Canada: three sisters stew

The turn has come to visit Canada, the country in which my wife and I have lived for the past 3 years. I chose to post Canada specifically today when we celebrate the National Indigenous Day across the country and I wanted to showcase this from the outside often overlooked part of Canada; when we first moved here, we knew nothing of the Indigenous population.

A cuisine of cuisines

Canada is a huge country with a lot of immigration, both in the past and the present. Initially populated some 14,000-35,000 years ago by peoples immigrating from modern-day Siberia across the Bering strait ​[1]​. When Europeans later found their way to the Americas, it was at first British and French fur traders who started exploring Canada and later colonized the area. Later immigration waves have included Chinese labor during the late 19th century ​[2]​, famously for construction of the railroads connecting east and west. In the first half of the 20th century, people from many parts of Europe, especially Eastern Europe, Italy and Portugal came to Canada ​[3]​.

Today, Canada is famously bilingual with the majority of people speaking English as their first language but with a large Francophone population (mainly in Quebec but found throughout the country). What I especially like about living in Toronto is the large proportion of immigrants. Roughly half of the people in the city are born outside of Canada, making it one of the most diverse cities in the world ​[4], [5]​. This is of course amazing if you are interested in food – you can find tons of interesting restaurants and a bunch of ingredients you would be hard-pressed to find in other cities. When we first arrived, we would find vegetables we had never heard of just walking in a normal grocery store.

Typical dishes

The dishes brought by the immigrants met with local produce and First Nation cuisines have resulted in Canadian cuisine being very diverse. While other regions like the Caribbean (like Trini-Indian doubles) and Lousiana in the US, have famously acted as melting pots and fused all the cuisines into one giant enticing stew, Canadian cuisine has remained more divided. A former prime minister, Joe Clark, described Canada’s food as a cuisine of cuisines and I find this to be a fitting description ​[6]​.

The large ‘background cuisine’, so to speak, is British or French with modifications based on local ingredients ​[7]–[9]​. Famous dishes include poutine, a Québécois dish that has become popular across large parts of the country. Nice, crispy fries are covered in gravy and cheese curds. Other dishes include French Canadian meat pies (tourtière), and split pea soup and English Canadian butter tarts, and peameal bacon (bacon covered in cornflour, nothing to do with peas). A typical carnival snack is beaver tail, a deep-fried piece of dough with toppings like applesauce and cinnamon. Canada is the world’s largest producer of icewine, a wine made from grapes harvested after the first frost ​​[10]​​. The freezing of the grapes removes water and the resulting dessert wine is very sweet and full of flavor.

First Nations, Inuit and Metis

Yesterday (2020-06-20) was summer solstice (the longest day of the year; the days are growing shorter again…). Today, we celebrate National Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in Canada ​[11]​.

The people living in Canada when the European traders (and later settlers) arrived in Canada are referred to as First Nation Peoples (initial inhabitants from Siberia) and the Inuit who live further north (arrived in Canada some mere 1000 years ago ​[12]​). The early fur traders and First Nation Peoples often intermingled and their offspring is today referred to as Metis.

The area around present-day Toronto used to be populated by five different Iroquois tribes known as Five Nations or the Iroquois Confederation ​[13]​. (Later on, another tribe joined the confederation and today they are known as Six Nations – Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, and Tuscarora). While Europeans did not arrive in southern Ontario until the early 18th century, their diseases traveled ahead and wreaked havoc ​[14]​. As many as half the Iroquois might have died and those who lived left the region and were replaced by the Ahnisnabe tribe Mississauga (either peacefully with the Iroquois tribes moving after negotiations or through war). The Mississauga lived here until the French and later the British moved in and ‘purchased’ the area around Toronto (1787) in a deal that was very favorable for the British ​[14]​.

I also learned that the name ‘Toronto’ comes from an Iroquois word meaning ‘Where trees stand in the water‘ which refers to a river ~50 km north of Toronto. The river was used for weir fishing by driving poles (trees) into the water to create a narrow pass, funneling fish into nets ​[15]​. The word Canada itself is from an Iroquois word meaning village ​[16]​.

Culinary examples

Some dishes from the First Nation, Inuit, and Metis peoples have made their way into the mainstream. Such as pemmican – a mix of dried, ground meat mixed with animal fat and dried berries for long trips ​[17]​, bannock – a baking soda bread cooked in a pan or among the coals of a fire ​[18]​. Local ingredients eaten by the First Nation Peoples include wild rice ​[19]​, Saskatoon berries ​[20], [21]​, oatkuk (a tuber) ​[22]​, and other edible plants. (And of course game, fish, seals, and such.)

While not very associated with Canada, the technique to dry meat strips for storage, today known as jerky, also stems from First Nation Peoples across North America ​[23]​. The word jerky itself might be derived from the Incan language.

Maple syrup

The ‘dish’ I think most people across the world associate with Canada: maple syrup is a great example of the importance of indigenous peoples in today’s Canada ​[24]​. Maple syrup was originally made by different First Nation peoples across eastern Canada who then taught the European newcomers how to make this delicious treat by heating sap from the sugar maples (one of many types of maple tree) to remove water and concentrate the sugars. This process became such big business that Canada is world-famous for their syrup and even put a maple leaf on their flag. The sap is harvested during February and March when the trees start to wake up and many maple tree plantations host annual maple syrup festivals. Here you can walk around in a snowy maple forest and get a very Canadian treat: maple taffy. The tree sap is boiled down to a consistency thicker than maple syrup and poured onto a block of ice or snow. The result is a chewy maple syrup lollipop and it is delicious.

Three sisters stew

To celebrate National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I decided to cook something from one of the many peoples that fall under the First Nations umbrella term. After some searching, I found the three sisters stew. This stew, made from the three sisters corn, beans, and squash, is very popular and eaten in some variety among many First Nation peoples throughout Canada and the US, which is no surprise since these staples have long been standard agricultural crops among First Nations such as the Iroquois ​[25]​. Many sources describe the dish as Iroquois ​[26]–[28]​ and I also found it cooked by the Kiowa ​[29]​ and Chickasaw ​[30]​ nations in the US. It is very similar to the Chilean dish porotos granados, a stew with – you guessed it – corn, beans, and squash ​[31]​.

Companion planting

One thing I found really interesting about the three sisters is that they are traditionally grown together using a method called companion planting ​[32], [33]​. Corn is planted in the center and when the shoots are a few centimeters high, beans are planted around the corn. Finally, squash is planted in a circle around the other two sisters. The growing bean shoots can climb up the corn stalks and help fix nitrogen from the air into the soil (legumes being one of few plant groups which can do this). The squash creeps along the ground creating shade, keeping moisture in the ground and preventing weeds from taking root.

Conclusion

The three sisters stew is a good go-to stew to have in your repertoire. What I really liked with this recipe, was that I decided to roast the corn. This gave some very nice flavor to the dish. I also found the companion planting and the different creation myths surrounding the three sisters intriguing.

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Three sisters stew

This First Nation's dish (often attributed to the Iroquois), combines the Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash which are traditionially grown together in a combined gardening method.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Canada, First Nation, Iroquois

Keyword beans, corn, Squash, stew

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, cut into pieces or other small squash, such as butternut
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 ears corn or 4 dL canned / frozen
• 1 can beans, 540 mL e.g. pinto
• 1 can crushed tomatoes, 800 mL
• 1 tbsp vegetable stock, cube or powder
• 1-2 green chili, minced or powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp olive oil

Instructions

• Sweat onion until translucent in a large pot.
• Add garlic and chili.
• Add canned tomatoes.
• Meanwhile, split squash in half and deseed.

  Optional: peel it. (I peeled the acorn squash but I usually don't peel butternut.)

  Cut into 2-3 cm pieces.
• Add squash to pot.
• Simmer until squash is soft (around 15 min for acorn squash).
• Add beans and simmer another 5 minutes.
• While cooking the squash, prepare the corn.

  If using fresh corn: use a knife to remove the kernels. If using canned: strain. If using frozen: thaw.

  Toast the corn kernels in a hot, dry pan. Don't crowd the pan and don't stir too often. They should get a lot of color.
• Add corn kernels to stew and serve.