Celebrate This Holiday Weekend with Travel-Inspired Picnic Recipes

With back-to-back national holidays, Canada Day on July 1^st and America’s 4^th of July, many residents of both countries have often packed up as soon as the kids were out of school and headed across the border or across the country for family summer vacations. 

COVID-19 restrictions mean the biggest holiday weekend of the summer won’t feel quite the same. But we’ve created a US and Canadian travel-inspired menu of sandwiches and sweet treats so your Celebrate-From-Home long weekend in your backyard can feel like the cottage or seaside or big city summer vacation you’ll be able to do again soon.

Gather your favorite summer sipping beverages, some chilled watermelon, and get the recipes below for this cross-border picnic menu (pictured above, clockwise beginning top left):

·     Lobster Rolls from Maine

·     Cubano Sandwiches from Miami

·     Beignets from New Orleans

·     Butter Tarts from Ontario, Canada

From Canada’s Maritime provinces, south through New England, the coastal lobster harvest season runs from about June through October, making lobster rolls summer’s staple seafood sandwich.

Throughout the season in Maine, lobster boats dot the sea like gulls, lobster shacks are open all along the coast, and every restaurant seems to have at least one fresh lobster dish on the menu. Tasting lobster is an essential experience on a visit to Maine, from lobster shacks and food trucks to fine dining establishments across the state – even a famous fast food restaurant with golden arches out front offers lobster rolls in season! 

Some chefs tweak original lobster roll recipes with new seasonings or ways to serve. But Chip Gray, the innkeeper of the Broad Arrow Tavern at Freeport, Maine’s Harraseeket Inn, shared this authentic and traditional lobster roll recipe. 

“This is my mother, Nancy Gray's, recipe which we have been serving to guests since we started innkeeping in 1943. It was her mother's.

“Boil and pick enough lobster for 3 to 4 oz per roll, (approximately one 1 1/4 lb lobster per roll). Fresh caught and fresh picked is the secret to truly excellent results.” 

 

·     Hot dog roll (top split, if available)

·     3 to 4 oz fresh picked lobster meat

·     lettuce

·     mayonnaise 

·     butter

·     salt and pepper

 

Brush with butter and toast both sides of your favorite hot dog bun in a frying pan.

Line roll with chopped lettuce and add the fresh lobster meat tossed with mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste.

OR

Warm the lobster meat in melted butter and place in lettuce lined toasted hot dog bun.

 

Even in the summer heat, some like it hot, and a ‘Cubano’, or Cuban Sandwich, from Miami’s Little Havana, fits the bill. The grilled pork, ham, cheese, mustard and pickle sandwich is just one of the cultural contributions of the expat Cuban community in south Florida. It’s even become the ‘official dish’ of Miami!

Tampa challenges Miami’s claim to the original and authentic Cubana. But this recipe was shared with us by Versailles, the landmark Cuban restaurant on Little Havana’s main street, Calle Ocho. Versailles does more than serve timeless staples of Cuban cuisine. The neighborhood institution is also the ‘unofficial town square’ for the Cuban community. 

The restaurant has weighed in on the debate, telling us that Tampa’s Cuban Sandwich, “includes ingredients that aren’t traditionally Cuban. Their version includes Genoa salami and mayo, a melting pot of the strong Italian influence in that city. Versailles’ “Cubano” and the rest of the Cuban restaurants in Miami make it the way it’s been made in Cuba for many years… no salami in Miami! It is one of our most popular dishes and has been on our menu since 1971. We serve hundreds of authentic Cuban sandwiches every day!” 

·     1 Cuban bread loaf

·     12oz. sweet ham, thinly sliced

·     8oz. lean pork, thinly sliced

·     8oz. Swiss cheese

·     8 dill pickle slices

·     Mustard

·     Butter

 

Preheat a large frying pan over medium heat or a sandwich press to 300 F.

Cut the loaf of bread horizontally. On the top side of the bread layer the mustard, pickles, swiss cheese and then the ham. On the bottom side of the bread layer the pork. Cut the loaf into 4 even pieces. Place the mounted halves face down on the pan so that the ham and pork heat up. While this is happening butter the outside of bread. Once cheese begins to melt close the sandwich and grill both sides of the sandwich, occasionally pressing down. Grill until bread becomes golden brown. Remove from heat. Cut each piece diagonally.

 

The rest of America eats doughnuts, but in NOLA, its signature, square doughnut-without-a-hole taps into the city’s French heritage and goes by the name ‘beignet’ (pronounced bayne-YAY). 

A key pastry of Creole cuisine eaten at any hour of the day or night, the Louisiana version of fried dough heavily dusted with powdered sugar has expanded its fan base beyond New Orleans' coffee shops to the entire country.

The ultimate New Orleans experience today, is a piping hot beignet with a café au lait, or local coffee with chicory at one of the beignet shops like the famous Café du Monde in the French Quarter.

New Orleans tourism shared this classic beignet recipe you can use to recreate the favorite pastry of the Big Easy at home.

 

In a small saucepan combine the water, butter, granulated sugar, and salt and bring the mixture to a rapid boil. Remove the pan from heat and add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook the paste over low heat, beating briskly, until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and the dough cleanly leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. By hand or with an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the paste until it is smooth and glossy. Stir in the vanilla.

In a deep fryer or deep saucepan, heat 3 inches shortening to 370 degrees F or until very hot. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls into the shortening, and fry the beignets in batches, turning them, until golden brown (about 3 minutes). With a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels to drain. Sprinkle the beignets with the confectioners' sugar and serve hot.

 

The ‘True North Strong and’… sweet. English Canada’s famous sweet treat, the butter tart, is deceptively simple: flaky pastry shell with a butter, egg and syrup filling. While it dates back to pioneering days, it has remained a mainstay of pastry and coffee shops across Ontario’s small towns, farm communities and cottage country, where the subject of butter tarts can incite intense debate about how runny the filling should be, the use of raisins, and other variables.

Every baker and bakery has their own butter tart recipe, with variations that use maple syrup and add other dried fruits, nuts, even bacon! To the filling.

You won’t ever be able to taste all the countless versions, but you can try. There’s a Butter Tart Tour with over 50 locations along the waterways and scenic country roads of the cottage and farming region of the Kawarthas outside Toronto. 

This recipe was shared by South Pond Farms in the Kawarthas, which you may recognize from its popular Netflix TV series, Taste of the Country.

2 cups flour

½ lb of butter cold cut into pieces

½ tsp of cardamom

1 tsp of salt

¼ cup of ice water more or less

Make a crumb with the butter and dry mixture. Add water until it hangs together. DO NOT OVERWORK THIS DOUGH. Pat into a ball and wrap and put in the fridge for 1 hour or more.

 

1 lb butter

1 cup honey

1 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons (20 mL) of vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly oil a standard muffin pan.

Make pastry and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Brown the butter by melting it in a saucepan, then keep on cooking it, swirling gently. Watch this butter! Don’t let it get too brown. If you blacken the butter, toss it and start again. The line between brown and burnt black is crossed quickly. Cool for 10 minutes. Whisk together the brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs then whisk into the butter as well. Lastly, stir in the flour.

Flour your hands, the dough, the work surface, and a rolling pin. Roll the pastry out into a circle about 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick. Using a 3-1/2-inch (9 cm) cookie cutter (or an empty 19-ounce/540 ml can with both ends removed, or the ring from a wide-mouth canning jar), cut circles from the pastry, as many as you can. Form a pleat along one side and fit the pastry into the muffin cups, evenly filling each cup right to the rim. Gather up the remaining dough, roll out, and repeat.

Evenly divide the filling among the pastry shells. Bake until the pastry is browned and the filling partially sets but stays a bit runny, about 12 minutes. Cool slightly until you can remove the tarts from the pan.