A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [61]
6. To serve, arrange the chops on a heated large platter and spoon some of the pan drippings over all.
Variation
Pork Chops with Peanut and Onion Stuffing: Prepare the recipe as directed but in the stuffing, substitute 1 cup finely chopped dry-roasted peanuts for the pecans and reduce the amount of salt to ¼ teaspoon. Taste the finished stuffing and add a little additional salt, if needed. Note: The peanut stuffing has more crunch than the one made with pecans.
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1823
In Kentucky, James Crow distills bourbon whiskey from a sour mash of corn. He calls it Old Crow.
Grapes are found growing wild along North Carolina’s Catawba River, a labrusca variety found suitable for making wine.
1824
Mary Randolph’s cookbook, The Virginia House-wife, is published. It is America’s first southern cookbook; earlier ones consisted mostly of English recipes. (It is now available in a facsimile edition with historical notes and commentaries by food historian Karen Hess. See Mary Randolph, Chapter 3.)
1825
Pierre Simeon Patout plants grapes on his Louisiana plantation, then switches to sugarcane. Today Enterprise Plantation is America’s oldest working sugarcane plantation.
Using seeds that were said to have come from Cuba, French nobleman Odet Philippe plants a small grove of grapefruits in Pinelas County, Florida. They are thought to be America’s first grapefruits. Some historians believe that Philippe arrived here ten or more years later and that his grapefruit seeds may have come from the Bahamas or perhaps Jamaica.
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SAUSAGE AND BLACK-EYED PEA ÉTOUFFÉE
MAKES 8 SERVINGS
After an intensive round of recipe testing that left me with a fridge and freezer full of unused ingredients, I did what frugal southern cooks have done forever. I bubbled them into a “catchall,” in this case a Cajun-inspired though inauthentic étouffée. Serve as is or ladle over rice. It’s good either way.
1 pound pork sausage links, sliced ½ inch thick
1 very large Vidalia onion (about 1 pound), coarsely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and coarsely chopped (include some green tops)
2 large celery ribs, trimmed and coarsely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
Two 16-ounce packages solidly frozen black-eyed peas
3 cups chicken broth
2 large whole bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon crumbled leaf thyme
½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
¼ teaspoon ground hot red pepper (cayenne), or to taste
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes in tomato sauce
½ cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley
2½ cups converted rice, cooked by package directions (optional)
1. Set a large, heavy Dutch oven over moderately high heat for 1 minute, add the sausage, and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until most of the drippings cook out. Pour off the drippings, then spoon 2 tablespoons of them back into the Dutch oven.
2. Add the onion, bell pepper, scallions, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring often, over moderately high heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until limp and touched with brown.
3. Add the black-eyed peas, chicken broth, bay leaves, salt, thyme, black pepper, and cayenne and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or until the peas are tender.
4. Mix in the tomatoes, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the flavors mellow. Taste for salt, black pepper, and cayenne and adjust as needed. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Stir in the parsley and cook uncovered for 5 minutes more.
5. Ladle into heated soup bowls and serve or, if you prefer, scoop about ¾ cup rice into each bowl, then top with the étouffée.
There’s a lot