Sara Hohn – Food… Brooklyn & Beyond

 

There’s nothing like visiting a Native American festival in New Mexico around 10am on a Fall weekend morning. With a chill in the air, artists are laying out their wares, costumes are adjusted, stages are readied for performances, grills are lit, kids are goofing off, everyone hopes for sun and I have one thing on my mind – Navajo fry bread. Fortunately, I only attend these festivals about once a year. Otherwise, I’d succumb more often to the 900 calorie deep-fried, honey-laced, 12-inch glorified doughnut known as Navajo fry bread.

 

The scene. I wait on a DMV-length line to reach a tiny stall that displays a brief menu – always fry bread and a variety of Indian tacos, stews, and chilis. My fry bread is made fresh to order. Straight out of the simmering lard, the bread is hot as hell, glistening and blistering with tiny grease bubbles. Each fry bread is served on a paper plate with a stack of napkins, and a couple of plastic honey packets thrown on top. The honey warms. By the time I’ve finished paying, I’ll need those napkins to support my grease-stained plate. A devoted hand-eater, I rip off pieces of puffy bread starting at the outer edge, sampling it before I’ve even left the counter. Tearing open the packets with my teeth, I drizzle the honey evenly and liberally, so that it pools in the valleys of the bread. Some may cut fry bread in sections like a personal pan pizza, even eating it with plastic utensils. These are probably the same people who eat ice cream from a bowl.

The history of Navajo fry bread is not quite as enchanting.  In 1863, the largest Native American tribe in North America, the Navajo endured “The Long Walk” in which they were displaced from their land and sent to temporary camps administered by the U.S. Government.  The commodities the Navajo received, such as flour, salt and animal fat, were very different from their traditional diet of corn, squash and beans, so they needed to adjust their eating habits and develop new recipes.   These rations became the primary ingredients of Navajo bread, which dates it to the late 1860s.   Today the Navajo nation covers 27,000 square miles and extends into Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.  Navajo fry bread has become the de facto New Mexican fair treat, enjoyed by all at special events, celebrations and rituals.

You’ll notice I suspended my discussion of Navajo frybread after only a few bites. To be honest, I don’t feel especially well after indulging in an entire piece (uh…loaf?) of oily and satisfying Navajo fry bread, but I’ll always go back for more.

While I plan to leave the fry bread cooking to the experts, I’ve consulted a number of regional cookbooks about the recipe for Indian fry bread, sometimes referred to as sopaipillas in the Southwestern United States. This typical recipe comes from Santa Fe Kitchens: Delicious Recipes from the Southwest, published by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

Indian Fry Bread

Makes 8 servings

4 c flour

2 T baking powder

1 t salt

1 1/2 c warm milk or water

1 T oil

oil or lard for frying

Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Add warm milk and oil. Knead dough until soft but not sticky. Flour your hands and knead dough until springy. Shape into 3-inch ball, then stretch and pat dough until thin and 10 to 12 inches across. Poke a large hole in middle and fry in kettle of very hot cooking oil or lard until puffy and golden on both sides. Serve hot. Make next 3-inch ball and repeat steps. Do one at a time. This is a wonderful bread with beans and stews, by itself, or with honey or powdered sugar.