Rocky Mountain Cooking
Recipes to Bring Canada's Backcountry Home: A Cookbook
- Publisher
- Random House Canada
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2019
- Category
- Canadian, General, Western Provinces
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780147530981
- Publish Date
- Oct 2019
- List Price
- $32.00
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Description
Embrace backcountry living at home with these delicious recipes inspired by life in the Rocky Mountains, from celebrated backcountry chef Katie Mitzel, bestselling author of The Skoki Cookbook.
Nestled in and around the Rocky Mountains are a series of remote backcountry lodges offering the experience of a lifetime. Katie Mitzel has spent the last twenty years as a chef in these lodges, joyfully feeding hungry travelers who have journeyed hundreds of miles to have their own backcountry adventures. Whether you're wilderness hiking, off-piste skiing, or simply relaxing, the backcountry offers total immersion in the stunning mountains, coupled with the allure of completely unplugging from daily life.
In Rocky Mountain Cooking, Katie shares her favorite lodge recipes, many taking inspiration from the colors and textures of mountains, glacial lakes, wildflowers, and starry nights. Her dishes are full of unexpected flavors and mouthwatering aromas, but are accessible enough to create at home, using ingredients readily available from the grocery store (brought into the backcountry for her on horseback or by snowmobile or helicopter!). Cooking in the backcountry has brought Katie unique moments of inspiration and gratitude, like carefully adjusting ingredients when baking at altitude, and appreciating the simple benefits of water and heat after manually hauling water by the gallon and cooking without power. As a result, her food is simple, fulfilling, hearty, and comforting.
Start your day with Skillet-Baked Huevos Rancheros. Enjoy a hearty Summer Hiking Salad after a long trek or busy workday. Snack on some Climbers' Cookies at the top of a ski run. Then indulge in Baked Halibut with Scallops and Asparagus, along with a slice of Lemony Lavender Buttermilk Cake for dessert. All of the recipes are perfect for gathering your family and friends around the table to share a meal, hear the stories from your outdoor adventures, and maybe plan your next.
Filled with breathtaking landscape photography and profiles of select beloved lodges, Rocky Mountain Cooking brings the natural bliss of backcountry living into your daily life, no matter where you live.
About the author
Contributor Notes
KATIE MITZEL is the author of the bestselling Skoki Cookbook. She has cooked in many backcountry lodges, including Skoki Lodge, Battle Abbey, Mistaya, Assiniboine, and Shadow Lake Lodge, among others, and has developed a reputation as an innovative, creative, and enthusiastic backcountry lodge chef. When not at a lodge, Katie lives with her family in British Columbia, at the doorstep of one of North America's greatest outdoor playgrounds.
Excerpt: Rocky Mountain Cooking: Recipes to Bring Canada's Backcountry Home: A Cookbook (by (author) Katie Mitzel)
From the Introduction
During more than twenty years in the industry, I have worked in some incredible backcountry lodges. Every lodge has its own special appeal, but they all offer their guests the prospect of adventure, total immersion in natural beauty, and the option of “unplugging” from daily life. Over the years, I’ve seen time and time again how a first experience of backcountry lodge living usually marks the beginning of a love affair.
What do I mean by “love affair”? I’m talking about the elation you feel, followed by the most wonderful calm, when you’re sitting on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. On the way up, you can feel your legs shaking, your lungs burning, and your focus blurring from the strength of the wind. Yet, you keep going, undeterred by elevation or the thought of being able to turnback. Once on top, sitting beside a giant cairn made by everyone who has climbed this peak and added a stone, you feel so proud of yourself and totally aware of your surroundings. The endorphins that are activated after a mountain hike—after any exercise—are all-encompassing and addictive. They make you feel the same as you do after an amazing first date. Many backcountry guests come to the mountains just to experience that feeling of absolute bliss.
My goal with this book is to teach you how to enjoy that feeling of bliss in your own kitchen. No matter where you live, or whether you’ve visited the backcountry, there are remarkable influences from this environment that you can incorporate into your daily cooking. Think of the mountains, the glacial lakes, the carpets of wildflowers, the boulders covered in emerald green lichen—these are the palettes that often inspire me in the kitchen. I’m drawn to the endless varieties of color and texture I’ve encountered during my many hours outdoors, and the memories of them keep me stimulated for hours after I have hung up my hiking boots and placed a gorgeously marinated wild salmon in the oven.
This cookbook contains a collection of diverse and eclectic dishes that I have prepared in many backcountry lodges and huts over the years. You don’t have to be a skier or hiker to enjoy them. The majority of ingredients won’t require you to seek out a specialty grocery store—you will likely find you have most of them at home or that you already shop for them regularly and have been looking for a different way to prepare them.
Use the recipes to inject a little novelty into your daily life. Start your day with a hearty and warming baked French toast casserole with streusel (page 21) or maybe the skillet-baked huevos rancheros (page 31) instead of boiled egg and toast. Enjoy a fabulous salad paired with crispy fried chicken with buttermilk dipping sauce (page 164) for a late lunch. Indulge a craving for the richness of a halibut steak, cooked to perfection and placed atop a bed of roasted asparagus, with pan-fried scallops and a velvety beurre blanc (page 146), to help you forget your troubles at the end of the day.
I’ve also included my best bread recipes, as well as a selection of recipes for delicious cakes, an array of baked goodies, and warming soups to keep on hand. I’m sure that, as you leaf through the pages, you will find something—many things—to prepare that will bring your friends and family to the table to share a meal, talk about your day, or maybe plan your next trip to the great outdoors.
The backcountry can seem hostile or vibrant, overwhelming or inspirational, but however you imagine or experience it, its constant reminders to stay present is its best legacy. If you can nurture that sense of being in the moment in your home and kitchen, I suspect that the peace we can gain from all the natural gifts that the backcountry offers will follow close behind.
So what are you waiting for?
Editorial Reviews
“Katie Mitzel delivers the best of backcountry cooking right to your home kitchen and connects every bite with the adventures you have had, while inspiring the next. You can’t help but want to go back for seconds.” –Sara Renner, Olympic medalist, and Thomas Grandi, World Cup champion
“Chef Katie Mitzel has spent the past two decades cooking in remote backcountry lodges in the Canadian Rockies; she draws inspiration from grassy peaks and glacial lakes to create dishes to fuel appetites worked up by the great outdoors. Ingredients are grocery store familiar (and basic enough to transport to her kitchen by horseback, snowmobile or chopper) and yes, there are Grainy Trail Cookies, but also Baked Halibut with Scallops and Asparagus, and Lavender Buttermilk Cake.” –The Globe & Mail
“Each recipe is designed to satiate the appetites of fellow outdoor enthusiasts as well as those who are just hungry for more info on 'lodge food.'” – Aleesha Harris, Vancouver Sun
“The photos of glorious mountainscapes in all seasons draw you in; flipping through this book makes you want to travel to all those remote, ruggedly beautiful places.” –Gail Johnson, The Georgia Straight
“This mouth-watering cookbook transports you to Canada’s backcountry, and will warm you up on a cold winter night even if you never make any of the recipes.” –Lois Alter Mark, Forbes