This recipe calls for using juniper ash in place of baking powder. Wow!

#Navajo #BlueCornmeal Pancakes (Abe' Bee Neesmasi)

Servings 10 pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup roasted blue cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder or juniper ash
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp cooking oil
Maple syrup or homemade jam for toppings optional

Instructions

- Whisk together flour, blue cornmeal, baking powder or juniper ash, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
- Add milk and stir.
- Heat pan or griddle to medium heat.
- Coat pan with cooking oil.
Use ladle to scoop approximately 1/4 cup of batter and pour into pan.
- Flip pancake when bubbles form on the top.
- Cook other side until golden brown.
- Serve plain (traditional) or with optional toppings.

Notes
Juniper Ash is a traditional ingredient used in cooking among the #Diné (Navajo) communities. Pancakes made with juniper ash will be denser and have a deeper purple color than those made with baking powder. Roasted blue corn and juniper ash are available through Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (#NAPI)."

Source:
https://tasteofmissions.com/navajo-blue-cornmeal-pancakes/

#SolarPunkSunday #TraditionalRecipes #PlantAsh #BlueCorn #CornRecipes #NavajoRecipes #DinehRecipes #TraditionalFood #BlueCornRecipes

#BlueCornmeal Preparation (#ZuniPueblo)

by #ZuniYouth
Jan 25, 2023

"#ZYEP #FoodSovereignty Leader #KenziBowekaty highlights the traditional process of preparing blue corn flour . This video was created for Indigenous Day 2022 for our #Zuni Middle School students to view."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvSqr61UFqQ

#SolarPunkSunday #TraditionalRecipes #TraditionalFoods #BlueCorn #BlueCornRecipes #BlueCornFlour #NativeAmericanFoods #IndigenousFood

This recipe mentions using #CalciumHydroxide (#SlakedLime). I'll be posting about ways one could DIY that later...

From: How to Make Blue Corn Masa

by Mela Martinez

"DIRECTIONS

First of all, make sure that the corn is clean of any debris or little rocks. Place corn in a colander under the water faucet and rinse. Shake a little to remove any excess water.
Place corn into a non-corrosive pot. Add enough water to cover the corn. Some kernels will float, those are old or spoil kernels, discharge them.
Dissolve 2 Tablespoons of #Cal (Calcium Hydroxide) in ½ cup of water. Stir well.
Place the pot on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. When the water starts boiling, add the Cal and water mix. The corn will turn a bright yellow color.
Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. After 15 minutes, check the corn and rub a few grains between your fingers. If you see a fine skin peeling from them, then they're ready. Turn down the heat and remove from stove. If after 15 minutes your corn skins are not peeling, keep cooking for 5 more minutes and check again.
Cover the pot with a lid and let it rest overnight or for at least 8 hours.
The next day, the corn and its residue will be settling at the bottom of the pot, and the skins will be easily removed when rubbing some kernels with your fingers.
Remove the liquid, reserving some of it to add to the grinding process.(also known as "#nejayote") and rinse the corn two or three times, rubbing off the loose skin, until the water looks clean. Place in a colander to drain well.
The corn is now ready for the grinder. Start grinding the corn in small batches twice or three times until it has a fine texture. The picture at the bottom right is how it will look after the first grinding. The corn grinder has to be tightly fitted to a stable surface to make this step as fast and smooth as possible. The corn grinder was meant to be screwed up to a working area where it will always reside.
After you've ground the corn 2 times, add some of the cooking water little by little to form the dough-masa. Knead a little until your dough is smooth. This dough will still be grainy, but good enough to make #tortillas or any other food you plan to cook with it. Sometimes, I grind the corn and don't add water, then I place it in plastic bags to store in the freezer. When ready to use, just let it sit until room temperature and then add the water to form the dough. To extend the life of the masa adds a pinch of cal while grinding the corn."

Full instructions and backstory:
https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/how-to-make-blue-corn-masa/

#SolarPunkSunday #TraditionalRecipes #BlueCorn #BlueCornMasa #CornRecipes #MexicanFood #TraditionalFood #BlueCornRecipes

Hopi recipes

by Ordinary Spring, from 2018

I stumbled across this gallery about a month ago with some Hopi recipes and saved the link. I can't assert anything about them myself, just thought it worth sharing:
https://imgur.com/gallery/V4mUAl4

I've copied the text of the recipes below for search and just in case the gallery vanishes.

#PikiBread

Piki bread is on the list of endangered food traditions.

The first step to making piki is to grind up the blue corn. Then, you must add the ashes and some water until it is smooth. Next, the Hopi people would layer the
creamy mixture onto a hot rock. Then the bread looked almost overcooked, they would remove this thin sheet from the stone. They would repeat this six or seven times and then roll all the pieces together. Then, the delicate corn smell would gather nearby people it was so good.

• 3 Tablespoon #ChamisaAsh (Chamisa cooking ash results from the burning of various native plants)
• 1/2 Cup Cold Water
• 6 Cups Finely Ground #BlueCornmeal
• 8 Cups Boiling Water
• 6-8 Cups Cold Water

• Mix chamisa ash with 1/2 cup cold water and set aside
• Put cornmeal in piki bowl, push 1/3 of the meal to the back of the bowl
• Pour 4 cups boiling water into the 2/3 amount of cornmeal and stir until well blended
• Add remaining boiling water and stir until moist and stiff
• Gradually strain ash water through cheesecloth into the dough just until it turns blue
• When dough has cooled enough to touch knead until smooth
• Add the dry meal gradually
• Set dough aside and build fire under the piki stone and allow to heat up
• Meanwhile, gradually knead cold water into the dough until it is a thin consistency smooth batter, add more water during making process if necessary
• Wipe off hot stone and oil with bone marrow or cooked brains, repeat as necessary during making process
• Scoop small amount of batter from bowl with fingers and spread tissue paper thin across stone from left to right, eliminating any lumps
• Dip fingers into batter again to cool them and bring out another scoop
• Continue to spread and layer batter across stone until completely covered
• When piki is done it will seperate from the stone, gently lift away and place it on the piki tray
• The first piece should be fed to the fire
• Spread more batter onto the stone and let cook, then place the prepared piki back onto the stone to soften
• Fold two ends of the piki 1/4 way toward center, then gently roll piki away from you
• Place back on Piki Tray
• Remove Piki sheet from stone and spread with more batter to repeat process until all batter is used
• If Piki tears simply return it to the batter to dissolve and reuse.

Source:
https://bushcraftusa.com/threads/hopi-recipes.230103/

#SolarPunkSunday #TraditionalFoods #TraditionalRecipes #HopiRecipes #BlueCorn #PlantAshes

#Nixtamalization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Nixtamalization (/ˌnɪʃtəməlɪˈzeɪʃən, ˌnɪks-/ nish-tə-mə-lih-ZAY-shən) is a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous alkali metal carbonates),washed, and then hulled. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.

"#NixtamalizedCorn has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced by up to 97–100% (for aflatoxins).

"Lime and #ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the #maize. The tryptophan in corn proteins is made more available for human absorption, thus helping to prevent niacin deficiency (pellagra).  Tryptophan is the metabolic precursor of endogenous niacin (Vitamin B3).

"Some of the corn oil is broken down into emulsifying agents (monoglycerides and diglycerides), while bonding of the maize proteins to each other is also facilitated. The divalent calcium in lime acts as a cross-linking agent for protein and polysaccharide acidic side chains.

"While cornmeal made from untreated ground maize is unable by itself to form a dough on addition of water, nixtamalized cornmeal will form a dough, called #masa. These benefits make nixtamalization a crucial preliminary step for further processing of maize into food products, and the process is employed using both traditional and industrial methods in the production of #tortillas and #TortillaChips (but not corn chips), #tamales, #hominy, and many other foodstuffs.

Etymology

"In the #Aztec language Nahuatl, the word for the product of this procedure is #nixtamalli or #nextamalli (pronounced [niʃtaˈmalːi] or [neʃtaˈmalːi]), which in turn has yielded Mexican Spanish #nixtamal ([nistaˈmal]). The Nahuatl word is a compound of nextli "lime ashes" and tamalli "unformed/cooked corn dough, tamal". The term #nixtamalization can also be used to describe the removal of the pericarp from any grain by an #alkali process, including maize, #sorghum, and others. When the unaltered Spanish spelling nixtamalización is used in written English, however, it almost exclusively refers to maize.

"The labels on packages of commercially sold tortillas prepared with nixtamalized maize usually list corn treated with #lime as an ingredient in English, while the Spanish versions list maíz nixtamalizado.

Impact on health

"The primary nutritional benefits of nixtamalization arise from the alkaline processing involved. The processing renders the protein more digestible, allowing tryptophan to be absorbed by humans. Humans can convert tryptophan into niacin, thus helping to prevent pellagra. Other measures of protein quality are also improved.  It was originally thought that the anti-pellagra action stems from increased availability of niacin (compared to a hemicellulose-bound form called "niacytin"), but multiple experiments have disproven this theory.

"Secondary benefits can arise from the grain's absorption of minerals from the alkali used or from the vessels used in preparation. These effects can increase #calcium (by 750%, with 85% available for absorption), iron, copper, and zinc.[4]

"Nixtamalization significantly deactivates #mycotoxins which are putative carcinogens. #Aflatoxins are reduced by 90–94%. Fumonisins are reduced by 82%."

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

#SolarPunkSunday #NativeAmericanFoods #NativeAmericanHistory #Corn #BlueCorn #MesoAmerica #TraditionalFoods #CulinaryAsh #CalciumCarbonate #History #FoodHistory #Corn #PlantAshes

Something both the #Hopi and #Romans (and other cultures) shared -- using plant-based ashes in food and medicine!

#GladiatorGatorade? Ancient Athletes Had A Recovery Drink, Too

by Maria Godoy, October 27, 2014

Excerpt: "#PlantAshes were evidently consumed to fortify the body after physical exertion, and to promote better bone healing,' Fabian Kanz, a forensic anthropologist at the Medical University of Vienna who led the research, said in a statement. 'Things were similar then to what we do today."

"Evidence for this ancient dietary supplement comes from a second-century cemetery for gladiators in what was once the great Roman city of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey. Kanz and his colleagues have been studying the remains buried there to unravel how these athletes lived. To figure out what they ate, the researchers examined the remains of 22 gladiators using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis.

"Carbon can tell us about the plants these people ate, while nitrogen offers hints of their animal protein consumption. The gladiators were eating a pretty varied diet, the analysis showed. Some went heavier on the #grains and #greens; some ate more meat.

"When the same tests were run on the remains of 31 regular folks from that era and region, they found the same sorts of variation. In other words, gladiators seemed to be eating the same way as everyone else.

"But the researchers also decided to look at the trace elements of strontium and calcium in those old bones. And that's where a huge difference jumped out. Compared with the regular Joes, the gladiators had a much larger ratio of strontium to calcium.

" 'This is strong evidence that the gladiators were consuming something high in calcium to replenish their calcium stores that other people weren't and that didn't show up in the isotopes,' says Kristina Killgrove, a biological anthropologist at the University of West Florida who studies imperial Rome through ancient bones.

"The researchers wondered: If the gladiators weren't eating more meat than their contemporaries, then where was this calcium boost coming from? A nearly 2,000-year-old encyclopedia offered a tantalizing clue.

"In his #NaturalisHistoria, published in the first century, #PlinyTheElder wrote: 'Your #hearth should be your #MedicineChest. Drink #lye made from its ashes, and you will be cured. One can see how gladiators after a combat are helped by drinking this.'

"Using ash in food and medicine wasn't limited to the Romans. The #Hopis used ash from burned plant leaves and pea pods to prepare #BlueCornmeal foods like #PikiBread and #BivilvikiDumplings. The ash provided essential elements like #calcium, #manganese, #copper and #iron."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/27/357903336/gladiator-gatorade-ancient-athletes-also-had-a-recovery-drink

#SolarPunkSunday #LowTech
#BoneHealth #History #RecoveryDrink
#Histodon #HistoricalRecipes
#ThirstQuenching #BlueCorn #TraditionalRecipes #CulinaryAsh

So, one of the topics for this week's #SolarPunkSunday is #ticks! I came across some interesting #DIY stuff (and more uses for #DuctTape [#DuckTape] -- which is something most #Mainahs have on hand).

Also, #MaineStateParks just announced some programs and special events. I also came across some recipes for #BlackBeans and #BlueCorn (and how to process it), making one's own #Lime and #CalciumCarbonate, and articles about #IndigenousFood and #FoodSovereignty.

And of course, some upcoming events, including #RepairCafes! I hope you'll join us and feel free to use the hashtag #SolarPunkSunday! It's all about #BuildingCommunity and #SharingIdeas!