Blackberry Wojapi

the traditional Native American berry sauce: wild blackberries slowly simmered down to a thick, dark, barely sweetened purée, thickened in the old way and served warm with fry bread or over meat and cornmeal

Origin: United States

From the journey of Blackberry.

Wojapi is one of the enduring dishes of Native North America, a thick, dark sauce or pudding of wild berries cooked slowly down to a deep, concentrated purée. The name is Lakota, and the dish belongs first to the nations of the Northern Plains, but berry sauces of this kind were made by Indigenous peoples across the whole continent, from the Eastern Woodlands to the Pacific coast, wherever the wild brambles, chokecherries, blueberries, and juneberries grew, and wojapi is now served at gatherings, feasts, and powwows across Native America. Traditionally it carried no cane sugar at all, its sweetness drawn only from the ripe fruit and its body from long reduction or from a little cornmeal or ground dried maize stirred in to thicken; it was eaten as a sauce over meat, poured over cornmeal breads and puddings, and, in the modern era, ladled warm over fry bread. Blackberries make one of the finest wojapi, their deep colour and winey tartness cooking down to an intense, glossy sauce. As an unsweetened or barely sweetened preparation of the wild bramble itself, wojapi is the blackberry in perhaps its oldest North American form, the fruit that the woodland and plains nations gathered and cooked long before any orchard or any settler arrived.

Ingredients

  • 700 g blackberries, fresh or frozen
  • 250 ml water
  • 2 tbsp fine cornmeal or masa harina (or 1 tbsp cornstarch), to thicken
  • 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup, optional, to taste

Method

  1. Put the blackberries in a heavy saucepan with most of the water, reserving a few tablespoons. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, mashing the fruit with a spoon or masher as it softens, for about 20 minutes, until broken down and juicy.
  2. For a smoother sauce, press the pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds and return it to the pan; for a rustic wojapi, leave it as it is. Continue to simmer, stirring often, until reduced and thickened.
  3. Whisk the cornmeal or masa harina into the reserved cold water until smooth, then stir it into the simmering sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, for a further 8 to 10 minutes, until the wojapi is thick, glossy, and no longer tastes raw of the meal.
  4. Taste, and stir in a little honey or maple syrup only if the fruit needs it; wojapi is meant to be tart and fruit-forward rather than sweet. Serve warm, ladled over fry bread, alongside meat, or spooned over cornbread or plain cake.

Notes

Wojapi is traditionally unsweetened or only lightly sweetened, its richness coming from the fruit and the slow reduction rather than from sugar; treat the honey as optional. Any wild berry, or a mixture, can be used in place of or alongside the blackberries: chokecherries, blueberries, juneberries (saskatoons), and wild plums are all traditional. Serve it the customary way, warm over fresh fry bread, or use it as a sauce for roast venison, bison, or turkey.

The Gastrographer

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