cooking the harvest, and growing/catching it.

[george47]

"Prince George 31 yrs."

Then you know my family, but I hesitate saying their name. My grandfather had his family (my mother) there for a number of years pre Great Depression, but they mostly lived in Vancouver after - wile my Grandfather worked the whole North BC. But my aunt ended up settling land there in the 1960's with her 7 kids. They logged the land and built their house and buildings, and raised beef cattle. Clearing more land over the years till the ranch got pretty big. My cousin owns it now and works an insane amount keeping over 100 head, growing the fodder, and running the ranch. He will be visiting my parents in London in just a bit, his first holiday in 30 years.

Pies are ridiculously easy. I vote yes to a layered pie! Or just mix them together. Tonight I am hopefully making a pear and berry pie (my wife has the pears and may not be back soon enough - she drives a 40 foot truck and is working), using the pears we have been given. The crust is already cooked.

We spent a bit of time in La Ronge, getting almost all the way to Watson Lake - and do you know the phone box in the woods up there? It was famous, just a pay phone like any other out on the side of the road hundreds of miles from anywhere, we used it? Likely gone now, with cell phones. There were lots of people back there sneaking about cruising for minerals being all 007ish and not talking - but with university degrees. We were in Yellowknife for the big diamond rush - and managed to get no benefit from it! But you know those mineral prospectors, now days they are young PhD people instead of old guys with donkeys.

The bus we lived in in Jasper

I have some pictures somewhere in North Saskatchewan - I bought my Zodiac outboard motor up there and none were allowed to sell to an American because the exchange rate was %70 - but the motors the same $ price in USA and Canada - so the dealers were not allowed to sell to Americans as the American dealers were so much more expensive (price fixing) but some snow machine dealer wanted to get rid of one (new) so said he did not care and made out the warranty card. He wanted to sell it before winter and had 3 left. -

Last night; trout Mexican, very good. Pan fry trout fillets and roe in minimal oil with Mex. chili powder, garlic powder, salt, till done. Layer in oven pan and top with a bunch of sliced garden peppers, couple olives, and with a can of 'Rotel', a common Mexican thing here, a small can of tomato bits and peppers. Then with a Mexican cheese blend, bake uncovered 35 minutes till cheese is browning. Served with red beans, seasoned and slightly mashed Soulefood style, toasted corn tortillas, hot Mexican taco sauce, avocados............excellent! Fish Tacos.

 

[Robson Valley]

Nice pic = I live in McBride, just 2.5 hrs west of Jasper, mostly the same scenery but nothing around my house more than maybe 7,500'. Close enough that you have to sit down in my home to see the tops.

I worked out of LaRonge, summer of '65. Fisheries research gig, fly in 3 months on the Churchill, Dead Lake (Nipew), up from Missinippe. Worked or lived from Black Bear Island Lake all the way down to Keg Falls over several decades.

I'll do the layered pie thing tomorrow. Made the dough last night, in the fridge to rest for 48. Granny Smiths, I don't like an apple pie full of slop. Currants on the bottom, would like to see an apple colored apple layer on top if that's possible.

I just can't do fish tacos. Ruination for both parts. Side ribs with apple wood smoke & dry rub this afternoon.

 

[george47]

"I worked out of LaRonge, summer of '65. Fisheries research gig, fly in 3 months on the Churchill, Dead Lake (Nipew), up from Missinippe. Worked or lived from Black Bear Island Lake all the way down to Keg Falls over several decades."

Amazing! Was it Lake Trout? Right where you enter LaRonge there is a small bridge and incredible for Walleye there where it enters the lake. - our favorite inland fish was the Jack, Northern Pike, when in Northern waters. We could eat it every day almost without tiring of it.

"I just can't do fish tacos. Ruination for both parts. Side ribs with apple wood smoke & dry rub this afternoon." Ribs are good, but Mexican fish is great, and something I just began experimenting on wile posting here.

As a side thing on ribs - I have gotten to liking my ribs pressure cooked first, then oven baked, then sauced and baked again. Terrible, goes against against all the proper things, but My red meat intake is greatly reduced and these simple ribs seem to hit the spot. I buy a rack when on sale, cut it up and freeze, and have 3-5 ribs every 6 weeks or so. Do you shoot? I guess you get fantastic deer and elk meat. And those ribs can be good too, although the deer ribs I have made are not meaty - but good.

The layered pie will need different thickening strategies for each layer I would think - but never cooked with black currents. Please include a picture if easy. I would love to see it. Red just made a apple pie on his Harvest thread and is going to have it with the traditional British Custard Sauce. What will you have with your pie? My life is so simple that pies matter. I am off to finish mowing the hefty sized lawn/grass areas. My wife is bringing a pickup truck load of salvaged lumber so have some serious nail removing later. It is ferociously hot out so I have spent mid day sitting here with just short trips to tend things like the chickens a minute ago. I love the heat, or I would live in the North - which is the best place in the world, but I am over being in cold temperatures.

 

[Robson Valley]

I think the river is the Montreal but haven't been up there, even to fish, for maybe 10 years. If we could find a back bay with some lily pads, perch were the table fish of choice. Best of all were the burbot/ling/freshwater cod but I never was skilled at catching them. As for slough sharks, I'll catch 'em and you eat 'em.

The ribs get a dry rub, in slabs over a fat dish with beer in it. The applewood chunks go into a cast iron pan sitting right on the lit burner, the hot side. Afteer 2 hrs at 275F, I'll wrap the ribs in foil (yeah, what blasphemy but I don't care) and let them cook for another hour.

Meat, there's everything here. I hunt with a cheque book = side of 2 yr old bison each year then barter with the deer/moose/elk/goat/sheep/bear hunters. I'm quite successful at bird hunting for geese, ducks and 3 kinds of grouse, 2 kinds of ptarmigan up top, too. If it flies, it dies. Shot a Merriam's near the US border so turkeys are off my bucket list. If I lived any closer, I'd get my spring & fall limit (1) for certain. My, but they are good to eat. As you might expect, we have many mustelids, both bears and all 3 cats.

I'll use some cornstarch for thickening, just pretend it's 100% apple and go from there. Gotta start somewhere.

 

[george47]

I looked up slough sharks and got this site, which you must know, both Jasper and Sas. http://www.thejasperlocal.com/gone-fishin/slough-shark-surprise

But I love the Northern Pike, firm, white, wonderful flavor - but must be from high latitudes. Here is in the NWT, where we lived on them; the lake trout were so fatty there I could not enjoy them. This is my wife and our Zodiac which traveled with us.

Today I have a bag of 'trout' from last night to clean. I think I need to think Thai or Indian although being a lifelong curry maker I have yet to find a way to make a decent fish curry. The flavors do not seem to work when I try. Also no chapatis are available here to turn curried fish into some kind of Indian fish taco. I would do it Portuguese but it would be too much like the Mexican. Shrimp I curry and do Vietnamese spring rolls - great.

I think baked fish with some soy, 5 spice, hoisin, garlic, ginger, peppers and pineapple possibly.

And I have a pear/something else pie to make.

And if you look closely you can see a mustelid face in the photo center. This is from my porch when I was on a gig to get two different animals in a photo.

 

[george47]

Robson, ""Originally a Sask prairie kid,""

Then you must know 'Corner Gas'!

https://www.youtube.com/user/CornerGasSeason1

[video=youtube;1nMXV4NG4gQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nMXV4NG4gQ[/video]

"Lots to see, Nothing to block your view." I love the police car hiding behind the only bush on the prairie.

 

[george47]

So back to cooking - I have 15 minutes to take wile the pump runs in the garden - so I posted on Red's harvest thread - last night I thawed 2 (US) gallons black berries, simmered them with 4 cups sugar, for 15 minutes or so, strained out %75 of the seeds, waterbath canned the remaining for 20 minutes.

Freezer is emptying fast, getting ready for shrimp season

All a silly thing for a grown man to be spending time on, but I like it. Growing, cooking, picking, catching, I feel closer to natural things doing it. As I cooked the berries last night - wile washing the jars and getting things ready I thought what an amount of effort has gone into these 6 jars. I prune and trellis the berries, tending all year. Then pick and freeze, thaw, boil, can, and finally make a pie with them. The most costly thing imaginable in some ways - much cheaper to buy the pie if time is anything. But I do enjoy the processes involved. Will all this die out with the last of us?

I spent years in the bush where I - as a matter of course, would leave the dirt road, walk back 6 to 14 miles wandering all about, typically no landmarks (forest, nothing to take a bearing on), fording creeks, never on a trail but the odd - confusing game trails, then hunt all over for what I was after, navigate back (always monitoring the compass!) with the compass, but dead-reckoning, and solar and celestial navigation also vital; and could walk back out to my vehicle within a few hundred yards. No GPS - they were too expensive for any except those who had a known coordinate to find. And we could find our way out by woodsman-ship. I seriously doubt people can do this anymore.

The future will not be like my past.

 

[Goatboy]

I looked up slough sharks and got this site, which you must know, both Jasper and Sas. http://www.thejasperlocal.com/gone-fishin/slough-shark-surprise

But I love the Northern Pike, firm, white, wonderful flavor - but must be from high latitudes. Here is in the NWT, where we lived on them; the lake trout were so fatty there I could not enjoy them. This is my wife and our Zodiac which traveled with us.

Today I have a bag of 'trout' from last night to clean. I think I need to think Thai or Indian although being a lifelong curry maker I have yet to find a way to make a decent fish curry. The flavors do not seem to work when I try. Also no chapatis are available here to turn curried fish into some kind of Indian fish taco. I would do it Portuguese but it would be too much like the Mexican. Shrimp I curry and do Vietnamese spring rolls - great.

I think baked fish with some soy, 5 spice, hoisin, garlic, ginger, peppers and pineapple possibly.

And I have a pear/something else pie to make.

And if you look closely you can see a mustelid face in the photo center. This is from my porch when I was on a gig to get two different animals in a photo.

George, on the fish curry theme. Don't know if you an get hold of a copy of Rick Steins book Indian? He's a pretty darn famous fish chef over here and he does a lot of fish curries, and they are really good. I like his ethos with food too, he doesn't muck it about an is really in love with his work. You should be able to find some of his recipies online too.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[santaman2000]

Not a curry or even anything spicy, but another recipe to change up your fish is "chippered." It was developed as a recipe for perch, hence the full name "chippered perch" but it works well with other fish as well. The principle is simple enough; just coat/soak the fillets in Ranch dressing then roll them in crumbled potato chips (crumbled crisps to the Brits on here) place on a flat baking sheet and bake. Can't remember the exact temp or cooking time but it shouldn't be any different from any of your other baked recipes.

If you look up the recipe online you'll have to adapt it to a smaller quantity as al I've found were from military cookbooks and for dozens of men if not hundreds.

 

[Goatboy]

Being an Angus boy I thought I should include the piscene food of the gods; the Arbroath Smokie.
The ambrosial scent wafts towards you from a distance drawing you in like a sirens call. The you catch sight of the smoked silver bars of juicy loveliness and the mouth fills with the anticipation of sliding your teeth into the unctuous flesh.

Racks of haddock in a homemade smoker. Smouldering at the bottom are hardwood wood chips. The sacking at the back is used to cover the racks while they are smoked.

I do like a good smokie, either for breakfast, lunch or for my tea. And if there are any left over then it's time for a Sunday morning breakfast treat and make somekedgeree.

Don't know if you've had smokies before but they are really lovely, either hot or cold. Used to be a real treat if we were in Auchmithie or Arbroath that we would head in as they were just coming out of the smoker, they'd be warm and trying to eat them without the wonderful flavoured oil running up your sleeves was a skill. A lot of the modern smokies are dyed and or use smoke flavouring which isn't nice. Spinks, one of the better (best really) turns up at game fairs and festivals with a load of barrels and smokes them on site these days and it's always a fight to get to them afore they're gone.

Auchmithie, used to play and fossil hunt here a lot as a kid.

Easy enough to make your own smoker to do them and worth it if you're processing a lot of fish like you are. Don't know the laws about it where you are but I imagine they'd sell well at your local market that you were talking about.

Well that's me feeling hungry again after thinking about smokies, may see if the local fishmonger has any in or failing that some peppered mackerel for my tea tonight.

​Peppered mackerel.


Here's a wee video that Angus Council paid for about smokies.
<font size="1"><font size="2">[video=youtube;3K9J05JT-KI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9J05JT-KI[/video]

 

[Goatboy]

No photo's of Crail yet, but here's some of a trip to Mallaig a year or two back: -

fresh langoustines for lunch.

White coral beaches in Scotland.

My mutt Snoop keeping an eye out.

I'll have to stop here for now, the café I'm in has a slow internet speed for uploading pictures and it's busy for lunch. Will post more later.

 

[george47]

Absolutely stunning Goatboy! What a beautiful country you live in! I liked your tent food but could not be sure what it was - tell us, and I liked your tartan jacket. Those smokies (and I assume kippers also) look so good, and the video was inspiring. (did you make that video?) I have had smokies, finnanhaddie, and kippers where they are made, (the salmon was too high for anything but a rare thing - back them, but now with farm raised salmon cheap comparatively, we even get Scottish farmed salmon here at my local supermarket occasionally (Winn Dixie). My mother (in London) makes fish pie as a regular dish and uses smoked mackerel to boost the flavor. Your peppered mackerel looks good.

Your posts were so nostalgic, I really love Scotland (and England, Wales, Ireland, (NI too), But Scotland is the most beautiful) and was all over it - and maybe a genetic love too...I am 1/4 Highland Scott, 1/4 Swiss/German, half English by ancestry. Have you been to Orkney?

And the fish! I have a chef brother in law who has been talking for a good wile about sending me a smoker he has, but never gets around to it - I mean to smoke Mullet. In Florida it is a traditional food and when I lived there in the late 1970's the dive bars (I always used to go to the roughest bars/pubs everywhere I went, sort of a hobby then) and the real back woods, shrimper, coastal, places would sell you a smoked mullet as bar food to pick from the bones as you drank beer. Then here on the Mississippi coast (Ground Zero for Katrina, 2 days for the 10 year anniversary) Smoked mullet was called 'Biloxi Bacon and was a traditional food which has died out but people still remember it.

Last night I went out at dark, behind my house, and tossed out some shrimp bait, and a small mullet for redfish, and caught these in about 40 minutes, 4 casts of the net for the shrimp as you have to wait for them to come back to the bait after each cast. And the just legal redfish on the rod.

And for dinner we had this, my new standard FISH TACOS. I cooked the fish and shrimp rolled in cornmeal, in a small amount of veg oil. Then redbeans I cook from dried in no time in the pressure cooker (with some seasonings added after cooking - soul food style instead of Mex.) Mex. cheese blend, corn tortillas toasted (I am giving the flour ones shown to the chickens, they were an experiment as I always used corn, and a failed experiment, horrible), sliced lettuce, about 3 kinds of sauce, and missing is the avocado.

It all goes on the table and you just make your own as you feel like. My wife also has her salad of mixed greens. Then a pear/blackberry pie and whipped cream and a dish of butter pecan icecream. No soup as I was popping in and out to throw the net - but I did fry the fish and get it all ready between casts.

And then time to wash eggs a moment ago - does anyone keep chickens, how do you wash your eggs? We have 5 dozen spoken for at the market Saturday - all the ones we will have. My chicks are due to hatch Sunday but I worry about the thermometer which was left in the sun so got messed up, and roughly calibrated by using it as a oral thermometer with the human base being 98.6f. I figured out where the 100f should be...hopefully.

Santaman, your 'chippered' recipe sounds just like the sort of ghastly thing I love to make; Cornflake chicken being one of our standards, and the best way to bake a couple bits of chicken I have found. Our Canadian friend may add on it - but I used to love a sandwich I would have in BC, a 'Monti-Cristo' dipped in egg and then crushed onion and cheese potato chips and baked in a hot oven. With a shared plate of Poutine it was a great food of the worst kind, like say fried, battered, black sausage and chips with curry sauce in Scotland. Yum!

 

[george47]

Battery is gone - But I was in Biloxi shopping at the Vietnamese supermarket so will have some good things to cook!

 

[Goatboy]

Sounds like a good supper for you George.
The camp food was some whole BBQ'd lanoustines (Norway lobster), some boiled langoustine tails, a cold new potato salad with scallions, tomatoes and a chilli dipping sauce. Was very tasty. The tartan jacket is my old Swanndri shirt from New Zealand. Great bits of kit and last for ever.
I didn't make the video I'm afraid. It was a promotional one done by Angus Council to promote the area and smokies.
Speaking of smoked fish I don't know if you've ever made/tried Cullen Skink? A Scottish soup made from smocked haddock, potatoes, onions, cream/milk and plenty black pepper. Brilliant stuff, especially of a driech cold day with fresh homemade bread while the rain batters against the windows. Heaven.
My mate had been out fishing the other day and had a present for me when I popped 'round. He'd smoked a heap of brown trout for me to take away and I had a great evening meal of it. Kept it simple, just some brown bread and butter, oatcakes and a mug of tea. Hmm can still taste it.
Hopefully he's out again soon as I'm feeling a need to make some gravlax. Most folk use salmon but trout is even better in my mind.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[george47]

The langoustines are amazing. I still hope to begin smoking fish, but will likely get a smoker (or make one) which will do hot smoking so not be right for Skink soup, I think. Doesn't it use cold smoked fish?

I bought some large rice paper Spring Roll wrappers, Chinese dumpling dipping sauce, spring roll sauce, candied ginger, and a case of 30 packets of MaMa (soup). They have half a wall of boxes of soup or noodle packets - 10 to 60 packs a box (they are the boxes a retailer would get to stock shelves with packets) and the choices are boggling. With these being bulk boxes they do not list ingredients on the outside so it is hard to know what they are - it is in Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese.......... I wanted mung bean, thin clear, threads in clear soup. Most were noodle bowl packets with wheat noodles or Pho rice noodles and Chinese porrage. Flavors being pork, pork spare rib, shrimp, chicken, 'spicy', mushroom, peppers, and many not in English. I ended up with "MaMa thin rice noodle clear soup", 30 packets for $12.

I have caught some of our 'trout' to fillet and then grind (mince) with shrimp meat to make fish cakes. Hopefully get to those today.

Lost most of my post again. I always time out before hitting the post button by running off by a bit wile writing - and then it makes me sign back in - but only gives me a blank page when I do finally re-sign in and the post lost. Why is the time set for so short a period before logging one out?

 

[Goatboy]

Don't have a Windows browser open as not on phone but up in the top-ish right hand part of the screen where you sign in there should be a little check-box saying something akin to "Keep me/Stay signed in". If you check it it wont dump you out while you type.
Hopefully that helps?
Aye it's usually cold smoked fish which you then poach in the milk, though I've done it with kippers/smokies in a pinch and it's still good. A lot of smoked things over here have artificial smoke on them and it upsets my stomach so I have to be carefull of some smoked cheese, fish and meats. So saying if I'm buying I tend to buy good stuff, just not as much of it. I never used to buy meat or fish, it was all shot, produced or bartered by me. These days I don't get out to shoot much so I buy from a traditional butcher. Would rather buy good stuff, just not as much of it. Folks tend to want to eat meat every meal but it's not nesessary really. Things like chicken was a real rare treat growing up, now a lo of folks buy cheap battery ones almost daily.
Reading your posts is making me miss the coast a fair bit. Though I was sitting by the burn tonight watching a heap of brownies and sea trout that came up in the spate the other day. Had to resist the urge to guddle a couple for the pot.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[george47]

Thankyou for the mention of the stay in box. I have to copy my posts, resign in, and copy back, and post.

I have always heard of guddling, or tickling - here they do an insane thing of 'noodling' which likely comes from the Scottish word, they settled all over the South. One reaches into a hole or hollow stump for a huge catfish - they place wood barrels strategically if allowed, dive down and slide your hand into its mouth, grip the gill from inside, and wrestle it up. The thing is snakes and turtles. Snapping turtles have the most powerful bites of anything. Not to mention - the huge catfish on your arm.

(pictures from google) Tell us of guddling - would love a video of your burn, or picture. Do you have the right to fish it?

 

[george47]

So fishing tonight. I have that outpatient surgery Wednesday so have to go easy for a few days after, and weekends are too crowded out at the light. Last night I baited just down from the house, prepared the fish for dinner - spiced, rolled in cornmeal, and the chips, and then back to net the three baits (takes 5 minutes), rebated and got the rest of dinner ready, (microwave chips - even better than fried) and back for a final cast netting, getting a total of 150 live bait shrimp in the floating tank.

Microwave chips: Deep glass pie pan - add a T of oil to it. Slice potatoes thin, any kind, add to oiled pan and stir to coat chips, about 2 inches deep max. Microwave 3 minutes to stabilize them and now they will be ready for later. when redy -Then stir and another 3 minutes, stir, another 2-3 minutes and if done serve. To tell if done stick the rawest one with a fork - if it has any solid quality microwave longer. Best chips ever.

And the MaMa soup was a success - this packet, case of 30 for $12.

I cooked some fresh corn cut from half a cob, some okra and peppers, in 1 1/2 cups water (what the soup packet calls for) then added some smoked sasuage slices and a handful of the Thai shrimp I had cooked the day before (marinade shrimp in lots of garlic, ginger (both grated and chopped candied) bean paste, soy, hosin, sesame oil and touch sugar, then stirfried with an onion, chopped and lightly browned, a touch of water to make some sauce, then cornstarch powder sprinkled wile siring to thicken - just a tiny bit of water)

Then added the 3 flavor packets that come in the soup pack, and the noodles. Turn off heat and wait 3 minutes. Thai soup. The MaMa soup is clear broth lemon grass soup base with Pho (rice noodles) Wonderful. Much easier than it sounds - chop veg, boil 14 minutes - (I added a touch of Mexican Knorr chicken stock, I buy it cheap in a big jar), add the meats, when back to boil add soup kit, turn off and wait 3 minutes - pho noodles, like mung bean noodles do not have to boil.

(the picket picture - it is only the clear Tom Yum (lemongrass) broth and pho, (rice noodles) - none of the other stuff pictured, which you are supposed to add yourself.)

 

[george47]

I have way too much to do tonight, and will make an easy dish, Fish Tacos. I have fish fillets I sautéed earlier wile doing some inside things. Those go into a pan, topped with a sliced red pepper and a couple sliced mild jalapinos, topped with canned tomatoes and peppers, seasonings, and all topped with cheese and baked 40 minutes.

Serve with a side of peeled, boiled shrimp (cooked them wile I did the fish) toasted yellow tortillas, shaved thin lettuce, cucumbers, 4 sauces, extra cheese, lightly mashed red beans, all set out and you assemble the taco as you wish - and I am going to do the MaMa soup with shrimp and the other half cob of corn.

I forgot to make a pie today so Fudge Brownie Icecream. No, wile writing my wife called from the store - it will be Chocolate peanut-butter cup swirl.

 

[george47]

I need to make a pie! But out of frozen WalMart deep pie crusts (which are very good, 2 for $2.16) and cannot bother ro make my own. This is the lazy mans dessert, take frozen/fresh fruit (I love nectarines, better than peaches - always smell the stone fruits before buying - how they smell is how they will taste, and that is typically of nothing - and I find nectarines often smell/taste the best)

Put fruit in bowl with 1/4 cup sugar, lightly mash blueberries, cut cherries in halves, peel/slice stone fruits............. for an hour to make the fruit syrup and soften the fruit. Buy a blueberry muffin, or any - bran, banana nut......... slice it into 4 slices, top with fruit (if not sweet enough add more sugar first - sour is not to my liking) and then whip whipping cream. Lick beaters and bowl afterwards too, they are really good too. One big muffin serves two.