IT'S THE HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN GALLERY
Monday, October 31, 2011
Harvest Ingredient 30: Huitlacoche
OK--what the heck is this??? Well it is one of the only types of fungus that can be claimed as an exclusive Native American mushroom. It does have relatives abroad, and if you read my post on wild rice you will see that this fungus as cousins elsewhere in the world--providing for some very interesting food choices for humans in far corners.
Like it's cousins, it infects the parts of the stalks of types of grass, in this case, maize. It seems odd to think of corn as grass, but it is. Smut fungi infect, or rather set up shop in host environments and seem to have beneficial, sometimes, almost symbiotic relationship that has results in food for humans.
This is also called "maize mushrooms"--it is a fungus that infects the kernels of developing corn kernels and causes the host to swell and grow into grotesque shapes and sizes, but doesn't infect the whole plant. Suffice to say that it's weird, but an important food source, most especially in Mexico.
Happy Halloween!
Harvest Ingredient 29: Chocolate (Cocao)
Like Maize (corn) this is such a big subject and requires a great deal "botany talk" to tackle that I thought I would introduce this strange plant with pictures of growth, harvesting, processing and the like. The botany (which is the most extensive of any of the plants I tried to tackle here this month) can wait for another time. I will mention that the word "Cocoa" originally derives from the Mayan Kakaw which was corrupted by Nahua speakers into cacaua, and further corrupted by the Spanish to the present day Cocoa. The word refers to the tree and the product of their seeds that is processed to make chocolate. The word "chocolate" derives from the Nahuatl xocolatl (pronounced Show-cah-lat(l))--spelled in the modern Nahua speaking language(s) as Chocolatl and pronounced with a soft "Cho" at the start of the word.
Above are cocoa fruits in various stages of ripeness. As the fruits grow larger, they change color from Maroon to a deep pumpkin orange--at that stage they are ready for harvesting. At this point they fall from the tree. Notice that the fruits are actually growing out of the trunk of the tree!
This is one of the fruits cut in half to reveal the seeds covered in white fleshy pulp. The pulp is edible.
Seeds with flesh still covering them removed for fruit pod.
Freshly shelled seeds AKA beans, undried and unfermented. The seeds themselves are edible and nutritious.
One process dry ferments the seeds in pods--this is done in some parts of Africa.
Dried cocoa beans. Ready for traditional fermentation. Even in very old times, huge vats of beans were fermented in a process that typically took a year, turning several times--the process transforms the beans from a somewhat bitter and tasteless seed into a flavor filled "nut" ready for grinding.
The traditional way to grind chocolate is on the volcanic grinders that are mostly known as "metates." Above a Maya woman grinds chocolate on a metate.
These are what modern processed Mexican chocolate tablets look like. Most of them are gournd with raw brown sugar and almonds, both of which were Old World imports; most, but not all, also contain canela, which is true cinnamon from southeast Asia. They are becoming easier and easier to find in ordinary supermarkets. Lesser known Mexican chocolate tablets with native ingredients like vanilla are harder to find, but any Mexican or Latin market should carry them. These are kind of melt in milk and drink affairs; they are also good grated into coffee grounds before they are brewed.
A modern cup of native Mexican chocolate prepared with milk. The original chocolate drinks had water as a base. The use of masa in some preparations, provided a kind of vegetable "corn milk." Depending on where the drink was being prepared and by one ethnic group a number of other things were added, including vanilla, ground pumpkin seeds, honey, fruit and juices, ground annatto seeds which are called achiote, fragrant herbs and flowers like Yerba Buena, Hoja Santa, etc. Aztecs were extremely fond of adding dried, ground chiles as well. In some places, like Veracruz that are highly tropical in climate and where abundance of tropical fruit were grown, actual fruit juices were used as a base, instead plain water.
A modern native Mexican chocolate kit.
Aztec chocolate traders.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Onzaan (Basic Boiling Of Wild Rice)
The instruction I'm providing here are from Paula Geise who was a serious native foody and a serious native activist in her time. Unfortunately she has passed on to the next world, but her food pages can still be found on the web at this website. I'm largely paraphrasing her instructions, since you can read here original writing for yourself. Did ya get past that big strawberry Paula? You always said you wouldn't!
This is really best made from the wild harvest seeds (if you use this for domestic, cooking time will longer and you may need to add more water). The wild type taste great right on it's own as a side dish--those who know the stuff really well can tell where it was harvested by it's taste! This is also the basic prep for cooked rice to springboard onto other dishes, like salads. Best place to get the real native stuff is at Native Harvest.
Onzaan
Measure the water 4 parts water to 1 parts wild rice (that comes to 1 cup of rice to four cups of water). Bring water to boil, rinse the rice well and add the rice to the slowly and cover, after about 45 minutes the water should be all taken up. When all the water is absorbed it should be done. DO NOT SALT IT. One of her very important warnings is, that if you intend to use this in another cooked recipe with stuffing, and especially soup, do not boil it until it's all mushy. If your are serving plain, then taste it. It may not need salt, if it does, add just and little and fluff with fork. Serve plain or buttered.
Harvest Ingredient 28: Wild Rice
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| This is actually Native harvested truly wild rice |
The dark nutty native is not a true rice, it is in fact the seeds of an aquatic grass. In the wild state it is closely associated with the marshy area that part of water systems and drainage areas close to the Great Lakes, but in fact it's wild range is pretty wide spread. True Zizania aquatica actually ranges completely along the Canadian border and down through most of what is left of the eastern Woodlands as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and part of the way down into peninsular Florida. I even have some rather anemically seeded plants growing in my yard, as I live in a neighborhood that was at one time a marshy situation--some areas close by are still swampy. This goes to prove that the plants will grow in relatively dry conditions, but they don't produce good seed unless they actually do grow in a marsh or lake. The wild rice of the Great Lakes area in the US and Canada that has become such an important crop is the closely related, but larger Zinania palutris.
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| This is what cultivated wild rice looks like--what most of us buy from the supermarket. |
Wild rice has also been called "Indian Rice," "Water Oats," and, ironically, "Canada Rice." I say ironically, because more than 90% of the it's native range is in the US lower 48. The important Z. palustris is still harvested by locals tribes on both sides of the border, for an important food source for their peoples; and some groups, like the White Earth Manitok Wild Rice, sell the native wild harvested seed. Some non-natives also harvest the wild type and sell it; there are several sources for this from Canada. Z. palustris has also been domesticated, mostly by non-natives, and is grown as far away as California, where none of the 4 types of Zinania are native too. It is easy to tell the two apart, the wild harvested seeds are lighter in color and less dense; while the domestic type that is most common in stores, is much darker, and denser in weight, in addition to being really shinny. For things like salads, stuffings, and side dishes the domestic stuff is fine, but for some truly traditional Native American preparations like Popped Wild Rice, only the really wild stuff will do.
In addition to the two main type of wild rice mentioned above, the family has two other members; and despite that a lot has been written on how truly native this plant is to north America, it turns out that one of member of the family is actually native to China. Zinania latifloia is called in English "Manchurian Wild Rice" is native to China and ironically, despite it over all importance as a grain in ancient China, is now mostly grown for it's stalk, which is cut, peeled and used as a vegetable. It seems that this particular species is given to producing very fleshy stalk, that other types are not prone to. The four, rather sad member of the family is Zinania texana, which highly endangered and now grows only in one small area in central Texas.
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| Manchurian Wild Rice stalks, freshly cut and 1 is peeled ready for cooking. They look a lot like sweet corn stalks |
The most well known native word for wild rice come from the widely distributed Anishanabeg (Ojibwe) language: Manoomin, which actually translates to "good berry." There is even a Menominee tribe named for the seed, who call themselves in English "The Wild Rice People." The rice is harvested by paddling canoes slowly through "paddies" and knocking the seeds into the boat; one person paddles, the other knocks. After harvesting, the seeds must be dried, parched over fire, then hulled, then winnowed. The hulling is especially an important step amongst natives, as it is done by "dancing" on the parched seeds with special moccasins and has become a sacred activity. Traditional winnowing is done is a birch bark tray that has been heat and bent just enough to use for this task. The rice is then ready for cooking, storing or packaging for sale.
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| Old time rice harvest with two knockers in birch bark canoe |
Commercial cultivation of domesticated Z. palustris is not only a thing of the Americas anymore. In addition to it being largely cultivated in the U.S. and Canada, commercial cultivation as spread to Australia. In 1990 it was put under cultivation in the country of Hungary. Although the Manchurian variety has never been easy to domesticate for grain, and lose of habitat in it's native China as led to the discontinuation of it's use as a grain source altogether, the plant is still cultivated in a few rural places for it's stalks as mentioned above. These domesticated varieties are apparently not good seed producers, and put most of their energy into plant production, hence their use as a peeled starchy vegetable. Ironically the plant was accidentally introduced to New Zealand where it is reverting to wild stage with larger seeds production, but it is considered a seriously invasive plant species. A native infection a Chinese smut fungus, is responsible for the super swelling of the stems, for this reason, this plant is strictly illegal in north America, to protect the very important native species. Incidentally this is a fungus that is related to the corn smut fungus that is native the New World, but doesn't affect plants other than maize and is prized as food in Mexico (more about this later).
folate, magnesium, and phosphorous, and 5% or more of thiamine, riboflavin, iron, potassium. Wild rice can be infected with ergot, which was probably imported from Europe in inflected wheat crops. Ergot is highly dangerous in ingested and causes violent constrictions and hallucinations, and death; and it has even been suggested that ergot was partially to blame for the Salem Witch Trials.
Native use of wild rice included plain boiled to accompany any meal of wild game, fowl or fish. The above mentioned popped rice. It is also made into a traditional flour. It goes in a savory patties, into stuffings, into soups and is simply combined with maple to make a two ingredient delicious "pudding" that people of sample it swear has to have more than just two ingredients in it, because the taste is so complex. It is also a popular salad ingredient, and it makes a nice "rice salad" on it's own or mixed with vegetables, native or non-native. The flour and broken rice is also sometimes added to frybread, cornbreads, baked goods like cookies, and as breading for fried stuff (it's really good with seafood!). In modern times, it is also thrown into casseroles to help use up leftovers, with a popular turkey and wild rice combo popping up after Thanksgiving.
For decades it has been a popular mixed ingredient with real rice. Because even commercial wild rice can be expensive, it was often stretched with other rices and grains. Food companies caught on to this and began to market these mixtures in boxed form. Wild rice pilafs became all the rage for a while. Today pilafs, casserole, salads and other concoction have the seed mixed with all sorts of stuff, from Endamane to Asparagus. It tastes good mixed with oranges, mushrooms, leeks/onions, olives or pears. In parts of Europe and north Africa it is used with saffron rice or mixed with dates and coconut; and in Africa, it has shown up as a rare and exotic ingredient in Tagines. In Japan and Korea, it shows up in rice bowls mixed with white rice, at a ratio of roughly 10 to 1 and or in miso soup with seaweed. It is also put into fried rice mixtures in some parts of Asia. In Russia it is sometimes put into their traditional pastry Coulbiac of Salmon or served in some places for Russian beef (stronganoff).
Friday, October 28, 2011
Modern Cherokee Yellow Squash Casserole
This comes from a native "contributory" cookbook (you know, like the ones churches put out), published by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Oklahoma entitled Pow Wow Chow. The recipe was contributed by Nicky Butler from the Cherokee people. It is a modern affair, yet it still combines the yellow squash with native ingredients green bell pepper and tomatoes. It's makes a very tasty and festival side dish during the Christmas season! In the book it is titled "Yellow Squash Casserole No. 2" on page 189 and has a nice little sub-note about homemade mixed vegetables.
Cherokee Yellow Squash, Green Pepper and Tomato Casserole
The amounts depend on how many people you are serving, layer ingredients.
Layer The Following:
Sliced yellow squash
Green Bell rings
Sliced tomatoes
Sliced onions
Layer these until all of your vegetables are used up. Top with:
1/2 can cream of Cheddar soup
Breadcrumbs
Bake at 300 degrees until cooked through
Variations:
You can easily change up the other vegetables in this or use green squash or a combination of green and yellow.
Bagged bread cubes for stuffing can be used, in which cased you need to mix all the vegetables, the bread stuffing and the 1 whole can of the cheese soup together in mixing bowl, then place in backing dish. You may top with cheese, but that is optional.
You may like to add layers of shredded cheese to the original recipe.
Harvest Ingredient 27: Yellow Squash
Technically there are 3 distinct types of yellow squash: The plain yellow summer squash, yellow zucchini and the yellow crookneck squash, which is the most popular and widely available. Of the crookneck, there are two types, the popular smooth type and the less seen bumpy ones. While they are have distinct flavors, the crookneck and regular yellow summer squash more or less taste the same; while the yellow zucchini has a distinct flavor (even from regular or green zucchini) which is less sweet; and the meat is dryer than the other two. There is also a weird hybrid bi-color version of the Cousa squash that is partly the regular light mottled green of that type, and part yellow--these squash tend to be quite sweet but dryer that yellow or crookneck.
As noted before, the word squash comes from the Narragansett/Wampanoag Algonquin languages Askutasquash (green things to eat raw); and summer squash can indeed by eaten raw. In some indigenous communities, the whole plant is used, with the new shoots, small leaves, tendrils, blossoms and fruit all being used in various preparations. In Mexico especially the plants are utilized in a variety of ways. Shoots, tendrils, leaves and blooms go into a delicate broth of homemade chicken consomme'. The blossoms are sometimes stuffed or used to make fillings for quesadillas. Vegetarian squash tacos can also be found in various are of the country and in Veracruz the blooms goes into a delicate cream sauce for poached whole chicken. A popular dish from Peru has the blossoms stuffed with all manner of seafood and fried. A traditional Abenaki recipes calls for them to coated with cornmeal and fried.
As far as their preparation if concerned, they have been grilled, roasted and stuffed for centuries. In olden times, they were sliced into strips and dried for winter use; this product was useful in the lean winter months in the northeast and made for ideal traveling food. There were, and sill are used in Three Sisters Preparations of all sorts, one of the most popular of which is mixed with native "wild rice." They have also been chopped or mashed and mixed with cornmeal for form a kind of hoe-cake or ash cake. They were also put into cornbread and even spoonbreads. Skillet Squash is very popular in the southeast and grated squash quick breads are common. It is also popular in Three Sisters Chowder or in soups that feature it alone.
In modern times, they are battered and fried, fried with cornmeal crust, put in all manner of casseroles, mixed with non-native ingredients like eggplant for "mix its," canned at home, made into relished, even candied and used in deserts. The have a special affinity with the imported yellow cooking onion and make a nice dish around Christmas time mixed with red and green peppers. Across the globe they are treated in local culinary fashion. In rural China, where are popular because they are cheap and easy to grow, they are stir-fried with leaves in a read hot wok. In India that go into curries, and in some regions samosas, the Mediterranean they are paired up with locals herbs and sometimes lemon. In France it is sometimes added to that country's southern favorite, ratatouille (which is really all a "mix it" is anyway). Grated they make really nice fried fritters. Here a nice list of summer squash recipes, it's quite exhaustive.
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