Navajo Bread Breakfast Taco ~ Eldorado Canyon, Nevada!

Yummy western breakfast food!

   
     Navaho bread is very popular in the west.  I stopped at the Virgin Trading Post in Virgin Utah a few months ago and had a great buffalo steak chili Navaho Bread taco.  That meal was unforgettably good!  Tonight, I was watching a few Native American Television shows on my computer and I started getting hungry.  I thought that a Navaho Bread entree might might be nice for the moment, so I cooked one up!
     Navaho Bread was born out of disparity.  Navaho Bread was originally made by the Navaho tribe while in captivity.  The fry bread was made with rancid ingredients that were provided by the U.S. Government.  The Navaho people suffered many years of captivity and depravation.  Navaho Bread or fry bread became very popular with tribes in America.  Navaho bread became a symbolic sacred food that was to be eaten, till the earth was once again purified.
     Fried mesquite flour bread and fried corn bread had been around for a long time.  Wheat flour fry bread was something new.  In the Nevada desert where I live, natives usually used mesquite flour.  Mesquite flour is of very high nutritional value
     Navaho Bread is a fried bread that has pockets of air and the surface texture is crispy with a soft texture in the center.  Navaho bread is leavened with baking powder or yeast.  Fry bread is always cooked to order and served hot.  The fry bread can be eaten plain or with meat and toppings.
     Eggs are part of every culture, so a Navaho Bread breakfast taco was a natural.  The flavors of this recipe are mild.  The only chile pepper used in this recipe is ground mild New Mexico chile peppers.  New Mexico chiles are about as hot as a mild jalapeno pepper and they have a very nice robust southwestern chile pepper flavor.
     Natives of the southwest and Mexico, created tortillas and tacos.  The original tacos were tortillas that were used to hold meat while eating with fingers.  Tortilla tacos can be folded, but Navaho Bread tacos are usually served flat.  The fry bread and toppings are torn or cut and eaten with fingers.
     Cheese is not a required ingredient on Navaho Bread tacos, because cheese was not a Native American staple.  Onion and tomato are both common native food.  Lettuce is not.  Considering that this is a breakfast style Navaho Bread Taco, lettuce would be out of place anyway.  Forget about the cheese!  Navaho Bread is quite filling and by adding cheese to the taco, a lazy day of being too stuffed to get anything done is very possible.
     This food blog entry is a baking powder Navaho Bread recipe.  It is important to not knead or handle the bread dough too much, or the texture will become too dense.  Dense Navaho Bread will leave you napping all day too.  The object is to get a light texture with large air pockets in the bread!
   
     New Mexico Chile Colorado:  
     Heat 2 cups of water over medium/medium low heat in a sauce pot.
     Add 4 tablespoons of New Mexico chile powder.
     Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
     Add 3 ounces of tomato puree.
     Add 2 pinches of cumin.
     Add sea salt and black pepper.
     Gently simmer and reduce the sauce, till it becomes a medium thin sauce consistency.
     Keep the sauce warm over very low heat.

     Navaho Bread:    
     Place 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl.
     Add 2/3 cup water.
     Add 1/3 cup milk.
     Add  1 teaspoon of baking powder.
     Add 2 pinches of salt.
     Stir the dough with a spoon, till the ingredients are combined and a dough is formed.  The dough should be close to being sticky, but it should not stick to fingers.
     Roll the dough into a ball shape.
     Press the dough out with your fingers and hands, till it looks like a thin pizza dough crust.
     Place a deep wide saute pan or a deep wide pot on a stove burner.
     Add enough vegetable oil or lard so the oil is 1 inch deep.
     Heat the oil, till it becomes 360 degrees.
     Carefully place the round flat pressed dough in the hot oil.
     Fry till the bread becomes firm on one side.
     Use tongs to flip the bread.
     Cook the bread on both sides and flip the bread occasionally, till the fry bread becomes a golden brown color.
     Place the fry bread on a try towel to drain off any excess grease.
     Keep the Navaho Fry Bread warm on a stove top.

     Navajo Bread Breakfast Taco Recipe:
     Chop 1 small Roma tomato and place it in a bowl.
     Add 1 handful of chopped onion.
     Add 6 to 8 chopped cilantro or parsley leaves.
     Add 2 pinches of sea salt.
     Toss the ingredients together and set them aside.
     Heat a non-stick saute pan over medium heat.
     Add 2 pats of unsalted butter.
     Add 2 eggs.
     Break the yolks on the eggs.
     Cook the eggs on both sides, till they are cooked over hard.
     Remove the pan from the heat.
   
     Presentation: 
     Place the warm Navaho Bread on a plate.
     Spoon some of the New Mexico Chile Colorado sauce on the bread.
     Place the fried eggs on the bread.
     Spoon the remaining New Mexico Chile Colorado Sauce over the eggs.
     Mound the tomato and onion mixture on the center of the eggs and fry bread.

     Delicious, warm and comfortable!  This is a hearty filling breakfast entree.  The flavors are straight out of the southwest.  The Navaho bread is fun to eat with fingers like a pizza for breakfast.  This is a yummy New Mexico style breakfast!


Eldorado Canyon
   
     I drove to Eldorado Canyon, Nevada yesterday to take some pictures.  Eldorado Canyon is an inspirational scenic place.  Eldorado Canyon is the largest and oldest gold strike area in Southern Nevada.  The name of the mine site is Techatticup.  Techatticup is Paiyute Native language for "I'm hungry."  The natives who were forced out of their farmlands literally were dealing with starvation everyday.  They used to go to the gold strike in Eldorado Canyon to ask for food.
     The gold strike at Eldorado Canyon was huge.  This area of the southwest was bypassed by the Spaniards.  Later in the 1800's, this area became a rebel stronghold during the civil war.  The gold from Eldorado Canyon helped to finance the Confederacy.  During the peak mining years, Eldorado Canyon was a haven for outlaws and everybody was taking potshots at each other.  Eldorado Canyon was once one of the wildest places in the old wild west!
     Eldorado Canyon is by Nelson Nevada off of Hwy 95 South.  Lake Mojave (Colorado River) is at the end of the canyon.  There are picturesque hoodoos in the canyon.  In spring, this is a great area for taking pictures of desert wild flowers.  The mining area is occupied, but it is listed as a ghost town.
     There is a lot of history in this area of Nevada.  The owners of the Techatticup Mine give tours and rent canoes.  Horse back riding and tours of the mine are also available.  Wedding ceremonies also take place in this old ghost town.  Panning gold from some of the placers and pockets in the canyon is something I do occasionally.  The tailings are mercury coated, because arsenic extraction of gold was not yet established.  What looks like little bits of silver in a pan is actually mercury coated gold.  The mercury has to be burnt off outdoors, to reveal the gold.
     I highly recommend visiting the old historic and scenic Eldorado Canyon.  The scenery is pretty and the desert is deafeningly quiet!  By clicking on one picture below, a slideshow mode will appear.  ...  Shawna