Piki Bread

Piki Bread:




The Hopi tribe made grayish-blue bread called piki. This interesting bread was made of blue corn and culinary ash. It is very dry, although it melts in the mouth. It is thin, almost transparent flat bread that is rolled into a cylinder. “The best is almost weightless.” says Native American Cuisine.

How Piki Bread is Made:

The first step to making piki is to grind up the blue corn. Then, you must add the ashes and some water until it is smooth. Next, the Hopi people would layer the creamy mixture onto a hot rock. Then the bread looked almost overcooked, they would remove this thin sheet from the stone. They would repeat this six or seven times and then roll all the pieces together. Then, the delicate corn smell would gather nearby people it was so good.

Do You Want to Make Piki?:

Here’s how you can: (copied from http://nativerecipes.com/7.html)

Ingredients
3 Tablespoon Chamisa Ash
(cooking ash comes from the burning up of various plants)
1/2 Cup Cold Water
6 Cups Finely Ground Cornmeal
8 Cups Boiling Water
6-8 Cups Cold Water
Method
+ Mix chamisa ash with 1/2 cup cold water and set aside
+ Put cornmeal in piki bowl, push 1/3 of the meal to the back of the bowl
+ Pour 4 cups boiling water into the 2/3 amount of cornmeal and stir until well blended
+ Add remaining boiling water and stir until moist and stiff
+ Gradually strain ash water through cheesecloth into the dough just until it turns blue
+ When dough has cooled enough to touch knead until smooth
+ Add the dry meal gradually
+ Set dough aside and build fire under the piki stone and allow to heat up
+ Meanwhile, gradually knead cold water into the dough until it is a thin consistency smooth batter, add more water during making process if necessary
+ Wipe off hot stone and oil with bone marrow or cooked brains, repeat as necessary during making process
+ Scoop small amount of batter from bowl with fingers and spread tissue paper thin across stone from left to right, eliminating any lumps
+ Dip fingers into batter again to cool them and bring out another scoop
+ Continue to spread and layer batter across stone until completely covered
+ When piki is done it will seperate from the stone, gently lift away and place it on the piki tray
+ The first piece should be fed to the fire
+ Spread more batter onto the stone and let cook, then place the prepared piki back onto the stone to soften
+ Fold two ends of the piki 1/4 way toward center, then gently roll piki away from you
+ Place back on Piki Tray
+ Remove Piki sheet from stone and spread with more batter to repeat process until all batter is used
+ If Piki tears simply return to batter to dissolve and reuse

Hopi Facts

The Hopi was an interesting tribe because of the many different foods, clothing, and shelter.

Foods:

The Hopi ate 24 different types of corn, which, as you can tell, is one of their main foods. They made an interesting type of bread called Piki (see next entry) out of the blue corn. They also ate black beans, yellow beans, and purple string beans. They also ate peaches, melons, squash, and apricots.

Clothes:

The Hopi’s clothes were made out of animal skins and cotton and on a normal day, the men wore tunics and shirts, and the women wore skirts or dresses. All Hopi clothes were loose fitting. For shoes, they wore sandals or moccasins, common Native American footwear. In the winter, all Hopi people added shawls and blankets to their clothes for warmth. The chief wore red moccasins and had a trace of blue on one shoulder. Other than that, he wore all white.

Shelters:

The Hopi people made pueblos and reed houses depending on where they lived. Pueblos were made out of stones, mud, and clay called adobe that is made to protect people inside it from blistering heat. Reed houses were made of reed mats that covered a wooden pole frame.