Cooking the Catch

It’s about an hour by Honda from town to Starvation Cove, a fishing spot near Cambridge Bay where Chef Tasha Tologanak likes to source her Arctic char. In summer, when char are on the run to the ocean, you could get a bite nearly every time you cast your hook, she says. After she’s reeled in her catch, she’ll gut the fish and take them home, often to dry into piffi.

For Tologanak, a culinary instructor at Nunavut Arctic College in Cambridge Bay, fishing is a kind of getaway.

“We bring lunch and a fishing rod. There is no cell service around there, so it’s peaceful,” she says.

For the western Nunavut community, Arctic char is a prime source of nutrition, now that muskox are fewer and caribou is hard to come by. “Our community is known to have a lot of Arctic char. We cook a lot of char chowder and fish dishes,” says Tologanak.

When she’s not training first-year students in cooking basics, or second years in the finer dining skills she learned while studying culinary arts at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton, Tologanak likes to spend her time preparing food for community feasts and Elders events.

When you serve country food to the community, it’s a way of giving back and making it feel like home again.”

Cooking in Cambridge Bay can be very different from working in the South, she says. Access to fresh ingredients is more limited, and the needs of residents are different. But building a career in the culinary arts at home in Cambridge Bay was a dream for Tologanak since she discovered a love for cooking as a girl. “As a young Inuk woman, I feel that’s really empowering, to be a leader for my community and to show the example that you could do what you set your mind to, and that education is important,” she says.

Crispy Arctic char with Honey-Lemon Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

Half fillet or desired portion of Arctic Char

Salt and pepper to taste

About ¼ cup flour

¼ cup almonds, sliced and toasted

3-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil – depending on size of pan

4 tablespoons Butter

Juice of 2 Lemons

5 or so sprigs fresh thyme 3 tablespoons Honey

1-2 tablespoons dried parsley

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Instructions:

1. Cut Arctic char into 8 oz pieces. Dry fillets well with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Coat fish lightly in flour and shake off any excess. Set aside.

2. Using a non-stick skillet or a cast iron pan, toast the almonds on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, until they are a light golden brown colour. Remove from pan and set aside.

3. In a skillet or cast-iron pan heat ¼ inch of extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add char filets and cook for 3-4 mins on both sides, until golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

4. Using the same skillet, reduce heat to medium-low, add butter, lemon juice, thyme, and honey.

5. When butter starts to bubble, remove pan from heat and add parsley and toasted almonds.

6. Add Arctic char filets to the pan and baste sauce on top of the fish.

7. Plate your dish and add your desired sides.

For this dish, I servesides of garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and an arugula raspberry salad.