Taste: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table, CJ Katz

Start turning the pages of Taste: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table by CJ Katz and you’ll be seized by a desire to head to the kitchen and start cooking. But you’ll also be filled with pride because you live in Saskatchewan, a province that produces such a wide variety of healthy, tasty food products.

CJ Katz is a food writer and photographer based in Regina and culinary host of The Wheatland Café on CTV. Taste is her first book, and it’s a treasure trove of seasonal recipes highlighting Saskatchewan ingredients.

Spring features asparagus, fiddleheads, rhubarb and strawberries. Summer brings barbecued burgers, wild mushrooms and cherry pie. The Autumn feast includes wild rice, squash, apple dumplings and spelt cookies. Winter warms the stomach with split pea soup, braised lentils and bread pudding with brandied fruit. (Disclosure: As a vegetarian, I’m not highlighting the meat recipes!)

I’m longing to make the Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies (a rich batter with both cocoa and chopped dark chocolate sprinkled with sour cherries), Stuffed Mini Pumpkins (they’re so cute and the wild rice stuffing sounds delicious) and the Wholesome Pancakes (whole wheat flour, flax, chopped almonds and apple).

I was pleased to see that the recipes were simple enough for home cooks to make on week nights or on special occasions, taking advantage of CJ’s knowledge and experience to really stand out.

But Taste is much more than a good recipe book. It’s also a celebration of Saskatchewan products and producers. Each chapter is accompanied by photographs of local farms, farmers and their crops, and the recipes are punctuated by pages featuring Saskatchewan products.

I thought I was relatively familiar with Saskatchewan food products, but I learned so much. Did you know?
  • Saskatchewan has 86,000 bee colonies tended by 965 beekeepers, and Tisdale is the Honey Capital of Saskatchewan. 
  • Wild rice is native to the Great Lakes, but northern Saskatchewan is now the “rice bowl” of Canada, producing more than half of the country’s wild rice crop. 
  • Western Canada, primarily Saskatchewan, has two major spice crops – caraway and coriander – but we also grow anise, cumin, dill and fenugreek. 
  • Barley is the second most widely grown cereal crop in Saskatchewan. 

Be sure to buy a copy of Taste: Seasonal Dishes from a Prairie Table by CJ Katz. It would make a perfect gift for yourself or your best friend. The book is available at many locations around Saskatoon – the Little Market Store at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, SaskMade Marketplace, Indigo and McNally Robinson.

CJ Katz will be reading and signing her book at 1 pm on Sunday, October 28, at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon.

My thanks to Canadian Plains Research Centre Press for providing me with a review copy of the book.

See also: CJ Katz: Savour Life

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flavourful Saskatoon, August 28, 2017

Image
The Next Great Food Business Public Tasting, Sept. 7 The Local Kitchen is hosting a public tasting with samples from each of the finalists in the Next Great Food Business competition. Finalists are: King’s Jerky, Kind Condiments , Smoke and Salt BBQ, Bannock Express , and Voodoo Van . Wine Tastings Guess the most expensive wine (Sept. 8), sample some Rhône wines (Sept. 22), or attend the 2017 Premier Showcase Wine Dinner (Sept. 28) sponsored by Saskatoon Co-op Wine Spirits Beer. Premier Showcase is also offering a Portugal with a Splash of California wine seminar (Sept. 29) and a Women & Whisky seminar (Sept. 30). Refresh and Renew I had a chat with Trent Loewen about his plans now that he has sold Earth Bound Bakery. He is heading east to visit chef friends in Ontario and then off to New Zealand to explore what's happening there. After 9 years with a single focus, it's time to explore new ideas. Interestingly enough, the bakery's new owner is a business
Read more

The Golden Towns of Beaujolais

Image
Heading north out of Lyon, you pass through a long tunnel and exit into a lush green countryside leaving the city far behind. You then turn and head up the hill onto winding roads between a patchwork of vineyards. Many of the vines are really old with short, thick, twisted trunks and a thin stem of green leaves and buds. These are the Gamay vines of Beaujolais, interspersed with a few fields of greener, leafier Chardonnay vines. South Beaujolais, just 45 minutes northwest of Lyon, encompasses 25 medieval villages of orangey-gold stone (limestone and iron) that is surprisingly vibrant (I had been expecting something lighter, similar to the Cotswolds in England). Some of the villages still have the remains of 14th century castles. Oingt is classed as one of the most beautiful villages of France and it really is lovely. You can take a walk around the town on the former ramparts and the church is austere and beautiful. I was on a half-day tour , which combined stopping to
Read more

Petra Market: A Mediterranean Grocery

Image
Tucked away in a strip mall on Primrose Drive (north of Lawson Heights Mall) is Petra Market, a treasure trove of food products from the Arabic countries in the Mediterranean. I’m fascinated by grocery stores full of unknown-to-me products but also a little nervous about trying things, so I was really happy when Nour Dabbour, the owner of Petra Market, showed me around and told me about the different items. Nour is trying to stock products from as many Middle Eastern countries as possible. He even stocks the same product from a number of different countries because he says that each country’s product tastes slightly different. Za’atar , a spice mix, is a prime example with packages from Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and each one is a slightly different colour with a slightly different taste. The most popular areas of the store are the nut and treats bars with an amazing assortment of Middle Eastern candies and mildly spiced nuts. Nour gave me a variety to try and I’m real
Read more

Spelt and Millet: Ancient Grains for Today's Healthy Diet

Image
When I was growing up, whole wheat flour and rice were exotic options. Now we have a whole range of intriguing choices – buckwheat, spelt, millet, kamut – the list goes on and on. My problem is that I don’t know very much about some of these grains, so I arranged a phone call with Nicole Davis, the Owner/Manager of Daybreak Mill near Estevan. Daybreak Mill grows and processes approximately 18 different kinds of flour, whole and de-hulled grains, flakes, cereals, and legumes. They are 100% organic. “We want people to have access to healthy, wholesome food,” Nicole explains. Two of Daybreak’s products – spelt and millet – have been nourishing people around the world for over 9,000 years. Spelt Spelt was cultivated by ancient civilizations in Europe and the Middle East for thousands of years. It grows well in poor soil and doesn’t require fertilizer. It’s resistant to frost and the thick husk protects the grain from insects. However, spelt requires more processing than wheat as
Read more

Flavourful Saskatoon, August 21, 2017

Image
Prairie Harvest Café I was sad to learn that Prairie Harvest Café has closed its doors. It’s been one of my favorite Saskatoon restaurants since day one, and I really appreciated the fact that the chefs focused on cooking with local ingredients, many supplied by the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. All the best of luck in your new adventures. We’ll miss you. Hug a Farmer This has been a tough summer for many farmers. Prairie Sun Orchard lost their entire cherry crop to insects. Drop by their stand at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, tell them you care, and have an ice cream. My favorite is the chocolate cherry fudge, but Clare Pearson, the principal ice cream maker, says her new favorite is the salted caramel. Peppers If you’re like me, you assume that all small, skinny peppers are super hot and avoid them like the plague. But that’s a big mistake. Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens is offering two long, skinny peppers – one can be hot, but the other isn’t. Padron chile pepper
Read more