Roses are red, Violets are
blue, Here are red edibles gathered for you!
Say Valentine’s Day and a
curtain of red, red, red washes over everyone’s eyes, and you don’t even have
to have them closed while you look directly into the sun.
Red velvet boxes, red angora
sweaters, red place mats on white linen tablecloths. While there’s nothing
wrong with the traditional red dozen roses, red heart-shaped box of chocolates,
and filet mignon (as in red meat served with red wine), here’s a round-up of
less common treats distilled from the red end of the spectrum that can help you
celebrate love with someone you at least like, and especially if you’re a
neophyte in the kitchen.
All this is in keeping with
my theory that while going out for Valentine’s Day might be the first and
easiest impulse, it’s just as romantic — more so, if you leave clean-up to the
next day — to enjoy something at home that was made at home for the one/s you
love.
Start off in the red
Life is busy, even on
Valentine’s Day, and if your partner is working late like mine is this year it
pretty much kiboshes the idea of a romantic dinner for two, at home or
otherwise.
So how about a little treat
in the morning that says I love you all day long? This is a yummy treat from
Rob Feenie’s Feenie’s that anyone, even a 12-year-old, can whip up in a minute.
It’s red, red, red, and has the power of health. Go a little crazy and serve it
with a heart-shaped cookie or piece of Red Velvet Cake (see below).
Cherry
and Berries Smoothie (for two)
1/2
cup cranberry juice
1/2
cup apple juice
3/4
cup plain yogurt
3/4
cup cherries, pitted (of course you can’t find fresh ones this time of year,
but most grocery stores will have frozen ones)
3/4
cup strawberries, hulled (fresh or frozen]
1/4
cup cranberries
1/4
cup raspberries
2
tbsp. honey, or to taste
Put the juices and yogurt in
the blender first, then whirl away at high speed until smooth. Pour into two
16-oz glasses and sip away through straws, which make any drink more fun.
If you like the idea of
fresh berry smoothies any item of year, try freezing your own fruit next summer
when it’s in season. Pick out the leaves and what-nots you don’t want and
double-bag the fruit in freezer bags. You can pre-measure it into portions —
half cup or 1- or 2-cup allotments. Some people freeze their berries first on
cookie sheets, then bag and freeze them. Either way, DON’T wash the fruit
beforehand.
Thawing and washing are one
in the same when you’re ready to use them. Grab and handful or a bagful, rinse
under cool water and they’re ready to go in smoothies, baking or on top of your
favourite cereal. You can freeze fresh cherries when they’re in season, too;
just pit them before use.
She wore Red Velvet
I was a kid when the Red
Velvet Cake craze hit Edmonton. It was the talk of the town and every housewife
worth her salt, or sugar, took a stab at a Red Velvet Cake. People said the
recipe was from “the States”, which it is, and which added a touch of glamour.
They also said the recipe
was illicit, which it wasn’t, but that part of the tale added even more
titillation. Something about a woman taking her revenge after asking the chef
for the recipe in some high-faluttin’ place, as prairie people called it, and
the chef passing on the recipe, along with a bill for some outrageous sum — one
or two hundred bucks, or something.
The women in my mother’s
bridge club passed the recipe along surreptitiously like it a baggie of dope.
It was much like the
Neiman-Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe myth. But like the Red Velvet Cake
myth, there was never any hefty tab passed on to a poor unsuspecting customer.
(In fact, Neiman-Marcus never made a chocolate chip cookie until the urban myth
surfaced, at which point they developed one in response, posting the recipe for
free on their website.)
But back to Edmonton and the
mystery of Red Velvet Cake.
It remained a sumptuous
thing of great acclaim — the cake is rich and moist, the ruby red colour of
pomegranate seeds usually set off with a frothy white frosting, though a cream
cheese one will do. It was trotted out on special occasions when we all enjoyed
it, especially us kids because it turned our tongues red. That is, until
another tale started circulating.
Maybe one of the bridge
ladies felt guilty over what they thought was a purloined recipe, but word soon
got out not to eat the cake because of all the red food colouring in it — all
one and half ounces — that gave it its glorious colour. It was, they said,
poisonous.
Nothing like one big myth to
generate another. Red Velvet Cake may be rich, and the level of red food
colouring mildly suspect, but it sure ain’t poisonous. Wasn’t that what they
served at the groom’s party in Steel Magnolias and the whole cast lived to tell
about it?
It’s worth making at least
once and Valentine’s Day affords a perfect opportunity. Serve it up as dessert
after a nice dish of (pink) garlic prawns — two arranged facing each other form
a little heart if you leave their tails on and don’t overcook them — with a
green salad dotted with ruby-red pomegranate jewels. Share it with someone you
love, even if it’s just you.
Red
Velvet Cake
1/2
cup shortening
1
1/2 cups sugar
2
eggs
2
tbsp. cocoa
1
1/2 oz red food coloring
1
tsp. salt
2 1/2
cups flour
1
tsp. vanilla
1
cup buttermilk
1
tsp. soda
1
tbsp. vinegar
Cream the shortening and
gradually beat in the sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each
addition. Make a paste of the cocoa and food coloring and add to creamed mixture.
Add salt, flour and vanilla alternately with buttermilk, beating well after
each addition. Mix the soda and vinegar in a separate container and pour the
mixture over the batter, stirring it until it’s well mixed. Bake in three
eight-inch pans or two nine-inch pans for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ice it with white icing once it’s cooled — seven-minute frosting was the
Edmonton classic, but I hear they like it with cream cheese frosting down south
as well.
Glenda Bartosh is an
award-winning freelance writer who once tried candying violets and ended up
with a purple haze.