I wasn't finished editing the post & hit submit by mistake.

Should be 'not fond of cumin'

And

if proofing the yeast, use 1/2 cup of the 2 cups total warm water.

DH & DS both gave this concoction rave reviews, totally unprompted, too, I might add. I liked it a whole lot also so that's why I'm sharing it. Hope that some of ya'll will like it, too.

Mmm. I love fry bread, and agree that the yeast version is superior. I had something sort of similar last night. Fresh cooked naan with chickpeas, spicy chicken, basmati rice and tikka masala on top. It was wonderful!

Yummers I love indian tacos and fry bread. I first had it when volunteering on a Navajo Indian reservation in High School. I continued to love it and when we went on Vacation to the Grand Canyon this summer we revisited the reservation and many of the places I went to when I was in high school.

Stacie

I've never heard of them. But then, I've spent a total of four or five days in the southwest. When you say Indian, I pictured curry. But you don't mean that do you? Tell me more!

LOL, Rob. It's all context. Since I'm from the SW, I think 'Native American' when 'Indian' is mentioned. Lesson learned. ;)

I'm sure not an expert in Native American food but, from what I read in hunting down recipes, 'Indian fry bread' was an adaptation to the poor food stuffs that the government provided NA's after herding them onto the reservations. I'm adding a link to the site that I copied the FB recipe from.

As an aside, my dad used to make us kids what he called 'frybread'. It was simply Bisquik stirred w/ some milk to a biscuit like consistency and patted out in prolly 3/8'' disks. He would 'fry' these up on the griddle of Mom's O'keeffe & Merit range (using very little addt'l fat). He would also cook up some cornmeal mush (cornmeal cooked in water) & pour it into loaf pans to congeal. Then slice it about 1/4'' thick & fry it on the griddle & serve w/ butter & jelly or syrup. I always liked it best w/ jelly. Curiously, my mom was the one who had NA ancestry, not my dad. But Dad grew up near a reservation & Mom didn't. Which isn't to imply that Dad's 'recipes' were in the least bit authentic. Probably had more to do w/ foodstuffs from the Depression than anything else.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snowwowl NA Frybread Recipes

Awesome! I'm always game for learning something new. Those frybread ideas of your dad's sound very interesting. As does your quest to find the right taco recipe. Thanks!

I'm sure I didn't help the confusion by mentioning something Indian from India :-P

Ci lantro, Thanks for reminding me about Indian Fry Tacos. I've loved them too, having spent time some time in Oklahoma myself. I commend you for searching until you found the ''right'' recipe and thank you for sharing with us what you found. Your recipe is copied, pasted, and already tagged in my files as among the best, without having even tried it!

Ci-lantro, I also agree that "fry bread" as we now know it was not introduced until the Native Americans were relegated to reservations and/or introduced to European food stuffs.

All nations and people have their own version of "bread", though. I think fry bread most probably started out much like the corn tortilla, as the Native Americans would have little access to leavening or wheat flour. It probably contained grains or nuts available such as sunflower seeds or acorns, whatever was available in specific areas.

At any rate, I love fry bread in it's current state. It's much like an "elephant ear" to me and is even often served with cinnamon and sugar or honey, although I like it as you've made it, as a container for beans and meat.

It was probably originally used as a utensil or device to scoop foods out of the pot.

Annie

Well, I will definitely be making this. It looks so good. I went to a local Aboriginal restaurant and I saw Indian Tacos on the menu (on an outside wall) and was all excited and my friend and I went inside to find out we just missed the lunch hours and won't be open again until dinner. The item completely slipped my brain so I e-mailed the recipe to myself. Done and thanks.

Oh my. I sure hope this recipe lives up to your expectations or gets you close enough to tweak it.

One thing that I totally forgot was that I set aside some of the beans to make refried for DS. So, 1 cup of dried beans would be enough for scaling this for 4-6 servings. (Cooked dried beans freeze good for adding to dishes later on, too.)

'ci lantro': my (English) Iowa farm grandmother also made 'cornmeal mush'...we ate it the first day like a mush or porrage & the left-overs (if any!) were refrigerated & the next day it was sliced, floured & fried for breakfast. We also used honey or syrup on it for breakfast like you mentioned. Wasn't a Native American dish back in Iowa in the early days though so don't know the origins! Here in New Mexico a similar recipe is called: 'chauquehue' & often made with blue cornmeal.

vieja, my Grandmother also made the hated cornmeal mush. It was eaten as a hot cereal the first day, the remainder was refrigerated in a loaf pan, sliced and fried until crisp then served with maple syrup. It was food when nothing else was available. I could only eat it fried then, I can't even eat it fried now.

I keep insisting that grits and polenta are just gussied up mush!

Annie

We never ate it as cereal, only as fried mush and it was one of my very favorites. I love grits, too, but we never ate those and no one in my family will eat them either. And they're sure not menu items in WI. :(

I had heard of fry bread for many years and when I had the chance to visit one of the pueblo's, high upon a mesa, one of the people who lived there was selling it out of her home. I tried it and it was so bad I had to throw it away. I figure there must be a big difference in frybread recipes because it is so popular with some. I think this was Acoma Pueblo. It was one where very few Indians still live and they have no electricity up there.

I've eaten a lot of both Pueblo Indian and Navajo fry bread.....and always loved it....some is better than other's...just as anything varies from cook to cook. But all the fry bread I know of was made with baking powder not yeast.
In certain areas it's called a Navajo taco...which is pretty much fry bread, with beans and salsa.
I'll have my fry bread with honey thank you very much!

At the Heard Museum's Indian Fair, which is a celebration of all things Indian, art, food, dance, weaving jewelrey making, clothing, the line for fry bread is very very long...easy a 30 minute wait.
Linda c

LindaC, today's incarnation of fry bread is mostly made with baking powder, something the original Natives would not have had. Now some of the commercial sellers have gone to yeast, catering to the tastes of today's consumers.

I love the stuff, but like it best as a utensil or container for savory items, such as venison chili or beans.

Annie