Spirit of the harvest : North American Indian cooking

Summary: Before Columbus, before the Pilgrims, Native Americans used indigenous plants, seafood, and game in cooking traditions that are still very much alive. This carefully researched cookbook presents 150 authentic recipes from across the United Sates incorporating many indigenous ingredients hailed today for their healthfulness and flavor--wild rice, corn, beans, sunflower seeds, venison, buffalo, fowl, and fish. Spirit of the Harvest features traditional dishes from the Cherokee, Chippewa, Navajo, Sioux, Mohegan, Iroquois, Comanche, Hopi, Haida, and many other North American tribes. Among them are recipes for such varied dishes as Cherokee Red and Green Mixit, Choctaw File-Crawfish Stew, Wild Rice and Venison Stuffed Pumpkin, Indian Tacos, Navajo Peach Crisp, Roast Duck Stuffed with Wild Rice and Wild Muschrooms, Elk Stew with Acorn Dumplings, Smoked Salmon soup, Ember Roasted Buffalo, Skokomish Steamed Seafood, Mohegan Succotash, Iroquois Leaf Bread, and Whipped Raspberries and Honey. Many recipes come from noted cooks who are members of the different tribes, and all recipes can be easily prepared using modern kitchen techniques. Fifty full-color photographs featuring an array of historic Indian artifacts illustrate these recipes, which originated in points across the United States from Cape Cod to Puget sound, from the Missouri River to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande. A specially created map places the tribes and their principal foods in geographical context. Each chapter is introduced by an expert on the Indians of the region, and discusses the cultures of major tribal groups, their diets, their ceremonial use of food, and the historic dishes they developed.