Upcoming Workshop - Homemade Apple Dessert!

Burnaby Food First is pleased to offer another FREE workshop!



Homemade Apple Dessert!

Thursday December 10th

6:30 pm to 8:15 pm



Brentwood Community Resource Centre

2055 Rosser Ave / Burnaby - map



Join Alice Macpherson to learn how to make a delicious and festive apple tart that will make the holidays just a bit sweeter!



Registration is required. Space is limited!



To register, please contact Meghan at (604) 209-2404 or by email.

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**Other FREE Burnaby Food First Workshops!**



Winter Vegetable Wonder!

Thursday, December 3rd

6:30 pm - 8:15 pm



Brentwood Community Resource Centre (2055 Rosser Ave / Burnaby - map)



Winter doesn't mean you can't eat your vegetables! Join Holistic Nutritionist Sondi Bruner and learn some simple, delicious and nutritious recipes using inexpensive seasonal vegetables. Yum yum - see you there!



Please register to attend. Space is limited! 



To register, please contact Meghan at (604) 209-2404 or by email.

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Soups On!

Tuesday, December 8

6:30 pm - 8:15 pm



Burnaby Neighbourhood House, South Location (4460 Beresford St. / Burnaby - map)



Join Sharon Kravitz to learn the basics of making delicious homemade soups for the whole family! This is a hands-on workshop, so bring your aprons. Yummy tastings included.



** REGISTRATION IS CLOSED - workshop is full. **



Please contact Meghan at (604) 209-2404 or by email to be added to the waitlist.



Note: Due to the presence of hot liquid, no small children please at the 'Soups On' workshop. Older kids, however, are welcome 

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Enjoy Burnaby Food First workshops? Want to get involved as a volunteer?



Check out all the great ways you can get involved. All are welcome, and we'd love to have you on board! For more information, send us an email.

Crispy Korean Chicken and Gingerbread Biscotti for CBC's Weekend Morning Show

This morning I'll be featuring the following recipes on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with host Terry MacLeod.

This may look like a long and detailed recipe but once you have all of the elements together (mise en place), it is quite simple to prepare.

Enjoy for your Grey Cup snacking or make it a regular feature!

1. Crispy Korean Chicken
from:  http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-dakgangjeong

Steps:
Mix chicken with seasonings and cover in starch.
Fry in hot oil for 7 to 8 minutes.
Shake off, let sit, then fry for another 12 to 15 minutes.
Coat in seasoning sauce.
Sprinkle sesame seeds over top and serve immediately.
Ingredients

3� pounds chicken wings (about 1.6 kg), washed and drained
� teaspoon salt
� teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced ginger
2/3 cup potato starch or corn starch
? cup peanuts (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 to 4 large dried red chili peppers, seeded, cut crosswise into ? inch pieces (optional)
� cup soy sauce
� cup rice or corn syrup
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard (optional)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil, peanut oil)
Directions

Cut off the tip of each wing and chop the wing in half. After this is done you should have about 3 pounds of chicken, with 24 to 26 pieces.
Put the chicken in a bowl and mix with salt, ginger, and ground black pepper by hand.
Put 2/3 cup potato starch in a bowl and dip each wing in the powder to coat it, one by one. Squeeze each wing to press the coating to it tightly.
Make the sweet, spicy, and sticky sauce:

Heat a large non-stick skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons cooking oil, minced garlic, and the dried red chili pepper.
Stir with a wooden spoon until fragrant for about 30 seconds.
Add soy sauce, rice syrup, vinegar, and mustard sauce (optional). Stir with a wooden spoon and let it bubble for a few minutes.
Add the brown sugar and continue stirring. Remove from the heat. Set aside.
Fry the chicken:

Put 4 cups of cooking oil in a frying pan or pot and heat it up for 7 to 8 minutes over high heat.
See if the oil�s ready by dipping a test wing into it. If the oil bubbles, it�s hot enough to start frying. Slide the coated wings one by one into the hot oil and cook for about 12 to 13 minutes, turning over a few times with tongs.
Take the wings out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer. Turn off the heat, and let the wings sit for a few minutes.
Reheat the oil and fry the wings again for another 12 to 15 minutes until they all look golden brown and feel super crunchy through the tongs. If your frying pan or pot is not large enough to fry all the chicken at once, divide it into batches like I do in the video. If you use a larger frying pot to cook them all at once, you�ll have to use more cooking oil.
Coat the fried chicken with the sauce:

When the chicken is done, reheat the sauce until it bubbles.
Add the hot chicken and mix well with a wooden spoon to coat.
Remove from the heat and transfer the coated chicken to a large platter. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over top and serve immediately. This chicken won�t lose its crunchiness, even by the next day. You don�t need any dipping sauce.


2. Gingerbread Biscotti

2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 tsp Frangelico (or try kirsch, or coffee liquors)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325�F. Mix butter sugar and molasses until smooth. Add one egg at a time and mix. Add vanilla and liquor and mix until smooth. Combine dry ingredients and mix slowly into the wet ingredients until fully incorporated. Turn out dough onto floured surface and form into a large log. Divide dough into three pieces and flatten out each piece into rectangles onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of oven and cut into biscotti pieces. Turn cookies and bake for 5-7 minutes at 300�F. When cooled, drizzle melted chocolate or make a simple icing of icing sugar and liquor.

Enjoy!

Food Security and Food Culture

Food Security includes not only ensuring access to food but also achieving good nourishment and nutrition. This is described as 'Utilization of food' as described in a previous article about this topic. Intake of a well balanced diet goes hand in hand with the diversity, customs and cultural traditions that are associated with food preparation and consumption. In order to achieve Food Security therefore, it is necessary to recognize the importance of culture in relation to food habits. This cultural aspect is further explored in this post. It is part of a series of articles about Food Security. 

We are what we eat

The experience of cooking and eating food is determined by lifestyle, resources, community influences, aesthetic preferences and all such factors that prescribe culture and identity. Food is usually a very important part of celebrations, holidays, festivals and events. Food production, preparation and intake are often collective activities among family, friends and community. These collective and cultural influences therefore are integral to continued intake of sufficient and nutritious food. 

For instance, meals are traditionally long, leisurely and eaten with together with family or friends in Latin cultures such as French, Italian or South American. In India and some other Asian cultures, elaborate cooking processes and use of a wide variety of ingredients are a common feature of everyday meals. Traditional Middle Eastern family meals are served in a communal plate in the centre of the table. Food is eaten without cutlery or plates but using hands.

Cultural traditions and customs are not fixed. They are continuously evolving but they remain part and parcel of Food Utilization and therefore Food Security. 

Impact of Culture on Food Security

Due to a modern lifestyle people are switching to a fast food culture and perhaps no longer attach enough importance to cultural traditions in food habits. The increasing trend towards eating out, take away meals moving away from home made food has negative consequences. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer are attributed among other factors to fast food, industrially or commercially prepared meals all of which often have high levels of sodium and fat and may be lacking in necessary vitamins and diverse nutrients compared to a traditional fresh home cooked meal. Many such articles are available on this subject. The likelihood of diseases like cancer being caused by consumption of processed meat has also recently been in the news. 

Source: Wikipedia

In a multicultural community, some families switching from their traditional cuisine to a western diet may adopt unhealthy cooking or eating habits. This may be because of losing touch with their own culture over generations as a result of modern developments like migration and globalisation. At the same time they may struggle to adapt to local cuisines due to lack of sufficient knowledge not having grown up with the local foods. Furthermore a move away from cooked meals using fresh ingredients to pre-packaged, processed, fast food can also diminish the importance and richness of our ecosystem which supports and creates our food. 

Suggested Measures

It is suggested that work done towards improving Food Security could include efforts to promote the importance of nutrition as well as a suitable cultural environment. This can be done by officially acknowledging the impact of diverse cultural habits and preferences while developing Food Security programs, training or services such as in food bank distribution programs, food related workshops/conferences or while subsidizing/incentivizing local food markets. Introducing an element of cultural awareness, celebration of traditional customs through food festivals, fusion cooking workshops or promotional food events are also part of the measures that encourage communities to better engage with food and eat well. 

Medical treatments are often prescribed after identifying likely deficiencies in a patient's traditional diet and eating patterns by doctors currently. For instance certain vegetarian diets result in deficiency of vitamin B12 with specific medical consequences and accordingly the treatment addresses the deficiencies. The impact on diet of cultural differences should perhaps be taken into account at a prior stage in the work done to improve Food Security.  

Burnaby Food First has been offering many interesting workshops this month to promote local food preparation techniques and locally produced food such as 'cooking with winter greens', 'cooking with root vegetables', 'drying and storing foods' and more. Please check our website for details or contact us to be included in our mailing list. 

Some links for further reading:

http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/foodsecurity/publications/articles/FoodIdentity.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/food-culture/

http://ideas.ted.com/what-americans-can-learn-from-other-food-cultures/

Thanksgiving Menu 2015

THANKSGIVING WEEEEEEEK (forget Oprah voice, we're singing that with Jean-Ralphio flush-with-cash voice)! I�m hosting for the first time, and I�m so excited! I usually help my ma out in the kitchen, and make one or two dishes, but I've never been in charge of the full meal, or the turkey. I'm stooooooooked to do the turkey! I'll probably post some updates on Instagram (is this what Snapchat is for? Ugh. I just feel too old for Snapchat... I mean... be real, it's just for d**k pics, right??), to let you know how it all turns out. If you need any last minute inspiration, here�s my menu!


I�m making:

• Dry brined, spatchcocked (!) turkey & gravy
• Mashed sweet potatoes (with nutmeg, butter, and milk...no egg or sugar) topped with spiced pecans and bacon and toasted maple meringue 
• Honey Dijon roasted brussels sprouts 
• Homemade green bean casserole (but with French�s onions because I love them)
• Massaged kale salad with apples, pomegranates, shaved parm, and roasted delicata squash 

Our guests are bringing:

• Classic mashed potatoes 
• Caramelized onion and kale stuffing
• Rolls 
• Cranberry sauce 
• Papa's marinated olives & pickles 
• Cheese & crackers
• Pumpkin pie & whipped cream 
• Cheesecake 
• Pecan pie with chocolate and caramel drizzle

We�re drinking:

• Sparkling cider
• Prosecco
• Wine 
• Beer
• Apple peel bourbon cocktails, for the kids table 

Have a happy, happy Thanksgiving, and remember, the people around your table are more important than the decorations or the food on your table! Enjoy your friends and family, be thankful for your loved ones, and don't stress out!

Upcoming Workshops - Winter Vegetable Wonder and Soups On!!

Burnaby Food First is pleased to offer two more FREE workshops!



Winter Vegetable Wonder!

Thursday, December 3rd

6:30 pm - 8:15 pm



Brentwood Community Resource Centre (2055 Rosser Ave / Burnaby - map)



Winter doesn't mean you can't eat your vegetables! Join Holistic Nutritionist Sondi Bruner and learn some simple, delicious and nutritious recipes using inexpensive seasonal vegetables. Yum yum - see you there!



Registration is required. Space is limited! To register, please contact Meghan at (604) 209-2404 or by email at burnabyfoodfirst@gmail.com.



AND



Soups On!

Tuesday, December 8

6:30 pm - 8:15 pm



Burnaby Neighbourhood House, South Location (4460 Beresford St. / Burnaby - map)



Join Sharon Kravitz to learn the basics of making delicious homemade soups for the whole family! This is a hands-on workshop, so bring your aprons. Yummy tastings included.



** REGISTRATION IS CLOSED - workshop is full. **





Note: Due to the presence of hot liquid, no small children please at the 'Soups On' workshop. Older kids, however, are welcome

Fat, Added Fat, and Obesity in America

In the last post, we saw that carbohydrate and particularly sugar intake have been declining in the US since 1999, even as our obesity rate has continued to climb.

In this post, let's look at another putative driver of obesity: our fat intake, and especially our intake of added fats like seed oils, butter, and olive oil. Like the graphs in the last post, the data underlying the following graphs come from USDA food disappearance records (not self-reported), and NHANES survey data (1, 2). Also like the last post, the graph of total fat intake is not adjusted for waste (non-eaten food), while the graph of added fat intake is*. As a consequence, the figures for total carbohydrate and total fat intake are higher than actual intakes, but still good for illustrating trends.

Here we go. First, total fat:
Read more �

Butternut Squash Meatloaf

I've made many a meatloaf in my day, but I had never thought of putting squash in it before.  However I swear, you can google any two ingredients and a recipe will pop up, which is exactly what I did last night.  By adding butternut squash (cooked in bacon, onion and sage) to this meatloaf, the flavors are off the chart.  And now I talk like Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  

I used this recipe and made some minor changes.  Instead of pork, I used ground turkey, I skipped the red pepper flakes (in case my kids wanted to try it, hahahaha, they did not), I didn't use an egg because I didn't have one (it turned out just fine), and before cooking it I topped it with a balsamic/ketchup combo (which I highly recommend doing).  By the way, I like to use my hands to form the loaf and cook it on a baking sheet vs. a bread pan.  I think it makes the exterior nice and crispy, which I love.  I plan on turning it into a sandwich for lunch.  Is it lunchtime yet??