Wojapi and Indian Fry Bread

Wojapi (Woe-sha-pay)

• 2 cups berries, fresh or frozen (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, chokecherries, etc.)
• 1 1/2 cup water, save 1/4 cup for mixing with cornstarch
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar granular, to taste – Splenda works well also
• 2 tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

1. Put berries in a medium saucepan. Some people mash them first, I just put them in the pan! They will break down as they boil and I stir.
2. Add 1 1/4 cups of water to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Lower heat and add sugar.
4. Mix the cornstarch with remaining 1/4 cup of water in a cup until well blended. Then add to the heated berries and stir.
5. Cook over a low heat for about 4 minutes. It may take longer – what you want to do is to stir constantly until the consistency is extremely thick.
6. Serve hot. (I have put it in a crock pot to keep it hot throughout a party.)

Indian Fry Bread

Everyone has their own version of this recipe. We have used several including ones with yeast that makes extremely large batches of dough. Here is one of the more simpler (and quick) version!

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• Oil, for frying

Directions

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm water to the flour mixture and stir until dough begins to ball up. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface, but you don’t have to work it down like bread dough. Once the dough has a little stretch to it, you can stop. Put the dough in a greased bowl and refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Heat oil to 350 degrees in a DEEP frying pan or kettle. Lightly flour your working surface. Take a plum size piece of dough and roll it out to about the size around of a softball and about ¼” thick. You may have to experiment with the size of dough to get the size of finished fry bread you want. Be sure to make a slit in middle of the rolled out dough so the dough will fry flat. Place the rolled dough in oil and cook until golden brown on one side, flip over and brown the other side. The time on each side will depend on the temperature of your oil and thickness of dough. Drain on paper towels. If you are making a large batch and need to keep them warm you can stand them on their sides in a roaster in a warm oven or in an electric roasting pan. Serve warm with wojapi!