32 - Canada

Canada is in the Northern part of North America, and consists of 10 Provinces and 3 Territories. It is the second largest country in the world. It borders the USA as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans and its capital is Ottawa.  

Various Indigenous people inhabited the land before European settlers arrived in the 16th century. The French and British colonized the east coast and it wasn't until 1867 that the independent country of Canada was formed, initially including, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Gradually Canada expanded to include the other provinces and territories, the last being Newfoundland and Labrador in 1934.

Canada's culture is diverse due to the many nationalities that call the country home. Quebec is the only French speaking province, (New Brunswick is bilingual French and English), and it maintains a French/Canadian culture.

We moved to the east coast of Canada nearly 15 years ago. It was weird realising that we have never made the foods that are apparently the National Dishes of Canada even if we have eaten them a few times. 

We discussed what we should make with some friends and eventually decided on these three dishes.

Poutine, Donair and Nanaimo bars.

Nova Scotia - the province we live in - has an amazing wine industry. Since we have lived here small vineyards have popped up all over the place making the most amazing white wine and some not-too-bad reds as well.

We spent some time in the liquor store trying to decide which we should have for or Canadian meal and eventually settled on a Muscat by Gaspereau vineyards. It was one of the first wineries we visited and we've always loved their wine. 

Now onto the food!

Authentic Canadian Poutine (pronounced pooTEEN) originated in Quebec in the 1950's although there are many claims to who actually invented it.

Chips or fries are the basis for this extraordinarily healthy dish!!!!

We don't have a deep fryer so we made ours in the oven. 

While they were cooking we made the gravy. A friend of our daughters is from Quebec so we asked her for advice. She suggested buying one of these shop mixes! 

Then she suggested this gravy recipe. 

You basically make a roux (butter and flour) and add a mixture of beef and chicken broth, thickening it with cornflour and mixing in a little tomato ketchup and tabasco sauce.

Once the gravy is made and the chips are ready it's time for the cheese curds! Yep, moist pieces of curdled milk!!! 😁

Now to plate up.

Put the cooked chips in a bowl.

Sprinkle the cheese curds over the chips.

Tip the gravy over everything and mix it together.

And now you are ready to eat!

Enjoy!!!!

After the ultra light and healthy appetizer it's time for 

an equally satisfying main course.

Donair

(not to be confused with the British doner kebab!!!)

The 'legendary' Halifax donair was allegedly invented in the 1970's by Peter Gamoulakos who was originally from Greece. He started making a similar Greek dish using lamb. He noticed that the locals weren't keen so he swapped the lamb for beef and added the sweet donair sauce and the late night food source was born. It soon became Halifaxs official food. Roll over fresh lobster!

Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and so we had to make a local dish.

First to make the meat.

Oregano, flour, black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper are mixed with ground beef (or burger meat as its called over here). The meat needs to really stick together so you have to throw it into the mixing bowl 20 times to make the grains or ground beef mush together.

I used a small loaf tin to shape it then it went into
the oven for and hour and a quarter.

Looking good!
It went into the fridge overnight.

When we were ready to eat we sliced the meatloaf thinly.

And fried it lightly on each side to heat it through.

We needed pita breads so I made some using the 

sourdough we use for making bread.

Rolled out and ready to cook.

Some made pockets and some didn't, but that's what 

happens with homemade pita bread.

The final part of a donair is the donair sauce! 

There is nothing quite like it 😬, it is popular with pizza too.

The ingredients are evaporated milk, sugar, 

garlic powder and white vinegar.

I made the mistake of trying it by sticking my finger in and then sucking that finger. The sauce wasn't as sweet as I was expecting but the large quantity of garlic powder certainly left an after taste!!

So to assemble the Donair you make a pocket in the pita bread and fill it with slices of meat, some diced tomato and onion and of course the donair sauce!

Delicious! and it has some vegetables in too! 😂

Now for our final treat. 

Nanaimo Bars.

It's a dessert bar that doesn't require cooking and is named after the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia. It became  popular in the 1950's although several places claim to have invented it. 

At a state dinner in 2016 Justin Trudeau served nanaimo bars

 as the dessert for his guests Barack and Michelle Obama!

First the base, it contains butter, cocoa, sugar, graham crackers, 

egg, unsweetened coconut and chopped almonds.

You melt the butter, sugar and cocoa until smooth and then beat in the egg. Then the crushed graham crackers, coconut and nuts are stirred in. 

This is pressed firmly into the base of your cake tin 

and left to cool in the fridge for a while.

The next layer is a custard. 

You use icing sugar, butter, milk and custard powder.

This is spread over the biscuit base.

Finally you make a chocolate topping from 

melted chocolate chips and some more butter!

And spread that over the custard.

Then when everything is set you cut into small squares 

and eat with a strong cup of tea or coffee!

The Verdict.

This was a fun experience. Homemade food always tastes different from shop bought and although this isn't a particularly healthy meal it was delicious to eat as a treat. The nanaimo bars can be frozen so we have a little stash in the freezer for a special occasion.