Fry Bread originated when the US government gave wheat flour and lard to the Navajo people imprisoned in Fort Sumner (Kit Carson had basically devastated their crops and livestock). It’s become a tradition on the reservation, despite the negative health effects. I’ll warn you now: Fry Bread is not a healthy food. I apologize to all my friends currently on diets.

You can Google for Fry Bread and find some other recipes, too. Nearly every tribe has a version. Some have yeast and take hours to prepare, others use copious amounts of lard or shortening. I like the simple Navajo variations, myself.

Fry Bread

Ingredients

Most recipes for Fry Bread are quite similar, but no two are the same. The high altitude of New Mexico means changes in recipes: consequently, some Fry Bread recipes will need some adjustment (usually more flour). I also try to avoid using lard when I make mine.

• 2-3 cups flour (you can also use a mix of white and wheat flour)
• 1-2 teaspoons of salt
• 2-3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1-1.5 cups of water
• 2-3 cups vegetable oil or shortening

Preparation

Preparation of the dough is rather easy. Mix everything together. You don’t want the dough to be too sticky. While mixing, you need to heat up some oil to cook the dough in (that would be the “Fry” part). You can use any pan that’s somewhat deep, but you need to be very careful. The best way is to use an electric frying pan or a deep fryer that you can adjust the heat on (between 170-190 degrees is good). Generally though, a moderate-high setting will do, if you don’t have an electric flying pan. Note: The oil will be hot. Wear long sleeves and oven mitts. Make sure that all pets are elsewhere. Hot oil is bad news on exposed skin.

Get a lot of paper towels ready, too. You’ll be needing them.

Tear off a small piece of the dough to test the oil’s readiness: it should rise to the top and sizzle a bit and turn a nice golden brown. If that happens, you are ready: take some of the dough and make a disc about 4 inches across and about a half inch deep (you might want to make either larger or smaller ones, so feel free to experiment). Tear a hole in the center of the disc (it’s a tradition and it gives you something to poke the end of a wooden spoon through to lift the thing). It’ll probably take about a minute or so per side, depending on the heat of the oil. You want it to look golden brown on both sides.

When done, put the Fry Bread on the paper towels. These things will be very oily, so you might want to pat them with paper towels to get any excess oil off.

There you go. Normally, you’d eat these with something like Green Chile Stew, though you could just eat them with honey (much like a sopapilla) or sprinkle them with powdered sugar or Tang. You can also top the Fry Bread with ground beef, pinto beans, lettuce, tomato, etc. Makes a very nice (but fattening) meal.

Technorati Tags: Navajo, Fry Bread

Each year, I cook a turkey for Thanksgiving, like many others. Sometimes, it doesn’t turn out very well (two years back, I set off the smoke alarms with my turkey cooking). This year, though, the turkey was practically perfect. I stuffed it with oranges, lemons, apples, cinnamon and ginger, and coated the skin with lemon, orange, a little vinegar, a little olive oil, and a lot of various spices (including rosemary, which I love).

Unlike last year, I also cooked the turkey the right-side up (don’t ask: I think I was drinking while cooking last year). My wife made mashed yams and the stuffing, while I worked on the normal mashed potatoes. It’s rare when everything comes together so well. Next year should be a total disaster.

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving, turkey

In the next week or two, I’ll toss up some of my photos and thoughts on the trip. As a starter, here’s just one of the many things I love in Albuquerque: it’s the Huevos Rancheros at the Frontier restaurant across from the University of New Mexico. I spent a good portion of my college study time there and I always try to eat there when I visit. If you are even in Albuquerque, you gotta eat there at least once.

Guacamole

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
• a dash of salt
• 4 tablespoons of green chile, or about a half cup tomatoes
• teaspoon coriander or cilantro (optional)

When choosing avocados, I always get ones that are a nice deep green: it’ll take a few days for them to ripen, and they will ripen more quickly when exposed to air, so just leave them on a counter some where. My cats leave them alone (that’s about the only thing they leave alone). When ripe, the avocado will be a much darker green, nearly black, and will be just ever so slightly soft, but not squishy.

My wife dislikes the texture of tomatoes, so I use some of the green chile I’ve mentioned previously. The coriander/cilantro isn’t for everyone, though. I find it can mask the avocado taste a little too much for me.

Preparation

• Remove the belly buttons from the avocados (okay, they really are just part of the stem, but they look like belly buttons) and cut the avocados in half: they do have pits, so be careful.
• Once halved, place the avocado with the pit down on a cutting surface, pit up. With a quick motion, strike the pit in the center with the knife, so that the blade embeds itself in the pit (Note: don’t do this with the avocado in your hand: an overripe avocado is as easy to cut through as jello). Turn the blade right or left and the pit should come right out. Repeat for the other avocado.
• Scoop the pulp out of the avocado shells into a bowl using a spoon, and discard the rines.
• Using the knife and spoon, cut the avocado into smaller pieces. Many recipes have you mash the avocados into a paste, but I like mine a little chunky, so I keep chopping until the pieces are small, but stop before it turns into a mashed mess.
• Add the lemon/lime juice: it’s really there to prevent the guacamole from losing its color more than anything, though it does add a little flavor. Mix it in.
• Add the cilantro and the salt: the measurements above are, of course, suggestions.
• Add the tomato and/or the green chile and mix once again.
• Finally, poor the whole thing into a bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap: make sure the plastic wrap is on the surface of the guacamole: you want as little air as possible between the wrap and the dip (again, to keep the air from turning the avocado brown).

The typical serving suggestion for guacamole is some nice tortilla chips. I get the ones with lower salt content to prevent heart attacks. Plus, the baked tortilla chips allow the flavor the guacamole to shine through. It’s also great to use when making tacos or burritos, and can even liven up a hamburger.

It usually keeps for a few days when properly wrapped and refrigerated. It will start turning brown, which can be a little off-putting, but it still will taste pretty good.

Green Chile Stew

Ingredients

• 1 pound – Chicken, Pork, Beef, cubed or cut into small pieces
• 1 quart – Chicken/Vegetable/Beef broth, depending on the meat you choose (the vegetable broth works in all of them, really)
• 3-4 red potatoes cut into pieces (should be about the same size as the meat)
• 8 oz green chile (I always suggest starting with 8 ounces, though you might want more or less)
• 1 package frozen whole kernel corn

Depending on what meat you want to use, you might need the following, too:

• 1 Tbsp – Vegetable oil (for cooking the chicken, beef, pork)
• 1/4 cup – All purpose flour (use to coat the beef, if going that route; if using chicken or pork, you can add it when browning it)
• 1 Tbsp – Granulated garlic

Note: if you want, you can also omit using any meat at all. Just add more potatoes and other veggies you like. Heck, add some tofu.

Hardware

• Large stew pot
• Skillet (optional)

Preparation

• Cook the potatoes for about 10 minutes, then let cool
• Either in the skillet or the stew pot, heat up the oil and add the chicken, pork or flour-dredged beef. Make sure the chicken/pork/beef is cooked thoroughly. While cooking the chicken/pork, add the flour while cooking.
• If using the skillet, transfer the contents to the stew pot. Then add the broth and stir it well.
• Bring the stew to a boil.
• Add the other ingredients, stirring them in.
• Simmer for about 10-20 minutes (or longer, depending on your tastes: I generally simmer it for 30 minutes or so).

Makes about 6-8 servings and goes great with flour tortillas (I buy those: making tortillas is too hit or miss for me to even try).

Bacon-Wrapped Breadsticks

Ingredients

• Package of pre-made breadsticks (ones with a sesame seed coating are ideal for this)
• Package of bacon (the real stuff, not anything pre-cooked)
• Parmesan/Romano grated cheese (though you can try other combinations, as well)

Tools

• Baking pan/cookie sheet
• Parchment paper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay some parchment paper on your baking pan/cookie sheet.

Take one strip of bacon and wrap it around the breadstick, in a spiral-like pattern: the idea is to start at one end of the breadstick and end up at the other end: avoid overlapping the bacon. It should look like a candy cane. Of bacon. Place the newly bacon-wrapped breadstick on the parchment paper. Repeat the process for however many breadsticks your pan can handle.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes. The parchment paper will have all sorts of great fat and grease collect on it, so be careful: it’s easy to accidentally spill the grease. Remove the breadsticks from the pan and place in either a brown paper bag or another pan (preferably one with sides). Sprinkle the parmesan/romano cheese over the breadsticks (or roll the breadsticks in the cheese: either works).

Sometimes, the breadstick will absorb enough of the grease/fat of the bacon that it becomes pliable when you take it out of the oven. You can attempt to add some curves to the breadstick if you are so inclined. However, doing so makes getting the cheese on them a little harder.

These keep for days (no need to refrigerate) and are pretty delicious. You could attempt to sprinkle some cheedle on them, if you had enough. There’s a lot of experimentation you can do with the topping: cinnamon-sugar, Tang, etc.

When I moved to NJ back in the early 90s, I knew there were some things I would end up having trouble finding. Strangely, one of those things was Dr Pepper. I used to have to go to two or three stores before finding any. Diet Squirt Plus, though, was gone forever. But, surely, the biggest culture shock I went through was the inability of New Jersey to have decent green chile.

You gotta understand: in New Mexico, you could order green chile everywhere. Want a Big Mac with green chile? No problem. Scrambled eggs with green chile? Here ya go. A random helping of green chile for your pasta? You could get it.

But I moved. And the dark years began. Sure, I had a small supply I brought with me, and my sisters sent a few care packages here and there. But soon my supply was all gone. After about a year, we finally got a Taco Bell nearby (yes, by that time, I was so desperate that even Taco Bell looked like a good place for getting some green chile). So I pulled up to the drive-through and asked for the same thing I could get at any New Mexico Taco Bell:

Me: I’d like two bean burritos with green chile and a Dr Pepper, please.
Taco Bell Guy: Uh, what?
Me (slowly): I’d like two bean burritos with green chile, please.
Taco Bell Guy: Uh, okay.

I know, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. When I finally ate the burritos, I discovered they had put little green onions in them. I was doomed. I was destined to be disappointed several times over the next decade. Every restaurant I’d visit would attempt to pass off either watered down salsa or spiced up tomatoes as some kind of alternative.

But then the Internet appeared and saved my life. Sure, I had to wait 6-7 years before anyone started selling any good green chile, but it has finally happened. I can get good green chile and eat it all day long.

• El Pinto Green Chile: I tend to get the medium in 32 ounce jars and go through one ever month or so;
• Hatch Green Chile: if you like it fresh or frozen, this is the place to go.

Anyhow, here’s a good recipe for an atypical stew.

Great Northern Stew

Ingredients

• About 6 ounces of chicken or turkey sausage
• 3/4 cup carrots cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cup of potatoes, quartered
• 1 can of Great Northern beans
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• italian seasoning to taste

Preparation

Cook the sausage in skillet for about 10 minutes, then cut them length-wise, and toss back in the skillet for another 3-4 minutes, turning to cook on both sides. When finished, cut the sausage into small pieces and toss them into the broth. Add the potatoes and onion and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Then add the carrots, celery, beans and seasoning and continue simmering for about 15 more minutes.

You can substitute whatever veggies you like in place of the carrots, potatoes, and celery. It’s also pretty good with lima beans or corn mixed in.