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 

Two Versions of Blue Cornmeal Pancakes.

Even though we (four of us in total) all had an extremely disappointing dinner at the Comb Ridge Espresso Bistro, we were all willing to go back and try the breakfast, especially their "renowned" Blue Corn Pancakes.  However, the owner, Andrea Martin (aka Andrea C. on Yelp), attacked each one of us that wrote up a review on Yelp, Urbanspoon (now Zomato) and Trip Advisor; saying we came "at a bad time", or that it was some sort of conspiracy against them. We are not gluttons for punishment, and being abused by a business owner is definitely not on our to-do list!!!

Since I am interested in the cultural cuisines of the Southwest, it's no wonder that I own cookbooks on Southwestern, Mexican and Native American recipes.  In fact, I just purchased four new cookbooks; one on Arizona, two on Native American, one on Utah Pioneers; my friend Amy also gave me a cookbook on Utah, so five total new books!

Not going for those pancakes at that overly pretentious restaurant, so the only other course was to get out the Native cookbooks and make my own from scratch.  Blue corn, now this is something I’ve not seen before.  Oh yes, in the fall putting up dried cornstalks and ears of multicolored Indian corn was a tradition, but blue corn?  Thumbing through my cookbooks, not only did I find several recipes, but knowledge on the grinding process itself.  No, this isn’t something I’m going to try; that’s what Blue Mountain Meats here in Monticello is for, to provide me with my needs, like blue corn flour.  Doesn’t mean I won’t be sharing the information with you though. 

The first book I used for my experimenting was “Hopi Cookery” by Juanita Tiger Kavena; “Blue Cornmeal Hotcakes”, page 19.  She explains there are two methods of drying corn in the Hopi culture; one is simply stacking the ears on shelves, in a dry area, occasionally turning them until all the moisture is drawn out from the kernels.  The kernels are removed and processed using traditional grinding stones.  The second method is to bake the corn on the cobs in a mud enclosed ground oven which keeps the steam inside, producing sweeter corn.  The steamed cobs are hung to dry; the kernels eventually ground whether as flour, or coarser texture for various recipes.

Blue Cornmeal Hotcakes

 

Ingredients:

1 cup blue cornmeal
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted shortening
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk (or ¼ cup powdered plus 1+1/4 cups water)

Preparation:
 

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (including powdered milk if using it); stir.


 

Add shortening, eggs (water if using); mix well.

Drop by spoonful on lightly greased griddle; turning once as cakes brown.

Makes 12 three inch pancakes.

A look inside.

The batter is thin and runny, much like a crepe batter; I was worried I’d not followed the directions or ingredient amounts correctly.  However, my husband and I devoured these pancakes; thin, light, crispy edges with a slight chewiness; minimal grainy texture, and they melted in the mouth.  The corn flavor was not strong, definitely delicious with the added flavors of butter, maple syrup or wild huckleberry syrup.  Oh, these pancakes didn't make us feel blue at all; the opposite, very happy!

My next trial recipe came from “Healthy Traditions: Recipes of Our Ancestors” by Janice Goodwin and Judy Hall; it included the use of all-purpose white flour and comes from the Navajo Nation.  Now my friend down in Monument Valley related to me that “ashes” may be mixed in with the blue corn flour and is related to the time of the “Long Walks”.

 

Pancake/Griddle Cake

 Ingredients:

2 ½ cups blue cornmeal

1 tsp. salt
½ cup white enriched flour
1 cup water
1+½ cup canned milk
1 tsp. baking powder

 Preparation:

 

Mix the blue cornmeal, salt, baking powder together in a large bowl.

  

Mix water and milk together. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix together but don’t over mix.

 

Grease a large skillet and heat. Pour batter on skillet to make a very thin pancake; cook until brown on both sides.

 

Makes 10 pancakes

 

This batter is thicker than the Hopi recipe, much like any traditional pancake recipe; the pancakes were thicker, dense, took longer to brown on both sides.  The taste of the white flour was strong and we simply missed the light flavor of the blue corn.  Comparing the two styles, we could definitely say that the Hopi won this round of the recipe challenge., so will be using that recipe whenever I make blue corn pancakes. 

 
 
Variety, experimenting with recipes and food items from other cultures; this is what makes cooking an adventure! 

Mary Cokenour