Celebrating Canadian Food

If you have never tried a recipe from a Marilyn Smith's cookbook, now is the time!
One of Marilyn's claims to fame is she is the only Professional Home Economist who is also an alumnus of the Second City Comedy Troupe!  She is also the self-appointed Queen of Fibre who is on a mission to show how enjoyable pulses, legumes and lentils can be and they add fibre to the diet.

The side effect of the added fibre - farting; just shows you have a healthy colon.  Things Marilyn explains every chance she can,  particularly on National Farting Day!  Yes there is a National Farting Day: March 1 annually.

As the Queen of Fibre she titled her latest cookbook with her tagline Peace, Love and Fibre as she continues to reign over her fibre queendom.

I have picked one of her older cookbooks to review,  actually Facebook picked it for me! A picture of HOMEGROWN Celebrating the Canadian Foods We Grow, Raise and produce With 160 Recipes popped up as my Facebook memory of the day.  Don't recall why I would have posted the picture, I am guessing I had either just got the book or was making something from it.  Whatever the reason, it seemed like a good reason to pull it off the shelf again.

Homegrown is a compilation of recipes from members of the Ontario Home Economics Assocation which celebrates great Canadian food.  It sometimes seem Canadian Food has an identity crisis.  If you say you are going out for Italian Food or Thai Food - certain flavours and images come to mind.  If you say you are eating "Canadian" tonight - people would give you a blank stare and ask so what exactly are you eating.

We need more cookbooks that celebrate all the wonderful food that is grown and produced right here in Canada - Maple Syrup, cranberries, pulses, legumes, oats, barley, beef.  I could go on and many of these items are prized around the world.  When you think local ingredients - this is the book to help you create with them.  

I started tonights meal with a very simple yet elegant first course - Baked Goat Cheese with Cranberry Compote (there was also an alternate with Pear Compote) 

The sweet tart flavours of the cranberries, with a little saltiness from the prosciutto combines nicely with the creaminess of the goat cheese rolled in walnuts for a little crunch.

I followed that with Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry served with Creamy Herbed Polenta 
I love polenta but hate making it, in this version you cook the polenta in the oven.  Such an easy way that make a delicious creamy polenta.  I will certainly be adding this recipe to my repertoire.  

When I think of curries I think of something creamy and yellow.  I know there are a whole variety of curries out there but that is the first image I have when I think of curry.  That this curry is tomato based and rather than using a pre-made curry powder,  it has you create your own curry powder mixture is why I choose the recipe.  At first you think really all those spices, but you end up with a flavourful curry with a nice hint of heat in just over 1/2 hour.

I finished off with Oat Barley Cookies.  A cookie you can almost feel good about eating as it is a source of soluble fibre.  It contains Barley Flour which was a new ingredient for me, but I found it easily enough at my local bulk food store.
The cookie provides you the satisfaction of having something sweet after a meal without being a full size dessert.

Like always I have several more recipes earmarked to try,  not sure I will get to them all before I select my next cookbook.  For now, I think I will go have another cookie with a cup of Tea.  Till next time Enjoy.

Fundraising Cookbooks

It is the season when various service groups and church are holding fall/harvest suppers to raise funds.  There have been advertisements for various dinners around my local areas.  There is the usual Turkey and Roast Beef dinners, but one place was serving beef stew and another lasagna.

In the days before Pinterest or a quick google search for a recipe, many of these organizations also published Cookbooks.  Community members contributed their "best" recipes to the endeavour,  someone would type them up or maybe they would have the Cookbook professionally designed.  Either way they were usually a good fundraising initiative as it often include popular recipes from community gatherings that the owner hadn't shared before the book was published.

I have a few of those types of cookbooks in my collection and I selected one of them this week.  Country Cooking - A Canadian Collection of Favourite Home Tested Recipe it came out in 1996, but it does not say what group created the book.  I received it as a gift I don't know where it came from.

Looking at these types of cookbooks is always fun.  You can see what was popular at the time and the ingredients that were readily available.  Many of the recipes in this book rely on convenience foods like canned cream soup, cake mixes, or canned meats to create the dishes.  Many are based on trying to feed a lot of people quickly with little fuss.  The recipes also assume a certain amount of cooking skills.  The cookie recipe I made, had very simple instructions "cream sugar into butter, add the rest of the ingredients and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes".  That is why new cooks find these types of cookbooks frustrating.

Cookbook historians use these books as research on the evolution of a recipe, but also community evolution.  As I write this I am trying to recall a quote I heard about exchanging recipes at a funeral receptions being like trading gold - they were hot commodities.    If anyone knows the quote please share!

I usually try to pick a recipe that has an ingredient I have not tried before, or try a new technique.  This time I just randomly picked recipes that looked interesting.  The book opened to a page with various spreads and cheese balls - so I felt it was a hint that I should make one as my appetizer; but  I couldn't resist making a soup - cool weather and warm soup you can never go wrong, so we have two appetizers.

I started with Ham & Cheese Ball with Fresh Tomato Soup.  There is a little quote at the bottom of the soup recipe from the author saying it was the best fresh tomato soup she has ever tasted and she made it frequently.    I picked it because it included potatoes in the recipe which I thought was unusual for tomato soup. I found the taste too the soup to be a little lacking.   I think it is a case that the quality of the tomatoes make a big difference.  Grocery store tomatoes just don't have the same flavour as fresh from the garden!  Maybe I will try again when I have access to garden fresh tomatoes.    On the other hand the Ham & Cheese Ball would be worth a repeat performance as a party appetizer.

From there I moved onto Neopolitan Pot Roast served with Perogi Pie.  The Perogi pie was very rich and really meant to be eaten alone but it did work with the pot roast.  Baked in tomatoes, onions and seasoning it made for a very tender roast with a nice sauce.

With so many dessert options it was hard to narrow it down to one item.  In the end I decided to keep it simple with Orange Cookies.  If you like orange flavour this is a cookie for you.  Good orange flavour without being overwhelming.    Nice way to end the meal.

Though I am still debating about trying the 7-up Cake!  Yes it does have 7-up as an ingredient!