Manning Canning Rental Kitchen - In Support of Delicious Pies

Photo credit: Peter Visima

As you may or may not know, our kickstarter campaign is live right now. Our goal is to build a much needed rentable commercial kitchen space in Toronto to help food producers bring their amazing products to the market. I wanted to give you a glimpse at some of the food producers that would benefit from a space like this and share with you their stories. Thanks to Mark Cirillo for taking the time to interview Evis and to write the great post below. For more information on Mark, click here.

How our commercial kitchen will help Evis Chirowamhangu keep her unique Zimbabwean pastries in the Toronto market. 

Growing up with her eight siblings in the little town of Nyanga, Zimbabwe, Evis Chirowamhangu looked forward to a special treat her mother would buy for the family once a month, on payday. 

It was a seemingly simple meat pie made with common spices like clove and nutmeg, but years later when she immigrated to Canada, Evis could find nothing like in the Toronto market. 

“This led me on a personal journey to recreate the taste I remembered from back home,” says Evis. “I did some research and spoke with my brother in Zimbabwe, and experimented with the recipe until I was able to get it right.” By the time she perfected the recipe and started sharing it with friends, Evis had decided to start her own company making the pastries. She would call it Mnandi, meaning “delicious” in her native language of Ndebele. 

But she soon discovered a significant hurdle: “I learned that I couldn’t just make the pies in my own home and sell them. I needed to find a commercial kitchen to prepare and store the food.”

As she started searching for a suitable space, she learned there was a shortage of commercially certified kitchens in Toronto – not enough to meet the local food community’s growing needs. 

Amongst the ones that were available, some were cost-prohibitive for small business, while others were only available during off-peak hours like nights and weekends. 

With the help of Food Forward, a non-profit local food industry advocacy, she eventually found the west-end caterer whose kitchen she now uses to make pastries and store her supplies, but even today circumstances are far from ideal. 

Evis lives near Victoria Park and Eglinton Ave E. The catering kitchen is located on the other side of the city at Dufferin and King St. Having to make that trip every time she sells her pies at a city market can add up to two hours of commute time to her day. 

Weekends are the only time Evis can use the kitchen for preparing her pies, and because it’s an aging facility there have been problems with equipment breaking down, decreasing the supply of pies she can produce. 

So it’s easy to see why Evis is looking forward to the launch of the Manning Canning Commercial Kitchen. 

1. Located at Eglinton and Laird, it will save her at least an hour of commuting each day. 

2. With its fully dedicated rental kitchen, there will be more flexibility for scheduling prep times. 

3. And equipped with newer resources, there will be less risk of lost revenue due to equipment malfunction. 

But just as importantly, there are also intangible benefits she anticipates with the launch of this new community hub.

“It’s the connecting,” she says, “the sharing stories and experience, and working together in the same space that enhances the local food community.”

To learn more about Mnandi Pies, visit their website at mnandipies.com

To learn about the Manning Canning Kickstarter campaign to build a commercial kitchen for the Toronto food community, click here.

The Chef Series: Chicken Meatballs with Dried Porcini Cream Sauce

It was 3 years ago that my path crossed with Chef Cheryl Torrance, known to the twitterati universe as @Chef_inked and we became fast friends. The kind of friend that you know will have your back and be there when you need them. The kind of friend you can go raspberry picking with and who will make you laugh your ass off.

But beyond being a great friend, Cheryl is an amazing chef. She is creative and smart in the kitchen. She knows her stuff and when I asked her to create a recipe with my Spicy Zucchini Relish I knew the end result would blow my socks off. Her ability to take an ingredient (any ingredient) and create a recipe that will have an entire room ooh'ing and aah'ing astounds me. 

Chicken Meatballs with Dried Porcini Mushroom Cream Sauce

Meatball Ingredients

1lb ground chicken

2 heaping tbsp finely chopped red onion

Generous pinch of flaked sea salt

Fresh ground pepper to your liking

4 tbsp Manning Canning Spicy Zucchini Relish

2 tbsp fresh shredded parmesan cheese

1⁄2 cup panko bread crumbs

Sauce Ingredients

1 cup dried porcini mushrooms

2 cups boiling water

1 tbsp butter

1 1⁄4 cups of large diced red onion (cook until golden brown)

1/4 cup white wine

5 tbsp Manning Canning Zucchini Relish

1⁄2 cup whipping cream

1⁄4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

Directions

First boil 2 cups of water and cover 1 cup of dried porcini mushrooms and let stand while you prepare and cook the meatballs. Preheat oven to 350F.

In a bowl combine ground chicken 2 heaping tbsp red onion, sea salt, ground pepper and 4 tbsp Zucchini Relish. Once these ingredients are fully combined add 2 tbsp parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs.

Using a 5oz professional scoop (or you can hand roll to your desired size) prepare your meatballs. Place on parchment lined baking tray and cook the meatballs for 25 minutes. The internal temperature should be 165F. Allow meatballs to fully cool.

While your meatballs are cooling, begin to prepare the sauce. Strain the mushrooms (keeping the water) and roughly chop.

In a large sauce pan on high heat melt 1 tbsp butter and add 1 1/4 cups of red onion and cook until golden brown. Add the mushrooms and stir until completely coated. Continue to cook until the mushrooms just begin to stick to the pan.

Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup white wine and then add 5 tbsp Zucchini Relish and stir thoroughly. Add reserved mushroom water, 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Place the meatballs into the sauce and reheat them to your desired heat. Serve them on noodles, quinoa or on a crusty bread for an upgraded meatball sub.

Beau's Beer Honey Pickles

The cucumbers in our garden this year went absolutely insane. Thank you Cubits for the amazing seeds and for the bumpercrop that they produced. And in no way am I complaining, but it seemed that every time I stepped into the backyard I would return to the house with a small bushel full of GIGANTIC cucumbers. We use no sprays or pesticides in our garden, so the fact that these cucumbers grew like they were on steroids we can only attribute to the great compost we added to our soil and the solid seeds that we started with.

I made Manitoba Pickles, Spicy Garlic Pickles, cucumber salads, gave them away to our neighbours, friends and family and still there were more. Again....not complaining. More expressing shock at the sheer number of cucumbers that kept appearing.

But of all the things I made, my absolute favourite was a small batch of Beau's Beer Honey Pickles. This is what happens on a sunny afternoon when you have bottles of Beau's cooling in the fridge, a garden exploding with cucumbers and empty jars lying about.

Beau's Beer Honey Pickles

4 pounds of medium sized cucumbers

1.5 cups Beau's Lug Tread Beer

1 3/4 cups water (preferably distilled)

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups pickling vinegar

3/4 cups Amber Honey

1/4 cup pickling salt

1 clove of garlic (per jar)

1 tsp black peppercorn (per jar)

1 tsp mustard seed (per jar)

Directions

The first thing you want to do with freshly picked cucumbers is to thoroughly wash your cucumbers and then you want to remove the blossom ends (Why? You ask. Find out here). Then slice your cucumbers into 1/2" slices.

In a medium sized pot combine the Beau's Lug Tread beer, distilled water, cider vinegar, pickling vinegar, amber honey and pickling salt. Over medium heat being sure to stir until the honey completely dissolves, bring the mixture to a boil and then turn off the heat.

While your brine mixture is coming to a boil, pack the cucumbers loosely into previously sterilized jars, add 1 clove of garlic, the peppercorn and mustard seed to each jar. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, burp each jar to ensure no air is trapped and top up brine level to ensure 1/2" head space. If necessary, wipe rims with damp paper towel. Centre lids on jars; screw on bands fingertip tight.

Process your jars in boiling water for 10 minutes (start timer only when water has achieved a full boil). Remove jars from water and allow to cool. Try to be patient and wait at least a week in order for full flavour. Yield 6-7, 500ml jars

The Chef Series: Cheesy Date Night Magic

For the second post in The Chef Series, I reached out to the very talented Chef Laura Gallivan to see what she could create with my Orange Onion Marmalade. What follows below is a recipe that will kick your September off with the feeling of comfort food. I warn you in advance that you may want to wear 'comfortable pants' when eating this creation ;). I decided to make it using my favourite bread made by my friend Simon over at Blackbird Bakery. It was a wise choice.

Cheesy Date Night Magic - Ingredients

1 med wheel of Brie (enough to feed 2 people who love cheese)

2-3 tbsp Manning Canning Orange Onion Marmalade

4 cloves roasted garlic

Toasted pecans 

2 tbsp caramelized onions

1 pinch chili flakes

Baguette, crustini or favourite crackers for cheesy goodness

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°

You can get fancy with this one if you want, if you’ve got one of those clay Brie crocks that someone got you that time you got married...but it really isn’t necessary. Any size appropriate oven proof dish will do, or you could even McGuyver a tinfoil baking vessel, I would just recommend giving it a little no stick spray first...as this dish is gooey & sticky.

Here’s the tricky part....Get your trustiest paring knife. Starting from the outer edge of the wheel of brie, insert the tip of the knife into the cheese, angling it towards the middle on a 45° angle, being careful not to pierce the cheese all the way down to the bottom. Slowly turn the wheel of cheese so that you cut all the way around the edge. The idea is that you are making a well in the center of the wheel & keeping the top intact as a lid to keep all the goodness in.

Now that you have the hardest part done, take the caramelized onion, garlic & chili flakes & mince them all together...you can use a food processor, your knife, a mortar & pestle...whatever you like. Once that is done, add in the orange onion marmalade & fold it all together & season to taste.

Dump this mix into the well you’ve created in your cheese & spread it around, sprinkle some nuts on top (totally optional) and put the lid of the cheese back on. Cover with a lid (if you are using a fancy crock or baking dish) or wrap seal it in tinfoil & put on a baking tray and pop it into the oven. 

Set a 15 minute timer and check it at that point. You want it soft & gooey, but not completely molten. Once it is done, remove lid, sprinkle with more nuts (if you want) & a little good salt (maldon or fleur de sel would be nice), crack open a bottle of wine & enjoy.

Manning Canning is opening a commercial kitchen

I write a lot on these pages about my love of preserving, gardening and local food in general. But at the moment, I have something else on my mind. So will you humour me for a moment?

You see, Manning Canning has been in business for about 3 years now – just over a year of that has been full time. I love preserving so much that I chose to quit my full time marketing job and make this my career or more accurately - my life.

I have learned a lot in these 3 years. And that is what I want to talk about today. I have learned that the food community in Ontario is vibrant and made up of a group of very passionate people. I have stood next to other vendors at farmers markets and heard their stories. I have spoken with many small food producers about the challenges of starting, running and building a food business. Many of the challenges stem from the fact that each of us are trying to build a business alone and without the support of a central group or even a unified resource centre. Want to know the steps to getting a food business started, well get digging because it is going to take you a while to uncover all of the different pieces of information you need.

Want to find a supplier to deliver you produce – well get prepared to hear that your minimum order is too small. And then there is the simple fact that each and every thing that you make needs to be made in a commercially certified kitchen. When I first started off, I found a restaurant in Scarborough that was willing to trade me kitchen hours for help with their social media strategy. It was a great score for me starting out as I could not afford to pay the rental fees of the few kitchen spaces I had been able to find. But it also meant that my access to time in the kitchen was extremely limited. I had to go in when the kitchen was closed. It also meant that you could only grow your business very slowly as you could not meet demand with limited kitchen space.

I scoured the internet looking for alternative space and stumbled across a small rentable kitchen in Leslieville. The hourly rate was affordable and it was available for more regularly than my first kitchen. But it was small and cramped and working with one other person in the kitchen was challenging, to say the least. But it did the trick and I continued to grow. Added mores store to the list of stores carrying my product and added a 2nd farmer’s market to the roster. But with the confined space in the kitchen there was little I could do to improve efficiencies or increase output.

I then discovered the Scarborough Storefront. A kitchen in the KGO that granted new food businesses kitchen space for free up to a year. I had just quit my full time job, so the timing was perfect. I was granted access every Monday from 9-2pm at no cost. And then, one of the butcher shops carrying my product one day offered the use of the basement kitchen two days a week – with 3 glorious steam kettles and I was finally able to really push forward with some growth.

But still, Manning Canning could only produce so much on 2.5 days in the kitchen. Each time I go to the kitchen, I have to bring every single ingredient with me. That means on days when we are making Pickled Carrots that I pack over 100lb of carrots from the food terminal where I buy them from the farmer, to my house and then down the 15 stairs to the basement kitchen. It also means that every small ware from the cutting boards , vegetable peelers, measuring spoons, bowls, stir sticks, funnel, towels, bleach solution and aprons has to be packed up and taken to the kitchen with me and packed up and taken back home at the end of the day.

The packing and hefting adds easily an hour onto the start of my day as well as the end of my day. No matter how much I love it, I can’t deny that it is exhausting.

Flash back to the discussions I have been having with other small and successful food entrepreneurs I have met over the past 3 years and their stories are similar. There is a lack of commercial kitchen space in the city and the kitchens they end up using have no space for them to store raw materials, supplies or tools. Making it almost impossible to grow at a pace that our customers would like.

Sure, there are options. You can get your product co-packed. But for those of us who want to maintain control over the process or can not commit financially to the minimum orders required by most co-packers it is difficult.

For the past 2 years I have been talking with the managers at farmer’s markets and other food producers about my desire to open a commercial kitchen. In between making jars of jams and pickles, I have been working on my business plan. When I am not teaching preserving classes or making deliveries I have been researching possible grants I could apply for and when I am not labeling jars I have most recently been putting the finishing touches on my kickstarter campaign.

I have decided that now is the time. That for Manning Canning to grow and for other small food producers to have the chance to build their businesses that Toronto needs a rentable kitchen space that allows food producers to just show up and create.

I am all in. I am committing financially to this dream and I hope you will too. My campaign will be live in September and I am hoping those of you that feel as passionately about small food producers and local food, will want to help support this. Stay tuned for more.

Private Preserving Classes

Suddenly it is August. The past few months we have been hopping over here at Manning Canning preserving some of the amazing Ontario fruits and vegetables that the farmer's at The Ontario Food Terminal have had on offer. But we have also been extremely busy teaching others the fun and amazing art of preserving. 

You might not know this, but in addition to our monthly preserving classes at The Depanneur (please note there is no class in August, but we will be back with a vengeance in September) we are also offering classes in conjunction with Fairmount Park Farmer's Market and our next class is September 10th where we will be making Pickled Hot Peppers and then we return on October 8th for Apple Pie in a Jar. 

And then for those of you that really want to learn how to preserve but can't make any of the classes currently on offer, there is the option of private preserving classes. How great is that? You get to learn how to preserve and you don't even need to leave the comfort of your home. Invite a group of friends over, and I do all the rest. I bring all of the canning equipment, ingredients, pots and pans, etc. 

Before the class, we determine what you are most interested in learning how to preserve. Is it pickles, or jam or chutney and we choose a date that works for everyone.

Want to hear from someone else what they thought of the private preserving class, just click here. Think this might be interesting, drop me an email and prepare yourself for a great class.

Strawberry Balsamic Jam

As a Canadian, I think it is safe to say that for approximately 9 months of the year we spend our time remembering the taste of Ontario Strawberries as we bite into bland strawberry shaped imposters that leave our tastebuds crying out "Where is the FLAVOUR?"

The Ontario strawberry season is short, but it is ever so sweet and flavourful. The berries burst with juiciness and our minds try to imprint that sensation so that throughout the rest of the year when all we are faced with are dry imported strawberries we can try to trick ourselves into believing they actually have flavour.

That is why when strawberries are here I tend to pounce on them, stuffing them into my face and into jars at a rate that surprises even myself. No shame and no regrets.

In June of this year, I was a vendor at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival. It is a great event in Picton and I thoroughly enjoy being a part of it. I meet great people, get to spend a weekend in the ever so lovely Prince Edward County, but I also get to buy LOTS and LOTS of fantastic cheese. While stuffing my face (you get the theme, right?) with some amazing Quebec cheese, I started to think about a strawberry balsamic jam I had tried last year and how it would pair amazingly with this cheese with a few changes.

Strawberry Balsamic Jam - (adapted from a recipe by Alec Stockwell)

8 heaping cups of hulled strawberries

3 cups sugar

4 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tsp cracked black pepper

3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

Day One

Wash and hull your strawberries. Cutting the larger strawberries in half and leaving smaller strawberries whole. In a non-reactive bowl combine the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly, cover with a cloth and place in a cool place and allow to macerate for up to 24 hours. Note: I really like to let them sit for the full 24 hours to pull the juice out of the berries.

​Day 2

Sterilize jars and warm your lids. In a wide bottomed, non-reactive pot bring the strawberry mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

With a slotted spoon, remove the strawberries and place in a bowl. Continue to boil the liquid until it begins to thicken and coat the back of a spoon. Return the strawberries to the pot and stirring constantly, bring it back to a boil until the contents begin to thicken up nicely.

Add vinegar and pepper and on medium heat continue to cook the jam until you reach your setting point. Remove from heat and stir in the fresh basil.

Ladle into sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace, seal with warm lids and process for 10 minutes at a rolling boil.

Yields approximately 8 - 125ml jars

Quick Tips for Great Preserves

I should start this post with an explanation of my extended absence, but I think that would be rather boring for you ;). Let's suffice it to say that in the last 4 weeks I have sold a house, gone to Alberta to care for my mother, renovated a kitchen and started a preserving season. Every day when I reviewed my 'to-do' list there were always 2-3 items that just had to get pushed to the next day. So there you have it - writing a blog post got pushed to the next day over and over again.

Until we arrive at Canada Day (Happy Canada Day by the way), and I find myself with a few moments to spare and about a million ideas in my head bursting to get out.

In case you haven't noticed, Ontario strawberries, cucumbers and rhubarb are in season. This means there are a lot of people making jam and pickles out there. Strawberry Rhubarb, Balsamic Strawberry, Rhubarb Pepper Jelly, Rhubarb Banana - the combinations are endless and the results are delicious.

The worst thing you can have happen after spending all that time lovingly cooking your jam or preparing your pickles is for something to go wrong. So here are some ways to avoid problems with your preserves.

1) No matter how pretty it may look, never store your preserves in a warm or a bright location. Your jams and jellies may look lovely on your windowsill, but the heat and the light will cause them to spoil and in the depths of winter when you are craving that jar of home made jam - you will be disappointed to find it spoiled and gone to waste.

2) Floating fruit - we have all had this happen to us, come on, haven't we? You make that jar of strawberry jam only to have the strawberries float to the top of the jar once they are ladled in. Try to hide your disappointment. But don't let it get you down. You can simply stir it all up once opened. They will be just as delicious whether they float or not. But if you want to avoid it the next time, keep this in mind. Floating fruit can be the indication of under ripe fruit or under cooked fruit. Try letting the jam sit for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally before you ladle it into your jars

3) Garlic turned green or cauliflower turned pink? Don't take it as a personal failure. You have done nothing wrong and your preserves are not spoiled. It is simply a chemical change. Sometimes it is due to sulfur compounds reacting with copper elements in your water, sometimes it is due from using under dried garlic. No matter what the case, there is no reason to be alarmed or disappointed with your results.

4) Don't over pack your jars. We all want to cram as much goodness into each and every jar that we put up. But this will only lead to problems - trust me. I too have been tempted to overcrowd my jars from time to time. But a jar that is too tightly packed can't expand without pushing some of the juice or brine out of the jar. If you find a jar or two where the brine level has dropped but the jar has still sealed, try laying the jar down in the fridge and rotate it regularly so that all the juice or brine touches all of the contents inside of the jar.

5) Jam or jelly is runny - this is generally because the ratio of sugar, fruit, pectin and acid is off. Doubling or tripling recipes because you want to make more jam is usually the first mistake.Your surface area is reduced to the volume of jam and the amount of evaporation is is not great enough to cook your jam to a set.

6) Can you bounce a spoon off your jam. Come on - raise that hand if you have been here and done that. You have either used too much sugar to fruit ratio or cooked down your jam for too long. Always pay attention to set and don't let your jam or jelly over cook.

7) Always use the freshest product possible. I repeat this phrase over and over again - what goes into the jar is what comes out of the jar. And whenever possible try to use chemical free or organic produce. Another great tip when using dried spices is to ensure they are as fresh as possible or you could end up with pickles that look like they have been pickled in swamp water ;)

Now get out there and pick some produce, visit a farmer's market or local farm and get preserving.

Exciting joint venture with Not Far From the Tree

Several months ago I received an email from Not Far From the Tree asking me if I would be interested in a little preserving adventure with them. I was instantly excited because I had partnered with them in the past to offer a family style preserving day to can some urban harvested apples, so was well acquainted with the amazing work they do. I love the idea of being a part of the effort to help reduce the amount of fruit that is grown on city trees that simply goes to waste. It dove tails perfectly with my beliefs and desire to preserve the harvest that I jumped at the chance.

There were many steps along the way to finalizing the details, but the most exciting moment was when they sent me a list of fruit options. Which to choose? Apricots, crab apples, pears, sour cherries...they all sounded so good. I finally decided to do Preserved Pears with Ginger in a light syrup. 

Today, after many months of talking it over with them and keeping it a secret from all of you ;), I can now shout from the rooftops that I am thrilled to be a part of Fruitful. You have from today until June 30th to purchase your very own share. 

Each preserve pack is $50, comes in a Not Far From The Tree tote and includes each of the following items:

• Mulberry Preserve (Brickworks)
• Pear & Ginger in Syrup (Manning Canning)
• Sparkling Apple Cider (Spirit Tree Cidery)
• Apricot Spread (Stasis Preserves)
• Sour Cherry Pie Filling (West End Food Coop)

 All proceeds will support Not Far From The Tree's fruit picking and sharing program. For full details or to purchase your share, simply click here.

It's that time of year - Chive Flower Blossom Vinegar

Ok...I have to confess something to you. I get perhaps a little too excited about chives. This year as the chives in our garden started to emerge from the cold earth, my husband said 'Do we really need all of these chives? Couldn't we plant something else here?'

To say that I over reacted is an understatement. But I practically saw RED. He has lived with me for long enough to know that every year I make the most BEAUTIFUL chive flower vinegar and that seeing those flowers turning the vinegar a lovely shade of pink almost makes my toes curl up with happiness.

'NO, WE WILL NOT BE GETTING RID OF ANY CHIVES' was my very soft and flowery response. I think he got the message ;).

Want to make your own chive flower vinegar, simply click here and follow the easy instructions from a previous post ;).