A Culinary Lesson from Hannibal Lecter

One crisp winter day I set out to pick juniper berries at a local park. I planned to make bigos, an old Polish stew, for a dinner party that week, for which juniper berries are a traditional ingredient. Being both frugal and old-fashioned, I decided to forage the junipers in the wild, or at least the wilds of Kinsmen Park, Saskatoon. After all, why pay for

Prairie Kitchens - Bigos

Polish newcomers to Saskatchewan, whether 100 years ago or one year ago, have a soft spot in their hearts for bigos, a traditional winter stew.

Eva Sylwestrowicz, who grew up in northern Poland, remembers wonderful winter picnics when friends and family went into the woods by horse-drawn sleigh and ate bowls of bigos warmed over a bonfire. "Someone went ahead to prepare the bonfire," she says. "There was bigos and bread, vodka and wine. And hot chocolate for the children. It was a special time."

Eva came to Saskatoon in 1982, escaping communist Poland with her husband Thomas and their young children, Magda and Wojtek. Their journey is intriguing. Thomas, a physician, had gone to London, England, for a research fellowship but his family was not allowed to go with him.

On the pretext of entertaining his colleagues – and making a good impression – he asked Eva to send him his mother's silverware and the good linens. Thus they spirited some family treasures out of the country.

On a cold winter day, Eva and the children left for a vacation in Tunisia, an approved holiday destination, with nothing but a suitcase of summer clothes. They had to go to East Germany to catch their flight, but as soon as they got there, they changed directions for London and from there to Canada.

Bigos (bee-gōs) is considered better with each reheating. Leftovers are added to the pot creating a "perpetual stew" that lasts a week, ready to reheat for unexpected company or a winter picnic.

Bigos
1/2 cup dried mushrooms
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika or 2 juniper berries, finely crushed
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb bacon, chopped
1 lb smoked sausage, sliced
1 cup leftover roast meat
6–8 canned tomatoes, chopped
1/2 medium cabbage head, shaved
1/2 lb sauerkraut
2 tbsp plum jam or honey

Soak mushrooms in boiling water to soften. Heat oil in a stew pot. Cook onion until soft. Stir in paprika or juniper berries, salt and pepper.

Add garlic and bacon. When bacon and onions are cooked, add the rest of the meat, tomatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms and mushroom water.

Add enough cold water to almost cover the contents. Cover the pot and simmer for several hours, until the cabbage is meltingly soft. Stir in plum jam or honey.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Prairie Kitchens - Ghormeh Sabzi

A century ago, immigrants came to Saskatchewan to escape state and religious persecution, to give their children a better life and to start anew. That hasn't changed with time.

Iran Yousefi came to Canada from Iran seventeen years ago to raise her daughter in a peaceful secular society where women can succeed on their own terms. Back in Iran, she was a veterinarian and microbiologist. In Toronto, her first "survival" job was in a pizza joint. "I had always wanted to learn how to make pizza, so it was exciting for me," she says.

Seven years ago, she moved to Saskatoon so her husband, Dr. Farzin Kasmaiefar, could re-certify as a family physician. In Saskatoon, it was difficult to find some ingredients needed for popular dishes from Iran such as khoresht ghormeh sabzi (herb stew) and fesenjan (chicken and walnut stew).

"That was quite a change for me, as someone who loves to cook my traditional recipes," she says. For instance, the stew below is traditionally made with a herb called tareh, but here she uses the green part of a leek (the part most other recipes discard).

Fresh fenugreek is also not readily available (although she has found it recently at Superstore). As for other exotic ingredients such as dried lemons, they can be purchased in the new Pars Market on 8th Street E.

Who knows, perhaps a century from now, gormeh sabzi or fesenjan will be just as at home in Saskatchewan as Hungarian goulash or Russian shishliki.

Khoresht Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew)
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch fenugreek or 1 tbsp dried
1 leek, green part only
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 lb beef (450 g) in 1 inch cubes
4 dried lemons or 1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups water
1 can kidney beans, drained

Chop greens quite fine. For the leek, use the tender green part (not the hard outer leaves). Wash greens in a colander and squeeze out excess water. Heat a large skillet on high. Add greens and cook, stirring constantly, until the water has evaporated. Add half the vegetable oil and cook until greens are turning brown. The volume of greens will reduce considerably.

Heat the remaining vegetable oil in a stew pot. Add onion and cook until soft. Stir in turmeric. Add meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn up heat and cook until browned.

If using dried lemons, poke each lemon with a fork and add to pot with the water. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Stir in cooked greens. Cover and cook for about one hour.

Half way through cooking add kidney beans and, if using, dried fenugreek and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste. The stew is done when the meat is tender. Serve on rice.

Add a Persian tomato salad and Persian barbari bread.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Prairie Kitchens - Jugged Rabbit

Are gophers good to eat? That question was posed by the Saskatchewan Herald newspaper in 1890. Apparently, the answer is yes. Some pioneers found gopher to be quite agreeable and, the article goes on to say, "The Indians are especially fond of them. When fat they are of a very sweet and delicate flavor."

Wild game such as gophers, rabbits and deer were an import food source on the prairies after the bison disappeared but before homesteads had established cattle and hogs.

In 1952, the University of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Archives asked old timers what the pioneers ate. One fellow, John Bird of Broadview came west in 1882. He said their primary meat was "rabbit, more rabbit and still more rabbit" along with prairie chickens, ducks and the occasional deer. He said a typical menu was rabbit stew for breakfast, rabbit and potatoes for lunch and rabbit again for supper.

Another family who came as Barr Colonists in 1903 was devastated when their winter cache of rabbits, which were hanging frozen outside, was eaten by coyotes. The Métis made a dish called rabbit rababoo, a type of stew with turnips, potatoes and carrots that went back to the days of the fur trade.

A recipe for jugged rabbit is found in many old cookbooks. Traditionally, it was cooked in an earthenware jug. Come to think of it, gophers might taste pretty good this way, too.

Jugged Rabbit
1 rabbit, cut in pieces
1/4 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper
3 tbsp butter
1 big onion, chopped
4 cups beef stock
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb button mushrooms
Extra flour for gravy

Lightly dredge rabbit in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp butter in a Dutch oven or other stove-to-oven pot. Brown rabbit on both sides and remove from pot. Add onion to butter and cook until soft. Return rabbit to pot.

Add beef stock, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cover and cook in 350F oven for one hour. Add mushrooms. Top up with water to cover mushrooms. Continue cooking for about 2 hours, adding more water if needed, until rabbit is tender. Remove bay leaf. Lift out rabbit to a serving plate and mushrooms into a bowl, keeping warm while making the gravy.

With your fingers, mix remaining 1 tbsp butter with enough flour to make a crumbly dough. Add to the hot liquid, whisking vigorously while bringing to a bubble on the stove, cooking until gravy is thickened. If it's not enough gravy, add more hot water. Taste gravy and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Pour gravy through a strainer to remove any lumps. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Do you have a prairie recipe to share? Tell me! Follow me at twitter.com/prairiefeast.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Prairie Recipes - Hungarian Lecso

In 1921, there were 8,900 Hungarians living in Saskatchewan. By the census of 2006, there were 27,400 people claiming Hungarian descent. That's a lot of paprika, red peppers and poppy seeds. The early arrivals came on the promise of free farmland and freedom from oppressive landlords. In the 1950s, they came seeking freedom from Communism.

Tibor "Ted" Kiss was 23 years old during the October Revolution of 1956, when the Soviet army rolled into Hungary to put down a movement for democratic reforms. More than 200,000 Hungarians fled their country. Seeing a small window of opportunity, Kiss and his parents left everything behind and made a daring dash for the Austrian border in the dark of night. "We left in a snowstorm so our tracks would be covered over," he says. "Russian soldiers were ordered to shoot to kill. Thank god we made it."

They joined his grandparents already living in Ontario, then moved to Beechy, Sask., where Kiss began training with the Credit Union. He managed the branch at Paradise Hill, where he met his wife, Faye. She learned to cook traditional dishes from her mother in law, including Hungarian cakes, cottage cheese biscuits, cabbage rolls and lescό (le-sho), a summer stew redolent with peppers, tomatoes and paprika.

At first, it was hard to find red peppers in Saskatchewan, and the paprika was sent to them from Ontario, but today it's easy to recreate the flavours of Hungary here on the prairies.

Lecsό - Pepper, Tomato and Sausage Stew

3 tbsp bacon fat or 2 tbsp oil

3 red peppers

3 yellow peppers

1 green pepper

3 medium onions

1 fresh tomato

1 can whole stewed tomatoes (398 ml)

2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika

1 dash hot Hungarian paprika

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup water

1 lb Hungarian sausage (Kolbasz) or other smoked sausage

In a heavy sauté pan or Dutch oven, heat bacon fat or oil on high heat. Core and devein all peppers and cut into strips. Cut onions into wedges. Sauté onions and peppers until cooked but still firm, 6-8 minutes. Do not overcook; peppers should remain intact and brightly coloured. Add tomatoes, seasonings, sugar and water.

Slice sausage on the diagonal. Add to the pot and simmer until the flavours are melded, about 4-6 minutes. Serve with rice, boiled potatoes and/or fresh bread.

(This article first appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.)

Prairie Kitchens - Yakhnit 'Adas

Who were the first farmers to grow lentils and chickpeas on the Saskatchewan plains? The Arab pioneers.

In 1923, Jiryas Sallum, left his village in Syria with the dream of farming in Saskatchewan. A year later, he was joined by his wife Shams and their two sons. They homesteaded south of Swift Current in an area where several other friends and relatives had already settled. Shams kept a large garden and did her best, with some improvisation, to prepare the familiar foods of the old country. This included yogurt, burghul, lentils, chickpeas, flat breads and honey desserts. They ate very well – and very different – compared to their European neighbours.

One of their sons, Habeeb, recalled how self-conscious he was of their strange foods. As a schoolboy, he longed for an ordinary bologna sandwich on white bread. But years later, he credits his family's good health through the Dirty Thirties with the ancient, healthy foods of his ancestors as prepared by his mom.

Today, Saskatchewan farmers have discovered lentils and chickpeas. Canada is now a leading supplier to the world. Perhaps it should be no surprise as wheat originates from the same place – Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Palestine. Wheat was the first "settler" from the Arab lands.

Habeeb published his memories and his mom's recipes in a charming cookbook called Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead. Yakhnit 'Adas is a pioneer recipe every bit as much as perogies and Shepherd's pie.

Yakhnit 'Adas
(Lentil and Meat Stew)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 lb beef or lamb in 1/2 inch cubes
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small hot pepper, finely chopped
1 cup lentils
5 cups water
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the meat and sauté for 5 min. Add onions, garlic and hot pepper. Cook 10 min. Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer over medium heat until the lentils and potatoes are cooked, stirring occasionally, about 1 1/2 hours. Add more water if needed. Serve hot.

Do you have prairie recipe with a story? Send me a comment. Follow at twitter.com/prairiefeast.

This column first published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

New Year's Food Resolutions

(Originally published in the Star Phoenix)

It’s time for New Year’s resolutions, and for that, I usually look to the kitchen. My resolutions always seem to revolve around food. One year I resolved to eat more potatoes. My dad grows enough potatoes to feed an army so it’s “free” food to boot. Another year, I resolved to make a pot of soup for each week of the year. Two years ago, I resolved to eat more berries. Before that, I resolved to eat more beans.

In all instances, by “more” I am referring to more of these products that are grown in Saskatchewan so that, as the year progresses, I am also delving deeper into the local food economy. These resolutions may seem frivolous compared to more serious pledges for personal self improvement, but I have the satisfaction of having never failed to meet my goals. Gain without pain.

In that spirit, here is a list of delicious, achievable and painless New Year’s resolutions that may spice up your year.

1. Shop at a farmers’ market at least once per season – winter, spring, summer and fall. There are several options: the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market at River Landing; the Wednesday market at St. James Church; daily summertime markets held in parking lots around the city; and weekly markets in neighbouring communities such as Warman and Borden.

2. Visit a farm in 2013. More specifically, resolve to visit a farm at which you can buy farm products. Two good options near Saskatoon are Pine View Farms at Osler, which sells their own meat products, and Robertson’s vegetable farm on Valley Road. Both have on-farm stores.

3. Go berry picking. Berries are the most abundant fruit on the prairies and they are also the healthiest fruit to eat. Picking wild berries such as saskatoons, cranberries and blueberries is an adventure in itself, if you know where to look. U-picks offer the convenience of growing the berries for you, including saskatoons, raspberries, strawberries, haskap and cherries. The fruit growers association produces a map of u-picks around the province.

4. Eat wild foods. If you pick wild berries, you’ll have this one covered. Other wild foods found in Saskatchewan include mushrooms, dandelion and chickweed greens, muskeg tea, juniper berries and, of course, all manner of wild fish and game.

5. Eat more lentils. Saskatchewan is now the world’s largest producer of lentils. Not only do we grow the most lentils, we also grow the greatest variety of lentils – brown, black, green and red. If you are not accustomed to cooking with lentils, check out some cookbooks of world cuisine or ask someone whose family heritage comes from those parts of the world where lentils are eaten every day.

6. Eat your vegetables. Saskatchewan imports well over 90 percent of our fresh vegetables. Both Manitoba and Alberta supply a far greater percentage of their vegetable market. Support our local vegetable growers by asking for and choosing fresh produce that is grown closer to home.

7. Prepare one all-local meal, whether you define local as close as your backyard or as broad as the province. For extra challenge, resolve to cook this meal in the wintertime. For an easier challenge, make it a potluck and share the experience.

8. Be a food tourist: where ever you travel in the province, look for food “souvenirs” that reflect the passion and produce of this varied land.

Finally, my 2013 New Year’s resolution: to eat myself out of house and home. Dig to the bottom of the freezer, clear out the canning cupboard, use up the various bags of lentils, dried mushrooms and oat groats, eat up dad’s potatoes. So by summer, I can start all over again.

Venison Stew

 

This hardy winter stew makes use of many Saskatchewan ingredients, including frozen peas from my garden. I picked the juniper berries while walking in a city park.

2 pounds venison or beef

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola oil

8 potatoes, peeled

2 carrots, peeled

1 big onion

2 garlic cloves

Handful of mushrooms, fresh or rehydrated in water

3 crushed juniper berries

1 tsp crushed dried thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tsp salt and some freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup frozen peas, optional

2 cups water or beef stock

Cut the meat into one-inch cubes. In a large pot or Dutch oven, brown the meat in melted butter and canola oil. Remove the meat from the pot. Meanwhile, chop the potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and mushrooms. Place the vegetables in the pot and cook until the onion is soft. Return the meat to the pot. Add the juniper berries, thyme, whole bay leaves, salt, pepper and peas (if using). Pour in two cups water or beef stock. Cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender, two or three hours.

I can do better...

On a recent road trip, I ate a bowl of bigos in a Polish restaurant in Creston, B.C. It's a traditional meat and sauerkraut stew translated to English as Hunter's Stew. To tell you the truth, it was rather mediocre. But I liked the concept and decided I could do better. When I got home, I made this version...

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 loose cup dried mushrooms (porcini and chanterelle)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 lb back bacon, cut in strips
4 cooked farmer's sausages, sliced
10 frozen tomatoes, thawed
1/2 medium cabbage head, shaved
1/2 lb sauerkraut

Pour the boiling water over the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are soft, pour off and save the water.

Heat the oil in a stew pot. Cook the onions and garlic until soft. Stir in the paprika, salt and pepper. Add the back bacon and garlic. When the bacon and onions are fully cooked, add the sausage, tomatoes, cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms and mushroom water. Add enough cold water to just about cover the contents of the pot. Place the lid and simmer for several hours, until the cabbage is meltingly cooked.

Like all soups and stews, bigos gets better every time you cool and reheat it, so plan to eat it over a few days.

Newspaper Column - VENISON STEW

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 20 Oct 2008.

My husband came home from work the other day with a leg of venison under his arm. He doesn’t hunt but we have plenty of friends who do. And lucky for us, they like to share. I didn’t grow up eating wild meat, but I’ve come to appreciate it in many ways.

Wild meat is pure, lean and healthy—very little meat we eat these days is as naturally-raised and unadulterated as wild game. It’s guaranteed to be fresh and local, something we can’t always ascertain when buying meat at the grocery store. I also appreciate the fact that wild animals live free and unfettered lives, doing what comes naturally to them; that can’t be said of most of the animals raised for human consumption.

Thanks to our friends who hunt, our freezer has been blessed with venison, moose and elk—some in the form of sausage and pepperoni sticks—as well as goose, duck and grouse, all cut and wrapped.

Some people dislike the “gamey” flavour, but I maintain that if the animal is slaughtered correctly and cooked properly, most picky eaters could not tell the difference. Just the other day, I made my husband’s favourite meatloaf with a mix of grass-fed beef and elk. One of my most successful recipes is a slow-cooked stew from Portugal which is flavoured with cinnamon, cumin and allspice. The recipe calls for beef but I make it with moose.

Another successful recipe is beef bourguignon, a traditional stew from France made with bacon, red wine and vegetables. I made it with elk and the meat was delicious. My husband John has a nice touch with venison: cut the meat in 3/4 inch slices, cross-hatch it with the edge of a plate (to flatten and tenderize), soak in milk 5 minutes, shake in a bag of flour, salt and pepper, then quick fry in hot lard.

The goose came to us as a bag of freshly cut breasts which I flattened and rolled with a mix of potato, apple and caraway seeds (a Mario Batali recipe) which we ate at Christmastime. It wasn’t exactly the golden goose of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, but I thanked my benefactor all the same.

A couple of years ago, I decided to try hunting myself. I enrolled in an online hunter education course that could be completed at one’s leisure, but somehow I never found the time—always too busy with my own garden, picking and canning and cooking. Hunting season came and went. Now I’m having second thoughts. Perhaps back in prehistoric times, my ancestors were the gatherers and the farmers, not the hunters of the tribe. Perhaps it is their legacy that I should wield a hoe, not a gun, and rather than take up hunting, I should cultivate friends who do.

So to Jeff, Sue, Vance, Rick, Greg and Mark (of the leg of venison) thank you for sharing your bounty. Would you like some potatoes?

This recipe comes from Saveur magazine (for original recipe, click here). For more recipes with wild Saskatchewan ingredients, click on the word "wild" at the bottom of this post.

Venison Stew
1/2 tsp. whole allspice berries
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. whole cloves
4 lbs. venison roast
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup tomato purée
(I use my own tomatoes, peeled)
3/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Salt
16 slices day-old soft French or Italian bread
Leaves from 3 sprigs mint

Put allspice, cumin, and cloves on a small square of cheesecloth, gather corners, and tie shut with kitchen twine. Put spice bag, meat, garlic, bay leaves, onions, tomato sauce and purée, wine, ketchup, cinnamon, 3 cups water, and salt to taste into a large heavy-bottomed pot. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until meat is very tender and falling off the bone, 5–6 hours. Adjust seasonings.

Transfer meat with a slotted spoon to a large bowl, then shred with two forks, discarding fat and bones, and put into a large serving dish. Skim fat from meat broth and discard bay leaves and spice bag. Arrange bread in another large serving dish and scatter mint on top. Ladle broth over bread and mint and set aside briefly to allow bread to swell and absorb broth before serving. Serve meat and broth-soaked bread together.

Docs in the Kitchen - MOROCCAN CHICKEN STEW

Great event last night! U of S med students staged a fantastic dinner to raise money for CHEP (which provides food and nutrition for kids in Saskatoon). The initial tally puts the funds raised at more than $4000. I had a little hand in the dinner--providing the recipe for the delicious stew. Staff at the Western Development Museum did a great job transforming a stew for 8 into a meal for 300! Here's the original recipe. It's chock full of Saskatchewan ingredients (okay, not the apricots and prunes...)

Moroccan Chicken Tagine
This recipe is named for the type of ceramic dish in which it is cooked. Any covered pot will do, preferably one that can go from the stove to the oven.

1 chicken cut into pieces
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1 tsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. fenugreek seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 onion chopped
6-8 canned tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 can chickpeas
12 prunes and/or dried apricots
salt and pepper
preserved lemon rind (opt.)
black or green olives (opt.)

Grind the spices (coriander, cumin, fenugreek) in a spice grinder.

Heat the oil in an oven-proof pot. Lightly salt the chicken and sauté in the oil. Sprinkle with a bit of the spice blend. When the chicken is nicely browned, add the rest of the ingredients, except the optional items. Add four cups of water and bring to a boil.

Cover the pot and bake in a 325F oven for 2 hours. Check occasionally and add more liquid if necessary. During the last half an hour, stir in the preserved lemon rind and continue baking uncovered. Remove lemon rind before serving. Serve with olives on couscous or rice.

French wine, Saskatchewan food - BEEF BOURGIUGNON

This is a traditional beef stew from Burgundy, France.

Beef Bourguignon
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive or canola oil
6 slices bacon, diced
2 chopped onions
3 pound chuck beef roast
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour
2 cups Burgundy wine (pinot noir)
4 cups beef or chicken stock
2 sliced carrots (halved if large)
1 tbsp tomato paste
Pinch of sugar
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
One sprig each parley, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, tied together

Cook this stew in an oven-proof pot with a lid. On top of the stove, heat the butter and oil. Add the bacon and onion and sauté until soft. While that’s cooking, cut the beef into 1-inch cubes. Remove the bacon and onion with a slotted spoon. Place the cubes of beef into the hot pot and brown on all sides (in two batches). As the beef is done, remove the meat to a plate and season with salt and pepper.

Quickly stir the flour into the hot fat until the liquid is absorbed and the flour is turning brown. Remove from heat and whisk in the wine. (Whisk well to break down any clumps of flour). Return to the stove and boil, scraping up any brown bits that are stuck to the pot. Add the stock and return to boil. Add the bacon, onions, beef and all remaining ingredients. Cover and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for two hours. Meanwhile:

24 button mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brandy, port or madeira
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt

Sauté the mushrooms in the butter. Sprinkle on the booze and cook off. Sprinkle on the lemon juice and salt. Sauté until the mushrooms are browned. When the stew comes out of the oven, mix in the mushrooms and any butter sauce left in the pan. (Remove the bunch of herbs from the stew.) Serve with potatoes, mashed parsnips or noodles, sprinkled with fresh parsley.

TIP: This stew can be made days ahead and kept in the fridge. In fact, it improves with time. Reheat on the stove.

Week 35 - PORK AND FRUIT STEW

Saskatchewan Menu of the Week -- 11 December 2005

Breakfast – Scrambled eggs and cornbread.
Lunch – Yogurt. Christmas orange.
Dinner – Pork and Fruit Stew.

PORK STEW WITH APRICOTS AND PRUNES
This recipe from Russia is plucked from the pages of the latest Saveur magazine, so credit is given where credit is due. Like most stews, this one is better the day after it's made, so if you're serving it to company make it a day ahead.

3 pounds pork roast, trimmed of fat, cut into bite-sized cubes
6T vegetable oil
6 carrots peeled and sliced into rounds
4T tomato paste
1 cup dried apricots
5 cups water
1 pound onions peeled and cut into wedges
1 cup pitted prunes
salt and pepper

Season the pork with salt and pepper. Heat half the oil in a heavy bottom pot. When the oil is hot, cook the pork until it is no longer pink. (If pork fat has accumulated in pan, pour it off before proceeding.) Add the carrots, tomato paste, apricots and water. Boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook gently, uncovered for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the rest of the oil in a skillet and sauté the onions until golden brown. When the stew has simmered for 45 minutes, add the onions and prunes. Continue to simmer until the stew has thickened, about 30 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve with boiled potatoes.

Newspaper - GROUSE AND BEAN STEW

Deep in my genetic makeup, I believe you’ll find the DNA of an ancient hunter-gatherer. Hunter-gatherers existed long ago before we learned to farm, when we had to hunt for meat and forage for plants in the wild. I love to forage, especially when it’s easy and convenient. There’s a certain sense of pride in accumulating good food for nothing but a few hours in nature.

Summer just wouldn’t be summer if I didn’t get out and forage for saskatoon berries. Last summer, I learned to forage for chanterelle mushrooms in the forest near La Ronge. So, I couldn’t pass up an invitation to forage for wild rose petals in the Nisbet Forest. Everyone knows that rose hips make a nutritious tea, but I didn’t know you could eat the flowers, too.

Marie Symes-Grehan lives in a log cabin where she has perfected the technique for making rose petal jam. The petals are suspended ever so delicately in pink that it looks almost too good to eat. We set out in the morning after the dew was gone, down a sandy road through the forest where the wild roses grow abundantly in the roadsides.

"The scent of roses is so intoxicating, I believe it really does affect your well being," says Marie. "It’s like prairie Zen."

After we collect the petals in cotton sacks, we sort them and sift out the stamens. Wearing a big hair net, Marie boils up some water and organic sugar, adding the petals at just the right moment. Then into the jars. She sells her wild jams and syrups under the label Lily Plain Summer, which are especially popular at the Granville Island Market in Vancouver. The jam is too pretty for ordinary toast, so I serve it on crackers with blue cheese. Very chi-chi and delicious.

While the gathering side of my genetic makeup is strong, I am not much of a hunter. But who needs to hunt when you have a friend like Jeff, a woodworking buddy of my husband’s.
One day there was a knock at the door, and there stood Jeff with a box of frozen moose and two grouse breasts, cut and wrapped.

Not sure how to cook them, I delved into my stack of Saveur magazines. I found a Cuban recipe for quail and beans, and a Portuguese dish of beef and Moroccan spices. Both were perfect, proving that even wild Saskatchewan foods are right at home in world cuisine.

The other night, we had Jeff and Susan for dinner with their three children and Jason, another woodworking friend. I served the moose, and for dessert, ice cream with Saskatchewan cherries.
Since April, I have been eating almost exclusively Saskatchewan foods in my own home and it’s going great – with a little help from Mother Nature and from my friends.
(The recipe for Portuguese moose "sopas" is at 4 Nov 2005)

GROUSE AND BEAN STEW
I think this stew might be nice with chicken, though I haven’t tried it yet.

Marinade
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp vegetable oil
juice of one lime

Stew
1/2 lb. dried Saskatchewan pinto (or other) beans
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/21 tsp. cumin
oil
2 grouse breasts
1 onion, chopped in half
handful of chives, chopped
4 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
handful cilantro, chopped
leaves from one sprig of oregano, chopped
pepper

The day before: Put the beans in a large bowl, cover with 6 cups of water, and leave it to soak overnight. Make marinade: crush the garlic cloves with the salt in a mortar and pestle until they form a smooth paste. Stir in the cumin, vegetable oil and lime juice. Mix this with the meat in a large bowl or a ziplock bag and marinate overnight.

The day of: Put the beans and soaking water into a large pot with a tight-fitting lid. Add half the onion, cover and boil. Lower heat and simmer until the beans are soft, about 1.5 hours. When they are cooked, remove and discard the onion.

Take one cup of beans and mash them with a fork until they are quite smooth. Put this back into the pot of beans.

In another pan: Take the meat out of the marinade. Heat some oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on both sides. Remove. In the same pan, lower the heat and add 2 cloves of chopped garlic, the other half of onion (chopped), and the chives. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, cilantro, oregano and cumin. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook this down until it forms a paste, 7-10 minutes.

Put everything, including the marinade, into the bean pot. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F until the meat is cooked through. (About an hour.)