This year, we challenged chefs to create a recipe that celebrates the unique local food scene in their region. We will be sharing their recipes, local inspiration and connections to local food in their region throughout Canada’s Agriculture Day.
Join in the celebration by sharing the recipes, posting one of your own, or any other creative way you would like to appreciate Canadian agriculture and use the hashtag #CdnAgDay #NWTag
For more information, visit: https://agriculturemorethanever.ca/cdn-ag-day/
Find more recipes from other regions below:
Battered Trout with Dill Bechamel Sauce - Sahtu
Caribou Celebration Dinner - Beaufort Delta
Smoked Rabbit Tacos - North Slave
Bison Tenderloin - South Slave
Moose Short Ribs with Cranberry Bannock
DEHCHO REGION
Photo credit: Lucy Simon
ABOUT THE CHEF
Name of Chef: Lucy Simon
Name of Business: Lucy’s B&B, Jean Marie River NT
Lucy is an artist, gardener, caterer, and business owner who has been running a bed and breakfast in Jean Marie River for over thirty years. She has an 800sq’ garden, usually growing peas, carrots, potatoes and sunflowers - before the access road was built, she had an even larger garden, and fed her family, school children and others in the community.
“I’ve always loved cooking and my children love coming back to visit me for my homecooked meals. I’m always playing with different recipes and things I’d like to try - I’ve made wild chicken with cranberry stuffing, different types of marinades for cuts of moose, and lots of homemade soups and stews.
This past while, I’ve been serving the workers in our community who are helping with rebuilding after last spring’s flood. I feel bad they are working so far from home, so anytime they want bannock or a pot of moose stew, it’s here for them. That is what has inspired this dish – it will make your family or visitors from away feel comforted and welcomed. If you can cook the moose the traditional way over a fire outside, that’s even better.
I have my bed and breakfast and enjoy catering for all my customers. I don’t have a menu, but I always have a good meal ready and I love sharing my traditional food with visitors who come to my community.”
RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS
Moose ribs, cut with a bandsaw 2 inches
2 medium carrots, chopped in ½ inch rounds
2 large potatoes
Bannock
6 cups flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons of stevia sugar
¼ lb shortening
2 cups of raisins, boiled for 10 minutes until moist
1 cup water
2 cups frozen low bush cranberries
To prepare the moose ribs and garden veggies:
Season the ribs with salt and pepper, place in a roasting pan with 1 cup of water and roast at 400⁰F for 1 hour. Once you take them out, debone the ribs and serve them with some of the gravy from the roasting pan. The meat should be easy take apart. I love to steam the carrots and potatoes so you don’t lose any flavour and keep all the nutritional value.
If you would like to cook the moose over the fire, I put it on low coals in the open fire and cover tightly tin foil and to make sure no juices doesn’t escape, you can throw in some onions if you like that too. After it’s cooked through, take it out of the tinfoil and then put it on low heat in the open fire with poplar wood and to let it smoke a little bit on both sides. Put it on the platter and slice it up!
To prepare the cranberry sauce:
My brothers always pick berries for me in the fall. Using 2 cups of frozen low bush cranberries, simmer on the stovetop with ½ cup of water and ¼ cup of sugar. I use stevia sugar. Let it simmer on the stovetop and as the water evaporates the berries make their own juice 10 – 20 minutes.
To prepare the bannock:
First, boil the 2 cups of raisins for about 10 minutes until the raisins are moist. Next, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and then add the shortening and crumble everything together. Then form the dough in a pile with a well in the middle and add the raisins and all the juices. Keep adding and mixing together and knead it lightly - not too hard so you don’t make it tough. Make balls of the dough between your hands and grease baking sheets and press the Bannock dough balls on the sheet to make the biscuit shape. Poke your fork 3 times on the top of each one and then put it in the oven at 400⁰F. The cooking time will vary depending on your oven, I check until the bottoms of the bannock are getting browned and then put the oven on broil for the last minute until the top colour is the same as the bottom. This keeps the bannock really moist. Invite everyone over and serve with the cranberry sauce, meat and veggies!
WHERE TO FIND LOCAL FOOD IN THE DEHCHO REGION
If you’re not one of the many home or community gardeners growing your own vegetables, you can purchase produce from the u-pick at Midnight Sun Growers when it is available, or shop at one of the farmer’s markets that crop up in Fort Simpson throughout the summer and fall.
Where do you purchase local food in the Dehcho? Help us share and promote northern agriculture!