Ingredients and method
Make a soft dumpling dough with flour, warm water, egg and salt. Roll it thin, cut into rounds, and place a teaspoon of fresh or frozen saskatoon berries with a pinch of sugar in the centre of each. Fold and hand-crimp tightly into a crescent. Boil in salted water for 3 minutes after they float. Toss with melted butter and serve with honeyed sour cream.
The berry, and its name
The saskatoon is Amelanchier alnifolia, and its English name is a Cree word. The Plains Cree dictionary gives misâskwatômin, "a saskatoon berry." The USDA plant guide states independently that "the common name refers to the city in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the heart of the species' range." Berry, word and city are one object, and that is the reason this dish belongs on the prairie half of the site. (itwêwina, Plains Cree Dictionary, University of Alberta; USDA NRCS Plant Guide, Amelanchier alnifolia.)