Culture
Cooking with Shane Chartrand Part 2
In Part 2 of 'Cooking with Shane Chartrand', executive chef Shane Chartrand shares his insights on Indigenous cooking, highlighting the health benefits of traditional ingredients and methods...
Cooking with Shane Chartrand Part 2
Culture •
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Speaker A
My dear friends, welcome to episode number two, which is, as you see, it's both audio version and a video version of our cooking or my cooking or actually Shane's cooking. So basically an episode of Philosophy Indigenous Cooking and conversation with, with amazing executive chef Shane Chartrand, who is also an author of acclaimed book Tower, which means.
Speaker B
Welcome, Come in, welcome.
Speaker A
That's exactly what we're doing to you guys. Welcome, come in. Join us on this episode where we're talking and showing you the spirit, the philosophy of indigenous folks foods. And I will be talking a little bit about the health benefits of these indigenous food offerings that Shane Chartran kindly prepared and cooked for us. So again, Shane, thank you so, so much. Yeah, I know that whatever you prepared, which we're going to sort of repeat and elaborate one more time.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
People outside in the studio already trying the food and absolutely raving about it.
Speaker B
That's good.
Speaker A
So thank you. That was awesome. So now, yes, as you see, before we get into these beautiful articles, because I want Shane to talk to us about their meaning, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Shane, for giving me.
Speaker B
Of course.
Speaker A
This is a treasure, guys. This is an absolute treasure. What Shane gave me, he gave me few pieces of chaga. Chaga mushroom. Well, it's basically chaga is the birch tree fungus, but that birch tree fungus is a super, super food. Whether it is teas, whether it is a shaved particles that you're going to make tinctures or use it in your cooking preparations. This chaga is an incredible, it's, it's a magnific, magnificent superfood. I'll talk about it later. Now let's, let's, let's get back to Shane. He brought a lot of stuff here. Please talk to us. What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this, please?
Speaker B
So what I wanted to do is bring more than just food. It's one thing to do a food, a food demonstration or a little, a little demo for people, but I wanted to go further. So a couple things I brought. And before we get into what this is, before the regalia stuff, I'm going to go back to the ulu knife because I want to actually eat some more of this meat that I made earlier with the haska berries. And these are actually normally used way up north to cut seal, to cut whale meat. And literally all you do is go back and forth just like this. And honestly, when you get used to using one of these knives, it becomes better than a chef, chef's knife.
Speaker A
It's very, very Sharp, guys. I actually cut this meat, it goes like into a butter.
Speaker B
It's true. Like you can look, look at him.
Speaker A
He actually put no effort on this.
Speaker B
Literally no effort. So I'm going to just redo the taste of that meat. That meat's great. The hasa berries are fantastic. I love has berries.
Speaker A
He did, he did something that is called tataki, which is basically highly seared edge of meat. And usually Shane says that he does it with a bison or buffalo preparation. Today he brought sustainable free range beef and as you see, microgreens with a condiment of the hascap jam or hascap jello. Yes, keep going.
Speaker B
And then obviously I made a tartare which again I'm gonna try as we're sitting here, just cause I want to. With local ingredients, local greens, some mustard that a farmer made. Sorry guys, I have to. It's too delicious.
Speaker A
He has to nourish himself. It is delicious. Go ahead.
Speaker B
So then we just fried an egg, made the tartar with mustard. So then a tartare you do have, you do add mustard to it anyways. But I folded in some farmer's market pickles.
Speaker A
So the Frenchies guys are going to add the Dijon mustard into this. However, us or in case of indigenous chef Chartran, he actually has mustard, local mustard greens or sometimes now we can forge wild mustards from the woods and add it to your. Into your tartar.
Speaker B
And the funny thing right now, and I'm not going to get into this either, just a little bit. It showcases a lot of great Canadian products.
Speaker A
Absolutely, absolutely. If we can. The best food is actually, of course we cannot do it in a sense. But the best food is what is called 20 miles diet. Oh, I kind of widens it to 100 miles diet. So whatever we can get local. So that is the most nutritionally dense food. But not only whatever we can get local is nutritious. But when you get local, you support your own. That's right. And again, in this day and age, we actually becoming more and more prouder Canadians. Even me, an expat from the Soviet Union 30 plus years ago. I'm a very proud Canadian. Support locals guys. Go to the farmers market.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
So. And I. Sorry, sorry, Shane, I keep interrupting you, so go ahead, please.
Speaker B
So the ULU knife, obviously I've got a couple versions of what that looks like I brought in today. Now we got a beaver knife which is right here, which is used to skin a beaver. That's why it's got the rounded bit on the top of it. So when you're skinning it, it just becomes a little bit easier when you're getting between the meat and the fur itself. You can also use a skinny knife. But this came first. This was very indigenous, and this is exactly how they made them. Obviously, a little bit different with this, but you get what I mean. Now. Now, this one's very, very special. This is a rib of a bison, and it's been made into a knife that's been sharpened and everything. So that's incredible. Obviously, a little leather handle. This is a little bit more on the River Galia side. So this is more dancers and all that kind of stuff. This is obviously the grizzly bear claw.
Speaker A
So these are grizzly bear claw? Yes, that was my next question. What kind of. What kind of fur is that?
Speaker B
This is gonna be. The fur on this, I think, was beaver fur. I can't remember exactly. I can't remember exactly. But I do know these are authentic claws. Not authentic claws.
Speaker A
Real claws.
Speaker B
They're not real. They are. What's the word for those?
Speaker A
Artificial.
Speaker B
Yeah, they're not real, but they. But that's exactly the size. Look like acrylic is what these are made of. And obviously, these are medallions that we wear during dancing. And these are my two personal favorites that I brought along with us.
Speaker A
Yeah, why is it your personal favorite?
Speaker B
There's a big story behind this one.
Speaker A
Go.
Speaker B
The story behind this one is a young girl. My favorite color is pink. And obviously this is made by a young girl who is too, too, too shy to come out and see me. And I bought that from her for $100. I love flowers. I love everything about this. And so, yeah, I bought that from her, and she made one thing, and that's what she made. And I love it.
Speaker A
Fantastic.
Speaker B
Yeah.
Speaker A
Thank you. So, guys, let's go into foods. Before I forget, we started with mustards.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
So, guys, what are the mustards? Mustards belong to the family of cruciferous. What does that mean? Well, the family of cruciferous is like mustard greens, like kale, like collard greens, like radishes, like arugula. Not only. They are deliciously yummy. Not only. All of them are local and eat them and you can actually forage them wild. But go to the farmer's market now you see them. So what are the cruciferouses are the superfoods. Why? Because what they do, and you need to chew them, and sometimes you need to cook them and you need to chew them. Well, but what they do, they turn on some cellular mechanism of Detoxifying or cleaning your cells, they upregulate something which is called. So now I'm being a doctor, which is called an NRF2 activation. NRF2 is the master regulator of cellular health. And that's why these mustards and, and collards and kale and yummy arugula. Not only that, that spiciness of mustard, as well as maybe spiciness and a little bitterness of arugula, it's extremely good. It's extremely good for your liver, for your liver function. Liver likes bitter. But not only that, those bitter flavors and bitter foods, they're very good for what something that is now a flavor of the whatever, which is called GLP1. And GLP1 is something that going to support you not gaining weight and digesting your food properly, but also activating your brain. Now, without further. I need to talk about proteins because indigenous food is based on animal protein, which is. So we're going to. So bison. We already talk about bison. Bison, beef, whatever you hunt. Because you guys were hunters.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
You were gatherers and hunters and every, basically every aspect of a wild animal.
Speaker B
Right.
Speaker A
Because as you mentioned when we were doing the first episode, what did you. You said you don't need to season a lot.
Speaker B
No.
Speaker A
Because the wild animal eats good stuff.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
And that meat absorbed that goodness and brings that flavor.
Speaker C
Yes, yes.
Speaker A
So that's why when you start thinking of, let's say wild meats, whether it is basically a deer or an elk or a bison or a beaver or a bear.
Speaker C
Yep.
Speaker A
All these proteins. Or venison. All these proteins are amazing proteins.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker B
And they all have different profiles altogether.
Speaker A
They're all different profiles, but they are very, very healthy and complete protein. And again, everyone these days is concerned about waistline.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
The wild proteins are very lean.
Speaker B
Yeah, I know.
Speaker A
They're very lean. Yes. You need to know how to cook them. They may have that wild flavor. You need to go. But the health aspect. And then again, what did you cook on. You cooked on a tallow.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
So talk to us a little bit about that fat. Please encourage the people who are going to watch and listen to the podcast, don't discard that fat.
Speaker B
Well, the funny thing about tallow and like non man made fats, like natural animal fats are so good for our particular diet, for lubrication and all that kind of stuff. But also the one thing that I want to back up for a second though, another great thing about those wild game, the wild game, the deer and everything. That we, that we caught, that we shot or. Sorry, that we, we hunted adheres really well to specific types of cooking. You may have heard of stone soup or cooking on stones, smoking, curing, putting on like making pemmican. I was going to make some pemmican today to give you an idea, but that's just it, it's preservation. It's those good fats in there too. And, and obviously like I do fats.
Speaker A
Those saturation saturated fats are actually good for us because we live in a cold climate. That's why we actually, we cannot be skinny. Skinny.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
We need to have some insulation.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
Like, you know, that fatty layer that not, not a big one, just like, you know, the normal one, but that comes from those good saturated fats.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker B
And that's the, that's the biggest thing about us right now is indigenous people, is when you lose the information after time, we gotta go back because we always had the answers. A lot of indigenous people still do follow those rules and understand it. If you go to the niska, to the B.C. area, Prince Rupert area, they literally live off the inlet. So unlike us that live off the land and bison and you know, elk and wild game, they're living off the inlet of an ocean. Same thing, just a different terroir.
Speaker A
That's right.
Speaker B
And different fats. And fish.
Speaker A
That's right. So now we're moving as you probably, or you don't see it on the plates because the guys, the guys are eating the smoked salmon. But salmon, salmon is so important of fatty fish is so important in our diet because we were talking saturated fats. So now what salmon brings. Now I am talking about either wild salmon or I'm talking about sustainably raised. There are very good salmon farms that basically, it's basically like a wild raised salmon. So that salmon gives us not only an amazing protein, but that salmon gives us what is called polyunsaturated fatty acids, our omegas. And the interesting thing again, going back when Shane was presenting us the plate, what he drizzled over this tataki plate is a little bit of a flaxseed or hemp seed oil. But these are plant based omegas. However, we need to eat salmon because the oils from the salmon, these are these polysaturated omegas, omegas that basically the plant based do not convert. That's why it's so essential to eat salmon because those are those famous. Sorry again. Polyunsaturated omegas that convert into eha, dpa, dha. I'm not going to basically give you the chemical transcription of these designations, but these are the oils that we must have. Not that we can have. No, we must have because otherwise neither your cells are not going to function, but most importantly, your brain is not going to function. So that's why fish, wild fish, fatty fish, is absolutely essential in your armamentarium again, as well as the proper protein. Because the older we get, actually we need to reconsider our good protein consumption, which has to become a little higher and a little higher. And when we were talking bannock. Okay, fine, it's deep fried.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
With some sweet. But that was celebratory.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
And that was it. It was representing the culture. But when you do that again, what do you need to do? You need to do some exercise. Basically your previous generations were not concerned about exercising because they were in the woods.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
They were by the river, they were by the ocean, they were exercising. So now we forgot about it. So we need to go back to those woods and start moving the body. Kind of doesn't apply to you. It's like you're moving the body.
Speaker B
It's actually funny you say that because in my professional culinary training and my indigenous world clashes sometimes. I'll give you a good example, please. Red fife wheat berry. A good example of something indigenous.
Speaker A
No.
Speaker B
Right, okay. Red fife. And was it something that we had in our diet? No. But now because of my professional career and being in the farmer's market, I use red fife wheat berry flour.
Speaker A
Correct.
Speaker B
All the time.
Speaker A
Okay, okay.
Speaker B
I got it for all purpose flour, which I'm trying to teach indigenous people to use instead of bleached.
Speaker A
He just nailed it because. Okay, fine, guys. You know, I'm actually gluten free because I try to preserve my gut. But what he just said, wheat berries. Because if you get wheat berries again, go to the farmer's market because there is a stock that sells you locally, Alberta grown wheat and they actually ground it. But they also have wheat berries.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
Because you don't have to buy the flour.
Speaker B
No, you don't.
Speaker A
No, you don't. If you buy the wheat berries, then you can cook them and you can grind them your way. Put it in your Vitamix, put it in your blender, you can grind them, you can get your own flour as coarse as you want. But then you can also take this wheat berries. You can make a beautiful soup with the wheat berries. You can, you can cook it, you can shave it, you can utilize it in so Many preparations. Now, the coarser your wheat or the purer your wheat berries, again, your digestion is completely different because when you have a processed white bleach flour.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
It's processed. It absorbs. It absorbs so, so fast. So you're hitting your pancreas, you're shooting your insulin so fast. You're raising your glucose level so fast. However, when you eat your wheat berries, when you eat your wheat berries together with your protein, when you eat your wheat berries together with a good fat, what's happening? Your wheat berries starts to break down very, very slow. And it's going to absorb very, very slow. So not only you're not exerting your body ability, you're not hitting your pancreas, you're not pushing your insulin. It's a very slow digestion and absorption. But what else does it give you when you eat that balanced meal? It's a satiety. Because when it leaves your stomach slow and it goes through your intestines slow, you're not hungry because you're still. It's physically, it's still there. However, if you do your donut, it goes in. Done. And then what happens is you put so many empty calories, you shoot insulin from your pancreas and then it's like, oh, I'm hungry again. So your utilization of your nutrients to through. Okay. Through proper wheat berries.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker A
It's a completely different ballgame.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker A
Now, before we end, I have to talk about huskups.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
We cannot not talk about huskups. Talk to me about and then I will talk.
Speaker B
The only thing that first off, flavor is unique. It's got a bit of a sweetness. Well, it's a berry all right. But the flavor profile is sweet and bitter. The sugar. Sorry, tart. This is what I meant.
Speaker A
Tart start bitter and a little bit of a sweetness.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker B
But it's funny, the amount of sugar that's actually in it naturally is so low.
Speaker A
It's amazing husk. And it's very indigenous.
Speaker B
Yes.
Speaker A
So huskups is basically funny enough. It's kind of like, you know, it's a baby of Saskatoon dairy and a blueberry.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker A
But the thing is, when you think of a Sask, it's very sweet.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
When you think of blueberry, it's very sweet. But husk up is not sweet. It's a very cool looking, oblong, ovoid, deeply purple berry, which is, they say. I was just doing a little bit of a reading yesterday. So it said that the nutritional composition is higher than blueberries.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
And to me, blueberries and susks is the top. So by nutrition and stuff. So huska berries apparently are very high on something that is called anthocyanins. And anthocyanins is one of the major natural antioxidants. And what else is high, surprisingly, in anthocyanins is red salmon. Like Alaskan salmon.
Speaker C
Yeah.
Speaker A
Because it's red anthesign and it's red.
Speaker B
That's right.
Speaker A
And it's open. It's funny when you open husk up or you open blueberry, so I think you open blueberry, it can be blue or something is a different color. It's kind of reddish. So husk ups are extremely nutritious and they're in season now. Go to farmer's market, get some. Or if you're lucky, and if you have a neighbor like mine, she's got husk up trees, I've got huskups. So that's. Yeah. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.
Speaker B
I know, it's. It's incredible.
Speaker A
So that is about our meal, guys. So I think now I have elaborated, obviously, Shane taught us a few things. Not enough about indigenous food. About his philosophy.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
And, you know, I kind of thought that I will say, oh, this is our final episode. I kind of don't think that this is our final episode because I think we need maybe to come back and you're going to cook us another meal, something else, and we are going to talk about it. However, again, I told you this. You see this? I cannot not talk about chaga mushrooms. So Chaga mushrooms, guys. Chaga mushrooms. This is your adaptogen. What means adaptogen? It adapts. It basically recalibrates your system. It recalibrates your brain, it makes you function, but it recalibrates your immune system.
Speaker B
This is it.
Speaker A
Yeah, that's what it is. It recalibrates your proper immune system. So again and again and again, look into this. Get your chaga, make your tea. I will strongly encourage you guys stop drinking tea out of the packet.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
I don't want you to drink the paper. I want you to drink the tea. So go to the farmer's market, buy proper steep tea, make steep tea, and then you will enjoy not only the flavor of the tea, but also the nutritional component, the medicinal component of these teas. And I encourage you steep chaga and chaga, funny enough, you reutilize it.
Speaker B
I was gonna say you boil it.
Speaker A
And then you keep adding and you keep adding and you keep adding. And I actually also made a chaga tincture and I think now my chaga tincture is like few years because it steeps in the alcohol I use, I believe I use whiskey, whatever my husband had. But then on a pipette, couple, couple drops. But it getting stronger and stronger. So guys, I think this was an absolutely awesome visit today with our Chef Chartrand. Absolutely. I cannot wait to welcome him back. Absolutely. Would love to say thank you to an amazing host. Behind the scene is our amazing Ruben Serafa who is recording this session or this podcast. So guys, again this was another absolutely amazing visit with all of you and I will strongly encourage you to go back and Visit my website, healthwithsveta.com www.healthwithsveta.com I would like, I would love you to visit Shane Chartrans social media. Whether it's a website, whether his Instagram account or his Facebook, go visit him. But most importantly, go visit him at the farmer's market.
Speaker C
Yes.
Speaker A
So again and again and again, thank you very much. Till next time, to our health and most important, to our happiness. Thank you.
Speaker B
One last word for you is Meow Kisaka Anuk. Today is a good day.
Speaker A
Thank you. Meow Kisaka Anuk. Yes, today is a good day.
Speaker B
Thank you.
Speaker A
Thank you.