Côte-Nord at Montréal en Lumière: Cloudberry Butter, Crowberry Syrup, Balsam Fir Jelly, Rosehip Jam, St-Pancrace Beer and Haskap Berry Juice

This morning I got Tina Tenneriello of Breakfast Television to try jams, jellies, syrups and juices from Quebec’s Côte-Nord. Heard of crowberries? Parallèle/51 makes them into a blackcurrant-like syrup. Cloudberries? Mixed with butter for a lightly sweet toast-friendly treat. And rosehips? They’re tricky to prepare, but the rose buds that you don’t pick off the stem of the plant in summer will eventually grow an edible fruit that can be made into jam. It’s delicious.

Why the Côte-Nord?

Because every year the annual Montreal Highlights Festival features a region of Quebec (it also has a couple international themes). And this year, three Montreal restaurants are hosting dinners with invited Cote-Nord chefs who’ll be using ingredients unique to that region. A lot of these berries and spices aren’t available outside of the Côte-Nord region, and even to get them onto Breakfast Television took two volunteers who drove more than 32 hours from Rivière St-Paul!! (Thanks so much to those drivers, as well as the producers and farmers, who made my segment – and Montréal en Lumière’s theme – possible.)

Here’s more info on what we sampled on the show:

1. We started with a haskap berry and apple juice blend from Ferme Manicouagan in Pointe Lebel. Haskap is a super high anti-oxidant berry that looks a bit like an elongated blueberry – but with almost four times the Vitamin C. It’s really popular in Asia and Russia and grows well in northern climates like the Cote-Nord.
2. Beer from Microbrasserie St-Pancrace in Baie Comeau, the only microbrewery in the Côte-Nord. I brought two kinds of beer: The Uapiska (prononcer Ouapiska) and the St-Pancrace. The name Uapiska means ‘White Summit,’ which is the Innu name for the Groulx Mountains in the Cote-Nord. The mountains are located on the island in the middle of Lake Manicouagan, which is like a ring around the island and is one of the biggest meteor-formed craters in all of Canada! This brewery also brewed a limited edition haskap berry beer with berries from Ferme Manicouagan this year.
3. Cloudberry butter from Maison de la Chicoutai in Riviere-de-Tonnerre, north of Anticosti Island. Cloudberries are also called bakeapples and grow in marshland and peat bogs. They’re one of the only berries that can grow in the tundra, so are a really important source of Vitamins that far north. Rivière-de-Tonnerre isn’t tundra, but it’s pretty far north. In Quebec, the berries are traditionally made into a tea or liqueur (you can find the liqueur at some SAQs). Fun facts: Aboriginal people in Northern Alaska and Russia combine it with sugar and reindeer or caribou fat for a sweet and filling treat. And in Scandinavia, you can find cloudberry yogurt at the grocery store, so do like Norwegians and add this to plain yogurt to sweeten it or spread it on toast.
4. Black crowberry syrup from Parallèle/51 in Riviere St-Paul. It’s made with handpicked berries from the subarctic region and has no artificial colours or flavours. I love this with sparkling water or on vanilla ice cream
5. Balsam fir jelly from De Baies et de Sève in Natashquan. There’s a bittersweet flavour from the shoots, whch are harvested young when they’re still covered in essential oils. That gives it a resinous taste that pairs well with things like game-y meats, rillettes and foie gras mousse
6. Rose hip jam from Trésors des Bois in Gallix, near Sept-Iles. Every product they use is wild harvested and the company really believes in respecting the land and sustainability. Every harvester they work with has to understand the conservation and harvesting methods for everything they pick. The company also low-temperature dries herbs, spices and mushrooms.

   

What didn’t we have time to sample?

Honey with Quebec and Brazilian propolis from Herbamiel; cloudberry tea and cloudberry coulis from Maison de la Chicouta; lingonberry syrup and fruit jellies from Parallèle/51; red currarnt compote from Trésors des Bois; and Labrador Tea jelly from De Baies et de Sève.

Where can you get these items?

Some will be featured at two dinners at Montréal en Lumière on March 2 and 3 at Ikanos and Le Blumenthal. You’ll get a sampling of these and similar products in the menus. Most of these products aren’t available in Montreal and some can’t even be ordered online, so it’s a unique opportunity to try them, though you can find some cloudberry, balsam fir and haskap berry products at fine grocers like Le Marché des Saveurs at Jean-Talon Market.

What’s on the menus?

Chef Glenn Forbes from Tadoussac will be at Ikanos preparing a five-course dinner with Ikanos’ chef Consant Mentzas. For each course, each will make a dish, so it’s really like you’re getting 10 courses. It’s $72 for five courses.

1 st service:
Côte-Nord crustacean and seafood broth with saffron and rouille

2nd service:
Seared scallops with foie gras terrine, celery root purée and apricot salsa
Or
Crispy sweetbreads with braised fennel

3rd service:
Striped bass with sweet garlic and wild mushrooms
Or
Grilled cod, Jerusalem artichoke, rutabaga and shimeji mushrooms

4th service:
Deer filet mignon with Ferme Manicouagan haskap berries
Or
Duck breast with red wine cherries, Greek skordalia and grilled mushrooms

5th service:
White chocolate crème brûlée with fried cloudberries
Or
Chocolate and ginger brownie with blackcurrant cream

 

And Le Blumenthal will host Martin Brisson of La Galouïne Auberge & Restaurant in Tadoussac. Brisson has his own line of products made from Côte-Nord wild berries, so expect to see those in action. It’s three courses for $50, but comes with a handful of hors d’oeuvres.

Bouchées:

-Wild boar rillettes with lactaires d’érable wild mushrooms
-Stimpson surf clam with St. Lawrence seaweed pesto
-Scallop ceviche with ground nordic berries
-Nordic shrimp with sea buckthorn and peppermint

Appetizers:

Snow crab verrines with sea buckthorn and avocado and bee balm cream cheese
Or
Duck soup witih Blackburn cheese, wild mushroom tapenade and dried deer on biscuits
Or
Maple-marinated and house-smoked salmon and smoked duck breast with boreal spiced, cranberry onion confit and preserved lemon

Main dishes:

Grilled sea bass marinated in plants and seaweed from the St. Lawrence
Or
Pot roast with Nordic herbs, duck confit, osso buco with beer from the Tadoussac microbrewery, smoked game sausage and root vegetables
Or
Deer medallion glazed in berries with wild mint, grilles hazelnuts and porcini mushrooms

Desserts:

Chaga tiramisu with Couventine cheese mousse, sweet clover biscuit and birch syrup
Or
Poached pear in cranberry syrup, Côte-Nord berry compote and Labrador tea cookie

Boreal Mignardises