Last week, I wrote that cookbooks have become a source of beauty, ideas and inspiration, nutritional knowledge and pleasurable perusal, at the same time as food has turned into art, a graceful display of creativity.
Some cookbooks have also become a source of rich cultural knowledge. If you love food and cookbooks with an air of elegance and beauty, and are seeking to enhance your knowledge of First Nations people and culture, pick up taw芒w: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine by executive chef Shane M. Chartrand and food writer Jennifer Cockrall-King (2019, House of Anansi Press Inc.), both Canadians.
This is an incredible story with delicious photographs. Shane is from the Enoch Cree Nation but was adopted in Alberta as a little boy by Dennis and Belinda Chartland. He has tenderly dedicated the book to them, writing 鈥淔or Mom and Dad. You adopted me when I was six and you got me through so much.鈥�
Shane writes about his life in the first few pages, accompanied by comments from Belinda: 鈥淎t bedtime he鈥檇 scream and kick the walls. He didn鈥檛 want to go to bed. And after he was done with the tantrum, he鈥檇 call me to say, Mom, I need my goodnight kiss.鈥�
Throughout this lovely book are essays on First Nation language, spirituality and Indigenous culture, but Shane鈥檚 amazing recipes are the connecting thread.
Since traditional recipes were passed on orally, with no written lists of instructions and ingredients, he had to learn about traditional Indigenous foods by talking to elders, foraging, gathering and travelling, and listening to stories, which helped him to discover his own heritage and his roots.
He says: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have the original connection to my family鈥檚 history, to my ancestors. Like it is for many in my community, those connections were destroyed, outlawed 鈥︹��
But with patience and over time, find them he did, and now we have a written record in his fabulous collection of dishes, from salmon pemmican to 鈥渙ysters on a beach鈥� and 鈥淭hree Sisters Soup.鈥�
If you are not a gardener, 鈥渢hree sisters鈥� refers to the companion plants of beans, squash and corn 鈥� 鈥渢he corn shoots skyward providing a natural pole for the beans to follow as they climb. As they do, they provide some extra support to keep the corn upright. The squash grows low, controlling weeds and keeping the sun off the soil.鈥�
You will learn about wild rice, which 鈥渉as the distinction of being sa国际传媒鈥檚 only Indigenous cereal crop鈥� and is not actually rice as we know it, but a freshwater grass, found mainly in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta.
Shane uses bee pollen as a garnish, calling it a 鈥渧itamin-packed natural super food鈥� with a 鈥渟light crunchy and nutty texture.鈥� And there are drinks 鈥� Winter Berry Sour made from berries and birch syrup. Did you know that birch trees provide a delicious syrup? Spruce tips, meanwhile, have an array of amazing medicinal qualities 鈥� Shane uses them in one of his mussel dishes.
Finally, of special note is his original and unique recipe titled 鈥淲ar Paint.鈥� Don鈥檛 let the 鈥渟pecial equipment鈥� of latex gloves put you off (I always think of Mum wearing those big yellow rubber gloves while scrubbing the floors). Every chef wears thin clear latex gloves these days 鈥� in this case, to make a blazing, bright-orange red-pepper-sauce hand print on the plate, as shown on the book cover.
I always knew that chefs were artists, but when I saw Shane鈥檚 鈥淲ar Paint鈥� design, I had a little gasp 鈥� it truly is original art. The dish is primarily quail with wheat berries, but the striking hand print makes it Shane鈥檚 signature dish.
Although he provides recipes for delicious dishes such as sweet potato salad, this cookbook is not for vegans. His two top staples to have on hand are bison broth and pheasant broth, followed by tomato paste, minced garlic and shallots in oil, sweet mustard seed compote, puffed fried rice and bannock.
Shane鈥檚 opinion on bannock (also known as fry bread) is interesting. There is debate within the Indigenous community about whether the bannock recipe should be used, given that it is made with white flour and white sugar and therefore not a traditional food.
The M茅tis word for bannock is galette, and there is a recipe for both bannock and traditional galette in this extraordinary cookbook, which includes a forward by Shane鈥檚 friends Marlene and Laurie Buffalo, who say 鈥渢aw芒w dispels the outdated belief that Indigenous food means fry bread or pow wow Indian tacos.鈥�
They鈥檙e not kidding!
