Indigenous Roots: Exploring the Crossroads of African American and Indigenous American Cuisine

MOFAD is excited to invite you to participate in Indigenous Roots, a two-part online panel event and cooking demo exploring the crossroads of African American and Native American cuisine

Ubiquitous, but often overlooked, African American and Indigenous American foods are essential to the American experience. Ingredients such as corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate are pantry staples the world over; and yet their historical significance is often glossed over or forgotten entirely.

Join us on August 5th at 8pm EST for a virtual panel conversation led by Andi Murphy, host of the Toasted Sister Podcast, that will explore the intersections between these two cultures that came together out of necessity and created a truly American cuisine.

Continue the conversation with us on August 6th at 8pm EST for a cooking demo with Indigenous chefs Yusuf Bin-Rella, Elena Terry, and Dave Smoke-McCluskey. During this demo the chefs will be making:

Piri Piri Shrimp with Celosia and Ute Mountain Blue Corn Grits

Yellow Cornmeal Fried Okra

Hominy Grits and Greens with Benne Seeds and Guinea Hog Cracklins

A ticket to the cooking demo includes a corn kit featuring several types of Indigenous corn varieties that can be used to cook along at home with the chefs.

This event will celebrate ingenuity, resilience, sustainability, and finding beauty even in some unlikely places and circumstances. Please help us elevate the conversation around these incredible traditions in a double evening of celebration.

Corn Kit Includes:

8 oz. Ute Mountains Bow & Arrow Farms Whole Kernel Blue Corn

8 oz. Ute Mountains Bow & Arrow Farms Blue Corn Flour

8 oz. Ute Mountain Bow & Arrow Farms White Corn Flour

Recipes to use the flours and whole corn for making grits, mush, and breading for frying and instructions to explore nixtamalization using an alkaline solution to make hominy.

*For the cooking demo, the chefs will be making several dishes with the various corns plus additional ingredients. The corn box will include all recipes and a shopping list for the proteins and produce that are not included.

* These events will be held over zoom from 8-9 PM EST on August 5th and August 6th, 2020. You will receive the zoom links via email on the day of the event.