Every year I say I’m never doing this again, and every year I find myself in the kitchen staring at a freezer full of caribou, musk ox and other northern delights.
At this point though, if I said “no more”, I’m sure we’d have a Slow Food mutiny on our hands.
This past April was the 4th Annual NFN at our house and as always, it was a sold out event. I have to admit, this time it seemed easier. I guess we’re starting to get the hang of cooking for 50 people in our house.
The best thing about NFN is coming up with recipes to suit the products. You can’t mess with Steve’s musk ox carpaccio, that’s just a given. And the caribou rack and musk ox chops are regular guests; we just change the flavour and style of marinade to keep things interesting.
This year, the most unusual dish was muktaq, otherwise known as whale blubber. Apparently in some places in the north, they deep fry the blubber. Yes, deep fried fat. Imagine. We however, served it straight up: raw and right out of the freezer, with a little soy sauce on the side. Amazingly enough, alot of people liked it.
We cooked about 20 dishes including: musk ox potstickers, baked turbot fillets, panfried pickerel, smoked char & goat cheese tarts, whitefish caviar on quail eggs, and chilled cucumber & smoked char soup.
My favourite Okanagan winery, Mt. Boucherie, came through for us providing us with the lip-smacking Melange Noire, the big Summit, the gold medal winning 2006 Pinot Noir, a pinot gris, a Riesling and the ever-fun & tasty Blaufrankisch.
I have to admit, it was a great evening, and in spite of my grumblings and occasional tantrums I threw trying to get everything organized, I know I’ll be doing it again next year. I think I’ve found my groove.
Got caribou? If not, Buffalo Valley Variety Meats in Edmonton does (along with other hooved delights). Give them a call.
So sorry I missed it! As I said, only for Leonard Cohen – and he won’t be back this way again. He was so amazing – but as I look at the spread, I feel as if I haven’t quite experienced exactly what it means to be completely CANADIAN YET! Next year!
…and I just started blogging last August – a lot of work, but rewarding! I think I chose the wrong sevice provider, through, as I chose spaces.live.com as the slideshows were SO esay to install – but no one can leave me a comment unless they have a live.ca account – which is rediculous. Yours is a little the same – but shouldn’t be – most blogger account allow me to enter with my own ID – but this one isn’t allowing that – I had to use my google account, that I never use.
But, I am having fun with mine, too – take a look at me and Todd English in Boston this March.(you will get a little laugh at my photo with him!)
Valerie
https://acanadianfoodie.spaces.live.com