Pieroti!

Pierogy, pirogi, pyrizhky, variniki...fabulous little dumplings from the east of Europe. When I think of perogies, I think of my dear friend Leigh-Ann, 7 months pregnant and seated at a kitchen table at a cottage somewhere on Lake Winnipeg, clapping her hands and chanting "Pi-Ro-Hee! Pi-Ro-Hee!". I think of the freezer bags of no-name potato & cheddar perogies, 2 for a dollar, that my brother used to boil up for him and me late-night after our respective dance class & swim practice. And I think of a Ukranian granny in a farmhouse east of Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, a circle of silky dough in one hand and a spoon full hot mashed potatoes in the other, standing over a giant boiling pot of water. Good images!

Roti brings other pictures to mind - breakfast with my mom in the hot sun outside a laundromat in Port of Spain; dinners to stay at the front table at Caribbean Roti Palace; eating steaming paratha from a white paper bag at Ali's West Indian Roti Shop; the looks on the faces of the two little white-bread girls my parents were minding when my dad decided to take us all out for goat roti, bone in. Another happy food. The hot, doughy packages, oozing spicy gravy, are one of the greatest comfort foods I know.

Curry potato is the most common and basic filling for roti, and easy to substitute for the usual bland potato/cheese stuff that goes inside perogies. It was a little odd to bite into an innocent-looking boiled flour dumpling and find spicy-hot curry inside - but it was a good surprise. Me and the bass-playing bear found it confusing but good. Good-confusing.

The verdict: pieroti is pretty labour intensive but massively delightful. Tasty enough to eat 3 nights in a row.


RECIPE

Pieroti
Makes about 4 dozen pieroti.

Dough
2 eggs
0.5 c vegetable oil
1.5 c warm water
1 tbsp salt
5 c all-purpose flour

1. Beat eggs and oil in a large bowl; add water and salt and blend well.
2. Gradually add flour to make a soft dough.
3. Knead on a floured counter for about 5 minutes.
4. Cover in a bowl and let stand for 15 minutes.
5. Roll out on a floured counter until very thin, and cut out with a 3" round.

Filling
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tbsp curry powder
1 lb potatoes (about 4 small), chopped
1 tomato, chopped
Salt and hot pepper sauce to taste

1. Heat oil in a large pot; saute garlic and onion for 1 minute.
2. Add curry powder mixed with 1/4 c water and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add potatoes and stir to coat.
4. Add tomato, salt and pepper sauce and cook for a few minutes.
5. Add about 3/4 c water, cover, and cook at low heat until potatoes are tender.
6. Mash well.

To make the pieroti:
Place 1 tsp filling on each circle. Fold in half and pinch edges together to seal. Drop 1/2 dozen at a time into a pot of boiling salted water. Boil for about 5 minutes, or until they float to the surface. Place in a bowl with a little oil.

Serve with fried onions and bacon, which are delicious everywhere, and sour cream. And pepper sauce. Obviously.

Jerk Rabbit with Wild Rice n' Peas

Dinner tonight combined jerk (a classic Jamaican and Caribbean process for flavoring and grilling food, usually chicken) with rabbit (an animal that hungry prairie people have been known to stew, barbecue, or cut up in little pieces and put into casseroles). I remember my mom cooking rabbits for a dinner party when I was in elementary school, to serve to my father's friends Clyde and Irene. And, jerk chicken is actually THE reason I quit being a vegetarian (after 10 years), after I moved to Toronto in 2003.

Rabbit meat is an acquired taste - but quickly acquired! The first few bites felt like we were eating chicken that had gone off; then, before I knew it, we had devoured both the hind and fore legs and were happily gnawing the bones. Thanks for dinner, Mr. Bunny! The jerk rabbit turned out spicy-sweet and fantastically tender.

I sided the jerk bunny with another Caribbean classic, rice n' peas, prairie-i-fied by substituting Canadian wild rice for the usual white rice. The coconut milk, onion, garlic, thyme, and hot pepper gave a fantastic party-time flavor to the chewy, substantial grains.

Healthy, too: rabbit is apparently a source of high quality protein and lower in fat than beef, pork, or chicken. Wild rice has tonnes of good stuff, like fibre, iron, and B vitamins. Which are good for your stress. Rabbit farming is increasing in Canada, and you can easily get locally produced wild rice anywhere from the rockies to Dryden.

Verdict: Superlicious! Didn't even need any hot sauce. The boy-toy liked it too - "Delicious!" - and remains my willing guinea-pig.

RECIPES


Jerk Rabbit
Serves 4-6.

3-4 lb rabbit, cut up into pieces (note: the rabbit was surprisingly easy to butcher; quicker than a chicken and also way more freaky! you end up with hind and fore legs, 2 racks of little ribs, and a big fleshy belly that is referred to as the saddle, split into two halves.)
1 large onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
4 sprigs thyme, leaves removed from stems
1.5 c soy sauce
1 c white vinegar
0.5 c vegetable oil
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp each cloves, nutmeg, and allspice
(note: some people like to use green onions in their jerk. I'm not into that sort of thing, but if you are, add 6-10 chopped green onions.)

1. Place rabbit parts in a bowl.
2. Combine all ingredients except rabbit in a blender for about 15 seconds.
3. Pour mixture over rabbit.
4. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
5. Preheat oven to broil and place rack at the top.
6. Broil about 20 minutes, turning meat 2-3 times until browned and crispy on all sides.

Wild Rice n' Peas
Serves 6.

2 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs thyme, leaves removed from stems
1 tsp oregano
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp pepper sauce
1 c coconut milk
2 c wild rice
2 c red kidney beans (canned or cooked)

1. Saute garlic, onion, thyme and oregano in oil until soft.
2. Add stock, pepper sauce, coconut milk, rice, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
4. Add beans, mix, and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Why The Prairibbean Cookbook? A History.

I grew up in various Prairie cities including Calgary, Regina, and (mostly) Winnipeg, Manitoba. I lived with my white dad (born and raised in a Northern Manitoba mining town) and my black mom (born in San Fernando, Trinidad and raised in Montreal, Quebec).
At home, the variety of foods that my brother and I grew up on was astronomical. Pelau and pierogies both appeared on the dinner table regularly - sometimes together. Christmas Day essentials included Angostora bitters and buljol at breakfast, then local wild rice, brussels sprouts, and a bird from the Mennonites at dinner. Cold bottles of ginger beer and Labatts (or, more often, my dad's sketchy home-brew) chilled side-by-side in the fridge. For treats, us kids sometimes got a sarsaparilla and sometimes got a Pic-a-Pop - my favourite flavour at the locally owned pop outfit was Blue-Bomber blue. Birthday dinners out often went down at Deen's Caribbean Restaurant and Patio where we'd devour curry goat (bone in); contrast that to Schwandt family gatherings where we noshed on Old Dutch chips with ranch dip, cheese cubes (mild cheddar only), sliced kielbasa, and dainties. Ohhh, Dainties - the ubiquitous matrimonial squares, peanut-butter marshmallow treats, and frosted cupcakes found at almost any Prairie event. For the other side of my family, dessert meant black cake and cooked puddings - dense, heavy creations containing copious amounts of sugar, butter, and booze. I grew up equally acquainted with "white people food" as with Island flavours, and I came to love my doubles and roti just as much as my holobtsi and pierogi.
Fast-forward 20 years. I am a grown-ass woman with my own kitchen. I have a man to feed, friends to cook for, and an appetite for the North as much as for the South.
Over the years, I have added the following to my kitchen bookshelf: Tropical Cuisine Caribbean Style; the Naparima Girls' High School Diamond Jubilee Recipe Book (a class project from my Auntie's alma mater in San Fernando); Homegrown Favorites Cook Book by the Manitoba Genealogical Society (with submissions from people with names like "Ostrowski"); Nothing More Comforting: Canada's Heritage Food; and a recipe card for Auntie Carol's Coconut Bake.
I have learned to prepare foods that connect me to all sides of heritage, and may be the only black woman in the world who makes a mean cabbage roll. I am also likely one of very few people who eat their cabbage rolls with NuPak Barbados Hot Pepper Sauce...the very quandary which has led me to the creation of this cookblog. Why do I have to choose? Why can't I enjoy the tastes, textures, spices, meats, and produce that represent all of my mixed blood - all at once? Think about it. Cabbage rolls stuffed with rice & peas. Classic date squares made with mango and coconut. Pieroti? YES! Bring it on! As an experienced cook in both styles with a taste for the unknown and a willing tester, I am in the ideal position to get this experiment started. Check in with me as I attempt to marry the comfort foods of the Prairies with those of the Islands - and I'm not talking about Hecla Island. Recipes will be tested, tasted, reviewed, photographed, and posted for your enjoyment. Please enjoy, and be inspired! Food is a beautiful thing. And this is gonna be fun.