Dinner at Deerholme Farm

Bill Jones, the chef who runs the combo cooking class/dinners at Deerholme Farm was kind enough to schedule one of his dinners on my birthday this year - and focusing on my favorite fruit, the tomato!! (no, he had no idea of his fabulous timing - but it was still appreciated). So I suggested that Claude, my parents and I book to attend as it just seemed like the perfect thing to do... and it did not dissappoint. The food was amazing. The atmosphere, as always, was comfortable, fun, friendly and filled with delicious tastes and lots of neat and interesting things to learn.

There were 8 people there on Saturday night including Lynn, Bill's wife, Hilary and Patty Abbott of Hilary's Cheeses in Cowichan Bay (we sampled a few of their cheeses in the dishes - and they were as delicious as promised!), a couple from Vancouver and Alfonse (a sommelier, I believe).

We began with a tasting of number of different heirloom tomatoes. The varieties we sampled included the Pineapple tomato, the Black Krim, Golden Sunburst, Cherry, Brandywine and many others. The one above were the ones I wrote down because they were my favorites. It was really interesting to taste them back-to-back and realize just how tasteless so many of the tomatoes we buy in the grocery store really are. The Brandywine tasted the way I remember tomatoes tasting fresh from my Grandma's garden in Peterborough (funny enough, Bill had the same memory of tomatoes from his childhood and they also were from Peterborough).

The menu for Saturday, following the tasting of the tomatoes, began with a confit of cherry tomatoes, olives and basil with grilled sardines on rustic bread. The bread was from True Grain bakery in Cowichan Bay. The sardines were caught somewhere in the Georgia Strait and were delicious! They were the first sardines I've ever had not from a can (the closest I've come were oolichans from Liliget Feast House in Vancouver).

Next up was Heirloom tomato soup with Israeli cous-cous, pine mushrooms and Venturi-Shulze balsamic cream. There are not words for how delicious this soup was. I have to confess, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE soup. I would happily eat soup every day of the week and never get tired of it. I'm hoping to get back into the habit of making a batch of soup a week and eating it every day for lunch. This recipe will definitely be added to the rotation.

Dungeness crab, roasted garlic and plum tomato risotto with Hilary's St. Claire followed. I love risotto and the flavours of this one were lovely. On Sunday, Dad took Claude and I crabbing off a local dock. We caught four more crab, all of them Redrock crabs. Mum and Dad had extolled the virtues of the Redrock crab this summer while they were up in Desolation Sound, and I have to say I agree. I find their flavour a bit sweeter - and the price is just right! :-) I think when I make this risotto, I am going to try it with Redrock.

The main course was Smoked sablefish (black cod) in a Basque-style tomato stew. Again, this was a favourite because of the blend of flavours in the broth - they weren't overpowering but complimented all the other aspects of the dish beautifully. My mum and dad felt the fish was too salty for their tastes, which I can understand. I really enjoyed it, but considering they don't eat any salt in their diets and eat very, very little prepared food they would definitely be more sensitive to it.

The final course was goat's cheese pannacotta with fireweed honey, vanilla poached Glenora peaches and green zebra tomatoes. I was really looking forward to this course because I was interested to see how a tomato would work in a dessert. This worked wonderfully - the sweetness of the green zebra blended very well with Hilary's goat's cheese - and made the dish beautiful too! I would love to make this for a summer BBQ dinner party with friends next year.

The fun of attending one of Bill's evenings is the opportunity to watch a talented chef at work and fully enjoy the products of his efforts as well. Of course, we also get to take his recipes home with us and try them out for ourselves, so the fun and enjoyment of the evening continues on.

Check out our Flickr account for a few more photos.