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Soup and Stews

Roasted Summer Tomato Soup, OR Papa al Pomodoro, Southern Style

August 16, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

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Well lovelies, it’s the tail end of tomato season in south Mississippi, which is making me act a lot like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings about each and every plump bright red orb that comes off my vines.

There’s really nothing better than the acidity and sweetness of a ripe summer tomato, and sometimes you want something other than a BLT or caprese salad, ammIright?

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Filed Under: Soup and Stews, summer, winter Tagged With: basil, garlic, italian, summer, Tomatoes

Riffing on Robert St. John: White Bean & Ham Stufato

February 12, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

 

Have you ever eaten at a Robert St. John restaraunt? He’s got what amounts to a restaurant owners compound in Hattiesburg,  right down the street from the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.

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A rustic Italian spot, a new orleans pub and a southern fine-dining experience,  a super swank cocktail bar, and now, a much anticipated hamburger joint are all within the confines of basically one parking lot. ALL the food at all the places (well, I don’t know about the burger spot yet since the lines have been too long for me to try it out) is really delicious, and the ambiance is always perfectly suited to the cuisine. Anyway, I’m a huge fan, especially since his food is great, AND uses his platform to support hunger initiatives in Mississippi.

He also has some pretty lovely cookbooks, and we were leafing through the Italian one, and ran across a recipe for white beans. My dad has basically been talking about wanting a bean dish for DAYS, since it’s what he wants to eat in cold weather, AND we had a huge bone-in honebaked ham (and what do you do with a ham bone if you’re from the south? You season something.) I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, and I didn’t have all the things to make his unique seasoning blends and herb blends, so I just kinda went with my gut. What resulted was my take on his already warm, creamy, Mississippified-Italian white bean dish that is PERFECT for a cold, cold night.

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Filed Under: pasta and grains and legumes, Soup and Stews, Uncategorized, winter Tagged With: beans, Fusion, ham

Sweet Potato, Kale, and Sausage stew

February 11, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com

Ok, it’s freezing all over America, right? Like everywhere? Except here. Our former town is probably covered in frost and ice (Can someone in Leland, MS confirm, please?) but here in Laurel, it’s just overcast and muggy. Although there’s SO MUCH to love about the deepest and farthest south, the winter weather isn’t one of them if you happen to like cold. However, I’m not going to let our mosquito-ridden warm front stop me from making the most delicious, easy, healthy soup on the planet, snuggling up with a bowl of it, cup of hot coffee, and pretend it’s a glorious 21 degrees. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you do this, also, even if you aren’t pretending.

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Filed Under: Beef and Pork and Game, Soup and Stews, winter Tagged With: greens, sausage, sweet potato

Homecook How-to: Homemade Chicken Broth

January 11, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

 
If there’s one thing that every down-home cook needs to know how to do, it’s how to make homemade stock.  Thankfully, it’s SUPER easy, economical, and adds incredible flavor to any dish that calls for chicken stock. Here’s how to do it.
 
Homemade Chicken Stock
Makes about 12 Cups
What you need:
-4 whole large carrots or 1/2 to 1 cup of baby carrots (OR you can also use 1/2 to 1 cup of carrot ends and tops that you’ve saved & frozen from other cooking)
-4 large celery stalks (OR 1 cup of celery tops and ends, saved & frozen from other cooking)
-A large stock pot
-1 whole hen (I had a roasting hen, which works fine, but is MUCH bigger than a regular old hen. ALSO I am VERY partial to Sanderson Farms chicken, as the chicken is super juicy, the company is based in my hometown, plus all of the staff and the Sanderson family are just great people.) OR, if you aren’t using the chicken meat for another recipe (see Chicken and Dumplings),  You can use a chicken carcass/saved bones from other cooking that you’ve done.
-Enough water to cover your hen and veggies
-1 large bunch of parsley and thyme
-1 whole red/yellow onion cut into 4ths or 6ths. (Also, if you have onion skins saved, those can be thrown in as well to give the broth a richer, deeper color)

What you do:

Salt the pot, then Put it ALL in a pot, pouring water over until the hen is entirely covered (or nearly covered) and boil for 30 minutes, then simmer for at least 3 hours. If you’re using a whole hen, this will make the meat just fall off the bone and be ready to shred for other recipes.
 
Once it’s ready, remove from the heat and strain the broth, retaining the chicken and letting it cool so that you can easily (and safely without burning your fingers off) remove the meat.
Throw the vegetables away, and place the broth in a container in the refrigerator overnight or until the fat rises to the top and becomes firm.
 
Once the fat has floated to the top and hardened, you can VERY easily skim it off the top, making it a bit healthier.
 

See? It’s SO easy once everything has cooled. However, don’t throw this down your sink. Make sure to put the fat in a plastic bag or jar so that it doesn’t clog up all of your pipes.

You’ll be left with a gorgeous colored gelatin that can be frozen OR used immediately in your soups, stews, or other recipes. it’s SO cheap to make, especially if you’ve been saving your vegetable odds-and-ends in a plastic bag in the freezer. Also, don’t be alarmed about the gelatinous texture… once you heat it up it’ll turn back into a liquid.

Filed Under: How To, poultry, Soup and Stews Tagged With: Chicken, How-to

Greens with Spicy Pot Likkor and Cornmeal Dumplings

January 7, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 3 Comments

 
 It’s the time of year when greens are ubiquitous down here. It’s winter, the farms and gardens are full of them, and y’all, I just can’t resist them. The leafy beauty and the promise of steamy pot likker and spicy flavor just beckons me. I had a big bunch and started thinking about my grandmother and leafed through the cookbook my cousin Amy made with all her recipes, and settled on trying out her turnip greens with cornmeal dumplings. I’d never made them before, but the idea of greens with some version of cornmeal as dumplings made my mouth water. What followed was a three week crusade to figure out how to create dumplings that didn’t melt into nothingness but instead were chewy, comforting and wonderful. What ended was a series of phone calls to my aunt and cousins about our lovely grandmother and her recipe, lots of sort-of-ok dumplings,  and then finally, a darn good recipe that DEINITELY was worth sharing with all of you lovely folks.
BUT, before I get to that, I wanted to live up to my New Year’s blog resolution to “give credit where credit is due.” I’ll spare you the sermon, but I can’t cook greens and pot likker without remembering that SO MUCH of the south’s incredible culinary heritage came from former enslaved Americans, and this dish almost certainly originated when black cooks, trying to feed their families, reserved the deliciousness and nutrient-rich broth after cooking the greens for their masters. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I do want to, as an Atlantic writer wrote in an article, raise “a shot glass of [pot likker] in a respectful toast to the slave cooks who did the unglamorous work. They developed the roots of African-American eating the rest of us get to enjoy today.” If you want to know more, DEFINITELY check out Michael Twiddy’s blog about southern food and it’s roots Afroculinaria. It’s full of history, and food, and connections that are important and sometimes hard to hear. His work is so integral to our southern culture, he should be a Macarthur Genius Fellow, in my humble opinion.

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Filed Under: side dish, Soup and Stews, winter Tagged With: greens, vegetables

Mess of Greens Soup

December 21, 2014 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

 So, here you have it… literally a recipe for a “mess of greens.” It’s about time, right? 
You may have tried some of my other New Year’s Day recipes (see pickled peas, black eyed pea hummus or lucky soup) but unlike all of those recipes that focus on black eyed peas, greens play a starring role in this year’s dish to bring us all luck and money in 2015. I was lucky enough to have a friend bring me a gallon bag of mustard and turnip greens from her winter garden yesterday, PLUS a gallon bag of shelled pecans (y’all. aren’t I so lucky?!?) and I’d had some pretty delish turnip green soup at Turnrow books a couple of weeks back, so it seemed like a no-brainer. My dish is pretty standard compared to the other ones you find on the interweb, except I gave my broth a spicy kick with some red pepper flakes, and use bacon AND ham (why choose just one?). Hope you enjoy!

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Filed Under: Soup and Stews Tagged With: bacon, greens, ham, New Years Day, soups and stews, Vegetable Garden

Tradition to Adopt: Stewed Okra and Tomatoes as a Thanksgiving side

November 17, 2014 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

Its about time for me to share this recipe… although I made it back in early September with a HUGE, gigantic sack of okra a friend brought to us and the last of our garden’s tomatoes, it really would be a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving side dish. Also, most recipes I found call for frozen okra and canned tomatoes, so you really can make this year-round.

I’ve always thought of Thanksgiving as an important holiday for Americans to celebrate our “meltingpot” cultural heritage, and okra is an amazing food that does just that. Originating in modern-day Ethiopia, okra was most likely brought to our country by enslaved Africans (like most delicious southern food). It’s also called “gumbo” although it’s more likely that you’ve heard this word in context of soups thickened with okra rather than references to the vegetable itself. Aggie Horticulture writes of the name, “Both of these names are of African origin. ‘Gumbo’ is believed to be a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, quingombo, of the word quillobo, native name for the plant in the Congo and Angola area of Africa.” This dish definitely has its roots in the Cajun and Creole traditions of the south… plus, a version of stewed okra and tomatoes recipe found in Indian cuisine as well. What’s more meltingpot than a vegetable and recipe that immigrated to the US from multiple parts of the world? Definitely a contender for a new Thanksgiving side dish tradition.
Confession: Okra’s hairy-sliminess isn’t always palatable to me… but this recipe breaks down the okra and makes it a smooth texture, plus the flavor of it and the tomatoes comes out beautifully. My grandmother used to make this and for a long time it was the ONLY way I’d eat this vegetable.

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Filed Under: side dish, Soup and Stews, summer, Vegetarian Main Dishes Tagged With: fall, Louisiana, Okra, rice, summer, Tomatoes

Lucky Soup with Black Eyed Peas, Greens, and Bacon

January 4, 2014 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

 
By now, y’all know that I’m not going to let a New Year’s Day pass without eating Black eyed peas and greens in SOME form or fashion for luck and money in the New Year… I’ve made pickled peas, black eyed pea hummus, and this year, I combined the two good-luck foods with pork (a German good-luck food) into a spicy, warm soup. I had some friend over…one of whom asked, “wait, what’s the deal with this soup? is it really eaten for luck?”
This gave me the chance to explain what little I know about the peas… but thankfully I’d read this post about the history beforehand so I knew a little more than past years.
In short, the peas are tied to southern history… they were introduced to the south from West or North Africa and are an ancient food eaten on that continent and also across Asia. Either way you tell it, eating BEP on New Year’s Day dates back to the Civil War. Black eyed peas are undoubtedly an important ingredient in some soul-food dishes, so while there are multiple stories about WHY we eat the peas (from the White Southern Community AND the African American Southern community) exist, I think that the history of BEP as a soul-food staple gives credence to that legend. The way the history goes, the only thing many slaves had to eat on the first day of January were these peas because they were one of the few crops left in the winter fields since the Union armies and Slave-owners thought of them as livestock feed. That day in 1863,  the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, outlawing slavery and these peas were consumed. From then on, they’ve been considered good luck for the future.
Thinking that BEPs are tied not only to good luck but also to a major milestone for freedom and justice in our country makes me even more committed to eating them and looking ahead on the year and what it can bring! Read on for yet another way to have your luck (and for a generally warm, hearty soup for winter time!)
Lucky Soup
What you need:
1 bag  of dried black eyed peas soaked overnight (or 2-3 cans)
4-6 Cups of washed and chopped greens like turnip or/and kale
one jalepeno, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 green pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3-5 strips of bacon
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
salt, pepper
1 /2 Tablespoon of ground thyme
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Optional: A splash or two of red wine or balsamic vinegar

 

What to Do:
If you’re using dried black eyed peas, the first step begins the night before you plan to make the soup…dump the peas out and sift through them for any beans that have been eaten through or are a darker or redder brown… i don’t think they’ll hurt you  but it’s better to get rid of them in the beginning. Once that’s done, rinse them in a collander and then soak the dried peas in enough water to cover them and then a little bit more. The peas will soak up the water and hydrate, making them soft enough to cook and eat. If you use canned or frozen peas you can skip both of these first steps… and if you forget (heaven forbid!) to overnight soak your peas, then you can do a “quick soak” by putting them in a pot of salted, boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Honestly, I worried that I hadn’t used enough water in my overnight soak, so I did about a 2 minute boil of the peas anyway… the “quick soak” method doesn’t really hurt anything, BUT, beware, it does mean that you’ll end up with more half-peas or peas without the thin casing that holds the two halved together since the boiling water tends to rub that off more easily.
Once your peas are softened or softening, it’s time to cook the bacon! Pork has some sort of lucky significance for Germans, plus bacon just goes SO WELL with peas and turnip greens that it makes sense that we’d cook our veggies in all that flavor. Put the bacon in your pot and cook until brown…
While that’s happening, take the time to dice up your vegetables. Celery, onion, garlic, green bell pepper, and jalepeno pepper were what I used, but you could substitute red bell pepper and chipotle pepper if you wanted a litte bit different look and flavor here..

TIP:  did you know that whole jalepeno peppers freeze really well? If your garden grows more than you can handle, or you just accidentally buy too many at the store, you can drop them in a plastic bag and freeze them until you need them! These came from my aunt’s garden, and thanks to her I have all the peppers I need for a year!

 

 

Ok, so your veggies are chopped and your bacon has crisped in the pot. Take the bacon out and put it on a paper towel to cool for a bit. Then, dump in your onions into the bacon grease in the bottom of your pot and cook until their translucent.

Add in the garlic and cook briefly until tender, then add in the other diced vegetables. Stir them and cook them until they are a little tender and add in your salt, pepper, thyme, and red pepper flakes. (I gave my approximate seasoning measures above, but I was being conservative this time. feel free to liberally season this soup to your liking!)

 

Add in your peas, your canned tomatoes and tomato paste.

While that’s all simmering a bit, you’ll want to prepare your greens if you haven’t already.

TIP: I like to clean mine ahead of time and then store them after rinsing them and pulling the leaves off of the stalks (because those kale and turnip green stalks can be TOUGH) in a damp paper towel in a large zip-lock bag. This keeps the greens from wilting and can keep greens (and lettuces, too) fresh for nearly a week. If you haven’t prepped your greens in advance, rinse them thoroughly and pull the leaves from the stalk, then chop or rip up the greens into smaller pieces.

Dump those into the pot (and if you’re adding vinegar or wine, now is the time to do it) and stir around until everything’s all mixed together and let simmer on low for at least one hour so all the flavors mix together. I cooked mine for about 1.5 hours, then let it sit for another 2 hours, then reheated it and tasted for salt and pepper.

 

Serve it with bread and a side salad and you’ve got LUCK for the whole year! Happy new Year!

Filed Under: pasta and grains and legumes, Soup and Stews Tagged With: black eyed peas, greens, New Years Day, soups and stews, Spicy, Tomatoes, vegtables

Crawfish Bisque

April 21, 2013 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE boiled crawfish and it’s FINALLY the time of year when you can get them EVERYWHERE. (see tomorrow’s post). but just BEFORE crawfish season,  I got a taste for some and decided to try my hand at a bisque. I mean, obviously I prefer fresh ones just out of the pot on a springtime afternoon, but sometimes that’s just not possible.
 During the months of about July- February you can enjoy this little delicacy by way of the freezer section of your grocer, and honestly, if you’re going to make a soup, bisque, or etoufee’, why on earth would you want to go through the trouble of boiling THEN peeling enough of the little guys for everyone at your table? trust me, you wouldn’t…which means the little frozen packages are a godsend, if not as juicy and fresh as the ones you’d cook yourself.
My bisque was a pretty basic attempt, but it hit the spot for me and told my tastebuds spring was on it’s way. Here’s how you can replicate it (and make it even better with your own additions) if you’re interested!
Crawfish Bisque
Serves 4 (or 3 if you’re like me and have a portion control problem)
What you need:
1 tablespoon of oil (or less..just enough to saute’ the vegetables)
one red bell pepper, diced
one white onion, diced
two ribs of celery, diced
1 or 1/2 lb of frozen, cooked crawfish, roughly chopped
1 can of corn, drained
1/4 cup of white wine
1 1/2 Cups of chicken stock  (OR 1 cup of chicken stock and 1/2 cup of lobster/seafood stock)
3/4 Cup of heavy cream (or whole milk if you’re cutting calories)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 bunch of green onions or parsley for presentation
What to do:
Chop the celery, bell pepper, and onion. Saute’ the the onion until translucent, and add in the celery and pepper. Saute’ for 1-2 minutes. Add in the cayenne, salt, and pepper. I feel like the heat releases more flavor and cooks into the vegetables more evenly than when you add it in afterwards.
 

Drain the corn and add it with the crawfish into the pot. stir for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine and let that cook down for about 3 minutes.

Pour in the stock/broth  and add the bay leaf and let simmer for at least 30 minutes (but longer is usually better for flavors to meld together)

 

Just before serving, add in the cream. this will lighten the color and give it a really lovely richness… viola’! you’ve got a southern seafood bisque that tells you spring is on the way (or already here!) serve with crusty bread and sprinkle it with green onion for a little color… and your good silver if you want it to feel like more than a regular old soup. I did. 😉

 

 

Filed Under: seafood, Soup and Stews, spring Tagged With: bisque, Corn, crawfish, soup

Classic Red Beans and Rice

March 28, 2013 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 1 Comment

OH. MY. STARS. it’s been too long.i’ve had three posts raring to go since late January and then things got busy and the last thing I’ve wanted to do when I got home was turn on my computer…and then I got into Game Of Thrones on Amazon… but it’s time. I miss blogging about food, and taking pictures of food, and just generally talking about food. (plus… my pretty friend Fancy flattered me by asking when I was going to post something new. Fancy, here you go!)
This recipe was supposed to come out around the time of Mardi Gras, since what’s more Louisiana that Red Beans and Rice? Even if the weather has gotten a little warmer (but not much! what’s up with the freaskishly cold weather??) and the confetti and beads are long gone from Beale Street, this recipe still tastes divine. It’s a combination of my grandmother’s classic Louisiana recipe, the Cook’s Illustrated test kitchen version, and the one from the River Road Recipes Cookbook.  Read on.
What you Need:
To cook:
Andoille Sausage (1 package, or a 1.5 lbs)
1 tablespoon of oil
2 onions
5 garlic cloves
1 green pepper
2 ribs of celery
1 cup of Camellia brand dried red beans (washed, dried, and soaked)
2 table spoons beef stock
3-5 cups of water
2 squirts of ketchup
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
 
To Serve
1 bunch green onions
Hot sauce
1/2 cup of rice per serving
What to Do:
Obviously, begin by rinsing and soaking the beans (overnight is best, but 6 hours will do in a pinch. Basically, you want them full of water and tender.)
Dice the garlic, green pepper, onion, and celery. In a large stock pot, sautee’ the onion in the oil until translucent then add in the other three ingredients to release the flavor, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
At the same time, boil the sausage, pricking after a 5-7 minutes to release the oil. I think this makes it just a little bit healther since it gets rid of the excess fat. Once the sausage is parboiled, cut it into 1/2″ or 1″ rounds and brown in a skillet.
Remove from the heat and put it aside to add in later.

 

Add the Stock and liquid to the large stock pot with the vegetables. Add in the bay leaf, the red beans, the red vinegar, the squeezes of ketchup for good measure, and the sausage. Simmer on low heat for 2- 2.5 hours. The longer and slower this cooks, the more flavorful and creamier the red beans will be.

Once the liquid has cooked down somewhat and the beans are soft, take about 2 cups of the beans and liquid and using a food processor or blender, puree’ that amount. Add the pureed beans back into the pot with the rest of the beans. This makes them even creamier and smooth.

Serve with hot sauce, vinegar, green onions, and white rice.

 

 

 

Filed Under: pasta and grains and legumes, Soup and Stews, winter Tagged With: comfort food, Louisiana, Red beans, rice

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