Blue Corn Cakes

 This recipe is based on one found in The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook by Roxanne Swentzell and Patricia M. Perea. The original calls for ingredients indigenous to the region inhabited by The Pueblo people.  When I made it, I was unable to access all ingredients, and so made a few substitutes.  If you wish to make a truly authentic recipe, (I do, and will likely make a thorough search soon) substitute buffalo fat for butter, quinoa flour for chickpea, piñon nuts for pumpkin seeds, sunflower oil for olive oil, and a turkey egg for a chicken egg.

INGREDIENTS 

 Butter for greasing the pan

1 cup blue cornmeal

1/4 cup chickpea flour

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup currants

1 t salt

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350f.

Butter a cookie sheet.

Mix together the next five ingredients, then mix in the egg, oil and water.  Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough is sticky and place by spoonfuls on the prepared cookie sheet, flattening each cake slightly with your fingers or the back of the spoon.  You should have a total of 8 cakes.

Cook for about 15 minutes.  Allow to thoroughly cool, and serve.

These are a convenient breakfast or something to take on the trail.  The texture is not unlike that of a rather dense cookie.  As you eat it, you begin by mostly tasting the cornmeal, but as you chew the flavors of the seeds and fruit come forward.