The Fall season has arrived for the versatile underrated vegetable of Winter squashes. These are to be differentiated from Summer squashes such as zucchini. Driving by the family owned Mariposa Fruit Stand on Highway 3 at Keremeos, British Columbia we had to stop attracted by the multi coloured bins piled high.  Loaded up our car with several of the many varieties there including acorn, butternut, delicata, turban, kabocha (buttercup), and the newer grey ghost (a kabocha hybrid). Also the new crop of Gala & Ambrosia apples as well.

Brief thoughts about a few varieties:

Acorn – smaller green shaped like an acorn, yellow orange inside, harder to peel, don’t keep quite as long, stuff them.

Butternut – shaped like a bell or pear with a narrower neck, yellow inside and perhaps sweetest.

Delicata – smaller oblong shape like an exotic cucumber with stripes, thin skin, keep shorter time, almost sweet potato texture and corn flavours.

Turban – irregular shapes with turban shaped top, milder, for soups, use as decoration like a gourd.

Kabocha – round squat like a dark green pumpkin, harder to cut, sweeter orange flesh, less fibre makes for a smooth nutty puree.

Spaghetti – oval oblong paler yellow flesh, less sweet, stringy and scoop out after cooked with a fork to make strands.

Hubbard – very large blue green thick rough skin, orange/yellow flesh, keep well, milder, great roasted.

We successfully grew acorn in our home garden.

Cooking tips by Joan Cross:

Except for delicata and spaghetti squash which can be steamed or baked to show off their delicate character this following method should work well for most winter squashes: Cut in half, remove seeds, rub cut surfaces with EVOO and S & P. Place cut side down on parchment paper (www.paperchef.com). Roast 375F until fork tender. Cut surfaces will caramelize.

Serve as a versatile vegetable in pieces as a side dish or as a puree by itself or in a soup; in a ravioli; roasted, small cubes in a risotto; in your bread or baking (instead of pumpkin puree in a pie) etc. For a soup you can also use a leek and/or an apple with some fresh herbs or spices to taste. Enjoy!

Do you use winter squash? What is your personal favourite variety? Let us have your best recipe.

No marshmallows please!

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Back from some interesting days as one of nine judges for the yearly BC Wine Awards as part of the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival (www.thewinefestivals.com/wine_awards/british-columbia-wine-awards). Good to catch up with my old time friend Dan Berger from Santa Rosa in California who also does the Riverside International Wine Competition (www.riwc.net).

I continue to be impressed with the progress being made by BC wines. After 2 cooler vintages of 2010 and 2011 favouring whites and earlier ripening reds the warming trend of 2012 and especially 2013 has returned. As the picking continues currently it looks like this year should produce some of the very best late ripening red wines ever for the region!

You will see the worthy winners for this year’s BC Wine Awards listed on the website.

Riesling and chenin blanc especially both varieties from older vines (35+ years) are doing exceptionally well for whites. Syrah, cabernet franc, and pinot noir are improving every vintage and some examples are nearing world class.

Always a sense of pride to get outside endorsement and Mission Hill Family Estate Martin’s Lane pinot noir 2011 has done that. It just won in London, England the Decanter World Wine Awards International Trophy for the Best in Show pinot noir priced under 15 pounds. Pretty good for an unknown wine region in a competition of 14,000 wines from 61 world wine regions.

Check out some of these improving BC wines! Have you tried any BC wines you enjoyed or that you would recommend?

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Photo credit: internationalchocolateawards.com

I was invited to serve on the Grand Jury for Canada to select our country’s entries into The International Chocolate Awards (www.internationalchocolateawards.com) World Final to be held in London, England October 15-18, 2013. As a passionate long time student of dark chocolate I accepted and I really enjoyed this recent experience. The 20 separate categories included plain/origin bars of white, milk, and dark chocolate, flavoured bars, ganaches, pralines, truffles, caramels, bonbons, and spreads. Scorecards had four sections:

1. Taste (40%): Personal based on the flavours with sweet, salty, and bitter elements – sour and umami less involved.

2. Formulation (35%): Quality of ingredients and balance of the recipe.

3. Interpretation (15%): Style and original creativity.

4. Execution (10%): Texture, tempering, composition, and separation of ingredients

Impressed with the knowledge and conscientious attention to detail of everyone on the Grand Jury including Martin Christy (England), Monica Meschini (Italy), Aubrey Lindley & Jesse Manis (USA – both of www.cacaodrinkchocolate.com in Portland), David Mincey (www.cookculture.com), and Eagranie Yuh (www.thewelltemperedchocolatier.com – who has her Chronicle Books publication The Chocolate Tasting Kit coming out Spring 2014). Our spirited dialogue about the quality of the entries that had survived the earlier Selection Rounds of judging was really a stimulating delight to this former litigator. Discussion included debate on textures, melting feel, over roasting, uneven tempering, air gap between shell and filling, harmonious chocolate/filling match, visual beauty, and so much more. Like the fruit acidity of the grapes in judging wine the fruit acidity of the chocolate can be an important factor to consider in assessing overall balance. I also was fascinated by our palate cleanser of “soupy polenta” from Mulino Marino.

In the result we recommended 24 entries (8 gold, 5 silver, and 11 nominations) to go forward representing Canada in the approximately 170 World Final entries. Monitor the winners!

The awards were presented at Hodie Rondeau’s www.xoxolat.com (sho-sho-la) for the love of chocolate who even produce 100% edible chocolate shoes coming in many colours, designs and flavours. Vancouver’s Beta 5 (beta5.myshopify.com) collected 3 golds (and a silver) including a dark ganache with a subtle flavour of Fisherman’s Friend (yes the usually strong menthol lozenge), another with bay leaf, and an amazing white chocolate bar so delicious containing EVOO & crunchy pieces of candied black olives. Christophe Morel Chocolatier from Montreal (www.morelchocolatier.com) also did very well with his Palet Or pure Chuao and his “pecan pie”.

Maybe even harder more intense work than judging my usual plethora of wine and chef competitions but I really learned a lot that I can muse over while enjoying my daily addiction to quality dark chocolate.

What is your favourite chocolate?

We all know how frustrating it is to open that treasured bottle only to discover it is corked. Is there a solution?

For the last 10 years or so I have experimented with Saran Wrap but any plastic food wrap will do nicely. I have had mixed results but a few weeks ago I opened several hours before dinner at home a bottle of cellared 1996 Barbaresco Pora from the Produttori del Barbaresco. An excellent vintage with no rush to drink them up. This bottle however was badly corked on opening and decanting. I immediately tried this trick. Crumbled up quite a bit of plastic wrap into another wider mouthed decanter and swirled around the wine and the immersed plastic. Then stoppered the decanter and put in the frig for 2 hours. Brought it out and allowed it to warm up and decanted it back into the original decanter. Presto! It worked fantastically this time – best yet – as the TCA was absorbed by the plastic and it turned out to be an amazingly clean bottle of wine. Other wines for shorter periods of plastic exposure have brought mixed results. I have even boldly asked to try this procedure with expensive wine I brought to a restaurant that turned out to be corked. It always seems to help to a certain extent but not as perfectly as on this recent occasion. Good luck!

I recommend you try it. If you have already please let us know of your results. Any other ideas of trying to improve corked bottles of wine – other then switching to screw tops or sending it back for another wine in a restaurant?

By Paul Mannix [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Wine being served from kegs in restaurants has really taken off over the past couple years. The younger demographics seem to prefer this easy casual style which makes the wine service simpler – like ordering a draft beer. This system has been around for a while in Europe and more recently in many major US cities. Vancouver Urban Winery has developed a growing business (a first in Canada) providing bars, hotels, and restaurants with kegs just under 20 litres in size with pumps and nitrogen for serving local wines from British Columbia. They also bring in New Zealand sauvignon blanc and Argentina malbec. A local Italian restaurant brings in Prosecco served on tap!

I believe this is a good idea for wines best enjoyed fresh and not requiring any bottle age. Fun comparing the same wine in the keg and in the bottle. The concept is green and eco friendly saving on handling, bottles, corks or screw caps, capsules, labels, transportation costs and provides consistency of product. Reusable kegs helps. Last week at an Air Canada En Route Restaurant Awards event the only wine choices were a white, rose or red from 3 different wineries all on tap.

A few issues including some whites being stored too cold precipitating tartaric crystals in your glass but generally well done. Recommended for fresh vibrant aromatic whites and roses. Less convinced for powerful tannic young reds that need some bottle age. Works better for fruity fresh less tannic Beaujolais type reds served cooler than room temperature.

What is happening in your region with wines in keg on tap? Do you like this growing trend?

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