more native american recipes (tradition, elder, disease)

[t3gah]

2 cups rose petals
2 cups warm water
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Using kitchen shears, cut off the tough bases of the blossoms and cut petals into strips. Pack tightly into a saucepan. Add the water and cook for 10 minutes or until soft. Strain off the juice into a sauce pan, reserving the petals, add sugar and honey. Cook until it spins a fine thread, about 220 degrees F. Now add the drained petals and simmer gently for about 45 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and keep on cooking slowly until it is thickened. Add some food color if you want to. Now pour into small jars and seal at once. Let cool before consumption.


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[t3gah]

3 cups, either all white or half whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add warm water and knead until dough is soft but not sticky. Stretch and pat dough until thin. Tear off one piece at a time, poke a hole through the middle and drop into kettle of sizzling hot lard or cooking oil. Brown on both siades. Serve hot. (Sliced in two, fry bread makes delicious hamburger buns, or later toasted, very good with honey or jam)

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[t3gah]

Indian Sugar Cookies

3 cups lard
2 cups sugar
4-5 cups flour
1/3 cup rose
wine
1 egg
Cinnamon and sugar

Cream lard and add sugar. Cream well. Beat in egg. Add rose' wine. Mix in 4 cups of flour, adding more until dough is able to be rolled out. Cut in circles or shapes, dip tops in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Bake in a medium hot oven until lightly browned.

Havasupai Pumpkin

Get some green roasting ear corn and cut it from the cob. Mash orgrind it up, until it is soft and pulpy. Now cut your pumpkin into cubes, about the same amount of pumpkin as you have corn. Heat your water almost to the boiling point and add your corn, pumpkin and salt. Poke up your fire and cook until the corn and pumpkin are done. Set it out to cool before you eat it.

Elderberry Wine

5 pounds elderberries

1 gallon cold water
3 1/2 pounds of granulated sugar
1/2 ounce yeast
6 cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Wash berries, cook in kettle with a gallon of water until the fruit is tender then strain off juice into a crock. Add sugar and spices, stir thoroughly. When luke warm add yeast. Cover crock, store in cool place for 10 days then strain and bottle. Put away for 6 months.

Summer Squash Soup (Zuni)

3 medium size squash

1 clove minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or shortening
1 cup chicken or beef broth

Dice washed squash, but do not peel. Saute slowly in butter with seasonings. Keep pan covered and do not allow to brown. When soft, puree, add broth and simmer until flavors are blended. Garnish with fried squash blossoms or sprinkle of fresh raw greens. Serves three of four.

Mesquite Punch

2 tablespoons fine mesquite flour

1 cup water

Combine the flour and water. Stir and let sit for a few minutes. Strain. The mixture was used as a dip for tortillas and fry bread and was considered very refreshing on a hot dip.

Traditional Mesquite Uses

The pimas boiled the black gum from the Mesquite tree and used the liquid as a dye for their hair. After applying the liquid with a rag, they plastered mud on top of their heads and left it overnight. They had to use three or more tubs of water, as you can imagine, the next morning to get it all off. This same gum or resin was used to mend pottery.


They made baskets from the inner material from the bark and the outer hard portions were used for cooking, heating or fence posts.

The whole tree was a pharmacy. The black gummy part was also boiled and used as a wash for eyes or wounds, sore lips, chapped or cracked skin and sunburn. It made a good throat gargle. It was also used for "bad disease" (venereal disease).

The leaves were used in teas to heal pink eye and painful gums. Powdered mesquite bark mixed with fine grain sand was applied to the navel of babies to prevent infection. It was considered a cool plant so was never given for high fever.

Kiowa Venison Roast

Slab of venison (about 2 inches thick)

4 tsp. bacon fat
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. celery chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. onion chopped
2 cups boiling water

Lay venison on board and pound flour into it. Melt fat into a large frying pan and brown roast in it. Add all the seasoning and 1/2 of the water. Cover and let simmer for 55 minutes; pour in the rest of the water and simmer until done.

Fried Hominy Grits of Southwest Plains Indian's

1 cup hominy

5 cups water
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Pepper
Butter
1/3 oil or bacon drippings

Gring water to boil and gradually add hominy, stirring continually. Add salt and pepper, butter and boil about 20 minutes. Wrap in foil paper and chill overnight. Then remove the paper and slice the hominy grits about 1/2 inch thick. Put into a frying pan and brown on both sides in the oil or bacon drippings.

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