Jammin' with the Gypsy

This is Sivia Sadofsky and she has some preservations of the compote, confit, jam and marmalade variety. They're all part of her newly launched Gypsy Jams, and she's ready to rock your crumpet, your croissant, your artisanal cheese or your nearest spoon.

Sivia, a devout fruit eater, especially berries, has been preserving the fresh fruit flavours of summer - and fall and winter - since moving to the west coast over 15 years ago.

Staring down a bowl of blackberries one day, she's never looked back.

Family and friends have always been the lucky recipients of Gypsy Jams, until now. Twelve flavours are hitting a Vancouver farmers market near you, with more in the works.

Hot Cherry with a warming hit of chile, Ruby Seville, a jewel-toned blend of Seville and Blood oranges, Belgium Chocolate-Cherry, Wild Blueberry, Fig-Citrus and Lemon-Ginger-Vanilla Marmalade, these are full flavoured, fruit-forward preserves, not sugar bombs, and just some of the creative combinations to hit the market.

Not just for baked goods, Sivia encourages buyers to try them with yogurt, or use as a condiment for cheeses and smoked meats. (Once my crumpet supply has dried up, I'll be following her advice.)

Other combinations in the works include: Organic Lemon Marmalade with Vanilla and Ginger, Chocolate-Cherry-Chile - "great on pork", Apricot, Pear, Quince and Fig Mostarda inspired by her recent trip to Italy.

Why gypsy? "I consider myself a bit of gypsy," she says, " a little free spirited, a little unrooted, and I have a footloose, fancy-free approach to the creative process."

So the next time your palate has wanderlust, take it on a little trip with Sivia's Gypsy Jams.

Friend her on Facebook at Sivia Preserves Ltd., or follow her tweets @GypsyJams.

Vodka Sauce

Vodka has very little use in our house. Gin on the other hand.... but that's another story. Our neglected bottle of vodka emerges only for that brilliant Sunday morning restorative, the spicy Caesar - Bloody Mary to you Americans - or used for a carb session in a vodka sauce.

My first taste of vodka sauce came out of a jar thanks to the Rao's, the 10-table you-can-never-get-a-reservation Italian restaurant in East Harlem, New York.

Thick with saucy oregano and basil-flecked tomatoes and rich with parmesan and cream, it came with an equally rich price tag and saved for special occasions.

According to research, vodka sauce originated in the 1980s. Joanna's restaurant in New York was the first to make a success of the dish. Others, including Rao's followed suit. Then came cookbooks and celebrity chefs' versions, including Nigella Lawson. Most recipes always add cream and butter, but the version created one wine-soaked evening with friends is and has become an old reliable.

It goes something like this: lots of garlic, finely minced and slow-simmered in olive oil, a few crushed red chiles, an ample dose of vodka, add pureed whole tomatoes and simmer until thick. Serve over penne pasta with lots of freshly grated romano. No cream. No butter.

Using whole tomatoes is very important, as I've found chopped or pre-pureed canned tomatoes contain too much water. Every recipe for the sauce requests penne pasta but cavatappi (aka Scoobie Doos) also works brilliantly, as does my fallback noodle, spaghetti.

It's a zingy sauce with deep tomato flavour with mellowed garlic and vodka sweetness complemented by chile heat.

So dust off that bottle of vodka and get cooking!

Vodka Sauce (with thanks to the Ushers)

Serves 4

Penne pasta (substitute Cavatappi or Spaghetti)

4 Tbsp olive oil

4 to 6 large garlic cloves, minced fine

2 to 3 Tbsp. crushed red chile

1 cup of vodka

5 cups of pureed tomatoes (from 1 1/2 cans (the 796 ml size) of quality whole tomatoes)

Salt to taste

Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

Gently heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan and simmer the minced garlic for about five minutes, taking care not to brown the garlic. Add the chiles and fry for a minute and pour in the vodka. Bring to a boil and simmer for another five minutes. Puree 1 1/2 cans of whole tomatoes and add to the pot. Bring to the boil and simmer between 30 to 40 minutes until thick. Add salt to taste. Serve with al dente pasta and pass the cheese, please.

Daidoco Revisited

Visiting the cozy confines of Kaori and Naotatsu Ito's Daidoco (kitchen in Japanese), is where I could spend most of my lunches. And I often do. I got there just in the nick of time, 12:30 to be exact, just as they were selling out of most of their small plates of freshly made salads and fish dishes.

Dishes are priced individually between $3 and $6.00 and combined together you have yourselves one of the best values in town, prepared by one of Victoria's most talented chefs.

As I mentioned in a previous post (link here), this is not your average Japanese restaurant. As such, the only sushi you'll find on the menu uses tuna belly combined with green onion. As with everything else on the menu, it's available in limited quantities, while supplies last. I scored!

That delicate, silky, buttery wonder was followed by a selection of three of today's specialties, each made with such forethought and care.

Poke tuna, finely chopped tuna tossed with sesame oil and spices was served over organic greens. Two salads, one of baby beets, snow peas, kabu and shi-li-huong tossed in a creamy tofu dressing, and the other a medley of komatsu-na, daikon, fuki, and baby wasabi-na greens tossed in a lightly spiced miso sauce. All the ingredients were organic and gleaned from the Ito's and Umi Nami Farm's gardens.

Each dish held onto its own distinct characters: a sensual celebration of spring's bright flavours, verdant, with a bit of crunch and varying textures that tickled in the mouth. Nothing was overwrought with sauce or soggy from sitting around in a fridge for days. What you eat at Daidoco is prepared that morning, or cooked to order.
Before I tackled my lunch, Nao-san sent out a gift, a tsukdashi of rock fish kama (cheek), served fried and topped with one of Nao-san's favorite spices, smoked paprika. The luscious flesh was presented beside Salt Spring Island shitake mushrooms and a mound of ribbony sweet knob onions that had been tossed with smoked salt and topped with bonito flakes.

Nao's philosophy is to provide nutritious food at affordable prices and he has definitely succeeded. But with food this outstanding and with the lineups that ensue every day, it's amazing he doesn't feel the need to raise his prices, dumb down the menu, open late, open for dinner, or on the weekends, where he can be found tending his Saanich garden growing food for the restaurant.

Daidoco. Get there early and be nourished.