Tag Archives: PEI 2014

What’s Brewing at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. in Charlottetown, PEI?

Prince Edward Island Brewing Co., Charlottetown, PEI
Prince Edward Island Brewing Co., Charlottetown, PEI

Prince Edward Island is well known for its seafood and potatoes, both of which are major industries on the Island.  However, what many of you may not know is that there is an emerging industry on the Island that involves beverage making.  Blueberry juice, apple cider, cranberry juice, wine-making, spirit distilling, and beer-brewing are all happening on PEI.

Today, I am taking you with me on a visit to the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. in Charlottetown where the local artisan brewery, now set up in its spacious new state-of-the-art facility on Kensington Road, brews award-winning ales and lager.  After we tour the Brewery, we’ll head downtown to the Gahan House Restaurant to talk with the chef about beer pairing and find out how he uses beer in making a traditional Maritime dish – Fish Cakes – and, yes, he shares his recipe 🙂

My guide at the Brewery today is Al Douglas, Director of Branding and Community Engagement.  We begin our chat in the modern and spacious lobby of the brewery.

Lobby and Bar at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co
Lobby and Bar at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co

The brewery had its beginnings 13 years ago when owner, Kevin Murphy, operated it under the name of Murphy’s Brewing Co. in a restaurant (Lone Star Café) he owned in Charlottetown.  The brewery then moved its operations to the Gahan House Restaurant in Olde Charlottetown and, when it outgrew its space there, moved to a location on Walker Drive.  After two years in that location, it became apparent that the demand for the product was increasing as they were running out of beer mid-season.  So, in 2013, to increase their brewing capacity, the brewery moved to their current newly-refurbished building at 96 Kensington Road.

DSC01446 (1)

Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. brews both ales and lagers the old-fashioned way with no preservatives, additives,or pasteurization.  The brewery currently brews eight ales and one lager which is aptly named “Beach Chair Lager”.  The Beach Chair Lager has the distinction of being the first-ever canned craft beer produced in Atlantic Canada.  Al says their most popular products are the Beach Chair Lager and Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale.  They do brew some seasonal specialties like a pumpkin ale in the fall and Dunkel, a vanilla and bourbon oak-infused dark lager over the Christmas and winter period.

DSC01476 (1)

I asked Al what sets their beers apart from others on the market.  He tells me that it is a locally-brewed product that uses no preservatives or additives.  Additionally, the naturally clean and clear PEI water is easier to filter.  Consumers today are conscious of where the products they consume come from and there is support for products that are produced locally, like the brewery’s ales and lagers.

The brewery’s beers have won awards attesting to the quality of their products.  In 2011, the Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale was awarded the Canadian Brewing Awards’ gold medal.  In 2012, the brewery won both gold and silver medals and, in 2013, was awarded the silver medal from the Canadian Brewing Awards.

On Tap at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company
On Tap at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co.

The beer is available onsite at the brewery and is also sold in all liquor stores on PEI and in many restaurants, cafés, and bars around the Island.  If you are off-Island, look for the beers in select locations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, and British Columbia and, come spring 2014, in Ontario.

What makes the current location of the brewery unique is that it has a huge area where they can host large events like weddings and concerts.  Check out the chandelier and the contemporary white chairs in the photo below.

page - chandelier

Event capacity is up to 500 persons and Al tells me they have held a number of events already, have more planned, and bookings are brisk for wedding receptions for the upcoming wedding season.  Two full-scale kitchens onsite, including a large brick oven, allow for food preparation for large numbers.

Serving Kitchen at the Prince Edward Island Brewery
Serving Kitchen at the Prince Edward Island Brewery Co.

The brewery employs 16 full time employees over the winter and, in the summer, that staff complement increases to 25-30 that includes both full and part-time employees.  The brewery has two certified brew masters on staff.

Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. supports local producers, buying local ingredients where possible.  For example, the Sir John A. Honey Wheat Ale uses honey from Honey Dew Apiaries in Canoe Cove.  The blueberry beer uses a blueberry purée from PEI Berries Ltd. in East Montague.  This means the brewery has a year-round demand for these two ingredients since both beers are brewed all year.  This is good news for the support local movement.

So, what goes into beer making?  There are four basic ingredients:  water, grains (malt), hops, and yeast.  Extra flavorings such as blueberries or honey may also be added.  Each of the main ingredients contributes important properties to the beer.  The water carries the flavour, the malt adds sweetness, color, and flavour, the hops add flavour, aroma, and some bitterness to counter or balance the sweetness from the malt, and the yeast converts sugar extracted from the malt into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas that adds flavour.  Yeast is what causes the beer to ferment.

“Fresher is better.  Having a brewery in the community is where you’ll get the freshest beer.”

— Chris Long, Master Brewer – Prince Edward Island Brewing Company

What’s next for the PEI Brewing Company?  This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference where the Fathers of Confederation first met to begin laying the framework for what would later become Canada.  In honor of this event, the brewery has brewed a Fathers 2014 Commemoration Pack of beer.

I asked Al if there was one product they brewed that surprised them in terms of its popularity.  He says the blueberry beer was initially developed to be a seasonal beer available in the spring/summer season but it became so popular that customers and restaurants were continuing to ask for it other times of the year that they now brew it year-round.

In addition to the retail store, a bar, and a cold beer store on the premises, 45-minute tours of the brewery are available for $10/pp (+HST).  This includes a sample of the hand-crafted beer in the tasting room as well as a tour through the facility, starting with the ingredients room where you can see samples of the ingredients and smell the hops.

The tour takes you past the large brewing tanks.

Inside the Brewery
Inside the Brewery

A pristine brewing operation.

The tour concludes in the bottling center area which was really busy today.

Lots of beer being bottled at the Brewery this afternoon!

Bottling Beer at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company
Bottling Beer at the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co.

The brewery was certainly a hive of activity today!

And, the end result – pallets of boxes filled with bottled artisan beer ready for shipping to customers.

Pallet of Beer
Pallet of Beer

For more information on the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co., visit their website.

———————————

Up until a few years ago, if you went into a restaurant and asked what the server recommended as a drink with a certain dish, you would most likely be provided with a wine suggestion.  Today, however, you might very well receive the suggestion of a beer pairing with your meal.  To find out what dish would go particularly well with the PEI Brewing Company’s beers, I went to the Gahan House in Olde Charlottetown where, incidentally, they still brew onsite all the beer served in their restaurant.

Gahan House Restaurant, Charlottetown, PEI
Gahan House Restaurant, Charlottetown, PEI

Chef Dwayne MacLeod of the Gahan House suggests a good Maritime dish to demonstrate how beer can be used as an ingredient and/or paired with food – Fish Cakes made with salt cod and haddock.  Chef MacLeod says the beer brings out the saltiness in the food and several of the Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. beers pair very well with fish cakes.  He also suggests, if beer is used as an ingredient in the dish, the same beer would pair very well as a beverage with the meal.  So, if you cook the potatoes for the fish cakes in beer, as Chef MacLeod suggests can be done, then the same beer would pair well as a beverage with the fish cakes.

Chef Dwayne MacLeod's Fishcakes
Chef Dwayne MacLeod’s Fish Cakes

Chef MacLeod has graciously shared his recipe for fish cakes.  He has two beer pairing suggestions to go with the fish cakes.  The first is the Gahan Iron Bridge Brown Ale (pictured in the photograph below).  He says this beer will introduce a nutty and caramel flavour to the meal.  His second suggestion is a wheat ale like the Gahan’s Sir John A’s Honey Wheat Ale.  It is a light beer and will not overpower the flavors of the fish but will add to the flavour of the salt cod.

Gahan Iron Bridge Brown Ale
Gahan Iron Bridge Brown Ale

 

Chef Dwayne MacLeod’s Fish Cakes

(from the Gahan House Restaurant in Charlottetown, PEI)

Fish Cake Ingredients

1.5 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes

1 lb. haddock

1 lb. salt cod

1.4 oz green onion

1 tsp. garlic

2 oz oil or bacon fat

 

Sauce Ingredients

½ quart (2 cups) mayonnaise

1.7 oz. horseradish

1 cucumber

 

Method for Fish Cakes

Soak salt cod in water for 12 hours.  Drain and rinse cod and chop up finely in a blitz machine.

Cook haddock in water.

Cook potatoes.  If desired, cook the potatoes in beer and water (ratio is 2 parts water to 1 part beer).  Cool potatoes.

Finely chop green onion and garlic.

Mix haddock, salt cod, green onion, and garlic together.  Portion out 2 oz for each fish cake and form into a patty.

Heat oil or bacon fat in pan over medium to medium-high heat.

Place fish cakes in hot oil and cook until the edges start to turn golden brown.  Once golden brown, flip the cakes and cook the other side the same.

Serve with the cucumber sauce and enjoy.

 

Method for Sauce

Remove the seeds of the cucumber with a teaspoon and blitz the cucumber very well in a Blitzer.  Mix the cucumber with the mayonnaise and horseradish.  Season to taste.

Yield:  4-6 servings of fish cakes

Fishcakes Paired with Beer
Fish Cakes Paired with Beer

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today.

Be sure to visit my Facebook page at My Island Bistro Kitchen.  You may also wish to follow me on twitter @PEIBistro, on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”, and on Instagram at “peibistro”.

 

Stepping Outside the Breadbox: Meet Creative Chef Ilona Daniel

 

Chef Ilona Daniel
Chef Ilona Daniel

The chef profession is changing and evolving, probably faster than ever before in history.  No longer are chefs hidden away in their kitchens.  Today, many are taking the profession and their career to unheard-of heights.  TV cooking shows, culinary events like PEI’s Fall Flavors, the popularity of cookbooks written by accomplished chefs, and chefs who engage and interact with fans via social media have all contributed to giving many chefs celebrity status.  One of those is Chef Ilona Daniel.  If you are a foodie on Prince Edward Island, chances are that you are familiar with Chef Ilona.  This is a chef who has had a multi-faceted career to date and is not afraid to think (and step) outside the box – in fact, I’d go so far as to say Chef Ilona doesn’t even know there is a box!

Following her educational experience at McMaster University, Ilona thought she was heading to law school when suddenly her life took a turn in another direction.  If it hadn’t been for her taking the leap of faith to follow her passion and calling, chances are Ilona might not have become a chef.

Ilona grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, and learned the pleasure of fine cooking by standing at the kitchen counter by the stove as she watched her mom prepare meals.  Cooking was an integral part of her entire being in her formative years and she attributes her mom as having a big influence on her love of cooking.

A chef now for 12 years, Ilona’s first job as a teenager was working in a burger joint at the age of 16.  Even then, whether she knew it or not, her life’s path was already being charted in the food industry.  After making the decision that law school was not her destiny, Ilona studied at the Canadian Food and Wine Institute in Niagara, Ontario.  After completing her studies in Niagara, she was awarded a full scholarship for the Applied Degree in Culinary Operations at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, PEI, and was in the first graduating class from the two-year program.  Like many others who have found their way to PEI, Ilona fell in love with the Island and decided to make it her home.

1-photo
Chef Ilona Meticulous at Work

Since graduating from culinary school, Chef Ilona has had an incredibly varied career.  She has been the Head Chef at the Stanhope Beach Resort, Interim Chef at Sims and Off Broadway Restaurants, Founding Chef at the Brickhouse, Executive Chef to the Lieutenant-Governor of PEI at Fanningbank, Executive Chef of Holland College’s Culinary Boot Camps, Resident Food Scene Writer for G Magazine, and Culinary Instructor at the PC Cooking School at the local Superstore.  And, that’s not all.  This fall, she was the Culinary Expert for the PEI2014 Roadshow that travelled across Canada to promote the planned events in PEI in 2014 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference that led to the creation of Canada.  Perhaps you may have seen Chef Ilona on one of several morning TV shows.  Most recently, Chef Ilona has started her own Catering and Consulting Business — Tribe Fresh Cookery.  This is a gal who likes to be busy!

Shucking lobsters live on Global BC Morning Show
Shucking lobsters live on Global BC Morning Show

Out of this impressive resume, I asked Chef Ilona which job was the most interesting.  Her response was starting her own business because she is building it from the ground up.  Her most challenging job was working at the Stanhope Beach Resort because it was a seasonal operation so it meant every year was starting all over again with new staff to be trained quickly.  The job that surprised her the most was being Executive Chef to PEI’s Lieutenant-Governor.  In this role, she prepared food for many events and functions that included a number of award ceremonies to honour Islanders who were making a difference to their communities.  This allowed her to see what a generous and giving community PEI really is.  While in this role, Ilona became the first chef at Fanningbank to use social media to tell the story of what food was being prepared for their Honours and for events. Chef Ilona says her most fulfilling job has been her role as Executive Chef of the Culinary Boot Camps.  Chef Ilona particularly enjoys the Kids Camps where they are shown how to grow vegetables and make their own food.  It’s an opportunity to influence the next generation to eat well.

Teaching at the Kids Culinary Camp at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, PEI
Teaching at the Kids Culinary Camp at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, PEI

Chef Ilona’s philosophy in cooking is to “cook with love and don’t be afraid to be different”.  She says “there are Chefs whose food can be executed but not necessarily made with passion”.  She does not follow trends but rather follows her heart and takes the road less traveled.  Her belief is that food should be natural and real.  As she says, “good food inspires conversation and doesn’t have to be complicated; use the best local ingredients executed with flawless technique and care about what you are doing”.

I asked Chef Ilona what inspires the recipes and menus she creates.  First, she says she needs to know who her audience is. She makes a point of respecting any dietary concerns they may have and is excited to be creative to cook interesting and tasty foods that meet their dietary requirements.

Gluten-free Boston Cream Pies Prepared for a Function at Fanningbank, home of the Lieutenant-Governor of PEI
Gluten-free Boston Cream Pies Prepared for a Function at Fanningbank, home of the Lieutenant-Governor of PEI

Second, she likes to play on nostalgia, conjuring up memories like the tantalizing scent of apple pie, for example, that will lead to good conversation which goes hand-in-hand with dining.  Third, she respects the cultural roots of the region and is creative when cooking with the foods local to the region.

Telling the Truth About Male and Female Lobsters
Telling the Truth About Male and Female Lobsters

With so many prepared, frozen, and ready-to-go meals on the market today, I asked Chef Ilona why there seems to have been a resurgence in home cooking in the past few years.  She believes it is attributable to a number of health issues, including highly publicized food-born illnesses that were caused by contaminated food.  This has caused consumers to be more concerned about buying modified foods that are full of preservatives and, instead, they are becoming more health-conscious and so are turning to making their own meals.

What’s next for Chef Ilona?  She tells me she is working on a cookbook and exploring the possibility of filming some TV cooking shows.  In the short-term, she is busy getting her Catering and Consulting business up and running.  Ever thinking outside the box, Chef Ilona is offering what she calls “Kitchen Party Cooking Classes”.  This is where she will come to your home and teach you and a small group of friends how to interactively cook a particular dish – e.g., sushi, gourmet pizza, pies, etc.  This is way to engage foodies and get them participating in food preparation, all in the comfort of their own home.  What a great idea for a girls night out, a bachelorette party, or just a get-together for no other reason other than good conversation and food.  If you are interested in having Chef Ilona cater to your event or customize a Kitchen Party Cooking Class, contact her at 902-316-0993 or by email at chef.ilona.daniel@gmail.com

Chef Ilona Teaching
Chef Ilona Teaching

Before we ended our chat, I asked Chef Ilona to answer some short snapper questions:

1.  What is the one kitchen tool/gadget you can’t live without?

Can’t pick just one – have the “fast five” – Chef’s knife, small serrated paring knife, a Swiss peeler, a microplane, and a good quality cutting board.

2.  What is your all time favorite food?

Pizza – any kind!

3.  What is the one non-culinary factoid about Chef Ilona that people might not know about?

I’m a hippie at heart – I like nature and will actually, “stop and smell the roses.”

4.  What do you do when you are not cooking?

I like reading, nature hikes, listening to music, and going to concerts.

5.  What is your favorite recipe featuring an Island product?  Care to share it?

Swedish Potato Casserole. It uses PEI potatoes and PEI-produced Cows Creamery cheese.  (Recipe follows)

 

Swedish Potato Casserole

3 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp mace (or nutmeg)
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups Whipping Cream
½ cup flour
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 lb grated Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 cups Cows Aged Cheddar, grated

As you preheat your oven to 375 (use convection baking if you have that option), preheat your 4-6 quart baking dish with 4-6 tbsp butter in the oven.

Whisk thoroughly, the first 6 ingredients together(approximately 3 minutes).  Stir in the potatoes. Pour mixture into the hot casserole dish.  QUICKLY top with cheese, and place back into oven immediately.

Bake for 45 minutes.

 

Waiting for Lobsters to Cook in the Sandpit
Waiting for Lobsters to Cook in the Sandpit

Keep an eye on this rising celebrity chef as she progresses in her career.  Chef Ilona is very creative, brimming with ideas and personality, and she’s going places in her chosen career!

 

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today.

Be sure to visit my Facebook page at My Island Bistro Kitchen.  You may also wish to follow me on twitter @PEIBistro, on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”, and on Instagram at PEIBistro.