Pashofa
{{Short description|Chickasaw or Choctaw white corn soup}}
{{Infobox prepared food
| name = Pashofa
| image = Sweet White Corn.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Sweet white corn
| alternate_name =
| country = United States
| region = Southeastern Woodlands
| creator = Chickasaw and Choctaw people
| course = Main
| type = Stew
| served =
| main_ingredient = White hominy maize
| variations = Salt, pork
| calories =
| other =
}}
Pashofa, or pishofa, is a Chickasaw and Choctaw soupy dish made from cracked white corn, also known as pearl hominy.[http://www.pashofaquilter.com/pashofa-recipes/ "Pashofa Recipes."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913032433/http://www.pashofaquilter.com/pashofa-recipes/ |date=2012-09-13 }} Ardmore's Scrap Basket. Retrieved 4 December 2022. The dish is one of the most important to the Chickasaw people and has been served at ceremonial and social events for centuries. Pashofa was also used in specific healing ceremonies.Fitzgerald et al. 47
Preparation and serving
Traditionally, dried corn was ground in a mortar into cornmeal and cooked in a pot with water. Finely cut pieces of young piglet or calf meat were added. The dish was served cold and could keep up to a month.Crossett 107
The pashofa is cooked over a low heat for many hours.Cravatt, Lori [http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=326 "Pashofa."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927002033/http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=326 |date=2006-09-27 }} NativeTech. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
Specialized paddles and spoons, carved from wood or animal horns, were used in stirring, serving, and eating pashofa. Several of these are currently in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.Fitzgerald et al. 41 Pashofa was cooked in giant bowls, often over an open fire outdoors.Fitzgerald et al. 45
Pashofa Dance
The Pashofa Dance is a healing ceremony among the Chickasaw and Choctaw. A sick person could be left in a room, alone except for a medicine man. A striped black and white pole is placed in the sick person's yard, and no one else walks past the pole. While the medicine man says a medicinal formula over the sick person to drive out the "Spirit of Disease called Shulop," others dance outside. Midday, pashofa is served to all the dancers, while it is still warm, along with water to drink. A second round of dancing ensues.Crossett 109 Pashofa dances have also been performed indoors.[http://www.choctawnation.com/history/people/original-enrollees/tannehill-mintie/ "Tannehill, Mintie."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828152233/http://www.choctawnation.com/history/people/original-enrollees/tannehill-mintie/ |date=2012-08-28 }} Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
See also
{{portal|Food}}
Notes
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References
- Fitzgerald, David, Jeannie Barbour, Amanda Cobb, and Linda Hogan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=G3mhTOLHX5AC&dq=Pashofa&pg=PA47 Chickasaw: Unconquered and Unconquerable.] Oklahoma City: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1558689923}}.
- Crossett, G. A. [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v004/v004p100.html "A Vanishing Race."] Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 4, No. 1, June 1926.
{{Chickasaw}}
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Category:Native American cuisine
Category:Native American cuisine of the Southeastern Woodlands