Newcomer Kitchen Take Out Meal Event Success...

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...

This says it all 🌹... Until our next event! 

Note: Shami Kababs are a Pakistani favourite. Syria here refers to it's origin.

One Year Ends, Another One Begins... Welcome 2022!

 

Happy New Year Everyone! 

It has been a crazy 2021 (both personally and for my career- but in a good way), much has been accomplished over a continued year of uncertainty, pivoting and reinvention. And a lot has to do with being flexible, having a can-do attitude and above all, a dose of optimism. #entrepreneur #myownboss

 

From being featured on Fête Chinoise, a cultural platform that aims to empower individuals to deepen the connection between identity and Chinese culture, to raising funds for food insecurity in my online Cook For A Cause series, teaching cooking classes virtually with youths, to bringing awareness on Anti-Asian racism issues during its height and celebrating Asian heritage month of May in after school online events, producing healthy demo cooking videos for The Neighbourhood Table (to support food security in Etobicoke coupled with Food Share produce boxes) and for Michael Garron Hospital in conjuction with the Healthy Together program for young families, conducting a Health and Wellness Chinese cooking class over lunch at Nestle Toronto's head office and catering family meals (for 3 full days) for a friend who was sick, it sure has been a year of helping, contributing and supporting in the names of culture, friendship and community. 

Last but not least, certainly THE highlight of my Asian culture contribution of 2021- some people get a covid pet but I got a covid cookbook, started and launched in 6 months- a remarkable feat! I even went on my first ever Instagram Live to promote my book and hot pot 🥘♨️. Here is a gallery to recap the latter part of an Amazing year!

The cherry on top of a fun Kimjang event in November.

Peek A Boo... I see you! Talk about nappa cabbage mountain ⛰- 300 pounds of it for kimchi-making #kimjang #koreantradition

So thrilled to be participating again in this important time-honoured tradition in Korea 🇰🇷- Kimjang of making and sharing kimchi (recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013) reminding Korean communities to live in harmony with nature. This celebrative time in Korea is also a symbol of powerful compassion of giving and community- paying it forward with kimchi for the poor and destitute!

It was so Amazing reconnecting and meeting new food-loving friends/chefs at my friend and organizer Susu Han's place (chef, entrepreneur, Korean cooking instructor at GB and food educator) on Day 2 of the kimchi process. The day before was salting and brining. This day, all day vegetable and seasoning prep before marinating the cabbage to ferment for weeks!

 

Cooking with Susu, Susan, Janet, Joanne, Joey, Ngoc and Ema.

It was an honour talking about my new hot pot book #hotpotcookbookforbeginners with @carolharrison.rd on an IG Live @sparkrds- A nutrition communications platform for Dieticians. We covered broths, Chinese Chinkiang black vinegar as a trendy vinegar to have in your pantry and the communal aspect of hot pot cooking. The 20 min. session with the full video is available on IG @sparkrds 🥘♨️

 

I can't thank my friends and family enough for their incredible support and feedback 📖💞! We were out of stock the first day after launch (November 30th) on Amazon.ca due to preorders but it was back in business in time for the holidays🎁😉! Also available on Chapters-Indigo.

Here are a few review highlights on Amazon.com

Friends, keep those pics coming in including your family hot pot renditions 🥘♨️!

In other projects, here was a look at the first of a new series of cooking demo videos in collaboration with Child/Maternal and Diabetes Departments @michaelgarronhospital.

"Hi there, my name is Susan Ng. I am a Chef, Food Educator, Cooking Instructor and a mom to 3 boys.

I will be sharing with you material and learnings from Healthy Together. Healthy Together is an innovative and unique family education program that brings together families to learn to make healthier choices and build healthier relationships.

Today, we will cover Breakfast and Better-for-you drinks. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We will look at some healthy food ideas and tips to start your family's day off right. We will make crunchy fruit and nut granola, yogurt parfait and breakfast burrito. For drinks, we will look at some simple healthy choices you can make that are delicious and reduce buying sugary prepared drinks on the market such as smoothies and real fruit-infused water!"🍌🍓🥝🍎🥚🍳🌯🥥🥛

 

Homemade granola and yogurt parfait

I even starred my 12 and 9 year olds 👨‍🍳👨‍🍳💗 in a Cook With Kids theme to cap off my series of Healthy Together demo cooking videos to help families eat better and to build healthier relationships.

"Today, we will talk about cooking with kids. What are some helpful strategies and tips, look at kitchen tasks by age, and get in the kitchen with my kids to make tacos and banana blueberry muffins.

Cooking together with your family is one of the most important factors to healthy eating. Making the change from cooking for your kids to cooking with your kids can feel like a leap but it's all about taking one small step at a time. Gradually your kids will be more proficient, independent, their confidence will grow and you will reap the rewards of building a stronger family connection and eating more healthily just by cooking together. Of course, it's easier and less messy if you just do it yourself, but if you allow your children to take part in some of the preparations, you will give them a sense of ownership and pride in the final results. And it can be a superb way to motivate fussy eaters to try new tastes and gain confidence with a variety of foods."

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I had the great honour to collaborate with my previous colleague from our time in Kraft Kitchens- the lovely Cayla Runka, RD who leads the Corporate Wellness role and nutrition team at Toronto's Nestle Head Office as Nutrition Director.

To keep their staff healthy and well, they run several wellness months throughout the year to keep things top of mind. For Oct/Nov, they ran a Cultural Food month to support diversity and inclusion at work but also to celebrate multicultural month. I had the opportunity to showcase my heritage through Cantonese Cuisine in a lunch time virtual cooking class with Cantonese Chow Mein 🤗🥘🥢.

Awww 😍 *** Repost by Jennifer Uy @riceflower888🌹***

With a debt of gratitude I’d like to showcase the outstanding meal prep by my friend and cookbook author Chef @susanssavourit to help me on my journey of healing and eating whole healthy. Getting the right nourishment and making sure my family is fed daily has been a source of panic attacks for me since returning from the hospital. I wanted home cooked, freshly prepped, TCM balanced, heart healthy foods not just for me but for our family as a whole.

But I was incredibly tired. My son caught an awful cold. Dishes piled up. Food prep chaos. Clean ups. Lunch box packing. I couldn’t drive for groceries. Take out didn’t have the balanced meals we needed. Etc etc

Susan more than came through and offered to help. She’s given me this week’s food so I can focus on other things including rest. She’s taken a load off my mind and I’m so grateful.

She not only prepared all this but delivered it to my home. Knowing I don’t have access to my car. The following weeks I won’t be as spoiled as she has other engagements but she’s given me some resources I can follow up on.

She gave me the best gift - peace of mind. Thank you so much 💖🙏🏼

Taiwanese braised pork with egg and ginger
Pang Pang Chicken chicken noodle
Korean chap chae
Greek quinoa salad
Poached salmon with lemon and dill

TCM health soup- Pork Cole Soup

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be teaching an online Food Business program to newcomer women in my new role as IRCC 'Willing To Work' Project Coordinator at Newcomer Kitchens. Beginning next week, I am excited to e-meet my group of ladies comprising of 7 from Yemen, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and China, and work with them over 12 weeks! 

Let the new challenge and new learnings begin... Stay Tuned!