Food lovers familiar with Canada’s smallest province might know of Prince Edward Island’s two flagship festivals: The PEI Fall Flavours Festival and the PEI International Shellfish Festival. Despite the travel restrictions to PEI, Toronto’s own McEwan Fine Foods is helping make it easy for gourmands in the city to experience the island’s best through a collaboration with PEI-based Canada’s Food Island.
McEwan Fine Foods is offering seven premium meal kits – with 48-hours’ notice – that showcase the province’s prized culinary products. The latter includes some of the world’s best, sustainable lobster, mussels, oysters, grass-fed beef (with full traceability) and potatoes that are grown in red iron-rich soils.
PEI Patio Party Box Option #1 Surf & Turf
Prepared by the McEwan Fine Foods culinary team, the ‘Prince Edward Island Patio Party’ boxes are surf and/or turf experiences assembled to feed parties of two or four. Select from menus that might feature finessed courses like a chilled lobster Cobb, PEI grass-fed strip loin steaks with truffle compound butter, PEI oysters with McEwan’s cocktail sauce and homemade mignonette, and maybe PEI mussels either cooked in a lemon, white wine and bacon sauce or an umami-rich tomato, fennel, chili and preserved lemon sauce.
A little DIY action, and your own oyster shucker, is required to prepare the fresh oysters delivered in kits.
For parties of two, there’s the Oysters box which includes the bivalves in two forms: raw with cocktail sauce and mignonette, or a kit for the classic oysters Rockefeller that’s topped with an aromatic onion, spinach, parmesan cheese mix. The meal is rounded out with a kale salad, smashed potatoes with butter and chives, and a dessert tart for two. Meanwhile the Steak box spotlights a pair of 7-oz. PEI beef tenderloins that comes with herb rub and peppercorn sauce, along with potato salad, radicchio salad and the chef’s choice in dessert. Lobster lovers might gravitate towards the Lobster box that features 1-lb steamed lobsters with compound lemon-herb butter, stuffed potatoes with bacon, butter and chives and lightened up with a roasted beet salad and dessert tart for two. A Mussels package includes a pound of mussels with a choice of McEwan’s sauces to cook in with bread for grilling, kale salad, smashed potatoes with butter and chives and dessert tart.
Four medallions of 7-oz. PEI-certified beef tenderloins are accompanied by McEwan’s herb rub and peppercorn. Whether you choose to marinate the meat before grilling, don’t skip topping it with the stove-top reheated peppercorn sauce.
Larger commitments include the PEI Patio Party Box for four which is stocked with an abundance of dishes. Option #2 Turf Box focuses on the quality grass-fed beef and includes four 10-oz. striploins with truffle compound butter, a pair of 14-oz. ribeye steaks with McEwan’s herb and mustard BBQ sauce, trimmed ready-to-grill asparagus with chili parmesan sauce, but also stuffed potatoes with bacon, butter and chives and a potato salad with celery and horseradish vinaigrette.
Already gently-steamed until cooked and tender, these 1-lb lobsters for the Patio Party Surf & Turf Box are finished on the grill, as recommended, basting the already-split crustaceans with McEwan’s compound lemon-herb butter using the included herb-wrapped brush.
For seafood lovers, Option #3 Surf Box includes four 1.5-lb gently steamed lobsters, 2-lbs of chilled lobster Cobb salad that’s embellished with endive, grapefruit, Japanese pear, lardon, artisan blue cheese and cucumber in a crème fraiche dressing, 2-lbs of mussels with a choice of sauce and bread for grilling, macaroni and cheese with chorizo, plus 2-lbs of potato salad.
Prepared over the stovetop, these PEI mussels were cooked in McEwan’s tomato, fennel, chili, preserved lemon sauce. A bag of sliced bread was also provided and finished on the grill before being served as a starting course.
However, for the complete island experience we chose to indulge in the PEI Patio Party Box Option #1 Surf & Turf. This kit includes four 7-oz PEI-certified beef tenderloins, a herb rub and scrumptious peppercorn sauce (reminiscent of HK-diner’s sizzling beef hot plate with side of fries), and four 1-lb gently-steamed lobster that can be finished on the barbecue with McEwan’s compound lemon-herb butter using the kit’s included herb-wrapped brush. The feast also includes two-dozen unshucked PEI oysters (so make sure you have an oyster shucker on hand) that comes with McEwan’s homemade cocktail sauce, mignonette and lemons; 2-lbs of PEI mussels that’s cooked in a choice of sauces with fresh bread (to be finished on the grill); as well a 2-lb tray of smashed PEI potatoes that’s dressed with aromatics, green onions – and in our order – bacon and blue cheese. The latter was an incredible and harmonious vehicle for the leftover tomato-fennel mussel sauce once the grilled bread was consumed (and the next day).
While a little bit of effort is required to finish the experience, these kits are guaranteed to bring the friendly island’s flavors directly to your table and taste memories.
Available via pick-up or delivery, the Patio Party Box is packed to keep all perishables chilled over ice packs and bags, with ingredients separately sealed and general instructions included.
Purchase in-store at McEwan Don Mills or McEwan Yonge & Bloor McEwan. Online purchases can be made through McEwan Catering, 416-444-6262 ext. 228.
