Halloween Leftovers!

The scariest harvest of the year happened earlier  this week as some 4 million Canadian kids take to the streets and rake in their loot from more than 13 million homes that will participate in shelling out candy. These costume clad kids will return home and almost immediately pour out their pillow cases onto the floor to reveal their share of almost $360 million worth of candy that was purchased across Canada in the month of October.

As parents assist in checking through their kids candy for any detrimental items that may have made it into their stash, the kids in a sugar and caffeine induced state immediately are taking inventory and begin organizing their haul into rows and piles. If watched closely your children will go through an eerie transformation from goblin or ghoul to instant entrepreneur as they quickly will wade into the role of a business person as they will realize that they have a share of precious commodity in a market of excess supply.

To watch children with their faces still smeared with makeup and half disrobed from their costumes enter into the frenzied barter and trading sessions with siblings or other kids from the hood would give any math teacher pause as they explore early lessons in economics.

It will quickly become evident that all candy was not created equally and the first things to get traded off will be the hard to move less-desirable candies which include Candy Corn, Tootsie Rolls, fruits or vegetables and non-edibles like pencils and toothbrushes. 

This makes way for the serious trades to happen and is a quick follow based upon industry sales which see M&M’s, Snickers, and Kit Kat taking secondary positions to the highly prized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup which has an unprecedented high trading value and is often smuggled as dangerous cargo or contraband as our schools have become peanut free zones.

 Within a few days all of these child markets and kid-cartels will crash much like our children as their confectionary novelty and sugar buzz wears off. The market induced glut becomes stagnant and for some it can cause boredom, but with a few Halloween tricks up your sleeves you can still have plenty of fun by bringing the kids and the left-over candy into the kitchen to create meals that can be served right into December’s holiday festivities.

 The easiest ways to cook with leftover candy is by chopping the candies and adding them into brownie and milkshake recipes. For more of a challenge you may want to try making ice cream and cheesecake recipes. For some real twists on food maybe even try the following recipe whose core ingredients can be purchased locally and as frightful as it may sound the combined flavours will leave you bewitched!

Beet Salad with Chocolate Goat Cheese and Black Licorice Vinaigrette

Black Licorice Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. chopped black licorice

¾ cup water

1/4 cider vinegar

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 green onion, minced

¾ cup salad oil

Method:

Combine the licorice and water in a small sauce pan and heat over medium-low heat until the licorice is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and whisk in the cider vinegar, green onion and Dijon mustard. Finally whisk in the oil by slowly pouring it into the licorice mixture. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper to taste and refrigerate until needed.

Snickers Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

2-4 oz. of chopped Snickers bar

4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature

1 chive, finely minced

Red pepper flakes or Cayenne to taste (optional)

Method:

Place all of the ingredients in a glass bowl and microwave it until it becomes soft. Stir the warmed ingredients together and set aside.

Roasted Beets

Ingredients:

8 beets, medium sized, cut in half

1 tbsp. cooking oil

Your choice of salad greens

Salt and pepper

Method:

Toss the beets in a bowl with the oil, salt and pepper. Turn the beets out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 °f for about an hour or until fork tender. Remove the beets from the oven and let them rest for 30 minutes. Peel or pull the skins off of the beets. Slice the beets into bite size pieces. Lightly coat the beets with some of the vinaigrette and set them in the refrigerator to marinate for one hour.

To serve assemble the greens onto a plate and top them with the beets. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad and top with crumbled goat cheese.

Sunflower, you are my sunshine

The sunflower was first cultivated throughout the region of what is now known as Arizona and New Mexico some 3000 years ago and as such has caused much debate amongst archaeologists as to whether sunflowers were domesticated before corn.

Spanish explorers introduced the sunflower to Europe in the early 1500’s where it quickly became widespread and was celebrated as an exotic ornamental flower. By the 18th century the sunflower’s beauty was only surpassed by its newly discovered high concentration of oil that could be extracted for medicinal and culinary uses. This quickly changed the cultivation of sunflowers as its oil became a prized ingredient and was approved by various religious groups. This made the sunflower a highly marketable commodity and lead to Russia becoming the largest producer of sunflower seeds and oil in the world.

Harvesting sunflowers with kids is fun and easy

The sunflower industry came to North America in the early 1900’s with the esteemed variety of sunflower known as the Mammoth Russian. Canada started the first official government sponsored sunflower breeding program in the world and licensed the Russian cultivar called Peredovik as this particular variety produced high yields of seed with one of the highest oil contents. This seed variety went through further hybridization to increase its yields as well as make it disease resistant.

Today the largest Canadian producer of sunflower seed snacks is Spitz available across the country in almost every corner store. Most of the Canadian harvest of sunflower seeds comes from Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Late September and early October is when most sunflowers growing in our backyards are ready to harvest and roast the seeds for ourselves. Be sure that your flowers have matured with their sad hanging heads having turned brown and their petals have begun to fall; the seeds should be plump and striped black and white. Cut the stalk to create a handle to hold onto the flowers and vigorously rub the seeds out of the head with your free hand. Be cautious you’re your fingers do not get pinched by the tiny barbs found between the seeds and the flower head.

Once you have collected the seeds you can choose to remove the hulls and store the raw uncooked seeds for up to six months in your freezer or you can try the following recipe for your own sunflower snack.

Home roasted sunflower seeds

3-4 cups unshelled, raw sunflower seeds.

2 litres water

1/3 cup sea salt

In a large sauce pot combine the seeds, water and salt together and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the seeds simmer in the salt water for 2 hours. Drain the seeds and let them dry out on a paper towel lined surface.

Once dry, spread the seeds evenly over a baking sheet and roast the seeds at 300°f for about 30, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and allow the seeds to cool before shelling and eating. You can use this recipe for raw hulled sunflower seeds as well, except that after removing the seeds from the oven I would stir in a teaspoon of and further sprinkle some salt on them before eating.

 My Eccentricity on Ethnicity

 I personally loathe the word ethnic. We have bastardized this word into a misrepresentation of ones individuality for any non wasp person . Simple clarification of what the definition of the word ethnic is will assist us greatly in understanding it and its origins.

The word Ethnic dates back to times when Latin and Hebrew were the dominant languages.

It was first used to describe people who were non-Christians, non-Christians were considered to be heathens, pagans or simply gentiles.

 Just imagine how the early restaurateurs could have influenced our ethnic dinning experiences.

Any town in anywhere could see other additions to their franchise strip of processed food chain outlets  include such franchise concepts as The Gentile Grill House, maybe the International House of Pagans or my personal favorite Heathens on the Run with drive through windows.

 With the maturation of humanity the word ethnic has evolved to describe any sizable group of people who share a linguistic, religious, racial or cultural heritage. When one-steps out of their own culture to dine on another cultures food you are experiencing ethnic dinning. In short all foods originate from an ethnic source. I’m a Canadian of Irish descent   and no that does lead one to come up with some new fusion cuisine. However when I step out of my own cultural background and eat a Big Mac, Whopper or hot dog I’m actually eating American ethnic cuisine.

 My personal preference would be to use the words culture, cultural decent or ancestry. Better yet why not call it what is? Whether it be Jamaican, Honduranian, Guyanese…

 So in summary we can assume that dining for the ethno-curious is an Epicurean pursuit of understanding a culture through its food and etiquette.

Hitler Wine, Clothes by Hugo Boss

 My favorite dining experience takes place in a kitchen located in northern Alberta. Here my Lola creates some of the best food I have ever experienced. Having moved to Canada from the Philippines she brought with her some traditional Filipino recipes. The Philippines lie astride the main Asian trade routes and had many influences on their food. These influences include Malaysia, China, Spain, and Mexico. As well there are six distinct culinary regions within the islands themselves. These are Northern Luzon using bagoong for seasoning, the Central Plains known for Rellenong Manok, Southern Tagalog using vinegar’s, Bicol make use of coconut and hot chilies, Visayas with its salted fish and guinamos and Mindanao with Tiola Sapi and Piarun. My favorite dinner menu includes, Lumpia, Pancit, Pan de sal, Dinuguan Baboy, Erascaldo, Kilawin, numerous bowls of my father-in-laws goat soup, halo-halo and all forms of Palutan. My favorite is Adobong Manuk or Chicken Adobo. This is comfort food for me and it’s real easy to prepare…

Chicken Adobo

2 tbsp. Vegetable oil

1 tsp. grated ginger

3 cloves garlic minced

3 pounds of cut up chicken

½ cup of white vinegar

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. black pepper corns

½ cup water

2 Bay leaves

Method:  Heat oil in large pot and sauté the garlic and ginger. Add the chicken and brown lightly. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer, covered for approximately 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Next remove lid and continue to simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Yields 4-6 servings.