My childhood home had a beautiful lychee tree in the backyard. Fresh local lychees are better than store-bought ones that have spent days in transit, but NOTHING compares to fresh-picked and sun-warm off the tree. *sigh*
Then one year, my mother accidentally killed it -- she was trying to girdle it to increase the fruit yield but somehow cut off too much bark, or too deep, or in the wrong place, or *something* -- whatever exactly it was, it was too drastic and the tree died. We still had limes and Meyer lemons and pomelo and bitter orange in our yard, and mangos and papayas and bananas and guavas and mountain apples and starfruit from neighbors, but nobody else in the neighborhood had lychees. I still mourn that tree to this day.
(And I still haven't gotten used to PAYING for mangos. In Hawai'i, they're like zucchini -- if you have a mature tree, in mango season it is damn near impossible to use up the fruit as fast as it ripens. Nobody buys mangos, they just sort of magically appear on your doorstep.)
Fry bread is super easy to make, and very very good if you have a Vimesian taste for Brown Crunchy Fried Bits. There are a squillion different variations on the stuff, but this is the way my family makes Seneca ghost bread -- it's smaller and a little bit more heavy and biscuit-like than the big puffy kind you see most often at pow-wows: the basic ratio of the ingredients is 3-2-1, three teaspoons of baking powder, two cups of all-purpose flour, one teaspoon of salt and one cup of milk or water. (It's a little richer and tastier with whole milk, but still pretty good with just water.) You mix the dough a lot like biscuits, basically, combine all the dry ingredients, then make a little well in the center, pour in the liquid and mix until it's combined, then knead it together for a little bit, add flour as necessary if it's too sticky. Then you can either roll the whole thing out to about 1/2 inch thick to fit a skillet, or split the dough into smaller biscuit-sized portions, flattening them out somewhere between 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick depending on how you like them best -- I grew up with the thicker, small-biscuity-sized style so of course I consider that the Right Way. I hear some people even flatten and shape the stuff just like biscuits, with a rolling pin and cutters, but I'm used to doing them by hand. Meanwhile you should have the oil heating up in a skillet -- lard if you want to be really old-fashioned, or vegetable oil; lard makes really wonderful fry bread when it's hot, but doesn't taste so good for reheated leftovers, so you might want to stick with vegetable oil for a first try. Slice or poke a hole in the center of the shaped dough, fry on one side until golden-brown, flip to cook the other side, drain and serve; if you're doing the thicker hand-shaped kind, they'll come out looking something like this (http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/wp/wp-content/frybread.jpg). Great with soups, or meat, or bean dishes, or honey, or jam.... If you actually have leftovers, they can be reheated in the oven or microwave, or if you're a serious fry bread junkie you can even eat it cold...my favorite childhood lunchbox treat was leftover frybread sliced up for peanut butter sandwiches.
Re: Remembrance of Ono Grindz Past
Then one year, my mother accidentally killed it -- she was trying to girdle it to increase the fruit yield but somehow cut off too much bark, or too deep, or in the wrong place, or *something* -- whatever exactly it was, it was too drastic and the tree died. We still had limes and Meyer lemons and pomelo and bitter orange in our yard, and mangos and papayas and bananas and guavas and mountain apples and starfruit from neighbors, but nobody else in the neighborhood had lychees. I still mourn that tree to this day.
(And I still haven't gotten used to PAYING for mangos. In Hawai'i, they're like zucchini -- if you have a mature tree, in mango season it is damn near impossible to use up the fruit as fast as it ripens. Nobody buys mangos, they just sort of magically appear on your doorstep.)
Fry bread is super easy to make, and very very good if you have a Vimesian taste for Brown Crunchy Fried Bits. There are a squillion different variations on the stuff, but this is the way my family makes Seneca ghost bread -- it's smaller and a little bit more heavy and biscuit-like than the big puffy kind you see most often at pow-wows: the basic ratio of the ingredients is 3-2-1, three teaspoons of baking powder, two cups of all-purpose flour, one teaspoon of salt and one cup of milk or water. (It's a little richer and tastier with whole milk, but still pretty good with just water.) You mix the dough a lot like biscuits, basically, combine all the dry ingredients, then make a little well in the center, pour in the liquid and mix until it's combined, then knead it together for a little bit, add flour as necessary if it's too sticky. Then you can either roll the whole thing out to about 1/2 inch thick to fit a skillet, or split the dough into smaller biscuit-sized portions, flattening them out somewhere between 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick depending on how you like them best -- I grew up with the thicker, small-biscuity-sized style so of course I consider that the Right Way. I hear some people even flatten and shape the stuff just like biscuits, with a rolling pin and cutters, but I'm used to doing them by hand. Meanwhile you should have the oil heating up in a skillet -- lard if you want to be really old-fashioned, or vegetable oil; lard makes really wonderful fry bread when it's hot, but doesn't taste so good for reheated leftovers, so you might want to stick with vegetable oil for a first try. Slice or poke a hole in the center of the shaped dough, fry on one side until golden-brown, flip to cook the other side, drain and serve; if you're doing the thicker hand-shaped kind, they'll come out looking something like this (http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/wp/wp-content/frybread.jpg). Great with soups, or meat, or bean dishes, or honey, or jam.... If you actually have leftovers, they can be reheated in the oven or microwave, or if you're a serious fry bread junkie you can even eat it cold...my favorite childhood lunchbox treat was leftover frybread sliced up for peanut butter sandwiches.