Valentine's Day on CBC's Weekend Morning Show - Fair Trade Chocolate Creams and Lobster with Almond Tarator

This morning, after the 8:30AM news, I presented the following dishes for Valentine's Day treats on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with host Terry MacLeod. 

1. Nova Scotia Lobster Tails with Almond Tarator
4 small - medium Nova Scotia Lobster Tails
Prepare Almond Tarator in advance.  Recipe follows.
Cut defrosted Lobster tails down the middle and loosen meat.  Drizzle olive oil over tails.  Place over high heat of BBQ or under broiler and cook until the shell is red all over.  Open shell and spoon Almond Tarator over lobster meat.  Serve immediately.

Almond Tarator
9 oz Almonds
3 cloves garlic
sea salt
juice of one lemon
3 tbs champagne vinegar
1 tbs honey
4 egg yolks
2 1/4 cups good olive oil
3-5 oz lukewarm water
freshly ground black pepper

Pulse the almonds in a food processor.  Crush the garlic with salt and add to the almonds with lemon juice, vinegar, honey and egg yolk until smooth and creamy.  Drizzle in half of the oil, and alternate with the water.  Slowly drizzle in the remaining olive oil until a thick, creamy mayonnaise.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Use as a dip, mezze or cover a fish fillet and bake.

2. Chocolate Creams

6-7 oz dark Callebaut Chocolate
2 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Melt chocolate in a bain-marie (stainless steel bowl over pot of boiling water) with 1 tbs. Milk. Make the quantity of milk up to 2 cups and bring high heat. Beat 6 egg yolks with sugar until the mixture turns white. Slowly add the chocolate flavoured milk, beating it in quickly. Divide the mixture between at least 6 ramekins placed in a baking dish that will be filled with simmering water (another bain-marie). Bake at 375� F for about 25 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the bain-marie and leave to cool before putting them in the refrigerator to set.

Pavlova (optional to serve with creams)

4 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180�F.
Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan. Draw a 9-inch circle on the
paper, using a 9-inch plate as a guide, then turn the paper over so the circle is on
the reverse side. (This way you won't get a pencil mark on the meringue.)
Place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk
attachment. Beat the egg whites on high speed until firm, about 1 minute. With
the mixer still on high, slowly add the sugar and beat until it makes firm, shiny
peaks, about 2 minutes.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, sift the cornstarch onto the beaten egg whites,
add the vinegar and vanilla, and fold in lightly with a rubber spatula. Pile the
meringue into the middle of the circle on the parchment paper and smooth it
within the circle, making a rough disk. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the oven,
keep the door closed, and allow the meringue to cool completely in the oven,
about 1 hour. It will be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
Invert the meringue disk onto a plate and spread the top completely with
sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Is Meat Unhealthy? Part VIII

Health can be defined as the absence of disease, and that is the lens through which we've been examining meat so far. However, most of us have a broader view of health that also includes optimal growth and development, physical and mental performance, well-being, fertility, immunity, robustness, and resilience. What role does meat play in this broader view of health?

Non-industrial cultures

One of the things I keep coming back to in this series is the strong natural affinity that our species has for meat. Every culture that does not prohibit meat consumption for religious reasons (e.g., Indian Hindus) seeks and eats meat avidly.

A key fact that stands out from my recent conversations with anthropologists is that hunter-gatherers and subsistence agriculturalists place a high value on meat, even if they already have regular access to it. Here's an excerpt from a paper by Kim Hill, Magdalena Hurtado, and colleagues (1):

Observations of the exchange rate between other foragers and their agricultural neighbors indicate that meat is worth much more than carbohydrate calories (e.g., Hart 1978; Peterson 1981). Hart, in his study of exchanges of meat and casava between Pygmy foragers and neighboring agriculturalists, found that approximately four and one half times as many calories of casava were exchanged for each calorie of meat given. In addition, it appears that almost everywhere in the world meat calories from domestic animals are probably expensive to produce relative to plant calories, and yet subsistence farmers continue to use at least some of their "cheap" plant calories to produce "expensive" animal calories (see Harris 1985 for discussion)

Why do humans around the globe value meat so much? This strongly suggests that we've evolved an affinity for meat because eating it provides a reproductive advantage. In other words, meat may increase our "Darwinian fitness".

Read more �

Manitoba Hydro Bldg. Market! This Thursday, Feb. 12th

I'll be selling my Moroccan spice blend, Ras el Hanout and my Turkish spice blend, Turkish Baharat, at the Manitoba Hydro Building this Thursday from 10AM - 3PM!

New products each week!  Look for Tomato chutney, Tea Masala, and more throughout the market season.

Coconut Pecan Hot Fudge Sundaes

It�s almost Valentine�s Day! Let�s celebrate with ice cream sundaes! 

We�re layering chocolatey hot fudge sauce, vanilla ice cream, extra coconutty coconut milk caramel, and pecans! Yasss! We�re doing German Chocolate Cake style sundaes! Plus whipped cream, sprinkles, and a cherry on top, because that�s how we roll. 
Historically, German Chocolate Cake has been my favorite. As a kid, it was my chosen birthday cake each year. Less because of the chocolate cake part, and more because of the gooey, caramely coconut pecan frosting. About two years ago, I saw on instagram that someone had Talenti German Chocolate Cake flavored gelato, and I made it my mission in life to find it. Every store, every ice cream aisle. I checked. Every time. But alas, no luck. I was starting to think that maybe it didn�t actually exist, but then, a few weeks ago, EUREKA! 
So, after all that hype (I literally did a succession of these moves in Whole Foods when I found it), it was� meh. I mean, it was good. But like, it wasn�t great. It wasn�t two years of searching good, ya know? I could do better. But instead of making my own version of the ice cream, I decided to go the sundae route. For love-day! 
Whether you�re doing something naughty with the extra hot fudge with your sweetheart slash resurrecting the whipped cream bikini, setting up a Gal-entine�s ice cream sundae bar, or treating some little tiny loves to a special treat, these sundaes win. Here�s the drill: a layer of homemade hot fudge sauce in the bottom, a big scoop of vanilla ice cream (that hot meets cold part is my favorite!), some salty caramel that we make using coconut milk and then mix with shredded coconut, a sprinkle of crunchy toasted pecans, and then as many wacky, fun toppings as your pitter pattering hearts desire. 
PS. These little dino lovers are from our wedding! We metallic spray painted a full zoo/jurassic park�s worth of dinosaurs and animals for place settings, as a reminder (to ourselves) to have fun, be playful, and not take ourselves, or the material aspects of the wedding, too seriously. Now these little guys remind me of what a fun love-filled day that was! Insert a thousand heart and confetti emojis here, plus the ice cream one. And the kissy face one.

German Chocolate Cake/ Coconut Pecan Ice Cream Sundaes   
Both sauces make way more than you�ll need for two sundaes, but both store well in the fridge, and would be great for a sundae bar. Make both sauces ahead of time, so on Valentine�s Day (or whenever) you can just assemble everything.

Hot fudge sauce (recipe below)
Vanilla ice cream
Coconutty coconut caramel (recipe below)
Toasted pecan pieces
Whipped cream
Sprinkles, cherries, etc

In serving bowl or glass, layer: hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, coconutty coconut milk caramel (and a drizzle of the coconut-less caramel if you�d like), pecans, whipped cream, and desired sundae toppings. 


Hot Fudge Sauce
Adapted from Jeni�s Splendid Ice Creams

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup*
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate

Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, whisk in cocoa powder until thoroughly combined, then stir in vanilla. Add chocolate, and let sit for about 3 minutes. Stir the sauce until the chocolate is fully melted and smoothly mixed in. Serve warm or cool. Can be refrigerated for up to 2 months, and reheated in a sauce pan as needed. 


Coconutty Coconut Milk Caramel
Adapted from Epicurious

2 14 oz cans coconut milk
1.5 cups light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (plus a pinch more if you want it extra salty)
1 cup shredded coconut

In a large pot (go bigger than you�d think), whisk together coconut milk, light brown sugar, and salt. Heat over medium heat until brown sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil over medium-high. Boil, stirring occasionally, until it�s reduced to about 2 cups and has thickened to coat a spoon. This usually takes me about 30 minutes. Depending on the heat of your burner, you can turn it down� On my gas stove, it boils over like crazy over medium heat, so I kept it on a steady medium-low boil for 30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and adjust as necessary.

Let cool, then mix 1 cup of the sauce with the 1 cup of shredded coconut. Set the remainder aside. Both can be refrigerated. 

* A note on corn syrup. Some of you may have read that ingredient and freaked out a little. Here�s the deal. In my opinion, a little bit of Karo corn syrup in a homemade dessert, when you�re indulging, isn�t the issue (if you eat ice cream sundaes on the daily, it might be an issue... but then... so will all that ice cream). Hidden high fructose corn syrup in every kind of prepackaged food where you least expect it� that�s where we run into problems. However, if you�re super anti, then you can try to replace the corn syrup with agave, but I haven�t tested that substitution. Or... you may want to rethink this whole dessert, it�s full of processed sugar�I mean... it's not a kale salad. It�s an ice cream sundae! If you want to know more, David Lebovitz has some really good thoughts about using corn syrup in cooking.

EPIC Gardening Information Evening

Dear Food First-ers,



We wanted to let you know about an interesting community meeting coming up, hosted by EPIC (Edmonds People in Community Association).



The meeting will discuss community-based gardening opportunities in the Edmonds area. We'll be there as part of our Sharing Backyards project!



Wednesday, February 18

From 7:00 pm

Tommy Douglas Library (7311 Kingsway / Burnaby - map)



See you there!

Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Over the holidays Evan and I decided to work on a puzzle�just a simple 500 piecer that we borrowed from a friend. We were never big puzzlers in my family� I honestly can�t remember ever completing a puzzle until now.
You guys! Did you know puzzles are SO FUN!? I�m obsessed. After we finished the first one, I bought 4 Thomas Kinkade Disney puzzles. I�m a bit of a competitive puzzler, but I also like the camaraderie of a good puzzle sesh. Ya know? I get to a point, though, where we just need to really wrap one up and move on to the next. It�s serious business.
Amanda happens to be a very skilled puzzler, so I invited her over for dinner one night� dinner was really just the carrot I dangled in front of her to force her into puzzling. I mean, dinner wasn�t literally a carrot, it was enchiladas (with carrots), but I wasn�t going to let her leave til the Jungle Book puzzle was complete.
These enchiladas were just a thrown together thing, but turned out so, so good! They�re semi-homemade, with a rotisserie chicken and canned enchilada sauce that we spruce up a bit. I had a big thing of roasted vegetables in the fridge that I made earlier in the week for lunches. You could really use any combo of vegetables, but I highly recommend including sweet potatoes and onions. Below is what I used, but feel free to switch it up. These make an extra large batch, which is perfect for weekday consumption! 

I hope you know that reading beyond this point makes you contractually obligated to come puzzle at my house�

Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas
Makes 24 enchiladas

1 (28 oz) large can red enchilada sauce (I like Herdez brand)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cumin
Juice from 1 lime
2 cups roasted vegetables (below)
1 small rotisserie chicken, chicken removed and shredded
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
24 small corn tortillas (taco sized)
2.5 cups shredded cheese (Monterey jack, Colby jack, etc)
1/2 cup sliced black olives

Optional Toppings:
Sour cream (mixed with a little lime juice to thin it out)
Cilantro
Hot sauce
Avocado slices
Crumbled cotija cheese
Fresh sliced radishes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together sauce, cocoa powder, cumin, and lime juice. Remove about 3/4 of the sauce and set aside. 

Add vegetables, shredded chicken, and black beans to the bowl of 1/4 of the sauce, and toss to mix everything together and coat.

Spread a thin layer of the remaining sauce on the bottom of one large (9x13) or two medium sized (baking dishes 8x8-ish). You should still have a lot of sauce left after doing this.

Warm tortillas: If you don�t have a tortilla warmer, you can wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave for about 30 seconds.

Put a spoonful of the mixture in each tortilla, with a about a teaspoon of cheese. Roll, and place side by side tightly in the baking dish. Should make about 24 enchiladas Once they�re all rolled up and placed in dish, top with remaining sauce and cheese. Evenly distribute olives over the top.

Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes, until cheese is super bubbly. Let cool about 10 minutes before serving. 

Simple Roasted Vegetables

1 unpeeled small-ish acorn squash, seeded and cut into bitesize pieces
2 yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bitesize pieces
1 large red onion, halved and sliced into thick wedges
4 large carrots, sliced into bitesized pieces
Olive oil
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Heavy pinch of salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spread squash, yams, onions, and carrots on a baking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat, and sprinkle with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. 

Roast for about 45-50 minutes (flipping everything once) until the edges are browned but not burnt. 

Burnaby Food First Sewing Circle Meeting

The next meeting of the Burnaby Food First Sewing Circle is coming up soon!



Burnaby Food First Sewing Circle

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Location: Burnaby Neighbourhood House, Banquet Room B (4460 Beresford Street / Burnaby - map)

Time: Meeting starts at 7:00 pm



If you're interested in our Apron Project, this is the place to be! We welcome new sewing volunteers, in addition to existing volunteers. Fabric and thread will be provided.



Burnaby Neighbourhood House is conveniently located across the street from the Metrotown bus loop and SkyTrain.



If you have any questions about the meeting, please send us an email.