Authentic American
THREE SISTERS SOUP
Origin
The three sisters is the name for the essential crops common in Native American meals, maize (or corn), beans, and squash. The process of growing these plants together became a popular farming technique that can even be found in Iroquois legend. The story goes that the plants corn, beans, and squash are inseparable sisters who were given as gifts to the people by the “Great Spirit”. There is another variation as well where “Sky Woman” fell from the sky and gave birth to a daughter. The daughter became pregnant and gave birth to twins. Unfortunately, she died during childbirth and Sky Woman buried her in “new earth”. The three sisters, corn, beans, and squash sprung from her grave and fed generations to come, providing for the Iroquois people. Evidence of this planting technique has also been attributed to other Native American tribes.
When grown together, the crops form a sort of symbiotic relationship. Beans make fantastic fertile soil due to the microorganisms found in their roots. These roots allow beans to produce high amounts of nitrogen in the soil, which is a necessity for growing corn. Corn grows to large stalks that the beans wrap around in a spiral formation while they grow. Squash is known for its large leaves that provide shade for the soil, trapping the moisture underneath it and preventing harmful weeds from growing. This planting technique proved to be highly effective and is still used today because of all the benefits that come along with it.
Along with being excellent growing partners, the three plants complement each other perfectly when combined in cooking. The squash provides rich nutrients, the corn adds carbohydrates, and beans are great sources of protein and fiber. This is one of the reasons three sisters soup is so popular. When combined with ingredients like pork, tomatoes, chiles, and cilantro it makes for a hearty and delicious soup. The thick consistency and addition of beans, corn, and meat give it a resemblance to chili, a stew often enjoyed in the American West.
Process
Because the stew was made from such simple ingredients, the cooking process wasn’t that lengthy. I started by seasoning and cooking the cubed pork in a large saucepan, for about five minutes on each side and then set the pork to the side.
To the same pan, I then added diced onions until they started becoming translucent.
Once they’d reached the desired color, I added in some garlic before adding the pork I’d set aside back into the pan. Along with the pork, I added the diced yellow squash along with the chicken broth and covered the pan. I let the mixture simmer for about half an hour before adding the other ingredients.
The cooking of the ingredients was the most difficult part, after that all I had to do was add the other ingredients in, the tomatoes, chile, and of course beans and corn.
I allowed this new combination to cook again, uncovered, for about another half an hour.
Once the soup had thickened substantially, it was ready to remove from heat, I added a few leaves of cilantro on top, and viola, it was piping hot and ready to eat.
Taste
I loved the taste of the stew, it was much more hearty than I’d expected but was delicious, even though it was so filling I kept going back for seconds and thirds that I didn’t have room for. It was a good main dish because the soup itself is so balanced in ingredients and has so many nutrients. I haven’t made that many soups but this one is definitely a keeper, it's so delicious and easy to make, it definitely paid off. Because it was heavy it was a little hard to get down but was perfect when it was combined with the fry bread.
FRY BREAD
Origin
The origin of fry bread, often referred to as Navajo fry bread, is a testament to the horrible genocide and mistreatment of Native Americans that is deeply rooted in American history. During the Long Walk of the Navajo, also known as the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, of 1864, over 10,000 Navajo were forced into relocation. They were forced to walk 300 miles, all the way from present-day Arizona to New Mexico. There were at least 200 Navajo deaths in the duration of this two month voyage. It's a devastating part of Native American and American history that’s often overlooked.
During this voyage, the Navajo often had to find simple foods in order to sustain themselves. The government provided them with extremely limited resources, including canned goods, white flour, processed sugar, and lard. And thus, fry bread was born. It's a simple bread made with few ingredients, yet packs many calories.
Fry bread is still enjoyed today, often in Native American reservations and in the Southwest. A popular inclusion of fry bread is Navajo tacos. These tacos are made with a base of fry bread and filled with ingredients such as tomatoes, corn, lettuce, and sour cream. They have become very popular and were even named Arizona’s State Dish by a 1995 poll conducted by the Arizona Republic Newspaper.
Process
The process of making fry bread is fairly simple since its humble beginnings were a dish made from the limited ingredients provided to the Navajo. The recipe I used only took five basic ingredients. The dough was made from white flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Sugar is another common ingredient in fry bread, however, this recipe didn’t include it.
Once the dough started to form, I created a dough ball and kneaded it on a flat surface powdered with more flour.
Once it formed a tougher dough, I divided the ball into four small spheres.
These were then rolled out into flattened circles and with my pointer finger, I made a small divet in the middle of each.
The dough circles were then placed in boiling hot oil at a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
The breads fried very quickly and I had to be careful to only cook them for about a minute on either side until they were lightly browned. This reminded me of the process for the pitas I made in my Greek blog post last month!
It was interesting to see the fry bread cook because of the giant bubbles that formed from them. The bread puffed up to about three times its original size and formed large air bubbles that I was very tempted to pop.
I was surprised that these bubbles remained even after I flipped the bread over in the hot oil. I cooked two breads at once so they were finished in no time, and I served them warm.
Taste
I really enjoyed the fry bread, especially served with the soup. It wasn’t the healthiest of breads since it was deep fried in oil, but was still pretty light since most of its makeup was the air bubbles that had formed as it was frying. The bread was simple but served as the perfect side. It was very simple to make and one piece for each member of my family was the perfect amount to sustain all of us.
INDIAN PUDDING
Origin
Indian pudding is a thick, dark, and rich pudding made from ingredients like molasses and brown sugar. Its origin is most likely around the 17th century and inspired by the English hasty pudding. This porridge is similarly cooked over a stovetop to thicken and made similarly to Indian pudding. It's a comfort food made from simple ingredients and often enjoyed at Thanksgiving.
Because it has such a dark and rich flavor, Indian pudding is often balanced out with vanilla ice cream or a lighter topping to make a sort of light and dark dynamic.
Process
The pudding was probably the hardest of the three dishes to make. This was because of a few reasons, but can be mainly attributed to the cooking and cooling time. What’s interesting about Indian pudding is that it's supposed to be cooked multiple times and through different mediums. Like I previously mentioned, you cook it over a stovetop, but after that, it’s also placed in the oven for a little bit.
I started by combining the milk, cream, molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan over high heat.
In a separate bowl, I combined the other dry ingredients, a mixture of corn meal, ground ginger, cinnamon, and salt. I then added these to the other mixture and brought it to a simmer.
This was then poured into a baking dish. This is when I transferred the pudding into the oven, which allows it to thicken and expand. I baked the pudding the first time around for about twenty minutes. At this point, I was a little scared because the pudding had developed a dark top that almost looked like I’d burned it.
After I removed it from heat I stirred it around and tried to evenly distribute the crust of the pudding. It was interesting to see how the top of the pudding differed so much from the lighter underbelly.
I then cooked the pudding for an additional twenty minutes before removing it from the oven. I then took it out again and let it cool for a few minutes.
In the meanwhile, I quickly whipped up a bowl of whipped cream. We didn’t have any vanilla ice cream lying around so this was my substitute. I used the extra heavy whipping cream that was left and whipped it with some sugar. Once it resembled the right texture and was sweet enough, I served it alongside the pudding.
I sprinkled a few walnuts on top of the brown pudding and viola! It was the perfect dessert to serve as the end of our meal.
Taste
I loved the pudding, it was probably my favorite part of the meal (although that might be because of my large sweet tooth). It was incredibly rich and dark although the whipped cream did help tone it down a few notches. The consistency was a little bit like oatmeal or porridge which was a little off-putting, but didn’t affect the flavor much. We only took a little piece each because it was so heavy and we’d already eaten so much of the soup. But it was delicious nonetheless, however, would not be served as a regular thing because of its richness.
