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Welcome to Homemade, a Winnipeg Free Press project celebrating home cooking in Manitoba.

We regularly publish recipe features that highlight the communities, traditions and flavours of this wonderfully diverse province. Submit your recipe to have your dish considered for a future story — recipes can be beloved family favourites or everyday staples.

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JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Suzan Palani gathers wild grape leaves in St Vital Park in Winnipeg Monday, July 11, 2022. Palani uses the leaves in traditional Kurdish Dolma, a recipe passed on by her mother. Reporter: wasney

Harvesting grape leaves for Kurdish dolma connects past, present

Eva Wasney 10 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022

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Dappled evening light filters through the branches above while Suzan Palani inspects an overgrown section of bush. The grape leaves she’s looking for are mingling haphazardly with other species of greenery. She wants to be certain before picking.

At Rainbow Community Garden, newcomers to Canada grow food and forge relationships

Eva Wasney 8 minute read Preview

At Rainbow Community Garden, newcomers to Canada grow food and forge relationships

Eva Wasney 8 minute read Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

Black beans, hot peppers, tomatoes and cabbage. Like many other Winnipeg gardeners, Henriette Mukesa’s seedlings are off to a slow start thanks to a waterlogged spring. Still, there’s plenty to eat in the shoulder season.

“Before the beans, we eat this,” she says, pointing to the legume’s bright green leaves, which she’ll fry up at home and add to her dinner of fufu, a starchy dough, and vegetables or meat.

It’s the same story with the okra and zucchini sprouting in the shared bed of the Rainbow Community Garden at the University of Manitoba. In fact, Mukesa prefers the leaves of the zucchini plant to the squash itself.

She bends over to pinch off a shoot, demonstrating how to peel the spiky outer skin before softening the greens in water and salt — a method of preparation used in her birthplace, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and adapted to vegetables that flourish in the Canadian Prairies.

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Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Henriette Mukesa is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a gardener with the Rainbow Community Garden program, which sees 300 families growing produce at plots across the city.

Henriette is sharing a salad recipe that she makes with ingredients grown from the garden.

Henriette collects a cabbage from the Rainbow Garden U of M site.

See Eva Wasney story

220707 - Thursday, July 07, 2022.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Henriette Mukesa is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a gardener with the Rainbow Community Garden program, which sees 300 families growing produce at plots across the city. Henriette is sharing a salad recipe that she makes with ingredients grown from the garden. Henriette collects a cabbage from the Rainbow Garden U of M site. See Eva Wasney story 220707 - Thursday, July 07, 2022.

Homemade Cooking School

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Homemade Holidays

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Homemade Holidays

Eva Wasney:

Pucker up for this oh-so-sweet and easy lemon trifle

MARGARET MCMILLAN PHOTO This lemon trifle can be garnished with mandarin orange slices or your choice of edible festive decoration.

Eva Wasney:

Almond cookies melt in your mouth

EVA WASNEY PHOTO Erin Lebar learned to make these Almond Crescent cookies from her Nana.

Eva Wasney:

Rich, spicy hot chocolate a decadent treat

(Eva Wasney photo)

Eva Wasney:

Get holiday baking on a roll with snowballs

Get holiday baking on a roll with snowballs

Eva Wasney:

Traditional Dutch dessert a deep-fried delight

Traditional Dutch dessert a deep-fried delight

Eva Wasney:

Crowd-pleasing classic requires no baking

EVA WASNEY PHOTO These White Chocolate Treats are easy to make and fit for a crowd.

Homemade Cooking School

Eva Wasney:

Egg-venturous

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Karl Oman is the head of Red River’s short-order lab, where students learn to cook fast, easy breakfast and lunch items.

Eva Wasney:

How do you like them eggs?

How do you like them eggs?

Eva Wasney:

Sauces and stocks

Sauces and stocks

Eva Wasney:

Cutting edge tips

Cutting edge tips

The taste of Manitoba walleye by way of the Philippines

Eva Wasney 9 minute read Preview

The taste of Manitoba walleye by way of the Philippines

Eva Wasney 9 minute read Friday, Jun. 17, 2022

WINNIPEG BEACH — The rod twitches lightly and Eric Labaupa jumps out of his seat. The telltale sign of a nibble. He pulls up to set the hook and starts reeling.

“Ah, it’s just a small one,” he says, the excitement dropping from his voice before the fish breaks the surface. When you’ve been fishing as long as Labaupa, it’s easy to tell when you’ve got a keeper on the line.

After a photo and a quick inspection, he tosses the young sauger back into the murky brown water. Today, he’s on the hunt for walleye — or pickerel, as the mild freshwater fish is often marketed.

Walleye is the ideal local substitute for one of his favourite meals: Ginataan na Isda. In the Philippines, the dish, which means “done with coconut milk” in Tagalog, is typically made with milkfish or tilapia poached in coconut milk and aromatics.

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Friday, Jun. 17, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Eric Labaupa learned his love of fishing from his father.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Eric Labaupa learned his love of fishing from his father.

Handmade family cookbook holds more than recipes

Eva Wasney 8 minute read Preview

Handmade family cookbook holds more than recipes

Eva Wasney 8 minute read Tuesday, May. 24, 2022

At one point in time, Michelle Trudeau was the proud owner of more than 500 cookbooks.

“I’d rather read a cookbook than a novel,” says the avid home cook.

The collection has been whittled down recently through downsizing and decluttering, but she’s kept a handful of her favourites — mostly of the rare and vintage variety.

One such publication, a slim, dog-eared number with a hand-lettered title, is so rare, in fact, that there are only a dozen or so copies in existence. That’s because it’s a Trudeau family original.

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Tuesday, May. 24, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ENT
Auntie Mike’s Famous Taco Dip is one of Michelle Trudeau’s submissions to the family cookbook, entitled Relatively Famous Recipes.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ENT Auntie Mike’s Famous Taco Dip is one of Michelle Trudeau’s submissions to the family cookbook, entitled Relatively Famous Recipes.

Chance find of ceramic shard led artist to create clay cookware

Eva Wasney 9 minute read Preview

Chance find of ceramic shard led artist to create clay cookware

Eva Wasney 9 minute read Saturday, Apr. 23, 2022

There was no hunting or searching. All she had to do was look down. The jagged earth-toned pottery shard was resting in the rocky shallows waiting to be found, as if some unseen being had laid the artifact in her path.

The sight sent tears rolling down her cheeks — the weight of history, blood memory and personal journey colliding on the banks of the Whiteshell River.

“It was a profound moment for me because for the first time I really felt connected to the land,” says KC Adams, standing in the colourful kitchen of her Winnipeg home. “I knew that I was on the right path.

“I also felt connected to the ancestors because I picked it up and realized that a woman had made this 300, 400 years ago, maybe even more, and I’m the first one to touch it again since it disappeared.”

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Saturday, Apr. 23, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
KC Adams with her bison and wild rice stew; the artist strives to follow a diet that reclaims traditional foods.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS KC Adams with her bison and wild rice stew; the artist strives to follow a diet that reclaims traditional foods.

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