Fry bread: warm, soft and totally tempting

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Fry bread: warm, soft and totally tempting

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
By Amy McFAll Prince Columbian staff writer

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Bernadette Morris stands over a huge stock pot, whisking flour into warm
water.

Darlene Taylor shoves her gloved hand into a 50-pound sack of flour and
pulls out a handful. "That's our measuring cup, right there," she says,
pointing with her free hand to the heap of flour filling the other palm.
A petite woman, Morris, 67, grasps a whisk with both hands and drags it
through the thickening dough that will eventually become fry bread used
to make Indian Tacos.
The dish and the fry bread are staples at American Indian powwows and
family gatherings. As people gather in the Covington Middle School
commons for this year's annual powwow, they eye the kitchen and the
women making the dough, a sight that is familiar to many but
much-anticipated nonetheless.
Morris gives up on the whisk as the dough thickens. Gentle hands are the
best tool for working the dough, so she plunges her gloved hands into
the pot and starts pulling out handfuls of dough until she collects
enough to knead into a large loaf. This is the first of two steps
necessary to complete the dough.
The fry bread she lovingly shapes has become emblematic of Native
culture, but that wasn't always the case. As tribes were forced off of
the lands they hunted and gathered from, the government provided them
with flour and lard. Creative cooks first made the bread from rations
delivered to them from the federal government.
The bread took hold and has become bound to the culture in the decades
since. It has become such a fixture that it came under fire last year.
Some call it a culprit that is contributing to obesity and diabetes in
the American Indian community.
But these cooks are not debating politics or discussing history in their
down moments. They are shepherding children around and chatting with
friends. Before the powwow begins, the kitchen is the focal point of
activity. It's the place where grandmothers, mothers, children and
friends are saying their hellos and catching up. Playful banter quickly
warms the cold kitchen filled with oversized stainless steel appliances.
The bread eventually calls them back.
Once the kneaded loaves have rested for about a half hour, Taylor and
Morris pinch off balls of dough.
They each hold up the balls, roughly the size of baseballs, and look to
friends Anna Schmasow and Becky Archibald.
"Too big?" Taylor asks.
"Too big," Schmasow and Archibald reply in unison.
Taylor and Morris subtract some of the dough and hold up the balls
again.
"Too big?" Taylor asks again, this time laughing.
"Too big," Schmasow replies.
One more time and the fry bread cooks all agree on the size. Each of the
women is a seasoned cook, but because they are working together they
decide to let Schmasow take the lead, using her recipe and deferring to
her when it comes to decisions about the bread. After all, no one's
recipe is taken from a book. It was learned by watching a relative,
typically a mother.
After agreeing on the amount of dough for each piece of bread, Morris
and Taylor begin flattening the balls into discs, the ultimate shape of
the bread.
Morris looks to Taylor, 68, and asks what she thinks about the
thickness.
"Not too flat, not too thin and not too thick," Taylor says.
Then, nearly two hours after they began, they drop the first disc into
hot oil. After a couple of minutes frying, the bread is removed. The
smell of the fried bread lures one of the powwow organizers, Gary
Wallace, into the kitchen. "Fry bread's done?" he asks, motioning at a
piece in a way that suggests he wants a sample.
"Try it," Taylor says energetically. Wallace tears off a piece of the
soft, dense bread and chews. He smiles in approval.
The women, who have now been joined by Morris' daughter, Melanie
Dominguez, and Canya Barnes, turn back to the fryer.
They discuss the shape of the bread. Frying in the commercial equipment
takes some getting used to for these home cooks who typically fry on the
stove top in smaller, shallower pans. In the deep vat of oil, the discs
folded. The fry bread still tastes the same, but the thicker, puffy
bread will make it more difficult to use for assembling tacos.
"Did you put the hole in it?" Barnes asks.
"Oh, the hole," Taylor says.
"We put more than one hole in it," Morris adds, referring to the way her
mother taught her to make the bread when she was growing up in Alaska.
The two cooks then start poking small holes in their discs.
Taylor explains the hole not only prevents the dough from puffing up too
much while cooking, but it also symbolizes an imperfection. It is
tradition, she says, to place a mistake in a piece of work out of
respect for the creator, the only one capable of perfection.
Morris adds another touch. She delicately slips the dough into the oil
so that it doesn't fold over in the process.
After a few false starts, the bread begins to come out perfectly. It is
golden colored, about a quarter- to a half-inch thick and smells
heavenly.
That's when customers start lining up, waiting for their own Indian
Taco, which for many is wedded with warm memories of family and friends.
Amy McFall Prince can be reached at 360-759-8019 or
[e-mail].

Did you know?
* Fry bread was created out of necessity as the federal government
forced American Indian tribes off of the lands where they hunted and
gathered. The government provided rations of flour and lard, which
creative cooks turned into the bread that is now deeply wedded to the
culture.
* Fry bread recipes vary slightly among different American Indian
tribes.

Fry Bread
Provided by Anna Schmasow
Approximately 34 cup hot water
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon salt
134 teaspoon baking powder
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Pour hot water into another
medium sized mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients to bowl with water. Mix
until dough is similar to biscuit dough (the amount of water or flour
may need to be adjusted to get the correct consistency). Allow dough to
rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Pinch off a piece of dough about the
size of a ping-pong ball or larger and roll it out flat. Fry in hot
canola oil on both sides until golden brown. Makes up to five small
pieces.
Eat with butter and jelly or make an Indian taco by adding refried
beans, hamburger, grated cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, chopped onions and
sour cream. Chili can be substituted for the beans and meat.