Recipe Box: Fry Bread and Bannock

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Fry bread, done right, is golden brown and crispy on the outside, tender and chewy on the inside. Ideally, it’s still warm.

Before you’re tempted to inform me – yes, I know it’s not good for me. Fry bread by itself weighs in at 700 calories a plate with 27 grams of fat per serving, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And done right, it’s worth every calorie and gram – if it is a relatively rare treat in your overall diet.

Ojibway (Anishinabe) Fry Bread

  • 4 c. flour
  • 1/4 c. shortening
  • 4 tsp. baking powder
  • 3/4 c. milk
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • Oil for frying

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening. Add milk to soften dough. Roll out on a floured board, cut into pieces and fry in hot oil – turning once – until golden brown. To make Indian Tacos: Brown hamburger (or ground turkey); drain any fat. If desired, add taco seasonings to meat. To serve, spoon meat mixture over individual servings of fry bread, and top with grated cheese, chopped lettuce, tomatoes, onions and black olives, add salsa and sour cream.

This, my favorite fry bread recipe, comes from our WDSE Cooks show “E is for Ethnic,” from Amber Cadotte of Bayfield, Wisconsin.

While many cultures have some sort of “fried” bread, what we call fry bread was created in Native American communities in the era following establishment of reservations when sparse variety of food rations necessitated recipes that made the most of what was available. It changed diets – often toward the unhealthy, but what started from hardship became a traditional staple. (In 2005, South Dakota adopted it as the official state bread. One of the best boxed mixes for fry bread – from Wooden Knife Co. – is made in South Dakota and can be ordered online.)

Ask fry bread aficionados for their recipe … and they’ll probably chuckle. Generations of cooks learned to make fry bread by watching their parents or grandparents, and they cook by what “feels right” or “looks right.”

Once you learn the technique of making a good basic fry bread, you’ll discover that it’s a pretty forgiving dish when it comes to specifics.

Hundreds of recipes – many are variations from different tribal nations – branch off of two basic forms of leavening: baking soda or yeast. It all depends on what you have in the house.

Fry bread can be made with cooked pumpkin, powdered milk or fresh milk; it can be served at any meal, as a side dish, part of the main entrée or as a dessert. I’ve had fry bread topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar (like a funnel cake), fry bread sliced in half to hold a cheese burger or as a crispy alternative to a hot dog bun.

“When I was growing up we’d have our fry bread for breakfast with butter and maple syrup,” says Dana Logan, executive assistant for the Grand Portage Tribal Council and 10-year member of the Rendezvous Days Celebration Pow Wow.

Speaking of pow wows … you’re likely to find fry bread in its many forms served with style at your local pow wow. May I suggest an Indian Taco?

Crisp fry bread is made by dropping hand-formed rounds of dough into very hot oil, quickly flipping for even frying and then topping with seasoned meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and sauce.

For me, if there is just one perfectly magical time to visit Grand Portage, Minnesota, it has to be the second weekend in August during the annual Rendezvous Days Celebration Pow Wow. The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa welcomes spectators and participants. Folks are invited to dance or watch the dancers, listen to the drum groups and peruse the offerings of craft and food vendors.

“This is our celebration pow wow. Everyone is invited and encouraged to visit, to watch the pow wow, or get out and dance,” says Dana. “We’re really celebrating the culture of our community, and our history. Everyone, including the spectators, is invited to our feast on Saturday night.”

Bannock

  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4 Tbsp. butter/shortening
  • 4 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 4 c. flour
  • 2 c. water
  • 1/2 c. raisins/craisins/dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 9x12 cake pan. Combine flour, baking powder and salt thoroughly. Cut fat into flour mixture until pea-sized lumps are formed in flour. Make a dent in the flour and pour in water. Add raisins. Mix gently with fork until a soft and sticky dough is formed. Place in greased pan. Bake at 350° until golden brown, about 1-1/2 hours.

While you’re likely to find fry bread at the pow wow, down at the Grand Portage National Monument’s Annual Rendezvous – done simultaneously with the pow wow – you’re more likely to get a taste of fry bread’s next of kin, bannock. In some places the two are interchangeable terms for the same fried bread, but bannock was originally a staple of European fur traders and was usually baked like a scone though it can be fried.

Imagine traveling back in time to 1797 to the actual Great Rendezvous among voyageurs, fur trading officials and Ojibway residents at Grand Portage.

Fur traders from remote outposts to the west, as far away as British Columbia, loaded down with a year’s worth of fur pelts, have trekked down the rocky 8-1/2-mile trail known as the Grand Portage (you must say that with a French accent to get the true feel).

At the trailhead fort of the British-owned North West Company, the groups meet up with canoe brigades of voyageurs carrying tons of guns, kettles, other trade goods and food, having made a three-month journey from Montreal, 1,000 miles or so to the east. They exchange their burdens and enjoy a little rest and relaxation (think: big fur-trader party).

You can experience the Rendezvous as more than 100 re-enactors in period dress set up a huge cloth tent encampment just outside the stockade in Grand Portage.

Meanwhile inside the pickets, the Grand Portage National Monument comes to life with music, games, demonstrations of period crafts and cooking. Remember to tour the kitchen, where cooks slave over a huge open hearth, tending cast iron pots that bubble with a delicious variety of dishes.

If you’re considering making the rendezvous and pow wow the centerpiece of your trip up the shore this summer, remember to enjoy the Grand Portage National Monument’s brand-new Heritage Center. Also, consider a hike up the Grand Portage Trail or at least part of the way; after all, it’s 8-1/2 miles to the primitive campsite on the Fort Charlotte end of the trail. You can take a much shorter trek up the Mount Rose trail that overlooks the stockade, or visit the nearby Grand Portage State Park for a comfortable stroll up to the High Falls on the Pigeon River to see for yourself why they needed to portage those canoes around the rapids.

At another gathering a bit farther north and a little later in the month there will be a bannock-making contest. The Anishnawbe Keeshigun Native Festival, August 15-17 at Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay, also features traditional dancing, singing and drumming.

After joining in the activities at any pow wow, you’ll be ready for another “Indian Taco.” It’s just once a year and your doctor and dietician never need to know.

Juli Kellner hosts “WDSE Cooks” and produces “Native Report” on Duluth’s PBS Channel 8. She freely admits to eating fry bread in all its caloric glory, for which we love her even more.