Nebraskaland

18 Nebraskaland • August-September 2024 One of the latest cookbooks I've acquired is called The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley. A James Beard Award winner, Chef Sherman's book is a modern reclamation of Native American cooking in the Dakotas and Minnesota regions. One recipe that stands out is "Indigenous Tacos." Using fried corn mush rounds as base, Chef Sherman tops his tacos with bison meat, which he seasons with native flavorings such as juniper, sage and sumac. He also drizzles the tacos with a fruit sauce called wojape, which he prepares with seasonal berries such as chokecherries, blueberries, raspberries and elderberries. I piled these tacos with Nebraska sharp-tailed grouse and wojape made with prickly pears, which grow wild in the western part of Nebraska where I hunt sharpies, and also mulberries, which my husband and I gather and freeze every summer. Servings: 2 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour Ingredients: • 4 sharp-tailed grouse breasts, boneless (2 birds) • 8 juniper berries, finely ground • Dried sumac, to taste • Salt, to taste • 2 to 3 tbsp. of duck fat or oil, plus extra • 1 medium shallot, finely minced • 1 to 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar • 1 ⁄2 cup brown or yellow onion, chopped • Small bunch of sage leaves, chopped Corn Cakes • 3 cups of water • 1 ⁄2 tsp. fine sea salt • 1 cup coarse grind yellow cornmeal or polenta Fruit Sauce • 3 large prickly pears (about 1½ cups of flesh) • 1 cup mulberries • 2 tbsp. honey, or to taste 1. Set out grouse breasts on the counter for an hour prior to cooking. To make the corn cakes: In a medium saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Gradually whisk in cornmeal and sea salt, and stir to get rid of all lumps. Turn heat to low and cook covered for 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. When cooked, set corn mush aside to cool. In a small bowl, combine minced shallot and vinegar, and set aside to soak. Note that Native Americans do not traditionally use vinegar in their cooking. 2. Meanwhile, make the fruit sauce: Slice off prickly pear ends, slice down the skin and peel. Chop the seedy flesh and place in a small saucepan with the mulberries. Crush the fruit with a potato masher, bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in honey to taste. Then run fruit and juice through a fine mesh strainer or food mill, squeezing out as much juice as possible. Discard pulp and seeds. If needed, return juice to the saucepan and continue to simmer to thicken. Set aside to cool. 3. To prepare the meat: Season grouse breasts with salt, finely ground juniper berries and generous sprinklings of sumac. Heat duck fat or oil in a pan over medium-high heat and sear on both sides. Remove breasts and loosely cover in foil to finish cooking and to keep warm. In the same pan, sauté chopped onion and sage to soften over medium heat with a pinch of salt. 4. With your hands, form corn mush into cakes about 3-4 inches in diameter and 1 ⁄2- 3 ⁄4 inch thick. Heat fat in a pan over medium-high heat, and brown cakes on both sides until golden and crispy. Chop grouse into small pieces. Serve meat on top of corn cakes with drained "pickled" shallot, onion and sage, fruit sauce and finishing salt. Eat them with your hands. By Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley NATIVE AMERICAN GROUSE 'TACOS' IN THE FIELD Grouse meat, sage, onion and wojape on corn cakes. JENNY NGUYEN-WHEATLEY, NEBRASKALAND

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