Locally made paté - Do it yourself!

A birthday gift to myself -- Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Charcuterie refers to the processing of meat by smoking, curing, salting, drying, etc., and includes bacon, ham, sausages, paté, terrines, confit and more. I began with paté: Venison and Dried Sour Cherry Paté (wild venison and Saskatchewan sour cherries) and Paté de Grandmere (pork with chicken liver - pictured above). All major ingredients were locally procured. Making paté was a bit time-consuming, but not hard to do. These early forays into charcuterie were quite successsful. Next... I'm looking for a hog's head to make headcheese. (Which, contrary to popular misconception, does not include the brains!)

CBC Radio Calling - Rhubarb

I was on the radio today with Garth Materie, host of Blue Sky, talking about rhubarb. Apparently, a lot of people in Saskatchewan like to talk about rhubarb. The phones lit up.

In preparation for the program, I learned a few things about rhubarb. Rha was at one time the name of the Volga River region, and Barb is short for 'barbarian,' as the Romans called anyone who wasn't one of them. Well before Roman times, rhubarb came from China and points east. Back then, it was used primarily as a medicinal. We didn't start eating rhubarb until the arrival of inexpensive sugar, in the early 1800s. Many of the callers to today's program sent in their favourite rhubarb recipes, which you'll find on the Blue Sky website.

Here are some other rhubarb recipes on this blog:

Rhubarb and Berry Galette

Rhubarb and Lingonberry Bread Pudding

Bumbleberry Pie

Rhubarb Muffins