by Fran Rizer
OYSTERIZERS
This is included as one of Pa’s recipes because he always makes a couple of batches of them on New Year’s Eve, but he got the recipe from Rizzie. She had appetizers called Rumaki at a Chinese restaurant in Charleston several years ago. Rumaki are small chicken livers (or halves of large ones) marinated six hours or overnight in the refrigerator. The marinade is drained off and discarded before you put a slice of water chestnut beside each piece of chicken liver. Wrap a half slice of bacon around the liver and water chestnut and push a wooden toothpick through it to hold the Rumaki together. These can be broiled or grilled. Make them extra Southern by frying in a beer batter.
Rizzie made up her own version of Rumaki, which she calls Oysterizers. When Pa tasted them, he insisted she give him the recipe. Rizzie adds garlic, ginger, brown sugar, and sherry to soy sauce to make the marinade. Pa just buys a bottle of prepared teriyaki sauce.
PA’S OYSTERIZERS
Ingredients
1 pound small shucked oysters
½ cup teriyaki sauce or “doctored” soy sauce
1 five-ounce can sliced water chestnuts
14 - 16 slices bacon, cut into halves
Optional:
1 cup beer
1 cup plain flour
1 beaten egg
Vegetable oil for frying
Directions
Drain the oysters and marinate them in teriyaki sauce for a half hour. Pour off the marinade and throw it away. Place a slice of water chestnut beside an oyster, then wrap it in bacon and stick a toothpick through it to hold everything in place. Repeat this until all oysters are used. Broil or grill until bacon is crispy or fry in beer batter. Make the batter by opening a can of beer and pouring one cup into a bowl. Drink the rest of the beer. Stir the flour and beaten egg into the beer and beat until smooth. Pa serves these with extra teriyaki sauce, shrimp cocktail sauce, and/or horseradish.
COLLARDS
First off, I don’t understand why cookbooks call them “collard greens.” They aren’t like turnips, which can be cooked as greens, or turnip roots, or greens with diced roots stirred in. The only edible parts of collard plants are the green leaves. My ex-wife considered herself a gourmet cook and collected recipes from television, books, and the Internet. When she cooked collards, she put onions, garlic, vinegar, beer, molasses, and some other stuff in them. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t taste like collards. Different strokes for different folks, but Pa’s collards are simple and the best I’ve ever eaten. We have them a lot when they’re in season and always on New Year’s Day. Except for the fact Pa likes to cook a lot of bunches at one time, here’s how Pa does it:
PA’S COLLARDS
Ingredients
½ pound smoked meat (ham hocks, smoked turkey wings, or smoked pork neck bones)*
1 large bunch fresh collards
Salt and pepper
Dash of garlic powder
1 tablespoon sugar—brown or white granulated
Directions
Ham hocks are the bony ends of smoked hams. If you live up north or out west and your grocer doesn’t stock them, use any smoked meat that’s available. The ham bone you stuck in your freezer after Christmas dinner is also good for this. Add the meat to 3 quarts boiling water. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour while cleaning the collards. When cool, take the meat out of the broth, remove all bones, and cut or tear the meat into bite-sized pieces. Return the meat to broth.
Wash the collards several times in salted cold water, being careful to rinse away all dirt or sand. Leave the salt out of the last rinse. Remove the stems that run down the center of each leaf by holding the leaf in one hand and stripping both sides with the other hand. Discard the stems.
Stack six leaves on top of each other. Roll them into a tight roll, and then cut each roll into ½ to 1 inch-thick slices. Place greens into a pot with the meat and broth. Cover and cook 45 to 60 minutes, stirring off and on. Taste before adding salt and pepper to suit yourself. Be sure to taste first, because the smoked meat adds saltiness. Collards are done when they are tender but not mushy. Set bottles of hot sauce and pepper vinegar beside the collards. Some Southerners stir in bacon drippings or a spoon of butter, but Pa didn’t do this even before his heart attack. Don’t discard extra liquid. It’s called potlikker and is delicious. Some folks actually sip it out of a cup like hot tea or drink it like a tonic. We like it poured over chunks of cornbread in a soup bowl.
*The degree of smokiness in smoked meat varies. Try to get meat that is heavily smoked. Pa prefers smoked neck bones. Some cooks leave the bones in. Pa removes the bones and chops the meat back into the broth before adding the collard leaves.
**Some Southerners chop the stems up into the pot. Pa wouldn’t be caught dead with a stem in his collards.
Personally, I love the scent of collards cooking because it means there’s gonna be a whole mess of something good to eat, but some people don’t like the smell. Rizzie told Pa that putting a whole washed, unshelled pecan in the pot will make the smell less noticeable. I don’t know if that’s true because Pa won’t try it. He likes the odor, too.
HOPPIN’ JOHN
No self-respecting Southerner would let New Year’s Day pass without eating Hoppin’ John. A common saying is, “Eat poor that day, eat rich the rest of the year. Rice for riches and peas for peace,” but Pa always says, “Eat peas for coins and collards for folding money during the coming year.” So far as eating poor, I guess if Hoppin’ John was the entire meal, it might be poor in price, but not in taste. Around our house, Hoppin’ John is only a small part of the New Year’s Day feast that includes lots of collards, sweet potatoes, other winter vegetables, and some kind of pork. When he was younger, Pa sometimes roasted a whole pig outdoors for New Year’s Day. Now he usually cooks pork chops or a big fresh ham. Pa calls fresh ham “green ham.” All that means is that it’s not cured. When I was a little boy, I thought he was talking about the meat in my favorite book, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
PA’S HOPPIN’ JOHN*
Ingredients
2 cups dried black-eyed peas
1 pound meaty smoked ham hocks (or leftover Christmas ham)
1 medium chopped onion
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups long-grain uncooked white rice
Salt and pepper
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes or a splash of hot sauce
Directions
Wash the peas in a colander and pick through them for stems, shells, or pebbles. Cover the peas with cold water in a pot and soak them overnight or, if you’re in a hurry, put the pot with cold water and peas on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Cover the pot, remove from heat, and let it sit for 1 hour. Drain the peas and discard the soak water. Add onion and chicken stock to peas. Bring to a boil over medium high heat; reduce heat to medium low and cook covered for 1½ to 2 hours until peas are tender. Do not boil to cook because the peas will bust if you do. Remove meat from the pot. Take out the bones and cut the meat into small pieces. Add the meat, rice, and chicken broth to the peas. Put a lid on the pot and cook on low until the broth is absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove the Hoppin’ John from the heat, taste, and add salt, pepper, and pepper flakes or hot sauce to suit yourself.
*Some cooks prefer to cook the black-eyed peas and rice separately. They serve the peas on top of the rice. Also, some Southerners put a washed dime in the peas. Superstition is that whoever gets the dime will be lucky all year. With the current inflation, a quarter might be better.
The stories behind names in the South are frequently interesting, so I looked up the origin of the name “Hoppin’ John.” Among other legends, the name is said to come from children hopping around the table in eagerness before eating peas and rice, from a man named John who was so excited that he hopped to the table for peas and rice, or from someone who invited a visitor to “Hop in, John,” and stay for a supper of peas and rice. The one I like best is that back in the 1840s a man named John sold peas
and rice cooked together. Because he was crippled, they called him “Hoppin’ John.”
CORNBREAD
Cornbread is perfect with many Southern dishes including Brunswick Stew, Collards, and Hoppin’ John. Although there are many excellent cornbread mixes on the market, Pa refuses to use a mix. In the South, we like a slight sweetness in our cornbread. If you don’t, just leave out the sugar.
PA’S CORN BREAD
(Not from a box or bag)
Ingredients
½ cup butter or margarine
1 cup self-rising cornmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 large or 3 medium eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup buttermilk*
½ cup whole milk
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Put butter or margarine in the bottom of a dark, heavy iron skillet and set it into the oven just long enough to melt, then remove and put it on a trivet or hot pad. Mix the first four ingredients together. Beat eggs, oil, and both kinds of milk together in a separate bowl, then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. Pour the cornbread batter into the skillet on top of the melted butter or margarine. Bake 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This is good with lots of stews and vegetables, and hot or cold covered with butter.
*If you don’t have buttermilk, make a substitute by putting 1½ teaspoons white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add regular milk to bring to ½ cup. Let sit for 5 minutes, then use just like buttermilk.
PA’S FAVORITE BANANA NUT BREAD
MS. GLORIA WISE’S PINEAPPLE BANANA NUT BREAD
Pa got this recipe from Miss Ellen who had copied it from her cousin Gloria Wise’s cookbook.
Ingredients
1 cup self-rising flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
⅓ cup vegetable oil
⅔ cup granulated sugar
⅔ cup mashed banana (about l medium)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces crushed pineapple, drained
¼ to ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Combine flour and cinnamon in a medium size mixing bowl. Stir egg, oil, sugar, banana, and vanilla in a separate bowl. When mixed well, add to the dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Fold in the pineapple and nuts with a spatula. Pour bread batter into two greased and floured 5¾x3x2-inch loaf pans to make mini loaves or into a regular loaf pan for one loaf. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the center of one of the loaves. If it comes out clean, it’s done. Remove from the oven and cool in the pans for 5 minutes and then on wire racks.
RIZZIE’S GULLAH RECIPES
Callie met Rizzie Profit and her brother Tyrone when she and Jane went to a bluegrass festival on the recently developed part of Surcie Island in Hey, Diddle, Diddle, THE CORPSE AND THE FIDDLE. Since then, Jane and the Parrish family have become close friends with the Profit family, and Rizzie has opened the Gastric Gullah Grill where folks on the coast of South Carolina eat some of the finest Gullah food around.
The word “Gullah” refers to a Carolina Low Country African-American culture—a language, a cuisine, a people, and their customs. Some authorities believe that the culture survived from days of slavery because of their long-time isolation on the coastal islands. Much of their knowledge and talents—everything from food gathering and preparation, use of herbal medicines, songs and stories in Gullah dialect, worship customs, and the intricate art of basket-weaving—is still seen on the coast.
Gullah food is based on cooking what was available to them way back when they came from Africa. Since they lived on the coast and its islands, their dishes include a lot of seafood. Recipes are characterized by one-pot dishes with seafood or game meats as well as staples of African cuisine—rice, sweet potatoes, okra, and peanuts.
To sum up Rizzie, she’s Gullah and gorgeous as well as being a fantastic cook. After she learned I was writing out some of Pa’s recipes, she offered to share some of hers if I would include her recipe for what’s known around St. Mary by three different names—Beaufort Stew or Frogmore Stew or Low Country Stew—and made by dozens of different recipes though the basic ingredients are the same. I jumped at the chance. Rizzie says bittle is the Gullah word for food, so here are recipes for some of my favorite bittle I eat at Gastric Gullah Grill.
LOW COUNTRY OR BEAUFORT OR FROGMORE STEW
All three of these stews are basically shrimp, smoked sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, and onion cooked in water seasoned with commercial crab and shrimp boil seasoning. The trick is to add the ingredients in a timed sequence that makes everything prepared exactly right with nothing overcooked.
Are there frogs in Frogmore Stew? None that I know of. The name Frogmore, like Beaufort, refers to a town on the coast of South Carolina. Rizzie cooks this in a humongous pot at the restaurant, but you can reduce the quantity by dividing the amounts in halves or quarters.
RIZZIE’S LOW COUNTRY BEAUFORT FROGMORE STEW
Ingredients
Water to fill large pot half full
3 cans of your favorite beer
1 bag of Old Bay Seafood Seasoning or ¼ cup other commercial seafood boil seasoning
4 or 5 pounds small red potatoes or quartered larger potatoes, not peeled, but scrubbed clean
2 pounds smoked sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces (use Andouille if you have it)
6 ears corn, cut into halves
4 pounds medium or large shrimp with heads removed, but not peeled
Optional: 4 pounds whole crabs, cleaned and broken into quarters. (Soft shell crabs are fantastic when in season.)
Directions
Bring the water to low boil, add beer and seafood seasoning. Add potatoes and cook 10 minutes. Add sausage and cook 5 more minutes. Add corn and crab and cook another 5 minutes. Remove one potato, one piece of sausage, one ear of corn, and one piece of crab. Check each for doneness. Return them to the pot. When everything else is almost done, drop in the shrimp and cook for 3 more minutes. Drain the water and discard it. Pour the food onto a picnic table covered with paper or into large restaurant pans. Serve on paper plates with seafood cocktail sauce. Most folks want sweet ice tea or cold beer with this stew.
Rizzie’s stew is different from lots of others because she uses beer in the water and she likes to add crab. Some people use shrimp with the heads on while others prefer cleaned and deveined shrimp. Rizzie removes the heads because sometimes tourists don’t like seeing them in their stew, but she prefers for her guests to shell the shrimp so they won’t become tough while cooking. This is the way she makes the stew for Gastric Gullah Grill, but at her house, she sometimes adds whole crawfish. She also jokes that the next time someone asks her about Frogmore Stew, she’s going to add some frog legs to the pot.
RIZZIE’S GULLAH SEASONING
The distinctive taste of many Gullah foods comes from a combination of salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and sometimes coriander or fresh cilantro. When frying, broiling, or grilling, Rizzie sprinkles her own homemade seasoning on meat. It’s made of equal parts of salt, pepper, minced or powdered garlic, and minced or powdered onion. To that, she sometimes adds 1 tablespoon of paprika per cup and ½ tablespoon of coriander.
RIZZIE’S GULLAH OKRA RICE
Ingredients
2 cups frozen cut okra or fresh okra sliced about ½ inch thick with stalk ends discarded
2 tablespoons Rizzie’s Gullah seasoning
1 pound skinless chicken pieces or ½ skinned chicken
½ cup vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 small to medium tomatoes, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
¼ pound Andouille or other smoked sausage, diced
Another two tablespoons of vegetable oil
4 cups chicken broth
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2 cups uncooked white rice (preferably long-grain)
Directions
Thaw the okra if it’s frozen. Slice it if it’s fresh. Set it aside. Sprinkle the chicken with Rizzie’s Gullah seasoning and cook it in a heavy or stick-free skillet, covered, on medium heat in ½ cup vegetable oil until cooked through and browned. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium-size sauce pan. Add rice, cover, and cook on medium low for 10 minutes without looking or stirring. (Cooks who just have to look can use a tight-fitting glass lid on the sauce pan.) Remove the chicken from the skillet and set it aside to cool. After 10 minutes, turn off the heat beneath the rice pan. Do not move the pot, uncover, or stir for 10 more minutes. While rice cooks, if there is oil remaining in the frying pan, continue. If not, add 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet, and then stir in the sausage pieces, onion, and okra. Stir fry over medium heat about 5 minutes until onion is barely translucent and okra is no longer stiff, but not soggy. Add tomatoes, and bell pepper to the skillet and remove it from the heat. Remove the bones and chop the chicken into bite size pieces. Stir the chicken and vegetable-sausage mixture into the rice. Fluff with a fork.
Rizzie likes to use okra in one-pot meals, but she says her favorite way to prepare and eat okra is the way her Maum made it when Rizzie was a little girl. She told me, Maum would go out to our garden in the morning and cut a basket full of okra. She wore gloves because okra kind of stings your fingers. She brought it into the house and washed the okra and laid it out on a clean towel, but now you could use paper towels.
After the okra had dried from its bath, she cut the stalk ends off and sliced each pod into pieces about ½-inch long. She poured just a little bacon grease or oil in a cast iron skillet and turned the heat to medium high. Then she stirred the okra around until the edges turned brown. If she had a lot of okra, she’d fry it in more than one batch. You don’t want to overcrowd the skillet.
