Get Into the Spirit
Two new Canadian cookbooks, kosher and Cree, take on tradition, heritage and, heck, a bit of fun as part of our national fabric. And don’t forget the cocktails!
Make the season work for you with food, drink, style, home and detox ideas
OVER A RECENT BOWL of excellent matzo ball soup, I got to thinking,” writes the Canadian author Amy Rosen, in her new cookbook, Kosher Style: Over 100 Jewish Recipes for the Modern
Cook, “this generation is in real danger of losing the Friday-night-dinner memories and a giant piece of our collective heritage.” Reading Rosen’s words got me to thinking, too, about all of our collective heritage. We’re ever speeding ahead and sometimes forgetting traditions, especially the special moments through food that many of us still try to hold dear. “The dishes for celebrations and the ones for every day,” Rosen continues – though in Jewish homes, she says, food is always a celebration. “Obviously, I’m not the only one who feels this way, as most people love the food of their people,” she goes on. “But a lot of those people also happen to love the food of my people.”
Rosen’s not alone in her mission to preserve a people’s heritage. In Tawâw: Progressive and Indigenous Cuisine, chef Shane Chartrand, who is of the Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta – with influences from a Métis, Mi’kmaq and British upbringing – re-examines his usual European cooking techniques, paired with his journey through his food heritage and how best to bring it together and demystify the cuisine. How is contemporary Indigenous cooking different from mainstream Canadian cooking, he asks? “The more I explore my Indigenous roots and develop my own version of progressive Indigenous cooking,” he writes, “the more people from all walks of life are excited about what a
First Nations perspective brings to the plate.” True North ingredients such as Saskatoon berries, squash, pumpkin, gourds, beets and beans all star along with seafood and shellfish, and game. With more than 75 recipes, the book is divided by the seasons.
Speaking of seasons, ’tis the season, to eat, drink and be merry, and Geoff Dillon of Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers, based in Beamsville, Ont., has his own idea of just how to do it – and staying true to what’s in our own backyard. In Craft Cocktails: Seasonally Inspired Drinks & Snacks From Our Sipping Room, Dillon along with Whitney Rorison breaks down the drinks and nibbles through the four seasons. “Ingredients play the single largest role in our spirits,” he writes. That search for quality, he adds, “is what led us to our home in the Niagara region of southern Ontario.” And just like Rosen and Chartrand, he’s all about sharing it with family and friends. “We have included large-batch recipes that are meant to be enjoyed with a group,” hence our pick of Dillon’s Holiday Pomegranate Punch (for recipe, go to www.everythingzoomer.com/ craft-cocktails).
Of course, we couldn’t resist asking Rosen for her recipe for chicken soup, which she refers to as Jewish Penicillin, the ultimate comfort food at this time of year (her roasted salmon with horseradish sauce and pickled onions would make a hearty meal for a group, too). But perhaps it’s the simple notion of the title of Chartrand’s book that says it all: is Cree for “Welcome, there is room.”