BEAN BREAD
1 cup of cornmeal
½ cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups milk
¼ cup melted shortening
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp honey
4 cups drained brown beans
Mix all of these ingredients, except beans, thoroughly, and then fold in the beans. Pour into greased, heated pan. Bake at 450 until brown (usually 30 minutes or so)
CHEROKEE PEPPER POT SOUP
1 lb. Venison or beef short ribs or shanks
2 qts of water
2 Lg. onions
2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 lg. sweet bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup fresh or frozen okra
1/2 cup of Diced potatoes
1/2 cup of sliced carrots
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup chopped celery
add salt and ground pepper to taste
Place meat, water, and onions in a large soup kettle. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 hours. Remove meat, let cool, and discard bones, return meat to pot, Stir in remaining vegatables and simmer, partially covered for 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serves 4 to 6
SQUIRREL AND HOMINY
Clean one squirrel. Roast in oven until done. Pull the meat off the bones and add it to 3 cans of yellow or white hominy. Add onions, mild chili peppers, salt, pepper, garlic. Cook over med heat until the onion is tender. Add 2 TB of sour cream and serve with chunky salsa.
don't worry, you can use chicken!
INDIAN TACOS
Ingredients for Topping:
1 lb. Fried hamburger
2 18 oz. cans chopped tomatoes
1 large green pepper
1 large onion
1 18 oz. can refried beans
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 large can of red kidney beans
1 tsp. chili powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 head of lettuce, shredded
4 diced fresh tomatoes
Preparation:
Mix the first 10 ingredients in a large pot.
Simmer on low heat for about 2 hours. While this is simmering make fried bread. Place hot fried bread on a plate, Top with sauce, add some shredded cheese on top, add lettuce, tomatoes. And enjoy!
FRY BREAD
The tradition of frybread needed updating just for convenience. We now buy frozen white bread dough, thaw it, cut it up roll it in a bit of flour and deep fry it.
Here is a more traditional recipe for it . . .
2 Cups FLOUR
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 cup Instant Dry Milk
2 Cups Shortening
Mix Flour, baking powder, salt, powdered milk, and water. Heat shortening until flakes of flour start to bubble when dropped into oil. While shortening is heating, Pull off a palm sized mound of dough and roll it into a smooth ball then flatten into a disk shape. Size is a matter of preference. Put dough into pan, cook until brown, turn over and cook other side until brown. You can take a brown paper bag and place a few sheets of paper towels on the bottom and drop finished fry bread into bag to let grease drain. Makes about 6 servings.
****If you roll hotdogs in the fry bread dough, THEN fry, you have FRY DOGS! Yum! We usually cut the hotdogs in half because they heat in the middle better. Kids always love these.
RAMPS
Directions: Gather young ramps soon after they come up. Parboil them, wash and fry in a little grease. Meal may be added if you wish. They may be cooked without being parboiled, or even eaten raw if the eater is not social minded!
FRIED CORN
Ingredients:
12 ears fresh corn
1/4 cup lard or bacon grease
salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Cut the corn off the ears, scraping the cob to get all the milk and kernel. Put in a frying pan over medium heat w/ melted grease or lard. I always use a spatula to turn the corn every 5 minutes or so until the corn starts to brown. Turn down heat and cover, stirring regularly to make sure the corn doesn't scorch. Add salt and pepper to taste.
CORNMEAL MUSH
1 Cup corn meal
4 cups boiling water
salt to taste
Add to pot of salted boiling water slowly. Turn heat down. Stir constantly and cook until meal is thoroughly done and thickened. Serve with milk or butter. Or it may be sliced when cold and fried. (this is for Kaiha!)
SASSAFRAS TEA
Gather sasafrass roots and remove the bark. Boil a few pieces of the root till it reaches desired strength. Add honey or sweetner to taste. Serve hot or cold.
This is something I did with my grandmother. She showed me how to find and collect the root.
More Tsalagi recipes from the web.
