Miranda: Cooking a meal
on the north shore of Lake Erie at sundown.
What a perfect way to wrap up an incredible day.
I'm Miranda Keyes.
It's the final episode of 5 Stops season one.
And Food & Drink magazine has asked chef Devan Rajkumar and I
to get back on the road together
and explore one last region of Ontario.
Devan: We'll be visiting five food and drink destinations,
picking up some amazing local ingredients
and then whipping up a barbecue feast
inspired by our culinary adventure.
I am so happy that we got to do this last episode together.
It has been a journey!
It's amazing to know that just in our backyard
we have so much artisanal food and drink.
It's right at our fingertips.
Miranda: It really is. And I cannot believe
we're doing another one together today.
This is an incredible fall day
and I'm so, so happy to be sharing this with you.
Miranda and Devan, we're back.
(Laughter)
(Music)
Miranda: Today we're on the north shore of Lake Erie
to check out Essex County,
the southernmost region in Canada.
Long summers and mild winters
make Essex a sweet spot for farmers
and for people who, like us, love to eat.
This place is known for greenhouse growing,
so much agriculture out here.
And of course, distilleries, wineries.
We're going to see so much cool stuff.
I can't wait to see what we get today.
And we're going to put it all together for this barbecue.
I can't wait! - I can't wait either.
I feel like we're just going to have endless options
for dinner tonight.
Devan: For our first stop,
we're headed to Wolfhead Distillery,
home to Kavi whisky, Canada's first ever blend
of Canadian whisky and cold brew coffee.
So we're at Wolfhead Distillery.
Jackie, you are one of the co-creators
of this Kavi whisky, right?
Yeah. Kavi's, like, my little baby.
So there's actually four of us that started it.
And one of the owners of Wolfhead
is a business partner of mine.
So this is the home of Kavi.
Amazing. And this is coffee
and whisky combined, right? - Exactly.
So we've set up something a little bit different today.
We've actually deconstructed the product for you.
So I have some base Canadian whisky for you to try,
along with some cold brew, which you can actually try.
And then we'll try the product in its final version,
after you've kind of tried the original components on its own.
Miranda: Fantastic.
So what we do is we actually create a custom blend
of Canadian whisky specific for combining with cold brew coffee.
So you'll notice it's got a nice, light oakiness to it.
It's not too overpowering because, again,
we don't want it to be overpowering the coffee,
we want it to be a complementing effect.
So you'll notice the same thing with the cold brew.
Butterscotchy.
Yeah! It's got a nice nose on it. Although on the palate,
you get, like, a nice vanilla, light oakiness.
You know what, it's delicious.
I'm not normally a whisky drinker,
but this is definitely something that's easy to kind of sip on.
It's not a super-strong flavour, but really delicious.
So this is our cold brew coffee.
And it's actually been custom developed specifically
to incorporate into Canadian whisky.
You'll notice when you sip it,
it's not going to be overpowering on the palate.
We use five different beans
from four different countries in Central and South America.
They're roasted locally. We have a really nice partnership
with Colonial Coffee. So it's all made per batch.
So as soon as we're going to start a new batch,
the coffee comes in and we cold brew it right away.
That tastes delicious. It's light-tasting, you can see.
- Very light. It's a very light colour
but it tastes very refreshing. -Not a lot of bitterness at all.
Exactly, what's important for combining with whisky.
So we'll move on and you can actually try the final blend.
So what makes this very unique is,
once we've finished the cold brewing process
and the Canadian whisky blend is ready
for coffee to be incorporated into it,
we actually barrel blend it in oak barrels.
So it doesn't just rest... it's in barrels together.
And you'll notice what happens is,
you'll get the Canadian whisky coming through first.
It'll have a light oakiness to it with some sweet vanilla.
And then the coffee
will actually come through in the finish.
So you get this beautiful layering effect,
where you're not going to get an overpowering of coffee,
and it's going to complement the whisky,
the mouthfeel and the character.
It's really nice. It has a little bit of sweetness to it.
And you're right, the coffee kind of kicks in at the end.
You get the whisky at the beginning.
That's really delicious.
We do have something a little bit fun
that's really easy to do at home.
We actually make custom orange bitters
specific to go with cold brew coffee-blended whisky.
So in order to make an old fashioned,
all you have to do is drop in three or four drops
of our orange bitters into the glass.
Then you're going to grab a piece of orange zest...
Thank you.
...and you're going to rim the edge of the glass with the...
so that's the key. So when you're sipping it,
you'll notice you actually smell the orange
as the whisky enters your palate.
The orange, coffee, whisky,
it all goes together beautifully.
So everything is bottled and made here on-site?
Jackie: Yes. So we hand-craft everything,
and it's bottled on-site.
What's kind of fun about Wolfhead
is we've actually designed it so that it can grow with demand.
So, um, our bottling line
is kind of now a combination of, like,
hand-bottling and automation,
just because our demand's been growing.
So we're still handwriting all the batch numbers
on each bottle.
My mom's actually hand-tying every single neck tag
that goes onto these. She's done 65,000 now.
- Wow! - But yeah, we've...
we've had to get to the point
that we've had to install a little mini bottling line
just to keep up with demand, which is a good problem to have.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Miranda, what's our next stop?
Okay, we're going to Lee & Maria's roadside stand.
- Love roadside stands. - Aren't they the best?
This place is really cool
because they started as a really small stand,
and now they've grown to this big, elevated food destination.
Devan: We're going to get some amazing stuff for our dinner.
Devan: Ah, yeah!
We started 42 years ago now,
and we started at the road.
And then we did that for several years.
And then as the years progressed,
we just kept getting busier and busier and bigger.
And then 12 years ago my dad built the market
and he put this up.
And then we just kind of started filling it.
And then we were just able to grow more and do more.
There are so many of us down the road,
like, fruit stands, that there is.
But we're about the only one along this stretch
that has a market to this degree.
Who are Lee and Maria?
Lee and Maria are my mom and dad.
They're the namesake of who we are and what we do.
Miranda: So what do you grow in the fields back here?
So we grow a combination of corn, beans,
tomatoes, potatoes,
broccoli, cauliflower,
sweet peas and pickles.
A whole bunch of different herbs.
But we're at the end of the season.
So right now we're just harvesting the rest
of what we do have out there
so that we're going to start working the land
and prepping it for the winter,
and then have it ready for the spring.
Very few things are more satisfying
than cutting fresh herbs. - I totally agree.
And these are starting to flower,
so they're actually going to make a beautiful garnish
and they'll also taste delicious.
That'll look really pretty in a cocktail, those little flowers.
Miranda: I agree.
Devan: This looks beautiful. You're always food styling.
You don't even mean to be doing it.
- I know! - Wow, stunning.
It's just what I do.
Devan: For our dinner tonight,
we're grabbing some freshly frozen fish,
straight out of Lake Erie,
which they also sell here at Lee & Maria's,
along with fresh potatoes, onions,
squash and anything else that gets us hungry.
Miranda: For our next stop
we're getting a special behind-the-scenes look
inside a company that, like Lee & Maria's,
started out as a small,
family-run roadside produce stand.
So, for our next stop, we're off to Del Fresco.
A really big farm.
Miranda: Yeah, I'm so excited about this place.
It's acres upon acres, greenhouses...
Yeah, they grow everything hydroponically.
And this is where you can get local peppers,
strawberries, cucumbers,
all kinds of things, all year round.
I have always wanted to see a hydroponic farm.
Man: A hydroponic farm?
Well you're going to get to see one today.
So is this all, everything that you picked recently,
you store here? - Yeah. So,
there's peppers in here, there's tomatoes in here,
there's cukes in here.
This is the biggest fridge I've ever been inside.
Yeah, well, there's bigger ones around.
Miranda: Really?
Devan: What sets your produce apart?
What makes you special?
Carl: Hydroponic produce is very special
because it's very socially responsible.
It uses 90% less chemicals than outdoor farming.
- You bring bees in here too? - We bring bees in here too.
They do all the jobs that I used to do when I was a little boy,
pollinating by hand.
When I was a little boy,
the industry was about 160, 170 acres.
And now the industry is almost 3,300 acres.
Carl, where are we right now?
Right now you're at the main plant.
There's 45 acres of greenhouse produce.
And we're standing in front of local Ontario strawberries
in the fall season. - You are.
How is that happening?
We learned how to grow, over the last three, four years,
strawberries that are indigenous to North America.
We plant them. And about four or five weeks after you plant them,
you start harvesting the strawberries.
Devan: So Carl, you're going to show us the correct way
to pick a strawberry, right?
The thing is, is you don't want to put too much pressure
on that berry because then it'll bruise
and then the store will be upset with you.
But you just grab it, and it's kind of a wrist flick there.
You know what I love? As a chef,
I love using these two-tone colour strawberries,
the ones that aren't fully ripe.
Visually on a plate, this looks amazing.
We can pickle them, we can mandoline them.
There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do.
But everyone's used to the deep red strawberries,
but... Miranda, do you agree?
Oh well, I love the red ones for colour,
because it's really hard to get these out of season,
and, like taste good and they look good.
And these, I'm going to look for these everywhere now.
I'm almost full over here.
- I'm full too. - I'm on my second.
Devan: For our fourth stop,
a quick visit to the town of Kingsville
to pick up some protein for our meal.
- Butcher of Kingsville. - There it is.
Devan: So for dinner tonight, we're cooking on the beach.
We have an amazing spread that we're preparing.
What can you recommend for us?
Sure, well one of the things that I highly recommend
is trying some of the dry aged beef.
It's not something you find very readily
'cause it's somewhat of a difficult process,
but it's got a lot of things
that really make the meat stand out.
What the dry aging does is twofold.
One, it allows the meat to desiccate or dry out.
So it concentrates that flavour.
And secondly, it allows the enzymes
enough time to break down the proteins,
resulting in more tender meat.
Miranda: We're done shopping,
we're getting really hungry, and it's almost time
for our last 5 Stops dinner of the season,
a sunset beach barbecue on the north shore of Lake Erie.
Okay, we're going to Sprucewood Shores Winery now.
Yeah, this is our final stop.
We have the T-bones, we have those dill pickle sausages,
we have this whisky now. We have a lot of cool ingredients
to play with tonight. - Yeah,
lots of beautiful produce,
and we're going to have some beautiful wines to try,
to go with our dinner.
Devan: I can't wait to get cooking.
This couldn't be any more beautiful,
where we are right now.
Can you tell us a little bit about
what's going on here tonight?
So right now you're at Sprucewood Shores Winery.
It's my family's winery, and we've been here since 2003.
And we find that people enjoy our product,
and hopefully introduce them to a place here that's,
you know, a great place to come visit too.
Miranda: Oh, it's absolutely beautiful here.
So this is our Sprucewood Shores Pinot grigio.
It's a really great wine for a starter for your meals
if you're having an outdoor barbecue like this,
and you want to enjoy something with your salad,
you want to have a little bit of seafood.
And Pinot grigio is one of those grapes
that's easy for everyone to enjoy.
- So refreshing. - That's wonderful.
Really citrusy, floral.
Delicious.
A lot of wines can be either a fruit bomb, too juicy,
um, you know, almost lacking acidity, structure.
These are classic wine elements,
things that give a wine that wine fl... wine taste.
This still retains those classic wine elements.
It's got nice tannin to it,
a little bit of a grip in your mouth.
Really, really good. Delicious.
I feel with that dry aged steak that we have,
this would be a perfect pairing. - I'm looking forward to it.
- Yeah. - Cheers to that.
I think we should go eat.
Devan: We have the picnic tables full of our beautiful produce
and the different items that we picked up throughout the day.
We have our friends here,
and we're about to have some drinks
and cook up a storm.
First up,
we're going to be cooking some steaks really simply
because these are 70-day dry aged T-bones.
So those are going to get cooked on the charcoal barbecue.
We'll be searing up some dill pickle sausages
as well as the hot Italians.
We also have some roasted new potatoes cooked in cast iron
with lots of delicious Grasslands butter.
I'm also preparing a beautiful ceviche,
vibrant with all the flavours of the onion, the hot pepper,
the jalapeno maple syrup,
and some beautiful plums that we picked up from Lee & Maria's.
And finally, sauteeing some red peppers and onions.
Miranda: For dessert,
I'm going to use those beautiful strawberries
that we got from Del Fresco today,
and combine them with fresh cream.
I'm going to top it off with Kavi,
that amazing coffee whisky.
I'm going to make a Paloma inspired cocktail
using grapefruit vodka from Wolfhead.
It's going to have a little grapefruit juice,
topped up with some lime soda,
some club soda,
and finished with grapefruit zest.
Today in Essex County was amazing.
Getting to spend the day with Dev again
was absolutely fantastic.
We discovered some amazing places here
that I really didn't even know existed.
Amazing distilleries, beautiful wine,
fantastic produce.
Devan: Ontario never ceases to amaze me.
Right in my backyard we have the best produce,
the best items available to us.
Getting the opportunity to spend the day with Miranda again
has been exceptional.
She's so much fun to hang out with.
And she made this experience better than it already was.