Navajo Fry Bread, and First Garden Cucumbers

Apologies ahead of time if you’re hungry, but I just have to lay this homemade Navajo fry bread on you. We made it for dinner last night. I’ve made good fry bread lots of times, but I think I’ve finally achieved a flawlessly balanced recipe that makes it epic.

For two people, measure two cups of organic flour. To it, add 1 tablespoon baking powder, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Use a wire whisk to completely incorporate these dry ingredients. Then, slowly add about 1 cup of hot, distilled water - a little more if needed.

Use a large wooden spoon to mix it all together, then knead with your hands for about a minute. The dough should be sticky. Cover the dough and let it sit for an hour or two. Two hours is better. This bread dough has no yeast and so will not rise, but it does need to rest.

Drizzle the dough with some olive oil, then break off golf ball-sized pieces and roll into balls. Use a rolling pin to roll them as flat as possible without tears. Don’t worry about them being perfectly round. Pile these up as you go, and in the meantime, heat some good-quality oil in a heavy, deep pan – enough to cover the fry bread (about 2 inches deep) – and heat to 350 degrees. Be careful working with hot oil - KEEP PETS OUT OF THE KITCHEN WHEN FRYING WITH HOT OIL!

When the oil is ready, add the dough discs, one at a time. Fry until just golden on one side, flip over, and fry until just done. Don’t overcook. Drain on paper towels, and eat hot and fresh.

My husband sprinkled some coconut sugar on his fry bread. I dipped mine in mango chutney. I also ate some plain. They can be topped with anything, or just eaten as part of a larger meal. They’re very filling. Fry bread was all we had for dinner last night.

Also, we pulled the first cucumbers from our food gardens last night, July 12. Four big beauties that are fresh, crisp, and sweet. We were already full of fry bread, but made a little extra tummy room for some fresh sliced garden cucumber.

It was as far back as last summer that we had fresh garden cucumbers. You don’t know what you miss until it’s gone. Here’s to a couple hundred more of these gorgeous cukes before the season is over. Check out that funky yellow squash there, too. We’ve had squash for about a week now. And lots of cherry tomatoes. Summer is all good.

Barbie xo