by Mary Bailey
Twyla Campbell and Dan Clapson’s cookbook, Prairie: Seasonal Farm-Fresh Recipes Celebrating the Canadian Prairies came out this fall. Long supporters of all things prairie, the authors, both born in Saskatchewan, feature their own recipes as well as recipes from family, friends and chefs from the Prairie Grid Dinner Series, all in a seasonal format.
“It’s a love letter to the prairies,” says Twyla.
Edmontonians know Twyla, she reviewed restaurants for CBC Edmonton AM for over a decade and is a Kitchen Party judge. Dan is a Calgary-based food writer and creator of Eat North.*
They met on a press trip and were soon travelling together, including a five-week trip to Southeast Asia in 2019. That’s when Dan asked Twyla; ‘What would you think about doing a book on prairie food?’
“That was also the year I was diagnosed with cancer,” says Twyla. “Then Covid came and as things changed, then settled, he asked again. We both thought that prairie food gets overlooked and we wanted this book to change that.
“I really liked the idea of a seasonal cookbook. I like how Gail (Gail Hall subject of Twyla’s first book, Maps, Markets and Matzo Ball Soup) thought about food and it’s how I like to cook. We pitched to Random House; they thought a prairie-based cookbook was a great idea.
“I am overwhelmed by the response. Prairie is one of Indigo’s most anticipated books of 2023. There has been a lot of buzz and media interviews. It’s all pretty exciting. And to be an Appetite by Random House book? That’s pretty much a dream.
“I am really proud of the first 10 pages. Why we wrote this book, what is seasonal eating. Food waste is so important to me, it was the way I was raised. If it was truly unusable it went to the hogs. How easy it is to make your own ricotta and save the whey? That kind of info is super important.”
Putting together the book long distance was a challenge. “We didn’t get together as much as would have liked. There were a lot of Zoom meetings, a lot of phone calls. I went to Calgary or Dan came to Edmonton. Our friends came over for dinner. I cooked three beef tongues.
“The book is visually appealing, we have Dong’s photos to thank for that. It’s approachable, but we are two food writers, so couldn’t get away from telling a few stories here and there. We didn’t want to be super wordy in the preambles, but each recipe in the book is there for a reason, it means something to us.”
“We made a spreadsheet to help us decide which recipe and where it should go,” says Twyla. “We talked it through. We plunked in dishes we wanted to make, family favourites. Or, we needed another protein, or we don’t have any fish in this season. Spring was the hardest. Not much grows in the spring.”
“I am very proud of how it turned out, a huge undertaking. I don’t know if we were prepared for how much work it was. I learned that writing about food and recipe writing is so different—detailed and so technical. How much is a squirt of lemon juice? I found out.
“The team at Random House was very good—they’ve been around for a long time. We had to trust the process and do what they said.”
“My favourite recipe in the book is kuppershnuk, a rice, bacon and sauerkraut casserole. My mum learned it from her mother. I think the dish came out of a mistake. It’s a riff on the Ukrainian (or Polish) kapusniak, which is a soup. We call it kuppershnuk and it’s delicious!”
A Prairie Sampler
Rhubarb Simple Syrup
Rhubarb is all about the tang, with citrusy yet herbaceous flavour—there’s nothing quite like it. We use this simple syrup in our Rosy Clover (page 68) –Twyla Campbell
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup fine granulated sugar
1 cup water
Add the ingredients to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and the rhubarb has broken down into a thick stew. Take off the element and let cool. Strain the contents through a fine- mesh sieve into a glass jar and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.
Roasted Shallots and Garlic
Make the most of the garlic and shallot harvests by turning them into an at-the-ready flavour bomb to use when roasting meats or vegetables. –Twyla Campbell
6 large shallots (about 10 oz), sliced into rounds
10 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and halved
1 cup canola oil
Preheat the oven to 300ºF
Combine the ingredients in a baking dish and cover with tinfoil. Set in the oven. Stir after 30 minutes. After one hour, stir again. Take the foil off and continue roasting for a final 30 minutes. Let cool, pour into a sealable jar and store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Read more about Prairie in Dish. *In the printed edition of this article we misnamed Eat North. We apologize for this error.