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"Chumash Appreciation"

Acorn Dumpling Stew and Chia Lemonade

Video by Logan Snyder

Song: "Basic Space" by The XX

  • SoundCloud

Recipe: Acorn Dumpling Stew

Ingredients:

  • Soup base:

    • Dried seaweed packs

    • Water

  • Nut flour dumplings:

    • 1/2 cup nut flour blend​

    • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

    • 1 cup milk (I used almond milk)

    • 2 tablespoons butter

    • 1/2 teaspoon salt

    • 1 beaten egg

    • Cracked black pepper and a grating of nutmeg

  • Meat:

    • A large hunk of stewing beef

    • (I personally do not like beef that much, so you could just use vegetables, or even just the dumplings with acorn meal soup​)

Directions:

Soup base:

  1. Blend up dried seaweed until powdery

  2. Boil water and mix powdered seaweed into broth

Stewing meat/vegetables:

  1. If stewing meat, place in a large, tall-rimmed pot and fill with broth up 1/4 of the way over the meat, simmer on low heat for about 2 and a half hours

  2. If stewing vegetables, saute in a pan and then add the broth, simmer on low heat for about 1 hour

Dumplings:

  1. Simmer the milk, butter, and salt in a pan on low heat

  2. Whisk both flours together, and add to the milk, butter, salt mixture

  3. Stir to combine until a dough starts to form and easily comes out of the pan

  4. Let the dough cool, and then add the beaten egg, pepper, and nutmeg

  5. Mix together, and drop spoon fulls into the simmering soup

  6. After about 3-5 minutes, the dumplings and soup will be ready!

Optional: Add the nut flour straight into the broth to thicken up the stew and eat without meat, vegetables, or dumplings

Recipe: Chia Lemonade

Ingredients:

  • Apple juice

  • Lemon juice

  • Chia seeds

Directions:

  1. Add the juice of 1 lemon to a cup of apple juice

  2. Add 1/4 cup chia seeds, and let sit for about 30 minutes

  3. Chill in fridge or add ice, or enjoy as is!

Recipes with Cultural Significance:

For the past two videos, I have been focused on providing knowledge about the local environment and how to create easy, flavorful food for cheap.  The inspiration for this video comes from the people that have been living off the land in the Isla Vista area for the past 15,00 years.  I wanted to dedicate this episode to those whose land we are living upon by creating a modern interpretation of a beef and acorn dumpling stew that I found within a native Californian cookbook.  To learn more about the "First Peoples" of Isla Vista, explore Donovan's project page.

Read the Whole Book:

For more Chumash inspired recipes like these, you can read the book, Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast, by Margaret Dubin and Sara-Larus Tolley.

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