Chef David Wolfman鈥檚 first cookbook, Cooking with the Wolfman: Indigenous Fusion has been praised as 鈥済lorious,鈥� 鈥渟tunning鈥� and 鈥渂oth a storybook and a cookbook鈥 good read and a fine cooking course in one.鈥�
Chef Wolfman is well-known to people in the Sea to Sky Corridor and Lillooet area. He is from the Xaxli鈥檖 Nation (his mother was Dolores Diablo) and he has visited this area to catch up with family and teach cooking classes.His new book was written in collaboration with his wife Marlene Finn, who is Metis.
It was recently selected 鈥楤est Cookbook in Canada鈥� (in English) by Gourmand International, the only international competition in the sector. The book will now represent Canada in the World Cookbook Fair in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2018.
Chef Wolfman said he鈥檚 鈥渢hrilled鈥� that the book will be competing internationally at the Fair.听 He says he has many inspirations but one of his biggest is the 鈥渃ountry food鈥� created by Indigenous people across Canada and throughout North America.
David Wolfman is a classically trained Chef and听Culinary Arts Professor at George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto.
For almost 20 years,听he was the host of and executive producer of听鈥楥ooking with the听Wolfman,鈥� an APTN program featuring his听Indigenous fusion recipes.
Lured by the smell of baking bread, he learned to cook in his mother鈥檚 kitchen. It was a way for the young boy to spend quality time with her and listen to stories of her life and of the Xaxli鈥檖 people.听
After his mother left Xaxli鈥檖 in the 1950s, she met Rubin Wolfman, a railway employee and they settled in Toronto.
When she made salmon for dinner, her son recalls, Dolores Wolfman would be homesick. She told her family she was accustomed to being able to 鈥渏ust go and get the salmon. We had an abundance of this.鈥�
Writing recently in The Globe and Mail, Angela Sterritt said, 鈥淲olfman is being听lauded as an innovator and an inspiration听鈥� one who championed Indigenous flavours and techniques well before the mainstream North American food scene paid attention.鈥� Sterritt in turn cited the words of Dr. Lenore Newman, the Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment: 鈥淒avid Wolfman takes a cuisine that was treated in Canada as almost an historical artifact and made it as a living cuisine again."
Chef Wolfman observes that while there were significant variations from region to region and from season to season, the traditional diets of Indigenous peoples of North America were very healthy - high in protein and nutrients, low in salt, sugar and almost without refined carbohydrates. They included large and small game, waterfowl, eggs, fish and seafood, tubers, berries, tree roots, grasses, seeds and cultivated food crops.
The new cookbook features recipes reflecting that heritage but developed for a modern palate 鈥� Slow-Cooked Ginger Caribou Shanks, Blackened Sea Scallops with Cream of Pumpkin and Mexican Chocolate Spice Cake (see the recipe below).
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Mexican Chocolate Spice Cake
MAKES 8 SERVINGS
This is a moist cake made in the Mexican tradition of combining vanilla and cocoa with cayenne pepper and other spices. There鈥檚 just a hint of spice, so you can ramp it up if you want more kick. The batter can also be used to make cupcakes, but I use a round cake pan. Just a little dusting of icing sugar and fruit, and you鈥檙e done!
2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda 1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon 11鈦�2 tsp (7.5 mL) cayenne pepper 1 cup (250 mL) butter, plus 1 tsp (5mL)
for greasing baking pan 1鈦�2 cup (120 mL) sifted cocoa powder,
plus 1 Tbsp (15 mL) for dusting 3鈦�4 cup (180 mL) brewed black coffee at room temperature 2 eggs, beaten 2 cups (475 mL) sugar 1鈦�2 cup (120 mL) buttermilk 1 Tbsp (15 mL) vanilla 1鈦�4 cup (60 mL) icing sugar
TO SERVE (OPTIONAL):
Handful fresh raspberries Whipped cream
1 Preheat oven to 375F (190C).
2 Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cayenne
into a mixing bowl. Sift again. Set aside.
3 Melt 1 cup (250 mL) butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add 1鈦�2 cup (120 mL) cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the coffee and heat to lukewarm. Remove from heat.
4 Add the eggs, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla to the cocoa mixture and stir to combine. Whisk in the dry ingredients very lightly. Small lumps are okay.
5 Butter a 9 by 9 inch (23 脳 23 cm) cake pan and dust with cocoa powder. Pour in the batter.
6 Bake for 30 minutes. Let cake cool for 20 min- utes, covered with a clean tea towel before loosening edges and inverting onto a serving plate.
7 Sift icing sugar onto the top of the cake. Serve with fresh berries or whipped cream if desired.
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From the book Cooking with the Wolfman: Indigenous Fusion, by Chef David Wolfman and Marlene Finn, 漏 2017. Published by Douglas & McIntyre. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
