Navajo Fry Bread is a staple of every Navajo diet. It is very easy to make, and the ingredients are easy to come by. Recipes are different with each person, especially with other tribes, because they have their own version of the fry bread.
The Navajo Blue Corn Mush is also a traditional delicacy. It is a main fiber source for the Navajo and can be mixed with mutton stew or any kind of stew. The mush also serves as a laxative preferred by most elder Navajo, which is why it’s mixed into stews.
These are recipes of The Rev. Catherine B. Plummer, priest-in-charge of St. Mary’s of the Moonlight Episcopal Church, Oljato, UT, submitted by her daughter Cathlena.
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ~ John 6:35
Navajo Fry Bread
Ingredients:
- 4 cups of flour
- 2 tbsp powdered milk
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup lard
Mix flour, powdered milk, baking powder, and salt together
Add 1 1/2 cup of warm water and mix with hands. Mix until soft.
Take a ball of soft dough, pat back and forth and knead until flat and round
Put 1 cup of lard in large frying pan or skillet.
Carefully lay flattened dough into hot fat.
Let dough cook until golden brown flipping over to brown both sides.
Navajo Blue Corn Mush
Mix 1 cup of juniper leaves ash (dried and burned) with 1 cup of boiling water
Add 3 cups of water to ash and water mixture in a pot. Bring to boil then strain ashes into water.
Stir and add 4 handfuls of blue cornmeal.
Boil for 30 minutes. Stir.
Take off heat and stir.
Serve with Fry bread.
Submitted by: The Rev. Canon Cathlena A. Plummer, Canon for Communications, 1271 Mission Ave. Box 720, Farmington, NM 87499
For a downloadable/printable version of this recipe, visit: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/blog/advent/resources
Tomorrow: Southern Pralines
Make Ready The Feast 