Our readers put their best apple and mussel recipes on the judges’ table—now you can put their delicious dishes on yours.
Each year, we hold our recipe contest judging in a different Atlantic Canadian community—all the better to enrich our knowledge of the culinary landscape.
The 2011 Comfort Food Recipe Contest judging was held on the heels of PEI’s food festival extraordinaire, Fall Flavours, at the Platter House Ocean Retreat, in Souris. We were welcomed with open arms—in fact, the eastern Island town erected a welcome sign for us!
Our judges were Bobby MacMillan, Atlantic Aqua Farms; Linda Duncan, Mussel Industry Council of North America; Esther Gauthier, avid Souris home cook; and Jesse MacDonald, chef at Rodd Brudenell River Resort.
I prepared the finalist recipes for “Judgment Day” with the help of chef Joel Short, of the Georgetown Inn. Our judges came armed with terrific appetites, and took the time to taste each dish and deliberate carefully, until, finally, the winners were determined.
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This year’s grand prize winner is Barbara Young from Barachois Brook, NL. Find the recipe for her Apple & Sausage Quiche, which is simple and delicious, on page 53.
With the business of the day completed, the Saltscapers were raring to explore more of the surroundings. We climbed to the top of the local lighthouse to get a bird’s-eye view of Souris, then went “tonging” for oysters—harvesting from the ocean floor using long rake-like tongs—in Colville Bay. (These oysters had been named the best on the Island a few weeks before, at the International Shellfish Festival in Charlottetown.)
Finally, we toured the only distillery in Canada licensed to make moonshine—the Myriad View Artisan Distillery—and ended the evening drinking Strait Lightning margaritas in the kitchen back at Platter House, recalling the days of prohibition, homemade stills (PEI apparently has a rich history in this regard!) and illegal shine.
Souris is a great place to experience downhome hospitality—and it’s the little town that could. It suffered a blow when a lobster processing plant closed last April, putting approximately 300 people out of work; on the other hand, a report by the Atlantic Institute of Marketing Studies released in November gave Souris Regional High School top score for leading marks and a high number of graduates going on to college and university.
We enjoyed our time there. Thanks to our gracious host at the Platter House, Melvin Ford, and to the judges and chefs—and to our readers, who shared their coveted recipes with us.
Apple and Sausage Quiche
When Barbara Young, of Barachois Brook, NL, heard that a relative had entered our recipe contest, she immediately set her mind to entering as well—in the spirit of friendly competition—wondering which recipe from her collection she might choose.
Ultimately, she decided upon this Apple & Sausage Quiche—a recipe that her family has often enjoyed. She says she chose this recipe because it’s very simple, and because she can change the types of sausage and cheese in it (she’s tried it with both Italian and maple sausages, and with havarti and Monterey Jack cheeses), and it always turns out delicious.
Barb acquired her love of cooking from her parents, who had specific talents that they combined to make fabulous food. Barb says her mom makes the flakiest pie crust she has ever tasted, and her dad, who passed away about three years ago, used to fill those pie crusts with delicious moose, lamb and rabbit mixtures. She also fondly remembers his bannock and his smoked char and salmon.
Born in Stephenville Crossing, NL, Barb is one of six children. She spent her youth in northern Quebec where her father operated a hunting and fishing camp. When her parents returned to Newfoundland, Barb stayed in Quebec, where she worked as a dispatcher for a small aviation company.
She went back “home” in 1996, and now works as an assistant steward on a Marine Atlantic ferry. She says she’s surrounded on the boat by many fabulous cooks, and they are always swapping and exchanging recipes.
When she’s not on the water or in the kitchen you can find Barb in the garden or at the bingo hall. Let’s put her quiche firmly under the “D” for delicious!
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Apple Cheddar Potato Mash
You may be surprised to learn—especially after you’ve tasted it—that Cindy Robinson’s Apple Cheddar Potato Mash was invented the day it was entered into our recipe contest. Cindy, who lives in Middleton, NS, had been preparing pork chops for dinner and was planning to make applesauce, but she ran out of time, so she decided to throw the apples in with the potatoes.
At the last minute, she added cheddar cheese, and a favourite dish was born. Later that day, she saw a posting about the Saltscapes recipe contest on Facebook—and the rest is history.
Originally from Digby, NS, Cindy spent 12 years living in Iqaluit, Nunavut, where she worked as an accountant for the Iqaluit District Education Authority. Now she’s happily settled back home in Nova Scotia, where she is a self-employed accountant. She enjoys drawing and reading as well as cooking and baking.
Cindy loves to prepare sauces—everything tastes better with a sauce, she says—and gets plenty of practice when she helps to prepare community meals with the Clementsport Legion Ladies’ Auxiliary, where she volunteers as a public relations officer.
In fact, Cindy has donated the prize for her winning recipe to the Auxiliary to help raise much-needed funds.
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Apple and Pasta Party Salad
Like many of the prizewinners on these pages, Carole Lynch is an artist who works in several media; she does abstract art using pastels, paints and charcoal, and makes jewelry from recycled objects like sea glass and beads.
And, also like many of our winners, Carole has elevated cooking to an art form: she takes as much pleasure in the styling and presentation of her food as with the preparation.
She is quick to emphasize that anyone who makes this recipe should prepare it to his or her own tastes. “There are no rules,” she insists.
Carole, who lives in Eastern Passage, NS, admits that she enjoys recreating restaurant recipes at home, which is how this salad was “invented.” She once purchased a similar salad from a downtown eatery, but she thought it had a lot of room for improvement.
Carole offers some tips to make the preparation for this dish simpler: she says to buy prepared salads of honeydew and cantaloupe at the grocery store and to buy individual packages of dried mixed fruit and nuts.
Why is it called a “party” salad? “Because there’s so much stuff in it, it’s like a big party of fruit in your mouth!”
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Apple Pudding
Susan Rector of Oxford, NS, says her mother-in-law, June Rector, used to make this recipe many years ago, and Susan always loved it. In fact, her husband, Dana, and two daughters all say this is a favourite dessert.
Both Susan and Dana are teachers in nearby Amherst. Healthy eating plays an important role in their lives, and the couple enjoys an active lifestyle that includes backcountry hiking and camping, downhill skiing and curling.
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Mussel Pie
Jacqueline Amirault had never entered a recipe contest until she entered ours, but the resident of Conway, NS, just outside Digby, had consistently received rave reviews for her Mussel Pie—so when she saw our call for entries, she decided to give it a whirl. It proved to be a chance worth taking—her terrific dish earned her a first place win in our mussel category.
She discovered this dish about 30 years ago when she and her husband, Bill, travelled to Saint-Pierre & Miquelon on vacation. They stayed at a B&B, where they had mussel pie for dinner—Jacqueline and Bill thought it was divine.
After returning home, Jacqueline—a seafood lover who was quite comfortable in the kitchen—decided to try to recreate the pie. Her mother, Lucille Comeau, used to make a quahog pie at their home in Meteghan River, NS, so Jacqueline began with that recipe, improvising as she went. Finally, she got her Mussel Pie just right—and she has been making it ever since.
Jacqueline spends a lot of time in the kitchen now that she is retired from teaching elementary school. On the afternoon that we spoke, she had a pot of spaghetti sauce on the stove and she and Bill were enjoying her homemade lemon bars. Jacqueline makes all their bread—five loaves of whole wheat at a time—and she loves to bake sweets to satisfy her sweet tooth. She also makes all their jams and preserves, and Bill says her rabbit pie is spectacular.
In addition to being a great cook, Jacqueline is also very good at keeping secrets; she hadn’t yet told a soul that she won a prize in this contest—but now, her secret is out. If you’re one of those friends who has had the pleasure of enjoying this dish, you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s a prizewinner.
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Mussel Bisque
Charmaine Van den Eynden says she submitted this dish to our contest because her family really likes it, and because it’s a good dish for special occasions. Also, she says, it’s a good way to use up leftover mussels if you’ve made too many!
The married mother of four from Sundridge, NS, stumbled across a recipe for Mussel Bisque in a cookbook several years ago. It was good, but she saw room for improvement, so she made a number of changes to that recipe. One of those changes involved steaming the mussels in chicken broth, as opposed to just using water. Her changes led to the creation of this delicious and prize-worthy dish.
When Charmaine isn’t wearing an apron—or repairing computers (she and her husband own an electronic repair business)—she’s perhaps wearing an artist’s smock: Charmaine enjoys doing crafts, including sewing and jewellery-making, painting and sketching.
We know you’ll enjoy this bisque as much as we did.
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Hearty Mussel Chowder
Karen Thibeault discovered this recipe on a visit to her great grandfather’s former home in Exploits Islands, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. The islands, which were once home to a population of several hundred, now have no permanent residents. On this particular visit, Karen happened to be looking through an old recipe collection when she came across this recipe for mussel chowder. It had been published in a pamphlet that may have been a promotional piece issued by the Newfoundland government in the 1970s or early ’80s. The recipe went home with her; whenever she makes it for her family, she says, it goes over very well.
Karen loves to cook and has always enjoyed making chowder. She says that, although she knew bacon could make a wonderful flavour base for chowders, she had never tried it in chowder made with mussels alone. She recommends using wild mussels if they are available. “You can find the meatiest ones around the full moon in May,” she points out—but adds that if you are using wild mussels, it’s very important to scrub the shells thoroughly before steaming.
The retired teacher and mother of two grown daughters lives in Rexton, NB, with her husband, Mark. This is the first time Karen has ever entered a recipe contest, but she says she loves to experiment in the kitchen—especially with ingredients from her garden. Karen also told me she has developed a killer seafood pizza; after some cajoling she’s shared the recipe with me!