A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [81]
4. Add the tomatoes, 3 cups of the reserved kettle liquid, the salt, and the Worcestershire sauce, and simmer uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors meld.
5. Add the reserved chicken and dried currants and simmer uncovered 30 to 35 minutes longer until the flavors mellow and the currants plump. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed. Also add another ½ to 1 cup of the kettle liquid if the Country Captain seems thick and dry (it should not be soupy; there should be still enough liquid to soak down into the rice).
6. To serve, bed the rice on a heated, very large, deep platter, ladle the Country Captain on top, and scatter with almonds. Or, if you prefer, plate each portion separately.
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1874
Georgia establishes a state Department of Agriculture. It is America’s first.
The Old Absinthe House opens in New Orleans, nicknamed “Little Paris” because here, as in the French capital, absinthe was widely drunk. Until it was banned in 1912, this green wormwood liqueur was integral to such classic New Orleans cocktails as the Sazerac.
1875
Georgia farmer Samuel Rumph develops the Elberta peach, a hybrid, which thrives on his Macon County farm and ships well because it is slow to bruise.
1877
Lafcadio Hearn, a young writer of Irish-Greek parentage, arrives in New Orleans from Ohio and begins writing about the local food, folk remedies, and superstitions. By the time he leaves ten years later, Hearn is considered the most insightful interpreter of Creole culture.
1880
Commander’s Palace Restaurant opens in New Orleans’s elegant Garden District.
1881
Atlanta hosts a World’s Fair. Though called the International Cotton Exposition, there are 1,013 exhibits from 33 states and six foreign countries. Returning to the city he’d torched less than 20 years earlier, General William Tecumseh Sherman is impressed by the New Atlanta.
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INGLIS FLETCHER’S COUNTRY CAPTAIN
MAKES 8 SERVINGS
Altogether different from the Country Captain that precedes, this one, attributed to bestselling historical novelist Inglis Fletcher, contains chicken breasts only. These are browned in a skillet, then baked in a lightly curried tomato sauce. Known as “Carolina’s Chronicler,” Illinois-born Inglis Fletcher settled near Edenton, North Carolina, and wrote a twelve-volume series of novels spanning some 200 years (1585 to 1789) of Tidewater Carolina history. At her most prolific between 1942 and 1964 but now largely forgotten, Fletcher deserves to be rediscovered because she was a stickler for accuracy. It’s said that she spent one year researching each novel and a second year writing it. The recipe here is adapted from one that appeared in Pass the Plate, a fund-raiser published by the Churchwomen and Friends of Christ Episcopal Church in New Bern.
½ cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
4 whole chicken breasts, halved (3½ to 4 pounds)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
4 teaspoons curry powder
One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with their liquid (do not use tomatoes packed in sauce)
½ cup dried currants
1/3 cup coarsely chopped parsley
½ teaspoon crumbled leaf thyme
½ teaspoon ground mace
2 cups long-grain rice, cooked by package directions
¾ cup lightly toasted slivered almonds (8 to 10 minutes in a 350° F. oven)
1. Preheat the oven to 275° F.
2. Combine the flour, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper in a large plastic zipper bag, then dredge the chicken breasts, two at a time, by shaking in the seasoned flour.
3. Heat