America’s northern neighbor knows how to tempt the taste buds.
By Janet Groene, F47166
May 2019
Few places do spring and summer better than Canada. Are you a Canadian snowbird heading back north at this time of year? These recipes may spur your thoughts of home. Or, are you an American dreaming of an RV summer in the Maritimes, the mountains, the Prairie provinces, or French Quebec? Here are foods to try, recipes to file, and lingo to learn.
Fried Pastry
BeaverTails is a Montreal-based company (https://beavertails.com) known for its pastries of the same name, which resemble the shape of a beaver’s tail. At its simplest, the rich, deep-fried dough is sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, but the company sells many varieties of BeaverTails. Choose your own toppings when creating a homemade version.
1 pound pizza dough
Vegetable oil for frying
Divide the pizza dough into eight to 10 pieces, and stretch them into long, flat ovals 8 to 10 inches long. Each piece must fit in your skillet or a deep cooking pot large enough to hold 3 to 4 inches of hot oil. Heat the oil to 375 degrees. As always when working with hot oil, allow space for expansion and foaming. Work very carefully, especially when lowering the dough into the hot oil. Fry only one piece at a time, and keep children out of the way.
When each piece of dough is puffy and golden brown, remove it with tongs and place it on paper toweling. Serve the pastry warm with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, frosting, nut butter, etc. Make a breakfast out of it by spreading it with peanut butter and jam or sliced bananas.
Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Homemade Nanaimo Bars
Named after a Vancouver Island town, Nanaimo bars are a three-layer treat. Some cooking is involved, but you don’t have to start the oven on a hot day to make these bar cookies. Or are they candy? You decide. Every cook has his or her own way to make them.
Crust:
1/2 cup salted butter, cut up
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Scant 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
Filling:
1/4 cup milk or cream
2 tablespoons instant French vanilla pudding mix
2/3 stick butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
Top layer:
4 blocks (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate, cut up
2 tablespoons butter
Melt the 1/2 cup butter over medium heat. Remove it from the heat and stir in the brown sugar and cocoa powder. Keep stirring the hot mixture while slowly adding the beaten egg. Return the mixture to medium heat and cook it a minute or two to thicken it. Remove the mixture from heat and add the vanilla. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and nuts.
Butter a 9-inch-square pan. Pack the mixture to form a bottom crust. Cover with plastic wrap and chill thoroughly.
To make the filling, whisk the milk or cream with the pudding mix. Beat in the softened butter and the powdered sugar until smooth. Spread the filling in the chilled crust and return it to the refrigerator. Chill thoroughly.
For the top layer, melt the chocolate and butter, and spread over the chilled filling. Chill and cut into small squares. Makes 64 pieces.
Shortcut Butter Tarts
Think of these little sweeties as pecan pies with a Canadian twist. They sometimes are made with nuts and raisins, sometimes with just a plain filling. The crust is traditionally a butter pastry dough. This quick version uses a tube of flaky biscuits.
Tube of 10 flaky butter biscuits
About ½ cup raisins
About ½ cup chopped walnuts
½ stick butter, melted
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Set the oven to 375 degrees. Use nonstick spray on 10 muffin cups. Separate the biscuit layers into flower-petal shapes and line the muffin cups, overlapping the petals to cover the sides and bottom. Put some raisins and chopped nuts in each cup.
Whisk the melted butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar until the sugar dissolves. Keep whisking vigorously while adding the vanilla and the egg. When the filling is smooth, carefully spoon it into the shells. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, watching carefully until the crust is golden and the filling is set. Allow to cool. Makes 10 tarts.
Seafood Cheesecake
Cold Canadian waters yield scrumptious seafood in every form, from salmon and Arctic char to gooseneck barnacles. The Maritime and Pacific provinces have lush fisheries, but don’t overlook the succulent catches from lakes and trout streams. Here’s a way to make a little leftover seafood go a long way. Serve slim slices of this rich cheesecake as an appetizer, a snack, or as a sidekick for a salad.
Scant 2 cups plain breadcrumbs
½ teaspoon dried, crumbled thyme
1 stick butter, melted
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1½ to 2 cups cooked, flaked seafood
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the breadcrumbs, thyme, and melted butter. To form a crust, press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a large, deep pie plate or two smaller pie pans. Chill the crust while you beat together the cream cheese, horseradish, eggs, salt, and pepper. Fold in the seafood and put the filling in the prepared crust. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes until the filling is set. Let cool, then refrigerate. Cut the cheesecake into 12 to 16 small wedges. Serve cold.
Canadian Eggs Benny
In American kitchens, eggs Benedict is distinguished by a layer of Canadian bacon. In Canada, the dish is affectionately known as Eggs Benny, and it takes many forms. Here’s an easy, non-hollandaise version.
½ stick butter
4 plum tomatoes, chopped and drained
4 to 6 small scallions, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 cup heavy cream
4 slices hearty Canadian oat bread
Butter or buttery spread
4 slices sharp Cheddar cheese
4 to 8 slices Canadian bacon
4 to 8 eggs
Heat the half stick of butter and cook the tomatoes and scallions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until the liquid is reduced.
Butter the bread on both sides and fry it in another skillet until toasted. Place the bread on plates and top with a slab of Cheddar cheese. Set aside. Use the same pan and more butter to fry the Canadian bacon. Put the hot Canadian bacon atop the cheese, then use the skillet and more butter to fry the eggs. Add one or two eggs to each stack, and then add another slice of Canadian bacon if you wish.
Ladle the hot tomato cream sauce over the stacks. Makes four servings.
Donair Sauce
Donairs are a specialty in Canada’s eastern provinces, especially in the Halifax, Nova Scotia, area. Each cook has his or her own way of making wraps with meat and chopped vegetables, bound with this sweet, garlicky goo.
1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)
Combine the ingredients well and let the flavors blend for an hour. Keep cold. Drizzle the sauce onto wraps made with flour tortillas or pita bread; chopped cooked meat; and finely chopped pepper, celery, onion, olives, etc.
Border Crossing Tip
Border crossing tip
Because of concerns about duties charged on goods and possible confiscation of food, it’s best to pare down your pantry before entering either Canada or the United States in an RV. Remember, shopping on the “other” side is part of the fun.
Canadian Lingo
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Montreal bagels have a larger hole and are thinner than New York bagels.
All-dressed chips are potato chips “dressed” in all the flavors of other chips — ketchup, salt, vinegar, barbecue, sour cream, onion, and a few secrets. They are good with hotdogs or burgers. Finely crushed, they make a sassy topping for casseroles or a breading for baked chicken.
- Caesar cocktails are like a Bloody Mary, with added clam juice.
- Dulse, a seaweed, is growing in popularity. When dried, it can be eaten as a crisp snack.
- Ice wine is a sweet, after-dinner wine made from grapes that have been left on the vine to freeze before being picked.
- Maple syrup needs no explanation. In the far north, you may also want to try birch syrup.
- Montreal bagels have a larger hole and are thinner than New York bagels. They’re baked in a wood fire and are delicious with cream cheese and lox.
- Poutine is a Quebec specialty sometimes found in the United States, especially Wisconsin. French fries are topped with cheese curds and ladled with brown gravy.
