Cooking with the Wolfman

This debut collaboration between chef Wolfman, host of the long-running television show Cooking with the Wolfman, and Finn, his business partner and wife, introduces readers to indigenous cuisines using traditional ingredients and cooking methods from across the Americas. “I love combining root vegetables of the plains with fish from the Arctic and wild edibles from the woodlands, with a touch of hot pepper from our brothers to the south,” the authors write. They also blend traditional and contemporary indigenous cuisine with non-indigenous flavors. Recipes span soup to dessert, and highlights include white salmon pizza, spicy bean turnover with orange mint yogurt dip, lemongrass quail broth with wild rice, and Shawnee cake. The book includes practical basics such as tips on how to fillet fish, purchase large game meat, and smoke meat. Some ingredients may be hard to source (birch syrup, caribou), but the authors offer substitutions throughout. Anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book touch on the authors’ heritage (Wolfman is a member of the Xaxli’p First Nation and Finn is Métis) and provide useful context for the recipes. This is an ideal cookbook for anyone interested in modern indigenous cuisine. (Apr.)