From moose tongue to rabbit stew: some Indigenous holiday dishes

When it comes to holiday food, most people probably think of turkey. But in Indigenous communities, the choices can be as diverse as the individuals who prepare them.

From canned moose to rabbit stew, here are just a few of the meals that Indigenous people are sitting down tothis holiday season.

Rabbit stew

For Cezin Nottaway, 37, the holidays usually involve rabbit stew.

An Algonquin chef, Nottawayregularly cooks traditional foods learned from her grandmothers or "kokomic"in the Anishinaabe language as part of her business, Wawatay Catering.

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Using her grandmother or kokom's technique, Nottaway will tenderize the rabbit meat with salt pork, let it simmer for twohours, and later add potatoes to it. Once the potatoes are cooked, she adds a "slurry"of water and flour.

The second method usescelery, rosemary sprigs, garlic cloves, half of a salted pork, peppercorn, salt and twobeers, all in a dutch oven. Nottaway says the two secret ingredients for this dish areDijon mustard and homemade maple syrup.

Over the last few years, Nottawayhas been involved ina recipe book, winning a Quebec entrepreneur award through the Jeune Chambre de commerce de Montral (JCCM). Expanding her staff, she continues to build her kitchen and hopes to eventually turn it into a restaurant. Nottaway was born in Rapid Lake, but raised in Parc de la Verendrye, Quebec.

Boo-dnin

Stephanie Feletto, 46, is from Moose Cree First Nation in Ontario, but raised in Moose Factory, along the James Bay coast. She remembers the smell of her grandmother's house when she would make a steamed plum pudding, called boo-dnin.

It'sa traditional delicacy, well known in Quebec and Ontario coastal communities.

Making boo-dnin required the burning of white sugar and the creation ofa soft "pillow"filled with raisins and currants, with spicy aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. The mixture would be wrapped in a cotton cloth and placed in a small amount of boiling water. It is the steam that eventually cooks the boo-dnin, with small amounts of boiling water added throughout the cooking process.

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Feletto says when it's done, it's like unwrapping a surprise. The best part of the boo-dnin is the top of it, having a candy-like texture and sweet flavour from being exposed to the steam. Boo-dnin is best served warm.

Canned moose, moose tongue

For Ann Davies-Sutherlandof Grande Prairie, Alta., the holidays involvedeating canned moose meat and moose tongue with her grandparents, Hilda and Reg Lizotte.

This is the time her papa would give her a pillow case of dry meat, too. Davies-Sutherland said her grandmother's cooking is what brought the family together, especially during the holiday season.

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The canned moose meat, actuallyin a mason jar, would be cooked in its owngravy on a stove, says Davis-Sutherland. The meat was so tender, it melted like butter, she said, andhad a salty and sweet flavour.

While the moose tongue was roasted and served with gravy a tougher meat, but still good.

Moose tourtire

Michel Dumont, 49, from Thunder Bay, Ont., with Ojibwayand Mtis roots, celebrates the holidays with atourtire made from groundmoose or deer meat.

It's a dish he's been perfecting for years, he said, especially after misplacing a family recipe box many years ago.

Dumont also celebrates the season with sugar pie, something his mom used to make and blood sausage.

Boiled seal, arctic char

CBC Indigenous also received quite a response when we asked our readers to share some of their holiday food memories.

Aana Kristensen posted on CBC-Indigenous' Facebook wall that she will be marking the holidays with roasted caribou, boiled sealmeat or goose. And, maybe even some frozen arctic char.

Brenda Michelle Courchene-Greyeyes wrote that her family often had "bullets and bangs," on New Year's Eve which is a traditional Mtisdish.

"The bullets are meatballs in flour and onion gravy and the bangs are fried bannocks."