Canning at Charcut with Connie DeSousa

Some people spend their weekends relaxing on the couch watching Full House re-runs, but not me. I like to try and find different ways to satisfy my kitchen curiousity. Now that we're heading into fall, I wanted to try my hand at canning and what better way than to spend a couple afternoons with Calgary's Top Chef Canada favourite, Charcut's Connie DeSousa?

Typically, DeSousa enlists the help of family and friends for the extensive canning they do at Charcut. This year, restaurant co-owner, John Jackson, suggested she put a call out on Twitter for extra hands to help. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend some time one-on-one with a Top Chef Canada finalist, right?

So, the tweet was sent and within the hour, she had a flood of responses from excited fans willing to lend their time over the weekend. Hmm, if only I could get my twitter followers to come do some house work for me ...(*light bulb*)

As with most culinary ventures in a restaurant, a lot of prep work precedes the cooking process. So, Saturday afternoon was dedicated solely to cleaning, trimming, pitting, scoring and peeling.

We started off by sorting through boxes of peaches, discarding any bad ones and scoring the bottoms with a small incision in the shape of an 'x', followed by pitting cherries, at least 40 pounds I believe, then, finally trimming some cucumbers which would transform into tasty, tasty pickles the following day.

The scoring was simple, but after the peaches were steamed, then shocked in an ice bath, the challenge was to remove the skin without damaging their flesh. This proved a difficult task. Some peeled with ease, while others took so long that I wanted to throw the peach against the wall (I didn’t). The cherry pitting was simple but messy. I was splattered, Dexter-style, by cherry juice by the end of it. I envied the cucumber-trimming shift, which appeared to be a slice, both figuratively and literally.

On Sunday, the group met again, eager to get a start on the actual canning. I do love peaches and cherries, but I have been infatuated with Charcut's pickles for more than a year now, so, naturally, they were the object of my attention this particular afternoon. Why don't you just picture a nice simple syrup bubbling away on the stove for the cherries and peaches, while I describe the pickle process?

After a short canning-dos and canning-don'ts tutorial from DeSousa, we got to stuffing the jars with cucumbers. After adding some garlic, fresh dill and pickling spices to each jar, we had to fit the small cucumbers into the jars as compact as possible. Being a pro-Tetris player back in my day, I took this as a challenge. I won't tell you my top secret cucumber-stuffing strategy, but let's just say my jars were pretty solid.

The filled jars were then put on trays and passed on to be filled with the hot brining liquid that had been simmering on the stove. Following that, the tops were screwed on and the jars went into Charcut's amazing steam oven, which takes the hassle out of moving jars in and out of boiling water, to transform into those signature pickles we know and love.

As usual with my foodie excursions, the group was paid in food. We were spoiled with lunches of Charcut's charcuterie boards and cheese plates, as well as a jar of canned goods to take home after a weekend of work well done. Look out, Top Chef: Canning. I'm coming for you ...

Check out more of Dan’s culinary adventures at dansgoodside.com.