NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

September 17, 1998

Plains Folk: Currant Cuisine

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

©1998 Plains Folk

The northern plains is not a region famed for cuisine. Like any cultural region, it has strong folkways of food, and like any physical region, it has distinctive local staples, but people here have not built on those traditions and materials to create a notable cuisine.

It's about time. That's why at the West Fargo Branch Station for Applied Alternative Horticulture we're smoking up the kitchen night and day. Focus of experiments in the 1998 season: red currants.

Grow what grows is our motto, and gooseberries and currants love this latitude. The standard variety for red currants in these parts is Red Lake: that's what we raise. They bear like the dickens, and what a beautiful fruit!

The trouble is most people don't know what to do with all the fruit. Jelly, of course, with great color and a taste just right for biscuits. (Try a biscuit, butter, currant jelly, and slice of ham sandwich.) Then there's syrup, which you can dribble into a glass of club soda for a great cooler. We make a light syrup—about three cups sugar to five cups juice. The currant event of the summer, though, was when we started using red currant syrup on meats. This was a logical development, since currant jelly often is paired with lamb or game. The syrup, through, is more adaptable. Just follow our lab manual.

Experiment #1: CCC on the grill. The Cs are cilantro, currant syrup, and chicken. First saute some fresh foliage of cilantro, then add some syrup and bring it to a boil. That's your sauce. Slice a couple of breasts off one of those chunky Hutterite chickens and grill them slow, drowning them in the sauce. Remember you read about it here.

Experiment #2: chops on the grill, two variations—pork and lamb. For the pork, rub the chops with whatever seasonings you fancy. (I like a Cajun mix myself.) Then grill them fast, basting with currant syrup. Hit them one last time with syrup, close the grill, cut the heat, and let them steam juicy. For the lamb, make a sauce in a pan, like with the cilantro above, but use rosemary. Or maybe marjoram. Finish them on the grill like the pork.

Experiment #3: another CCC, this one on the stove-top, and this time the second C stands for chiles. Also you need some garlic, which doesn't start with C, but clove does, so there you go. Begin with a little olive oil in a pan. Saute some cloves of garlic on low heat, like you do with garlic. Add some chopped green chiles and turn the heat up to medium. Then put in a couple of those chunky chicken breasts, dredged if you like, and brown them. Add a cup of red currant syrup and simmer with no lid, so that the sauce becomes a dark reserve. Serve with rice or, better, couscous. (I wonder when the local pasta makers are going to start making couscous? Wouldn't you like to see a bumper sticker, "Eat North Dakota Couscous"?) This chicken with garlic-chile-currant sauce is as good as it gets. It's sweet and hot and altogether sensual.

It's too bad partridge numbers are down on the plains this year, because I have a feeling you could do wonderful things pairing a currant sauce with the delicate, pale flesh of partridge. And could any pairing better represent the potential of a regional cuisine?

I haven't even talked about native plums yet, but I'll get to that.

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Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136