil, is an allegorical tale about the Holocaust. Readers fortunate enough to snag a ticket to A Salon with Yann Martel (Oct. 24), which is a pre-event for the JCC Jewish Book Festival (www.jccgv.com/JewishBookFest), will enjoy a cocktail reception with the master storyteller in a private home. L’chayim!

Vancouver Authors
It doesn’t matter whether an author was born here, moved here or just spent a few years here—we claim them all as Vancouverites, because we know they’re all West Coasters at heart.
•   Linda Bailey, Stanley’s Party
•   Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony
•   Douglas Coupland, Generation X
•   Sarah Ellis, Pick-Up Sticks
•   William Gibson, Neuromancer
•   Nan Gregory, How Smudge Came
•   Joy Kogawa, Obasan
•   Evelyn Lau, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid
•   Annabel Lyon, The Golden Mean
•   Kit Pearson, Awake and Dreaming
•   Al Purdy, The Cariboo Horses
•   David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance
•   Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park

Everything about Kidsbooks appeals to young readers. Photo by KK Law

Vancouver Magazines
You might already be reading local magazines without even knowing it. Adbusters (www.adbusters.org), Modern Dog (www.moderndogmagazine.com) and Nuvo (www.nuvomagazine.com) are all produced right here in Vancouver.

Vancouver Public Library
If the central branch of the library looks familiar, it may be because the distinctive building has popped up in movies and TV shows such as The Sixth Day, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Battlestar Galactica. (Or it may be because architect Moshe Safdie’s striking design evokes thoughts of the Roman Colosseum.) Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the downtown building regularly hosts free events such as book club meetings, computer workshops, film screenings and talks. This month, authors Annabel Lyon (Oct. 4), Caroline Adderson (Oct. 5) and Keith Billington (Oct. 26) all discuss their latest releases. To buy books of your own, stop by the library’s annual fall sale (Oct. 21 to 24) and search for a treasured tome among the thousands of used books. Or simply find a quiet corner on one of the library’s seven floors to relax with a novel or magazine.

Kidsbooks
Lively colours and kid-friendly decor fill all three locations of this store, inviting children into the magical world of books. The eager readers on staff each carry around at least a card catalogue’s worth of information in their heads, easily answering questions about which titles a seven-year-old reluctant reader or 11-year-old goth girl or 16-year-old sports fanatic might enjoy. This month, David Wiesner (Oct. 13) and Pseudonymous Bosch (Oct. 14) drop by the West Broadway location to entertain kids of all ages.

Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks
If your twin passions are reading and cooking, are you ever in luck. This store is crammed full of books that get mouths watering. In addition to the expected cookbooks and epicurean magazines from around the world, some hidden treasures make slow, thorough browsing a necessity: out-of-print books and other rare finds hide tucked away in the corners, carefully chosen by owner Barbara-jo McIntosh. She’s both a foodie and an author, having

Three floors of reading material galore await in Chapters on Robson. Photo by KK Law

published titles such as Tin Fish Gourmet and Cooking for Me and Sometimes You: A Parisienne Romance with Recipes. Special events in-store this month include a knife skills class (Oct. 2), slow-cooker demonstration with Erik Akis (Oct. 22) and Indian tea with Madhur Jaffrey (Oct. 24).

Chapters/Indigo
Readers flock to Canada’s largest bookstore chain for the in-store Starbucks cafes, the assortment of gift items and—above all else—the huge selection of books, magazines and newspapers. Touch-screen kiosks allow immediate access to a seemingly endless array of titles for sale on the company’s popular website (chapters.indigo .ca)—handy for those whose tastes run more to the obscure and less to the teetering stacks of Stephen King and Nora Roberts novels. Special events at the Chapters on Robson include talks by authors Robert Herjavec (Oct. 4) and R.A. Salvatore (Oct. 16).

Books About Vancouver
Forget the tacky t-shirts and snow globes—books make much better souvenirs.

Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass (Douglas & McIntyre, $24.95) is a love letter to the city, filled with insider knowledge such as how Vancouver is similar to The Simpsons, where “the nakedest place in Canada” is and why the Grouse Grind is better than a singles bar.

Compiled by the Chef’s Table Society of BC, Vancouver Cooks 2 (Douglas & McIntyre, $40) bursts with more than 100 recipes from 70 local chefs, making it an ideal memento for foodies.

Vancouver Then and Now (Thunder Bay Press, $22.95) by Francis Mansbridge explores the city through paired photographs—one old, one new—of prominent locations.

Hot Dining: Tasty Souvenir

A delightful read for budding sommeliers

Oenophiles sip and spit their way through more than 1,000 wineries in BC, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. This burgeoning wine region is also blessed with an abundance of seafood, wild game, fruits and vegetables. Carol Frieberg and Andy Perdue’s Swirl, Sip and Savor: Northwest Wine and Small Plate Pairings (Sasquatch Books, $26.95) brings the best of local food and wine together in recipes such as a minted crab salad with chilled cucumber water paired with a Mission Hill Reserve Riesling. At local bookstores.—Sheri Radford

Recipe: Honey-Baked Coconut Shrimp

HONEY-BAKED COCONUT SHRIMP

Tasty recipes abound in this cheeky cookbook.

Back in the day, we didn’t go to bars for the Tequila shooters or the boys. We went to get our greasy food fix. Despite not doing barstool banquets these days, we still long for the tantalizing tastes—we’ve brought the feast home, but we’ve left behind the oily glory of the deep fryer and created juicy, coconut-coated, golden-baked shrimp dipped in a sweet apricot sauce.

INGREDIENTS

Coconut Shrimp
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups panko
(Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
26 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Apricot Dipping Sauce
2/3 cup apricot jam
3 tbsp Heinz chilli sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard

DIRECTIONS
1 Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray. 2 For the shrimp, pour honey in a medium bowl and warm on high in the microwave, 20-25 seconds. 3 On a large plate, combine panko, coconut, cumin, salt and pepper. 4 Taking shrimp one at a time, dip in honey and then coat in coconut mixture. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake 14 minutes, gently flipping shrimp halfway through baking. 5 For the sauce, place jam in a medium bowl. Warm in the microwave for 45 seconds. Add chili sauce and Dijon mustard, stirring to combine. Serve with baked coconut shrimp. Serves 4-6.

BITE ME BIT: Save a tree, send a coconut. Affixed with mailing label and correct postage, the U.S. Postal Service will deliver coconut mail.

Reprinted with permission from Bite Me: A Stomach-Satisfying, Visually Gratifying, Fresh-Mouthed Cookbook by Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat, available at Chapters.