Burdock & Co
Poetic Recipes Inspired by Ocean, Land & Air: A Cookbook
- Publisher
- Random House Canada
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2019
- Category
- Seasonal, Northwestern States, Canadian
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780147531223
- Publish Date
- Oct 2019
- List Price
- $35.00
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Description
A stunning cookbook of unexpected recipes inspired by the natural world of the Pacific Northwest.
TASTE CANADA AWARDS SILVER WINNER
"A tiny slice" is how Burdock & Co has been described; a handful of people in a tiny room on Vancouver's Main Street, doing their thing. But from that room comes a ground-breaking, award-winning menu inspired by the vast natural world around us. At Burdock & Co, Chef Andrea Carlson harnesses the essence and power of the Pacific Northwest's coastlines, islands, farms, and forests to create fresh, seasonal menus layered in delicate complexity. The colours, aromas, textures, and flavours of her unique recipes shine luminously from the pages of this, her first cookbook.
In Burdock & Co, Andrea guides us into the delicious potential of the natural world, beautifully and lyrically exploring new frontiers in cooking--whether spotlighting the offcuts of a fish, or celebrating freshly picked rosehips--with a literary narrative that tells the stories and unlocks the secrets of her recipes. She introduces the sustainability-focused farmers and foragers within the Burdock & Co community, and carefully shows how she translates the local ingredients they bring her into multi-dimensional recipes that let them shine.
Inside are recipes for unexpected takes on comfort classics, like the restaurant's beloved Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Pickles, Arctic Sourdough, Black Trumpet Mushroom Risotto, and Spicy Almond Dan Dan Noodles; vegetable showcases such as Braised Burdock Salad with Black Sesame Tahini, and Grilled Artichokes with Walnut Brown Butter; a bounty of fish and seafood dishes such as Sea Bream Crudo, Cherry Leaf Cured Scallops, and Rosemary Smoked Mussels; desserts including Salted Caramel Apple Pot Pie, Olive Oil Cake with Citrus Salad, and Staff Party Peach Pavlova; unique cocktails like the Shiso Fancy and Cherry Cherry Bang Bang; and experimental fermentations such as Sunchoke Beer.
Burdock & Co is an evocative, original, and playful cookbook that invites you to embrace the natural rhythms of the world around you, wherever you are. It is a book to read, to savour, and to inspire; to celebrate the elements and the seasons, and the endless possibilities they can bring to your kitchen.
About the author
Contributor Notes
is one of Canada's top chefs and a pioneer in the Pacific Northwest food scene. She has worked at and guided some of the best restaurants in Vancouver (and on Vancouver Island), including C, Sooke Harbour House, Raincity Grill, and Bishop's. In 2013 she opened Harvest Community Foods, a noodle shop, local foods grocery, and CSA hub in Vancouver's Chinatown, followed by Burdock & Co on Main Street. Andrea was inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2018. She lives in Vancouver with her partner, Kevin, and their cat.
Excerpt: Burdock & Co: Poetic Recipes Inspired by Ocean, Land & Air: A Cookbook (by (author) Andrea Carlson)
Preface
Tonight is the sturgeon moon. I get a text from Julie, our manager at Burdock & Co:
hannah says sturgeon moon nite time to let go
of all that burdens you
write it down & submerge
it underwater :)
meet u later?
Yes.
I share the new plan with Gabe and Clea. We are out tonight in Chinatown, feasting and yelling at each other over the noise of the crowded restaurant. Gabe is one of my oldest friends and she now runs Harvest Community Foods, our sister restaurant, and Clea has taken up the task of editing this book. Tonight they are working to get my story out of me. And anyone who knows me knows I hate talking about myself.
Kevin (life partner, business partner, broth transporter, wine deliverer, architect) keeps reminding me I have a great story, and maybe I do, but for me it’s a process, more of a collection of spaces and moments, flavours and techniques that, when stitched together, become what I do, who I am.
From my first naive adventure going out ocean fishing, or discovering thealternative reality of botanicals, or planting gardens, building a bakery, working at great restaurants across the city—all these seemingly disparate events have led to what Burdock & Co is today, and to me sitting in a very loud restaurant trying to write a cookbook!
Julie’s text (thankfully) gives us a new mission for the night, and we escape onto Pender Street. We hatch plans to submerge our burdens. The closest body of water? False Creek. Paper? The sticky notes we’ve been writing recipe ideas down on all night. How do we get the paper to sink? Tie it to a rock.
Halfway to False Creek we stop at Campagnolo Upstairs on Main Street because 1) Gabe needs to pee, 2) while we’re here we might as well have another drink, and 3) we’re waiting for Julie, who’s getting off her shift at Burdock. It’s a precious night off from the restaurant for me, and my fatigue from the week is lifting. I write down my burden(s). It’s a list.
Julie arrives and I ask for butcher’s twine at the bar. The bartender laughs, but returns with four neat lengths of string. We tie our papers around rocks that we picked up on the way, and head out into the end-of-summer night.
We are giddy, happily drunk, walking through the empty streets. This is Vancouver to me, this nexus of Downtown Eastside grit, Chinatown refusing to give up, condos sprouting everywhere, dingy Main Street bars. Harvest is just around the corner on Union, and Burdock is up the hill, past the viaduct.
At the water, a gang of teenagers loiter under the constellation of Science World. A family down the way lights paper lanterns that lift off across the galaxy skyline of Vancouver city lights.
Julie pulls a jar of wine out of her bag and we all take a drink, then throw our burdens into False Creek, wondering if this drunken moon ritual will work. The rocks sink and the lanterns keep rising over us, over Vancouver, one by one, fat, slow stars, competing with the moon.
Editorial Reviews
“I was fortunate to taste Andrea Carlson’s food and was immediately hooked. Her journey in this book is both fascinating and delicious. She knows her ingredients and she certainly knows how to make them sing in harmony.”
—Yotam Ottolenghi
“Andrea’s cooking is bright, fresh, local, tasty, and current. Her cuisine is beautifully balanced, with interesting ingredients and a perfect harmony of flavors. This book is essential for the adventurous cook.”
—Daniel Boulud
“A quiet, beautiful celebration of cooking. The stories and recipes honour those whose hands cultivate, harvest, catch, and forage, and bring forth food that is delicious, honest, and deeply rooted in the earth.”
—Michael Ableman, organic farmer and author
“The mega influence of chef Andrea Carlson’s east Vancouver restaurant belies its mini footprint: she served local, seasonal, organic farm-to-table food years before those words decorated menus of fast-casual chains. Her first cookbook is a love letter to the Pacific Northwest and the farmers and foragers that harvest from it; the recipes are cheffy takes on comfort-food classics, like buttermilk fried chicken and pickles, black trumpet mushroom risotto, and spicy almond dan-dan noodles.”
—Chatelaine
“Reads like a paean to the changing seasons. Carlson spotlights the natural abundance of regionally grown and foraged ingredients, and her intensely vegetable-focused dishes shine alongside sustainable proteins from the land and sea.” —Nuvo Magazine
“A pioneer of Pacific Northwest cuisine; [Carlson's] first book is as ingredient-driven as her restaurant, conveying a strong sense of place. It’s a gorgeous serenade to all that is fished, foraged, raised and grown on the West Coast, with even a nod to the uniqueness of the forest air, with a chapter dedicated to the ferments intrinsic to Burdock.” —The Globe & Mail
“Carlson’s use of layered elements — especially botanicals and ferments — offers new opportunities for adventurous home cooks” – Laura Brehaut, The National Post
“A beautiful love letter to the West Coast of BC and all of its bounty.” – Jennifer Schnell, iNwine
Praise for Burdock & Co (restaurant)
"Chef Andrea Carlson transforms her jewel box of a room into a master course on taking the bounty of this area and moulding it into tiny, tasty treatises of what it means to create magic from sustainability."
—Vancouver Magazine
