Moose meatballs: 'It's all about giving it a little bit of flavour'

CBC North is telling the stories behind recipes postedon our Facebook group, The Arctic Kitchen: Recipes of the North. Join our group and follow along!

Richard Mercredi knows a thing or two about traditional northern food. His dad was a trapper and his family lived on the traplinenear Fort Smith, N.W.T., for years.

"My mom was a cook, and my dad. When we were out there he did all the cooking," Richard said. "He did the moose meat, moose nose, moose head and beaver meat and muskrats and link meat and chickens, rabbits."

Richard spends a lot of time in the kitchen these days in Fort Smith, keeping his family's cooking traditions alive.

By his side, spatula in hand, you'll find his wife Barb Mercredi. She's from Alberta and grew up on German food.But after living in the North for many years, she's got her own expertise when it comes to delicious wild country food.

"I came up here and we got married that's 50 years now," she said. "Richard was always a hunter and fisherman and what not, so we just ate that way and taught our children to eat that way."

Barb says it's nice to cook with wild meat and a challenge to use it in recipes that call for store bought meat. But they've figured it out and now they're sharing all that knowledge on CBC North's recipe page on Facebook.

Here's a taste of what they can do together.

This is gratin parmentier with moose meat.It starts with moose meatballs.

"We'll mix in onions, bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, some Back Eddy'sor Montreal spice."

The meatballs are placed in a cast iron pan with parboiled potatoes. Then covered in a creamy bchamel sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese.

"Baked in the oven at 400 degrees for half an hour to ensure the meat was cooked."

Then the mouth watering picture to show the end result.

Richard and Barb have made their mark on CBC North's recipe page. Theirposts includevideos on how to cut moose ribs and how to make dry meat.

After 50 years in the kitchen together, they love taking the time to share what they know.