It’s the perfect time of year to experiment with a new recipe—or several. Throughout the year, we share delicious recipes from local chefs, bakers, cookbook writers, and foodies. Here are a dozen of our favourite Vancouver dishes from this past year, from appetizers to desserts to cocktails.
Starters
Chicken Wing Tom Yum Soup (Tom Yum Peek Gai)
Photo by Janis Nicolay.
The cookbook Sabai by YouTube star and Vancouverite Pailin Chongchitnant is filled with 100 Thai recipes that express the meaning of “sabai”—the state of being when you’re at ease—including this recipe for chicken wing tom yum soup (tom yum peek gai).
Tea Eggs
Kai’s Tea Eggs tells the story of a child who is made fun of for bringing “weird” Asian foods to school. The teasing ends when Kai’s classmates sample—and enjoy—her homemade tea eggs. This charming picture book by author and illustrator Karina Zhou draws upon the Vancouverite’s experience of learning to embrace her Chinese heritage, and it includes her recipe for tea eggs.
Salmon and Pear Salad
Jules Sherred is a Vancouver Island resident and disability-rights advocate. His book Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook focuses on recipes that use electric pressure cookers, air fryers, and bread machines, and it includes this recipe for salmon and pear salad prepared using an air fryer.
Wild Mushroom Pâté
The 40 recipes in The Coastal Forager’s Cookbook: Feasting Wild in the Pacific Northwest showcase found-in-the-wild ingredients such as mushrooms, seaweed, and flowers. Author and frequent forager Robin Kort is also a chef, a sommelier, and the owner of Swallow Tail Culinary Adventures in Vancouver. His wild mushroom pâté is perfect to make on a wintery day.
Mains
B.C. Halibut with Dill, New Potatoes, and Corn-Glazed Cauliflower
Photo by Jon Adrian.
A pair of B.C. foodies collected more than 70 recipes from chefs, restaurants, cafés, and wineries to produce Okanagan Eats: Signature Chefs’ Recipes from British Columbia’s Wine Valleys. Mission Hill’s executive chef, Patrick Gayler, contributed this recipe for B.C. halibut with dill, new potatoes, and corn-glazed cauliflower.
Butternut Squash Gyros
Photo by Rachelle Beatty.
TV personality Jillian Harris and dietitian Tori Wesszer grew up feeling more like sisters than the cousins they are. The B.C. residents’ second cookbook, Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts, is filled with simple, plant-forward, family-friendly recipes such as this one for butternut squash gyros.
Desserts
Apple Caramel Cake With Oatmeal Cookie Crumbles
Lyndsay Sung is the creator of Coco Cake Land, a website focused on making and decorating beautiful cakes. The Vancouverite’s cookbook, Plantcakes: Fancy + Everyday Vegan Cakes for Everyone, is filled with recipes for decadent creations such as this apple caramel cake with oatmeal cookie crumbles.
Dark Chocolate Butter Tarts
Chocolatier, pastry chef, and TV personality Steven Hodge owns Temper Chocolate & Pastry in West Vancouver. His first cookbook, Chocolate All Day: From Simple to Decadent, 100+ Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Ingredient, is filled with mouthwatering recipes such as this one for dark chocolate butter tarts.
French Cannelés
Photo by Nora Hamade.
Chef Elena Krasnova of Mon Paris Pâtisserie in Burnaby shares her recipe for French cannelés, the perfect sweet treat to make for holiday parties and festive feasts.
Gingerbread Cookies
DL Acken is a food writer and photographer who splits her time between the U.K. and Saltspring Island, while Aurelia Louvet is a food stylist based on Saltspring. The two teamed up to produce Let’s Eat: Recipes for Kids Who Cook, which teaches basic kitchen techniques to tween and teen chefs and includes easy-to-follow recipes such as this one for gingerbread cookies.
Drinks
The Patti Smith
Illustration by Rachelle Baker.
Vancouver writer and editor Jennifer Croll pairs 50 fun cocktails with profiles of the iconic women who inspired them—from Mary Shelley to Octavia Butler—in Buzzworthy: Cocktails Inspired by Female Literary Greats. The Patti Smith cocktail pays tribute to the legendary punk poet.
Brainstorm
Photo by Anjali Spooner.
Mia Glanz, bar manager at East Vancouver distillery Odd Society Spirits, created the recipe for the Brainstorm cocktail to honour Scottish poet Robert Burns’ birthday.
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