Adventures with Batman: Rockclimbing in Huaraz

February 20, 2013 by MissWattson

Mo and Roosevelt at Los Olivos in Huaraz

I’m in Huaraz now in the Cordillero Bianco, rockclimbing with a friend from Lima and some local friends of friends from PIRQA, the rockclimbing gym in Miraflores. We’ve had two days on the rock – first at Los Olivos, a short combi ride up a winding mountain road from downtown, and second off the side of the road along the Salta river on the way to Recuey. This is an example of a poorly structured post, as the explanation for why it’s called Adventures with Batman doesn’t come until the end though I reference it in a picture of Roosevelt below. But here’s to hoping you’ll like the pictures so much you’ll make it to the explanation below.

6b? 6b+? The ridge of the left is where you have to get your hands off to the left and crank your right foot up high. I kind of jammed my knee into the rock above the ledge with my right heel pushing down on the ridge. It was a struggle, but I managed to get my hands up and move my swinging left leg onto the ledge to stand up.

Trying to get my foot up and crank down on that ledge. The ledge won the first time. I won the second time.

Huaraz – a huge party town in Peru, apparently. Today is Carnaval, and it’s apparently standard to throw water balloons, flour and grab women above and below, which is why we’re heading to Chanco to the thermal baths instead…The Americans we met last night were keen on blowing up water balloons, but the Peruvian we met was keen on bouldering. After two days of cold fingers and lower legs, beautiful as the scenery was, we were ready for some cleansing waters.

Up 3000 metres with a river down below the vegetation is confused. It’s half cold mountain and half desert. Notice the cacti growing out of the rock on the bottom.

It’s cold here. Right now in Lima it’s a tropical paradise. Polluted, yes, but 30+ degrees everyday with sun and humidity. Here it’s damp and chilly because it’s the beginning of the rainy season and we’re high up maybe 3000 metres in the mountains. May is a better time to come and the Peruvian winter from June to September is high season, but with only a few weeks left in Peru and a desire to see some mountains and climb we’re happy to be here.

This is not Lima. Here the elderly Andean women walk around with the colourful giant packs/blankets strapped to their backs. They sell huacatay (and aromatic green herb), eucalyptus, capulì (small cherries) and prickly pears on their unwrapped blankets in the town. Then they re-load with goods from the city they’ll need for the day or week and head back up into the mountains.

This is a tourist town. Trekkers come from everywhere to see the glaciers, do multi-day hikes through mountainous, rugged terrain, mountain bike, alpine climb, and then there are people like us who come for sport climbing and boulders.

Me at Los Olivos. Ready to climb.

We met up with Roosevelt, a local climber who works for a few of the Adventure tourism companies in town including Quechuandes and Monttrek and headed to Los Olivos our first morning off the overnight train from Lima.

Warm-up climb at Los Olivos. I climbed the sport route on the left and then the top rope route with the rope on the right. 5+ climbs that felt a little harder.

He knew everyone at the crag. Locals bathed in the river below, but up above his friends Andrey, Jack and Victor were working 7b (5.12) sport climbs and harder. We started on what the locals call 5+. That’s the equivalent of about a 5.9+ in the North American system but a 5+ in Huaraz is a solid 5.10b for anyone who isn’t a great boulderer.

Roosevelt, me, Andrey

These guys are in a league of their own here, pulling down on hard routes that never give you a second of rest.

Roosevelt being Batman

They’d be champs in other competitive climbing cities, but Huaraz is more than a little isolated and small. The routes are boulder problem after boulder problem up negative sloping routes.And there’a a massive 100 metre traverse that wraps around the side of the mountain.

100-120 metre traverse in Los Olivos

Roosevelt and the traverse

Me, the gringa from Lima they’d seen pictures of on the PIRQA website from the comp in the city, I was embarrassed to struggle up the easiest climbs, taking when I couldn’t see the next move.

My favourite climb. It had some good rest spots and was more balance-y than the rest of the boulder-heavy routes. 6a+. Or maybe 6b?

View of river and garden from Los Olivos

Roosevelt, on the other hand, moved smoothly through every move like he’d done it all a million times, which he had. He grew up climbing here, and with more than 10 years of experience the mountains are his home outside of Huaraz.

Me and Roosevelt on the not so tough approach to Recuey

At Recuey the hardest bolted climb I saw was an 8a (5.12+?) called “Ola, de viento” (‘Hello, it’s windy,’ I think), so-named by Andrey after he sent it because the wind blows hard off the river. Roosevelt sent it soon after him.

I told him about a video I have of climbing Newfoundland on youtube. It’s in Flatrock, right on the edge of the ocean where you can watch whales from the rock or lie back and sunbathe or watch climbers without craning your neck. It’s rugged and gorgeous. The climb I shot there was called “Dynamic Duo.”

“Why is it called that?” asked Roosevelt.
“It’s from Batman and Robin. The comic book. They’re called the ‘dynamic duo’ but I really don’t know why someone called the climb that.”
I shrugged.
“Roosevelt, you’re like Batman to me.”
Climbing 8bs…Come here, Sharma. 4 bolts might not seem like it’s worth it, but you’ll like trying to match up to these Peruvians.

The view from Recuey

Leading this stuff is hard, since hanging a few extra seconds on even the best holds wears you down fast, especially at the high altitude. So I struggled through a 6a+ sport climb (5.10), setting up the draws before Roosevelt cleaned it, but then he was a real caballero and set up the 7a we tried next so I could un-clip on my way up and basically do it on top-rope. Taking often I could make it to the top.

The view from Recuey

The rains come around 2pm every day, and sometimes they’re light and sometimes they’re not, so we headed back into town just as it was starting to pour.

Video and Audio of Permaculture Practices from Food Forest Farm and Tripple Brook Farm

October 25, 2012 by MissWattson

If you missed how excited about Arctic kiwi growing in Massachusetts I got last week, allow me to remind you with a video and some audio from y trip to permaculture farms, Food Forest Farm and Tripple Brook Farm. Eric, Jonathan and Steve welcomed our class into their edible forest gardens and showed us all sorts of leafy greens, sweet potatoes, berries, fruits, and tubers they grow. Here are some kiwi, black walnuts, ground nuts, butternuts (not squash), a root a bit similar to wasabi (but not as delicious), French sorrel, Turkish arugula, Beauregard(?) sweet potatoes, and more, all growing in their backyard. Then Steve talks at Tripple Brooke Farm about his almonds. You don’t get to see his hazel trees, walnut trees, persimmons, kiwi or raspberry patch, but they’re all there. In peach season he says he basically lives on the peaches his trees produce. I believe him. I’d live on tree-ripe peaches too, if I could.

And here’s a little intro to permaculture in case you’re scratching you head going, “How is this different than growing a few fruit trees and having a little garden?” There’s a whole lot more involved, from combining ground cover and nitrogen fixers with animals for pest control and tilling and compost, to stacking different shade and sun-loving plants with symbiotic relatinoships. It’s kind of a holistic garden. When everything is in place it all works well, but there’s nothing new-agey about it. In fact it’s the most natural garden there can be since the whole point is that the “gardener” does very little, and every year the perennial plants come back. Here’s Eric:

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Becky Selengut at the Queen Anne Farmers Market in Seattle

September 19, 2012 by MissWattson

Twitter is such a great thing. I just wrote that. It’s too late to take it back.

I met Becky Selengut through her book “Good Fish.” I was on a sustainable fish kick at the time. The kick turned into a lifestyle, and here I am, still eating squid, mackerel, and wild Pacific salmon caught by people I trust in sustainable ways. I know about things like pots and longlines, and dredging and trawling, and I know about the multiple kinds of antibiotics in farmed salmon, and the ridiculousness of feeding perfectly delicious wild fish to farmed fish to cater the North American and European obsession with tuna and salmon. As though there are no other fish…

Mahi mahi? Was that endangered? Apparently there are sustainable versions of that, says Seastar restaurant in Seattle. When did that happen? Taylor seafood thinks mahi mahi is sustainable too, so I believe it. That’s where a good part of the high-end Seattle restaurants go for their sustainable fare. I was privy to a $90 geoduck purchase there, for example. That was pretty cool.

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pickled keta "dog" salmon. SO affordable and delicious. Very lean. Listen to the interview below to hear more about it.

I then met Becky Selengut through twitter, when I started trying to make her recipes and amid some success, had a few problems. I questioned her vanilla-cauliflower char. After a long conversation and a lot of char re-trials, we agreed to disagree, as food is subjective and I like bitter olive oil less than she does. But I loved the sweet cauliflower-vanilla-apple combo, and I loved the simple cooking method of the rich fish (it’s only rich when it’s wild…not farmed, so look for dark fillets from, generally Alaska. At least that’s all we can get here in Quebec. In Newfoundland you find wild char from Labrador. You also find farmed junk from Quebec here, which is fine if you’re more a locavore than someone who’s devoted to flavour. Both worthwhile causes, I think, when balanced).

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Candied salmon jerky...SO addictive...

So when I went to Seattle to write an article for Air Canada’s EnRoute and to play at the Modernist Cuisine lab, I took advantage of the opportunity to meet her, and to write her into the article.

Interview with Becky Selengut and Loki Fish at the Columbia City Farmers Market (Click the link to listen. We talk sustainability and affordability, and the different kinds of wild Pacific salmon available in Seattle).

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sustainable canned salmon from Loki Fish Co.

We met originally at the Columbia City farmers market and talked about sustainable salmon with Loki Fish, after which she gave me a ride to my bus stop and allowed me to stop at her house to pick blackberries while she let her dogs out. She made fun of me at the market for wanting to buy them since they’re an invasive species in Seattle and grow everywhere. She tried to convince me to buy blueberries but I don’t do that because in Newfoundland, where I’m from, you don’t buy blueberries either. You pick them wild. $8 for a pint? No. There you laugh at people who pay that price.

So I got my white shirt covered in blackberries, twisting myself under branches and between thorns, looking for the sweetest ones to bring back to the lab. And at the lab nobody cared…

Turns out there’s a bush just outside the entrance. So there I was, covered in blackberries, one cookbook author laughing at me with my obsession with blackberries, and a whole bunch of professional cooks seeing my covered in purple, so proud of myself. Fortunately I brought a change of clothes for Maxime Bilet’s going away dinner. 20 courses with exceptional wines and all sorts of modernist treats merited a dress, for goodness sake. I kept the heels in the bag, because who bring a pair of heels to a dinner in a laboratory?

The next day I met Becky Selengut again. This time at another market, the Queen Anne market, where she was doing a cooking demo. She made the seared tuna dish with ratatouille from her cookbook.

But she made it with seasonal peaches instead of figs. Now, figs were in season too, but peaches were everywhere. Figs were more in California. Peaches were Washington. She had these huge hunks of tuna steak and a skillet of tomatoes and zucchini and onion going. The cherry tomatoes were like cheating, they were so sweet. No acidity at all.

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cherry tomatoes and seasoned tuna

And the sweet peaches could have been figs, they were so sweet and juicy. The reason I had never made this dish was actually because I feel that if I buy fresh figs in Montreal it’s a sin to cook them.

Searing the tuna

The season is so short and the figs we get up here aren’t amazing, so it’s best to eat them at their peak ripeness, mouthful by juicy, fresh, raw mouthful. Preferably over a sink. Much like peaches, except the figs here don’t drip like that since they’ve been shipped so far. I did a lot of sink-dripping peach-eating in Seattle.

The plated dish - seared tuna steaks with ratatouille and peaches

But Becky’s version with peaches was amazing. My 2 mouthfuls were better than all the tamales, tacos, honey, jam, pickles, and muffins I could have bought at the market. Food trucks are important at this market. Not like Portland food truck important. But sort of big.

And I had also interviewed Becky Selengut awhile back for CKUT radio in Montreal. She was lovely about the whole olive oil thing. Overall I’d loved all her recipes. Sustainable Quebec seafood is a bit different than Pacific, but her writing is hilarious (check her out in Edible Seattle) and her explanations of what to buy, how to buy it, and how to cook it are spot (prawn) on. (Horrible joke. No one should let me write.)

Other stand outs from her book I’ve made include the salmon with pinot noir (not farmed Atlantic), the shrimp with tangerine powder and smoked chipotle, and the green coconut curry with halibut. Basically, when I don’t know what to do with fish I go to that book. And then I laugh, and then I cook, and then I eat a great meal.

"Ugly face" photo. Becky followed the rules. I did not.

Lemon Risotto with Zucchini and Parsley

July 24, 2012 by MissWattson

How did spring pass into summer without me making a single risotto? It’s the ultimate spring comfort food and so perfect with seasonal asparagus and mushrooms. Every magazine and blog worth its salt seems to have featured it, except me. I use Hawaiian pink salt for goodness sake. It’s hard to measure up to that standard, it’s true. That’s awfully fancy salt that a friend gifted me. I probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself. I’m very honoured to have it, but my low salt self-esteem makes me believe I’m not worth it.

Oh right! I remember now why I missed out on spring risotto! It’s because I overdosed on asparagus in 2011 and spent the first half of 2012 binging on Basmati instead of Arborio. In fact, when I made this recipe last week I even almost washed the starch out of the rice without thinking about the fact that that’s what makes the risotto creamy. I would have ended up with a risotto light as air, fluffy, and very un-risotto-like. Never would I have married an Italian with a grandmother skilled with a wooden spoon, had I done that. Fortunately, I slapped my hand away from the tap before the water hit. It seems there’s hope for me yet.

And I think an Italian grandmother would even like me for making this risotto. I didn’t put a single chili pepper in it. It was bright – lemon zest and juice adds a lot. In the end it needed an anchovy or two for some umami depth, but without the fish it was still light and summery, and in my new home with air conditioning I wasn’t scared to heat the whole house up by standing over a simmering pot for 40 minutes. All in all, successful summer risotto.

I really think my future Italian grandmother would like the fact that I used an entire bottle of white wine in this recipe (I used a Quebec wine called La Musicale. It’s a nice wine, but not for this recipe, as it turns out). It was too much and made the risotto too wine-y since the wine wasn’t dry enough, but just use half a bottle of sauvignon blanc or Viognier (drink the other half) – nothing too amazing, but something you’ll want to drink – and you’ll be fine. Then add another 4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock gradually and you’re on your way to in-law, if not marital, bliss.

So I went looking for a good risotto recipe and chose the one for fennel, orange and red onion. I meant to follow the original recipe, but in the end I went with what was in my fridge: lemon instead of orange, amaretto instead of brandy, zucchini and eggplant instead of fennel, and garlic instead of onion (a lot of garlic…).

Ingredients
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter (or earth balance, or olive oil)
2 anchovy fillets, diced (from a jar or can, preferably in oil)
1 small Italian eggplant, cut in 1/2″ cubes (skin it and toss the cubes with 2 tbsp salt for 30 minutes, then rinse and pat dry before using if eggplant isn’t fresh from the garden. Dominion, Sobeys, IGA, Save on Foods and Super C are not gardens…)
2 tbsp Disaronno (amaretto), or brandy
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice (or carnaroli), not rinsed!
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp honey
2 cups dry white wine (see above)
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock, in a small saucepan at a gentle simmer
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped (stems are fine too. Just add them to the risotto when you add the zucchini so they have time to soften)

Directions
In a large skillet or saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 4 minutes. Don’t let the garlic brown. Reduce the heat and stir more frequently if this starts to happen. Add the diced anchovies, eggplant and amaretto and cook for one minute to evaporate the alcohol.

Add the rice and stir to coat. Then add the lemon zest, lemon juice and honey. Cook and stir until the lemon juice is absorbed and then add the wine.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add the zucchini.

Now add the broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring slowly, with a wooden spoon, until each half cup is absorbed (about 20 minutes total). It has to be wooden. You have no hopes of matrimony and a giant Italian wedding with a midnight seafood buffet or dessert table without a wooden spoon here.

You can move away from the stove for 45 seconds at a time, but make sure the rice doesn’t start to stick and burn. Burnt risotto does not taste like summer. You can’t pass it off as campfire risotto. It is nothing but disaster risotto.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Taste to make sure the rice is cooked. If not, add more stock (or whatever if you’re fresh out of stock). It should be creamy but al dente, just like pasta. Don’t try throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks, though. That’s a recipe for disaster, and sticky walls, which equate to the same thing.

You’re supposed to serve this in a heap in a wide-mouthed bowl or soup plate (?) so that you eat from the outside in, and the interior section is still warm when you get to it. But heck, eat it however you want. One giant bowl, from the pot, or on regular dinner plates, letting all the rice cool at the same time. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Smile. Love summer.

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CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera – Saturday, June 2nd, 1pm-3pm

June 1, 2012 by MissWattson

I’m going to be on Definitely Not the Opera on CBC Radio 1 tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, June 2nd, some time between 1:30pm and 3:30pm. The show’s theme is Homesickness, so you’ll hear me wax poetic about moving to big cities, Newfoundland dinner parties, drinking games, and Republic of Doyle.

So proud to be in a lineup of such interesting stories! Check it out tomorrow. It may make it onto the DNTO podcast, so if it does I’ll post a link to that when it’s available.

Update: Here’s the link to the DNTO podcast. Allan Hawco is interviewed after my piece near the beginning, so stick around after my bit.

Photo credit: Laurence Zankowski – “Untitled” from Fotopedia

On Uni, Sweet Shrimp and Lake Trout Sushi

April 21, 2012 by MissWattson

Uni is an acquired taste. I have acquired it. It wasn’t hard. It’s slimy, fairly bland, a little bitter (iron?), and a little sweet. I think it’s the bright orange part that bothers most people. And the fact that uni is the gonads of the sea urchin. That could do it too, I suppose. But we eat fish roe (caviar all the time). Maybe because those explode in your mouth and are so darn fun we let them be? (Vegans can spherify their own faux-caviar. Non-vegans can too).

Sweet shrimp should come with their heads, antennae and tails still attached. Insects of the sea, indeed. Their insides are draped over the vinegar-ed rice, allowing the head and tail to hang over the ends like a wilting seesaw. You have to pull the tail off and eat toward the head, or eat the sushi like an ice cream bar (chomping the middle first). The head doesn’t like to come off first, and pulling at it with all those antennae and eyes popping out everywhere (well, just two eyes, thank goodness) is a bit disconcerting, and somewhat unappetizing. For most people. Not for the most determined. The taste is mild, sweet, and soft. They’re not at all salty, and without the salt hiding the flavour, they’re really rather meaty. There are certainly more than five flavours in this world, and this is one of them.

Lake Trout is the sustainable salmon replacement of choice east of Manitoba. BC Sockeye salmon to the west. And they’re better off for it. I don’t care if it came from a lake baptized by David Suzuki, there is just no flavour to this fish. Even farmed Atlantic salmon taste better(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Dress it up in a cajun spice rub, drown it in browned butter (or earth balance), and fry it for Baja fish tacos with lime and jalapenos, but do not put it on perfectly seasoned rice, eat it naked, and expect it to change your world for the better.

I ate these three things as sushi tonight. The lightly marinated and seared BC tuna was better. The sweet shrimp was the best of the 3. I think my love of uni is failing after I saw the plastic tray it comes frozen in, pre-shucked (?) from the urchin. You can buy urchin fresh, you know. Why don’t you see more fresh ones at sushi shops, Hiro? The California roll was better than the uni and trout. Yes, I know. I just wrote “the California roll was better than…” I’m of the belief that, in general, California rolls should roll over and die. Get it? Roll over. But that sushi rice was extremely good. If only the trout had been able to keep up. Someone should tell it to go find an ocean somewhere. Hunt things. Have a little adventure. I think there was a movie about that once. Something about a fish. All I remember from it, though, is that monkfish are ugly.

Sushi 930
930 King West
Toronto
One tiny table, but it’s really a take-out place. $5 for a few piece of uni, trout or sweet shrimp. Generous lunch specials and sushi and sashimi combos. Light as air tamago egg sushi. Seaweed-heavy miso and great soy sauce. My favourite sushi chef in the city. $45-$55 for two sushi snobs like me.

Roundtable Discussion on Environmental Sustainability with Taras Grescoe, Holly Dressel, and William Marsden

January 21, 2012 by MissWattson

Here’s a link to download my radio piece on environmental sustainability (fish, but also larger economic issues) with three Montreal authors: Taras Grescoe (“Bottomfeeder”), Holly Dressel (“More Good News”) and William Marsden (“Fools Rule”). The discussion took place at the Atwater Library and was moderated by Anne Lagacé-Dowson. Though all the panelists are considered experts on some aspect of the sustainability, Holly Dressel has an interesting response to Grescoe’s interpretation of the “greenness” of hydro-electric power, which comes near the end of the audio.

Dressel did come back to the idea of improvement being foreseeable and Marsden, Grescoe, and Dressel all insisted on political involvement, though Grescoe gave the responsibility to citizens to push politicians through public action while Marsden gave responsibility to politicians. All in all, the audience left the discussion feeling optimistic, as though they’d heard, in Ms. Dressel’s words, some “good news for a change”.

How to Fail at New Years Resolutions: Food Vice and “Healthy” Eating

January 7, 2012 by MissWattson

This week on CKUT radio I spoke with Lauren-Jane Heller on healthy eating for the family and for the soul. We weren’t talking soul food or salad, though. Instead we’re talking about devil kids on sugar highs and mediocre vegetarian restaurants that survive on healthy food myths.

To download the 11-minute segment click here. Or stream it by clicking 1/6th of the way through this stream.

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A Food Intolerance-Free and Dietary Restriction-Conscious Christmas: Dairy-free, vegan, and gluten-free recipes for the holidays

December 24, 2011 by MissWattson

This week on CKUT 90.3FM radio I presented a Christmas dinner menu and some holiday hosting ideas catering to those who don’t eat gluten, dairy, or meat. Or for considerate holiday party hosts who want something to feed the dangerous Christmas party guest – the vegan. I don’t really understand why so many people think it’s such a stress to find something for these “non-normal” people to eat. Some fruit? Some raw vegetables? How do they survive? No butter? Perish the thought. Well, listen up. We can make shortbread cookies too. We just make them with earth balance or Fleischman’s vegan margarine. But it’s not all about substitutions. Most vegans probably don’t want to drink something that tastes like eggnog. Flax eggs just wouldn’t cut it there. And vegetarians who crave fake turkey can have my share of the tempeh, thanks. Other gluten intolerant people will most likely agree…

So with that in mind, I gave a much less sarcastic radio report of what you can make for Christmas dinner (keep the stuffing out of the turkey and the veggies out of the roasting pan), while keeping the meal gourmet and elegant. And I throw in a few hosting ideas like roasted vegetable antipasti, blended tahini or nut-based dips, and for dessert the ultimate no-bake treat – peanut butter cups. Take that Reese’s.

The text is below, but if you want to hear how serious my tone of voice is when I talk about this kind of thing on the radio, download the segment here.

Otherwise, keep on reading…

(Recipes are in bold.)

You’ve got 8 people coming for dinner – two siblings, their 4 children, and two family friends. One’s lactose intolerant. One’s gluten intolerant. One doesn’t eat anything they wouldn’t kill with their own hands, and they don’t like the idea of a headless chicken running around the yard. So what do you make for Christmas dinner?

There are a few strategies. Because you’re hosting, you could just make what you know how to make and what you want to make. Or you cut the turkey completely and make everyone go bird-less this holiday season. Or you could strap on an apron and settle in for a long day of cooking too many dishes. Is there no middle ground?

First of all, a turkey doesn’t have to be a giant undertaking. 6 or 7 meat eaters can easily be served by just one turkey. Rub it with olive oil, salt and pepper, not butter. If you really want it creamier try Earth Balance vegan, a butter-like substitute, or even coconut oil. Don’t worry, it won’t taste like a tropical Christmas unless you serve it with peas and beans.

For stuffing, keep it on the side to please the vegetarians. Don’t fuss with trying to make one stuffing in the bird and one on the side if it’s too much trouble. My family’s traditional stuffing with ½ cup of butter and ½ a loaf of white bread just isn’t going to cut it. Use organic vegetable broth, tapioca or cornbread (definitely not multigrain or whole wheat, though I do recommend sourdough), and if you’re scared it will be bland without butter, try adding whole spices or extra flavours – fresh thyme or rosemary, dried cranberries, pieces of dried apricots, figs or cherries, or even small chunks of dark chocolate can turn stuffing into a allergen-friendly treat.

For the rest of the side dishes, you’re going to have to keep the potatoes and carrots out of the roasting pan for the sake of the vegetarians, but remember that you’re doing this for your friends, and they’ll appreciate the fact that they can eat some vegetables that aren’t covered in animal fat. And for the lactose intolerant, make sure you use oil, not butter. Instead of just steaming or boiling vegetables, try braising them for extra flavour – 2 lbs of chopped carrots in 2 cups of vegetable broth with a ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar. Once the vinegar reduces down and becomes syrupy sweet, it coats the vegetables perfectly.

Boring green beans? Add toasted hazelnuts, sesame seeds, or almonds. Just a few minutes in a skillet on medium heat and the nuts start smelling wonderful. Toss them with blanched beans, salt, and either olive oil or toasted sesame oil.

You’re going to need a vegetarian main dish. Lentils are a little classier than beans, so a warm lentil salad with roasted sweet potatoes, and broiled eggplant would hit the spot. Or try a squash casserole – chunks of acorn squash with fried onions and garlic roasted with broth or coconut milk to make it creamy, topped with gluten-free bread crumbs mixed with nutritional yeast to replace the cheese flavour.

Dessert’s tough, I know. But a small investment in Earth Balance, almond milk, or coconut oil goes a long way. For pie crust, for example, both the oil or Earth balance can be substituted one-for-one for the traditional butter or margarine. Gluten-free pie crust can be a nightmare, but buying a pre-mixed gluten-free flour blend can be a life saver. It won’t roll out as well, so stick to pies that don’t need a topping or a artfully fluted rim. Think open-topped pumpkin or apple pie.

For fruit crisps try quinoa or buckwheat flakes. Regular oats can be found labeled “gluten-free” but not all celiacs can handle them. Mixed with that handy gluten-free flour blend, and earth balance, you’ll never believe it’s not gluten.

And just to end off, here are some simple appetizer ideas that are both gluten, dairy, and animal-free:

Go Italian with roasted vegetable antipasti – Roasted fennel, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and even chunks of squash, and serve with a small bowl of thick balsamic vinegar and another of olive oil. Only have thin, watery balsamic? Put 1 cup of it in a small saucepan and boil until it’s reduced by half. Then taste and add ¼ tsp of salt.

Soak raw cashews or hazelnuts for 6 hours and then blend together with lemon juice, salt, peppers, and raw or roasted red pepper or spinach for a versatile dip. Make sure you have rice crackers on hand. The classic spinach dip or sour cream-based dips are difficult to replace, but this blended nut dip is a pretty good replacement.

Or take 2 cups of cooked kidney beans and add ¼ cup of tahini, the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper, garlic, and green onions or shallots, and blend to make a smooth, savoury dip.

Optionally throw in Dijon mustard, dill, basil, parsley or chives, and feel free to dilute with vegetable broth, orange juice, or almond milk.

Peanut butter chocolate balls for dessert – combine 1 cup of natural smooth peanut butter with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of sugar, honey, maple syrup, or other sugar substitute. Melt your favourite dark chocolate bar and pour 1 tbsp into the bottom of mini cupcake liners. Then add 1 tbsp of the peanut butter mixture, followed by another tablespoon of the chocolate. Place in the fridge to harden.

And brownies just aren’t the same without butter, but I’ve seen vegan brownie recipes with dark chocolate, sweet potato, and even black beans. So a quick google search can offer some help.

If you have a specific food intolerance or allergy-related menu question, contact me at amie@midnightpoutine.ca and I’d be happy to help. The least amount of stress you add to the holiday season, the better.

Head & Hands, the NDG Food Depot, and Fair-Trade, Organic Coffee at Co-op La Maison Verte

December 10, 2011 by MissWattson

Here’s an interview I did with Stéphanie Guico, marketing coordinator of NDG’s Co-op La Maison Verte, about the fair-trade, organic coffee fundraising initiative between the co-op and local organization Head and Hands that raised over $800$ over the last month. Their recent craft fair also raised $1,080. Where does all the money go? Towards stocking their community food pantry at Head & Hands, a local charitable organization whose budget was recently cut. Though the fundraiser ended in November, you can still give directly to Head and Hands or the NDG Food Depot, and you can still purchase fair-trade, organic coffee at Co-op La Maison Verte. Stéphanie and I talk about the types of coffee for sale, and more importantly about where it comes from and what the money goes towards supporting at Head and Hands.

You can download the interview here, assuming Mediafire decides to work today. Please be patient if it doesn’t open right away. It’s a bit finicky sometimes.

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Category Archives: Food Audio