#indigenous cooking

[mask-knife-is-buggys-wife]

Join me making bannock dogs for the first time and singing to relax and unwind. Drink some water and take a minute

[ashintheairlikesnow]

My latest cooking adventure includes my newest cookbook acquisition, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by Chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Sioux).

First two recipes - corn cakes with a berry sauce called wojape and ground bison, then my very first halting attempt at making tamales with smoked turkey and more wojape. I also made a soup in his book that was onions, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and basic canned beans and it had just this immense punch of flavor from juniper and sage.

Just... The most delicious things I have eaten in my life made from basic ingredients with no-nonsense prep, guys. This cookbook is amazing. Everything is amazing. Sean also writes at length in here about the reasons for preparation methods and how geography, landscape, and both his personal history growing up on the Pine Ridge reservation and also the greater indigenous American history, both of the Oglala and other nations, informs every recipe in the book.

I realize no one follows me for my cookbook reviews but just. Just. Aaaahhhh this is my favorite cookbook I own now. Every single thing has absolutely blown me away for the incredible flavor contained in just a few herbs or ingredients without needing to add hardly anything, just letting the flavors shine and stand out.

[tattooed-alchemist]

“Where are the Native American restaurants?”

Chef Sean Sherman presenting “Indigenous Flavors, Ancestral Experiences: Native American Cooking” at the 20th annual World of Flavors at the Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena, CA.  April 19, 2018

[strongbookthoughts]

Notes on Braided Heritage by Jessica B. Harris

So I grabbed this one from the new release section when I was in a hurry. Spoiler: it's really about Southern and Cajun food, not a more general look at American cuisine.

So the book has three main sections: Native Peoples, European and African. And the sections are a bit of a conversation about how the cooking styles of those three cultures meshed and melded to give us food from that South East chunk of the US map.

Now is it perfectly confined to that region of the US? No. But that's the overall vibe, what with jambalaya and okra appearing in these chapters. And the native people who are particularly discussed are certain from that part of the land.

Not every recipe has a picture, which I think is a particular problem when several foods have a pile of regional names attached to them. Some of the recipes look really complex, but others are pretty simple.

There are recipes that are vegetarian or even vegan, as are there recipes that are gluten free. NONE OF THEM ARE LABELED THAT WAY, but they are there. ymmv on if you wanna do that hunting.

The author consulted with chefs who are of the cultures being highlighted. And there are nice bio sections on the chefs. I know at least one of them has solo books that are worth looking at.

[salonnierealexis]

So I began to research the history of our land before the Europeans arrived. How did my Indigenous ancestors grow, hunt, fish and then preserve and store their food? Who did they trade with, and where did they obtain their salts, fats and sugars? I met with community elders and connected with Native chefs, historians and academics, such as the ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner, and the Lakota author Joseph Marshall III, while also discovering rare historical accounts like “Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden,” the memories of a 19th-century Hidatsa farmer who lived in what is now North Dakota.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/dining/native-american-recipes-sioux-chef.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_191106?campaign_id=2&instance_id=13528&segment_id=18554&user_id=06f6767785a14352b47f4490384ee56a®i_id=434535571106

Sean Sherman’s 10 Essential Native American Recipes

The founder of The Sioux Chef, a company devoted to Indigenous foods, created recipes to showcase tribal diversity across the lower 48 states.

[gackts-girl-88]

AJ+

This is haute cuisine cooking in the U.S. using only indigenous ingredients.