Add your grain of salt
Sometimes all it takes is a simple addition to elevate a dish. Alcyon’s new Aromatic Sea Salts fall into that category of ingredients that just a pinch can make a big difference. With its appetizing aroma and slightly tangy taste, the lemon-parsley salt transformed our ordinary green salad drizzled with olive oil into a delicious side dish. Handcrafted in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine by a family business, these salt crystals surprise with their crispy and melt-in-the-mouth texture. The range also includes a spicy maple salt, to try on grills and in cocktails, as well as a three-vegetable salt (celery, carrot, leek), ideal for sauces and broths. These premium sea salts are a great find.
$12.95 for 50g
The range is offered in 25 points of sale in Quebec, including the Alcyon boutique, located in Havre-aux-Maisons, in the Magdalen Islands.
Veronique Larocque, The Press
Salsa chips
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PRETTY UGLY
Pretty Ugly’s New Potato Chips
The Quebec company Pretty Ugly launched last year in the production of salsa based on downgraded vegetables – a great idea to avoid waste since each pot contains two pounds of saved vegetables. All that was missing were the potato chips… which have just arrived! The new Pretty Ugly potato chips are handmade and contain only five ingredients: organic corn flour, water, brewing seeds, oil for frying them and sea salt. They are salty, but not too salty, and their subtle taste lends itself perfectly to adding a mild or spicy salsa. A particularly interesting little extra: they do not break when accompanied by a generous amount of salsa.
Price: $6.99 each (chips and salsa), available online or at retail outlets
Laila Maalouf, The Press
A perfect cheese for the barbecue
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE BEDOUIN
Grilling cheese by Le Bédouin
On a skewer or grilled in large slices, Le Bédouin haloumi cheese flavored with fine herbs and garlic adds a wide range of flavors to dishes. Although it can also be eaten raw, cooking gives it a little something extra. Its firm and rubbery texture makes it the ideal cheese for the barbecue, since it resists heat very well. We also tested it on a grill pan, and the result is just as convincing – which makes it an interesting addition to sandwiches or salads in any season. Cooked in the oven, in the equivalent of Lebanese calzones or on a pizza, it does not melt, however, unlike more artisanal versions of haloumi sold fresh (and not vacuum-packed) in some Middle Eastern grocery stores. It is produced by Fromagerie Polyethnique (located in Saint-Robert), which already has several cheeses from the Middle East in its repertoire – classic haloumi, nabulsi, akawie.
Price: from $8.99, available in grocery stores
Laila Maalouf, The Press
An oil with five balanced facets
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MAISON ORPHÉE
The perfect oil blends five types of oils seeking a taste and nutrient balance.
Maison Orphée has engaged in a balancing act, perfecting “The perfect oil”, a blend of a quintet of virgin vegetable oils. By dosing olive, sunflower, linseed, sesame and canola oil, the new product seeks not only a taste balance point, but also an interesting supply of nutrients (essential fatty acids and omega-9). In the mouth, the balance of flavors seems successful, no basic ingredient clearly taking precedence over the other; sesame, strong in taste, could easily have risen to center stage, but here it is confined to a supporting role. Everything is neither too heavy nor too light: another tightrope walk. Versatile, you can see it being used in all types of cuisine, from a simple green salad to the most sophisticated Asian dishes. On the other hand, its use for cooking is limited to medium heat, as it will burn at higher intensities.
Price: $12.99 for 500ml, for sale exclusively on the manufacturer’s website
Sylvain Sarrazin, The Press