Food – Two Wild Tides

Healthy ‘Caramel’ Squares

October 26, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, I had the time to learn some new recipes, pick up some cooking and baking tips from the internet, and come up with some completely new creations. One of my favourite creations was a combination of my favourite salted caramel balls (original blog post here) and cheesecake crust. I had to work with what I had left in my cupboards, ok? I know you can relate.

For the crust: in a food processor, combine 1/3 cup almonds, 1/3 cup walnuts, 1/3 cup pecans, 1 cup pitted medjool dates, and a generous dash of sea salt. Press the mixture into a rectangular cake pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate.

For the caramel: soak 1 cup pitted dates in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Drain the water and in your food processor, combine the dates with 1 teaspoon of vanilla and blend until you get a creamy consistency. Layer this on top of the crust and poke it back in the fridge.

For the chocolate topping: I just melted some milk chocolate chips in a double boiler because I can’t resist! To keep it completely healthy, you could melt down dark chocolate, combine coconut oil and cocoa powder, or sprinkle the top with cacao nibs.

And that’s it! Simple, hey? It helps to keep them in the freezer so they’ll get really firm, but it isn’t necessary. The ‘caramel’ squares are gluten-free (refined sugar-free and dairy-free too if you skip the milk chocolate!) and are packed with healthy fats and protein from the nuts. Enjoy with a cup of tea or your morning coffee (or whenever– you do you!!)

Country Challenge: Czechia (Czech Republic)

October 22, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Join twowildtides on the country challenge. Each week, we’re going to be heading to a new country (in spirit). Primarily, we’ll be cooking a meal from each country; but we’ll also be watching travel documentaries, reading travel blogs, and listening to music. During the global pandemic, travel is largely inaccessible. We want to reignite our wanderlust, satisfy our travel bug as much as we can, and learn some new things along the way. I have a feeling our bucket list will have a number of items added to it through this experience as well. We created a simple alphabetical spreadsheet with all the countries of the world, and each week we will draw a random number that corresponds with a country on the spreadsheet.

This week, we found ourselves in Central Europe– Czechia, to be exact. I think I’ve sorted out that Czechia is the shorthand/nickname for Czech Republic. Please correct me if that’s wrong. While I’ve never been to Czechia, linds has! Read all about her time there. When I chatted with her about her experience and read her post, I knew I’d have to go someday. I guess for now trying to cook their food will have to suffice. The country looks absolutely magical:

Czech Republic

When I started to research traditional and popular foods in Czechia, there was one dish that appeared on every single list: Svíčková. It was #6 on this list by Taste Atlas, #2 on this list by Nomad Paradise, and #1 on this list by Culture Trip, as well as being listed on multiple Wikipedia pages on the topic of Czech food and culture. The Czech word Svíčková translates to sirloin, because this meat cut is the main feature of the dish. Some of the posts I read described Svíčková as a challenging dish to make, but I actually had the opposite experience. It’s not a basic dish, but it’s also not overly complicated or time-consuming. This is the recipe we used:

I did have to make a few ingredient swaps in this recipe. Turnip was swapped for root celeriac and parsnip was swapped for parsley root due to lack of availability in the town we live in in Northern Alberta. We also swapped thyme for bay leaves just because we didn’t have bay leaves on hand. Otherwise, the ingredients in this recipe are pretty basic and available.

We started by chopping the veggies and marinating everything the night before. Yes, this recipe does need to marinate– but if you marinate everything in an oven-safe dish, it’s super easy to prep it all and then pop the pot in the oven the next day.

We cooked everything the next day for two hours. The smell throughout the house was amazing. I could hardly wait!!

This recipe gave me an excuse to buy a kitchen gadget I’ve been wanting for quite some time: an immersion blender. Since moving to Alberta, I haven’t had a blender. I’ve been debating between splurging on a blender, cheaping-out and buying a magic bullet, or meeting somewhere in the middle and buying an immersion blender with extra attachments. And then came this recipe so… I bought the immersion blender and it was SO fun and easy to use.

While we cooked, we listened to this playlist on Spotify:

Traditionally, Svíčková is served with bread dumplings, whipped cream, and cranberry sauce. I was able to make whipped cream, but I’m not a dumpling fan so I skipped those and opted for buttered toast instead. Also, I don’t really love cranberry sauce, so we had a delicious beet and horseradish relish from our local farmer’s market. It paired perfectly.

This recipe has lots of butter and cream. It is also reminiscent of a traditional beef stew and the tastes and smells reminded me a lot of Newfoundland comfort food. It was also snowing the day we made this meal (yes, it’s mid-October, this is Northern Canada) so the root vegetables with everything else made for a real cozy fall/winter indulgence. I absolutely LOVED this dish. I will totally be making it again in the future. Dare I say… it’s my favourite country so far?!

Have you been to Czechia? Tried Svíčková? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for next weeks country!

Country Challenge: Kazakhstan

October 15, 2020 | Leave a Comment

There are seven countries with the suffix “stan”. “Stan” comes from the Persian language and means “land”. This week, we’re in our second of the “stan” countries: Kazakhstan. (Our first was Uzbekistan). Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world and the ninth largest overall. The country looks incredible– and surprisingly, a lot like Canada in the sense that it offers so many different landscapes, skylines, terrains, and cultures. Have a look at this article on Pinterest, you might confuse the images for Canada, western or eastern!!

Kazakhstan

After a quick Google search, I learned that the national dish of Kazakhstan is Beshbarmak. I’d never made anything like this, so I was really excited. We followed this recipe, which was easy to follow and simplified an otherwise complicated dish:

It was easy to get the ingredients for Beshbarmak locally. I would describe the main part of the dish as a traditional beef stew, but with cumin. I enjoyed making my own simple beef broth for this recipe, which is something I’d never done before.

So far in the country challenge I have not had many negative things to say. For this recipe, however, I have something less than complimentary to add about this dish. The base of the dish is a boiled dough. I did not like it. It was bland and slimy. It could have been my mistake, or perhaps the recipe is not the best, or maybe I just don’t like this style of cuisine. Any suggestions on how this should be improved are more than welcome.

Overall, I liked the flavour of the broth/stew. I loved the caramelized onions served on top. But I did not like the dough at all. I really preferred eating the main part of the dish on its own as a soup, and that was really tasty. Was it the most unique dish we’ve tried? Probably not. Was it one of the most hearty and traditional? Yeah, it’s definitely up there.

What do you think? Would you try beshbarmak? Have you tried it? Let us know in the comments!

Stay tuned for next week!

Country Challenge: Eritrea

October 8, 2020 | Leave a Comment

This week, we remain in East Africa– in Eritrea, a landlocked country shrouded in controversy, tension, and some mystery. The following articles have some amazing, detailed, and in-depth information about the rarely travelled and high-conflict, yet incredibly beautiful and interesting country.

Eritrea

Eritrea was an Italian colony for about 50 years, is heavily influenced by the Middle East, and, of course, is an African country. All of these facts say a lot about the interesting flavours used in Eritrean cuisine. The national dish of Eritrea, according to good old Wikipedia, is Zigni– so that’s what we made. Zigni is also on Taste Atlas’ list of most popular Eritrean food. We used this recipe from Great British Chefs.

Berbere is a spice blend unique to Eritrea that is the key ingredient in Zigni. I couldn’t buy berbere locally but managed to score some on Amazon. If you like chilli powder, cinnamon, and cardamom (the predominant spices in the blend), you’ll love berbere. One of the main reasons for embarking on this challenge was to learn about new spices and flavours, so I was really excited about this recipe. Once the veggies were chopped and the beef seared, we could add the berbere.

While we cooked, we listened to some Eritrean music on Spotify:

After the veggies were softened, the beef chunks were coated in the spice blend, and the beef stock was added; the stew could simmer for about an hour and a half. While we waited, we enjoyed a cheese ball and an episode of Euphoria.

Finally, after what felt like ages of being teased by the aroma, the Zigni was ready to eat. It was so tasty. Zigni is zesty enough to feel like it has detoxification properties (kind of like Tom Yum Soup?) but the rich flavour made it feel like something you’d eat on a cozy winter day. (I’m starting to run out of adjectives to describe these meals with!!)

This meal is up there with my favourites so far. You should try it! And let us know if you do!

Country Challenge: Morocco

October 1, 2020 | Leave a Comment

We put our random number generator to the side this week, however. My grandparents invited my partner, sister and I to their house for the weekend and suggested we cook a dish called Tajine, in their Moroccan Tajine pots. That’s why this week, we visited Morocco. It was really fun to bring more people into the challenge and talk about another country’s customs with others. I was also excited to try a new type of cookware.

Morocco

My grandparents had a cookbook that came with the Tajine pot when they purchased it in Morocco. I spent my morning drinking coffee and flipping through pages of mouthwatering and gorgeous Tajine recipes.

We follow a recipe similar to the one below, however, we adapted it to use pork as we did not have beef on hand and limited access to lamb in our community. I am aware that Morocco is a predominantly Muslim country, and people who practice the religion of Islam do not tend to eat pork as the pig is a sacred animal. We respect this belief and would have preferred beef or lamb, had it been available to us. We also wanted to use what we had on hand instead of being wasteful.

First we fried the meat, onion, and spices in a pan. Then, the mixture was added to the Tajine pot with the other ingredients and slow-cooked in the oven for a couple hours.

The Tajine pot is cone-shaped on top in order to ensure all condensation is returned to the bottom of the dish, really infusing the flavours. I would think the best replacement option if you wanted to cook a Tajine dish but don’t have access to a Tajine pot is a slow-cooker.

The aroma throughout the house was incredible. The cinnamon dominated and complimented the pears perfectly. We served the pear and pork concoction on top of couscous to make a light yet hearty meal. For us, this was up there with the Plov from Uzbekistan in terms of being rich and flavourful. We really, really enjoyed this meal together.

My grandparents were kind enough to gift me one of their Tajine pots, a third pot, which they purchased on a trip to Tunisia (hint hint for when we make it to Tunisia in this challenge!) I am so happy to have my own Tajine pot so I can try these dishes again in the future.

Have you been to Morocco? Linds has! Check out her articles about her trip here: