recipes & stories
We are reminded of the power of food and how it connects us to our culture, identity, family, and community. What is your go-to comfort food? Below is a growing collection of recipes and memories of comfort food from newcomers and Canadians. Check out our Instagram to read more stories!
"This simple and delicious Mexican dish is called Salpicón, which is a fresh salad with shredded beef and vegetables. I like to make this comfort food for my family because it is nutritious and includes some of our everyday Mexican ingredients and flavours like avocado and cilantro." - Angeles
Angeles' Mexican Salpicón
1/2 pound of cooked shredded beef
1 finely chopped lettuce
1 cup diced cooked potatoes
1 1/2 cup diced cooked carrots
3/4 cup peas
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced avocado
Mix all the ingredients and tossed together in a bowl. Add salt, pepper, and a vinaigrette of your choice. Put avocado on top as garnish. Serve with corn tostadas or corn chips. Buen provecho (enjoy your meal)!
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This traditional comfort dish is called hong shao niu rou mian. This fragrant soy broth with perfectly tender beef is a quintessential part of Taiwanese culture and every household has their own recipe. I remember coming home from school to the smell of my mother cooking this dish in the house and she would let me help her with chopping the scallions for garnish. This noodle soup reminds me of my childhood home before immigrating to Canada and brings me a sense of warmth when I make this recipe.” - Lina
Lina’s Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
6 litres of water, plus more as needed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 scallions, chopped into thirds
5 slices fresh ginger, divided
6 cloves garlic
6 pods star anise, divided
1 piece Chinese cinnamon bark
1 piece rock sugar
2 medium yellow onions, sliced
3 tablespoons bean paste (doubanjiang)
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce
2/3 cup Chinese rice wine
2 lb beef shank
4 carrots, chopped into 3 inch chunks
3 medium tomatoes, quartered (or as many as you like)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
3 pieces of dried bay leaves
2 bundles flour noodles
For Garnish: serve with sliced scallions, pickled mustard greens and chili oil (optional)
Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the beef shanks. Add 2 slices of ginger and 3 star anise pods. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the meat from the pot, rinse in cold water, and cut into thick slices. Discard cooking liquid.
In a large pan over medium heat, pour in the vegetable oil and add 2 scallions, remaining ginger slices, garlic, cinnamon bark, 3 star-anise pods, the onion, rock sugar, and bean paste. Stir this mixture until the onions are translucent and the mixture is fragrant. Make sure not to rush this step as slowly frying the aromatics and bean paste adds depth of flavour to the dish.
Add the sliced beef, dark soy sauce, rice wine and stir. Pour in the light soy sauce and add the half the amount of quartered tomatoes. Stir fry for 8-10 minutes.lAdd 10 cups of water to the pot and let it come up to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the white pepper, salt, and bay leaves. Cover and reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least 4 hours, until the meat becomes tender. Make sure to skim off the foam from the soup.
An hour before the soup is ready to serve, add the chopped carrots & remaining tomatoes. Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat and cook the flour noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
To assemble the soup, remove all the bay leaves, star anise, and cinnamon bark from the soup. Place a generous bundle of noodles in the bottom of a bowl. Then, add meat, and broth. Garnish with scallions. It is also traditional to add pickled vegetables or some chili oil. Makes 6 servings.
“I grew up with this beautiful bread baked on holidays by my mother - the warm smell of fresh bread, the anticipation of family around the table, the adventure of childhood, the love of home. I now bake it for my own family, most recently at Easter during the COVID-19 lockdown. All the same good stuff, warmth, family, home, bread.”
- Loren
Loren’s Ukrainian Braided Bread
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
(Sprinkle yeast on warm water, top with sugar, allow yeast to become active)
1/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1.2 kg unbleached white flour
(Mix together with whisk in large bowl)
2 cups milk
1/2 cup salted butter
(Heat in microwave or on stove till butter is melted - don’t over heat)
Add yeast mixture to milk/butter. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in bowl, mixing together. Knead dough well for 3 minutes (add a little more flour as needed if dough is too soft). Cover bowl with a plastic bag. Allow dough to rise for 2 hours (or place in fridge overnight).
Divide dough into three equal parts. Create three strands ~50 cm long x 3 cm diameter by rolling on counter or between palms. Fasten three ends together, braid, and fasten final ends securely at other end. Place on buttered baking tray, cover loosely with plastic bag. Let rise 40 minutes. Bake in 375 F oven till done.
“This cake, always reminds me of long walks in the afternoon, usually in the rain. Once home, the kettle would be put on and we would sit by the fire with a nice cup of tea, and a big slice of Apple, coconut and cranberry cake, heaven.” - Jim
Jim’s British Apple, Coconut and Cranberry Cake
150g butter
200g unrefined golden caster sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
90g self-raising flour
100g shredded coconut
125ml milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
300g firm textured apples, such as Cox’s, cored and sliced
50g dried cranberries
100g unrefined, soft, light brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 190˚C/375˚F.
Put the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, coconuts, milk and baking powder in a food processor. Let it run for 10 seconds. Run a spatula round the bowl, then process again for a further 5 seconds. Scrape the mixture into a 23cm cake tin (line the bottom with parchment). Smooth the top gently, then cover with apples, cranberries and sugar.
Bake for about an hour. The cake is done when springy to the touch and when a skewer comes out relatively clean. Remove and cool before removing from the tin. It is at its best when still very slightly warm, served with cream, or thick yoghurt.