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ATLANTIC LOBSTERS: Recipes, Food & Festivals
If you're seeking something a bit less formalized, try searching for a local lobster supper. These mouth-watering events are a staple of the province, with tourist driving through the countryside...
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ATLANTIC LOBSTERS
Canadian Festivals in PEI - Fall Flavours, Food and Wine Festival
The ability to try more than 100 tempting local dishes, all created under the guidance of renowned chef Michael Smith, is the highlight of Fall Flavours, an extravaganza that took place in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Running from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5 2008, Fall Flavours offered Smith, a famed chef who rose to prominence cooking at the Inn at Bay Fortune in PEI, the chance to demonstrate how the province continues to inspire his food.
" I feel very fortunate to live here in the countryside and it flavours my cooking every day. Our relatively rural lifestyle is a constant source of inspiration," he recently told readers on the Internet site of the Globe and Mail. "When I first came here 16 years ago, I came to meet the farmers and fisherman and cook. My seven years as a chef at the Inn at Bay Fortune was all about cooking with what's around me -- with the season, of time and place."
It is this inspiration that Smith brings to PEI for Fall Flavours, and those seeking an ideal PEI vacation might want to consider late September as an opportunity to see all that Charlottetown - and the rest of the island - has to offer.
Fall Flavours held over 130 "culinary events," through its week-long run, allowing participants to interact in culinary seminars ranging from creating gourmet meals to pickling and preserves or cheese and wine tastings. Visitors also engaged local fisherman and farmers by taking one of the unique island tours that allow the uninitiated to pick potatoes, dig clams or catch lobsters. Other offerings include the wine and hand-crafted ales festival, a traditional farm feast, a PEI Studio Tour, as well as prix fixe menus at many of the province's finest restaurants. The goal is to allow everyone to interact and taste the dishes and drinks that are uniquely PEI.
All of this falls under the watchful eye of Smith, one of North America's best-known chefs. Having worked in top restaurants around the world, Smith joined the Inn at Bay Fortune in 1992, making it rated among the Top 10 Canadian restaurants. Six years later he commenced a television show on the Food Network called "The Inn Chef." The series saw Smith demonstrating his love for the local dishes he created out of PEI's unique ingredients. It is this localized approach that Smith brings to Fall Flavours.
"It is in PEI where I learned to let my cooking be personal," he says. "I learned to let my cooking reflect my personality and my many personal relationships with the amazing folks here who get up early, get their hands dirty and produce the beautiful raw ingredients PEI is famous for."
Check out Charlottetown when you have your PEI vacation. Click here for more information about Prince Edward Island.
PEI Festivals Focus on Fantastic Island Food
From rustic local cuisine, to lobster suppers, seafood fresh off nearby boats or the culinary delights created by award-winning chefs like Michael Smith, Prince Edward Island's food is an integral draw that brings visitors back time and again.
Among the key culinary draws this year is the International Shellfish Festival, which runs from Sept. 19 to the 21st on Charlottetown's historic waterfront, and which organizers say will be among the "biggest kitchen parties to hit Canada." The festival is a joint effort bringing together the PEI Aquaculture Alliance and the PEI Shellfish Association.
"The festival will have something for every seafood lover," says Tracy Stretch, one of the festival's organizers. "From gourmet chefs to celebrity cooks, and from first time oyster tasters to world-class oyster shuckers, I promise the festival will entertain your senses and tantalize your taste buds." Other highlights of the festival include to the `Go Deep International Tie One On Mussel Competition, the International PEI Shellfish Chef Challenge, The World is Your Oyster free children's program, as well as Peake's Wharf Boat Cruises with guided tours.
If you're seeking something a bit less formalized, try searching for a local lobster supper. These mouth-watering events are a staple of the province, with tourist driving through the countryside, with maps of PEI in hand, searching for these local events, many of which have been held in restaurants or churches for decades. Of course given the abundance of local seafood, there`s always the opportunity to catch your own supper. From early July through September, local charters can be booked at ports, all over Prince Edward Island. Regardless of whether you`re yearning for some fresh tuna, tasty mackerel or perhaps the adventure of shark fishing, there are options to fit any taste or interest.
The most common types of deep sea fishing charters in both the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Strait are for mackerel running from locations like Naufrage, North Lake, Red Head, Savage Harbour, Covehead Harbour, Malpeque, and New London Wharf. These charters typically take more than three hours and offer fun-filled options for the entire family.
But catching your dinner can be a challenge. A large tuna, for example, can force a boat to travel up to nine kms (six miles) before it can be hauled aboard. It is this sort of challenge that has led the port of North Lake Harbour, to become known as "The Tuna Capital of the World."
It is this sort of notoriety that attracts visitors from all over the world to try their hand at PEI fishing.
"We went deep sea fishing with the Bearded skipper," says Jim from Massachusetts. "And it was amazing. I ended up catching one mackerel."
Lobster Recipes:
>>> Lobster Abegweit
2 cups/500 ml lobster meat
3 tbsp/45 ml butter
1 cup/250 ml mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp/15 ml onion, diced
3 tbsp/45 ml flour
1 1/2 cups/375 ml evaporated milk
1/2 cup/125 ml whole milk
1/4 cup/50 ml processed cheese spread
Melt butter, add lobster meat and saute for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and onion and saute an additional 5 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, evaporated milk and whole milk. Cook, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Stir in cheese spread.
Serve over patty shells. Serves 6.
>>> Lobster Stuffed Potatoes
1/2 cup/125 ml lobster meat, diced
6 potatoes, baked
1 tbsp/15 ml butter
1/2 cup/125 ml sour cream
1/4 cup/50 ml onion, grated
1/4 tsp/1 ml pepper
1/4 cup/50 ml mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup/125 ml cheddar cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 375 degree F (190 degrees C).
Cut baked potatoes in half lengthwise and carefully scoop out insides, reserving the skins. In a bowl, mash the potato, then add butter, sour cream, onion and pepper. Beat until smooth. Fold in lobster meat and mushrooms, and place mixture back in the 12 potato skin halves.
Sprinkle with grated cheese and place on a baking sheet.
Bake 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are heated through. Serves 6.
Check out the lobster suppers when you have your PEI vacation. For more information about Prince Edward Island -- Go to http://www.tourismpei.com
Bon Appetit!
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