This week on Food For Thought I chatted with Janice Wong, author of Chow, From China To Canada: Memories of Food and Family. It’s published by Whitecap Books. It’s the fascinating story of Janice’s family as they became part of Canadian cultural history by operating a Chinese food restaurant in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Part of the book includes recipes handed down to Janice and her siblings by her father.
Tell me about your favourite ‘hand-me-down’ recipe and you could win a copy of the book. No need to include the recipe, I’m more interested in the story.
My favourite recipe like this comes from my Aunt Polly, who taught me how to make ‘cassadetti’, a sweetened-ricotta filled pastry that is fried in hot oil. Crisp and flaky on the outside, sweet and creamy on the inside. Whenever I get a little bit homesick, this is the dessert I like to make. Just scroll down to the comments portion of the page and type in your entry. I’ll choose two winners at random at the end of this month. Looking forward to hearing your stories!
On of my favorite hand-me-down recipes is the Mennonite Easter bread called “paska”, which has its root in the word “paschal”. When I was a kid in Saskatoon my mother would bake this bread in different sized tin cans (the tins got bigger as we got older!). Then we would spread different colours of icing on each one. Since I moved from Saskatoon to Montreal 16 years ago, I’ve kept up the tradition annually, and now I share it with my own child. Recently I was surprised to learn that the word “paska” means “shit” in Finnish!
A favorte family recipe in our family is called “Swedish Thinbread.” Now, I don’t know if that’s the actual name or if we have added the Swedish tag onto the recipe because it has come from my great-grandmother who is Swedish. That being said, this dish is only made during the Christmas season (in my family) and consists of a very heavy cracker that is baked in the oven. Making the treat is quite a procedure requiring a special wooden roller that has little knobs located all over it to give it a dimpled look. Traditionally, it is served with Pickled Herring, but for those of us in the family that haven’t aquired the taste for what we see as ‘raw fish,’ Cheeze Whiz serves as a more than adequate substitute.
The making of ‘Thin Bread’ has been passed down from generation to generation, but just receiving the recipe is not near enough education as we have all required a hands-on lesson in how to make it. Every year when Christmas does arrive, all of us (my brothers and I now) eagerly await the arrival of this treat. My joy has been in introducing my kids to the traditional thin bread and watching them as they discover that the plain cracker before them is actually a culinary delight.
my aunt bea was a fabulous cook and one of her best suppers was meatloaf with scalloped potatoes.this recipe is written on the back cover of my old “joy of cooking” from 1976,it’s made it to both coasts,(i’m from n.b. and now live in victoria)and down to california.although i too am an accomplished cook, i have trouble with the potatoes,(go figure) and have been known to phone my mom in n.b.for over the phone help!!
A favorite recipe of mine is my late Maltese mum’s ‘qassatat’ – a lovely dumpling-like pastry with ricotta cheese and herbs. These knitted cakes of cheese are cherished not only for their fabulous taste and warmth but for the memories that I (and my family) associate with this food. If smell is the one sense to trigger memory, these cakes are a very quick link to channel my mum! I am fortunate to enjoy my Papa’s version when he comes to visit (I find them too finicky to attempt). Thanks for the opportunity to share, Don.
What happened with the last contest (the one that ended in August)? I don’t recall any winners being announced. Shouldn’t that one be finished before starting a new one?
Thankyou for interviewing Ms. Wong. I had heard parts of her interview earlier in the week on Sounds Like Canada and your show answered some of the questions I was going to email the morning show about. Somewhat similarilly, I had a Chinese uncle, married to my aunt on my fathers side, that owned and operated restaurants in Saskatchewan. I remember being told of restaurants in Saskatoon, where my aunt now lives and still works in the restaurant business at age 84, in Humboldt and most fondly of the Wings Cafe in Watson. As kids, our summer vacations to Watson were about as good as it could get. Besides the endless pinball, comic books, pop and other sweets and treats, my Uncle would always have something cooking back in the kitchen. The one thing we could not get enough of was our Uncle Charlies hamburgers. He had some special way of preparing the burger and unfortunatly not even my Aunt knows the secret. What I would do for that recipe today. I once even snuck him some of the Colonels special ingredients, which he was very greatfull for, in appreciation of his culinary talents. Still the recipe went with him to his grave. When hearing the interview with Janice Wong, it sparked the memories of Uncle Charlie and sent me wondering if Janices father had ever cooked up the infamous Chinese hamburger. If I had the recipe, it would be the one I would pass on to CBC crowd. Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce and possibly, should I get a copy of the book, pass along an awesome recipe for a hamburger.
For as long as I can remember my grandmother has made a traditional Dutch dish called hutspot (I’m pretty sure it goes by other names, and she probably has her own spelling of it). Basically it’s a combination of mashed potatoes, carrots and onions. Since she lived in Toronto and I in Vancouver I didn’t have the luxury of her making it for me all the time, but when I visited she would always oblige. And, I’d always ask her for the recipe. She’d claim not to have one and say, “just use half as many carrots as potatoes and an onion”. Over the years I did get her to write it out for me and so have it a couple of times in my recipe album – each one slightly different. A few years ago I went to visit her. She was suffering from cancer and I had taken along a minidisc recorder to tape her recounting various life stories. She had a Dutch housekeeper from eastern Canada with a strong accent and my grandmother asked for her to help in making me hutspot for lunch. Here’s the thing, everyone has their own way of doing it. They argued about proportions and most importantly whether the onions should be fried first. My grandmother wanted it to be just perfect as, sadly, she knew this would be the last time she would ever make this dish for me. Though bittersweet, the ensuing friendly argument was quite comedic and something I’ll never forget. My biggest regret was not having the minidisc recorder on hand fast enough to capture this marvelous moment. I tell myself that perhaps it’s better I missed recording this moment, since the memory of it would pale in comparison the way a photo of a sunset never does the real thing justice.
My Aunt Edie taught me how to make a pie when I was seven years old. The “pie” was a frozen shell, topped with canned filling, but as my first step up from my Easy-Bake oven,it fueled the beginning of my life-long passion for cooking.
A few years later, Aunt Edie taught me how to make real pastry – rich, flaky, dripping with trans-fats and best of all, fool-proof. Now I love to cook and will tackle almost any recipe, but pastry presents a challenge for me.My warm hands are not ideal for working with finicky dough, and Aunt Edie’s recipe, made with one cup of shortening and boiling water has never let me down.
I ran a baking business out of Guelph’s Farmer’s Market every Saturday for five years when my children were small. My butter tarts, made from Bonnie Stern’s tart recipe and Aunt Edie’s pastry were a huge hit.
Over the years I have tried other recipes. I have cursed over floury remnants of dough that refused to patch together in a pie plate. I have wept over an expensive seafood pie, ruined by my failed attempts at the crust. I have served cardboard pies to friends and chewed through doughy creations that could have doubled for Plasticene.
Aunt Edie’s pastry has done yeoman’s duty all these years as a dessert pastry, but that’s not all. Every Christmas Eve, I bake up a tortiere. This tortiere recipe has its roots in Gaspe,Quebec, birthplace of both sides of my family. Aunt Edie provides the pastry recipe and my mother provides the filling. Christmas in Gaspe became Christmas in Montreal and then Toronto, Guelph and Halifax.
I now live on Gabriola Island and in true hand-me-down fashion, my aunt and my mother have given me a piece of them to take with me wherever I go.
My Christmas puddings and wedding cake/anniversary cakes are all made from the same recipe, passed down to me from my Jamaican grandmother.
When my mother made Christmas puddings, she always used her mother’s recipe, but she didn’t enjoy cooking, so she tended to skimp on the “love” ingredient that made my grandmother’s spicy meals so tasty.
So – when my grandmother offered to make my wedding cake by baking rather than steaming the Christmas pudding ingredients, my mother and I gratefully accepted her generous gift.
During our wedding reception, a guest noticed that the rum was starting to seep through the marzipan and icing decorations, turning our beautiful cake from pearly white to the colour of weak tea.
Another guest whispered in my ear that our wedding cake was the best he ever drank! It was a big hit, even with my husband’s White Anglo Saxon Protestant family and guests.
Long before she died, I asked Gama Jamaica to write down her recipe, so I could try to duplicate her finished product. I still have the letter size piece of paper covered with my grandmother’s handwriting. After a few sloppy measurings, the paper got a few stains, some of them rum, some of them not.
Now it’s in a plastic page protector, safe from my predictable pouring and stirring mishaps. I don’t always get the fruit soaked as early as I should, but I enjoy making Christmas puddings every year. We keep a big one for our Christmas dinner and mail or deliver smaller ones to people who treasure it as much as we do.
I thought of my grandmother’s nurturing ways as I used her recipe for our 25th Anniversary cake, and thought loving thoughts of her again during the making of both of our daughter’s wedding cakes. (Not because she got married twice – because I burned the first one!)
The original copy of the recipe will be passed on in my will. It may not be worth anything at a Canadian Antiques Road Show, but the memories it represents are priceless to our family.
I am very interested in the book you have described.
As it happens, my Chinese father also ran a cafe in Prince Albert and I have wonderful memories of the food I ate as a child. The Chinese cooks were incredibly gifted. Every Sunday, when the cafe was closed, they would make a fantastic meal. My father would get regular deliveries from Vancouver of Chinese ingredients,fresh greens and melons, and specialties such as live crabs. Then there was wonderful local produce, such as fresh-from-the-lake pickerel and farm chickens of a quality not available today (I remember that we would drive to a farm to get the chickens. They would be tied by the feet and put in a sack in the back seat of the car. You could hear them squawking all the way back to town. They would be served up that night and were fantastically good.)
I learned about Chinese cooking from my father and have tried to recreate the fantastic tastes I remember from the past. Some of my favourite recipes from him are steamed whole fish, spareribs with oyster sauce, and oxtail soup.
What a fabulous interview. I listened with awe. Food is so similar to stories and literature – it unites us all!
My favorite ‘handed down’ recipe is my grama’s style of applesauce. She chopped apples with the skin on and added brown sugar and cinnamon. Boiled with a bit of water, it is a heavenly treat (the house smells heavenly too!). The special reason that this is such a fond memory for me is that I taught my three children to cut apples at age two so they could participate in their heritage. Now, at 49, I am viewing my granddaughter with eager anticipation. She turns two on the 22nd of this month and soon after we can get out the apples and knife together!
Jaime, is a true gift our family. Just like Janice Wong’s father, she was a premmie. Born at 23 weeks (550 gr.) she had a big struggle at first. 100 days in the hospital were a test for her mom and dad, but she is a spunky little girl who today chatters, runs and giggles like any lovely little one. So, this book will be one that I want to give her this Christmas….whether I win a copy or not!
my mother always mde this salad for special occasions and now i make it
3 pkgs oriental flavoured nissin top raman noodles and seasoning (you can find these at any store they are usually sold 4 for a 1.00 but only use the oreintal flavoured)
1 -1lb pkg cole slaw
1 cups green pepper chopped fine
6 shallots sliced thin use the green part as well
1/2 cup slivered almonds
break up the dried noodles and spread on a broiling tray mixed with the almonds
drizzle with metled margarine
broil until slightly toasted on all sides
prepare dressing
mix together
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons soya sauce and the seasoning mixes from the soup packages
to prep
put the cole slaw the toasted ingredients the shalots and green peppers into a large salad bowl and mix .
pour the dressing over the top before serving and then mix very well
serve and enjoy it
when i had a brush with breast cancer ten years ago [!yeah, i’m a survivor!] i re-examined all my eating habits. one of the healthiest things i have created is a tasty tofu spread for my morning toast. i also use it sometimes as a filling for a sushi roll wrapped with seaweed and smoked salmon.
to make it i put a generous thumb-sized piece of ginger, one or two large garlic cloves and a quarter of a small onion into my processor and mince it all until fine. then i slice a package of tofu into 1″ pieces, throw them into the processor, add a little salt, a generous amount ( about 1 teaspoon) of mustard (either Dijon or powdered mustard) to suit my taste, a bunch of capers, about 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, another Tablespoon of caper juice (which is vinegar flavored by the capers). Then i process it all together until it begins to ball around the centre. Sometimes, for variety, i add some roasted red pepper which also serves to give it all a lovely red colour. et voila! you have a healthy, high protein tofu spread for your toast in the morning. enjoy!
Contest: Chef at home
Great interview. Here is a make-do dish created bacause what went into it was what happened to be on hand and an un-expected guest needed feeding.
This is a pasta sauce.
Several toes of garlic
1 tbls olive oil
6 – 8 sun dried tomatoes
3 Tbls cream cheese
1 qt butter milk
1 tin anchovies in oil
basil
salt & pepper
Put tomatoes in water to soften.
Coin garlic.
Mince up anchovies.
Cut up reconstituted tomatoes.
brown garlic in olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot.
Add cream cheese and beat until incorporated.
Add buttermilk and basil.
Season to taste.
Serve over pasta with sun dried tomatoes sprinkled on top.
A green salad goes well if available.
When first made I did not have a fine dry white to go with. I did have a really nice home made oatmeal stout that was much better as afters than with.
I heard the contest yesterday for Michael Smith’s new book about cooking with and without recipes and want to enter the contest about a receipe you vary
The basic tea biscuit dough recipe has endless uses: tea biscuits, biscuits to top a shepherd’s pie, quick pizza dough; add an egg and bit of suger and some grated orange or lemon peel, and/or dried or fresh fruit for wonderful scones; for camping used dried milk, eggs and shortening and it becomes bannock to cook on a stick over a camp fire.
Love to win his book!
Thanks
Pat
I was just listening to your show when my husband popped in to pick up something. While carrying on a conversation with him I heard you mention taking a recipe and making it your own. This is a complaint of my cooking I hear from my husband always. Thus it sparked another opportunity to delve into it further. He said something along the lines of ‘I think a recipe should be followed exactly as it is written until perfection is achieved, then try changing it.’ I wish he had heard what I heard from you, ‘modifying a recipe is a sign of a great chef’. At least that is what I think I heard.
One that I modify constantly is chili. However the standard ingredients are: azuki beans because they are easier to digest and have a great flavor, Muir Glen Crushed Tomatoes with basil because I am often in a hurry, finely chopped carrots, a dash of honey and varying degrees of chili. Once my husband was left with the task of making it. I had a pot of water on the counter so he just added the beans and set them to boil. At supper I wondered why the chili was so sweet? He used the hummingbird food I had just prepared and left to cool. It has been a family joke ever since.