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Maple Moon Native Recipes
The Table Underground w/Tagan Engel
English - March 10, 2017 16:30 - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsSociety & Culture Arts Food Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Maple syrup is used by native peoples in the northeast to sweeten recipes.
Rachel Sayet, Mohegan food expert shares a few of her favorites from
Abenaki Elder Dale Carson, including strawberry cornbread and maple baked
beans.
Fresh maple sap & syrup collected since ancient times is the basis for the sweetness in many recipes of Native Peoples in the Northeastern USA.
Check out the interview with Mohegan food expert Rachel Akitusu (She who reads) Sayet, to hear more about her lineage and the importance of revitalizing native foods.
Modern Day Narragansett Strawberry Bread
from Dale Carson’s New Native American Cooking
This bread was originally made without sugar and eggs, and was noted in writings of the pilgrims to have been delicious.
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup maple sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup finely ground walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Milk to make a stiff batter
1 cup wild strawberries, rinsed, stemmed and quartered
Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and maple sugar. Add egg and beat until smooth. Add flour, nuts, baking powder, and salt. Stir and add enough milk to make a stiff batter. Gently fold in the strawberries and turn batter into an 8 or 9-inch square baking pan. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool before slicing.
MAPLE BAKED BEANS
from Dale Carson’s New Native American Cooking
"Sorry Boston, but this was our dish first! Native baked beans are made with maple sugar, however, not molasses and salt pork. And, we serve it with pumpkin bread stuffed with dried wild grapes, perhaps the bread that inspired your famous Boston Brown?" - Dale Carson
1 lb. dried navy beans
4 cups water
1 tbsp. oil or butter (my note: nut oil is great with this!)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup Real maple syrup
1 tsp. dry mustard powder (my note: I like the mild type in this)
1 tsp. powdered ginger
Variation: Use Dried baby butter beans
Maple sap dripping from a tree as the days turn warm and the nights are still freezing, sap boiling down into syrup, and sap bottled at various stages of reduction as it darkens. 40 gallons of sap has to boil down to 1 gallon to give us the rich sweet syrup we pour on our pancakes. If you ever wondered why it's so expensive, that's why!