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By Root 502 0

add four ounces of butter, and salt and pepper to your taste, and boil them gently and steadily for one hour; then pass it through a sieve into a tureen, and send to table with it, crackers, toasts, or light bread.

—The Kentucky Housewife

Fried Porgies

During the period of enslavement, blacks used what little free time they had to hunt and fish in order to supplement often scant rations. Porgy, was one of the fish that turned up in the pots. It remains an African American favorite at fish fries and Friday dinners.

Serves 6 to 8

12 medium porgies, cleaned, with heads and fins removed

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Oil for frying

1 tablespoon seafood boil

¼ cup yellow cornmeal

¼ cup flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ cup mayonnaise

Place the fish in a large bowl and sprinkle them with the lemon juice. Cover and let sit while you heat 2 inches of oil for frying to 250 degrees in a heavy cast iron skillet.

While the oil is heating, pulverize the seafood boil in a spice grinder and mix it together with the remaining ingredients in a brown paper bag. When ready to cook slather the fish on both sides with mayonnaise, then place a few fish at a time in the mixture and shake the bag to ensure that they are well covered.

Place the fish in the hot oil a few at a time and fry them for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown. Drain the fish on paper towels then place them on a warm platter. Repeat the process with the remaining fish until all are done. Serve at once.

—The Welcome Table

Possum with Sweet Potatoes

Skin a possum, and remove the head and feet. Wash carefully and salt heavily inside and out. Place the possum in a deep covered pan with a few cups of water and stew it for at least 1 hour. Then boil eight sweet potatoes in salted water, adding 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Place the potatoes in the pot with the possum, lay ½ dozen strips of bacon over the possum, sprinkle the top with thyme and marjoram, and place uncovered in an oven to brown at 400 degrees, basting frequently.

—A Taste for War

Calas

Calas are rice fritters that hark back to the Grain Coast of West Africa. The Vai people of the rice-growing regions of Sierra Leone and Liberia were represented in the Southern slave census. To them, the word for uncooked rice is kala. The word means “a stalk of cereal” to the Bambara people of West Africa and for the Gullah people of the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry, kala means rice. The fritters were one of the items hawked on the streets of New Orleans by women of color.

Serves 6

2¼ cups cold water

¾ cup raw long-grain rice

1½ packages dry yeast

½ cup lukewarm water

4 eggs, well beaten

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

Vegetable oil for frying

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Place the cold water and rice in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and cook the rice for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is soft and tender. Drain the rice, place it in a bowl, mash it with the back of a spoon, and set it aside to cool. In a separate bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water, and then add it to the cooled rice. Beat the mixture for 2 minutes to aerate it, then cover the bowl with a slightly moistened towel and set it aside in a warm place to rise for 3 to 4 hours.

When ready to prepare the fritters, add the eggs, granulated sugar, salt, and flour to the rice mixture. Beat it thoroughly, cover it, and set it aside for 30 minutes. Heat 4 inches of oil in a heavy pan to 375 degrees. Drop the batter by the tablespoonful into the hot oil, frying a few at a time until golden brown. Drain on paper towels, then dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve hot.

—The Welcome Table

Roasted Corn

Roasted ears of corn on the cob were a traditional treat during the period of enslavement, when they were roasted in the dying embers of a fire. Today they can be done on a barbecue grill.

4 ears of corn, husked

Salt,