- Cherokee bean bread is a staple food that would be part of almost every meal in a Cherokee home.

It's made with two of the three sisters, the staples of Cherokee agriculture which are corn and beans.

This is a recipe for the bread that would be used pre-contex of truly traditional food.

(energetic music) This modern recipe I am kind of marrying together the idea of Cherokee bean bread with tamale preparation because they are such similar types of dish.

We're going to be using corn husks to put these together.

Traditionally with blard sorbs or any kind of bean bread we use corn leaves.

But again bringing this dish into our homes you can't necessarily go and get corn leaves all the time.

This is masa harina and these are some brown beans that I have had simmering on the stove for a few hours.

And some rendered fat and these is going to add a little more flavor to the jar.

Cooking is such a part of my life in every way it's the way that you can communicate a feeling to people it's a good thing to share with someone.

Cooking traditional food, specifically for me is a tad of my culture that feels more real than even dancing, or singing the way that I really feel connected to my culture is by making the food that my ancestors have made before me and sharing it with other people.

(up beat music) When it gets to this consistency I like to get my hands in there to make sure, the only way to know if you've got enough water in there is to put your hands in it.

So I am just grabbing kind of little fist sized portion here for my first babsor, we call them babsors because of the shape it's kind of a flat oval shaped bread.

I'm just going to put it in here and then... Wrap it up.

A little steam.

(up beat music) Okay, so that's all of our little bean breads and set this to steam for the next 45 minutes.

Been on the stove for about 45 minutes I'm just going to check to see if they're done.

These look great.

Let's check one of these, these look perfect.

Cherokee bean bread or blard sorbs.

(dramatic music)