Maddie's Book Reviews: Prairie by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell
When I saw this book make its way into the Toronto store, I was intrigued. I haven’t spent any time in the prairies myself; however, my grandfather was born and raised in Saskatchewan. When I think of the prairies, I find myself daydreaming about his stories of growing up on the farm, the smells of hay being baled, and the warm sun. When we talk about the prairies, for most Canadians, the first thoughts are farming, oil, and huge stretches of rolling fields as far as the eye can see. But what if we are missing the best part of the prairies? What if our perceptions of the prairie provinces have left out something truly inspiring... a truly exceptional food culture?
Prairie is written by a food writer and a food critic, but more importantly, two friends. Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. When we, as a society, think of food critics and reviewers, our mind often goes to the movie Ratatouille: the classic mental image of the very self-serious critic walking into a restaurant, the kitchen staff gasping in horror, chills running through their blood as they wait to hear what the critic's opinion will be. Reading the book, I find myself laughing.
What I find in Twyla and Dan’s writing is two people so unbelievably passionate about the stunning prairie food culture that raised them. I find it hard to believe that either of these people have ever struck fear into the hearts of anyone, but in fact find myself wishing I could sit down with both of them and listen to the tales of their journeys exploring the culinary hotspots of our Grandest Provinces.
I have been playing with this cookbook a lot since I got it; a collection of over 100 recipes from people and places our two authors found along their journey to explore the grandeur of the Prairies. It sounds like a lot, but they break it down by season, allowing us to use what is locally available throughout the year. This is what really stood out to me!
When I buy cookbooks, I try to make something from them fairly quickly, test the book's mettle, and figure out its personality. Inevitably, I end up having to substitute an ingredient I either cannot find or don’t have the time to do a deep dive hunt for. Prairie is an ode to Canadian food and ingredients; it highlights food grown here, the seasons it's grown in, and the incredible, little-known ingredients that we don’t realize are native to our great Country. With the world being the way it is, I really love trying to support local everywhere I can. Twyla and Dan provide the Blueprint to pulling it off. The book highlights a culture of using everything in order to prevent food scraps from becoming waste, with little tips and tricks throughout.
They even have a staples section that talks about how to create a pantry of essentials to always have prairie food in your kitchen, and so much of it is food and ingredients that are staples in any Grocery store in Canada. There are some niche items unique to the prairies, but not so much so that you couldn’t find them if you were willing to look. Some may even surprise you! Haskap berries were a new one for me; I have heard they are like a mix of raspberries and blueberries that look like a stretched blueberry. I had never had them before, but behold: There they were at my local farmers' market last week! Looking at our buying seasonally allows us to get the freshest and tastiest ingredients from farmers here in Canada. Supporting our local farmers only helps us in the long run. I grew up around Ontario farmers; it's a hard life. Family friends waking up at 5 am to check on their cows, working truly hard days to make sure Canadians have fresh food to sustain them and their loved ones. It's a labour of love, and I want as much of my money as I can manage to go to them.
There is a shift in thinking when we start to discuss how we eat and how we handle food waste. These days, I find myself teaching classes at the Toronto store, talking more and more about using scraps. Groceries are expensive; it's hard to feel like we are getting our money's worth, but Twyla and Dan have some great suggestions, some I had never thought of. I am a huge fan of keeping a bag of veggie scraps or a bag of chicken bones in my freezer so I can whip out my Instant Pot and make stock; it's easy and a great way to save time and money. But Dan and Twyla take it a step further: got cream or yogurt that’s almost out of date? Make ricotta and use the leftover whey as an ingredient in its own right. Plant the end of your veggies and herbs so they regrow for you; I love doing this with herbs. Carrot skins, fennel pieces, parsley stems, and onion skins are great additions to veggie or chicken stock. Then you have pickling and fermenting, drying and dehydrating! The possibilities are endless.
Seeing a cookbook that uses ingredients that are easy to find and local to those of us in Canada is a wild experience for me. I have lost count of my French, Italian, and Japanese cookbooks - I often hear how it can only be so accurate with the ingredients I have. Some things I can substitute if I can’t find the same ingredient, but there are definitely differences, and sometimes those differences make cookbooks too finicky to end up in my regular rotation. They become my special occasion books. Prairie couldn’t be farther from that; the celebration of local, the celebration of Canadians- it's a beautiful thing. So sue me if it makes me ever so slightly proud of the food our country is capable of, and the incredible things we achieve.
While I write this review, I decided to make one of the recipes from the book I hadn’t tried yet: black garlic chocolate chip cookies. Let's be clear here, I would NEVER have voluntarily put three tablespoons of garlic in a dessert before now. It's ludicrous, except.... When I opened the bag of black garlic, I was met with a fragrance somewhere between the sweetest version of garlic I’ve ever smelled and warm molasses. And as I cut it up and added it to what was already a very nice-smelling cookie dough... It reminded me of warm sugar. On its own, I couldn’t believe how sweet black garlic is; in the finished cookies, I am happy to confess it was outstanding. Getting the little sweet hits of garlic that taste like a mix of molasses and candy combined with chocolate is close to godliness. And if, like me, you enjoy carbon steel knives, the blue patina your blade picks up from the garlic is pretty magical!
The cookies are far from a one-hit wonder. I make the squash and halloumi salad often, a warm and cozy dinner and an even better lunch the day after. Yes, it uses very odd quantities of two different squashes, but I simply prep the rest and freeze it to roast for my next salad or my favourite- roast it to make into gnocchi. The strawberry, mint and Radicchio salad is my new favourite for summer barbecues. Late nights of charcoal and wine beautifully pair well with the bright strawberries and peppery flavour of radicchio, adding brightness to rich proteins, all made with ingredients entirely from the farmers' market. The dressings are so good, I make them on their own to have with salads of all kinds.
We’re all guilty of underestimating the prairies on occasion, but if you want a cookbook that stands out on a shelf, something you will grab again and again, I can not recommend it enough. They wrote it not for industry professionals but for the average home cook, who wants to use local ingredients that won’t break the bank or overwhelm you. The recipes in this book are straightforward and fun, ranging from homey comfort food to exciting new challenges that will make you smile. A collection of recipes from their friends, family members, and folks they have written about over the years. They are unfussy and proud of it. And to that end, if one line stood out to me amidst the whole book, one comment that reads as so true to the book as a whole, it is as follows:
“To help with measurements and basic ingredients, and unless otherwise stated, keep this in mind: The butter we use is unsalted. Flour is all-purpose. Oil is canola. Salt is kosher. Eggs are Large.”
And whatever you do, try those damn cookies. They are on page 184. They are so easy- but I’ll swear to the fact that it was the best damn chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had.
