Indian tacos
6 servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1½ | cup | Dried anasazi beans |
| 6 | Pieces Indian Frybread, about 6 inches in diameter | |
| 1½ | cup | Mache or arugula, washed & stemmed |
| 1 | large | Red ripe tomato, sliced |
| 2 | Ripe avocados, halved and sliced | |
| 1 | Red onion, thinly sliced | |
| 1 | Bunch red radishes, sliced | |
| 24 | Golden yellow plum tomatoes, cut in half | |
| 6 | Green anaheim chiles | |
| 1 | large | Red bell pepper, or red anaheim chile |
Directions
To prepare the anasazi beans, soak overnight in twater to cover. The next day, drain the beans and place them in a saucepan with fresh water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and let the beans simmer until the skins break, about 3 hours. It may be necessary to add water as the beans cook to prevent them from burning and sticking. After the beans are cooked, remove from the heat and set aside. You should have about 3 cups cooked beans.
While the beans are cooking, roast, seed, and devein the chiles and the pepper. Leave chiles whole; slice pepper lengthwise into six strips.
To start building the tacos, place ½ cup cooked beans on each piece of frybread. Add ¼ cup greens per taco, followed by a red tomato slice. Add 4 slices avocado and 1 slice red onion, separated into rings. Follow with radishes and 4 golden yellow plum tomatoes per taco, and top with 1 roasted green chile and 2 slices roasted red pepper or chile. You can vary the toppings and the order in which the taco is built. *****
The Indian taco has become on of today's best-known Native American dishes. It is served at national fairs, intertribal powwows, and community events, both on the reservations and in urban areas.
Its base, unlike the more familiar Mexican-style tacos, is frybread, amde from a light dough and considered to be of Navajo origin.
Traditionally, it was prepared with lard, but now more and more people are using vegetable oil for frying.
The anasazi bean is a medium-size bean spotted reddish brown and white. It was originally cultivated by the Anasazi people, the now extinct cliff dwellers of the ancient Southwest. For many years this bean was seldom used and hard to find, but it is slowly gaining in popularity in the commercial market. It can be found in health food markets and can also be ordered by mail. If you wish to substitute, I suggest using pink beans.
From "Native American Cooking," by Lois Ellen Frank Submitted By HILDE MOTT On 10-29-94