Blue Corn Cake and Juniper Ash.

There I was, scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, attempting to find posts of interest.  Share a positive quote or two, the heart toughing moment of an animal being rescued, and that post that gives you laughter right from the belly.  Of course I enjoy reading the foodie posts, recipes that I would not touch with a fork, literally, and desserts that make my sugar soar just looking at the photos.

One popped up from the admin, Pauline Haines, from a favorite page, Navajo and Pueblo Cooking; blue corn cakes which included juniper ash.  Ash, in a cake?  Oh, I had to know more about this.  She, and several others, explained how the branches from junipers (trees or shrubs dependent on the altitude) are burned, shifted and the ash collected.  The ash adds calcium, magnesium and Vitamin A to the diet; mainly used for baking, it intensifies the coloring of blue corn meal.

The book Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners, by William W. Dunmire and Gail D. Tierney, have a section on the juniper.  Found among the pinion pines of the Colorado Plateau is the juniper which happens to be of the Cypress family.  An evergreen whose needles (leaves), branches and berries have various uses – medicinal, culinary, household and ceremonial.  Traditional sweathouses were constructed with juniper wood, and the bark was floor covering.  Now I have used sage myself for indigestion, but the Hopi added juniper.  This mixture dates back to Ancestral Puebloan times, proven with residue found in coprolites (that is poop in layman’s terms).  For creating dye, the Navajo boiled together leaves, twigs and berries to produce a yellow, orange or tan coloring.  Juniper leaf ash was used to fix (mordant) other colors, so they would not run or fade.  Oh, I could go on and on about the uses for juniper, but I have a better idea, buy the book!

I just happened to have all the ingredients for the cake, except for the juniper ash.  Looking online, I found Shima (https://shimaofnavajoland.com/) and here is their mission statement: “We are artists, farmers, protectors of our precious and sacred way of life on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners of the Southwest and the land of our ancestors. The land of our shimas. We are growing sovereignty and self-reliance with each bar of soap, every bag of stone-ground cornmeal, every spoon of juniper ash and every jar of honey. Help us protect the precious. Share in the sacred with us.”  Part of Good Shepherd Mission, and the Episcopal Church, Shima is associated locally with San Juan County – St. Christopher’s Mission in Bluff.

Receiving my order very quickly, happily off to the kitchen I went to play.  The recipe can give you two – 8” x 8” cakes, or one – 9” x 13”; I chose the latter, and frosted half of it with cream cheese frosting.  One of the Facebook members suggested adding cinnamon to the mix; the smell, while baking, was intoxicating!  After cooling came the tasting; slightly moist, yet tender, very akin to red velvet cake, but blue in color.  The half with frosting was very good also, but I suggest just a smear of frosting, or the cake itself gets drowned out.  “Seriously”, you’re asking, “how can a cake made with blue corn meal be as good as red velvet?”  Let me put it this way, “Hunny, put down the fork.  Hunny, hunny, stop eating the cake.  Hunny, you’re going to get sick.  Yes, I know it’s good, but stop!”  That was me talking with my husband, and he’s not a huge fan of cake.

Recipe time!

Blue Corn Cake

(Recipe by Pauline Haines – Navajo and Pueblo Cooking Facebook Admin)

Ingredients:

 

1 and ½ cups flour (Blue Bird, of course)

1 cup roasted blue corn meal

1 and ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. juniper ash

1 cup sugar (Truvia Baking Blend works too)

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 cup milk

Option: Add 1 and ½ tsp. ground cinnamon (thanks for the suggestion Lisa Bellison)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400F. (I used a non-stick baking pan, or spray with nonstick baking spray)

Mix together all ingredients until smooth, pour into baking pan.  Bake for 20 minutes. (Did the toothpick test and it is perfectly timed)

(Personal Note here:  I shifted all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Otherwise my cakes come out with floury lumps, so it has become a habit to shift all the dry first. Then whisked the oil, eggs and milk in a small bowl, before adding to the dry ingredients.) 

Fully Baked After 20 Minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting (this is a basic recipe)

Ingredients:

8 oz. heavy whipping cream

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Preparation:

In a cold, metal bowl, whip the cream until firm.  Add cream cheese and whip until smooth.  Add vanilla and powdered sugar, whip until thoroughly incorporated.

Makes enough frosting for 2 – 8” x 8” cakes, or 1 – 9” x 13” cake.

Going to a social gathering, potluck, or any event that you want to bring a dessert to?  Make this cake, but do not tell anyone what it is until it is all gone.  It will be all gone, and everyone will be pleasantly surprised at what your creation was.  Be prepared to give out the recipe.  Enjoy!

Pile of dried juniper berries found at Mule Canyon's Cave Towers.
http://www.southwestbrowneyes.com/2017/01/return-to-mule-canyon-cave-towers.html

Mary Cokenour 

Corn Flour as Social Media.

The term “social media” designates sites on the internet (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter to name a few) where people could keep in touch with friends, family, business associates, and even make new found friends.  It is a way to keep up with the latest news on the home front, as well as around this vast world; a way to learn about other cultures and places to explore.  The term “social media” has now become an oxymoron; a rhetorical device that uses a self-contradiction to illustrate a rhetorical point or to reveal a paradox; sometimes used to create some sort of drama.  Don’t understand what I’m referring to?  Think about it, while cooing over the latest baby photos, how many friends and/or family members were horribly bashed, then unfriended and blocked, because they didn’t agree over some political event?   Maybe it was a negative life experience, someone needed to be blamed; easy targets are those people who are nothing more than a name on a computer screen.

Hark, not all is lost on social media; there are havens of sanctuary called “groups”; where folks of like mind can gather, talk, share and not have to put up with the negativity.  One such group I joined is “Navajo and Pueblo Cooking” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1545140772414467/), administrated by Pauline Haines who runs her own bakery in New Mexico.  The members of this group are mainly Navajo, but anyone can join, so long as they have a love for cooking, and learning about new recipes and techniques.  This group is a good example of what social media should be, but we humans simply love the drama; sorry, not in this group.  Recently I learned about blue cornbread and a video on YouTube from “Navajo in the City” was featured; many gave their own take on the recipe, but overall it was met favorably.  I haven’t played with any Native American recipes lately, so here was my inspiration.

First the recipe:

Blue Cornbread

From Navajo in the City

Ingredients:

1 and ½ cups blue cornmeal (roasted is best)

½ cup white flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

2 eggs

½ cup melted butter

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400F.  The cook used a 9 x 13 baking dish, but didn’t mention if it was pre-greased.  With cornbread, usually a smear of butter or baking spray is used to keep it from sticking to the pan.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl (I sifted them).  Whisk together the wet ingredients in a small bowl, then pour into the dry ingredients; mix as you pour.  Place batter into baking dish, bake for 25 minutes.

However, and you know I do this from reading my articles, doing something different was in my plans.  After creating the batter, I divided it in half; the first half was spooned into a muffin tin with paper liners.  Into the second half of batter I added 1/2 cup of blueberries carefully folded in, so as to not break them.  Into another muffin tin with paper liners this went into; use an ice cream scoop as it gives the perfect portion for muffin batter.  Again, 400F for 25 minutes for 12 muffins, and a toothpick inserted into the center came out perfectly clean.  By the way, many don’t like baking with blueberries as they have a tendency to be too juicy, and their blue color leaks.  Not with this recipe, it’s already blue!

Pink liners get the batter with blueberries included.

Now for the taste testing (it was just hubby and myself), as is, the muffins weren’t anything to write home about, a bit bland, moist and not too crumbly. The cook on the video said she was primarily making the cornbread to create a “stuffing” later on.  However, she also stated this recipe is similar to making blue corn pancakes, just add vanilla. 

Let’s try out some typical muffin fixings: Cream Cheese – No; Butter – Meh; Honey – Yuck; Cactus Jelly – To Die For!  We both tried the cactus jelly combined with each of the other ingredients; while an improvement, the jelly alone was the huge winner.  Another item we both agreed on was the blueberry addition as a nice touch, but next time add more (2 cups for 12 muffins should do the trick).

There you have it, next time you’re on a social media site, and not feeling very social, learn to bake or cook something.  Challenge yourself, not antagonize others.

Mary Cokenour