bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), pp. 40–41
BANNOCK. When I was hired as a Foreign Service Officer in 2006, the Department was still a year away from cutting the Cross Canada Tour – a powerful tool to ensure a broad perspective of the Canada we were to represent abroad. I was lucky to be part of the penultimate Tour. We each had assigned responsibilities and I was one of several participants who set up meetings in each province and territory we visited. Without planning to do so, we each arranged to meet with Aboriginal groups in every P/T. It seems there was an implicit understanding of the importance of the Aboriginal voice in Canada, but I don’t think any of us could have claimed to have a good knowledge of the wide range of perspectives (which varied significantly from visit to visit) and issues.
THOSE OF YOU WHO WENT to Girl Guide or Boy Scout camp as a kid might remember wrapping dough around a stick and cooking it over the campfire, then devouring it with some butter and jam. This was known as “bannock” and it’s unfortunate that we may not have learned more about this Indigenous Canadian food with a complicated history.
Bannock, quite simply, is a kind of quick bread. It can be baked or fried, simple or rich with the addition of dairy and/or fruit, and prepared indoors or outside. At its most basic, bannock is made with flour, salt, baking powder, water and usually a fat. The bakers among you will recognize that combination of ingredients as similar to a biscuit or scone.
But it’s so much more than that. Look to its past and some will see it as a symbol of strength and resiliency of Canada’s original peoples, borne of colonial roots.
“How’s that?” you say. It is eaten by First Nations and Métis across Canada, but made with ingredients mostly from European culture. Even the word “bannock” is credited to the Scots, who made oatmeal or barley cakes on a bannock stone — a flat piece of sandstone, used as a cooking surface. But just because the word is Scottish, doesn’t mean North American bannock was a European invention.
Prior to European arrival in North America, roots, plants and seeds were ground and baked in a similar way. It was a clever and practical way to eat on the go for activities like hunting, because it allowed people to carry ingredients with them and quickly prepare food over a fire.
When the English and French immigrated to North America, Indigenous culture was systematically suppressed and efforts were made to erase it altogether. In addition to drastic measures such as taking children from their families and forbidding them from speaking their first language, communities were also forbidden to perform traditional activities and eat many customary foods. They were forced to use European ingredients like white flour, which provided calories but limited nutritional value. Their bannock evolved to use the ingredients they had in a new way, but for traditional activities.
Many of us struggle to move from convenient processed foods to a more whole-food diet, which we know is healthier. The forced switch to a European diet from traditional foods meant that Indigenous health suffered. Even today, many see the high rate of diabetes amongst the First Nations, Métis and Inuit as a problem resulting from colonialism.
Bannock is also a beloved treat: a familiar comfort food that appears baked, with a cup of tea, or at a powwow in the form of a fry bread taco. Nonetheless, I saw many online bannock posts referring to it as a luxury, to be consumed in moderation, in the same way I try to be careful about not eating too much sugar or white bread.
A number of eateries in the west of Canada have bannock on their menus, and several restaurants have made bannock a cornerstone of their business. Kekuli Café has two locations in British Columbia and serves traditional bannock and fry bread in a full menu range of breakfast and lunch options, as does the Bannock House in Regina, Saskatchewan. Bannock Restaurant in Toronto offers upscale bannock sandwich and burger options as selections as well as pizza and roast duck poutine. So if you ever need an excuse for a cross-Canada road trip, perhaps you just found your inspiration.
This seems an opportune time to bring up another controversial issue: that of cultural appropriation. Should people whose culture hasn’t had to survive what First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples have, be able to include bannock in their bakery, restaurant or cookbook? In my opinion, cultural appropriation is a kind of stealing; knowingly taking something that isn’t yours, without providing credit. I think food from any culture should be prepared carefully and with respect. And in this case, I think that any professional who chooses to put bannock on their menu owes a debt that can be paid by raising the awareness of the strength and loss endured by those who created the product being enjoyed. Doing so also adds the richness of knowing the history and context of what you are eating.
And you thought it was just bread.
Recipe: Mi’kmaq Four Cent Luskinikn (Bannock)
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
I tbsp butter
I cup water
I really wanted to find a recipe from my part of the Country, so I was happy to find this one by the anonymous Mi’kmaq Mama from Elsipogtog First Nation near Richibucto, NB. It’s named for its economical ingredients and can be either baked or pan-fried. Like any quick bread, it’s best enjoyed the day it’s made, but you can re-heat or toast it the next Gay too. It also freezes well.
1. If baking, preheat oven to 400°F and grease a 9” baking dish or cast iron pan with oil. If frying. pre-heat a cast iron frying pan on low-medium, adding oil just before you fry the dough to keep it from overheating.
2. Mix first five ingredients in a bowl. It will be sticky; don’t add additional flour.
3. Scrape dough in prepared pan and flatten with a fork.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes to golden brown, or Cook on stovetop until golden brown on each side, flipping once.
5. Rather than slicing while still warm, break the bread apart when ready to eat, for the best texture.
If you prefer a richer dough, you can substitute some or all of the water with milk, or up to half of the water with cream. and/or add a bit of melted butter or lard. You could also add fresh or dried blueberries or cranberries. or raisins. Enjoy plain, with butter and jam, or with butter and cinnamon-sugar, and a cup of tea or coffee.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), pp. 40–41. Read the rest of this issue →
