A Land of Traditions

A land of rich traditions;

How Indigenous chefs are looking to traditions to heal

BY SABRINA KOOISTRA

MPhantom Creek

ohkínstsis (Calgary) For many Indigenous chefs, food he grew, Iserhoff pushed his culture and Amiskwaciy has become a medicine. The lack of aside. It wasn’t until culinary school Waskahikan (Edmonton) Indigenous representation in the culinary that something clicked. He was tired of were once gathering places. Wild world has become an opportunity to cooking foods from other places and saskatoons grew, buffalo roamed, pursue a future of their own creation, found himself calling home to ask about and Mother Nature gave birth to rich showcase traditions, and reconnect to jam and bannock. Memories of picking traditions passed down for centuries – some of what’s been lost. In the spirit berries and honouring the land flooded traditions connecting the land to people of preserving elder knowledge, Chef back. What was once ordinary became and people to each other. In Alberta, sun- David Wolfman of the Xaxali’p First extraordinarily special. drying meat like pemmican (dried meat Nation embraces sharing and teaching. Because of his childhood curiosity, and berries pounded together) was ideal As a Culinary Arts professor and the Iserhoff’s Moshom (grandfather) for journeys, vegetables and medicinal star of “Cooking with the Wolfman,” nicknamed him Pei Pei Chei Ow, the herbs flourished, and buffalo gave food, he created a niche he calls “Indigenous Omushkegowin word for the robin. clothing, and tools. Food was cherished Fusion” where he uses Mother Nature’s Iserhoff laughs about how much it and respected. Wasting nothing was the offerings and his creativity to shape the annoyed his Moshom how much he talked, way of life. way we understand Canadian food. The but it’s his curiosity that’s reacquainted

But European settlement devastated process of healing is beginning – for many him with the past. Paying tribute to his First Nations’ traditions. Canned foods Indigenous chefs – by turning back to Attawapiskat roots, Iserhoff, along with and rationing replaced the abundance of Mother Nature. his wife Svitlana Kravchuk, cater events in the grasslands. The territory Indigenous For Chef Scott Iserhoff of Pei Pei the spirit of mino pimatisiwin: embracing peoples roamed and reaped from for Chei Ow (pe-pe-s-chew), watching wild “the good life.” Using local wild meats and centuries was taken and abused. The path meat smoke over the fire and hearing traditional and post-colonial ingredients is forward was stricken with trauma. his family’s stories was normal, but as part of this process.

Chef Scott Iserhoff

“I feel a responsibility to showcase Indigenous food … and to decolonize the space that I’m cooking in,” Iserhoff says about why he chose to pursue catering. “I want it to be a stepping-stone for other Indigenous people.”

As well as catering events around Edmonton, Pei Pei Chei Ow offers cooking classes. The result of oral storytelling, outdoor cooking, and local ingredients, is an empowering and artistic menu. Dishes like “Three Sisters Salad” inspired by culinary traditions, let wild mushroom, charred onion, ricotta, and dandelion bannock bites tell his story.

For Chef Leslie Bull of the Plains Cree Nation, Kokom’s Bannock Kitchen is the realization of a multi-generational legacy – a dream to share the customs of her grandparents and have her dream live on through her children.

Bull’s journey to where she is today was one of learning and sharing as much as it was of trauma and loss. Her mother is a residential school survivor; she started a family soon after leaving the school and did the best she could to pass knowledge onto her children. This meant relearning lost Plains Cree culture while raising her children.

For Bull, making bannock is a way of reimagining a hurtful past. In her 30s, she wanted to learn to make bannock, which brought her back to her Kokom’s kitchen. Kokom means “your grandmother” in Plains Cree, and the love she felt in her Kokom’s kitchen fit the business culture she wanted to create.

“How I cook for my grandbabies is how I cook for other people,” Bull says. “It’s all about the energy you put out there. Your energy.”

You’ll find Kokom’s Bannock Kitchen at Fresh and Local Market and Kitchens, where Bull offers four fry bread and bannock flavours: traditional, savoury cheese, mixed berry, and cinnamon sugar. She also offers homemade wild berry sauce – delicious on ice cream or sweet bannock – stews, salads, wild berry punch, bannock tacos, and her best-selling bannock burgers, seasoned with a sweet juniper berry spice.

In the summer of 2010, Whitefish Lake First Nation’s Chef Curtis Cardinal of Tee Pee Treats began selling his bannock at Alberta powwows. At these powwows, Cardinal remembers teepees set up as mini storefronts where First Nations gatherers would sell Indigenous foods. It’s a memory that inspired him to start his own culinary business with a name he hopes brings “strength, meaning, and hope to First Nations.”

But Cardinal’s journey to learning about Indigenous food traditions and sharing them with his customers was also a process toward addiction recovery. Like so many other First Nations individuals suffering from addiction, reviving traditions has helped them find their “true spirit.” In 2019, he became a licensed caterer after helping his friend get his food truck, Native Delights, started in Edmonton. The passion to create and to share gets him up each morning and on his way to the kitchen he rents at St. Faith’s Anglican Church in Edmonton.

Wild Mushrooms on Bannock

Deep Fried Bannok

Bison Bannock Burger

Drying meat

Arrive hungry to try Cardinal’s “contemporary Indigenous food” creations, like bison bannock burgers, bison stew, and bannock donair. Keep an eye on social media for the release date of his bannock fries, a potato-bannock fusion infused with cheddar, meat, or fruit – something customers are already eagerly asking about. Consistent, but ever the creative, Cardinal hopes that Tee Pee Treats’ popularity and customer loyalty will help him one day expand into an experiential dining experience in a teepee, franchise his business, and branch out into value-added products, like jams.

To Cardinal, seeing so many excited customers flooding to his take-out window has been “amazing.” “It gives hope to our First Nations people who want to start a business. We are reaching different cultures and it’s great to see how much support we get.”

We acknowledge that Calgary rests upon the traditional lands of Treaty 7 Nations, including the Siksiká, Piikáni, Káínai, Tsúūt’ínà, Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations, and Edmonton is home to Treaty 6 Nations, including the Nehiyawak, Niitsitapi, Nakota Sioux, Haudenosaunee, Dené, and Anishinaabe First Nations. Calgary and Edmonton are also home to Métis Region 3 and Region 4, respectively.

For Chef Shantel Tallow of

Aahksoyo’p Indigenous Comfort

Food (ahk-see-ope) – LUXLife’s Best Specialty Catering Company (2019), in-house caterer for the City of Calgary, and indigenous advisor to the University of Calgary – her dream of sharing Blackfoot traditions transformed her into a sought-after chef and the first and only Indigenous caterer in Calgary.

After sundances, when Blackfoot communities gather for a meal, the tipi head yells “Aahksoyo’p” to end fasting, a story that empowered Tallow to share Blackfoot traditions and create a legacy. Even though there are challenges to owning her business, Tallow says it’s been a chance to learn how to move forward. She offers comfort foods, journey food like pemmican, and bannock, fry bread, and berry soup as part of her catering service. She also hosts “Bannock in a Panic” cooking classes, and her second Aahksoyo’p Nootski cookbook is coming out soon.

“I’m learning about my family and where we came from,” she says. “Turning back time means you can turn back to Mother Nature.” After 17 years away, moving back to the Blood Reserve has been part of her cultural recalibration. As an advisor to the Waterton Indigenous Tourism Centre, she’s helping them build a smokehouse and kitchen just in time for the reintroduction of buffalo to Waterton.

“I assumed I’d always be in the kitchen,” she says. “I didn’t know I needed to come home to reconnect,” she says.

Sabrina is a freelance writer pursuing a Communications and History double major at U of C. She is passionate about uncovering the ways in which history, tradition, and food shape our identities.

Potato Salad Spice It Up:

BY MALLORY FRAYN

Nothing is more of a wild

card at a summer barbecue than potato salad. When done well, it’s a welcome addition aside burgers, brats, or brisket, but when done poorly, it’s nothing more than an anaemic mass of starchy, underseasoned gloop. Thankfully, with even the smallest amount of care and attention to detail, it’s easy to avoid the latter. With these tips, your spiced up potato salad will be the recipe that everyone asks for this summer and all summers after that. Choice of potato

The most obvious place to start when tweaking any potato salad recipe is with the humble potato itself. You’ve probably heard the terms “waxy” versus “starchy” when referring to potatoes and this distinction is something to keep in mind when choosing the perfect potato for your salad.

While waxy potatoes have higher water content and will hold their shape better when cooked, they aren’t as good at absorbing other liquids, say the dressing of your choice. On the other hand, starchy potatoes will break down more when cooked and are better at soaking up your choice of seasoning, however they will yield a more mashed potato salad.

Ultimately it comes down to your preference: do you want your potato salad to resemble chilled mashed potatoes, or would you rather be able to make out the distinct bites of potato? Maybe you land somewhere in the middle, in which case, making your potato salad with a mix of waxy and starchy potatoes will yield the best of

both worlds. For example, you might want to go 50/50 Yukon Gold and Russet to maximize both flavour and texture. Just be sure to cook the two types of potatoes separately, as they will cook at different rates.

Keep in mind that potato-adjacent options will work well in “potato” salad too. Think sweet potatoes, yams, Jerusalem artichokes, or any other tuber of your choice.

Method of cooking potatoes

Once you’ve narrowed down your choice of potatoes, your next decision is to land on how you want to cook them. Usually, potato salad recipes call for boiled potatoes, but this isn’t your only option. When you boil them, they will absorb some of the water that they are cooked in, meaning that it will alter the texture and dilute the flavour of whatever you add later on. If you go the boiling route, be sure to boil your potatoes in large chunks (this goes for all potato applications), so they take in as little moisture as possible. Steaming them will also work.

But, if you want to do something a bit different, try roasting, grilling, or even smoking your potatoes before tossing them into salad. Think baked potato, but with a twist! These dry heat cooking methods will alter both the texture and taste of the finished salad, really concentrating that potato flavour. Yes, potatoes have flavour!

Choice of dressing

Similar to the “waxy” versus “starchy” dichotomy, potato salad dressing options usually fall into one of two camps: mayonnaise-based or vinaigrette-based. While the former may be a picnic classic, the latter is a pretty underappreciated way of enjoying this potato-based delight. German potato salad is a classic that comes to mind with a few simple ingredients, namely, bacon, oil, vinegar, and mustard (try adding finely chopped pickled cucumbers too!). Tossed together, it can be served hot or cold. Don’t be shy with that mustard either – a blend of Dijon and a healthy spoonful of grainy mustard adds some zip and great texture too. Julia Child also had a great hack of adding in a splash of the potato cooking water to the salad to aid in it’s creaminess without relying exclusively on added fat from oil or mayonnaise.

It’s also worth considering that virtually any dressing or vinaigrette that you like to use on green salad is probably a candidate for flavouring your potato salad. Potatoes really are nature’s blank slate when it comes to a food that excels at taking on an array of other flavours.

Herbs and other seasonal garnishes

The je ne sais quoi of your potato salad probably won’t be the dressing or even the potatoes themselves, but rather, the various garnishes that you choose to stir into the mix. In the heat of summer, take advantage of fresh herbs and don’t be afraid to throw them in by the handful. Parsley, cilantro, basil, dill, tarragon, and mint are all workable here. If you’re using them raw, opt for any fresh herb as the woodier ones (think rosemary, thyme, etc.) need to be cooked down.

Given that you can go in virtually any direction you want here, it is helpful to think in line with a theme, lest you end up with the kitchen sink of potato salads. Go Japanese-y with Kewpie mayo, wasabi, sesame oil, and a liberal amount of togarashi, a chili pepperbased spice blend.

Add cooked peas and carrots, ham, pickles, and eggs too if you like for a Russian Salad “Olivier”.

Turn Greek salad into potato salad with lemony vinaigrette, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and lots of Kalamata olives.

Make it a meal with a Cobb potato salad, complete with the works. That’s right, load ‘er up with bacon, chopped eggs, shredded chicken, a chiffonade of lettuce, tomato, avocado, blue cheese, and you are good to go.

Potato salad pitfalls to avoid

• Don’t skimp on the salt, potatoes need it, especially if served cold. If boiling, liberally season the cooking water, like you do with pasta, for best results. • Be mindful of your serving temperature, particularly if using a mayonnaise-based dressing (bacteria grow best between 40-140º F so keep your salad above or below that range). • Too much potato and not enough everything else – ideally you want a little bit of all the different ingredients in each and every bite!

Mallory is a clinical psychologist and food writer from Calgary, now living and eating in Montreal. Her goal is to help people develop healthier relationships with food. Follow her on Twitter @drfrayn.