A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [129]
1 cup converted or long-grain rice, cooked by package directions
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
1. Cook the bacon in a large, heavy skillet for 10 to 12 minutes over moderate heat or until the drippings cook out, leaving only crisp brown bits; drain these on paper toweling.
2. Raise the heat to high, add the scallions and okra to the drippings, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned; to minimize the sliminess, stir as little as possible.
3. Mix in the rice, salt, and pepper and heat 1 to 2 minutes or until the pilau reaches serving temperature. Add the bacon, toss lightly, then taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.
4. Serve hot as an accompaniment to roast chicken or pork, broiled or fried fish or shellfish.
AUNT BERTIE’S OKRA CAKES
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
Bertie was my brother’s sister-in-law. And from what my nieces, Linda and Kim, tell me, she was a wonderful southern cook. They still prepare okra Aunt Bertie’s way. “You have to watch as you mix in the flour and the water,” Kim cautions. “And mix just till the okra slices hold together.” What my father called “the mucilaginous quality of okra” and what he hated about it is the glue that does the job here. “Slime’s a good thing in this recipe,” Kim says. But miracle of miracles, these okra cakes emerge from the skillet as crisp as can be.
1 pound tender okra pods no bigger than your little finger, washed and sliced 1/8 inch thick
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 to 4 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
1. Place the okra in a large nonreactive bowl and add the flour, 3 tablespoons of the water, the salt, and pepper. Beat hard until the okra mixture hangs together when taken up on a spoon. If it seems dry, beat in the remaining tablespoon water. Set aside.
2. Pour the oil into a heavy, 12-inch nonreactive skillet and set over high heat for about 3 minutes or until almost smoking.
3. Drop the okra mixture from rounded tablespoons into the hot oil, spacing well apart and cooking only 4 or 5 cakes at a time. Brown for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until crisp, then drain on paper toweling. Fry and drain the remaining okra cakes the same way.
4. Serve hot as an accompaniment to fried or roast chicken, pork chops or roast pork, or baked ham.
NEW SOUTH OKRA
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
My father used to say, “When I am president, no farmer will be allowed to grow okra and every farmer will be forced to grow one acre of sweet corn.” He was kidding, of course. But it was no joke that he detested okra, not that my equally Midwestern mother had any desire to eat it either. So I grew up down south not eating okra and it was only when my thoroughly southern nieces taught me to cook it properly that I began to appreciate it. “This is how I do it all the time,” my niece Kim told me recently. Her method is so simple and is equally delicious with grilled fish, chicken, or pork. And you know what? I think that my father might have liked it this way.
3 tablespoons fruity olive oil
12 ounces tender okra pods no bigger than your little finger, washed and patted dry on paper toweling
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1. Pour the olive oil into a heavy, 12-inch nonreactive skillet and set over high heat for about 2 minutes or until almost smoking.
2. Add the okra and cook at high heat, shaking the skillet often, for about 5 minutes or until the okra are evenly and richly browned; they will “sing” and “hiss” as they cook.
3. Cover the skillet, reduce the heat to moderate, and cook the okra for 3 minutes exactly.
4. Drain the okra on paper toweling, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.
Black-Eyed Peas with Ham Hock…Fried Okra…Country Corn Bread…Sweet Potato Pie…You talk of supping with the gods.
—JAMES DICKEY, JERICHO
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1922
A large sugar refinery is built in Baltimore Harbor.