Teena Maree Covarrubias, 15, is teaching her 5-year-old cousin, Zendaya Royal, the family fry bread recipe as the Seminole Village comes to life along the boardwalk of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum at Big Cypress Reservation.

“I’ve been in a couple fry bread contests, and I pride myself on beating out the elders and getting first,” said Covarrubias.

So who better to explain how to handle the dough after it rises?

The girls take a handful of the dough and set it on the floured workspace.

Each piece requires individual kneading. Next, they pat and roll the dough in their hands

It’s important not to overhandle the dough, Covarrubias says, because that will make it stiff — so it’s a delicate balance.

“Just making sure — give it that shape, because if I were to leave it at that, it would just be floppy. It wouldn’t have any fluffiness to it,” she said.

They flatten it out a bit and sprinkle flour over it.

Covarrubias is one of the 4,200 members of the Seminole tribe of Florida.

Her ancestors survived three wars in the 1800s to remove them for Florida, and they further survived the destruction of their ecosystem and way of life in the 1900s.

They are the Unconcquered Seminoles — escaping to the swamps and never signing a peace treaty.

Covarrubias says they keep their culture close.

“I feel, like, old,” she said with a laugh. “Like my mom was teaching me how to do this, my aunts were teaching me and now I’m teaching her.”

All this is part of the cousins’ Wind Clan tradition.

“That’s your family,” said Covarrubias. “That’s your that’s your aunts, and you get your clans from your mother.”

Covarrubias fries the patties in oil in a cast iron pan over an open flame.

She turns them until they are a golden brown.

She’s careful — because she knows her younger cousin is watching.

“She has to learn eventually how to do this,” said Covarrubias. “And she’s gonna get just as good as we are.”

This Wind Clan cousin-made batch is a pretty good start. 

Fry Bread Ingredients

4 cups flour
Extra flour for dusting work space
1 ½ cups of warm water (may need more or less looking at consistency of the dough)

Method

Make a well in the middle of the flour.
Add warm water slowly, and mix until all flour is wet.
Cover with dusting of flour and a towel or aluminum foil.
Let rise for 60 to 90 minutes.
Prep work space with flour dusting.
Take out a little piece of the sticky dough about the size of the palm of your hand.
Make a patty.
Knead each dough piece by pulling the sides into the middle all the way around once.
Roll the dough in your hands and flatten out into a patty again.
Sprinkle with flour.
Heat up about one inch of oil in your pan to 350 degrees.
Drop a little piece of dough into the oil to check if it’s ready — it will sizzle up if the oil is ready.
Put the patties in, and turn until a golden brown.
Drain any oil by putting the bread on paper towels.
Enjoy.