Texas Home Cooking

by Cheryl Jamison

  * * *

  Some Texans will fry almost anything, including dill pickles, Camembert cheese, hog brains, turkey testicles, and avocados.

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  Okra, Tomato, and Corn Skillet

  This medley of garden treats sings of summer days.

  1 tablespoon unsalted butter

  1 tablespoon unrefined corn oil or additional unsalted butter

  4 ounces okra pods, sliced in thin rounds

  ¼ cup (about 4) sliced green onions

  ½ medium green bell pepper, chopped

  1 garlic clove, minced

  2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

  ½ cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen

  2 tablespoons chopped parsley

  Scant ½ teaspoon salt

  ¼ teaspoon celery seeds

  ¼ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

  ¼ teaspoon filé powder

  Serves 4

  Warm the butter and oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the okra, green onions, bell pepper, and garlic until they are just softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, except the filé powder, and cover the saucepan. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes, until the okra and corn are tender. Stir in the filé powder in the last minute of the cooking time. Serve the dish warm.

  * * *

  African slaves brought okra to the New World from their native continent and made it a mainstay in the Southern diet.

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  Stewed Tomatoes

  Your experiences in the school cafeteria may have given you an aversion to stewed tomatoes. This recipe will bring them back into goar favor.

  2 slices slab bacon, chopped

  1 slice bread, cubed in bite-size pieces and toasted

  1 celery rib, chopped fine

  2 tablespoons minced onion

  1½ pounds very ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

  1

  to

  2 teaspoons dark brown sugar

  1 teaspoon paprika

  ¾ teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

  Serves 4

  In a skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until it is browned and crisp. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the rendered drippings. Drain it, and reserve it. Add the bread cubes to the hot drippings, and toss them lightly. Remove them with a slotted spoon, and reserve them.

  Stir the celery and onion into the remaining drippings, and sauté them for about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and the additional seasonings, and cook for about 15 minutes, until the tomatoes are juicy and tender. Just before serving, mix in the reserved bread cubes and bacon. Serve the tomatoes hot.

  * * *

  European explorers found tomatoes growing wild in South America and took them back home—as an ornamental plant rather than a food. For centuries most people considered them poisonous, even though a few French authorities insisted they were "love apples." Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes as early as 1781, but the vast majority of Americans shunned them until the early twentieth century.

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  Fried Green Tomatoes

  Just before fall's first freeze, every tomato plant in the world seems to burst forth with fruit that doesn't stand a chance of getting ripe and juicy. Frying saves the hard green "love apples," and, when you add another reputed aphrodisiac, cumin, you're really ready for winter.

  4 medium green tomatoes

  ½ cup flour

  1 teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground

  ¼ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

  2 pinches of sugar

  1 egg

  1 tablespoon milk

  ½ cup medium-grind cornmeal, preferably stone-ground

  Canola oil or vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco, for pan frying

  Serves 4

  Slice the tomatoes ¼ inch thick.

  In a small bowl, combine the flour with the salt, cumin, pepper, and sugar. In another small bowl, beat the egg with the milk. Place the cornmeal in a third small bowl.

  Dredge each tomato slice in the seasoned flour, then dip it briefly in the milk mixture. Finally, dip it in the cornmeal.

  In a large, heavy skillet, heat a thick film of oil or shortening. Add the tomatoes, and fry them over medium heat, turning them once. Cook the tomatoes 2 to 3 minutes per side, until they are golden brown and crispy. Serve them hot.

  * * *

  You may not think of cumin as a dessert flavoring, but in past centuries—as late as the nineteenth—cooks added it to cakes to stimulate a little passion in the diners.

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  Rot Kohl

  As one historian remarked. German immigrants came to Texas with tenacity, thrift, and vinegar. This cabbage dish draws on all three.

  2 tablespoons bacon drippings

  1 medium onion, chopped

  1 small cabbage head, shredded (about 4 cups)

  2 apples, grated

  ¼ cup cider vinegar, preferably unrefined

  ¼ cup water

  3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

  Coarse-ground black pepper to taste

  Serves 4 to 6

  Warm the bacon drippings in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, and sauté it briefly until it is limp. Stir in the remaining ingredients, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the saucepan, and cook 20 minutes, until the cabbage is tender.

  While Rot Kohl generally is served hot, leftovers are tasty right out of the refrigerator.

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  German and Czech settlers loved cabbage, an Old World vegetable, but other Texans were suspicious. Some claimed that it would make your skin scaly and thick.

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  Tex-Czech Sauerkraut

  The first Czech immigrants made their sauerkraut from scratch, but you can do an authentic-tasting version much more quickly today.

  1 pound sauerkraut, preferably not canned

  1½ cups unsalted stock, preferably beef or chicken

  1 medium baking potato, peeled and grated

  3 tablespoons chopped onion

  1 teaspoon caraway seeds

  Generous grind of black pepper

  1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  Serves 4 to 6

  Drain the sauerkraut, rinse it, and drain it again. Place it in a saucepan with all the ingredients except the flour. Simmer the kraut over medium heat for about 20 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the kraut to a serving platter.

  Add a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking broth to the flour. Stir them together, and add the flour to the pan. Cook just a few minutes, until the broth thickens and the raw flour taste disappears. Pour the sauce over the kraut, and serve. The dish usually accompanies roast pork or klobase, a stalwart Czech sausage.

  Variation: Some cooks add a tablespoon of brown sugar or some bacon to their kraut.

  * * *

  As master of ceremonies for Lyndon Johnson's first presidential barbecue dinner, Cactus Pryor shared his sympathy with Ludwig Erhard, the West German chancellor, about the difficulty of barbecuing sauerkraut.

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  Stewed Cabbage

  This idea comes from Threadgill's in Austin, a great home-cooking restaurant that makes stewed cabbage you can eat all day.

  2 slices slab bacon, chopped

  ½ medium onion, chopped

  1 garlic clove, minced

  1 medium cabbage head, sliced

  1½ cups canned crushed tomatoes

  1 cup unsalted chicken stock

  1 tablespoon tomato paste

  ½

  to

  1 teaspoon sugar

  ¼ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

  Several dashes of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

  Salt to taste

  Serves 4 to 6

  In a skillet or large saucepan, cook the bacon until it is browned and crisp. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon from the rendered drippings. Drain it, and
reserve it. Add the onion and garlic to the drippings, and sauté them until they are softened. Add the cabbage and all the other ingredients except the Tabasco and salt. Stir well, cover the pan, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The cabbage should be soft and tender, but not cooked to oblivion, in a moderately thick sauce. If it seems a little thin, raise the heat and cook an additional couple of minutes, uncovered. Add Tabasco and salt to taste.

  Serve the cabbage immediately. Refrigerated, the cabbage keeps a couple of days.

  * * *

  The spot that's now Threadgill's restaurant was originally Kenneth Threadgill's gas station and country-music hangout, where Janis Joplin got her start.

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  Fried Cauliflower 'n' Queso

  "Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education," Mark Twain claimed. If so, this dish has a Ph.D. in Texas taste.

  1 large cauliflower

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  1½ cups buttermilk

  1 egg

  2 teaspoons baking powder

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

  1 garlic clove, minced

  ¾ teaspoon salt

  1 recipe Chile con Queso ([>])

  Serves 6

  Break the cauliflower into flowerettes, and transfer them to a large saucepan. Cover the cauliflower with salted water, and bring it to a boil. Cook until the cauliflower is tender but not mushy. Drain the cauliflower and reserve it.

  Place the flour in a shallow bowl. In a second dish, stir together the baking powder and soda, pepper, and salt, and mix in the milk, egg, Tabasco, and garlic. The mixture will be thin. Dredge each flowerette first in the flour and then in the batter. Dunk the flowerettes back into the flour.

  Add enough oil to a heavy, deep skillet or stockpot to deep-fry the flowerettes in at least 4 inches of oil. Heat the oil to 350° F. Fry the cauliflower in batches for 3 to 4 minutes, until it is golden brown. Drain the cauliflower, top it with Chile con Queso, and serve it hot.

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  Specialty vegetables have become a big business in Texas. Lone Star farmers now raise taro, bok choy, daikon, ginger, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, and more. Part of the demand has been fueled by an influx of Asian immigrants in recent decades.

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  Country Canning

  I love long life better than figs.

  Charmian. in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

  That's fair, Ol' Bard, but what about flg preserves? The real question for some of us isn't about long life, or even whether to be or not to be, but whether we would want to bother perpetuating the species if we couldn't have our fig preserves.

  As soon as Americans began preserving food through canning, in the mid-nineteenth century, Texans began turning the new necessity into a passionate pleasure. Not satisfied with simply laying away the bounty of summer and fall for the lean months after, Lone Star cooks developed an amazing array of treats, from chili sauces to chowchows, pepper mangoes to pickled peaches.

  The canning craft declined a couple of generations ago, but it's being revived by a combination of forces, including renewed interest in specialty products, diet considerations, and the ease of working with food processors. Savvy Texans today, like their grandmothers, can put together a relish tray that glistens like the dew and tempts like a forbidden fantasy.

  Life-Enriching Fig Preserves

  When Bill was a kid, one of the most compelling reasons to visit Grandmother in Buda, Texas, was her fig preserves, a chunky, syrupy concoction that magically transformed white bread into manna. She picked the figs each fall off the two trees in the backyard and then cooked and canned them much as we do today.

  3 pounds fresh figs, stemmed and halved (about 8 to 9 cups)

  4 cups sugar

  1 cup water

  1 teaspoon powdered ginger

  1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

  1 thin slice of lemon for each jar

  Makes 6 to 7 half-pints

  Prepare the canning jars according to the manufacturer's directions.

  Combine the figs, sugar, water, and ginger in a heavy pot, and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Boil for 10 minutes, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook 45 to 50 minutes, stirring up from the bottom frequently toward the end to avoid scorching. The mixture should be reduced to a thick purée. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the lemon juice.

  With clean hands, place a lemon slice in each jar, standing it upright against the side. Pack the preserves around it, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Process the jars in a water bath according to the manufacturer's directions, usually 10 minutes.

  * * *

  Figs are an ancient delight, treasured for succulence in Assyria and Babylon five thousand years ago. Cleopatra nibbled them, as did her attendant Charmian, and Antony's fellow Romans force-fed them to geese to help create the original foie gras.

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  Calico Jalapeño Jam

  Jalapeño jellies and jams of various types probably outnumber bluebonnets in Texas. This is a chunky, thick, and colorful version. Like other preparations, it enhances a variety of Lone Star dishes and makes a wonderful snack on top of cream cheese and crackers.

  2 cups chopped green, red, and yellow bell peppers (about 3 small to medium peppers)

  3 cup chopped fresh jalapeños (about 4 to 6 jalapeños), green or red

  5½ cups sugar

  1½ cups cider vinegar, preferably unrefined

  1 cup light brown sugar

  2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

  2 3-ounce packages liquid pectin, such as Certo

  Makes about 7 half-pints

  Prepare the canning jars according to the manufacturer's directions.

  Combine all the ingredients except the pectin in a large saucepan or stockpot. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, and boil vigorously for 1 minute. Immediately stir in the pectin. Bring the mixture back to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute more.

  Spoon the jam into the prepared jars, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Process in a water bath according to the manufacturer's directions, generally 10 minutes.

  The jam may take several hours to set.

  * * *

  A growing number of small Texas companies make fine specialty jams, jellies, and preserves. One of the best firms is Fischer and Wieser, also known as Das Peach Haus, in Fredericksburg. Mark Fischer and Case Wieser produce over fifty different fruit condiments, including spicy Jalapeach Preserves and luscious Old-Fashioned Peach Preserves. See "Mail-Order Sources" ([>]) for ordering information.

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  Apple-Tequila Jelly

  Tequila is a distinctive yet subtle addition to this jelly, which is lower in sugar than most. Your family and friends will have a hard time guessing what gives the apples such an intriguing taste.

  4 cups apple cider (with no sugar added)

  6 tablespoons tequila

  3 cups sugar

  2½ tablespoons Sure-Jell Light pectin

  ½ teaspoon unsalted butter

  Makes about 7 half-pints

  Prepare the canning jars according to the manufacturer's directions.

  Pour the cider and tequila into a large, heavy saucepan. Place 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a small bowl, and stir in the Sure-Jell Light, mixing well. Add the Sure-Jell Light mixture and the butter to the cider.

  Bring the liquid to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in the remaining sugar, and bring the mixture back to a full rolling boil again, continuing to stir. Boil 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Skim off any foam, although the addition of the butter should prevent much from forming.

  Fill the reserved jars to within ⅛ inch of their tops. Process them in a water bath according to the manufacturer's directions, generally 10 minutes.

  The jelly may take several hours to set.

  * * *

  Many cult
ures have ascribed erotic qualities to apples. In ancient Greece, if a boy tossed an apple to a girl, it was a proposal; a catch was an acceptance. The Athenian sage Solon, fearing overindulgence of some kind, forbade bridal couples from eating more than one apple between them on their wedding nights.

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  Texas Port Jelly

  Wine jelly may sound like a trendy new idea, but the first known Texas cookbook, published in 1883, carried a recipe. This jelly is made with a full-bodied port, such as the ones from the Messina Hof Winery in Bryan, Texas. It goes great with game.