Smothered Southern Foods

Foods

Introduction

AFTER DOING EXTENSIVE RESEARCH, I discovered that most Americans are not familiar with the term smothered. Those that are live in the south or had some form of family connection in the southern part of the United States.

When it comes to food, hospitality, and cooking techniques, we owe the south a lot of acknowledgment and thanks. Millions of folks around the world have southern roots—including me.

When I think of foods that are linked with the south, I think of shrimp and grits for breakfast; smothered pork chops and rice for a leisurely lunch; and fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and bread pudding for Sunday’s supper. Other foods such as jambalaya, gumbo, she crab soup, barbecue spare ribs, smoked ham, Bananas Foster, pecan pie, and Mississippi mud cakes also come to mind.

My family’s roots are in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It is known as the Delta because of its rich fertile soil, thanks to the mighty Mississippi River that runs through the area. Cotton, soybeans, potatoes, and peanuts are the choice crops for this region in Mississippi. Clarksdale is a small town (population of 20,000) that has made its mark on the music world because of the many great blues musicians who were either born there or lived very close by. During my childhood, I spent many weekends with my grandparents, Frank and Ruth Randle. On Saturday mornings, I would always get out of bed early just to watch my grandmother cook. I liked watching her through the window or front screen door as she inspected freshly caught fish, delivered by the local fishermen. She would buy fresh buffalo or catfish, always frying it and smothering it with onions, garlic, green peppers, and tomato sauce. I was most happy when she would buy catfish, it was easier to eat, because it contained fewer bones, and the flesh tasted more flavorful (these were fish caught in the open lakes and rivers of the wild).

RUTH L. RANDLE

My grandmother worked as a cook for an Italian-American family for more than forty years. She learned how to prepare many authentic Italian foods such as gnocchi, marinara sauce, and ravioli made with a variety of fillings. Like most great cooks in the south, she mastered the art of cooking by learning to use her five senses. I never saw her read a recipe.

Although Grandmother has been dead for almost thirty years, I still have great memories of her in the kitchen making delicious foods such as homemade parker house rolls. She measured the ingredients by sight, using no measuring utensils. She determined when to stop kneading the dough by touch, never overworking it. She would taste a pinch of the dough for flavor adjustment, then listen to the fire turning on and off in the oven, moving the rolls around so they would cook and brown evenly. Finally, the smell would tell her when the rolls were done just right.

Spending quality time with my grandfather, Frank, was also a real treat. He and I would go to Wade’s Barbershop in Clarksdale to get our hair cut. Wade’s was the place to hang out on Saturday afternoons, because all of the great amateur and professional blues musicians in the area would pop in for their haircuts. While waiting, many of them would fill the tiny shop with their music. Wade Walton was the owner of the shop, and he was also a blues musician who recorded one hit record in 1958 (that was widely distributed throughout Europe) titled Shake’em on Down. Wade was friends with the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Ike Turner.

My grandfather, Wade Walton, and many of the local and well-known blues musicians have since passed on, but my memories of those Saturday afternoon jam sessions are still intact. Wade’s Barbershop has since been turned into a blues museum.

What Is Smothered?

The south has greatly influenced America’s culinary palate as signature food varieties such as Cajun, Creole, Gullah, Low Country, soul food, and Floribbean have moved from local to national to global. Chef Paul Prudhomme has successfully taken native Cajun cooking to the world’s kitchen table. Chef Paul’s line of spices and seasonings can be found everywhere, even in the capital of haute cuisine, Paris, and his cooking technique for blackened meats, fish, and poultry is embraced globally.

However, there are still some culinary techniques that have remained regional in this country with which most Americans are not familiar, smothered being one of them. No one knows exactly where this cooking technique came from, but the south claimed it many years ago.

Smothered is a method in which food is covered with another food or sauce while braising in a covered skillet. Smothering is easy as searing a piece of meat on both sides in a hot skillet, then pouring some broth or water over the meat, covering the skillet and letting the meat simmer until it becomes tender.

Many cooks in the south, or cooks who have roots in the south know how to smother food. The south comprises Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Florida and Texas are also located in the south, but many food authorities do not consider their cooking style or signature dishes southern. Florida’s cooking is mainly Cuban, Haitian, and Spanish influenced. However, the panhandle part of the state, located south of Alabama and Georgia, has a cooking style just as southern as the rest of the southern states. Some signature dishes from this region include biscuits and gravy, fried apples, smothered chicken, smothered pork chops, and blackberry cobbler. Texas also gets dismissed because of its Tex-Mex influences. However, foods such as black-eyed pea caviar (pickled black-eyed peas), pinto beans, barbecue beef brisket, and pecan pie have a traditional southern flavor.

Like the rest of the south, slavery was legal in Texas. Many cooking techniques and ingredients were brought to this state by slaves. Texas was the last state in the union to free slaves, one year after the Civil War, on June 19, 1865. This day led to the celebration of the Juneteeth holiday, which many African Americans and southern whites celebrate today. A Juneteenth celebration often includes some type of prayer service, speakers with inspirational messages, a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, and food—lots of food!

About the Recipes

This book contains 125 recipes for your enjoyment. They are divided into 6 chapters: Vegetables, Fish and Seafood, Poultry and Meats, Desserts, and Sauces. The directions are simple and flexible. I hope they bring you and your family many enjoyable meals. Here’s to good eating!

1

Vegetables

About Vegetables

MY MOTHER HAD A GREEN THUMB, and she always had a vegetable garden. I have many childhood memories of peeling, shelling, cleaning, and cutting up all kinds of fresh vegetables. Mother grew an assortment of tomatoes, greens, okra, string beans, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, sweet bell peppers, radishes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. Many of these wonderful vegetables and fruits ended up in my grandmother’s kitchen and were turned into great southern meals.

It’s been many years since Mother grew her own garden, and like most Americans, she now shops at the local supermarkets or a farmer’s market, as do I. However, from time to time, I like to take a trip to some of the small towns and rural areas in southern Illinois and northwest Indiana to pick and purchase fresh vegetables and fruits from the farmers.

Whether you buy your vegetables from the supermarket or pick them yourself at a vegetable farm, keep the following in mind.

Select vegetables that are fresh and firm, not hard or soft.

Do not buy vegetables that are old, wilted, moldy, or bruised.

Buy peas and beans that have crisp pods.

Head vegetables such as cabbages should be solid with only a few waste leaves either torn, browned, or blackened

Selecting and Storing Spring/Summer Vegetables

If you have spring/summer vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, or eggplants on hand and don’t plan to cook them immediately, they should be put into the refrigerator or some other cool, dry place. Peas and corn should be cooked soon after they are gathered, because they lose their sweetness. Lettuce should be sprinkled with water and wrapped in heavy cloth or a plastic sealable bag, then put in the refrigerator until ready to use. Cut the stems off wilted vegetables and rinse them in cold water to freshen.

Selecting and Storing Fall/Winter Vegetables

Fall/winter vegetables such as squash, rutabagas, or corn should not be overripe when stored. If they show any signs of spoiling, remove them from the other vegetables. Pick vegetables that are in good condition, then store them in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. Most vegetables last longer if they are stored spread out so that they do not touch each other. Squash and sweet potatoes require a warmer storage temperature than other vegetables. Parsnips improve in flavor if they are stored frozen.

Buttery Beets

This recipe calls for fresh beets. If they are not available, use canned beets, drained of their juices. Only ten minutes of cooking time is required for canned beets.

1 pound fresh beets

½ cup butter

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

Cut the tops off the beets, wash them, and peel their skins off with a sharp knife or potato peeler. Shred the beets in a food processor and set aside. Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Pour the shredded beets in the pan, season with salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cover the saucepan with a lid and let simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Corn and Peanuts

This recipe can be spiced up by adding one or two green or red chili peppers and about ¼ teaspoon ground red (cayenne) pepper. Toasted pine nuts or roasted pecans can be substituted for the roasted peanuts.

4 cups fresh