Advertisement
Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!
Food & Drink

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?

By Jon Sufrin
Copy link

Since it opened in 2012, Actinolite, a small restaurant on Ossington near Dupont, has evolved from a neighbourhood bistro into a high-concept tasting room. Chef and owner Justin Cournoyer makes biweekly foraging trips into the wilderness around Toronto, seeking out herbs, berries, lichen and, oddly enough, soil. Using an hours-long process developed by former sous chef Michael Lehmkuhl, Cournoyer distills the tastes and scents of the earth into butter, which he uses for the opening dish of his seven-course tasting menu. Here’s how he does it.

How do you make a fancy meal out of dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Foraging Chef Justin Cournoyer hits various spots north of the city—including his hometown, Actinolite—to search for wild ingredients. The best dirt? The stuff that includes pine needles and lots of decaying organic matter.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Extracting The soil is placed in a pressure cooker, mixed with water and boiled at 120 degrees Celsius for around 45 minutes. This sanitizes the dirt, since botulism spores can survive standard boiling. It also extracts the soil’s flavours.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Straining The boiled material is strained and then left to decant overnight. This allows any sediment that may have passed through the strainer to settle. The soil particles are set aside, and the liquid is placed into a large pot.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Reducing The strained liquid is reduced by half to concentrate its flavour, which usually takes around an hour and a half (Cournoyer calls the resulting liquid a “tea”). As the liquid reduces, Cournoyer skims off any impurities that rise to the surface. “It’s a classic sauce-making technique,” he says.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Dehydrating Meanwhile, soil particles obtained from the straining process are spread out on a tray and baked for four to six hours, at around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, until they are completely dry.

Advertisement
How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Bagging Cournoyer places the dehydrated soil into a porous sachet and ties it off.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Infusing The sachet of soil is placed into a vacuum pack with unsalted butter. The ratio is two pounds of butter for each pound of soil. The pack is cooked sous vide at 85 degrees Celsius for around four hours, which allows flavours that haven’t yet been extracted from the soil to infuse into the butter.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Super-reducing The reduced liquid (from step four) is strained and decanted again, and then poured into a smaller pot to be reduced even further. The resulting quarter cup of soil “essence” has the consistency of a glaze. The smell is sweet, and the taste is vaguely reminiscent of cocoa. “It would be interesting to make fudge with it,” Cournoyer says.

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Whisking The infused butter is poured into a bowl (the separated milk solids are not included), and the concentrated soil essence is whisked into it. Depending on the taste and texture, Cournoyer sometimes adds a bit of silt obtained from the final decanting process. Once the butter has emulsified, it’s ready to use. “You see how much work you do to get so little?" Cournoyer says. “It’s like liquid gold.”

How do you make a fancy dish from dirt?
(Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Plating As the first course in his seven-course tasting menu ($85), Cournoyer serves the soil butter with seasonal vegetables (currently: new potatoes, raw carrots, baby onions and foraged purslane and chickweed). He adds a dusting of salt and breadcrumbs—both infused with grass oil and grass pulp.

NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY

Sign up for Table Talk, our free newsletter with essential food and drink stories.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
You may unsubscribe at any time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The Latest

Surreal Estate: $8.5 million for a sparkling Bedford Park blockhouse with a vacuum elevator
Real Estate

Surreal Estate: $8.5 million for a sparkling Bedford Park blockhouse with a vacuum elevator

Inside the Latest Issue

The February issue of Toronto Life features Scottie Barnes, the new face of the Raptors—and the team’s best chance of salvation. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.