Chaquewa (Tesuque Indian Porridge)

This is the ultimate "anytime" food for the cold months.  It is a basic recipes, which can be made into a type of unbaked quick bread, similar to the way that southerners mold, slice and fry cold cooked grits.  This is always made with blue corn, but any type of high quality cornmeal will suffice, no matter the color.  This is "gathered" recipe from Sue Dorame from Tesuque Pueblo, which appears in Lois Ellen Franks' expanded Foods Of The Southwest Indian Nations. As she notes, this is usually served with milk and/or sliced fruit, with the local peaches and strawberries being a favorite.

Chaquewa

2 cups water

2 cups ground blue cornmeal

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups milk

Sliced fresh fruit (optional)

1.  In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil.  Add in the cornmeal and the salt and stir constantly until completely mixed.  Decrease heat to low and continue to cook and stir for about 7 minutes.  The porridge will thicken as it cooks.

2. In another saucepan, warm the milk over medium heat.  Pour milk over porridge and serve warm.  Top with sliced fruit, if desired.

Variation:  Mold cooled porridge into a loaf shape and all to cool completely.  It can be slowly reheated and sliced and served as quick bread.  [My Note:  These slices can be fried.

Mexican Cornbread

This is another one of those harvest recipes that has endless variations. Most have two ingredients that never change, a green chile component and yellow cornmeal, though there are version made with other colors of corn flour, with blue being the most popular.  This version comes from a book simply entitled Corn by Olwen Woodier and gives the preparer the right to choose what kind of cornmeal that would like to use; it also a lighter bread, having a wheat flour base.  Woodier notes that it can be made spicier with the use of Jalapenos instead of the mild green chiles and replace the Cheddar with Monterey Jack cheese.

Mexican Cornbread

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 to 2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

1 cup corn kernels

1/2 cup chopped mild green chiles

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup low fat milk

1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

1.  Preheat oven to 400º F and grease an 8 to 9 inch square baking pan.

2.  Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.

3.  In a separate bowl, combine the Cheddar, corn, chiles, sour cream, milk, oil and egg.  Beat and stir into the flour mixture until barely moistened.  The batter will be lumpy.

4.  Pour this into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Serve warm.

Corn Cob Jelly

This is about as Cherokee (Tsalagi) as you can get.  The original recipe called for red corn cobs, like those above, which gives a red hue (perfect for a vampire theme for a day in the countdown to Halloween); but more modern recipes use fresh corn cobs, that will give the jelly a clear to yellow hue.  If you wan the red color use a vegetable red dye or some native Cochineal.

Corn Cob Jelly (Original Recipe)

12 red corn cobs, broken

3 cups sugar

1 package powdered pectin

6 cups water

1.  Boil the corn cobs in the water for at least 30 minutes, cool and strain.

2.  Add the sugar and stir well to star dissolving it.  Bring this back to the boil and allow the sugar to dissolve completely for 3 minute.  Then add in the pectin and bring back to a boil, cook for 1 minute at full rolling boil.  Remove from heat and skim.  Pour into sterilized jars and either seal with paraffin or sterilized lids.

Chiles Rellenos de Elote con Crema (Chiles Stuffed with Corn and Cream)

Another harvest season recipe from Diana Kennedy's Mexican Regional Cooking, this combines the bounty of green corn with the earthiness of char roasted green chiles, in this case poblanos.  It can also be made with Chile Anchos (which are ripened dried poblanos), giving the dish an even more earthy flavor, perfect for fall.  She makes note that the filling can can be made ahead of time and refrigerated, it might actually make the dish better, since the flavors will have a chance to meld.  Just heat it through before stuffing the chiles.  This is also a great vegetarian entree for Meatless Mondays, and since it serves 2 chiles per person, it can be stretched out to serve 12 with proper side dishes.

Chiles Rellenos de Elote con Crema

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

4 cups corn kernels (if frozen, measure before thawing)

1 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste

1/2 cup water, if necessary

3 tbsp. epazote, chopped (optional)

12 small poblano chiles, charred, peeled  and cleaned or 12 chile anchos

   seeds and veins and soaked in hot water for 15 minutes (leave stems

   on)

1/2 lb. queso fresco, cut into strips (if you can't find this use Jack cheese)

2 cups homemade sour cream or Mexican crema or creme fraiche (if you 

  can't find these, thin out regular full fat sour cream with whole milk)

3 oz. Chihuahua cheese or mild white cheddar, grated

1.  Melt the butter and fry the onion and the garlic over low heat, without browning,until soft.  Add the corn kernels and the salt, cover and cook until corn is tender (if the corn is very dry add in the water).

2.  Preheat oven to 350º F.  Stuff the chiles well with the corn mixture, place a slice of Queso right in the center of the filling.  Carefully place these in a shallow baking dish, pour over the sour cream and bake until well heated through (my note:  about 20 to 30 minutes).  Sprinkle the dish with the grated cheese and continue to bake until it is melted (my note:  again about 20 to 30 minutes).  Serve two chiles per person.  Which means it serves 6.

Native Food For Kids: Pumpkin-Corn Sauce

There are a number of little cookbook out there that feature Native American foods and recipes for kids.  One such book (part of a historical series) is entitled Food and Recipes of the Native Americans and was authored by George Erdosh (the whole series is).

Corn and pumpkin have a great affinity for each other and cooking them together produces an aroma that is pure Fall, pure harvest season!  Almost like a scented candle.   This recipe is easy, safe (since it uses canned pumpkin puree), simple enough for kids for follow with the supervision of an adult.  The recipe instructs to serve it with grilled chicken or pork, but really, it's a great sauce for just about anything (even desserts or ice cream if it is seasoned with maple syrup or extra honey).  A real native way to serve it would be turkey!  Now my kid inherited the side of my father's family that is super finicky (unlike me, who inherited the side that would just about eat anything...), so he won't eat this (yet!), but he does enjoy actually cooking with me.  It's a great way to teach math to kids!

Pumpkin-Corn Saute

1 15oz. can of plain pumpkin

1 cup frozen or canned corn (drained)

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. honey

Native oil for greasing

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a baking dish with a small amount of native oil.

2.  Put the corn in the in the oiled dish and bake for 20 minutes.

3.  Mix the corn, pumpkin, salt, and honey in a saucepan, heat over medium heat until it starts to bubble.  Turn the heat down and cook for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.  

A variation on this would be to use creamed corn.

The Peanut in his favorite Halloween mask!

Harvest Recipe: Homemade Hominy

The world "Hominy" is derived from the Powhatan language (an Algonquin language) from Virginia and a group of people that I descended from through inter-marriage in Jamestown.  The word rockohamin, became the the English loan word hominy (it is also worth noting that within the Powhatan Confederacy [actually known in the Powhatan language as Tsenacommacah or Tsenanacomoco, meaning "densely inhabited land"] a large tribal entity known as the Chickahominy was a member.]  In the Nahuatl language this is known as Nixtamal and in some places posolli, it is from the former that the process of making hominy is referred to as nixtamalization. When dried hominy is ground, it then becomes grits, a real staple here in the south!  When the fresh nixtamal/hominy is ground, it then forms the basic dough for the very ancient corn tortilla, which is tlaxcalli in the Nahuatl ["Aztec"] language.  So this basic recipe is important.  There are slight variations on the making of this treated corn, but all involve a type of alkali.  In this case, it is clean wood ash (this is the old southern native way of preparing the corn, used in a very large way by the Tsalagi (Cherokee); the wood ash is the alkali in the boiling water (in Mexico, slacked lye is used, that gives a distinctive smell that corn tlaxcalli have). This particular recipe comes from nice little southern cookbook by Rubye Alley Bumgarner entitled The Sunset Farms Cookbook; it contains a very large number of Tsalagi recipes!  The recipe assumes that every one has a wood burning stove--these are obviously rare now, but if you have a fire place (or know someone who does) you can made the clean ashes yourself, just be sure not to use any chemicals to start the fire.  The most used wood ashes are made from hickory wood.  Or you can buy some wood chips and make these in a clean grill, again just don't use any chemicals.  Sometimes pit barbecue places will give out ashes.  As a last resort use the slacked lye available in hardware stores.

Homemade Hominy

Shell one quart of corn and place in cooking pot (a black iron one is best). [Add water to cover] Boil for 1.  In a white flour sack tie one quart clean wood ashes from stove; add the bag to the pot of corn.  Cook slowly all day [Adding more water as needed] Wash and drain the corn, place in cold water.  The hulls will come off and come to the top where you can remove them. [It helps to rub the kernels between your hands.]  Stew washed, drained corn in bacon drippings or butter to serve.  [Or can or dehydrate completely to store.]

Books On Foraging

Wilderness Cookery
Brad Angier
Stackpole Books, 1963 (first published in 1961)
(Filled with recipes for camp cooking, how to's in setting up various cooking stations outside and a whole section on wild foods found in Canada and the US.)

Native Harvests:  American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes

E Barrie Kavasch (Chickamauga Cherokee/Powhatan/Muskogee Creek/English/Scots-Irish/German)

Dover, 2005 (first published in 1977)

Made In Hawaii

Jane Fulton Abernethy & Suelyn Ching Tune

University Of Hawaii, 1983

American Indian Cooking

Carolyn Niethammer

University Of Nebraska Press, 1999 (first published in 1974)

Ininatig's Gift Of Sugar:  Traditional Native Sugarmaking

Laura Waterman Wittstock (Stockbridge-Munsee/Seneca)

Lerner Publications Program, 1993

Books Featuring Native Dishes

The Great Salsa Book

Mark Miller

Ten Speed Press, 1994

Chili Madness

Jane Butel

Workman Publishing, 1980

The Book Of Chowder

Richard J. Hooker

The Harvard Common Press, 1978

The Steaklover's Companion

Frederick J. Simon, photographs by Lois Ellen Frank (Kiowa)

Harper Collins, 1997

[The book is divided into regional sections, with many that qualify as modern Native recipes, loads of native ingredients.]

50 Chowders

Jasper White

Scribner, 2000

Gluckastan

Northwest Coast Seaweed Gatherers of the Kwak'wala (Kwakiutl) ethno-language groups--probably Tsawataineuk.

Gluckastan

This comes from my copy of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables Recipes, and has been reprinted in a book on seaweeds by the founders of Maine Coast.  The recipe in my book was reprinted from The Sea Vegetable Book by Judith Cooper Madlener, but the original is from the Tsawataineuk people who are called tsawatainuk in her book (they also call themselves Dazwada'enuxw).  The recipe is a modernized one and very simple, and a complete protein packed with vitamins!  For protein it could serve as a main course, but by today's tastes it would probably be seen more as a side dish.  In older times it would be made with fresh or dried wild Pacific seaweed; this recipe makes it easier to obtain the ingredients by using Nori sheets or nori seasonings

1 Can creamed corn, or 2 cups fresh or frozen with 4 tbsp. milk or soy milk

1 cup Nori or 3 tbsp. Nori Granules Sea Seasoning (from Maine Coast) or

       any nori condiment you like, even Nori Komi Furikake will work!

Extra water, milk or soy milk, if needed

1.  Heat creamed corn in a sauce pan, or heat fresh or frozen corn with milk or soy milk, if it's fresh cook for 10 minutes.

2.  Roast the nori in an oven on the lowest setting for 5 to 8 minutes, then crumble into corn, or shake 3 tbsp of the nori seasoning into the corn and cook for 10 minutes.  Add extra water, milk or soy milk if the mixture becomes too thick.

What I've Been Cooking

I've been really busy with homeschooling, so I haven't had nearly as much time for blogging as I would like.  I'd like to spend so time getting caught up.  Here's a rundown of what I've been cooking of late in the native vein.  

First up a really easy and delicious way to make native salmon cakes.  This recipe comes from The Art Of American Indian Cooking by Jean Anderson and Yeffee Kimbal.  I've served these with two sides this week:  Southern Cheese Grits and Slaw.

Native Northwest Style Salmon Cakes

Two cans of Salmon, flaked with can liquid

4 Juniper Berries*, crushed well in mortar and pestle

1/3 cup plain cornmeal

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup whole milk or powdered milk whisked with 1/3 cup water

Native oil or other for greasing tins

Two muffin tins or individual cupcake molds

Simply mix all ingredients together well.  Grease the tins and in spoon mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  These may be served hot or cold.

*Truly edible juniper berries grow wild in the northwest and usually come from the Juniperus communis subspecies depressa.  They were, and still are, used as both a food and as a medicine.  They commonly are found in salmon recipes and can be easily ordered on-line.  I got mine from a vendor selling on Amazon.

Basic Cheese Grits

There is really nothing to making grits, or cheese grits for that matter.  They are a real southern comfort food and solidly have their origins in Native America.  Here in the south you simply cannot have a fish fry without cheese grits!!  But they do go well with other fish dishes as well.  They are also sometimes served at breakfast.

Grits

Water

Pinch Salt

Grated Cheese

Measure out however much grits that you will need according to package directions and add the appropriate amount of water, add only a pinch of the salt though (you can always tweak this later).  Allow to fully cook (it will depend on what type of grits you have as to how long that will take, mostly people use the instant type these days), add more water as needed, don't let them become too thick, as cheese is a natural thickener.  Add in at least 1 cup of shredded cheese, add more if you are making a large batch.  Traditionally the orange cheddar is used in the south, but I really like the white cheddar; but really, used what you like!  Smoked cheese makes an interesting dish!  I will also admit to using pregrated cheese from time to time as well.  It's just convenient.

For the slaw, a truly native take on it is made with jicama and cabbage.  Food writer Dale Carson (Abenaki) who is the food editor for the online Native American newspaper Indian Country Today.  The recipe that I used was hers published in the above newspaper and can be found here.  I like to increase the amount of cilantro, I also used bagged slaw mixed and added extra carrot, you can tweak it any way that you like.  The dressing is also good for a mixed green salad as well.  I haven't tried the Celery Root Slaw yet, but it looks good.  If you don't want to got the trouble of making a slaw from scratch, just buy a bag of slaw and some slaw dressing a mix it up.  Coleslaw is another southern must have for a fish fry.

Low Carb Turkey Taco Wrap

This is not a strict low carb house, but every once and a while I like to try out low carb recipes in the Native American vein so that I can properly post them with relevant information for people who are on a low carb diet and still want something New World.  They are made the way I really like my homemade soft taco, with the shell being lightly fried.  I ran across these in the Good Cook Brochure.  It is a completely modern recipe, and does use prepared taco seasoning, but you could just as easily use chili powder or pure ground chile with some salt.  The recipe is still in native vein and made with the native turkey, and really it beats fast food!

1 tbsp. olive oil (it doesn't need to be the expensive stuff)+ Extra

1 lb. turkey cutlets

Taco seasoning

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup red onion, sliced

1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

4 Low carb tortillas (these days they come in flavors, I used sun dried tomato shells)

1/2 bell pepper (any color), cut into strips

Fresh or jarred salsa (sugar free)

1.  Season the cutlets with the taco seasoning.  Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a large skillet.  Add the turkey and cook two minutes per side.  Transfer to a carving board.

2.  Add the onions, cilantro,  and sour cream to the skillet.  Cook 1 minute.  While this is cooking, slice the turkey into strips and add to the pan (be sure to add any juice from the cutlets as well).  Cook the mixture over low while to tend to the tortillas.

3.  Meanwhile heat more olive oil in another skillet, when it is hot, fry the tortillas one at a time as you prepare the tacos.  

4.  To assemble the tacos, place some of the turkey mixture in the middle of the fried tortilla.  Add some of the fresh bell pepper strips and top with salsa.  I just used some homemade Salsa Fresca and blended it (consisting of peeled tomato (canned tomatoes work great for this!), white onion, seeded jalapeno, cold water and salt).  Wrap up the mixture like a package, cut in half and serve with extra salsa.

Variations:

Of course you can vary this in any way that you like.  Change the meat, add fresh slices of avocado, sliced radish and/or Jicama slices.  

Use a low carb whole wheat tortilla

If you are not worried about carbs, tuck the filling into corn or regular flour tortillas.

If you like spicy, replace all or part of the bell pepper with slices or seeded jalapeno or add pickled jalapenos.

Let the filling cool, then lay on a bed of shredded lettuce, top with the bell peppers, sliced black olives and some slice fresh tomato.  Nice lunch idea.

Basic Good Tamal Dough

This is a basic and very good tamal dough from Jaunita Casados, matriacrh of Casados Farms, located on the pueblo of Ohkay Owinge, formerly San Juan Pueblo.  The farm has been in business for nearly 50 years supplying dried three sisters products (corn, beans & squash) along with excellent products from the southwest's own fourth sister:  Chilli/Chile.  It was first published in Casados Farms own New Mexican Delights.  It was later re-printed Native Peoples magazine, and later re-published in the cookbook put out by the magazine Mind, Body & Spirit.  You can use any color of cornmeal for this; she uses white and blue, but yellow is common and some southwestern vendors, like Native Seed Search, sometimes sell red corn flour as well.  For yellow, follow directions for the white tamales with yellow tamal flour, for red--follow directions for the blue tamales.  Her's are made for a mixed meat filling, but by substituting vegetable ingredients for the meat ones, this dough can easily be made for vegetarian tamales of all sorts.

1 tsp.  salt
1/4 cup meat fat (you can get this from making a meat filling for 
    the tamales and reserve the fat, or use lard, bacon fat, suet or
    if you are vegetarian, pure vegetable shortening)
1 1/2 cup meat or vegetable stock


For White Tamales:


2 cups Masa harina white tamale flour


For Blue Corn Tamales:


2 cups blue corn flour (the fine type)
1 tsp. double acting baking powder

1.  Divide the salt, the fat and the stock in half between the two different colored cornmeals in separate bowls.  Using an electric hand mixer, beat each separately until thoroughly blended and "doughy."  That's it!  Hey presto, you have a perfectly usable tamal dough!

This can be used plain as tamal dumplings cooked in softened corn husks.  It is a perfect recipe for any type of filling from Picadillo to vegetable.  You simply spread some dough on a corn husk, lay in some filling, roll and steam.  Very simple.  I homemade or decent purchased chile sauce or salsa tops them well.  Different colors are great for Christmas!!

A Blue Corn Tamale with a meat filling and a roasted corn sauce.

Corn And Huitlacoche Salsa

From chef Mark Miller's cute and helpful Ten Speed Press book The Great Salsa Book, this is really just a pure corn salsa.  Corn smut "infects" corn kernels and turn them into a fungus or mushroom, so it's one type of corn with another:  say, "weird" corn with "straight" corn.  I have cooked with Huitlacoche before--and my Cream of Huitlacoche soup is a household specialty of mine.  Corn fungus as a food ingredient is most often found as a quesadilla filling in an around Mexico City; though it is used as soup ingredient there too.  It also put into skillet dishes, such as with squash, which is used as a side dish or filling for tortillas (tacos); and it doesn show up in a Salsa de Huitlacoche, which is usually served as a sauce for chicken or meat.  Miller's salsa relies completely on the huitlacoche being bought frozen.  It is hard to come by in the this country any other way, unless you pick over farmer's markets or grow your own corn; I have even scored some by picking over corn piles in supermarkets, but not recently.  I guess produce managers are more picky these days--so frozen it is.  There are mail order sources for it.

I know this stuff looks rough, but it is delicious!!

Corn And Huitlacoche Salsa

4 Serrano chiles, roasted and peeled (don't worry if you don't get all the skin)

5 really ripe Roma or farmer's market tomatoes, chopped

2 cups huitlacoche (that's about 11 ounces), thawed, reserve all the liquid

1/2 cup minced white onion

4 cloves garlic roasted in skins

1 tsp. epazote, minced (if using dried, cut to 1/4 tsp.)

Cilantro to taste

1/2 tsp. salt

1 ear fresh corn

2 tbsp. water

1 tsp. adobo sauce (this is easy to come by if you buy canned Chipotle chiles)

1.  Chop the chiles with their seeds.

2.  Place the chiles, the tomatoes, the huitlacoche, any reserved huitlacoche liquid and onion in a skillet, heat and add the garlic, epazote, cilantro and salt.  Cook for 20 minutes, then transfer to a mixing bowl. 

3.  Shuck corn and cut the kernels from the cob.  Place these in the skillet with the water and adobo sauce, heat and then simmer for a few minutes.  Fold this into the ingredients in the mixing bowl.  This good warm with beef and pork.  Allow to come to room temperature and serve it with chips.  In fact, almost all of the salsas in the book can be served with chips if desired, and this is good in or on tacos.

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!