A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [46]
3. Heat the bacon drippings for 1 minute in the saucepan over moderately high heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden. Mix in the ham and sugar and cook for 2 minutes. Add the okra and cook 3 to 4 minutes longer, stirring often.
4. Pour in the reserved ham broth, then add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Taste for salt and pepper, adjust as needed, then ladle into heated soup bowls and serve with freshly baked corn bread.
CLEAN-UP-THE-GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
I had barely begun my job as assistant home demonstration agent in Iredell County, North Carolina, when I was sent to the northern end of the county to persuade a country woman to reinstate her teenage son and daughter in the 4-H Club. Fresh out of Cornell and never having spent much time with country folk, I was startled to find that her home was a four-room cabin with daylight streaking through walls, ceiling, and floor. In the kitchen I came upon Mrs. Farmer, a blowsy, red-faced woman, making soup mix from garden gleanings. Chickens pecked up the spills and shoats (young pigs) snoozed beside the stove. Mrs. Farmer’s opening shot: “Are you a lipper or a dipper?” I had no idea what she meant. “Your snuff,” she continued. “What do you do with it? I’ll bet you’re one of them dainty l’il things what daubs it around with a toothpick”—her definition of a “dipper.” She, a “lipper” and proud of it, pulled out her lower lip and upended a can of Tube Rose directly into it. I was unprepared for the tirade that followed. Under no circumstances would she permit her children to rejoin the 4-H Club because “it was draggin’ them through the flames of hell…’lowed them to dance!” Which she pronounced dayntz. Clearly we had no common ground; in fact we could barely communicate. In defense of Mrs. Farmer, however, I will say that she made one terrific soup mix and canned gallons of it “for good winter eatin’.” It’s the basis for this vegetable soup—but no garden needed. I buy the makings at my local farmer’s market.
3 tablespoons bacon drippings or vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium celery rib, trimmed and thinly sliced (include some leaves)
1 medium carrot, trimmed and thinly sliced
¼ cup coarsely chopped parsley
½ teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
1 large whole bay leaf, preferably fresh
4 cups (1 quart) chicken stock or broth
3 large dead-ripe tomatoes, cored, peeled, and coarsely chopped (reserve juice) or 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes, with their liquid
1½ cups fresh whole-kernel sweet corn or if unavailable, solidly frozen whole-kernel corn
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
8 ounces tender young okra pods, stemmed and sliced ½ inch thick or if unavailable, solidly frozen sliced okra
1. Heat the drippings in a large, nonreactive soup kettle over moderately high heat for 1 minute. Add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook, stirring now and then, for 10 to 12 minutes or until limp and lightly browned.
2. Mix in the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf and cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes and their juice, the corn, sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so the soup bubbles gently. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1½ hours or until the vegetables are tender and the flavors well blended.
3. Add the okra, cover, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes longer or just until tender. Discard the bay leaf. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed. 4. Ladle into heated soup plates and serve with fresh-baked biscuits or corn bread.
VIDALIA ONION SOUP WITH SMOKY BACON
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
The inspiration for this elegant onion soup is one that I enjoyed some while back at the Carolina Crossroads Restaurant in Chapel Hill’s historic