Dinner for 500?
No problem if you're Rob Kinneen, a charismatic Tlingit chef and the brains behind a natural-food campaign designed to raise awareness about local Alaska choices from seal to yarrow.
Asked to serve dinner for hundreds attending the National Indian Health Board's annual meeting in Anchorage, Kinneen called up buddies in culinary schools and spearheaded a feast at the Alaska Native Heritage Center last week.
Food stations dotted the winding path behind the center that takes visitors through birch stands and Alaska Native history, with animal skin kayaks along the water and display dwellings modeled after ancient homes.
In Alaska, natural means everything from spruce tips to caribou to grasses and plants many residents know little about. Raising awareness in Alaska about the "store outside your door" is Kineen's mission.
"People say Alaska is a food desert. You know, I'm Alaska Native, and my family was eating well long ago," he said. When Kinneen was executive chef at Orso restaurant in downtown Anchorage, he spiced up menus with foods from the land whenever possible. Kinneen is on his own now. He's launched a website to promote his message and he's even been on NBC's Today show, where he whipped up Thai rolls with Alaska prawns and fireweed.
Lately, Kinneen's also worked with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage on projects that have helped him document traditional foods and recipes throughout the state.
He's going on a seal hunt soon in Western Alaska, soon, an opportunity that's available to him because the Marine Mammal Protection Act makes exceptions for Alaska Native hunters. Seal wasn't on the menu last week at the Heritage Center, but plenty of other goodies were.
To serve the masses, Kinneen drew on his contacts at Southcentral culinary schools, including at the King Career Center where he got his start, and the Alaska Job Corps. Dishes included appetizers of Eskimo ice cream, boiled herring eggs and smoked hooligan. Some of the aperitifs disappeared fast. But they weren't for everyone.
"This has bones and everything?" said one man in a ballcap, pointing to little slices of smoked hooligan in sample cups. Some still had their crispy tails and fins.
"Yes," said a chef.
"Ugh," the man said, shuddering and walking away.
Then there were two ladies from tribes in Oklahoma, hauling around big purses and outsized hair-dos. They considered tasting the herring eggs on hemlock, but left the food station laughing once they learned it was fish.
"We don't eat fish where we're from," one of them said.
But the treats clearly had fans. Diners devoured the Eskimo ice cream, a tasty mix of white fish, tundra berries and Crisco. And the sliced moose, dipped in a white sauce, was tender and tasty as brisket.
The herring eggs in tamari soy sauce was accompanied by some lip smacking, too. They'd been harvested on sprigs of hemlock, with the branches placed in the water so fish could spawn on them. The little white clumps popped with each bite, and the hemlock added piney blasts of flavor.
The main dish was less adventurous — but plenty Alaskan: a meaty moose stew with veggies.
Kinneen, born and raised in Petersburg in Southeast, said his recent efforts have opened his eyes to scrumptious, healthy choices that are environmentally friendly because they don't have to be shipped to Alaska. "They're all right here," he said, pointing to the leafy landscape around him. "Clover, fireweed, spruce tips, there's a whole world out there you can live on."
Moose Stew
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 LB Moose Stew Meat
3 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tabasco sauce
1 medium onion, medium diced
3 ribs celery, medium diced
2 carrots, medium diced
4 medium sized fingerling potatoes, medium diced
1/2 cup brown rice, raw
14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon italian herbs, dried
1 QT low sodium Beef stock or (housemade moose broth preferred)
Procedure
- Over medium high heat, in Dutch oven, brown meat in hot oil.
- Deglaze with tabasco and Worcestershire sauce.
- When reduced slightly, add onion, celery and carrots, cook until translucent.
- Add potatoes and brown rice(if needed-more oil) .
- Deglaze with tomatoes, add the garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper and herbs Add water(or stock)
- Bring to a boil and drop to a simmer. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, stirring on occasion.
- Check seasoning and doneness(may cook for another 1/2 hour or so...)
* Chef's secret - Make moose broth by simply blanching the bones to leech out the blood and impurities. Afterwards, simmer in a pot covered with water and onion, celery and carrots overnight. This simple procedure reinforced the moose flavor. And shop at the Farmer's Market for all the ingredients - freshness counts!
Contact Alex DeMarban at alex(at)alaskadispatch.com