Cover: Soul food East Coast style

Soul Food East Coast Style

Chef Collin Stone shares how Black history and culinary traditions can feed everyone’s soul

BY COLLIN STONE PHOTOS BY BRUCE MURRAY/VISIONFIRE

Chef Stone’s Jamaican roots flavour his love of cooking traditional dishes like oxtail stew—a recipe that made its way north as comfort food for generations.

As I began to write this article, I was torn between focusing on the cuisine of African Atlantic Canadians and our history (in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick—there were no early Black communities in P.E.I. or Newfoundland and Labrador). I understand that both are intertwined, but the soul food that I showcase is not exclusive to the region and I don’t want my article to turn into just a history lesson with food scattered intermittently.

I’ve cooked from Newfoundland to Tofino. I’ve had the good fortune to have cooked for a prime minister and represented my province and its hospitality and tourism industry abroad on several occasions in my 30-year career.

I’m the product of Jamaican immigrants who came to Nova Scotia in 1964, both bringing their recipes, roots, and culture, all of which passed along to my siblings and me, and then our families. I’ve had the opportunity to show how communal some soul food recipes are.

The term “soul food” is said to have originated from the cuisine developed by the African slaves, mainly (but not exclusively) from the American South. It’s said to have resulted from the meager ingredients available to slaves and sharecroppers. The least desirable cuts of meat and vegetables, some actually being weeds. The slaves had to try and fashion some sort of meal to feed their families: the products of these meager offerings evolved into a hearty, delicious, simple cuisine.

When I mentioned not exclusively to the American South, Jamaica also had a history of African slaves working plantations for sugarcane and other cash crops. They had their recipes but the African slaves in Jamaica used different spices, chilies, peppers, to help mask the smell and taste of meat, provided by their oppressors when well past its prime. “Jerk” is the most popular example of this technique, featuring dry rubbed seasoning made with allspice and scotch peppers, applied on wet marinated proteins, then smoked or barbecued. Both spices are plentiful and growing wild in Jamaica.

A brief timeline of Blacks in Canada tells more about our culinary roots. • 1605: First Blacks arrive in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. • Early 1700s: French and English Black settlers arrive in

East Coast colonial settlements. •1782–85: The American Revolution leads to 3,500 Black Loyalists settling in Nova Scotia—Annapolis Royal, Clements, Granville, Birchtown, Little Tracadie, and Chebucto. • 1796: 600 Jamaican “Maroons” are displaced, settling in Nova

Scotia’s Preston Township. • 1812–16: The War of 1812 between the U.K. and U.S. leads 2,000

Black refugees to seek freedom in Nova Scotia. • 1900s: Hundreds of Caribbean immigrants arrive in Nova Scotia to work the steel mills of Cape Breton.

Some 400 years of passed-down recipes, culture, traditions have contributed to the food stylings and techniques that have been the foundation of African Canadian soul food. Growing up in Nova Scotia, I’ve seen so many changes regarding food and accessibility to ethnic products. Produce, proteins, and spices from around the world are now available.

It wasn’t that way when I was younger. I remember driving to Oulton’s farm as a family to buy goat meat from them, whole goats. I remember Mr. Oulton watching my mother clean the tripe as she did as a young girl. We even made a soup using the brain (called Mannish Water or Jamaican Viagra). Mr. Oulton would give us oxtail and cow feet for free, as no one else wanted the cuts. Those slaves of long ago ate such discarded meats regularly.

As African slaves in Jamaica used jerk as a method of flavouring and preserving meats, Atlantic Canadian Blacks had to depend on smoking, salting, and pickling meats and dehydrating fruits and berries, even learning how to forage and dry seaweed to make dulse.

We’ve just scratched the surface of the history of soul food, one of the hottest culinary trends currently, elevating once “cheap” or undesirable cuts of meat and lesser-used seafood and vegetables and showcasing these foods and techniques. Read on for some essential recipes and pay culinary homage to the African slaves that ate this way to survive.

TIP:

A drizzle of honey over the cornbread when cool to the touch helps to keep your 4lbs oxtails—ask the butcher for medium size cuts “you may not be so lucky”. (I prefer the pieces closest to the “butt.” More meat!) — The less fat, the better — Trim excess fat ● ½ cup brown sugar ● 2 Tbsp soy sauce ● 2 Tbsp worcestershire ● 2 Tbsp salt ● 4 tsp garlic powder ● 4 cloves minced garlic ● 1 pkg oxtail seasoning (available everywhere) ● 4 Tbsp vegetable oil ● 1 Tbsp allspice ● 1 onion, diced ● 6 green onion, diced ● 4 carrots (med) ½ “ diced 1 scotch bonnet pepper, fine diced ● ½ bunch fresh thyme ● 1 11-oz can broad beans, butter beans, fava beans

Skillet cornbread

Yields 4 servings

INGREDIENTS 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour 1 cup finely ground cornmeal 1 Tbsp baking soda ½ tsp salt 4 eggs 1 ½ cup creamed corn 1 can mild green chilies (14 oz) ½ cup grated white cheddar, Monterey jack ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temp 6 Tbsp sugar Non-stick spray

DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat 9” heavy iron skillet in the oven at 400 °F. 2. Sift together dry ingredients. 3. Lightly beat eggs. 4. Whisk creamed corn, chilies, and cheese. 5. Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl. 6. Add mixture until just combined. 7. Mix in dry ingredients until barely incorporated. 8. Remove skillet from oven and lightly coat with spray. 10. Bake until top is brown and springs back when pressed. 11. Let cool about 10–15 minutes before serving.

Oxtail stew

INGREDIENTS ● 2 cups beef broth 9. Add batter (should be sizzling).

creation moist. 18 ● 2 Tbsp eastcoast l i v i n g cornstarch and water slurry .ca ···

DIRECTIONS 1. Rinse oxtails with water and vinegar, pat dry. 2. In a large bowl add; brown sugar, soy, Worcestershire, garlic powder & fresh garlic, salt pepper and allspice and rub intensely into oxtails. Refrigerate overnight. 3. In a heavy-bottomed large brazier pot add vegetable oil over medium-high heat. 4. When hot, add oxtail pieces to pot flat-side down about ¼” apart and brown each side. 5. Remove oxtails when browned and set to the side. 6. Add 4 tbsp of beef stock to pan to deglaze. 7. Scrape up all the remnants remaining in the pan. 8. Add onions, carrots, green onions, scotch bonnet, and sauté for 5 minutes. 9. Add the rest of the oxtails, beef broth and thyme. 10. Cover lid and braise at 350 °F for 2.5–3 hours 11. Remove oxtails pieces and vegetables from brazier and simmer liquid over medium heat 12. Make slurry with the remaining broth, thicken with cornstarch slurry and stir into liquid, thicken broth, check seasoning and consistency. Return oxtails, and vegetables to broth, add beans, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes. SUMMER 2020 13. Serve over white rice.

Collard greens

Yields 4 servings I have tremendous affection for this dish, one of my mother’s favourites.

INGREDIENTS 2–3 lb collard greens 2 cloves of garlic (minced) 2 Tbsp salted butter Canola oil Juice of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS 1. Remove and discard the fibrous stems and center from the greens. 2. Cut leaves into 1-inch pieces. 3. In a pot of boiling water cook collards for approximately 15 minutes. 4. Drain, pressing out any excess liquid. (ladle on back of a large serving spoon) 5. In a larger heavy skillet heat butter and oil and minced garlic. 6. When garlic starts to burn add collards. 7. Salt and pepper to taste. 8. In about 5 minutes, add lemon juice liberally and place in serving dish.

Shrimp & grits

Yields 4 servings

INGREDIENTS 2 cups chicken broth 2 cups water Pinch of salt 1 cup corn grits 2 Tbsp butter 1 cup shredded cheddar ¼ cup grated parmesan Fresh ground black pepper 1 lb of cold water shrimp (peeled and deveined) ½ cup diced green onion ½ fresh lemon, juiced TIP: 1 tsp summer savoury

Reserve and freeze DIRECTIONS remaining oxtail gravy 1. In a medium saucepan, bring chicken broth and until next time your water to a boil and season with salt. Reduce heat to making this dish and the mixture in at a simmer, whisk in grits. Simmer substitute it for beef until grits have absorbed the liquid and are very broth. The result will be tender. Stir in butter and cheese and season with even more incredible fresh ground black pepper. because the flavours will 2. In a medium-high skillet add butter and garlic. be more concentrated. When the butter starts to burn, add shrimp, sauté approximately 3–4 minutes, adding summer savoury and lemon juice. Spoon shrimp over top FALL 2020 ··· of grits. eastcoast o l i v i n g .ca