2 minute read
Eat Alberta First
By Karen Anderson, Touchwood Editions, $40
Karen Anderson of Alberta Food Tours, is one of Alberta’s biggest advocates for supporting our local farmers and producers, and she says that the aim of this book is to encourage everyone, everywhere, to source, cook, and eat locally. She’s impressed by the quality and abundance of food produced in our province, and I love her example of our dedication to it: “We have four million people and five million cattle.”
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Eat Alberta First is divided into seasonal chapters, starting with “The Long, Dark, and Deep Winter” - an in-depth explanation of how to stock your pantry, the essentials, and tools needed for a wellequipped kitchen. Moving on to “Cabin Fever Season”, Anderson shares a family recipe for a sweet sourdough starter and seven recipes for using it. We can almost smell the fruit strudel (p.87) and banana bread (p.89) wafting from the kitchen.
“Neither Here Nor There” takes us through foraging, with recipes for your foraged ingredients. Hooray for morels – we can’t wait to make the Mushroom Cheese Spread on page 107.
There are too many recipes to list that I want to try in “Full-on Summer” - casual throw-together recipes and cooking for the great outdoors. Creamy (no cream) Asparagus Soup (p.133) is calling my name, and I love the story behind Dynamite Dick’s Five Bean Beans! (p.149).
“Harvest Hurry-Up” includes a primer on canning and preserving, along with recipes - Blueberry Jalapeño Jam (p.203) is high on my list - and then it’s time for “Fall Back”, where the theme is batchcooking, with recipes for soups, stews, and lots of cookies. I’ll be enjoying Triple “S” Soup (p.221) and Chipotle Bison Chili (p.227) this autumn.
Anderson’s final chapter is “Celebrations, Feasting, and Entertaining Through the Year”, and ever inclusive, all festivals are here as well as her Top 10 Tips for hosting festive parties. I’ve bookmarked Lamb Shanks in a Saskatoon and Pinot Noir Sauce (p.317) to make this Easter!
The book closes with a generous 12-page appendix of Alberta food artisans and where to find them, and with it our applause for such a massive undertaking on this substantial volume.
