Thanksgiving and Thankfulness

I know Thanksgiving is a North American thing and just to fragment that a little bit more, Canadian Thanksgiving is over a month before American Thanksgiving. Personally, that works well for us since coast-to-coast, Canada is stunning in autumn. Yup, there’s rain. But there are also gloriously sunny days when the weather is crisp, the air smells smoky and all the leaves are turning orange, yellow and (my favourite) red. It’s weather that makes you want to take a walk, visit a winery, go trick-or-treating and just generally get what you can out of the weather before you have to don a heavy coat and gloves.

As someone with food allergies and all atopic conditions, you’d think that Thanksgiving might be a difficult time for me. The thing is, that I’m grateful for the allergies that I do have. I could have more. I could have ones that are more difficult to handle. As it is, it’s pretty easy for my family to create an allergy-free meal that we can all eat without feeling like they’re missing out anything. There are often some dishes with butter (but I get my own version) or desserts I can’t share in, but since we spend Thanksgiving in Ottawa, I have two great bakeries to choose from – Auntie Loo’s (vegan with gluten-free options) and Thimblecakes (nut-free bakery with vegan and gluten-free – and more – options). So, I’m never at a loss and I don’t have to make my own dessert, though I’ve been eyeing an allergy-friendly plum tart I saw in the Globe and Mail a while back.

I don’t want to say that you should be thankful because “things could be worse”. That’s not all that optimistic. I’ve never loved the rationale that everyone in North America should be thankful because at least we’re not starving in Africa. There’s poverty throughout this continent and on every other continent, except Antarctica. Though at the rate we’re going, I’m a little worried about the penguin’s food supply.

So, as people with food allergies, let’s consider all the people who don’t have the money to buy things like gluten-free products, dairy-free products and nut-free products. Food allergies are not a problem limited to those of middle- and upper-incomes. Children, adolescents and adults who can’t afford to eat both well and allergy-free need our help, our knowledge and our compassion.

I really hope you contact your food bank and find out what food allergy-friendly food they can use throughout this year and contribute accordingly. Sometimes, that may mean simply donating money they can use to buy what’s needed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just to get you started, here are a few webpages to find out more. No time like the present!

Food Banks Canada (http://www.foodbankscanada.ca/)

Find a Food Bank (http://www.foodbankscanada.ca/utility-pages/find-a-food-bank.aspx)

Easy, Allergy-Friendly Chili Burritos

I promise I'm not going to make a habit of posting recipes, but this one was just too easy. It's a bit of a non-recipe, since I'm not going through all the steps, but I loved the result I got from leftovers.

The story is that I had leftovers components after making quesadillas. I had been thinking about making burritos and looked up some recipes. All of a sudden it occured to me that I had some leftover chili. So, this is the "recipe":

Easy Chili Burritos
Makes 1
Dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, shellfish-free & fish-free

Can be soy-free, gluten-free, vegan

Ingredients:
Your favourite chili recipe
Tortilla shells (small- or medium-sized)
Daiya Cheese-style Shreds (Mozzarella, Cheddar or Pepper Jack)
Fresh coriander (optional, but highly recommended)
La Bomba or your favourite hot sauce (optional)
Your favourite salsa
Baking sheet
Aluminum foil

1. Turn the oven to 350 F. I don't preheat for this. By the time you assemble one burrito, the oven is probably hot enough.
2. Place a medium-sized piece of aluminum foil on your baking sheet. It should be large enough to totally wrap one folded burrito.
3. Place one tortilla shell on the aluminum foil, in the centre.
4. Place a good teaspoon (or two) of La Bomba or your favourite hot sauce on the tortilla. Make sure to keep it mostly central. The amount you use totally depends on how hot you want it.
5. Spoon a couple tablespoons of your favourite chili onto the centre of your tortilla. Don't overfill.
6. Lay a few coriander leaves on top of the chili. If you love coriander, 5-7 or more will do.
7. Sprinkle your choice of Daiya Cheese-style Shreds on top.
8. Wrap your tortilla. Fold over the bottom and the top and while holding those down, fold over the sides so they overlap the bottom and top and you end up with a wrap.
9. Holding that closed, wrap the sides and then the top and bottom of the aluminum foil around your burrito. This keeps it nice and tight and you'll end up with a sealed burrito when you're done
10. Turn over the burrito package so the seam side of the burrito is down.
11. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes.
12. If you like a nice brown top, turn on the broiler (don't worry about pre-heating), unwrap the foil so the top is exposed and bake for another 2-3 minutes. Watch carefully. You can also sprinkle a little extra Daiya and get a bubbly, cheesy topping.
13. Serve with your favourite (warmed) salsa and a side salad.

C'est tout. Enjoy! If you're a singleton like me, this is an easy, yummy and not entirely unhealthy dinner for any night of the week.

Haddock, Chickpea & Potato Patties (My Attempt At A Recipe)

If you've read some of my posts or my FAQ section, you know that while I love working with recipes, I have never tried to document any of my kitchen experiments. While I say that it's because I'm lazy, it's not really. I love cooking and I love great recipes whether they're complex or simple (check out gojee.com), but while I'm methodical and a perfectionist about some things, making recipes just isn't one of them. I'm happy to rely on other people who do it better than I do and remain a bit of a free spirit in the kitchen.

However, this one worked out well and it's fairly simple. Plus, my teaser post on Twitter garnered a recipe request from eos_girl; so, if you like it, send your thanks her way. While it was my dinner, I think it would work splendidly as an appetizer or hors d'oeuvres. Making them a bit larger and serving with a lovely green salad or in a pita would be spectacular, too. I currently have a jar of Aki's Fine Foods Coriander Chutney in the fridge; so, I tried it with that and it was spectacular. If you're allergic to fish or just don't eat it, skip that part and add cooked quinoa and whatever spices you like. If you don't have haddock, I was initially going to do this with cod; so, I'm sure it would be lovely, too.

Anyway, here goes:

Haddock, Chickpea & Potato Patties with Coriander Chutney
Makes 14-ish

1 1/2 large haddock filets, poached, skin removed, chopped into chunks
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 medium-sized potato, roughly chopped and boiled (skin removed after boiling)
1 1/4 cup panko
2 cloves of garlic (or more depending on your preference), smashed and roughly diced
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, skins removed, roughly diced
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 medium red onion, roughly chopped
Canola oil for frying
1 - 1 1/2 tsps of salt (depending on your preference)
A couple of dashes of pepper (depending on your preference) 
Coriander chutney (found in Indian stores)

1. Poach the fish in water until cooked and boil the potato until soft enough to mash.
 2. Combine all ingredients, except for the canola oil, in a food processor. Give it a few turns so everything is combined. It's lovely to see bits of scallion and whole chickpeas in the finished patty; so, don't be too particular. Make sure to spoon down the sides and toss the mixture a bit to ensure everything is combined evenly, especially the salt.
3. Make patties about palm-sized and about 3/4s of an inch thick. I ended up with about 14.
4. Preheat pan on medium-high heat with a few good glugs of canola oil. The patties shouldn't be swimming since you don't want to deep-fry them, but there should be a decent coating of oil on the pan.
5. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side. You'll have to watch it very carefully at this point to ensure it doesn't burn and that you're cooking it all the way through. The sign that one side is done is a just visible pillar of white smoke coming from the pan, but way before you smell anything burning. A good sign that a side is done is that it should be a deep, crispy brown.
6. Place on paper towels to absorb some of the extra oil.
7. Continue to add oil as needed and fry remaining patties.
8. Serve warm with a coriander chutney. If you can't find it premade or just prefer to make your own, there are a lot of recipes on the internet and it's quite easy to make. Its claim to fame is as a partner to samosas. Yum.

That's it! My first recipe and proof that I should never make recipes. Feel free to play with this one especially if it's not looking right. This was just a result of having some haddock that needed to be used and I'd already been thinking about making a chickpea/edamame patty but didn't have all the ingredients I needed. I'm pretty happy I was out of limes!

One note, I didn't add any hot spices because I was keeping it simple. Coriander chutney can be spicy; so, if you're going to eat the patties with the chutney, best to either not add any chilies or to just add a bit.

If you cook this, let me know how it goes!