The Native American Culinary Association

[Chef Nephi Craig]

My name is Nephi Craig. I am posting some photos from the Native Food Fest that TOCA held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. I have been one of the participating chefs since the festival began two years ago.
For my dish and presentation I wanted to illustrate to the audience the potential of Native American Cuisine when French technique was utilized in the preparation. I also wanted to illustrate the philosophy that I have adopted and developed over the years in my approach to Native American Cuisine.
Since I was not able to create a dish for the Native Chef Dinner at KAI that night, I wanted to go all out for our cooking demonstration. I had a Native sous chef by the name of Harrison Watchman.
For our cooking demonstration we prepared three traditional dishes and three very modern interpretations of "classical" reservation ingredients and cooking techniques. The menu is as follows:

TRADITIONAL TASTES OF NATIVE AMERICA
-Navajo Steamed Corn Stew
-Apache Acorn Stew
-Apache Racket Bread (which was paired with the Apache Acorn Stew)

MODERN NATIVE FOOD
Tasting of Farm Raised Rabbit Prepared Three Ways
FIRST: "Stew"
Braised Leg Meat with Winter Squash, Root Vegetable, and Brussel Sprout Leaves, Chives and Rabbit jus.
SECOND: "Dumpling"
Rabbit Tortelinni, Tomato Confit and wilted Greens, EVOO and Apache Salt
THIRD: "Roast"
Pan Roasted Bacon Wrapped Loin of Rabbit, Braised Baby Turnips, Young Carrots and Pearl Onions, Garnished with a Rack of Rabbit and Yellow Apache Salt.

We began by providing the audience with NACA Handouts with some of the information we would be covering along with a NACA Evaluation form which was optional. When the demo began at 10am, I presented the audience with a basic introduction to the concept of Native American Cuisine past, present and the potential for the future.

We presented our theories for approaching Native American Cuisine utilizing Native American philosophy and organization based on a traditional Navajo problem solver adapted for cuisine.



I discussed the poetential and endless posibilities of Native foods and how we incorporate more than cooking skill in Native American Cuisine, that we were incorporationg history, culture, traditions and even spirituality in the preparation of our foods from start to finish. After the brief introduction we then proceeded to prove our theories in the cooking demonstration and began by passing the traiditional dishes to the audience while I began preparing the Racket Bread. My sous then finished making the bread, cutting and adding to the cups of Apache Acorn Stew for the audience.


While the Traditional Foods were being distributed I proceeded into the demonstration of our modern dishes explaining that the inspiration came from the Mojave and Navajo tribes since they both hunted and ate rabbits in history and rabbit was a well known favorite among both tribes.

I told the audience that we wanted the demo to be interactive and they had many questions.


With all my ingredients prepared and in place, I began by heating the ingredients for the "stew".

action shot.


On a back burner our rabbit "dumplings" were on low heating in what we call "beurre monte" which is emulsified butter. The wilted greens had to be prepared toward the end of the demo to retain color.

Once the greens were wilted I simple added the Tomato Confit to the pan to warm through and keep to the side for plate up.

For the final phase and third preparation of the rabbit, I began by preparing and glazing the root vegetables. Then I took the Racks of Rabbit and showed it to the crowd likening the rack of rabbit to a 'Rack of Lamb' and they were impressed by the small size of the rack. These racks were seared in a heavy cast iron skillet. I chose the cast iron because it retains the intense heat necessary for pan roasting.

Unsalted Whole Butter is added to aid the carmelization process.


Once the desired carmelization is achieved I added the pre-pan roasted wrapped loins to warm through. Also to this pan I added a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

This is where the butter and olive oil from the pan play an important role in the cooking process and flavor of the finished meat. When the fresh thyme is placed in the hot oil, it crackles loud enough that the audience is able to hear and smell. Once this occures I begin quickly basting the rabbit with the hot brown butter and olive oil that has now been infused with the delicate flavor of thyme. Basting like this is one of my favorite techniques I aquired at Mary Elaine's at the phoenician.


Once the rabbit nears the desired doness, I remove from the heat and allow to continue cooking in the pan. We then clear my work station and begin plating.

After the rabbit has been taken out of the pan and allowed to rest and drain on paper towels I begin to slice for presentation. *Note the Apache Salts. Rectangular plates are used to enable us to present the three preparations on a single plate. The "stew" is placed in a small bowl and garnished with chives and set to the left of the plate. Then the wilted greens and tomato confit is placed in the center and topped with the Rabbit Tortelinni and drizzled with quality EVOO.


For the Rabbit Loin and Rack, a vibrant green parsley sauce is spooned on the plate. A perfect bruniose of carrot, turnip and chive is glazed with butter and chicked stock to be used as the "glue" that holds the rack in place when it is placed on top of the wrapped loin to garnish.

The sliced Rack of Rabbit is now placed on top of the loin.

Here is a shot where I am garnishing the dish with Yellow Apache Salt.

Here is a beautiful photo of the Rabbit dish. This is one of my fovorite dishes to date. So there you have it: Stew, Dumpling and Roast. I utilized the yellow and white apache salt which gives the dish cultural significance and depth. By following our outline from the beginning of the demo, we were able to prove our theory in approaching Native American cuisine based on very traditional philosophy. It is very possible to utilize classical French training and incorporate Native American history, culture and philosophy to arrive at the desired outcome in Native American cuisine.

The NACA Team: Chef Nephi Craig and Sous Chef Harrison Watchman

[Chef Nephi Craig]

This is one of the best events that I have been to in terms of food. I am doing another tomorrow.
I will post pics and a production report...

[KRH383]

Now that I am seeing more and more pictures and explinations of events, I am wanting to set a table up devoted to Native cooking with pamplets and photos. Would it be all right if I print this out and frame it as well for our event?