In February, Slow Food Winnipeg decided to focus on teaching their members how to create, from scratch, some of the most commonly purchased grocery items — pasta, cheese, and pickled vegetables. Their Manitoba Made Series was a big hit on Meetup.com.
Many may wonder why Slow Food Winnipeg is holding so many events (eight since Nov 3rd). The reasoning is that they are attempting to reactivate the past members who they lost when the convivium folded in 2008/09. “We also inherited almost 800 followers on Facebook and Twitter, who we didn’t know, and who we’d never met. It’s our hope that by using a variety of events that we will entice our former members to return to support the Slow Food movement here in Winnipeg”, says Anna Echols, Slow Food Winnipeg vice-president.
Special thanks to Vince of DeLuca’s Specialty Foods, Louise of Aurora Farm, and Kim of flora & farmer for co-hosting these events, and a special note of appreciation to their stalwart President, Chef Cam Tran of Cafe Ce Soir for making his restaurant available for their Sunday evening seminars.
Pasta
Chef Cam taught the participants just how tricky making pasta by hand (without a machine) can be using semolina flour. The gnocchi and roasted red-pepper tomato sauce recipes that were made that day are available on their blog.
Cheese
Did you know that goat milk quite palatable even for the most lactose intolerant? During this seminar, participants learned how to create ricotta, goat cheese and feta. Want to try making super easy ricotta wherever you may be? Here’s a recipe from SFW’s Vice President.
Pickled Carrots
Kim Bialkoski of flora & farmer, one of Slow Food Winnipeg’s Supporters taught an enthusiastic (and oversold – there was a waiting list!) group of pickling pupils the perfect way to preserve root vegetables, even in the dead of winter. Check out her unique combinations of beet/vanilla/strawberry jam and Szechuan pickled green beans. This is but the first of many preserving seminars with flora & farmer, so if you missed out… don’t worry, there will be more scheduled soon!
Inspired by Montreal’s Slow Wine event, Chef Cam opened up his private cooking class wine & cheese appreciation to the members of Slow Food. Attendees were able to try some of the Cam’s favourites, as well as one of the last wheels of peppercorn chèvre from Whiteshell Dairy which is closing its doors in Winnipeg. We hope they hold another one in the future, because… who doesn’t love wine & cheese pairings?