After the beans are tender, I serve in bowls, adding a half (or whole) small carton of non-fat, plain yogurt to each bowl and stirring thoroughly.

There’s something about the onions, garlic, turmeric, cayenne, and yogurt that works well together and keeps the lentils from being plain ol’, plain ol’.

Just made a batch and had a bowl.

just before simmering

Back when I was still teaching and there would be gatherings of students and faculty for a potluck meal, my a-bit-too-substantial tuna casseroles were the butt of a few jokes. Once, some of the students kidnapped my casserole and did a photographic study of it positioned in various locations around Tampa. Wish I could have seen those pictures. I think that’s a clever idea!

Well, in keeping with the a-bit-too-substantial trend, I wanted to offer this recipe which I improvised just now and which, actually, tastes pretty darned good. (Although some might politely describe it as being an acquired taste.) It’s a cranberry, chicken, and barley stir fry with some greens and okra thrown in for good measure.

I’ve been looking for ways to use cranberries that don’t require sugar. That’s what inspired me to chuck a couple handfuls of raw cranberries into this recipe just to see how they work. Entirely by luck, they work great. I’ll be adding them to some other stir fries in the future.

The seasonings I used were galangal (a ginger like spice used in Thai cooking…one could just as easily use ginger) and good soy sauce with sriracha sauce to taste. I nuked the chicken then diced it and added it to the greens and berries to braise in olive oil and spices. Any greens would work, but I had some okra, which I love, so I used that with some turnip greens.

I didn’t feel like making brown rice and I was out of both whole-wheat pasta and spelt angel hair, so I tossed a cup of dry barley and two cups of veggie broth into the stir fry at the end, let it come to a boil, and then simmer until the barley was done. The dark quality of the barley and soy sauce seems to work perfectly with the sharp quality of the cranberries.

This dish is just right for today’s temperatures here and almost everywhere else (some of my friends and relatives are where it’s bitter cold). I microwaved my socks for 60 seconds this morning…what a delicious sensation it was putting them on!!!

cooked and ready to eat

There were about 36 booths, including local artisans who were selling their wares. Of those booths about a dozen were chili cookoff contestants. Scattered among the various booths were local entertainers. That’s a typical and very effective Florida outdoor festival–one of many, but one very much worth attending.

I haven’t been able to find a list of the official winners of the 2009 Chili Cookoff, but If I were to award prizes for categories of my own design, here’s who I would have chosen:

• Most Original: Island Seafood Market
• Most Rustic: Red Knights Firefighters Motorcycle Club
• Most Traditional: VFW Post 39
• Most Unique Flavor: Nitally’s
• Most Useful Idea: Tampa Bay Woman Newspaper

That order of categories in no way implies 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, etc. In my mind, each category is equal and different. My order is totally random.

I’ve got to figure out a reasonable facsimile of Island Seafood’s Chili. I adored it. It was made with white beans and a mix of seafood. Wow…! It was sort of like Senate Soup, but much spicier and with chopped seafood in it. It’s going to be a personal quest to try and duplicate that here at home.

The Red Knight’s venison chili was super. I’m a fan of wild game meats. This chili was right out of pioneer traditions.

The Tampa Bay Woman Newspaper chili had green sweet peppers in it. Now, I’ve tasted a lot of chilies before, but I’d never had any with sweet peppers in it. I was surprised by how much it added to the mix. I’m sure countless people already know about adding sweet peppers to chili, but it was new to me. And was instantly added to my own recipe.

Nitally’s chili had a decidedly Thai flavor which was not only unusual, but addictive. I could have made a pig of myself at their booth.

The VFW men’s chili was a very traditional, can’t-beat-this-basic-chili, chili–extremely good. Now, this was the men’s chili; the women’s group from the post also had their own chili, but I didn’t try that one.

Today’s weather is cold (by Florida standards), rainy, and windy. So, after a friend with whom I had breakfast this morning mentioned freezing chili–another something I didn’t know you could do!!!–I decided this would be perfect weather to make some (more or less traditional) chili so I’d have some to freeze…and eat, now, of course.

There’s a zillion and one chili recipes on the Internet, but here’s mine for what it’s worth. Maybe you’ll see something in it you’d like to incorporate into your own personal chili recipe. Anyway, aren’t all chili recipes an improvisation of sorts, totally fluid, changing with what’s in the pantry?

• cover bottom of LARGE pot with extra virgin olive oil
• dice two LARGE Spanish onions and sauté in the oil on high heat
• coarsely chop three medium sized sweet peppers (I use the red/green/yellow 3 pack my store sells)
• add to sautéing onions and stir in, letting onions and peppers soften
• add 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
• add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
• stir and reduce heat to medium

After the onions are soft, stir in, one at a time, each of the following spices, following each spice with just enough vegetable (or chicken) broth to keep mix from getting too dry.

• 2 tablespoons powdered garlic (powder, not salt)
• 1.5 tablespoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1.5 tablespoons oregano (I use Turkish, but Mexican quite OK)
• 0.5 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 tablespoon paprika (smoked if you can get it)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 0.5 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce
• if you’re into really scorching hot chili, add cayenne and hot sauce to your own taste…although I like many hot foods, I like my chili kind of wimpy

Stir the above as adding the ingredients until you get a smooth, slightly moist–but not runny-mix; but, too dry would be as bad as too runny…use your eye!

Take heat back up to high and quickly add the following (best to already have all cans opened in advance).

• 4 15-oz cans (drained) dark red kidney beans
• 1 6-oz can tomato paste
• 1 15-oz can tomato sauce
• 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes
• 3 12-oz packages of texturized vegetable protein (any brand; any other protein will, of course, work)
• (note: this recipe doesn’t need ANY extra salt because of all the salt in the canned beans and tomato products!)
• bring to boil
• reduce heat to medium low
• simmer until you can’t wait any longer; serve; always good with corn bread (I just use the cheapest store mixes for that)

I just had two bowls of it and it hit the spot!

My sister likes to make her chili with black beans. I’ll bet that tastes good! She also grows much of her own food so she has two bushes of those tiny HOT Thai peppers–she tosses in about three (whole, not chopped or anything) to cook along with the rest of her chili ingredients. I’m sure you’ve all got your chili tricks. Please feel free to volunteer them in the comments. Comments are appreciated by me and all the readers.

Next year, if you aren’t already a fan of the Chili Cookoff, keep an eye on the Grand Central District Association website for the dates of next year’s Cookoff and other events throughout the year that the the Association sponsors. You might also try an afternoon stroll through the Grand Central district at any time, for this is where many of the galleries, antique stores, indie restaurants, and artisans are located–St. Pete’s answer (and a good one) to New Orleans’ Magazine Street.

I recently happened upon an idea among the numerous online recipes for meatloaf which was to add chopped spinach. (I would give the link to that recipe, but I can’t find it now–I think there were more than one, actually.) I’d always added pitted black olives and dried oregano and basil to my meatloaf. I figured the addition of the spinach would make it an “Italian” meatloaf. It was terrific. The spinach keeps the meatloaf very moist, and the extras keep it from tasting too “beefy.”

I served some to an artist friend who happened by my home and he agreed it was good. He mentioned, though, that the best meatloaf he’d ever had was topped with mustard instead of tomato sauce. I agreed that that sounded very interesting, so the following week, I experimented a little. I figured that the mustard might taste better with ground turkey, rather than beef. I think it does; just be sure to get the best quality ground turkey you can find–the cheap stuff doesn’t taste so good.

Here’s my recipes for the two kinds of meatloaf. Yes…that’s a lot of fiber, but fiber is a good thing!

turkey meatloaf

2 eggs
2 cups finely chopped spinach
1 can pitted black olives
1 cup old-fashioned oats (dry)
salt to taste
1.5-2 pounds ground turkey
1 cup rice bran
1.5 cups sliced pickled jalapenos
cup of plain yogurt
cup of chicken broth
3 heaping tablespoons of Gray Poupon mustard
¼ cup ground cumin
¼ cup dried parsley flakes

topping: an additional 3 heaping tablespoons of Gray Poupon mustard, 1 cup plain yogurt, and ½ cup of chicken broth, all mixed well and poured on top before putting in oven.

beef meatloaf

2 eggs
2 cups finely chopped spinach
1 can pitted black olives
1 cup old-fashioned oats (dry)
salt to taste
1.5-2 pounds ground beef or buffalo
1 cup wheat bran
½ large can crushed tomatoes
¼ cup dried oregano
¼ cup dried basil
½ cup capers

topping: rest of the large can of crushed tomatoes poured on top before putting in oven.

cook

350 oven, start checking at 60 minutes
done when meat has changed color inside and knife inserted comes out dry

We’re all eating at home more these days. Saves money, of course, but it’s a good thing for other reasons, too. Not only is it easier to make healthier food choices, the ability to share an evening with friends is far less restricted. It’s possible to relax and not worry about holding up some waiter’s need to get you cleared out and another group of customers hustled through. The food is better in a casual setting and it’s enjoyed more. Why don’t we do it this way more often?!

Recently, I was invited by friends to share a meal with them and other friends and family of theirs. One of the party had been given sashimi grade tuna steaks by yet another friend. The folks I was visiting prepared the meal and the host grilled them.

My friends assembled these different marinade/sauces:

• soy with wasabi paste
• champagne and ginger with saffron
• sesame seed and orange flavored soy

The only commercial preparation they used was Silver Springs Mango Wasabi Sauce, which was really excellent. I wasn’t able to find an Amazon link for it, but if you can’t find it in your bricks and mortar store, you might check out one of these:

• Silver Springs Mustard, Jalapeno, 9.5-Ounce Squeeze Bottles (Pack of 9)
• Silver Springs Mustard, Chipotle, 9.5-Ounce Squeeze Bottles (Pack of 9)
• Silver Springs Honey Mustard, 10.25-Ounce Squeeze Bottles (Pack of 9)

If you don’t live where you can get tuna, and you want to experiment with those marinade ideas, you can order sashimi grade tuna–fresh, never frozen–direct from Amazon.

.
Similarly, here’s links for wasabi paste, saffron, and sesame seeds:

• Wasabi Paste, in Tubes (3)
• Spanish Saffron Acrylic Box
• sesame seeds freshly packed in large jars

As I said in my last post, my preferred method of fish preparation is blackened, but I also enjoy seared fish steak (and poached, and broiled, and baked, and fried, and…).

The heavy cast iron cooking surface used for blackening is the same used for searing, which is the technique used for the tuna steaks in this meal. For either method of cooking, use a heavy, cast-iron blackening skillet or griddle such as the Lodge Logic 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet or the Lodge Logic Pro 20-by-10-7/16-Inch Cast-Iron Grill/Griddle. My friends had such a large griddle which they heated atop a large Coleman grill.

They’d prepared several different marinade/sauces and, after letting the tuna steaks marinate for a while, they cooked the different tuna steaks to various degrees of doneness (rare to medium rare only–more done is not recommended). Then the steaks were topped with their respective sauces and all cut into smaller pieces to which we helped ourselves, tapas fashion (tapas are a collection of Spanish appetizers which together form a meal—common in Tampa Bay area): serving ourselves a little of this preparation, a little of that preparation, and a little of another. I’d never seen it done that way before and I really liked it. If you think about it, it’s perfectly logical. Why limit yourself to just one method of preparing the entree? This gave the meal a lot of variety and everyone got to try some of each sauce. In addition to the tuna steaks there was a very nice okra-tomato angel hair pasta dish and a broccoli slaw salad with toasted, crumbled ramen noodles.

I’ll continue to eat out, of course, and I’ll definitely continue to document my favorite restaurants here. But, I’m going to start including descriptions of special meals with friends…definitely one of life’s delights.

TOTEM BY MISSISSIPPI ARTIST, JOHNNY KNIGHT

Roots

A while back there was a post about my Mississippi Cuzn Donna and another post about my Mississippi Cuzn Don‘s Mississippi Greens recipe. There’s other Gulf Coast cousins, too, and in due time we’ll hear more about them including their blue grass and photography, but today, we’re going to hear from Cuzn Don again, with his recipes for Hoe Cakes and Hush Puppies. The recipes are related, but not exactly the same. Cuzn Don’s words will be in red italics. My comments and explanations will be in normal type.

There are many cultural roots in every region of the United States. Traditionally, the three biggest in the South, have been the Native Americans, the European settlers, and the African-American slaves. The European culinary influences, especially in New Orleans, are French and Spanish. The African culinary traditions the slaves brought with them from their home countries became the backbone of what, today, we call “Southern Cooking.” I don’t think it exists any more, but at one time there was a restaurant in Atlanta that had entrees based on actual antebellum (before the war) slave recipes. One I remember well was a pork chop with a peanut butter and cayenne pepper sauce—an unexpected combination and delicious. As important as the European and African influences on Southern cuisine are, however, it’s important to not forget the culinary influences of the Native American cultures.

Far too many people are not aware of how thoroughly the Native Americans populated the South prior to the genocidal policies that drove them from their lands. Today, there is only one federally recognized Native-American nation in Mississippi; see Choctaw.org and Native American Nations. But there were once many more; see Native languages, Indian Tribes in MS and Native Mississippi.

With that background, let’s turn to Cuzn Don as he begins his discussion of Hoe Cakes.

DRY INGREDIENTS ASSEMBLED

Hoe Cakes

Originally, Native Americans cooked these on hot rocks in an open fire. They were first called “Ash cakes.” Later settlers from Europe adopted the recipe but it was from the slaves returning from the fields that the “Hoe Cakes” got its name. They would sometimes take the handles out of their hoes, clean and use the flat top as a griddle or stand over the hot coals with their hoes straight up..Their hoes were larger than the ones we use today. This is one of oldest recipes handed down that I know of, also the cheapest to make.

Early Recipes

• stone ground corn (Cornmeal)
• dash of salt
• add boiling water, stir into mush and make a patty
• small amount of fat for frying

The following recipe, “Southern Mississippi Hoe Cakes,” is the one I made for photos for this post. I followed Cuzn Don’s directions closely, but substituted some, perhaps non-traditional, ingredients. Hopefully, though, my substitutions aren’t as great a heresy as when northerners make their rice with sugar.

For the milk, I used buttermilk; for the cheese, I used gorgonzola; for the crumbled meat, I used Tennessee Pride HOT sausage–reserving the grease in the pan for cooking the hoe cakes; for the cajun seasoning, I used plain ol’ Crystal hot sauce; for both types of flour, I used self rising flours; I left out the egg since I am a Mississippi Gulf Coast Jones (although I live a bit farther south).

The smell was overwhelmingly good. My pan is only large enough to cook three at a time. So, it took every bit of self-discipline (not my long suit anyway) to not eat “just one” before taking a picture of the total results on a plate. I’ve bought the peanut oil to make the deep fried kind, but I’ll wait a couple months before I attempt those.

COOKING UP SOME HOT SAUSAGE

Southern Mississippi Hoe Cakes

I believe this is an early recipe for today’s Southern “Hush Puppies”. Still cheaper to make and just as good or better. There may be others who may disagree but it has the same ingredients as today’s Southern “Hush Puppies”. I was told in my younger days that “Hush Puppies” got it name by giving the leftovers to the hunting dogs to keep them from barking. I am sure that they didn’t have a bag of “Ole Roy” or “Gravy Train” dog food from the store in the 1800′s.

My Jones kinfolks on the Mississippi Gulf Coast still use the term of “Hoe Cakes” with the recipe below but without an egg (family tradition).

(small portion my way)

• 1 cup of yellow cornmeal
• 1 egg beaten
• dash of Cajun seasoning
• milk
• small amount of grated cheese (your favorite)
• 1/3 cup of flour(optional)
• small amount of oil for griddle or pan

Mix all the dry ingredients and beaten egg then add milk a little at a time while stirring to get to a stage similar to a pancake batter. I make them about 4″ diameter or smaller. Cook on medium heat without mashing them down. If you would like, add meat such as left over hamburger meat. Break up a small portion of the meat and make your batter a little thicker so that it will hold around the meat.

The taste is great and my grandchildren love them .

If Native American cuisine interests you, there are a large number of Native American Food blogs on the Internet. Here is one with an Algonquian recipe for hoe cakes.

EVERYTHING TOGETHER MIXED IN A BOWL

Johnny Knight

Before we return to Cuzn Don’s recipes, just a quick break to talk a bit about Cuzn Don’s own background and one of his influences, Johnny Knight. Johnny Knight was an adult mentor to Don and Don’s late brother, Larry, when they were growing up. Johnny Knight was an artist of Native-American descent who was loved by his community of Mendenhall, Mississippi. The totem pictured at the top of this post is his creation. Another project, preserved to this day by members of the community is his Tree House. A quick look at that link will convince you that he was a real talent and very original. Imagine being youngsters brought up in the water-hole-swimming, river-fishing, back-country-hunting, skin-and-cook-your-own-food Mississippi culture of the 50s.

This was back when the brands of coke (the generic term used in the South for what we northerners called “soda”) were Red Rock, Mr. Cola and Grappette, RC Cola (that one can still be found), creme and strawberry sodas and Orange Crush. It was back when bottle caps had cork on the inside and you would poke holes in the cap with an ice pick and shake the bottle to make a fizzy drink that lasted longer. (For a nifty page about fruit sodas, check out The Soda Gallery.)

Anyway…back in those days, Johnny Knight would take Cuzn Don and Cuzn Larry out hunting with nothing but their shotguns and he’d only take a bow and arrows. He taught them not only survival skills, but also respect for the land and its wildlife, not letting them hunt anything they couldn’t prepare and eat themselves. Small wonder Cuzn Don has become so active in Mississippi conservation efforts…and in cooking his own food.

COOKING IN A PAN

Southern Mississippi Hush Puppies

(Deep Fried)

Deep fried hush puppies are usually made when frying fish and potatoes and cooked outdoors. Most good cooks will use peanut oil. This has a higher smoke point and like olive oil, a lot healthier for you.

Hush puppies are cooked first and you want plenty because they will disappear quickly while you are cooking the fish . You also may have to slap a few hands. If cooked right, they will simply melt in your mouth. I use a paper bag lined with paper towels to absorb the oil.

• 3 cups of yellow cornmeal
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped onions
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped bell pepper or hot pepper
• salt
• cajun seasoning (I use 4or 5 dashes here or more)
• milk

Mix all dry ingredients and beaten eggs and add milk and stir. You want the the batter to be just thick enough to stick to a tablespoon holding it upside down. I always taste to make sure I have what I want at this point.

If you don’t have a deep fryer, you need a least one inch of oil in your pan so the hush puppies won’t hit the bottom and you can flip them over. They will float to the top.

When the oil is hot take the table spoon and dip about 1/2 of a spoonful of batter and gently push it until it drops into the hot oil. Keep spoon very close to oil so you don’t spatter. Cook until golden brown and flip over. Takes no more than a minute to cook. Over cook these and you will have to give it to your dog.”Hush Puppy” Enjoy!

READY TO EAT

Cuzn Don’s “puppy”

Cuzn Don’s “puppy” that every so often he needs to “hush” is a purebred bloodhound named Major T. Beauregard (or “Major” for short) after the Confederate military man, Major P. G. T. Beauregard. One of Major’s grandfathers is out of the line of Beauregard Jr. on Hee Haw; Major’s father was the tracking bloodhound of the Mississippi Simpson county Sheriff…so he’s definitely from good stock. Cuzn Don proclaims that “Major is a damn mess!” At first, the only thing he’d been able to track was himself: he sniffed all around the woods and came back to where he started. Don says he’d like to train him to be quiet on posted land and bark at the deer instead of the reverse which is the case now. But, the grandkids like to run around and hide and Major can track them, so that’s good.

One last thing: Cuzn Don stresses that when you cook fried hushpuppies, first cook the hushpuppies, then cook your fish in the same oil. Don’t cook any more hushpuppies in that same oil after you cook the fish unless you cook some french fries in it first. Cooking the french fries in the oil will clean the grease of burnt specks of cornmeal in the oil. What you don’t dip out, will stick to the french fries. After cooking the french fries, you can cook more hushpuppies in the same grease and/or save it for use later in a coffee can, although Cuzn Don allows he wouldn’t reuse it for frying chicken.

Try ‘em. They’re really not at all difficult to make. But you’ll have to be quick if you want to taste some yourself; the grandkids and the dog are assured to gobble them all up. One more warning: I’d told myself I’d only eat a couple and then freeze the rest for another time. Didn’t happen…yet. I’m now past a “couple” and still eating. I do hope I have some left to freeze.

THE RIVER STRONG, D’LO MISSISSIPPI

How many times have we discovered, too late, that we had been in the presence of something which at the time it was available we ignored, dismissed, or just didn’t see but, now, we would love to experience, but cannot because circumstances have changed and that thing is no longer at hand? (This goes for places and people, too, of course; not just things.)

So it is for me with the countless Vietnamese sandwiches I could have experienced at the Manoa Marketplace Ba-Le, but didn’t because I was (1) too enamored of their phở gà, (2) too ignorant of what a Vietnamese “sandwich” was (“pork sandwich doesn’t even come close to describing it), and (3) too sure of what I thought a “sandwich” was.

Now, in true Kung Fu Panda fashion, I must philosophically turn those missed opportunities into more auspicious ones. It means I have the opportunity for a QUEST: finding the best Vietnamese sandwich I can in St. Petersburg, Florida. Unfortunately, never having had an authentic one, and therefore lacking an experiential standard for comparison, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage.

But…I have a pretty good imagination and I have some excellent reference resources. There are three features that make a Vietnamese sandwich unique:

• the bread
• the vegetables
• the meat.

Wandering Chopsticks has recipes on her site for two different kinds of Vietnamese sandwiches, “bánh mì” in Vietnamese. Here are the links to her two recipes:

• bánh mì thịt heo nướng
• bánh mì xa xíu.

The text and pictures for those recipes helped explain things quite a bit. I’d read elsewhere that the flour that’s used for the bread for Vietnamese sandwiches is a mix of wheat flour and rice flour.

I stopped and got my first, banh mi sandwich with xa xiu (barbecued pork) filing.

I’d never noticed bánh mì in any of the several Vietnamese restaurants I frequent. So, one day while shopping at the Cantho Oriental Market, I asked the proprietress, with whom I’ve become quite comfortable asking Asian cooking questions, where was a good place in town to buy bánh mì. “Why here!” she said. “Come back Saturday, noon, and you can have special one.” So…I did.

An old professor to the core, I did more online research before I returned the following Saturday. I found a terrific resource for the different types of bánh mì that I printed out to take with me for her to point to, so I could accurately report on the type of sandwich she prepared. It’s an extremely informative list of each type of bánh mì and its contents. Please check it out: Fillings on the Battle of the Bánh Mì subpage of the White on Rice Couple blog. There are four other bánh mì articles on White on Rice Couple that are very relevant:

• Party Ideas
• Meat & Veggie Recipes
• Daikon/Carrot Pickles
• Make Your Own Bánh Mì

When I returned to the Cantho on Saturday for my bánh mì I had my printouts in hand for her to use to identify which kind I was getting. Turns out it was the “6. Xa Xíu (Bar-B-Que Pork)- Sweet, pinkish colored pork cooked to the style of Chinese bar-b-que. Cuts of pork can also vary like those of grilled pork.” (Quote from the White on Rice Couple’s Fillings list.)

She had me come back behind the meat counter at the back of the store that I’d never paid much attention to and she showed me different types of bar-b-qued beef she had freshly cooked. She let me sample a sliver of each. I picked the one that I liked the best—hard choice, they were all tasty—and she began preparing my sandwich. She explained how she trims from different parts of the meat for each sandwich, a little from the crunchy part, a little from the soft part. Then she asked how much fat I want. I admit to being a pig fat fan (if it’s properly prepared) so I said, “oh yes…a little, please.”

She only has the standard French baguettes, not the ones made with rice flour, but the meat was so good, I didn’t care. This was my first bánh mì, and the details didn’t matter! She put on some of the pickled vegetables and wrapped the sandwich which I took home and promptly ate, pausing only to snap the picture at the top of the article.

When I returned for more shopping this week, I told her how much I enjoyed the sandwich. I can truthfully say the bar-b-qued pork—which they cook themselves, fresh—was fantastic. I also told her I’d like a bit more of the pickled vegetables next time. She brightened up and said, “You like?!” Then she explained that usually she didn’t put many on because some folks (unfortunate foreigners such as me, I’m sure she meant) don’t like them. I assured her I do, so I’ll be back for a better balanced one next weekend.

Turns out that only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays does she fix the special bánh mì such as the xa xiu I had, but on any weekday you can get the cold ones like the “1. Chả or Chả Lụa (PORK ROLL)- Ground up pork is packed tightly into a roll, and wrapped with banana leaves (and or aluminum foil) then steamed or boiled , hence producing the dense ‘pork roll’. Sliced thin like bologna, these make up one of the most common cold cuts found in Bánh mì.” (Quote from the White on Rice Couple’s Fillings list.)

She also sells the pork rolls not in a sandwich, but all wrapped up in their banana leaves, right beside the counter, so you can take them home and make your own sandwiches. There’s an excellent Chinese bakery over on the Tampa side. I’m going to call them and see if they make the wheat flour-rice flour combination baguettes or if they know of a Vietnamese bakery in the area. If I can find the wheat/rice banquettes locally, I’ll get some, buy some of the pickled vegetables, and try making my own xa xiu or cha lua myself.

Or, maybe I’ll see if Ba-Le has any plans to open a restaurant in St. Pete any time soon. If not, I’ll be forced to fly back to Oahu for lunch. Either way, I won’t be quite so quick to assume I know what a “sandwich” is.

Background

In “Honolulu’s Maunakea Marketplace” we glimpsed a bit of the day-to-day life of real people living in a locale typically only seen superficially by tourists. Closer to home, but no less exotic and wonderful, are places we don’t even see because we’re looking for something “special.” I’m thinking of one such place in particular because my daddy’s family is there: southern Mississippi, with tiny places such as Bay St. Louis, Piney Woods, Star, Hurley, Florence, and D’lo, or bigger, more well known towns such as Hattiesburg, Biloxi, or Pascagoula (I just love saying that word…it rolls around in the mouth in a great way). Southern Mississippi is ever bit as exotic as Hawaii!

At Mississippi Believe It you can see a series of wonderfully droll public service advertisements that have been created to help dispel many of the myths that folks have about Mississippi. I laughed out loud, standing in a Interstate rest-stop, when I first read one that was posted there on a bulletin-board. The Believe It ads have titles such as Y’all May Think We Talk Funny, But The World Takes Our Music Seriously (some VERY good music, both classical and popular, gets made in Mississippi), Yes, we wear shoes. A few of us even wear cleats (some serious sports coming out of there, too), and–in addition to a number of others–my absolute favorite, Yes, we can read. A few of us can even write! Now, if you can’t name at least a dozen famous authors from Mississippi, then please go back and click on that link.

Most importantly, southern Mississippi has some fabulous food. A perfect example is Leatha’s, a restaurant write-up that’ll have to wait for another post. But, we don’t have to wait for my cousin Don’s recipe for Mississippi greens. We’re serving that up right now!

onions, garlic, smoked ham, hot sauce,
and ham hocks browning in the pot

My cousin Don (pronounced cuzn Don) lives in Magee, Mississippi. Don, his late brother, Larry, and I—all of us approximately the same age–were companions during the frequent visits of my father to his sister, who was Don and Larry’s mom. Southern Mississippi is the ancestral home of my daddy’s side of the family.

Decades later, on a recent trip of mine to visit Don, Don and I went down to D’lo to see the house and yard in which we all used to play. (D’lo is pronounced “DEE-low.”) The road seemed so much farther from the yard way back then, and the yard so much bigger, the house much larger, too. Other than that not too much has changed. D’lo is the actual name of the little town. Occasional maps and signs leave out the apostrophe. Some people say it comes from contracting the words “down low,” because it floods so easily. Other folks say it comes from “damn low!”

The picture that heads this post is of the spot on the Strong River at the D’lo Water Park on the edge of town where a sequence was shot for the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” It’s the scene when the sirens emerge from the river with moonshine and turn Everett into a “horny toad.” It’s also the very spot where Cousin Don and Cousin Larry fished, camped out, and learned to swim as kids, long before it was open to the public, many decades before George Clooney was ever there. Which gets us back to the idea of learning to see the real people and their lives behind the packaged place, of seeing beyond the superficial to the exoticism and beauty that actually breathes there day-to-day.

When I visit Don, I know he gets a secret pleasure out of watching me make a fool of myself eating his cheese grits and venison sausage for breakfast or pigging out at the local restaurant on homemade meringue-topped banana-pudding over vanilla wafers with fried fresh farmed catfish and brewed iced tea. Occasionally, I can get him to part with a recipe. Here’s his recipe for Southern Mississippi Greens (Any Kind). I’ve added a few comments and possible variants of my own, bracketed, and in red.

Hot Sauce

• “Get a MESS of greens. This southern term is not written anywhere. It is handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth but I will try. (It is about as much as you can grab with both hands!) Some people can be greedy and get a extra handful but it is still called a MESS.” [My favorite greens are mustard greens; nice and spicy. Also good, I think, to combine ½ collard greens with ½ mustard greens.]
• “1 or 2 ham hocks or 4 or 5 slices of bacon (not 4 or 5 lbs).” [I usually use both, or, as I am this time, I’m using smoked ham bits and 2 ham hocks. If there’s not enough fat, then I add a little extra in the form of olive oil or sesame seed oil or a mix of both—what I’m doing this time.]
• “Salt and pepper to taste.” [I add my hot sauce at this point. I use either Crystal or, increasingly, Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (see picture). Adding your hot sauce at this stage better permeates the greens with the hotness, but you need to be very sure of how much to add because one can put in too much.]
• “1 chopped up onion thrown in (That’s It).” [I use two if they’re small.]
• [I also add some minced garlic; not a lot, just enough. Wait to add the garlic until the onions are translucent, just before you add the greens.]

Directions

1. Cousin Don continues: “Wash greens at least 3 times; if you have roots wash and cut bottom tips and cube them. I roll up the tops and fine slice them into small pieces and fine chop the stems in middle. Sometimes, if I get too many stems I just throw most of them away.”
2. “I would start out using bacon first. Ham hocks could take 2 to 3 hrs. to fall of the bone. First, I cook my bacon in the bottom of the pot. That way you can see how much fat you have in there.”
3. “Break up bacon and add onion and greens.”
4. “Add just enough water to cover.” [I often use, as I am here, chicken stock instead of water.]
5. “Bring to boil and turn down to medium to simmer. They will cook down quickly. Some people cook them for 15 min or more. I will cook mine for at least an hour. With a ham hock you could let it simmer all day long.” [Upwards of 6 hours is not extreme and the smell of the house by that time is phenomenal!]
6. “If they are a little bitter tasting you can use a small amount of sugar.” [I highly recommend the sugar, especially for collards.]
7. “Serve with hot sauce or chow chow if you have it (or both).” [...unless you’ve already added your hot sauce earlier.]

Time to Eat!

Cuzn Don tells me he’s having problems with Hillbilly Rabbits back in his ½ acre garden. Now, those are the small Hillbilly Rabbits also called Cottontails (see here), not the bigger Swamp Rabbits (also called Cane Cutters; see here) that attacked President Carter. Cuzn Don, a cook, conservationist, and genealogist—who I hope someday starts his own blog so I can read it—has got me wishing I had some fried rabbit to go with my new mess o’ greens!