Quaq

As tradition built it

Quaq

North Slope Borough, Traditional Foods Recipes; bowhead sashimi credited to Craig George

Ingredients

The method as the tradition gives it, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them, lead dishes first.

• any meat or fish, frozen solid
• to serve misiġaaq (fermented seal or whale blubber), to serve
• to serve pilot bread, to serve, salted if you like

Bowhead sashimi (Craig George)

• half a pound frozen bowhead meat off the vertebrae, thawed to partially frozen, blood drained
• to taste soy sauce
• to taste wasabi

Method

1. Catch any meat or fish, kill it, let it freeze.
2. Slice it while still firm.
3. Serve with misiġaaq and pilot bread, salted if you like.

Bowhead sashimi

4. Take half a pound of frozen bowhead meat off the vertebrae and thaw to partially frozen.
5. Drain the blood and slice sushi-size.
6. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi.

What a modern chef changes

Frozen and sliced Arctic char, plated as sashimi

Method

1. Neither bowhead nor walrus is available or legal in Britain: substitute sustainably farmed Arctic char, itself a real Nunavut ingredient and honestly buyable in the UK.
2. Fillet the char and freeze it solid on a tray lined with baking paper so the fillet freezes flat.
3. Slice it while still hard, using a long, thin, very sharp knife rather than attempting it half-thawed.
4. Serve with a rendered beef-fat or brown-butter dip standing in for misiġaaq, and flaky salt rather than pilot bread, since pilot bread itself is not stocked in Britain.