Recipes Archives - A\J

Would you like the Meat or the Veggie Entrée?

Elizabeth Roden — Wed, 19 May 2021 17:50:07 +0000

I have been vegetarian for practically my whole undergraduate experience [for environmental reasons] and recently the COVID-19 pandemic has forced me to incorporate meat into my diet due to the lack of plant-based food near me. Through research looking into reducing my meat consumption, I have found it may be better for the environment. There is a huge social construct associated with meat-eating and it is difficult for low-income families to make changes to their dietary habits. With meat prices being so high for only specific cuts of an animal it is not always possible. But could you actually live longer if we decided to use all cuts of meat? The longest-living Australian has tried it out.

Deter Kruger turns 111 years old and 124 days old on May 17. He is currently living in the rural Queensland state town of Roma. He dedicates his long life to eating chicken brains.

“There is only a little bite,” Kruger says.

It sounds crazy, but brains can be used in a sausage ingredient, and can also be eaten boiled, braised, and cooked in liquid, poached, or scrambled.

Dexter was a previous cattle rancher and dedicates his long career to eating unconventional cuts of meat. Over half of the waste of animals are not suitable for human consumption due to physical characteristics but is still edible. It has been estimated that 11.4% of the gross income from beef and 7.5% of the income from pork, come from the by-products. Eating the product from the cut has the ability to cut down on the greenhouse gases emitted from the industry. Approximately it takes 9.3 gallons per bird of freshwater, the contaminated water needs to be made worth it.

People who were able to interact with him at his nursing home said his memory is “amazing” for a 111-year old.

On the contrary, a French-Canadian Marie-Louise Meilleur was named the world’s oldest person at 122. Her strict vegetarian diet consisted of additional items such as olive oil, port wine, and chocolate. If somebody were to adapt to a vegetarian diet for 20 years or more, they would add four years to their lifespan according to Dr. Pramil Singh. Adapting to the vegetarian diet would be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 percent per capita.

There is no proven-based diet that could structure whether you would live longer and all-cause mortality and are still being studied.

Would you try non-conventional cuts of meat? Would you be able to cut all the meat out to live longer? Do you want to live longer and see the world change?

Your menu has all the choices- now it is up to you.

If you want to keep up with Deter Kruger- Australia’s Oldest Man, his Twitter is located here.

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Eating Around the World

davidmcc — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:13:10 +0000

Some of my fondest memories take place during family dinners at the cottages in Wasaga Beach back when my sister and I would stay with my nonna and nonno (grandmother and grandfather) for the summers. Family members and family friends, or as we call them “cumpari,” owned and rented cottages in the area. We would often gather for dinners, where the kids were warned by Zia Elsa to “Mange, mange!” (Eat! Eat!), while adults drank wine and began to share stories of our community.

I learned of my nonno’s grandmother who was known for farting with each step as she strolled through the neighbourhood; of my nonna’s mother, Nonna Cicella, who would sneak out late at night to go dancing; of my nonno and his nightly walk into town to fetch goat’s milk for his youngest brother.

Jacqueline Ouellette (left) and her sister Madeleine on the loving laps of their nonna and nonno

And I learned of my nonna becoming traumatized by a combination of seasickness and the smell of aging bananas in their small, third class cabin during her family’s move to Canada. I learned of the strong women who endured as their men left for various reasons, and then used their wit and creativity to survive and support their families.

We kids would sit out on the porches with aunts and uncles, or zias and zios as we call them, passionately clarifying the family stories – often through argument – to create a more accurate version of the tale. My cousins, my sister and I would listen intently, learning more about who we are with every familial characteristic they discussed: humble, strong, artistic, and sometimes gassy.

Despite our birthplace, we are Italian in every characteristic we’ve inherited. While we munched away on our focaccia on a porch in Wasaga Beach, our hearts were filled with the warm idea that we were the manifestation of our ancestors’ dream for a better life in a new country, and so we too are a part of the stories.

In my Italian-Canadian experience, eating together is how I built a lasting relationship with my elders and my culture. Communal dining might be on the wane in North America, but it remains one of the most important opportunities for familial and community connectivity in many other places on the planet. In this article, members of Alternatives Journal, both past and present, share stories about the importance of communal dining they’ve experienced in their travels. So, take a seat and join us while we share what we’ve learned through our journeys about food
and community.

– Jacqueline Ouellette

Seychelle Islands

If you head to almost any beach in the Seychelles on a Saturday or Sunday, you’ll find yourself surrounded by the smells of grilled fish and the sounds of reggae music filling the air: it’s family picnic time. Weekend beach picnics are an important tradition in Seychelles, and families get together for a big picnic lunch a few weekends per month. One thing that particularly struck me about this tradition was the fact that these family get-togethers most often take place at the beach, not at anybody’s house, so no one is the designated “host”, it’s simply a family get-together. Everyone contributes something, usually curries, chutneys and salads, but the main feature is grilled fish, typically grilled right there at the beach. It’s a wonderful atmosphere of food and fun!

Fish in Seychelles comes mainly from local small scale fishing operations: it’s fresh, sustainable and delicious. However, with an increase in coral bleaching events due to ocean acidification, and rise of sea temperature, fish communities are going through changes that could affect local fishermen. This could in turn affect the staples of the Seychellois beach picnic menu, as different kinds of fish become more or less common. Coastal erosion and rising sea levels will also affect the beach picnic culture, as some beaches will become less ideal locations.

– Mimi Shaftoe

South Africa

I resisted the word “braai” during our first year in South Africa. It seemed unnecessary, even a little pretentious, to use an Afrikaans term when our North American one – barbecue – meant the same thing. Over the following three years of our stay, however, I gained an appreciation for the difference.

Braai is the verb “to grill.” But to braai or to have a braai means much more than igniting the Broil King on your patio. First, the requisite technique, some would say art: a braai is never done over gas, always over the simmering coals of a wood or charcoal fire. A braai fire can be built in a kettle barbecue, a split-open steel drum, an outdoor oven or, in some homes, a dedicated indoor/outdoor braai room. Regardless, the fire takes time to lay and burn down – which leaves plenty of time for socializing, the second key element of a true braai.

Although norms are shifting, the braai is still a gendered occasion. The men gather around the fire and tend to the meat. The women gather in the kitchen and tend to, well, everything else: drinks, salads, bread and pap (a cornmeal porridge typically served). While this sounds like a North American event requiring much planning, work and expense, a braai is meant to be informal and communal, with guests bringing food to cook and share. A braai takes a long time to enjoy but a short time to organize, which means it can happen any time and often.

Although braai is an Afrikaans word, it is used across South Africa’s many cultures, along with the Zulu term “shisa nyama,” literally “to burn meat.” South Africans take pride in the practice—not just the preparation of fire-grilled meat but its ability to bring people together. So I slowly adopted the term. We’d still barbecue a quick burger, we might add barbecue sauce, but when we gathered with friends, we would always braai.

– Katherine Barrett

“The long road to sustainability requires rebuilding our communities, and a good portion of that will take place over food.”

Northern Ontario

Some of the most communal meals I’ve ever eaten were at the staff bunk houses while I was a forest firefighter in Geraldton, Ontario. Living north of Thunder Bay can be isolating. The highways are just thin grey lines wavering through a dark green sea of boreal forest, eventually connecting one little blob of town to another.

Some of us firefighters lived at the staff bunk houses. “The bunks” were located 10 kilometres out of town, and because of our work scheduling, getting to the grocery store before it closed could be difficult, especially without a car. Those with cars made sure everyone got to the grocery store when we could, and we also often shared meals.

It was a lovely thing to bring our random foods together and make something better than if we had each cooked alone. And the potlucks were some of the best I’ve ever had, definitely not just an assortment of chips. Spending the whole summer away from family and friends down south was hard, but up at the bunks we became a sort of pseudo-family, and sharing meals was a big part of that.

When I think about climate change and the future we’ll live in, I wonder how the fire program will be affected. There will be more fires, and bigger fires, and more climate refugees coming to Canada needing jobs. Perhaps the quiet isolation of Ontario’s North will be shattered, and people will be fleeing to and from the north and south, away from fire, or towards opportunity. In twenty years, what kind of people will find themselves at the bunks, ten kilometres away from the nearest grocery store without transportation? Which languages will they speak? Who will be there to help them pick up some groceries, and what kind of groceries will be available? What sorts of dishes will turn up at future bunk potlucks? The world is going to change; this is inevitable. But I hope and pray our ability to create community wherever we find ourselves does not.

– Leah Gerber

Senegal

I firmly believe that I am genetically predisposed to disliking communal eating. While my parents were staunch believers in family supper every night, they showed the most complete lack of interest in having others join us or, gasp!, going somewhere else to eat. For me, the problem is primarily losing control of time. If I dine at a restaurant or a friend’s house, I am inevitably stuck there for well over an hour, which is simply too long for me.

In 2011, I traveled to Senegal for six months, and everything changed. Suddenly, I was not stuck in a mere 60-minute intellectual torture session, but rather a full-blown, multi-hour affair replete with lounging on mattresses, drinking tea, gazing around, making small talk, eventually eating, drinking more tea, re-lounging and ultimately politely leaving. To make matters worse, as a man, I was not welcome to take part in the food preparation process; as such, there were also feelings of uselessness and guilt mixed into the equation. All told, it was a recipe for disaster.

Nevertheless, I persisted, and learned how to appreciate the time spent with others. While I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat communally, I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to focus on the present and stop incessantly thinking about the future.

Now that I am married with a toddler at home, and several years removed from Senegal, I have solidly re-nuclearized. In contrast with my parents, my family is far more likely to invite others over for supper. However, we generally invite friends whom I am comfortable evicting when the time is right.

I recognize the long road to sustainability requires rebuilding our communities, and a good portion of that will take place over food. While I will never win an award for host of the year, I will gladly break bread with whomever it takes to build a better world. I hope it will be a quick meal.

– Kyrke Gaudreau

Japan

Many of Japan’s local food specialties come from the forests, mountains and valleys that dominate two-thirds of the country’s land mass; this is part of a forest and mountain heritage the country nourishes and subsidizes along with its industrial superpower status.

In Mukawa, a small town on the northern Island of Hokkaido, our host mom Masayo greets us wearing a handmade dress. She ushers us into her living room, where we’re seated on the floor around a table.

She brings us bowls of matcha tea (green tea made from ground-up tips of unprocessed tea) grown in mountain ranges close by, and we exchange names during a 10-minute version of the traditional lengthy, hours-long, Japanese tea ceremony.

The dinner meal features tempura-style veggies. We each use our chopsticks to dip a morsel in a batter of egg, flour and water, and then fry it in a common cooking pot filled with Canadian-made canola oil.

The one-pot meal is standard in folk cultures that predate modern stoves and indoor plumbing. To avoid going crazy with the overwork and stress of coordinating cooking times for various dishes over the flames of a fire and then cleaning fire-scorched cookware, cooks (almost always women) developed meals that could be cooked in one container.

The subsequent invention of stoves “freed” women to make meals of several courses; each with its own recipe and complications. Reinstituting the tradition of family meals might benefit from a return to this folk strategy.

After a few minutes in the pot, our morsels are lifted out and sprinkled with “snow salt”. Then comes the oohing and ahhing, which I translated into Japanese as ooh and ahh, apparently to good effect.

Japanese people seem comfortable expressing their pleasure boisterously when they eat; an apparent requirement of slow food regimes. There, dining isn’t treated as a refined, controlled exercise that establishes civilized behaviour.

– Wayne Roberts

India

In a long dining hall of a Sikh temple, there were no tables or chairs, unlike most dining areas we were accustomed to. Instead, three horizontal strips along the floor marked out where we were to sit. As we attempted to gracefully sit down in the the cross-legged position, we were immediately surrounded by a group of children. They giggled at our voices, and we were accepted.

The dining hour rang, and a few children took my hand and pulled me over to sit with them. Now hundreds of people sat in neatly arranged rows, with each row being separated some distance from the other. The reason for this space appeared quickly when individuals with massive metal pots burst through the door, and rapidly but efficiently put food on everyone’s plate as they walked between the rows. As a diner, you had to be vigilant and ready to raise your plate when the time came to avoid splashes and losses of the beautiful malai kofta, mutter aloo, kheer, roti and gulab jamun that came. As I tried each dish and delighted with every taste, I felt a sense of belonging as we talked and watched one another. With full bellies and empty plates, we rose together to wash, rinse and dry our dishes, in true family style.

– Julia Galbenu

Israel

Many of our oldest religious and spiritual traditions have deep connections with food and dinner tables. Feasting and fasting are consistent elements within the Abrahamic tradition, for example. Many of these mealtime traditions involve full tables and overflowing with foods to symbolize and enhance the spiritual connections between people and the food, and people and each other.

My personal favourite, Rosh Hashanah, is more basic. Sometimes the message of spirituality can get lost in the cacophony of clinking glasses and slurped soups. Not so, for me, when it comes to the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah or New Year (“rosh” – head, and “Hashanah” – of the year).

Unlike like the Scottish New Year’s celebrations of my youth, Rosh Hashanah is a feast day that marks the start of a new Jewish calendar, and it’s the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe (aka Ten Days of Repentance), which culminate in Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is a time of contemplation, self-review and planning for the future.

The family surrounds the dinner table, with holiday candles lit and the table set with a platter containing apples and a special cup of honey. Brief prayers – blessings of thanks for the bread, wine, apples and honey – are intoned.

Each participant is encouraged to consider his and her own individual actions and inactions of the past year, and our collective sins of commission and of omission. We then each ask for forgiveness from those we have wronged, while pledging to be better people in the coming year. Each family member dips a slice of apple in the honey and sends forth a prayer: “May the next year be as sweet as this honey.”

I think about this differently now in our age of climate change. We might not have pollinators, with their wheat, their wine, their honey and their apples, if we don’t make amends for past “sins against nature” and take active steps to be better stewards of nature’s bounty going forward, starting right now. But if we can summon the collective faith in our ability to find solutions, our future can be as sweet as the honey – and I’m sure we can all say amen to that.

– David McConnachie

Do you have a food story to share? Add it to the comments section in the online version of this article.
ajmag.ca/EatingAroundTheWorld

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Cheap and Green: Five Recipes for Green Health Remedies

megan — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:17:44 +0000

Originally published on The Green Student.

Store shelves are filled with products that have so many extra additives and chemicals. There is no way to know whether something is safe for the body and the environment when purchasing it. A simple way to help the environment, and the body is to create homemade health products out of beneficial and natural ingredients. Even as a student you have options to make decisions to help the environment. Take a look at these affordable and natural health remedies.

Eased Mind, Calm Sleep

Sleep is the biggest key to good health. Some people have a difficult time falling asleep. Students in university are especially notorious for lack of sleep, especially during exams. A simple trick for a good night’s sleep is to add lavender to evening bath water, or tuck it into a pillow case. The aroma of lavender is a natural soporific.

Trouble Skin No More

Acne plagues many young men and women, due to stress, unhealthy eating, or otherwise. The acne medications available are simply too harsh for skin, or too expensive for students on a budget. Tea tree oil is a tried remedy that has cleared skin for centuries. Simply add tea tree oil to a hypoallergenic organic lotion. If a spot won’t go away, simply dab a tiny amount of the oil onto the one spot. It will soon be gone. Not only is tea tree oil affordable, but it is available at most pharmacies.

Sour Stomach Solutions

With all the eating on the go, and greasy campus food, it is no wonder stomach problems of all sorts are so common. Treating a sour stomach can be as easy as making a cup of tea. Simply pour boiling water over fresh mint leaves or ginger root, and steep for about five minutes. For on the go, munching on candied or fresh ginger will do the same thing

Shiny, Healthy Hair

It is easy to get shiny, healthy hair. Natural butters and oils can help keep hair in good condition, and prevent damage. Just comb almond oil, argan oil, coconut oil, or olive oil through damp, freshly washed hair. Tie hair up under a plastic cap, and leave on while in the shower. Rinse it out, and let it air dry. This is a cheap and natural way for you to save money on conditioners since a little goes a long way.

All Natural Sunscreen

While so many people treat wrinkles, it is important to protect skin from the damage that causes these wrinkles in the first place. It is easy to make sunscreen that is safe for the skin and for the planet. The best all natural sunscreen can be made by adding a small amount of zinc oxide to a shea butter lotion base. The SPF can be altered by adjusting the amount of zinc oxide.

Health remedies don’t need to be filled with harmful chemicals. They are easy to make, easy on yourbody, and the environment. Even those on a budget, still trying to get through school can make a difference. With practice, the kitchen can also be an apothecary for healthy, green living!

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AJ’s Famous Beer Brownies

laura — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:03:01 +0000

This is a slightly modified version of a recipe from Deschutes Brewery in Portland.

Tweeting a photo of these delicious treats at our recent open house at the University of Waterloo Faculty of Environment caught the attention of both students and faculty. They were such a hit that we just had to share the goodness!

Ingredients

1 C all purpose flour  (takes a gluten-free flour substitute really well)
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
 6 Tbs of room temperature butter
 8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped
 4 large eggs, room temperature (5 if you use gluten-free flour) 
1 C raw sugar 
10 ounces local stout beer  (Waterloo Union Mills Porter will be available by the tall can at the Brick Brewery while supplies last over the holiday! I used Mill Street Coffee Porter.)
1¾ C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and butter a 9×13 pan.  
Put the flour and cocoa in a sifter and set aside (or whisk the two together in a medium bowl).
Melt the butter, 3/4 C of the chocolate chips, and the bittersweet chocolate together in a non-stick pot or double boiler.   
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until it gets light and fluffy – around two or three minutes. Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined.
Sift your flour mixture into your chocolate mixture and mix in the beer. The batter may seem thin but once you start mixing it up it will thicken.
Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the batter, but don’t mix them in. Some will sink in, some will stay on top. Pour the batter into your buttered pan and stick it in the oven.  
Bake it for about 25-35 minutes – until a toothpick in the center comes out almost clean. Then cool to room temperature.
Take to a party and impress all your friends.

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Condo Corn Chowder

emily — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:35:39 +0000

Inspired by Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen

Kitchener, Ontario, has a 140-year tradition of excellence in a farmers’ market. All of my vegetables for this recipe come from various Kitchener Market growers, with the exception of the corn. No one can deny how consistently sweet and delicious Herrle’s corn is. Cheaper by the dozen, I had leftover corn after this week’s Sunday dinner. So I searched for a chowder recipe that used almond milk and Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s recipe came up. However, there was no mention of almond milk in her recipe. The modifying started early due to my severe anti-coconut attitude and corresponding allergy. The original recipe also called for lime to give it tang. Lime’s another allergy, and so I substituted with goat yogurt. I invite you to modify my version to your taste (and use up what happens to be in your fridge). Check out Isa’s recipe – it’s vegan – and her website is great.

Here’s a wee note about why this is “Condo” corn chowder. This is my first year living in a condo after moving from the big old family home in the same neighbourhood. At Herrle’s you can husk the corn in their country store. This is so much easier than trying to husk in a small space.

We are on the 9^th floor and our balcony faces more north than it does west. I’m happy to report that my herbs grew very well with very little direct sun. And it’s at this time that I must say to Robert Everett-Green that yes, people do use their balconies. Everett-Green’s suggestion that most people do not use their balconies might be a Toronto phenomenon, but I would encourage anyone to green-up their balcony. It’s a pleasure sitting outside on the balcony, sipping on a beverage, watching your container garden grow. And after the sun goes down and paints the sky, you can let the stars steal your gaze.

On a final note, my mother would urge you to chew your corn well – for better digestion. Bon appetit.

1 Tbsp grapeseed oil 
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped 
3 cloves garlic, minced 
1 red pepper, chopped
2-3 cups cooked corn (left over from from 3-4 ears) 
3 carrots, peeled and cut into ¼-inch rounds 
4 red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch chunks 
2 cups broth 
1 tablespoon tapioca or arrowroot 
1 cup almond milk  
½ cup yogurt  (vegan option: 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice)
Salt to taste, fresh black pepper to taste

To garnish:  Chopped fresh chives (1/4 cup should do it) , Thinly sliced fresh basil (1/8 cup or so) , 1 Tbsp French tarragon all chopped together.

Have all of your vegetables washed and ready to chop.

Preheat a 4-litre soup pot over medium heat. Sauté onion and celery in oil with a pinch of salt until onion is translucent (and you have finished chopping the red pepper) – about 3 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper and sauté for another couple of minutes (until you have chopped the carrots). Add carrots and cook until you have chopped the potatoes. Add potatoes and cook until soft (about 4-5 minutes). Add the corn and the broth.

Cover and bring to a boil. Mix the tapioca starch into about 75 ml of the almond milk in a measuring cup. Then stir in the rest of the almond milk, pour it into the soup and cook to thicken, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the yogurt (or lime). Add black or cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

I didn’t do this, but I’d try it next time: Use an immersion blender to blend about half of the soup – or go low tech with a vegetable masher. Isa has other instructions in her original recipe.

Taste for salt and seasoning. Serve garnished with fresh chopped herbs. Try a finishing salt – like Celtic sea salt. Delicious.

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How to Heal from Trauma with Plants

laura — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 22:42:34 +0000

This article is part of A\J’s web series Night School. In celebration of back-to-school time and our Night issue, the A\J web team brought you a series of quick lessons, posted between September 16 to October 11, 2013, covering everything from activism tactics and canning tips to how factory farms breed disease.

We’re welcoming guest lecturer Zoe Miller for our final A\J Night School Lesson. Zoe is reporting back from a workshop offered earlier this week by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group on healing from trauma with plants.

I have been working with herbs in my garden for the last three growing seasons, each fall focusing on drying and crushing the herbs I’ve grown for teas. Emotional trauma is something relatively new to my life, and something that I hope to overcome by fighting to survive daily, while utilizing plant allies to improve my ability to be me – unimpeded by overly self-critical, detrimental and destructive thought patterns.

Shabina Lafleur-Gangji, who has been studying herbs for more than half a decade, joined me and other plant-infatuated folks to share knowledge about medicines and approaches to healing that have been consistently stolen, colonized and devalued. Throughout the workshop, we paused to discuss specific issues we were experiencing, ask questions about terminologies and seek support or suggestions from other folks in regards to our own stories and histories with certain herbs.

I think it’s beautifully necessary to share this knowledge again, although reading about making a tincture (for me, anyways) is more difficult than being shown how to do so. I hope that I am able to reproduce the following recipes as accessibly as they were made to me.

What is an adaptogen?

Adaptogenic herbs help decrease cellular responses to stress, allowing one to slow down their thoughts; these herbs meet you where you are. That is, when you’re experiencing panicked feelings, adaptogens can help slow and calm thoughts/respiratory responses. When you’re depressed and unmotivated, adaptogens can act as a catalyst for energy and motivation/focus.

Kala Tulsior ‘holy basil’ (ocimum tenuiflorum) is the adaptogen that we focused on in this workshop. Tulsi has been sacredly cultivated in India for over 5,000 years; its name means the incomparable one. It can be used in teas, tinctures and salves to:

Decrease cold, flu symptoms, and viral susceptibility
Help with lung health, asthma
Calm ear/head/stomach upsets
Prevent heart disease, fever, mercury poisoning and slow the progression of cancers
Help relieve ring worm
Counteract venomous bites, mosquito repellant
Promote longevity and long term health maintenance
Lower blood sugar in diabetic patients
Naturally aid sleep

How to make a Tincture

Cultivate, dry, and finely chop your chosen herb.
Fill a mason jar or darkened, sealable glass container more than half way with the dried herb (if you are using fresh herbs, fill the entire jar; herbs shrink down when they are dried).
Fill up the rest of the bottle with alcohol of choice. (40% is necessary to extract the nutrients needed from the herbs. You can use brandy, vodka or your preferred alcohol.)
If you wish, you may add a bit of water or glycerine (mostly to improve the taste).
Leave the sealed jar in a dark place, and shake every once in a while. Leave it like this (unopened) for one to three months depending on your preference.
When the tincture is sufficiently aged, strain the liquid from the herbs in the bottle and (optional) transfer into a dropper bottle for easy use.
Label it with the name of the herb and date created. Tinctures are most potent when used within a year.

Need to de-stress? Honeyball it!

I wish I’d had this recipe accessible to me last winter, when struggling with school, emotional and traumatic stresses – but now I feel more prepared for the upcoming one! Honeyballs are herb- and honey-based candies that help you to be grounded, centred and purposefully embodied when faced with intense stress or other emotional challenges. No exact measurements are given in the recipe: it’s something that you can feel out and make your own.

First, collect or purchase:

Ashwagandha root (aids in morphine withdrawal, arthritis, anxiety, trouble sleeping)
Maka powder (energy and immune system boost)
Licorice root powder (helps to lubricate respiratory system, taste)
Cinnamon
Oatstraw (replenishes adrenals, helps bodies to replenish)
Tulsi

Using a double boiler, bring a cup or more of honey to a boil, then follow these three simple steps:

Start by adding ashwagandha and maca powders (as the base) to thicken the honey. Add in the cinnamon, oatstraw and tulsi as supportive ingredients.
Keep stirring and mixing in the ingredients until the honey mixture is very thick, like a cookie batter.
Using a spoon and your fingers, form the mixture into balls. Roll the balls in the licorice root powder. They will harden if left to do so, or put in the refrigerator. They are just as awesome freshly made and squishy, though!

We were each able to take home two honeyballs, and upon eating mine I felt noticeably calmer and more present within ten minutes.

After the workshop ended, our discussions evolved into a way to keep this knowledge close to us, to sustain it and ensure its continuity. Within the next few weeks, folks who attended the workshop series or those who are just interested in having personal autonomy over the healing practices used on their bodies will be having a preliminary discussion about fostering ongoing herbal learning and discovery at the University of Waterloo. If you are interested in being a part of this discussion and the meetings that will likely follow, track our plans from the event’s Facebook page!

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Recipe: Curried Chicken and Okra

laura — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:29:13 +0000

Succulent and perfectly balanced, this slightly saucy dish is quite simple to prepare. While mixing okra with water tends to enhance its slippery mouth feel, the lemon juice in this recipe counteracts that, giving the dish a great texture. Using freshly harvested okra also helps keep the texture firm – good news for those of you who are still warming up to this unique vegetable. This recipe serves four, and takes 30 minutes to prepare (plus one to two hours to marinate).

Ingredients

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric
1⁄2 – 3⁄4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive or canola oil
1⁄2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
20 medium-sized okra (about 1/3 lb)
1 medium tomato, chopped

Method

Cut the chicken into 1- or 1.5-inch pieces. Place in a non-aluminum bowl and add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, 1 tsp salt and lemon juice. Stir well to mix. Cover and refrigerate for one to two hours.

Slice off the tops and tips of the okra and cut each into two to three slices. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium-high. Add the cumin seeds, onions and okra. Stir and fry six or seven minutes, or until the onions have browned a little. Add the marinated chicken, stir and fry three to four minutes until all the chicken pieces turn pale. (Don’t worry if some of the spices stick to the pan.) Add 1⁄2 cup water, 1⁄4 tsp salt and the tomato. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to low, and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Serve over rice or your favourite grain.

This recipe appeared alongside the article “Comfort Food”, about scientists, farmers and new Canadians welcoming world crops to Ontario soil. You can read the article in issue 39.4, Food & Drink.

It’s also featured in Eat Local, Taste Global: A Guide to Growing and Cooking World Crops, written by Emily Van Halem and published by The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto. Get more information about the project and watch world-crops cooking videos (featuring Van Halem) at thestop.org/eat-local-taste-global.

The post Recipe: Curried Chicken and Okra appeared first on A\J.

The Secret’s Out: Chocolate Truffle Pie & Butternut Squash Ice Cream

emily — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 21:03:37 +0000

At 16, Mérida Anderson became a vegan and cooked her first meal. She opened a can of mini corn (which she loved) and cooked cauliflower (the only other vegetable in the refrigerator). She remembers that it was “truly awful.”

Twelve years later, Anderson has become a successful self-taught vegan chef who infuses her original recipes with boundless imagination, a sense of adventure and a wide variety of fresh, organic and seasonal ingredients. She thrives on deviating from conventional vegan cuisine; for example, Anderson doesn’t use fake dairy or fake meat. “I try not to substitute, but to cook so that you would never think anything was missing,” she explains. Instead, her plant-based recipes rely on irresistible multicultural flavours such as maple syrup, cardamom pods, tahini and kombu (edible, dried kelp).

In 2008, Anderson’s passion for sharing food with people led her to create Vegan Secret Supper (VSS), an “underground kitchen” that hosts recurring Sunday dinners and pop-up suppers for groups of friends and strangers (and often strangers who become friends) at apartments and homes in Montreal, Vancouver and Brooklyn, NY. A multi-course VSS meal – which normally lasts a couple of hours but takes about two or three days of preparation, including soaking nuts, making sauces and freezing desserts – becomes the foundation for a cozy, delightful evening among like-minded bon vivants. Chef Mérida also aims to make her diners rethink the possibilities of vegan food, presenting dishes that are full of artful surprises.

Her new book, Vegan Secret Supper: Bold and Elegant Menus from a Rogue Kitchen, features 150 recipes that are ideal for holidays, a romantic dinner or impressing guests at your next dinner party. Recipes draw from Anderson’s VSS events and the book assembles an exceptional fusion of starters, soups, salads, mains, sodas, desserts, brunch, breads and nut cheese – plus great advice about stocking a vegan kitchen, plate setting, fermenting and other inventive cooking ideas. Mouth-watering photography showcases the amazing possibilities: watermelon red pepper gazpacho; pepper crusted cashew cheese with juniper tofu and olive tapenade; dark hazelnut rye bread; pine nut parmesan cheese; sesame flax crackers; pumpkin maple cinnamon buns; lavender vanilla ice cream; and many more.

Anderson’s ancho chocolate truffle pie and butternut squash walnut ice cream recipes (turn to the next page!) were the result of various experiments. “I always have a chocolate-cashew pie of some sort kicking around, and I change it up with other ingredients and accompaniments to suit my mood and the seasons,” she says. “Because I love spice, I added ancho chilies, along with cinnamon and cloves. The ice cream came about because I was steaming butternut squash to make gnocchi and had a bit left over. So I decided to make ice cream with the butternut. It ends up tasting a bit like pumpkin pie ice cream.”

Sumac has been high on Anderson’s list of favourite flavours to work with recently, and some of her go-to ingredients include coconut milk, garam masala, sesame oil and raw cashews. She’s certainly come a long way from preparing “awful” cauliflower and mini corn, and she’s clearly figured out how to have an awful lot of fun in the kitchen. “It’s sometimes hard to say exactly how recipes and dishes come about, but one idea leads to the next to the next – sometimes they start as a joke and then end up being delicious!”

Ancho chocolate truffle pie – Nut crust

This is a no-fail, all-purpose crust. You can mix and match flavors to go with what you have on hand or the type of pie you’re making – almond cinnamon crust, hazelnut mocha crust or chocolate walnut crust are good choices.

Makes one 25-cm crust

1 cup (250 mL) nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts), ground
3/4 cup (185 mL) spelt flour (gluten-free option: 3/4 cup rice flour and 1 Tbsp arrowroot powder or corn starch)
1 tsp cocoa powder (or 1 tsp ground cinnamon, or 1 tsp fine ground coffee and 1 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
2 Tbsp brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp flavored extract, optional (almond, vanilla, orange, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C). In a bowl, combine nuts with dry ingredients and make a well. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined. Use your hands as needed. Press into a pie plate or 25-cm springform pan.

Ancho chocolate truffle pie – filling

Makes eight to 12 servings.

1/3 cup (80 mL) coconut oil
4 oz (115 g) chopped chocolate
1 cup (250 mL) raw cashews, soaked in 2 cups of water overnight and drained
1 can (398 mL) of coconut milk
2/3 cup (160 mL) cocoa powder
3/4 cup (185 mL) maple syrup
3 Tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ancho or cayenne pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp salt

In a double boiler on medium heat, melt coconut oil and chocolate, and set aside. In a food processor or blender, blend remainder of filling ingredients until smooth. While blender is running, slowly pour in melted oil-chocolate mixture and blend until smooth. Pour into a 25-centimetre (10-inch) springform pan with pre-baked nut crust and chill overnight.

Butternut squash walnut ice cream

Makes three cups (750 mL). See below for Anderson’s ice cream making method.

1 cup (250 mL) peeled and cubed butternut squash
1/4 cup (60 mL) toasted walnuts
1 can (398 mL) of coconut milk
1/2 cup (125 mL) maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Place a 15-cm vegetable steamer in a pot. Add at least 2.5-cm of water, place squash in steamer, and cover pot. Steam squash on medium-high heat for 10 minutes, until squash is tender. Set aside to cool. In a blender or food processor, blend squash with remainder of ingredients until smooth. Chill in a covered bowl or container in the refrigerator overnight before following manufacturer’s instructions for ice cream maker, or those provided below.

To Plate

1 tsp ground cinnamon
Slice of ancho chocolate truffle pie
Butternut squash & walnut ice cream
1 tsp flaked sea salt

Sprinkle a tiny pinch of cinnamon in a diagonal line across a square plate. Place a slice of pie in the middle and a scoop of ice cream beside it. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on top of pie before serving.

Making ice cream

Even if you don’t own an ice cream maker, you can still make perfect ice cream. Here is Anderson’s method:

Take two metal bowls that nest together well. Fill one up with water and place the other one on top. (You may want to do this in the sink, as adjusting the water levels can be messy.) Weigh the top bowl down with a bag of frozen peas, until the bowls are nesting with an even layer of water between them. Place the stacked bowls in the freezer for two hours, until water is frozen solid.

Remove bag of peas. Pour the well-chilled ingredients into your frozen bowl and stir it. It will start freezing to the bowl as you scrape the sides. Stir for at least five minutes before taking a break. You can put the bowl back in the freezer for about 10 minutes to harden the ice cream slightly and keep the bowl frozen, then remove it and stir again, until ice cream reaches the desired consistency.

Transfer ice cream to a sealed container and keep in the freezer for up to two weeks.

The base in most of Anderson’s recipes is coconut milk. You can substitute other milks, but coconut milk will result in a smoother and creamier ice cream, especially when turning by hand, because of its higher fat content.

Recipes are excerpted from Vegan Secret Supper: Bold & Elegant Menus from a Rogue Kitchen, by Mérida Anderson, published by Arsenal Pulp Press (2013).

The post The Secret’s Out: Chocolate Truffle Pie & Butternut Squash Ice Cream appeared first on A\J.