La Cuisine Acadienne

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This latest in the series of coffee-table cookbooks from Nimbus is an
exploration, in French, of the countryside and cooking of Acadia.

“Acadia” does not show up on any map, yet it is very much a part of
Canada. The Acadians were seventeenth-century French-speaking settlers
in Nova Scotia. The political turmoil of the period drove them from
their homes and they became established in the U.S. (where “Acadian”
was soon corrupted to “Cajun”). Later, a few returned to Maritime
Canada and settled near the sea in Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New
Brunswick.

Their cookery traditions blend French country cuisine with local
improvisations, producing substantial, hearty dishes with seasoning
suggestive of the South of France.

The 44 recipes include regional specialties and basics such as
headcheese, fish cakes, fried chicken, poutines, seafood chowder,
blueberry muffins, apple cider, and vegetable soup. All call for
ingredients available from the area’s farms and fish wharves.

Each recipe is presented with a full-color, full-page photo of a local
scene as a backdrop. The photos tend to be top-of-the-line
tourist-brochure quality: spectacular and technically flawless. A few go
beyond this to capture the Acadian spirit.