Giver River - Buffalo, Bannock, & Cinnamon Tequila

Located on the banks of Great Slave Lake and the mouth of the Hay River, this area was originally settled some 7000 years ago by the Long Spear People. Though never considered a settlement until the late 1800s when records finally indicated the erection of permanent structures. These structures were built by the Katl'odeeche First Nations people and were quickly followed by commerce and Christ as the Hudson's Bay Company as well as Catholic and Anglican churches moved in. ​

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Hay River has since become known as “The Hub Of The North”, after the completion of the first road here in 1948, now known as the MacKenzie Highway. The route connected Hay River in the north to Grimshaw Alberta in the south, providing an access point to more easily distribute goods to northern communities; this distribution channel continues to this day. After flooding ruined most of the original establishment on Vale Island, referred to as Old Town, the community of Hay River was relocated upstream to what is today considered New Town. Driving through, there are two very distinct vibes between Old Town and New Town. 

I had a friend in New Town I hadn’t seen in a couple of decades who stepped in as my local tour guide for this leg of the adventure, Christy, aka, G.I. Jane. If you get the chance to meet G.I. Jane, you can ask her how she got that distinct nickname 🙂 

    The preferred method of transport around this northern town is by side-by-side ATV. So I parked Goose and Christy chauffeured me around to discover local sites and fantastic food stops via the dirt roads, back roads, and beach roads in her 4x4 of fun. First stop, the home of Kathy McBryan & Frazer Pike for buffalo and bannock night.

    You might recognize those names from the hit Canadian docuseries, Ice Pilots. This docuseries stars Kathy's family, namely the colorful character, Buffalo Joe. A couple of days earlier in Yellowknife I was heading to Tim Hortons (my office headquarters for most of this Canada-wide road trip) when a little blue truck passed me with what looked like Joe himself. It turned out we were both headed to Tims and reflective of what you may have seen on TV, Joe is a walking personality. He yelled at me from across the parking lot asking where I was headed on my bike and what I was up to. As likely the first moto traveler of the year, my out-of-town plates and camping gear stood out in a parking lot full of local trucks. I confirmed Joe was who I thought he was and we proceeded to have a little chat about my route; I mentioned I was headed to meet his daughter for dinner in Hay River.

The Road North

I don’t have a lot of regrets from Yellowknife, but once inside Tims we got to chatting again and Joe said if my bike needed any maintenance to bring it by the Buffalo hangar at the airport and his mechanics would help me out. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I said the bike was running well. Huge mistake, I could have said I needed a mirror adjustment, the chain aligned, or maybe the signal lights blinked too much on one side. I could have said anything just to spend the afternoon at the Buffalo Air hangar, but I killed it by saying everything was good! Too bad I wasn’t back on my KLR, that bike always needed one repair or another 🙂

After blasting down the beach in the side-by-side, we rolled up to Kathy and Frazers' place overlooking the icy shores of Great Slave, and lucky for us, the cooking and cocktail class was just kicking off! Tonight's menu was going to be an homage to the North. Kathy's buffalo and bannock recipe served alongside Frazers' pan-seared pickerel served two ways. 

The setting for the night's event was half the meal. From the dining room window you could gaze out over 2 Season Beach into what felt like the Great Salve Ocean. The living room was fit with a wooden stove to help survive the extreme winters and the walls decorated with lifelike taxidermied game. The main attraction for me was a large commercial gas stove with ten gas burners and two ovens! It reminded me of my days sweating it out in the back of restaurants in a sauce-stained chef's jacket begging for some relief from the heat on my next smoke break.    

Kathy kicked things off with a family recipe, Buffalo Fry, something she's been eating since she was a kid. Growing up Métis, her grandma's family have deep roots in the area and the buffalo as well as caribou were staples around the family's dinner table. Buffalo Fry is essentially thin slices of lean buffalo meat, and for this recipe, the fry is cooked with home-jarred tomatoes and spices. Today’s meat came from the South Slave Region via the local Métis nation who often harvests moose, buffalo, and other game to share and trade amongst the community. 

Kathy explains this is some of the best meat you can eat. In comparison, people down south are label shopping for keywords like organic and grass-fed while up here, the proteins spend their days roaming wild eating from the unpolluted ground and soaking up the fresh northern air. There is nothing else like it.

The thin strips of buffalo that had been marinating in soy, Back Eddy’s seasoning, salt, Worcestershire Sauce, and onion, hit a hot pan on the gas stove. The lean game cooks quickly and once everything is browned up nicely, Kathy adds a pint of home-jarred tomatoes and allows it all to come to a nice simmer.

Before our arrival, Kathy had already whipped up a highbush cranberry cake and bannock loaf. Her bannock is a twist on a traditional recipe where locals use anything from lard to game fat or even whale fat further north. This modern version included a “healthier” avocado oil. With the Buffalo Fry simmering and the cake cooling, she put the bannock in the oven while Frazer entered the scene for a lesson on pickerel, two ways.

For fish connoisseurs, Frazer has a lightly battered lemon pepper pickerel recipe and for the non-fish types, he’s invented something called a Tourist Fish. The tourist recipe masks the flavor of the fish entirely, this allows the tourist who doesn’t eat fish to save face when surrounded by those that love it. They can choke it down along with the fishing experience when everyone knows the tourist would rather be poolside or at the spa eating chocolate-covered strawberries and sipping prosecco.  

The fish fillets came from the Little Buffalo River on June 12th, Frazers' annual birthday fishing trip. I’m guessing there is a mix of tourists and connoisseurs that end up on this trip and Frazer’s recipe has been well-tested by both groups. He points out little bits of skin on the fillets and explains that when you clean them, by law you need to leave a bit of skin on in case fish and game wardens want to inspect your catch to ensure you're following local harvesting rules. Before cutting them into pan-sized portions he runs his hand across the fillet one last time, checking for any bones. Once the inspection is complete, the fillets are rinsed under cold water and patted dry with a paper towel, as a wet fillet makes a mess in the pan.

Frazer attributes his fish filleting skills to an old wise man he’d once consulted about how to accurately do it. The man told him the best way to learn was exactly how he had learned, You just need to fillet a thousand fish. Something akin to the 10,000 hour rule, or the number of hours required to master any skill. 

    For the traditional recipe, a bit of white flour is placed in a plastic bag, let's call it ¾ of a cup. Then if I’m paying close enough attention, fourteen or so shakes of lemon pepper are added. While this is going on, a well-seasoned cast iron pan that looks like it made its way up here with one of the first Hudson Bay shipments heats up over the open flames. Frazer says it’s considerably more challenging to cook in cast iron than a non-stick pan, but if you’ve found one with at least a quarter century of use, this is the gem you’ve been looking for.

    As the pan heats up, Frazer dollops a bit of butter in and allows it to melt, just enough to coat the bottom. As the butter slides its way in, so does Kathy into the conversation. She emphasizes that if you cut your butter with a bit of oil it will save the butter from burning and allow you to cook the fish at a slightly higher temperature resulting in a browner finish. 

    Into the bag goes the fillets one by one for a quick shake in the lemon flour and then into the pan where they are allowed to cook for 3-4 minutes per side. Frazer cooks one fillet with nothing on it to visually explain the cooking process, noting that it has a raw, light white color when it hits the pan. As you watch it cook the color turns to a more deep, pure shade of white around the edges. It’s at this moment you flip the fillet (only once), and when it’s this deeper, pure white color throughout, and brown across the center, it’s ready. 

    Next, the Tourist Fish. A recipe consisting of equal parts sauce and satire. For this, Frazer explains you need to get the pan nice and hot. Once hot, add in about twice the butter you would consider feeding yourself. As the butter melts, slide in the unseasoned fillets and allow them to cook for 1-2 minutes before flipping over, then sprinkle lightly with salt. From here you add about ⅓  of a jar of black bean sauce smothering the fish and suffocating its true flavor. Allow this to simmer for 3-4 minutes until it resembles a blackened Chicago-style steak and serve with ample amounts of beer and bullshit!

As the Buffalo Fry spat its last simmer, the pickerel rested on a plate, and Kathy sliced the warm bannock. The four of us sat down to savor the meal and I listened to the trio swap stories about life in the north. Kathy recounts tales of harvesting berries and wild meat as a kid. She said she was never really sure if they did it because the family enjoyed it, or because they were poor. With a lifetime of meat harvesting memories, she couldn’t understand why people would buy meat from a store when there was always considerably better wild meat available. Not just that, but the local harvest also supports the local fur trade as well as an arts and crafts industry. 

    Kathy says her family has always been pretty close and have spent their lives working together. This hard work has taken off into what is now Buffalo Air. With her Mom and Buffalo Joe still running the day-to-day, along with her two brothers, her son as well as her and Frazer, it looks like things are still soaring along nicely. As someone who’s watched all six seasons of Ice Pilots, I can say there is overwhelming evidence that overcoming all of the company's turbulence requires one hardworking team.

While we worked our way through the menu, the bannock was airy and surprisingly less dense than I was expecting. As for the Buffalo Fry, it was delicious with delicate flavors and an acidic finish from the tomatoes. When it came to Frazers’ fish, I preferred the traditional lemon pepper over the tourist version. Though I pride myself on being a traveler and not a tourist, this may have influenced my decision. I did find it a bit odd that everyone at the table added vinegar to their fish, though I’ve added it to heavily battered versions of fish and chips before. When I asked why, Christy looked at me like I lived a sheltered life and said You’ve never heard the song Fish & Chip & Vinegar by Sharron, Lois, and Bram?  Maybe I was watching Mr. Dressup that day 🙂

If three different proteins, bannock, and a salad that I think was added for looks wasn’t enough, they rounded things off with sugar and shooters. The first dessert; a cake made from highbush cranberries that can only be acquired by blindfolded passage or trade. In this particular case, Kathy traded a bucket of cranberries for $500 in free freight! This delectable cake was then drizzled with an intoxicating mix of cream, butter, sugar, and vanilla.

After waddling my way back from a third round of cake, I was then informed there was still one last course. A salute to what locals refer to as Giver River. A wedge of mandarin orange is rolled in cinnamon while a round of Patron hits some oversized shot glasses. A toast is then made to Giver River. Next, a clink of the glasses, down goes that tequila, and in goes the cinnamon orange. With a pucker and a smile, lakeside bison, and pickerel dining are complete.

The next day I wished Christy farewell and could have never imagined that in less than 24 hours Christy, her family, Kathy, Frazer, along with the entire town would end up homeless. The unusually dry weather turned the forest into flames and engulfed the surrounding trees. This story repeated itself over the summer as they were evacuated for ten days just after my departure in May and for five weeks in August/September. 

In the following days, as I headed south, I was met with eery orange skies, forest fires, and was re-routed due to further fires and evacuations. Something I had never experienced this early in spring. 

Christy In The Side By Side

Forest Fire Growing Outside Of Lesser Slave Lake

Recipe:

McBryan Buffalo Fry
-1lb buffalo, thinly sliced 
-⅓ white onion
-500ml jar stewed tomatoes, juice removed
-Soya sauce, big drizzle
-Worcestershire Sauce, 7 big shakes
-Coarse salt because it penetrates, 2 big pinches
-Back Eddy’s Seasoning 5 light shakes 
-2 TBSP olive oil till cooked
    Mix the buffalo with diced onion, soya, Worcestershire, salt, and Back Eddie’s, then let marinade in the fridge for several hours. When ready to cook, heat a pan over medium heat then add in olive oil. Next, add in your buffalo mix and sauté until brown. The Buffalo Fry cooks fast, but it’s easier to cook then big thick strips of buffalo. Next, add in the jarred tomatoes and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. 


Bannock
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ cup oil. Lard or whale fat will do if you have it.
- 1 cup of milk.
    First, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add in oil/fat and milk and fold by hand. It’s best to keep your palms covered in flour so they don’t stick to the dough. Next work the mix into a round loaf, use a fork to poke with holes, and bake on parchment paper in the oven at 375oF for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.


Blindfolded Cranberry Cake With Creamy Vanilla Drizzle

Dry mix
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt 
- 3 tsp baking powder

Wet mix 
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp melted butter 
- 2 eggs 
- 1 cup milk

- 2 cups frozen cranberry 

Baking at 350oF for about 25 mins
    This is a great recipe if you are already making the bannock as the base ingredients are the same. In one bowl mix the dry ingredients. Flour, salt, and baking powder.
    In a separate bowl mix the sugar, melted butter, milk, and very last, the eggs. Once mixed add this to the dry ingredients and mix. Finally, fold in the cranberries, pour the mix into a buttered baking dish, and bake at 350oF for about 25 minutes. 


Sauce
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 big sploosh vanilla

Combine in a pot and heat over medium until the sugar dissolves and the mix becomes one. Then drizzle across the cooled cake to let it all soak in. Or serve cake slices in a bowl and drizzle ample amounts of warm sauce across the top just before serving. 


Giver River Tequila Toast
- 1 oz Patron tequila or 2oz if it was a long week
- 1-2 segments of mandarin orange
- Cinnamon 

    Roll orange segments in cinnamon until fully coated. Add 1 oz of Patron to a shot glass, or 2oz if it's been a long week or this is more than just a dinner party. Toast to Giver River or your current location, down the shot, eat the cinnamon orange, and try to maintain your composure to impress your friends.


Frazer Pike’s Pickerel

Lemon Pepper Fish 
- 2-4 pickerel fillets, deboned
- ¾ cup flour
- 14 shakes / 2 tbsp lemon pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
- medium plastic bag

    Add flour and lemon pepper to the bag and shake until mixed. Add butter to a 25+ year old cast iron pan that's been warming over medium heat. Place rinsed and dried fillets into the bag one at a time and shake until coated. Place coated fillets in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes per side until golden brown. Serve as is or with butter and/or vinegar.

Tourist Fish
- 2-4 pickerel fillets, deboned
- black bean sauce
- ¼ cup of butter
- tbsp canola oil
- pinch of salt

    Heat the pan until hot, somewhere between medium and high heat. Add in the oil & butter and allow it to mix. Place rinsed and dried fillets in the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. Flip once, sprinkle with salt, and add in ⅓ jar of black bean sauce. Cook until the bean sauce is lightly blackened but not burnt. Roughly 4-5 minutes. Serve with beer and ample amounts of bullshit.