D is for Dinner goes retro with crab, marshmallows, and Jell-O salad

From the 1960s until the 1980s, it sometimes felt like — in Canada at least — you couldn't watch television without encountering a show sponsored by Kraft.

The company's ads featured recipes from the "Kraft Family Kitchen," and often included such mid-century delights as marshmallows, Jell-O, and Cheez Whiz.

So on this month's D is for Dinner listener challenge, two local chefs have been tasked with taking one of those nostalgic Kraft recipes and putting a 21st-century spin on it.

Judy Dempsey, community chef at The Table Community Food Centre, chose a 1961 recipe for "jellied pepper rings" and used it as the inspiration for her creation: Virgin Caesar Pepper Rings.

"[It] reminds me of dinner at my grandparents when I was too young to object, Dempsey says of the original recipe.

Meanwhile, baker Guil Fernandes of Delightful Tastes took Kraft's 1970s "Watergate Salad" — featuring pistachio pudding, marshmallows, pineapple and whipped cream — as the basis for his own Peppermint Chocolate Salad.

Read the recipes below.

Virgin Caesar Pepper Rings

Ingredients:

• 2 packages unflavoured gelatin (or 2 tbsp.).
• ½ cup cold water.
• 3½ cups sodium-reduced tomato juice.
• ½ cup finely diced celery.
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice.
• 1 tbsp. lemon zest.
• 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce.
• 1 tbsp. fresh horseradish.
• a few dashes of hot sauce, if desired.
• ½ cup finely sliced green onion.
• ½ cup finely diced cucumber.
• 225 g crab, drained and shredded.
• 3-4 sweet peppers, red and green for the holiday season.
• 1 cup greek yogurt.
• 4 tbsp. fresh horseradish.
• 2 tbsp. finely minced green onion.
• pinch of salt.
• 4-6 kale leaves.
• lemon wedges.

Instructions:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, dissolve the gelatin in the cold water. Whisk to combine.
2. Simmer the tomato juice and diced celery in a pan on the stove and whisk into the gelatin.
3. Stir in the next six ingredients and place in the fridge so it can partially set. This could take one to two hours.
4. As the mixture starts to thicken, stir in the cucumber and the crab.
5. Cut off the tops of the peppers and remove their cores.
6. When the mixture is reasonably thick, spoon it into the hollowed-out peppers and set them on a tray in the fridge to chill for at least two hours — or overnight.
7. Once the peppers have completely set, slice each of them into at least three fat slices using a sharp serrated knife.
8. Place two slices on each of your kale leaves.
9. In a bowl, stir the yogurt, the four tablespoons of horseradish and the green onions together, leaving aside some onions so they can be sprinkled on at the end.
10. Garnish the pepper rings with a spoonful of the yogurt mixture, a lemon wedge, and the remaining green onions.

Peppermint Chocolate Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple with juice.
• 1 package (3.4 oz.) of Jell-O peppermint flavour instant pudding.
• 1 cup jet-puffed miniature marshmallows.
• ½ cup chocolate chips.
• 1½ cups thawed Cool Whip topping.
• ¼ cup chocolate ganache.

​Instructions:

1. Combine the can of crushed pineapple and juice in a bowl with the peppermint pudding and stir until the pudding is mixed in well.
2. Add the marshmallows, chocolate chips and Cool Whip and combine well.
3. Refrigerate the mixture for one to two hours before serving.
4. Serve chilled on top of the chocolate ganache.