Canada

 It's Canada, eh?

That's right, up this week are the neighbors to the north, Canada.

When I think about food in Canada I envision maple syrup, poutine, and heck even Canadian bacon.

So I was pleased to see some of these making an appearance in this weeks menu for Canada (no, not the bacon - this is a vegetarian cookbook!).

And even more exciting was that we had a guest for dinner! Our friend Megan joined in the meal (which was great as it ensured we didn't have too many left overs this week!).

The first dish was a black bean chowder.

Entree: Black Bean  and Chipotle Chowder

Eh? Black beans? Canada? Chipotle? This is not what I think of when I think of Canada. Even more strange initially was the idea of adding cocoa powder to it all.

To start with, I still haven't find Chipotle powder in NZ. I've looked in a few shops as technically the "Shannon Salad" recipe calls for it. But nada. So when I found actual chipotle peppers at Martha's Backyard (http://www.marthasbackyard.co.nz/) I bought up knowing I could use them. So in this recipe, I used 3 diced chipotle peppers in place of the chipotle powder. That may have been a bit heavy handed, but it gave the dish a beautiful smoky flavor.

Entree: Apple and fennel salad with orange and ginger cider vinaigrette

I've been looking forward to a salad dish for awhile no. So far so many dishes in this cookbook have been warm hearty dishes, but not necessarily your perfect dinner in springtime.

I was hoping to do some foraging to find the fennel as there is a great map of NZ which lists fruit trees, etc.. on public land. But as per usual I ran out of time and so opted for fennel from the store.

This salad was super refreshing and I can see it being a great accompaniment to any meal.

The recipe called for toasted walnuts. I didn't toast mine - only crumbled them and I also used a lemon infused olive oil in the vinaigrette. It was superb!

Entree or main: Veggie Poutine

Now, most people know poutine. Or if they don't know it as poutine, they know it as chips and gravy (with cheese). I often don't get to eat this out in restaurants (as you never know what the gravy has been made with) and so I was excited for making this at home.

As I read through the recipe, it suddenly hit me....where's the cheese man?! Turns out this recipe is a vegan poutine. I won't lie. I was skeptical. So skyeptical that I split my chips (above) and made 2 lots - one following the recipe and a second batch with vegetarian gravy (from granules) and a mozzerella and cheddar combo of cheese.

I shouldn't have worried because the vegan one was great. I wouldn't have thought so but the gravy (so simple with just soy sauce and flour) was so good that even Megan was impressed!

The mix of wild mushrooms and curly kale added a great texture and made this a great dish.

Main: Ginger Maple baked Aduki beans

I've never had aduki beans - or at least I didn't think I had until I read they are often used in Asian cooking (oh, those ones!). 

I would argue the title of the recipe is mis-leading. These are not baked but done on a stove top (since writing this I've learned that is how most baked beans are done - since I can't stand "normal" baked beans I'd never really thought about it.) This recipe put a beautiful smell in the house and I used authentic Canadian maple syrup in the recipe.

Dessert: Orange, Ginger and Rhubarb crisp

I put my sous chef in charge of this dish. We had some debate a crisp vs crumble. I always thought that a crumble had oats in it (turns out that crisps do!).

I've always wanted to grow rhubarb and after trying this recipe I'm sold! The rhubarb had a beautful tartness and it was warming and delectable.

In making this in conjunction with the salad, we used the juice/body of the orange zested for the salad above and it was easy to grate fresh ginger for both the beans and the crumble.

To serve this, I added a non-sweetened pro-biotic yogurt and fresh orange slices. I suspect you could easily add candied orange slices if you wanted to take this up a notch. Matt, not being a fan of that kind of yogurt, opted for fresh cream with his slice. Personally not my cup of tea but he reports it was a good combo.