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Deloris’s Fish Escovitch

Ingredients

• 2 carrots

• 1 large onion

• 1 bell pepper

• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper

• 2-3 sprigs of thyme

• 10 whole allspice pimento berries

• 3-5 bay leaves

• 1/2 cup vinegar

Directions

Season fish with salt and pepper. Fry on both sides in large skillet with hot oil until brown and crispy. Remove and set aside. Escovitch sauce: Drain oil, leaving one tablespoon in skillet.

Add sliced onion, pimento berries, sliced peppers and diced carrot. Sauté for two to three minutes on low heat. Add vinegar and cook additional two to three minutes. Pour sauce over fried fish until it absorbs the flavour, then serve.

“So much of my time spent with my mom was planning and making meals during the holidays and desserts were a big part of those meals,� says Ancaster resident Shirla Schellenberg, whose mother Eleanor lived in Winnipeg and died last year at age 91. “Fun fact: In Manitoba, a tray of dainties is not a display of your finest undergarments — it’s a tray of assorted baked sweet slices and small cookies,� she says. Her mom, who had Icelandic heritage, was known for traditional treats such Calla Lilies, soft cookies rolled into a cone and filled with whipped cream and a slice of mandarin orange, served on Christmas morning. “I now avoid milk, eggs, butter, white flour and sugar — all standard ingredients in baking — but I’m thinking once a year at Christmas I’ll make traditional Calla Lilies for the family and have one in honour of my mom,� says Schellenberg.

Eleanor’s Calla Lilies

Ingredients

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 tbsp hot water

• 1 cup flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 pinch salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F. With mixer, add ingredients one at a time, high speed for eggs, low speed for flour. Bake cookies three at a time (one tablespoon dollops) on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets until lightly browned (about six minutes). While hot, roll into cone shape and pinch to seal overlapping edges. When cool, fill with whipped cream, garnish with mandarin orange piece. Serve immediately.

Indu Singh, the former president of the South Asian Heritage Association of Hamilton, was only 40 when her mother, Uma, died more than 25 years ago in India. Raised in a Hindu household, meals were vegetarian and, as was the tradition, the family sat together on the kitchen floor while they ate, the dishes placed on small stools. One of Singh’s favourites was her mother’s ginger rice with peas and Indian spices such as asafoetida, turmeric and garam masala. “I still make that recipe myself, but I can never get it to taste as good as how she made it,� says Singh. Her mom’s signature chai was a breakfast staple.

Uma’s Chai

Ingredients

• 1 cup water

• 1 cup milk

• 2 tsp black tea leaves (or 3 tea bags)

• 3 tsp sugar (or to taste)

• (Optional) 1/2 tsp crushed ginger, 2 cardamom pods

Directions

Boil water with tea leaves (and optional spices) for two to three minutes, add milk and simmer three to five minutes. Stir in sugar, strain and serve hot.

When Leslie Lamont left home for university, her mother, Nancy, gifted her with a three-ring binder with 30 pages of favourite family recipes (including her “famous� Caesar salad dressing, asparagus salad and peanut butter and butterscotch cookies) protected by plastic sleeves. Her mom died two years ago when she was 71, and Lamont, a communications advisor at Hamilton Health Sciences, says the recipe book “has become one of my most cherished keepsakes. Moms are our first connection to food and home. I often find myself craving one of these family favourites and will prepare them to feel more connected to her.�

Nancy’s Peanut Butter and Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup peanut butter

6-ounce package butterscotch chips

2 ½ cups Special K cereal

Directions

Melt peanut butter and butterscotch chips in double boiler. Add cereal and mix well. Drop onto waxed paper covered cookie sheet. Chill in fridge until set.

When Karen Welds’ mother, Annemarie, died last year at age 93, she sorted through her mom’s possessions and retrieved her recipe box. “She was so meticulous about her recipes — the early ones are handwritten and then later she would type them,� says Welds, noting the box contains the special desserts her mom, a German immigrant, was known for, including apple cake and the Black Forest Cake she made for her children’s birthdays every year. Other specialties included red cabbage, potato pancakes, potato salad and knackwurst. “These are comfort foods precisely because they came from my mom,� says Welds, a writer and editor who lived in Buckhorn, near Peterborough. “She stopped cooking in 2022 after she got dementia and resorted to frozen dinners — but she still always managed to make her leek soup.�

Annemarie’s Apple Cake

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour

• 6 tbsp sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla

• Pinch of salt

• 1/4 lb butter

• 1 tbsp baking powder

•1 tbsp milk (if needed)

• 1 jar apple sauce

• Handful of raisins

• Icing sugar and lemon juice for icing

Directions

Knead dough, spread with a rolling pin and place 2/3 of dough on baking sheet. Spread applesauce and raisins on top, roll out the other 1/3 of the dough and place over applesauce. Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes. Let cool and spread with icing.