Wishi

What the heck is Wishi you may ask... Hen of the Woods or Maitake are other names for this delicious wild mushroom. Wishi is the Cherokee name for it and I love it! To me this mushroom tastes like meat, no kidding. The old timers would cook their wishi in different types of grease and then the Wishi would taste like whatever grease they had used. Lard would give a pork taste, fat that fish was cooked in a fish taste, I think you know what I mean. We like ours cooked in a little canola oil with salt and lots of coarsely ground black pepper. Where do we get our Wishi?... Well if I told you that I would have to kill you. Around these parts you NEVER give the location of your mushroom patch. I did not take any pictures of the Wishi before it was cooked, that will have to wait for this Fall's crop. They usually are found in October here on Beaty's Creek. Here are a couple of ways to cook this versatile mushroom.

When you gather the Wishi you will take it home and clean it very well. I do this under running water. You will strip the Wishi into 1/2 strips or 3/4 inch strips if you want to deep fry it. Once all of the wishi is stripped you will place it into a large pot,( I use a large dutch oven.) and cover the Wishi with water. Boil for about 15-20 minutes. Your water will have a dark color to it when you pour the water off. Drain Wishi very well, now is the time to either freeze your Wishi or cook it! I do both so we can enjoy the Wishi all through the year.

Fried Wishi:

Coat a heavy bottomed skillet with about a 1/4 inch of canola oil or any oil you choose. Heat oil over medium heat and add Wishi. Salt and pepper to taste. We cook it until it slightly browns on one side and then we turn it and brown the other side. We like ours a little crispy. Now is the time to eat that delicious mushroom!

Deep Fried Wishi:

Needed:
All-purpose flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil

Make sure your Wishi is dried from boiling it. Place about 5 cups of flour in a brown paper bag add salt and pepper to taste and place Wishi in bag. Coat as you would chicken to fry. Really shake off extra flour. Helps keep your oil clean. Heat about 3 inches of oil in a deep pan or deep fryer. Place Wishi in a little at a time. Don't crowd Wishi or it will stick together. Fry until golden brown. Serve right away!

Wild Onions and Eggs

Ladies and gentlemen..... Spring has arrived on Beaty's Creek!! You know spring is really here when you cook up a bunch of wild onions and eggs. Nothing could be better, well maybe a few morels(more on that later). The Tulsa World featured me a few years ago in an article about spring greens in Oklahoma. I am not telling all of you to go in the woods and try to figure out what onions are so read this and enjoy the thought of a wild onion and egg dinner. If you live in NW Arkansas or NE Oklahoma I am sure you know where to dig onions, but if not leave me a comment and I will try to help you out.

Needed:

2 hand fulls of wild onions cleaned and chopped into bite size pieces
Salt to taste
Oil
3 cups of water
5 eggs-beaten

Coat the bottom of a skillet with oil and saute your wild onions until softened a bit, now add your water and cook over a slow boil for 20 minutes, let some of the water evaporate. Now add your beaten eggs and stir like crazy until eggs come together and are done. We love the broth that you get from the onions, so good with crispy cornbread. That is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Poke Salad

Sounds odd but around here it says SPRING ALMOST SUMMER!! I have always wondered why "Poke Salad" is called "Poke Salad", one it is not a salad and two it is cooked. My dad said it is as close to a salad as the old timers got so who knows?? Poke is really the last of the “wild grown” edibles that we have around Beaty’s Creek until the fall and it is pretty much everywhere. My grandpa use to say Poke Salad was your spring tonic; it may not be tonic but is a spring favorite. We like our "poke salad" with eggs and of course crusty cornbread. My father likes his "poke salad" with vinegar on top and served like you would any cooked green. This is What's Cookin in my Beaty's Creek kitchen tonight. Hold your breath Sal.....

Needed:
1 paper grocery bag full of very young poke tips (I don’t like the stalks boiled, I have a recipe for those later on.)
Water
Salt
1/2 cup Oil
6 Eggs-beaten


Wash poke very good and place in a large pot, cover with water and boil for 3 minutes, now you will pour all of the water off of the poke. Why you may ask???? Well, poke will make you sick if you eat it after the first boiling. Boil again but this time boil it for only 1 minute and then pour off the water and add oil to poke. You will still have a little water in the bottom of the pot, this is fine, salt poke and sauté in oil for about 3 more minutes, now add your eggs. We don’t like ours real eggy but the amount of eggs is up to you. When you add your eggs you will need to stir and stir and stir again, this helps keep everything even and no big pieces of eggs. Cook until all the eggs are set.

Morel Mushrooms--Need I say more???

If you've never had a Morel mushroom you are missing out. Some people like them in cream sauces but here on Beaty’s Creek we like 'em floured and fried! My husband and son are good at finding Morels and really enjoy the “hunt”. If you grew up around Beaty’s Creek, I am sure you've spent part of your springtime hunting for these prized mushrooms. Here is a recipe for frying Morels Beaty’s Creek Style. If you are lucky enough to know what Morels are, you know that these mushrooms (when fresh) are so rich and delicious that words cannot describe. If you have never eaten Morel mushrooms, look online and get cha’ some. This is What’s Cookin on Beaty’s Creek.


Needed:

25 or more morels-soaked in salt water over night in the fridge (This helps get out any buggies that maybe in the morel.)
2 cups all purpose flour
Salt
Oil
Cast Iron skillet

Drain morels really well and split in half, once split, place in bowl with flour and salt to taste, coat with flour and place in a heated skillet that is covered in 2 inches of oil. Cook until golden brown and drain on paper towels. ENJOY!!

Venison Stew

Around Beaty's Creek there are deer a plenty. Ransome is quite the deer hunter and he is very successful each year when he hunts. I grew up on venison and look forward to each year's bounty. This recipe is really good and is an easy recipe to fix in your crock pot or on top of the stove. I made this stew on the stove top because I was going to be home all day and could watch over it. You know me, definitely a soup watcher and stirrer. I like this with crusty cornbread but it would be equally good with some homemade biscuits. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

3 pounds venison cut into small cubes-(soaked in salt water overnight, if needed)
3 cups flour
4 T garlic powder
4 T black pepper
4 T salt
1 T onion powder
Enough oil to coat bottom of stock pot
Enough water to cover venison
6 potatoes-peeled and cubed
5 carrots-peeled and sliced
1/2 bag frozen green peas

Mix flour, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and onion powder. Now add in cubed venison and coat evenly. Heat oil in stock pot over medium heat and add venison a little at a time. You want to brown all sides of the venison and not over crowd it in the pan, at least a couple of batches worth. Once all is browned, add all of the venison back to your pot and cover with water. Cook over medium heat on the stove top or on high in a crock pot. I cooked mine for 5-6 hours on top of the stove and would cook it the same amount of time in a crock pot. Add in all your veggies the last hour for stove top cooking and the last 3 hours in a crock pot.

Crawdad or Crayfish, that is the question

Whether you call these babies crawdads or crayfish they are good! On Beaty's Creek we have our choice of big or small and blue or red varieties. The kiddos and my MIL are masters at catching them. I can catch them too but only if they "catch" me first, if you know what I mean.... We have been eating crawdads out of Beaty's Creek since Sean and I were little ones so our kids have little choice but to continue the tradition. Beaty's Creek is a beautiful little spring fed creek that is clear with a rock bottom so the crayfish are always so clean and pretty. I love living here for the natural beauty and the natural "food" that abounds. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

5 pounds crawdads- *see note below* cleaned
Big Pot
Water
Salt
Oil

To clean your freshly caught crawdads you remove the the 3rd tail piece and pull. This is deveining the crawdad and much easier than shrimp. Now bring your water to a boil with 1 cup oil and 1 cup salt. I taste my water to see if it tastes good, make sense?? Like you do for pasta. When water is boiling, drop crawdads in and boil for 3 minutes then drain and enjoy!! Add Old Bay if you want a spicy version.

*This is how we clean our crawdads after we have cleaned our crawdads. Hee hee. Bring water to almost a boil in your tea kettle. Now pour hot water over your cleaned crawdads, and mix them around in the water. Pour water off and cook crawdads, as you like.

Corn Soup

This soup is so good on those very cold days that are fast approaching here on Beaty's Creek. We love this soup with fry bread but a hard crusty bread would be a great choice also. The dried corn in this recipe might be hard to come by in your part of the world though. Fortunately we have a couple of semi-local stores that carry it in our neck of the woods. If you can find this dried corn, it is the only way to make this soup as it would not be the same with canned or frozen corn. The dried corn has a very rich corn taste that the others cannot match. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:
3 pound beef roast
1 pound dried corn-I use Cope's brand
Salt to taste
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Water

Cover roast with water. Salt and pepper to taste, now cover with water and place lid on soup pot. Cook over medium heat for 4 hours or until meat is fork tender. Now add your corn and continue to cook for 1 hour. Serve with fry bread. You may need to add a little water to the soup after adding your corn.

The first Wishi of the year!!!! Hen of the Woods mushroom

We were out and about yesterday and guess what we found?????? A WISHI MUSHROOM!! It is a little early here on Beaty's Creek for Wishi but who cares! It is always like Christmas to find the first one of the year and a good omen also. Keep your eyes peeled, you never know what you might find! Before eating anything you pick in the wild, please check with someone if you are unsure of the edibility. Here is a link to last year's post on Wishi. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek.

Kanuchi

Kanuchi is a hickory nut soup with hominy that is eaten hot or cold and with sugar or honey, I like mine cold with sugar. My husband's Grandmother would make this every year and I have continued this tradition for our children. I believe most Cherokees make Kanuchi during the winter holiday season because the fall crop of hickory nuts are now seasoned and ready for use. Finding people who make the Kanuchi nut balls are getting harder and harder to find. We will most likely be making our own next year. Stay tuned. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

Kanuchi Ball

1 pound bag of dried hominy

1 quart of water

Take your nut ball and simmer it in a soup pan with about 2 cups of water. Now you will drain your nut mixture through a sieve several times. The Kanuchi ball has some of the nut shell along with the hickory nuts and you don't want shells in your finished product. Meanwhile take a quart of water and pour over your hominy in a large soup pot. You will cook this for 1 hour. Watch it because you will have to add about 1 more quart of water to the hominy as it cooks. Once hominy is cooked, pour your sieved nut mixture in and stir. Continue to cook for about 1 more hour.

Wild Owl Mushroom--Bearded Tooth

The Bearded Tooth mushroom is another one of my favorite wild edibles found around Beaty's Creek. The Cherokee name for this mushroom is "ooo-gook" or owl. When gathering the owl you must be careful to not make the mushroom mad. Say what??? This mushroom if removed roughly or if it hits the ground will turn bitter and not be edible. I have been told this by several old timers so we are careful when gathering these little jewels. I don't know if this is entirely true, but I like to respect the beliefs of the old folk. It is also just plain fun to look for mushrooms that can get mad! I like to soak these in cold water and then slice them, flour them up, salt to taste and fry to a golden brown. Before eating anything you pick in the wild, please check with someone if you are unsure of the edibility. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Fried Crawdads

I had never eaten a fried crawdad until I married my husband and this is now my favorite way to cook them. The cornmeal gives them the best taste and with a bowl of pinto beans, there is nothing finer. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:
3 pounds of *see note below* clean SMALL crawdads with third tail piece and head removed
4 cups of white cornmeal
1 cup of all purpose flour
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Place about a 1/4" of oil in a cast iron skillet and heat over a medium burner. Now place the cornmeal, flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well. After cleaning crawdads, place in the cornmeal mixture and coat well. Just as you would do when frying fish. Cook in a single layer in your skillet and brown on each side for about 5-10 minutes per side, depending on your heat source. That usually happens in about 10 minutes at my house but make sure you don't burn the little critters. Seems odd to eat shell and all but this is because you only fry the small size crawdads. When eaten this way they have a nice crispy crunch similar to fried shrimp.


*This is how we clean our crawdads after we have cleaned our crawdads, Hee hee. Bring water to almost a boil in your tea kettle. Now pour hot water over your prepared crawdads and mix them around in the water. Pour water off and then cook crawdads as you like.

Grape Dumplings

Grape dumplings are a family tradition in many a Native's home. My husband's grandmother made the best I have ever eaten. Grape dumplings are a dessert of sorts. In the old days they were made with Possum Grape or Winter Grape juice. I can still remember eating dumplings made with them. Possum Grapes are hard to find now days but we have a good supply along Beaty's Creek. You can use store bought grape juice and the dumplings will still taste oh so good! This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek tonight!

Needed:

2 quarts purple grape juice or if you are lucky 2 quarts of possum grape juice
2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2--2 cups water
*1 T cornstarch-mixed with 1 cup of cooled juice


Pour grape juice into a soup pot and bring to a slow boil, now add your sugar and stir. Simmer while you are making dumplings. To make dumplings you will sift flour and baking powder together in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle of flour mixture(this is where you will pour your water.) Pour in your water and with your hands mix flour in a little at a time until dough comes together. You may need a little more water or a little more flour. I know this sounds weird but once you feel the dough in your hands you will know what I mean. Once dough comes together roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness on a well floured rolling board. Now take a pizza cutter and cut into 1 inch squares. Once all of the dough is cut up bring your grape juice to a rolling boil and drop a few dumplings in at a time, I stir each time I drop a few. Boil for 10-15 minutes, *I like to add a little cornstarch to a 1/2 cup of cooled juice and add it back to the pot.* We like a little thicker sauce with our dumplings. This is so good with vanilla ice-cream.

Wild Spinach

These wild greens are a rite of spring on Beaty’s Creek, guess that is because they are almost everywhere along Beaty’s Creek. I freeze them and eat plenty when they are young too. These particular greens, to me anyway, taste like spinach with a broccoli rabe bite. This is What’s Cookin on Beaty’s Creek along with some fried cornbread.

Needed:

Spring Greens AKA Wild Spinach
Enough water to cover
Salt
Oil

I wash the greens and place them in my salad spinner, then I place them in a caste iron skillet covered with water and cook them until almost all of the water is gone. Now add oil and salt, now you will sauté the greens until tender. I love them with fried cornbread!

Mountain Lilies

I love mountain lilies, they are soo good and beat the heck out of mustard greens on any given day. They grow just about everywhere around Beaty's Creek, but you have to know what you are picking. You eat only the green leaves of the mountain lily and not the blooms. Again, don't go in the woods and pick something you have no idea what it is. The Tulsa World featured me in an article talking about mountain lilies a few years ago. My wonderful Grandmother in Law first fixed them for me. Can you believe it? Something growing in the wild that I did not know about???? I freeze quite a few bags of these each spring along with wild onions, makes for a great winter's dinner. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek tonight.

Needed:
1 Wal-mart bag of mountain lily greens-cleaned and cut into 3 inch pieces
oil
water
Salt to taste

Place enough oil in a large cast iron skillet to cover the bottom. Add your greens once the oil is hot. Saute until greens get a little tender, now add your salt to taste and enough water to cover greens. Cook uncovered until all of the water evaporates. Serve with cornbread made in a cast iron skillet and pinto beans.

Indian Tacos

Okay I will be the first to tell you I hate the name "Indian Taco". First Native Americans are not Indians because they do not come from India and second I really don't think Natives ate "tacos" per se, but I do love them. I am going to call them Native Tacos, so if you do make them, call them Native Tacos and maybe we can start a good thing. Once you master the fry bread you are ready to make Native Tacos. Practice makes perfect fry bread, just as with any good bread. It is very icy on Beaty's Creek today and this just sounds like a good dinner.

Needed:
2 lbs ground beef or turkey-browned with salt and pepper only
2 lbs Colby cheese-shredded
Pinto beans-cooked with salt and pepper only
1 head lettuce-cut finely
1 purple onion-chopped
3 tomatoes-chopped
Salsa- Paul Newman's Meduim Chunky Salsa is so good!
Sour Cream

Fry Bread

6 cups of all purpose flour
3 T baking powder
1 cup powdered milk
2-3 cups water
Oil for frying


Sift flour and baking powder together, make a bowl in the middle of flour, this is where you will add milk and water. I mix with my hands, I think you get a better feel for the dough this way. I mix until the dough feels like loose biscuit dough. Does that make sense? If not use the comment section to ask me questions. Believe you me it took me making fry bread 10 times before I reached my goal. So don't be disappointed, keep trying! Once mixed together form into disks about 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches across. Heat up oil over medium heat. I place my hand over the oil and can tell if it is ready to add the bread but you can always drop a piece of bread in and see if it sizzles, if it does you are ready to cook your bread. When frying your bread you don't want to turn your bread more than once. I check mine to make sure it is brown enough before turning. This usually happens between 5-6 minutes. Dough should be cooked through and not doughy. I place a couple of paper towels in the bottom of a brown paper bag to soak up any excess oil, and that is where I put my hot fry bread. The bag keeps the bread hot while you finish cooking all the bread.

Now is the time to make your taco. I will list in the order we build our tacos. You can make them anyway you want but this is how we do it on Beaty's Creek.

Bread
Beans
Meat
Cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions
Salsa-Paul Newman's Medium Chunky Salsa takes like fresh made!
Sour Cream

Native Soup

We eat this soup with fry bread anytime the weather cools off, like now. The whole family loves this soup and it is odd because usually each kiddo likes what they like and that’s that. Nice to have something the whole family agrees on. Try this one...

Here is the recipe, hope you like it...

Native Soup
Beef rump roast chunked up
5 pounds of potatoes peeled and chunked up
4 onions peeled and quartered
Place all of the above ingredients, except for the potatoes; you will add these the last 30 minutes of cooking, into a soup pot and cover with water. Salt and pepper to your taste. We like it pretty peppery. But it is completely up to your tastes how you season it. Once the meat is tender and the broth look rich add your potatoes. This should be the last 30 minutes of cooking. Serve with fry bread and your meal is complete. I will post my fry bread recipe another time. What are you waiting for, get cooking!!