Kale and Quinoa Salad, not to the taste of teenagers.

I recently held a meeting for my cooking club, at a nearby restaurant, to decide what our menu would be this week. A couple of my students mentioned they couldn’t come to the restaurant because they were on a health food kick. Inquiry into what they were eating resulted in no answers so in response to this, I decided to help them expand their knowledge of healthy food in this unhealthy world.

Kale is a beautiful green vegetable that is one of those superfoods that people eat and sound incredibly healthy while doing so. Considering kale is full of vitamins and anti-cancer fighting properties, it’s no wonder that it actually is. It’s also full of various other words that I can barely pronounce which has always been the comment about bad chemicals in processed foods. Kale contains zeaxanthin which is good for your eyes but it’s not an easy word to pronounce. Let’s not discriminate against those unhealthy preservatives based on the pronounceability of their names but rather because of the harm they cause in your body! In all seriousness, I eat kale all the time, whether stir-fried or even raw in a smoothie, it’s an easy way to pick up your daily vitamins.

Quinoa is also full of food super powers. It’s a carb that also contains a good amount of protein and once again contains many vitamins and minerals that other carby foods don’t have. It’s totally a bandwagon that people are jumping on and there’s nothing wrong with joining late.

When my students tried the finished product at cooking club, these future prime ministers and decision makers complained and whined about it. Well, I tried.

This isn't how we ate it. This is the massaging part of the recipe.

Kale and Quinoa Salad

Asian Ginger Dressing, from allrecipes.com
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 3 tbsp honey
- ¼ Water

In a 1 pint glass jar or larger, combine the garlic, ginger, olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and water. Cover the jar with a tight fitting lid, and shake well. Stir the dressing until the honey dissolves. The original recipe says to microwave the jar uncovered for 1 minute but that seems unnecessary and will kill all your nutrients! Shake well before serving. Store covered in the refrigerator.
Salad Ingredients

- A bunch of Kale, washed and stalks removed.
- Olive oil
- Almonds, roasted
- 1 Orange
- ½ cup Quinoa, cooked and cooled


Cut up the Kale leaves up. Massage with olive oil, base the amount on how much kale there is. Let kale sit to absorb oil. Meanwhile, roast almonds, cut up orange. Add quinoa to kale. Add dressing and toss.
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The 2nd Annual Great Greely Fishcake Throwdown

The gloves were off at the second Annual Great Greely Fishcake Throwdown and these multitude of bare hands were moulding together delicious fish patties. This year there were eight entrants, about half of which were returning competitors along with the reigning champion. As the guests came round, I greeted the two judges from last year and we proceeded to sit down at the bar to begin our tasting.

(Note: This year it was held on a Sunday so we had to quickly leave afterwards as we had to head back to Montréal. Lots of details were unfortunately never discovered for me, though I am told that there will be a recipe list for all of these fish cakes coming soon.)

When the first dish came down and all I could smell was the fragrant aroma of Tandoori, I knew we were in for something good this year. I could feel the competition in the air. It was on.

Tandoori Fishcake with a Yogurt Raita sauce and a red cabbage slaw

I loved this dish before even tasting it. I was entranced by the smell and couldn't wait to state eating! Everything on the plate went so well together. The tandoori spice went so well with the raita sauce while the slaw was sweet, sour and spicy. Excellent combination.

The next fish cake also followed an Indian theme. It smelled of more delicious spices and we were all excited about the prospect of tuna. We thought how exciting it was that someone had purchased some expensive tuna and how lucky we all were to have been here.

Spicy Tuna with Raita Sauce

This one was super delicious too and it had a bit more of a kick than its Tandoori competitor. Although being quite a good fish cake, I couldn't quite put my finger on a certain taste that the fish had to it. I later found out that the secret behind the recipe was canned tuna and we three judges were quite impressed with how good it tasted.

Down came the third cake, our wine glasses having been drained by about half. We were told by the runner that it was called "Fish Cake with Apple Fennel Salad and Chipotle Mayo"

Fish Cake with Apple Fennel Salad and Chipotle Mayo

We could taste the smoked salmon right away and also that the mayo was home made. The outside of the fish cake had a crispy layer of panko bread crumbs which gave it that extra crunch into a tender, smokey center. If anything, I would say that the chipotle mayo could have used more of a kick but what do I know? Apparently I made pizza sauce too spicy for my students once.

We sampled a Salmon fish cake with Aioli next. It was a lemony mayonnaise sauce. This fish cake looked and tasted like a straight up salmon fish cake. It was an honest, yummy fish cake.

Salmon with Aioli

"Scruncheons" or "Scrunch-ons" were proudly featured on this Salted Cod Fish Cake with Green Tomato Salsa. What's a scruncheon you might ask? I never actually asked myself but they seemed to be crispy lardons. This was particularly funny because I told my uncle last night that it would be awesome if someone had done a fish cake with bacon.

Scruncheons...?

I loved this home made salsa! It was sweet, almost relish-like with large pieces of tomato that went very well with the salty lardons which I ate all of! Unfortunately, the fish cake we got was more potato than salted cod so there wasn't much of a fish flavour to it. Alas! After the judging, I tried one from the rest of the batch and it had that nice salted cod flavour to it.

Number six was a Ginger Salmon with Fresh Dill, lots of it! I'm a fan of ginger (though really, what am I not a fan of?) so this was interesting to me. It was accompanied with a sweet jelly of sorts, though I never found out what the actual ingredient was.

Ginger Salmon and Dill

I enjoyed the ginger flavour but it was quite strong and overpowered the delicate flavour of the salmon. I think it could work though, and it's quite inspiring.

Number seven was a combo of Salmon and White Fish with Horse Radish. Yes, Horse Radish, who doesn't love some good horse radish? Here I go again sounding like I can't get enough from sauces but I couldn't taste any horse radish, no kick to my face. I think that's what I expected but I realize that it could overpower the flavour of the fish.

Salmon and White Fish with Horse Radish

In terms of flavour, this cake was excellent. I didn't know that a combination of fish would taste so great. One of the other judges described it by saying that she could taste and feel the sea when eating this cake. What better feeling could be invoked by a fish cake?

Last but of course not least, Southwestern Salmon with Avocado and Creme Fraiche. So I think I was wrong about what I wanted in a fish cake, I think I want bacon and avocado. Wait, maybe I have my entry for next year...

Southwestern Salmon with Avocado and Creme Fraiche

This fish cake was nice, and the avocado went just great with the salmon. It's ok, I didn't expect more kick from the avocado sauce! 

So, after all this hard work, who won? You've read this far, you deserve to know. Wait, you didn't just skip to the end did you? It was a VERY difficult decision, as I hope you can see from all these pictures, they were all excellent! Unfortunately we had to pick and after much deliberation we came up with the top 3 fish cakes:

1st: The Smoked Salmon Fish Cake with Apple Fennel & Chipotle Mayo (Cake #3)
2nd: Spicy Tuna with Indian Raita Sauce (#2)
3rd: Tandoori Tilapia with that delicious Spicy Slaw and Raita Sauce (# 1)

So, Uncle Don did not win this year, but he placed 2nd. I believe the judges decided that the reigning champion was allowed to defend their title. If they successfully defend, then they may keep it up next year, but if not, they must judge! But wait, if that happens, I might have to enter...

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Teaching students how not to bake...

Look, I'm still alive but barely! This year I’m teaching a full load of classes and I decided to take on a few more extra curriculars than before which isn’t the most logical step. Get more work, make more work, right? One of the clubs that I’ve been begged to start was the school cooking club. Most of these pictures will be brought to you by some of the great students I have the pleasure of teaching. Actually, I have never even taught most of these kids, I just know them from extra curricular activities. But hey, they're so great, they randomly leave me red velvet cupcakes on my desk. It sure beats the old apple for the teacher thing.

Cleverly named Kells Kitchen after our school Kells Academy, the cooking club met once prior to Thanksgiving to do some baking. I plugged it as a cooking club and somehow these kids twist my arm into baking. Now I have no problem with baking except when the club is held Friday after school at 3pm and we need to cook, eat and clean up before 4:30pm. They decided that we should bake something to fit an autumn theme so what better than choice apple crisp and pumpkin muffins? 

We ended up having to turn the pumpkin muffins into a pumpkin cake which then turned out to be undercooked. We ate around the inside which was actually delicious. Clearly, this taught them an important lesson: don’t sweat the small stuff! This attitude towards cooking is how I tell people that I’m just some guy who loves food rather than a ‘foodie’ because everyone assumes I know what I’m doing! I want to teach the my students to enjoy what they’re doing and to love every minute of it no matter how mushy your cake turns out.

Very much like a pumpkin on the inside.

Apple Crisp
Notes:
- This recipe comes from www.joyofbaking.com
- Some students found it quite sour/tart, so be wary of the lemon juice!
- We left out all the optional ingredients and the nuts due to allergies.

Ingredients

Topping:
1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh or ground nutmeg(optional)
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (84 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup (30 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup (40 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans

Filling:
6 cups (1.2 L) Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple (peeled, cored, and cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) chunks)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons (40 grams) white granulated sugar

Preparation

Apple Crisp:Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven.  Butter or spray with a cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) deep dish pie plate or an 8 x 8 x 2 inch (20 x 20 x 5 cm) baking dish. (Can also make 8 individual ramekins.)

Topping:  Place all the topping ingredients (flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats and nuts) in a food processor and process until the mixture is crumbly (looks like coarse meal) and there are no large pieces of butter visible.  (This can also be done with two knives or your fingertips.)  Set aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling: Place the apple chunks in a large bowl, along with the berries (if using) and lemon zest. Toss with the lemon juice and sugar. Transfer to your prepared baking dish  Spread the topping evenly over the apples.
Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes (20- 25 minutes for individual ramekins) or until bubbly and the topping is golden brown. (If you insert the tip of a sharp knife into a chunk of apple, it should be tender, not mushy.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 30 minutes before serving.
Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

The apple crisp turned out great and the pictures were supplied by the students. It’s a joy to be able to bake with these kids as they were able to work so well independently. I barely had to do much of anything except buy the groceries and stand around. They’re also so eager to keep baking and cooking every week! If only I wasn’t so busy, you know, teaching...

These crazy kids and their instant gramming or what have you...

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NeverSeconds: More kids should think like this.

Awesome student food blogger banned from blogging. Being awesome gets her unbanned. Inspires me to enact my plan for cafeteria food revolution. 

Despite never reading the news, I sometimes manage to stumble across links that take me to websites that have news on them. Recently, a food blogger, VEG, was banned from continuing her blog, NeverSeconds. This food blogger is a nine year old girl that takes pictures of her school cafeteria lunches and rates them on a "Food-o-Meter", healthiness, number of mouthfuls and if there are any pieces of hair. I saw the headline for the ban but for some reason didn't end up reading it. However, I just saw this article saying that the ban on her blog was lifted.

To say the least, I'm glad the council came to their bloody senses. This young lady is concerned about the nutrition of the food she is eating 5 times a week and is trying to make a difference! Did I also mention that her blog was made to raise money for a charity, Mary's Meals. Her blog is so popular that it raised enough money to build a kitchen in Malawi. Quite an amazing feat for anyone, let alone a 9 year old.

Ever since starting at this school in September, I have always thought that the cafeteria food was a tad lacking and thought that at the end of my first year (when I can officially lift my title of newbie) I could try to bring up the idea of serving more nutritious food to help develop the growing minds of our young students. Here are a few examples of food I have seen and/or eaten from our lovely cafeteria:

- Grilled cheese sandwiches: Apparently the best grilled cheese ever. They are mass produced by being baked in the oven, so really, they are no grilled at all. The students seem to love them although I can't imagine eating them at recess (10:00AM), 5 times a week which I'm sure some of them do.

- Chocolate Chip Cookies: Also apparently a big hit because some kids will walk into class with a stack of 2-3 cookies after recess. This is the dessert to have after polishing off a grilled cheese. I figure that they are expunged from a roll of prepared chocolate chip cookie dough. Taste-wise you can't go wrong, but nutrition wise is another story.

- Grilled chicken sandwich: I've tried this once for lunch when I was in a bit of a hurry. It was a loaf of sandwich bread with pieces of chicken in it and cheese. As far as I could taste, there was nothing else in it, making it pretty bland. It was grilled, though, so bonus marks there. I was given a garden salad on the side that was quickly drowned in dressing. I've learned to ask for a small squirt of dressing or for it to be on the side..

- The gravy: The only specific warning I have ever received about the cafeteria was to never eat the gravy.

Anyway, I could go on, but it's basically not great. A lot of the seniors eat out because the food is lacking and the juniors aren't allowed to leave, so they are stuck with bland pasta or mushy french fries. I mean I wish I knew more about revamping cafeteria food but I will certainly bring some suggestions to our director this summer...



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