1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. We've had very few donations over the year. I'm going to be short soon as some personal things are keeping me from putting up the money. If you have something small to contribute it's greatly appreciated. Please put your screen name as well so that I can give you credit. Click here: Donations
    Dismiss Notice

Food Native American food

Discussion in 'Tilted Food' started by Borla, Jun 12, 2015.

  1. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Does anyone eat anything that qualifies as this, or have any good recipes they could share?

    I stumbled across an interesting article about it:

    When Will Native American Food Finally Get Its Due?

    This led me to the restaurant "Elizabeth" in Chicago, which is having Native American tribute menus this summer.

    Which led me to make a reservation for late August to try it.

    The Hunter menu says it features: Pemmican. Smoked Salmon. Hominy. Skate Wing. Venison. Sassafras. Acorn.

    Gatherer Menu features: Ants. Sunchoke. Corn. Greens. Buckwheat. Wild Berries. Nettles.

    I'll obviously be getting the Hunter menu, the carnivore that I am. There are add ons available the day of your reservation, so who knows what else will be on the menu.

    I'm really intrigued to see how it is done.

    But in general, does anyone know much about personally cooking NA recipes? I'd like to maybe incorporate some into our menu, especially since we usually have venison in the freezer.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  2. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    • Like Like x 2
  3. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    There would have to be a lot of regional cuisines in any area the size of the USA. The fisherman/clamdiggers of Nantucket food is a lot different from the nomadic plains indians that followed the buffalo.

    If you want to eliminate European foodstuffs, Southwestern (New Mexico, Arizona, SoCal) cuisine is almost entirely new-world ingredients. Maize, annatto, dried beans, squash, pumpkin, chiles, tomato, tomatillo, pork, chicken...
    The only old world ingredient common in SW cooking is the spice cumin.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  4. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    I like some Native foods very much, though some I find difficult to make properly. The first one I made and felt satisfied with was this recipe for mutton stew and fry bread I got from a Navajo guy I met back when I worked in Hollywood.

    Stew

    1 1/2 pounds mutton (lamb can be substituted) cubed for stew
    4 - 5 medium potatoes, diced roughly
    4 medium-large carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
    1 1/2 medium yellow onions, diced roughly
    1 can white hominy, drained
    1/2 cup celery, diced roughly
    3 cups low-sodium beef stock
    1/2 - 1 cup water
    1/2 tsp dry sage or 2-3 medium-small fresh leaves
    1/2 tsp dry thyme or a small bunch of fresh thyme twigs
    1/2 tsp black pepper
    1/2 tsp paprika
    salt to taste

    Toss all the ingredients into a stew pot. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook until done (maybe 3-4 hours, though more time doesn't hurt it, and usually helps). I found this a little simpler and more basic than the European style stews I usually make, but good, and wholesome in that simplicity. Eating it with fry bread definitely helps. If you don't want to make the fry bread, I have served it with corn dumplings, and found it quite tasty.

    Fry bread

    4 cups flour
    1/2 cup shortening (I was told that lard is traditionally used, but obviously I cannot vouch for it)
    1 cup warm water
    2 tbsp baking powder
    1 tsp salt
    oil for frying

    Mix the dry ingredients. Add in shortening and water slowly, until dough just sticks together. Knead dough into balls (maybe the size of a billiard ball) and cover for 10 minutes to rest. Roll the balls out by hand into flat circles, a little thicker than a tortilla de casa. Fry in hot oil over medium-high heat until brown on both sides. Drain well on paper towels, then serve. This is, apparently, the traditional carb of the Navajo Nation, and is eaten with virtually everything, salty, savory, or sweet, hot or cold. I liked it.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  5. redux

    redux Very Tilted

    Location:
    Foggy Bottom
    • Like Like x 2
  6. ASU2003

    ASU2003 Very Tilted

    Location:
    Where ever I roam
    The Smithsonian on the National Mall in DC has a Native American restaurant that is pretty good. I did get some real NA food a few years ago when I went to a pow-wow in Arizona with my roommate who was from a local tribe.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  7. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Is eel pie actually NA, or something the original European settlers created?
     
  8. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    I don't know if NA have an eel pie of their own, but eel pie is considered one of the classic English dishes. I cannot vouch for it, eels not being kosher. But I could imagine making a pie containing various NA stews, much along the lines of English beef or mutton or other pies.
     
  9. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    We've had lemon grass eel at the Kim Son restaurant on the southeast edge of downtown (they now have quite a few restaurants in & around Houston). I thinks it's a Vietnamese dish; it's very good..if one can handle the idea of eating eel. My wife & her family are English, but they never tried eel pie.
     
  10. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    To be fair, I believe eel pie began decreasing in popularity in England around the turn of the twentieth century; which may or may not be related to eels being over-fished and increasingly scarce at that time in English waters. But it was incredibly popular at least from the fourteenth or fifteenth century to the early- to mid-nineteenth. All I remember in terms of recipes is one from the sixteenth century which advocates firmly for starting with live eels which should then be drowned in and cooked in dry sack.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. redravin

    redravin Cynical Optimist Donor

    Location:
    North
    Muktuk is something just about every Alaskan has eaten, those of us who don't have it a cultural tradition mostly because need to be able to say we did.
    Whale fat is a unique experience best dipped in a lot of hot sauce.

     
    • Like Like x 1
  12. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. It seems like a false and contrived distinction.

    Why invalidate the 600 years of creative use of the new ingredients that appeared in post-columbian cuisines in the new world?
    NW-OW culinary fusion went both directions, eh?

    We don't consider European recipes less valid because they use new world ingredients.

    Think of disqualifying all Italian recipes that include tomatoes, Czech/German/Irish recipes without potatoes, Thai/Siamese food without peanuts. Et cetera, et cetera, and so forth.:)
     
  13. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    I was thinking along similar lines.
     
  14. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    I saw this story the other day and thought of this thread: Here's The Buzz On Yaupon, America's Forgotten Native 'Tea' Plant : The Salt : NPR

     
    • Like Like x 3
  15. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Our reservation is for tonight.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  16. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    Tell us how it goes! I want to see the acorn dish.
     
  17. Japchae

    Japchae Very Tilted

    I want pictures. This is really interesting
     
    • Like Like x 1
  18. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    The ladies made a wish, who am I not to grant it? ;)

    Main dishes included pemmican (way better than I expected, like a meat and berry brownie :yum: ), hominy and beans, pickled fish and wild mushrooms, tenderloin with sunchoke, birch and fermented milk (tasted like a tart root beer float :drool: ), and squash cake.
    Yes, most of the dish in the second pic is garnish. ;)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]




    Not my favorite seasonal/themed tasting experience, but maybe one of the most interesting. My wife decided at the last minute to go with the Gatherers' menu, and she loved it.


    One very cool aspect of the restaurant is that there was only about 10 tables or so, and the kitchen was IN the same room. So you could watch the chefs and their assistants preparing the dishes. :)
     
    • Like Like x 3
  19. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    The food is beautiful, @Borla, But I have to ask,and only half in jest, if you had to eat supper after you got home?;)
     
  20. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Haha, no. The fish and red meat dishes were on huge plates, so the portions were bigger than they may appear in those pictures. I left feeling full, but not stuffed. :)