Frybread experiment

Daughter spent this past week as a junior counselor at a local history camp. During the course of the week, the kids did some outdoor cooking. They made corn bread and stew in a Dutch oven, and they also made Native American frybread. Over the weekend, she decided to try making it in our kitchen.



Since we didn't have an open fire, she had to use the stove to heat up the oil. This step is obviously important. It was unclear exactly how hot the oil needed to be in order to properly cook the frybread.

While the oil heated up, she mixed up the batter in a Ziplock bag. (I'm sure there are more traditional methods of mixing the batter, but when you're cooking over a fire with kids, Ziplock bags probably work pretty well.) She snipped of one corner so that the batter could be squirted into the hot oil.

Oops. The oil was obviously too hot. Daughter thought this first batch of frybread looked like something that could be found in the cat litter pan. :-)

She let the oil cool, then tried it again. The open fire was easier, she observed.

This time, the frybread came out golden brown.

Daughter had mixed up some cinnamon-sugar and put it in a baggie. My job was to drop in the warm frybread and coat each piece. (Note that I have the easy, safe job! She's much handier than I am in the kitchen!)

And here is the frybread! It's probably not the healthiest thing to eat, but it is rather tasty.

Kudos to Daughter for being so fearless in the kitchen.