Susan's Savour-It!: February 2022

I have been busy teaching the 12 week hybrid online and in production Newcomer Kitchen Food Business program with my diverse group of seven newcomer women (from Yemen, Turkey, China, Pakistan and Iran). And as part of learning about branding in business planning, they have named themselves Mosaic Mamas, and yes, they are all mamas 🥰. This IRCC-funded program trains newcomer women how to be food entrepreneurs. Teams of 4+ women learn to spin out their own small food business (taking a concept to market) with all of the proceeds from the sales going directly to them. Alongside the academic learnings, we have three profitable events planned with the ladies- take-out prepared meals, products for gift baskets and dinner catering.

Just this past week, we completed our first module in preparing Take-Out dinner meals for 61!

It comprised of 6 items with a choice of a beef or vegan main from 5 different cultures💞. Here is what we promoted: Join us for our Winter Heartbeat dinner that will bring a sense of contentment and good will. Without you the table is empty 🥣🍱🧁. Limited quantities, and selling fast. Take-Out Meal for One is $24 for February 10th pick up at two locations- West and East ends. We were Sold Out in two days upon posting :). Some of our ladies have only been here a few months and are already investing in making Canada their new home. The dishes are full of fond memories of family gatherings, the passing of recipes down the generations and also the new adaptations inherent in challenge and change. Part of this program is encouraging creative play as women come together to make a dinner that is a plate of the world. The delight, and often humour, in finessing together different flavours into one seamless dinner is at the heart of what we do. On behalf of the hardworking Mosaic Mamas, we hope you enjoy the results!

The W2W Entrepreneurship Training Program is funded by the federal government IRCC. With the earn as you learn model, 100% of the proceeds of the sale goes directly to the women trainees 🤗!

Day 1 for our Newcomer Kitchen's take out meals with half my group of ladies- Sonia, Kulod, Saima and Maryam. We made South Asian lentil soup, Yemen cheese and spinach fatayer, shaped Pakistani shami kababs and Persian sholeh zard- saffron rice pudding.

Day 2 💥 comes two days later, to finish 3 more cultural dishes, packaged and ready for 61 🍱🥰🙏!! Crediting the ladies who shared their photos for my use on social media- thank you :)

Ready to rock and roll ladies!

The importance of Mise en Place (everything in it's place) before cooking...

Saima preparing ingredients for her Pakistani and mum's specialty Shami Kabab.

The other ladies hard at work but taking a glance up for a quick pic...

These are Yemen cheese pies shaped into boats. Fatayer as they are called, are very popular staples at the Middle Eastern family table. Consisting of a Feta and spinach combo, the finishing touch includes an egg wash brushed on tops with a sprinkle of Nigella seeds.

Baked until brown-golden.... WoWZers!!

Sonia prepared her beloved lentil soup traditionally eaten with Roti at home.

Lentil soup thickens as it sits and needs to be thinned out with more water for a pourable consistency. This big pot of beauty uses two lentils- red masoor daal and yellow mong daal.

This mixture consists of boiled beef chunks with split peas (chaana dal) cooked with aromatics such as ginger, onions, garlic and whole red chilis along with seasonings to make shami kababs. Fun fact- Shami kababs were brought to South Asia by the Syrians. In Urdu, the word "sham" refers to 'Syria'. It was eventually popularized in Mughlai cuisine.

Once cooled the mixture goes into a blender, and pulverized until soft. They are then shaped into patties and shallow-fried. We prepared these in advance, and will be finishing them in the pan on Day Two- so they are fresh. They are served with a refreshingly cool mint chutney- a yogurt-based dip with fresh mint, cumin seeds, salt and pepper.

Sholeh Zard makes it lovely yellow debut as the sweet dessert ending to complete our diners' meals. This Persian rice pudding were at one point only served at special occasions including Nowruz new year. Mixed with almond slivers, the bright yellow hue comes from pounded saffron threads mixed in water and a few drops of yellow colouring.

A pretty design with cinnamon and almond slivers finesses the individual servings.

Great work Maryam!

This begins Day Two with Belkis, Farideh and Nicole... Woo Hoooo...

Can it get anymore colourful than this?

Between our lovely Belkis' attire and her gorgeous Turkish salad...

This coarse bulgur wheat salad is made red cooked in red carrot juice, tossed with a variety of vegetables-

roasted red peppers, corn, pickles, parsley and green onions. Oil and lemon juice ties it all in.

Farideh's Salad Kalam creamy coleslaw took on both green and red cabbages, given an extra crunch with carrots and tossed together with mayo and yogurt, sprinkled with celery seeds and sweet Sultana raisins. Complements every meal especially ours!

Nicole prepared her Mise En Place for her Braised Tofu and Bok Choy- our vegan option.

Tossed in rehydrated meaty shiitake mushrooms for that amazing umami flavour!

Niiiiice!!!

Farideh was in charge of pan-frying the shami kababs from Day One.

She did an incredible job for the slight crispy texture and golden browning!

Crunch Time... All hands on deck for packaging!

A glimpse of our final meal- look at the range of colours and textures!

Don't forget we also got lentil soup, cheese fatayer and Sholeh Zard as sides.

Great assembly line work ladies!

Nicole portioning out the vegetarian meal with her braised tofu.

In another area, paper bags for the meals were prepped with hand written thank yous, and customer order slips ready for packaging.

We are now ready to be picked up....

What an incredible experience for the ladies including myself. To take our learnings from our very first day of our online Food Business program, brought it to life in the kitchen, and into the hands and mouths of our appreciative customers! So Surreal and Rewarding! Extremely proud of each and every one- how you worked together, communicated, was adaptive and on top of delivering your very best while having fun along the way!

Here are some snapshots capturing our team's camaraderie...