Blue Corn Maiden

The Hopi tell the story of Blue Corn Maiden, the most beautiful of the corn maiden sisters. Blue Corn Maiden was a kind and gentle soul who brought peac and prosperity to the Pueblo People. One cold day, Blue Corn Maiden went outside to gather firewood, when she encountered Winter Katsina. Winter Katsina, the spirit who brings winter to the Earth instantly fell in love with her. He invited her back to this house and she went with him. He then blocked all of the windows and doors with ice and snow so that she was trapped.

Winter Katsina treated Blue Corn Maiden nicely, but she was lonely for the Pueblo People. One day, Winter Katsina left Blue Corn Maiden home alone while he went out to blow cold wind and snow and ice upon the valleys and mesas. Blue Corn Maiden brushed away some snow and was able to leave the house. She looked for the plants that she was used to seeing, but all she could find were four blades of yucca. She returned to the house and started a fire to stay warm. 


The ice and snow around the house started to melt, and in came Summer Katsina with fresh corn and yucca blades. Suddenly, Winter Katsina came into the house with an icicle knife. He blew cold air at Summer Katsina show then responded by blowing warm air at Winter Katsina. Winter Katsina raised his icicle knife and Summer Katsina raised his yucca blades. The yucca blades caught fire, and the icicle knife melted.

Winter Katsina realized that he needed to make peace with Summer Katsina so they sat and talked. They agreed that Blue Corn Maiden would live among the Pueblo People and give them her blue corn for half of the year, in the time of Summer Katsina. The other half of the year, Blue Corn Maiden would live with Winter Katsina and the People would have no corn.

Mayan Corn Myth

 

  

The Mayan and Aztec corn myths are quite similar because they both involved a God going under a mountain. 

For the Mayans, the God entered the underworld realm of the twin lords of death. The lords killed the God and placed his head on a dead tree. The tree immediately came to life with abundant fruits and foliage. The tree coming to life symbolizes the dead seed of corn being planted, then coming to life when it sprouts from the Earth. 


The God was then paddled to the center of the heavens where he oversaw the setting of three huge stones in the constellation of Orion. This became the great hearth of the Universe, from which fire was kindled and life emerged. After this was completed, the God erected a World Tree to support the heaven and serve as an axis about which the entire world was created. The roots of the tree even extended beneath Earth's surface, into the underworld.

Ancient Grains: Corn

My interest in the Indians of Texas also led me to learn about the Caddo who were farmers. This made me curious about blue corn meal, the kind of corn meal preferred by most Indian Nations.

As I browsed the grocery store for blue corn meal, I found flours made from both amaranth and spelt. All of these grains have been used by people for thousands of years. I brought home all three kinds for experimentation. I will describe the history and provide recipes that take advantage of the unique tastes of these three grains that have contributed so much to human history.

The Caddo, like most Indians who farmed, considered corn, beans, and squash to be inseparable. They called them the "three sisters" and always planted them together in a beneficial arrangement. The corn was planted first and provided a firm stalk on which the beans could climb.  The beans made the soil more fertile. Now we know that that beans make soil fertile because they have root nodules within which bacteria grow that can change air nitrogen into a usable form for plants. The  squash provides "mulch" with its roots and low foliage, preventing weeds from growing and keeping precious water from evaporating. The "three sisters"  garden in the image shows the squash and corn clearly. The beans are there too, they are just obscured by the corn and squash. 

Corn probably first originated about 7000 years ago. Controversy exists about the exact origin, but some scientists believe it originated as teosinte, a grass quite different from corn. Other scientists believe that it originated from a relative of teosinte, but I will leave those details to the scientists! Archaeological evidence from Mexico shows that around 5000 years ago, people in Oaxaca were domesticating something that was intermediate between teosinte and modern corn.

John Doebley and his associates at the University of Wisconsin investigate the genetic origins of corn and the relationship between corn and teosinte. You might want to find more details about their work on their website at http://teosinte.wisc.edu. The picture below, taken by by John Doebley is from that site.

Another interesting site is http://farma.qfb.umich.mx/etnomaii.htm. 

At this site, scientists from Universidad Michoacana describe how leaching of heavy metals into the water around Mexican volcanoes could have caused teosinte mutations. This in turn could have been a factor in the transformation from teosinte to corn.  

There are four major lineages of corn, and by the time Columbus found the New World, Indians were already growing all four types. Some of the oldest corn is actually popcorn!

Corn was an all purpose crop during its early domestication. People ate the corn, fed it to their domesticated animals, and ground it to save for later needs. They also used the cobs and husks to make mats and household tools.

The Maya had some of the earliest myths about the origin of maize, the crop that was so important to their existence. 

By going to http://www.mythinglinks.org/ip~maize.html you can see detailed information about corn myths. I will briefly summarize the Mayan and Hopi corn myths here. Also, I found information about corn and Mayan agriculture that you might be interested in at http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_agriculture.htm. 

Spicy Orange Bison Meatballs

Meatballs immediately before serving.

Sauce without the meatballs.

As I was researching recipes for bison meat, this recipe called out to me! Orange flavors tantalize and freshen my taste buds. How could I pass this one up? So I made these meatballs tonight, and they were a big hit.


The preparation time is only 30 minutes, but the cooking time is long, 1 hour and 15 minutes, because you brown the meatballs, then make a sauce and simmer the meatballs in the sauce for an hour. You only need to check the meatballs occasionally, so they really don't take a lot of effort. You just need to plan ahead for their cooking time.


The ingredients are:
1 pound ground bison meat
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 cups water
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preparation:

First, mix the bison, breadcrumbs, egg, Worcestershire, salt, black pepper, and garlic in a mixing bowl with wet hands until combined. When well mixed, make small balls (this quantity of ingredients should yield about 24 of them). 

Meatballs just before adding the sauce ingredients.

Add the 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to a deep skillet (one with a lid) and preheat on medium. When preheated, add the meatballs and brown well on all sides. When done, pour off the small amount of excess grease. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the skillet and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer slowly for 1 hour. Stir occasionally. 

Meatballs and sauce immediately before finishing.

After simmering for an hour, remove the meatballs to a plate with a slotted spoon and save. Turn the heat up to high and boil the sauce until it reduces down to about 1 cup, forming a thick glaze. Then turn the heat to low, add the meatballs back in and cook until they are heated thoroughly. Taste for salt and spiciness, and adjust if needed. Serve hot.


I must admit that I left out the pepper flakes, because we don't like spicy food...but I can understand how they will add some pizazz to the recipe. I served the meatballs over a bed of rice. We also had summer squash and a tossed salad. I added the new Italian cucumbers from the farmers market to the salad. They were delicious. 

Tossed salad with spinach, tomatoes,
mushrooms and Italian cucumbers.

They had a slightly melon taste and were milder tasting than regular cucumbers, but I really like their crunchiness and texture. They have quite a refreshing taste!


I think this is a great recipe, but simmering for an hour on a hot summer evening might not be a great idea. Here we are so accustomed to air conditioning that the extra heat in the kitchen was not noticeable, but I'm sure the air conditioner had to work harder and use more electricity. For that reason I think this might be a better fall or spring recipe for our region of the country. However, the orange taste is so refreshing that if I base my opinion purely on taste, this seems like a summer recipe.

Ah Summer! Cedar Park Farmers Market

 I visited a farmer's market this morning and had a lot of funI visited a farmer's market this morning and had a lot of fun! There is a trend around Austin to use part of mall parking lots for weekend farmer's markets. This one is at Lakeline Mall.  

You could get lots of prepared food along with the produce and meats. Even cupcakes were for sale, ready to eat!

This was my favorite farm stand, Tecolote Farm. They offered tastes of their luscious produce and introduced us to Italian cucumbers which are shown next.

These are Italian cucumbers from heirloom seeds. Tecolote Farms have been raising these for over 10 years. They have a milder "cucumber" flavor than the ones we are used to. Cucumbers are actually related to melons, and these have kind of a melon-flavor. Originally native to northern India, cucumbers made their way to the mid-East and Europe in time to be part of Ancient Greek and Roman diets.

This picture above shows red bell peppers and canary melons outside of the basket. I'm not sure what kind of peppers are in the basket.

Tecolate Farms also had wonderful okra and eggplants. I brought home some of each.

These are some of the vegetables that we brought home.

Comanche Pemmican

Since I live in Austin, Texas my first blog posting will be about food of the Comanches who lived near Austin. Originally hunter-gatherers, the Comanches shifted to mostly hunting when they moved from the Rocky Mountain region to the Great Plains.

Comanche family by Tepee

 Wild horses that had escaped from Spanish explorers enabled this move. When the Comanches discovered the horses, they quickly became master riders and were able to travel vast distances to hunt. They mostly hunted bison (buffalo), but they also liked elk, black bear, pronghorn, and deer. Men hunted in groups and women prepared the meat brought home by the men. The women also gathered wild fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, roots, and tubers — including plums, grapes, juniper berries, persimmons, mulberries, acorns, pecans, wild onions, radishes, and the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. The Comanche also traded for maize, dried pumpkin, and tobacco.



Comanche women prepared meat into an interesting "concoction" called Pemmican, a high energy, nutritious mixture that lasted for a long time. Pemmican is basically smoke or sun-dried meat, that is pulverized and mixed with dried berries and nuts and pressed into cakes. The Comanches mostly made it from buffalo meat, but other Indian groups made it from meat found near their own homes. Often pemmican was given to children because it was slightly sweet and tasted good, sort of like candy. Below is a picture of pulverized dried meat mixed with ground nuts and dried berries. I used this to make my own version of pemmican.

 Pemmican was often carried in a pouch by the men when they left camp for hunting because of its high energy value. Traders ate pemmican sliced and dipped in honey, which they called Indian bread.




So I tried to make pemmican myself. I could have bought raw bison meat from the grocery store. Then, like Comanche women, I could have heated the meat to about 170 degrees using stones I heated over an open fire, then sliced the meat into thin strips to dry in the sun. However, the idea of doing that was not appealing to me...bacteria makes me nervous! (I shouldn't really be worried, because the process that the Comanches used was quite efficient in keeping the meat from spoiling...but I didn't want to take a chance.) 

Instead I bought packaged jerky, and it wasn't even bison jerky. I used beef jerky, and it gave me the same effect. I also bought dried cranberries, walnuts, honey and vegetable shortening instead of animal fat. I realize that the taste of vegetable shortening differs from that of animal fat, but I thought the vegetable shortening was healthier. Animal fat would probably give the concoction a more robust flavor, but I liked it with shortening anyway.

The recipe is below, although ingredient amounts can be varied according to taste.


12 ounces jerky
1 small package dried cranberries (other kinds of berries can be used)
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup ground walnuts
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening


I cut the jerky into quarter-sized pieces, then put the pieces into a food processor. I pulsed the food processor until the jerky was ground into small pieces. I then put the jerky into a bowl, and used the food processor to grind the cranberries. I added the cranberries to the jerky, then ground the walnuts and added them to the mixture. I stirred the mixture until it was homogeneous, then I added honey. I heated the vegetable shortening in the microwave oven until it was liquid, then added it to the mixture. I quickly stirred the mixture until thoroughly mixed. I then spread the mixture onto a cookie sheet, so that it was a small cake. I let it harden and cut it into serving sizes. I probably did not add enough shortening, because my result was a bit crumbly. I put the servings into plastic bags to save...except for the serving I tried. I really liked it and I hope you do to! Pemmican would be a wonderful high-energy snack to take on a hike. It does not spoil, and it has a wonderful mixture of sweet and savory elements. Below are pictures of my final product.

I believe that food can provide insights into people and how they adapt to their environment to survive. I can experience a bit of their lifestyle through their food. The Comanche mastered their environment, the grasslands of the Great Plains, and found many uses for the bison, or tasiwoo as they called them. Many other Indians created versions of pemmican with meat from animals they hunted. 

Making pemmican can be a good project to do with children. An adult needs to grind the meat, nuts, and berries if using modern appliances, however children can try grinding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle. The children will have more of a Comanche experience by grinding, but keep the samples small because it takes a long time to grind. The children will love to mix the ingredients with their own hands. They can even make the cakes once the shortening cools, and I'm sure they will have fun getting their hands into that greasy mixture! 

Below is a link to information about pemmican made by Indians in the Northeastern United States who used ducks and other animals for meat.
http://www.playingwithfireandwater.com/foodplay/2009/12 indian-summer-the-lake-duck-cranberry-wild-rice.html.


More information about the Comanche can be found at  http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/bmc72.html.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!!!

I often ask myself while eating, "How did someone ever come up with the idea to eat this?" As you can tell, I am quite curious; I want to find answers to some of those questions. So basically, this blog is about recipes for food that can be prepared in modern households (without too much time and labor) and the back-story behind that food.

Through food we can travel to different parts of the globe and different times in history, and discover how food has shaped history and culture. We can avoid letting schedules and budgets prevent us from going to places our imaginations long for. We can go beyond the financially difficult times we are in and create exciting locations and times right in our own kitchens. I hope you will join me on the journey!