Fry Bread!

My friend Tina offered to show me how she makes her fry bread. She invited us over to her house this morning to have Navajo Tacos for lunch. The idea was that I would help her make the fry bread that is the base for the tacos.

Tina and two of her daughters and her granddaughter live in a trailer park on the other side of Bloomfield. We stopped by the local Farmers Market store to pick up some lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. When we got to Tina's we started right in. She started out with three cups of flour in a bowl, then mixed in a handful of baking powder (about a tablespoon and a half). She mixed in a couple of cups of hot water; started as a soupy dough; then kept mixing in the rest of the flour in a bowl, making a stiff dough. She let that rest about twenty minutes.

Tina filled a skillet about half full of canola oil, heating it until it was quite hot. She pinched off a 2 inch or so ball of dough, rounded it into a ball, then patted it flat. She patted it between her hands until she had a thin circle about ten inches across and then put it into the hot oil. She used a meat fork to turn it when the first side was browned. Once it was done, she set it on edge in a bowl lined with paper towels.

Tina had a pan of browned ground beef and a pot of beans made. With those, chopped lettuce, tomatoes and onions, salsa and cheese all heaped on top of the fry bread, we had our Navajo Tacos!
Tina fried up the rest of the dough after we left and sent them home with us to stock my freezer.

We actually came home and took a nap. Then we had fry bread with cinnamon and sugar for supper.