Food As A Lens

Stumping and Eating: Puerto Rican Cuchifritos

2012-01-31T03:23:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

PuertoRican Papas Rellenas Recipe

Ingredients
Potatoes
Potato flakes or flour
Anatto powder seasoning (sazon) for coloring
Ground beef (vegan substitute)
Cooking oil
Salt
Adobo
Sofrito

Method
Season ground beef to taste and cookuntil brown. Cook potatoes as you would for mashed potatoes. Mash thepotatoes, add potato flakes, annato powder and salt. Mix together. Make surethe potatoes are not too soft or too hard. Heat oil in the pot while mixingpotatoes. Make a ball of the dough out of the mash potato making sure your handis cuffed making a half a ball out of the dough. Now spoon some meat inside thedough in your hand. Make another ball and flatten over the stuffed half makinga full ball out of the potato. If needed add some potato flakes or flour tomake sure the ball stays intact. Deep fry the potato ball in hot oil and cookuntil the ball turns bright orange and crispy.

Series Stumping And Eating AndRelated Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

In Florida, Vitriol Flies asRomney Sits Atop Polls Before Primary: [Watch or Listen 15 min 20sec] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/campaign_01-30.html

If Gingrich Loses Florida,What's His Path Forward?: [Watch or Listen 38 sec] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/jan-june12/stususan_01-30.html

Florida's I-4 CorridorInfluences GOP Primary: [Listen 3 min 48 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/146073039/floridas-i-4-corridor-drives-votes-to-gop-winner

How Primary Skirmish ToughensWhite House Bid: [Listen 11 min 59 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=146087628

Bilingualism A PoliticalLiability?: [Listen 4 min 24 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146062632/bilingualism-a-political-liability

Stumping and Eating: Puerto Rican Rice and Beans

2012-01-30T03:16:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Riceand Beans History and Recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/01/rice-and-beanspeas-and-rice-series-part_22.html

Bilingualism A PoliticalLiability?: [Listen 4 min 24 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/29/146062632/bilingualism-a-political-liability

Gingrich and Romney Battle in Winner-Take-AllFlorida: [Watch 12 min 35 sec] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/campaign_01-27.html

Frederick Douglass Opie, “Eating, Dancing, and Courting in New York Blackand Latino Relations, 1930-1970”: http://www.amazon.com/dancing-courting-relations-1930-1970-CONSUMERISM/dp/B001PC9SIW

Stumping and Eating: Puerto Rican Barbecue

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmernon Barbecue in Puerto Rico: [Watch starting at segment at 10 min 2 sec] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSz_EFMsBM0&feature=related

Puerto Rican in Central FloridaOral History Project: [Listen 10 min]http://myfloridahistory.org/node/1485

GOP Candidates Counting onLatino Voters: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/01/27/145995299/heading-into-final-fla-swing-gop-candidates-keep-courting-latino-voters

Jacksonian Democracy, Votes, and Food

2012-01-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

Shaker Pie, this and other pie recipe below

The Republican Primary in Florida is heating up with election day just around the corner. One common argument is that Governor Romney will win the primary because he has out spent his opponents 3 to 1. As a Professor of History and Foodways this interpretation reminds me of the Jacksonian era. During the antebellum period party operatives used “election day treating,” a practice rooted in British political culture, to get people to vote (your vote in exchange for food and spirits—especially whisky and rum). Historically the tactic had a strong class dimension to it and particularly so after 1828 when Jacksonian Democrats increased popular participation in elections by reducing residency requirements for voting, eliminating the practice of voting by voice, and increasing access to voting places. For the poor election day meant a mouthwatering spread that might include in the words of traveler Adam Hodgson, “four or five turkeys on the table, and the greatest possible variety and profusion of meat, poultry, and pastry” and decanters full of brandy, whisky, and rum. When I think of an old put extremely good southern pastry, lemon shaker pie comes to mine. Here’s a recipe and some additional pies recipes that are often forgotten too. Also see the piece on history in the making in a Mississippi election today.

Shaker Pie Recipe: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf100623piecast_lost_pies_of

GOP Candidates Counting onLatino Voters: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/01/27/145995299/heading-into-final-fla-swing-gop-candidates-keep-courting-latino-voters

Stumping and Eating: Puerto Rican Tamales

2012-01-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Pastelesor Puerto Rican-Style Tamales: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/ethnic-borderlands-and-foodways-in.html

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

InSpanish-Language Ads, A Question of Sincerity: [Listen 4 min 36 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145915069/in-spanish-language-ads-a-question-of-sincerity

RepublicansFlight for the Latino Vote: [Listen 11 min 44 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145905359/republicans-fight-for-the-latino-vote

Stumping and Eating: Cubans and Plantains

2012-01-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And RelatedRecipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

TraditionalMofongo Recipe
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/01/dining/011mrex.html

Vegan Mofongo Video Recipe
http://veganricans.blogspot.com/2008/11/vegan-mofongo-w-fried-tempeh.html

CubanPlantain Soup Recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/09/hispanic-history-month-and-foodways_26.html

Plantain History and Recipes:http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/09/bananas-asia-africa-and-iberian-america.html

Various Plantain Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/09/hispanic-history-month-and-foodways_23.html

Stumping and Eating: Cuban Rice and Beans

2012-01-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And EatingAnd Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

CubanRice and Beans History and Recipe:http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/01/rice-and-beanspeas-and-rice-series-part_22.html

Stumping and Eating: Cuban Barbecue

2012-01-24T08:13:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And RelatedRecipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Series The War For CubanIndependence and Food: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=The+Cuban+War+for+Independence+

La Caja China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WDbU5OyhGg

Roasting a Pig Inside anEnigma: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/dining/roasting-a-pig-inside-an-enigma.html?pagewanted=all

Cuban Recipes: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf030712cuban_cooking_screen

Roast Pork Recipe: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/main_mojoroastpork.html

Stumping and Eating Part 2: Cuban Coffee in Florida

2012-01-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

How to Make Cuban Coffee: [watch 1min 38 sec] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CQVzWfB_Ok

Comedian Ralphie Way onCuban Coffee in South Florida: [watch 3 min 18 sec] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDcQoUHVukw

Coffee in the CubanDiaspora: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/14/137152633/cuban-coffee-brand-may-pour-into-mainstream[Listen]

Coffee in Cuba Today:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130700949[Listen]

Series Stumping And EatingAnd Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Cuban Migration History, Frederick Douglass Opie, “Eating, Dancing, andCourting in New York Black and Latino Relations, 1930-1970”:http://www.amazon.com/dancing-courting-relations-1930-1970-CONSUMERISM/dp/B001PC9SIW

Stumping And Eating in Florida Part 1

2012-01-22T17:07:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

CubanHistory with Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/01/feeding-revolution-spanish-american-war.html

Series Stumping And EatingAnd Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Food and the 2012 Campaign: http://www.p2012.org/food/index.html

Chitlin Circuit Veteran Etta James Dies

2012-01-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

"Miss Peach," Etta James dies from leukemia at the age of 74

Singer Etta James Friday January 20 at the age of 74of leukemia.Born Jamesetta Hawkins in 1938 in depression era Los Angeles, James grewup as the child of a troubled teenager. As a result of her mother's lack of stability,James had a hard childhood filled with abandonment and abuse that continuedinto adulthood. Perhaps it's this history that gave her the ability to sing theblues with such authenticity. Similar to Aretha Franklin, James developed her sultrysinging style in a black Baptist church, made her living singing secular music, and struggled with overeating. James’ secular singing career first started on the streets of SanFrancisco where in addition to overeating problem she developed several substance abuse problems. Most notably she made her mark in a cappellagroup called the peaches from which she derived the nickname Miss Peach whichstuck until her death. Like Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, JamesBrown and others, James sang on the chitlin circuit with such notable artistssuch as Bo Diddley and little Richard. The chitlin circuit can be best describedas a string of black owned and operated elaborate theaters and humble juke joints across the United States where entrepreneurs produced shows and sold iconic soul food dishes such as collard greens, fried fish, cornbread, sweet potato pie, and cheap cuts of pork, such as chitlins and pickled pig’sfeet. Below find related links. And pleaseshare your comments below.

Etta James Photo Gallery: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-etta-james-obit-pictures,0,1599817.photogallery

Etta James Radio Interview: [Listen 19 min 5 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/20/138985700/etta-james-the-1994-fresh-air-interview

Etta James Obituaries:

WashingtonPost: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/etta-james-grammy-winning-blues-singer-with-pop-appeal-dies/2010/09/21/gIQApnhkDQ_story.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost

NPR:http://www.npr.org/2012/01/20/123125338/remembering-etta-james-stunning-singer

Book Discussion, The Chitlins Circuit and TheRoad to Rock 'N Roll: [Listen 41 min] http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/07/18/the-chitlin-circuit

Jimi Hendrix and the ChitlinCircuit: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Chitlin+Circuit

Peaches Recipes:

Traditional peach cobbler recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/peach_cobbler/

Vegan peach cobbler recipe: http://chetroy.com/healthyvegan/?p=185

Grilled peach recipes: http://hubpages.com/hub/Grilled_peaches_Three_ways_to_enjoy_ripe_local_peaches_on_the_BBQ

Food Stamps In Recession Era America

2012-01-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

'Food Stamp President': Race Code, Or Just Politics?: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/17/145312069/newts-food-stamp-president-racial-or-just-politics

Bob Dole & George McGovern - History of Food Stamp Program: [watch 14 min sec] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0_OWueb_8Y

Ethnic Breakdown of of SNAP 2010 Recipients: http://www.trivisonno.com/food-stamps-race

Food Stamps and Invisible Americans

2012-01-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

For South Carolinian Howard Furch thefood stamp issue that Newt Gingrich raised during the last Republican primary debateis more about whether or not a candidate for president can empathize with unemployedand underemployed poor Americans struggling to put food on their table and feedtheir children. Furch asked, how can a candidate who can run up a $500,000Tiffany bill and another one who can make a bet for $10,000 “relate to us?” Hisquestion reminded me of a book project that I'm working on that looks at MartinLuther King, Junior [MLK] through the lens of food. In his 1968 speech, “RemainingAwake Through A great Revolution,” King reflected on a recent trip he took toMarks, Mississippi, which at the time had the unflattering reputation as the poorestcounty in the United States. MLK recalled speaking with unemployed parents that had no kind of income, welfare, or food stamps. “I said how do you live? And theysaid well we go around—go around to the neighborhood and asked them for alittle something. When the berry season comes, we pick berries; when the rabbitseason comes, we hunt and catch a few rabbits that’s about it.” In the northern ghettos of 1968 Newark, NewJersey and Harlem in New York City, MLK also found parents struggling to putfood on the table and feed their children. King described these food deserts inthe rural South and urban north “as kind of domestic colon[ies]” where thepeople remained invisible because the economic divide in United States limited contact between them and the more affluent Americans who worked, worshiped, andrelaxed and in vastly different spaces. As King put it “our expressways carry us awayfrom the ghetto, [and] we don't see the poor." I argue that in historic prospective Gingrich's current stump speech on food stamps and the president is more about class than race considering that the majority of citizens who have received food stamps have been white and poor. More on this topic tomorrow; inthe meantime, enjoy the links below.

SeriesStumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

My Food Stamp Post: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=food+stamps

'Food Stamp President':Race Code, Or Just Politics?: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/17/145312069/newts-food-stamp-president-racial-or-just-politics

Bob Dole & George McGovern - History of Food Stamp Program: [watch14 min sec] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0_OWueb_8Y

Food Stamp Recipients in South Carolina: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/interactive/patchworknation/stats/food-stamps/food-stamp-recipients/sc/

Food and Females in South Carolina Political Culture

2012-01-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Professor of History and Foodways @ Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

South Carolina Voters and the GOP Debate: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/17/145357662/fiscal-conservatives-discuss-gop-debate

Women’s suffrage Timeline: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html

Oral History of Aikin South CarolinaSuffragist League Leader Eulalie Salley: http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0054/G-0054.html

Singing Before We Eat: MLK and Evangelical Leaders

2012-01-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Professor of History and Foodways @ Babson College

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

SantorumGets Backing From Social Conservatives: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/14/145235051/social-conservatives-vote-to-back-santorum

Cooking Up Change: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/16/145179885/cooking-up-change-how-food-helped-fuel-the-civil-rights-movement

MLK Through The Lens of Food Part 4: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Down home Montgomery, Alabama pound cake, recipes below

Yesterday I started talking about Martin Luther King (MLK), Georgia Gilmore, food, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. When Montgomery authorities arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, just about the entire black community of the city rallied to her aid. ED Nixon, President of the Montgomery NAACP and active member of A Phillip Randolph’s Pullman Porter’s Union, organized a meeting of the city’s black leaders. To insure solidarity among this often fragmented group, they agreed on MLK, a newcomer with impeccable credentials (Morehouse grad, PhD. from Boston University, Daddy King’s son, and a gifted orator) to serve as the president and spokesmen of the newly established Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Women, who Nixon did not invite to the MIA organizing meeting, organized their own groups. Georgia Gilmore, who took the lead, called them the “Club from No Where.” They included black women from the south side and west side of the city who organized clubs dedicated to using their baking skills to raise money for the MIA and the success of the bus boycott. I'll have more tomorrow on the Club from No Where, MLK, the bus boycott. Here’s a pound cake recipe like one members of the Club from No Where" would have used with my food translation.

Translated Simple Pound Cake Recipe:
1 pound butter substitute like Smart Balance
3 cups sugar
5 eggs (or egg substitute)
3 cups cake flour (you can get whole grain cake flour like baking with spelt flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup soy milk
A splash of vanilla, almond, or lemon extract

Method:
Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Beat until light. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Add slowly to butter mixture alternating with milk. Bake for about an hour and some change at 325

Vegan pound cake recipe: http://aveganfordinner.blogspot.com/2006/12/promised-poundcake-and-pizza-friday.html

Lemon coconut vegan pound cake: http://www.nibbledish.com/people/laraadler/recipes/lemon-coconut-pound-cake-vegan

MLK Through The Lens of Food Part 3: Montgomery, Alabama

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Stuffed pork chops, recipe below (photo from http://mistyyoon.com)

After Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) graduated from Morehouse, he left the South from 1948 to 1953 to attend graduate school in Pennsylvania and Boston. By age 24, MLK earned a Master’s of divinity and doctorate degree! He then married Coretta Scott and moves to Montgomery, Alabama become Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. In Montgomery King lived just three blocks from Georgia Gilmore a renowned cook in that city. When the bus boycott started in 1955, Gilmore testified in court in support of it and her employer, the National Lunch Company where she worked as a cook, fired her. MLK encouraged Gilmore and gave her the capital necessary start a catering business and restaurant out of her home. Gilmore had both black and white customers and folks from all walks of life who came to love her fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, stuffed pork chops, stuffed peppers, and chitins with coleslaw. Anytime VIP’s came to town King would bring them to Gilmore’s restaurant and he often retreated there to a get a good and safe home cooked meal. Let me suggest these stuffed pork chop recipes to go with this story.

Apple stuffed pork chops: http://mistyyoon.com/2010/01/15/apple-stuffed-pork-chops/

Stuffed pork chops: http://recipes.aarp.org/recipes/stuffed-pork-chops

Vegan stuffed pork chops: http://jennshaggy.blogspot.com/2008/12/vegan-goat-cheese-spinach-and-sun-dried.html

MLK Through The Lens of Food Part 2: The Morehouse Years

2012-01-16T04:30:00.000-08:00

Collard and Pinto Bean Chile, recipe below (photo from http://www.atlantamagazine.com/)

MLK attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, an all male Historical Black College (HBCU). MLK enrolled at the house at age 15 in 1944 graduating with honors in 1948! Morehouse was part of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), located in Southwest Atlanta, and African-American community. AUC schools included the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), Morris Brown College, Morehouse College, and Spelman College. Most HBCU students like King “were trying to go some place and get good food off campus. Because the food was just institutional,” remembers Spelman grad Stanlie M. James. The fact that HBCU cafeterias served one meal option that tasted “institutional,” translation—lacked soul, seemed the biggest complaint of students in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. More on MLK tomorrow. Here is a soulful recipe from Atlanta Magazine that fits with this story.

Collard and Pinto Bean Chile: http://www.atlantamagazine.com/southernrecipes/entrees/story.aspx?ID=1339550

Morehouse Cafeteria worker strike: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/morehouse-cafeteria-workers-on-663491.html

MLK Through The Lens of Food Part 1: Feed the Preacher

2012-01-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

Sweet potato cobbler, recipe below

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr's (MLK) Birthday. For me MLK, the black church, Atlanta, and Morehouse College are synonymous. MLK’s father, “Daddy King” was a prominent black preacher in Atlanta, the Black Southern Baptist Convention, and nationally. As such MLK and his family spent a lot of Sundays as the dinner guest of a member of his father’s congregation or that of another congregation when he was an invited speaker, “every family was expected to feed the preacher at least once during the year” writes Joyce White who grew up in Alabama in the 1940s across the borders from MLK's native Georgia. These great down home meals included various dishes ranging from roast pork, rice with gravy, fried chicken, stewed tomatoes, corn, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, corn bread, okra, and you had to leave room for a great dessert. Here is a sweet potato recipe that I’ve hear is sensational:

Sweet Potato Cobbler recipe: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Sweet-Potato-Cobbler

MLK the College Student in a 1947 op-ed: http://www.mlkonline.net/the-purpose-of-education.html

Barbecue And The South Carolina Primary

2012-01-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Professor of History and Foodways @ Babson College

The Barbecue Song!: [watch 3 min25sec] http://filmshare.info/view/812/the-bbq-song/

Barbecue history with recipes:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/12/european-influences-on-american.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/05/african-roots-of-carolina-and-florida.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/05/barbecue-sauce-eastern-north-carolina.html

Series Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Religion, Politics, And Food In The South Carolina Primary

2012-01-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

Frederick Douglass Opie, Babson College

TheSeries Stumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

SouthCarolina History And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=South+Carolina

In Search Of An'Anti-Romney': Guide To The Players: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/13/145129137/in-search-of-an-anti-romney-guide-to-the-players

Evangelical LeadersStruggle To Crown A Candidate: [Listen 4 min 22 sec]

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/13/145121706/evangelical-leaders-struggle-to-crown-a-candidate

Eating and Stumping: The South Carolina Primary Part 1

2012-01-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

Professor of History and Foodways Frederick Douglass Opie from his office at Babson College

They say confession is good for the soul. Well after many weeks and days of fear and trepidation of learning this new technology, today I'm posting my first of, Lord willing, many more video blogs. Like many things in life, the fear of learning this new technology held me back for too long and once I did it, I said, why did you wait so long? This is easy! As I learned when I first started this blog some three years ago, practice makes perfect, or as one of my lacrosse coaches once told me perfect practice makes perfect. Hope you enjoy the blog and share your comments and stories in the comments section below.

The SeriesStumping And Eating And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

South Carolina History And Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=South+Carolina

GOPCandidates Turn Attention To South Carolina: Listen [31 min 6 sec]: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/11/145046984/gop-candidates-turn-attention-to-south-carolina

The Country Store: Campaigning in New Hampshire vs. South Carolina

2012-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

A 1940s Louisiana Country Store, recipes below (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) click to enlarge image

The New Hampshire primary is over and those still inthe race have turned their attention back to South Carolina. I can't help but notice the contrast betweenretail politics in New Hampshire and South Carolina. In New Hampshire retailpolitics has historically meant meet and greets at Rotary clubs, country clubs,coffee houses, private homes, taverns,clam bakes, lobster bakes, barbecues, bakeries, sandwich shops and somethingunique—the country store. A look atcandidate visits in South Carolina and one is hard-pressed to find a countrystore on any of their itineraries. Country store have been important institutions in ruralSouth Carolina, yet they are not part of retail politics in 2011and 2012, but they were in rural New Hampshire. Historically, general stores, town stores, or country stores served as the center of rural communities. They functionedas spaces and places where farmers families could purchase items that they didnot or could not raise on their farms such molasses, sugar, salt, bakingpowder/baking soda, and snacks such as pickled pigs feet, chewing gum, soft drinks,ice cream, and cheese and crackers among others. It was not uncommon for acountry store owner to save up enough money to convert the store into partgrocery store and part eatery that included a short inexpensive menu steeped inlocal staples, produce and seafood and game that few could prepare as well asthe cook at the country store. These stores/eateries also served as spaceswhere one shared and gathered information on events near and far. As a resultthey naturally evolved into important spaces for candidates running for office.In short, candidates and or party activist well-versed in the per functionary traditions of retailpolitics (shaking hands, breaking bread, and a well-rehearsed stump speech tailoredto the needs of locals) have historically had to make the rounds at countrystores if they wanted the support of rural New Hampshire voters. Below I have links to related stories with recipes.More tomorrow on retail politics and food in the South Carolina primary.

Country store history and recipes:http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=store

The Series Stumping And Eating: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Stumping And Eating: The New Hampshire Primary Part 2

2012-01-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

New England Clam Chowder, recipes below (photo from http://heatovento350.blogspot.com)

Todayis the final push to get voters to the polls in the New Hampshire primary. Let's talk about the lunch and dinner eventsthat candidates did leading up to today. Similar to the number of breakfast eventswhich I discussed yesterday, I counted 41 lunches with campaign staff,volunteers (Republican Activist), and meet and greet voters' events. I foundabout the same number of public and private dinners among them spaghettidinners . Among the dinners the First in the Nation Presidential Dinner Cruiseon the M/S Mount Washington on Lake Winnipesaukee looked like a very posh eventfor those flush with discretionary money. Coffee with the candidate events servedas the least expensive for campaigns and activist to organize and they seemed anecessary for gaining support of New Hampshire voters. Candidates met votersand coffee houses across the state, as well as in private homes. Republicanactivist hosted coffees in their homes as a way of convincing voters to supporttheir candidate. At such events an event an activist host might serve cheeses,fruits, donuts and/or pastries. Moreover, New Hampshire’s WMUR-TV incollaboration with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics hosted a “Candidate Café”held at the Airport Diner in Manchester. The same station held a “Coffee withthe Candidate” series at the Portland Pie in Manchester as well. Napoleon famouslyremarked that an army marches on its belly. The same could be said ofcandidates and their 2012 March to the White House. Below find a clam chowderfrom the Old Salt Restaurant in Hampton one of the stops on the New HampshirePrimary campaign trail and other related links. Please share your campaign and food stories in the comment section below.

Old Salt Restaurant Clam Chowder Recipe

N.H. Female Voters Weigh In OnPrimary Issues: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/09/144888871/n-h-female-voters-weigh-in-on-primary-issues

The Series Stumping And Eating: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Stumping And Eating: The New Hampshire Primary Part 1

2012-01-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

Rum raisin French toast, recipes below (photo from http://www.looplane.com)

As a professor of history and foodways I have been looking electoral campaigns through the lens of food and doing a related series. Today let's talk about the current New HampshireRepublican Primary race. During the summer months New Hampshire lobster bakes and clam bakes topped several campaign managers' must do events. Campaigns event list. Stump speeches moved indoors with the arrival of cold weather in the fall. I found 40registered breakfasts with the voters meet and greet events held at favoritelocal eateries such as the Old Salt Restaurant in Hampton, Coach Stop Restaurantin Londonderry, The Friendly Toast and Geno’s Chowder and Sandwich Shop inPortsmouth, Joey’s in Amherst, Bonhoeffer’s Café in Nashua, the Country CookingCircle in Epsom, Lindy’s Diner in Keene, the Village Inn in Bedford, Lena’sLodge in Rindge, and Weeks Restaurant in downtown Dover just to name a few.Activist also held breakfast event in private homes, political clubs, and civicinstitutions such as Rotary and or Lions clubs. I am not sure if a Politics and Eggs Breakfast event is a distinctlyNew Hampshire institution, but from all accounts it’s a necessity to win thestate in which a voter decides who he or she will support after they haveshaken a candidate’s hand three or more times and broken bread with them. Moreon lunch and dinner on the campaign trail in New Hampshire tomorrow. Incase you were wondering a typical New Hampshire breakfast might include smokedbacon, ham and salmon, farm fresh eggs, French toast, jams, breads and muffins.

New HampshireRecipes: http://www.countryinnsinthewhitemountains.com/country-inn-recipes.htm

The Series Stumping And Eating: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Electoral+Politics+and+Food

Food and New Year’s Resolutions

2012-01-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Salad greens with beets and goat cheese, recipe below

In the summer of 2010 I had minor knew surgery that I had me laid up for a while then we made what turned out to be a very stressful relocation from metro New York to metro Boston. Add to this a harsh winter last year that just would not stop and I gained 20 pounds by the summer of 2011. In response, I bought running shoes and hit the pavement jogging on the weekends to aid to the bike riding and stationary bike riding I do week day mornings before heading into the office. In addition I cut down on deserts and eating late at night. By the end of 2011 I had lost the extra 20 pounds around my midsection and returned from a size 36 waist to a size 34. To keep the weight off, I am eating more produce and moving more. During my travels through the South last week I noted how difficult it could be to find cooks who did not season cabbage and collard greens without pork and noted places that can be best be described as food deserts--they neighborhoods without access to fresh produce never mind s grocery store. I mentioned this because it New Year’s resolution time again when folks try and lose weight. North Americans are historically more overweight than residents of any other nation in the world; African-American eating habits are just as problematic as the eating habits of other ethnic groups within the United States. According to Joan B. Lewis, a member of the American Dietitian Association and a registered dietitian with more than forty years of experience, historically, most of the eating patterns that you see among Americans are “sugar, salt, fat, you know fatty products, a whole lot of fried stuff, a whole lot of pork products, a whole lot of fast food, no vegetables, no fruit, [and generally] no good wholesome things" that reduce one's chance of obesity and risk factors for high blood pressure and diabetes. If you must make a New Year’s resolution, commit to making it a habit to eat more vegetables and fruits and exercise more. Here is the recipe to the salad featured above.

Dandelion Green Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese recipe: http://flapperfood.blogspot.com/2009/07/dandelion-green-salad-with-beets-and.html

The Soul Southern Eating: Grits

2012-01-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

Shrimp over grits, recipes below

Last week I drove down south in an RV and did field work with my family along for the ride. You cannot say you have eaten southern cuisine with out enjoying a plate of grits which I would argue is one of the several staples that make up the core or soul of southern cuisine. What I like most about eating breakfast in the south is that people don't play; the they feed you and you don't need to eat again in most cases until 1 or 2 pm! As a largely agricultural and fishing societies southerners developed foodways that overtime had the family cook and or operators of boarding houses, and eateries preparing a large breakfast including seafood and other similarly lunch or dinner time foods in other cultures to help workers complete rigorous calorie burning manual labor. The problem is now most of us simply don't do that that much manual labor from sun up to sun down six days a week. I also enjoy grits because like rice you can serve all kinds of food on top of them and they absorb flavors very well. Aretha Franklin, who was born in south, had a favorite eatery when performing in New York City called Kelly’s restaurant in Atlantic City where she had a reputation for ordering after-hours meals of hot sauced wings and grits. Like fried chicken and waffles, hot wings and grits are closely associated with entertainer whose jobs had them getting off work early in the morning. Grits are made from ground hominy and that's where I derived part of the title of my book Hog and Hominy . As the link below shows, the origins of hominy are ancient Guatemala maize culture and from there it migrated to the Indians of North America who introduced it to European settlers and enslaved Africans. Today it is very popular on the menu of many southern and Latin American restaurants. Here’s a New Year’s cooking resolution; try cooking with grits this year or serving them as a side dish. Here are some recipes:

Shrimp and Grits: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=443571

Vegetarian Menudo: http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/56/299250.shtml

Vegetarian Pozole: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/soup/recipe-vegetarian-posole-075578

Garlic cheese grits: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=853994

Maize culture and recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/11/native-american-foodways-corn.html

Aretha Franklin stories withrecipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Aretha

The Day of Epiphany or Old Christmas Foodways

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Roast chicken with lemon and herbs, recipes below (photo from http://dishingup.wordpress,com)

I talked about the January 6, the he Day of Epiphany, and the Feast of the Three Kings tradition practiced among Catholics of Latin American descent on yesterday’s post. Among Protestants here in the United States you find The Day of Epiphany called Old Christmas and it’s practiced among some whites, particularly in the Appalachian mountain regions, and among some African Americans in the south. For example, I interviewed Benjamin Outlaw for my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/excerpt. Outlaw comes from the same hometown as my maternal grandmother, Windsor, North Carolina. His mother, Hattie Outlaw, prepared her New Year’s Day meal on the sixth of January, which she called “old Christmas,” he says. What is noteworthy here is that his mother’s menu did not include pork (like most southerners do on New Year’s Day). “Mama would make roast chicken, collard greens, desserts, and stuff like that,” recalls Benjamin Outlaw. Roast chicken recipes below.

Featured photo and recipe for roast chicken with lemon and herbs: http://dishingup.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/roasted-chicken-with-lemon-and-herbs-with-potatoes-dauphinoise/

Sara’s roast chicken with sage and garlic: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Saras-Roast-Chicken-with-Sage-and-Garlic

Orange roasted vegetarian "chicken" recipe: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/orangechicken.htm

Vegan roasted chicken soup: http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/gluten-free-progressive-dinner-vegan-un-chicken-roasted-vegetable-soup-recipe-4437.html

Food and The Three Kings Traditions

2012-01-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

Raul Gonzales of Grand Morelos Bakery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn holding a traditional three Kings Bread, recipes below, photo by Erica Sackin

You’ve heard the song the Twelve Days of Christmas. But, what does that actually mean? Most folks celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a special meal. But some also celebrate the Twelve days after Christmas on January 6.^th The Day of Epiphany or the appearance of Christ to gentiles as the Christ. This celebration is rooted in studies of the bible and, a calendar in which some hold the belief that January 6^th is when the Three Wise Men came to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus. What I find interesting is how this holiday has a very long history dating back to the Middle Ages but with different names across the Atlantic world. Catholics settlers in Latin America dubbed it the day of the three kings. Today many people of Latin American heritage are preparing elaborate feasts with many traditional dishes. Here are two recipes below you can try.

Mexican Rosca de Reyes/Three Kings Bread recipe: http://cookinginmexico.com/2010/01/06/rosca-de-reyes-three-kings-bread-for-epiphan/

Three Kings Caribbean Bread with coffee recipe: http://cookingdiva.net/blog/comments/three_kings_tropical_bread_with_coffee_rosca_de_reyes_al_caf/

Related story link to the photo: http://24sevenbrooklyn.blogspot.com/search/label/Three%20Kings%20Day

ForSome, Three Kings Day Is Bigger Than Christmas: [Listen 6 min30 sec] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/06/144789992/for-some-three-kings-day-is-bigger-than-christmas

Field Work and Food in Metro DC

2012-01-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

Cashew Nog, recipe below (photo from http://catnip13.blogspot.com)

Passed through D.C. on the way to Florida in a RV. The stop reminded me of the time I spent in the city while in graduate school in the 1990s. After I passed my comps and received the approval of my dissertation proposal, I headed to Washington, D. C. to do research using State Department records in the National Archives. For the next two years I would be researching and writing about an African Diaspora on the Caribbean Coast of turn of the century Guatemala in Central America. The problem was I had little to no research support. I had spent a good amount of time applying for funding including a Full Bright Application to do archival research in Guatemala. Unfortunately I found out after I completed my degree that a professor who agreed to write a letter of recommendation for my funding application had submitted letters that undermined my work and thus sabotaged my chances of getting research support. These things don’t happen often but they happen so be careful who you ask for a letter of recommendation. To make ends meet, I took out student loans to finance the last stage of Ph.D. studies. Fortunately my brother, a Howard University graduate, opened his home to me on 14^th and Fairmount to me. His home was relatively close to the National Archives, the foodie friendly Adam Morgan Section, and U Street. This was in 1996 before the gentrification of U Street and the arrival of Whole Foods Market there. The house was also blocks from Georgia Avenue and Howard University which had a great bodega like place with a hot bar called Everlasting Life. This place I remember well because it had the best food, including appetizers, entrees, desserts, and smoothies and everything organic and vegan. Anytime I return to D. C. I make a trip there. Their cashew nog made from freshly ground cashews, soy and coconut milk represented the most iconic item on the menu and it’s incredible! And the desserts, they had really great baked goods.

Everlasting Life Menu: http://www.everlastinglifecafe.com/menu.html

Cashew Nog recipe: http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/alcoholic-drinks/cashew-egg-nog.html

Food and in Civil War Era Georgia

2012-01-03T04:00:00.000-08:00

Stir Fried sweet potato greens and shrimp, recipe below

My family and I are doing a RV trip from Boston to Florida with stops in the Carolinas and Georgia. Here is a look at the Civil War through the lens of food. Samuel H. Sprott was the son of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian immigrants born in 1840 in Sumter County, Alabama. During the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the Fortieth Alabama Regiment of the confederate army. Sprott provides a description of confederate food shortages during the Atlanta campaign: “We had been living the entire campaign on toasted cornbread, and broiled bacon, and the men were nearly crazy for vegetable[s] . . . I saw men gathering poke salad, potato tops, lamb’s quarters, and even the tender shoots of the careless weed,” in an attempt to eat some greens. Lambs quarters are edible members of the spinach and Swiss chard family but with more nutrients and potato tops are sweet potato leaves. As a “weed” and a tuber that grew underground, lambs quarters and sweet potatoes would have survived General William Tecumseh Sherman’s scorched earth strategy during his march through Georgia which he used to try starving confederate forces into surrendering, which they did in April of 1865. My research reveals lots or recipes for both plants and the popularity of sweet potato tops in Asian cookery. Below are a number of recipes using both plants. Lamb quarters came to North America from Europe, most likely the United Kingdom, during the colonial period. Sweet potato is an American plant that most likely travelers introduced to Asia via Africa in the eighteenth century. For more on southern foodways and plant history see my book Hog and Hominy h ttp://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/tableOfContents.

Lamb quarter recipes: http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/lambs%20quarters.htm

Sweet potato tops salad recipe: http://ascientistinthekitchen.net/salads/sweet-potato-kamote-tops-salad/

Stir fried sweet potato tops and shrimp recipe: http://www.myasiankitchenny.com/2009/08/stir-fry-sweet-potato-leaves-in-sambal.html

New York City Food History Series Appetite City

2012-01-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

Photo of Archibal John Motely Jr.'s "Chicken Shack" Courtesy of the National Archives

Appetite City: Soul Food
Host William Grimes takes a journey back in time to the glory days of Harlem when he explores the origins and evolution of “Soul Food.” At a favorite local restaurant he speaks with soul food expert and author Frederick Douglass Opie and later has our historic gastronomist whip up a soul food favorite. Then viewers can join award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson at his newest Harlem-based restaurant where he’s putting a whole new spin on this down-home favorite.

Watch now [26:46] http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycmg/nyctvod/html/home/appt101.html

New Year's Day Traditions and Food

2012-01-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

A sign in some unknown part of the Southern United States, related recipes below

“I don’t care where you are,” writes North Carolinian Reginald Ward, black folk are going to eat “strictly pork” on New Year ’s Day. Tradition calls for cooking “black-eyed peas, hog head, a whole hog head now, pig tails, pigs feet.” He goes on to say, “You can go just about anywhere, and people who were born in the South, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee,” cook pork on New Year’s Day. I interviewed Ward for my book Hog and Hominy. Having lived in California in the 1960s, Ward noticed that, “everybody born in the South was looking for pork” on New Year’s. As a result, the price of smoked and pickled pork parts like pigs’ feet and hog maws in California supermarkets became expensive around New Year’s. Historically this how southerners ate on New Year’s; and this tradition has caused a lot of serious health problems because folks ate a lot of pork on other days of the year too. Ease up on the pork this New Year’s day and for the coming year. We can celebrate New Years and eat healthy and good tasting food too. Here some recipes you can try that are traditional but healthy and great tasting.

Vegan Smothered cabbage recipe: http://www.all-creatures.org/mhvs/recipes-

Vegan jambalaya recipe: http://www.veganmeat.com/recipes2/jambalaya.html

Vegan ropa vieja recipe:http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27125

Off the hook Vegan Brunswick stew recipe: http://veganthyme.blogspot.com/2009/12/vegan-brunswick-stew-topped-with-spelt.html

Hoppin’ John and Collard Greens, It's Tradition

2011-12-31T04:00:00.000-08:00

Hoppin' John, recipes below

I am doing a RV trip and field work in the South this holiday. Today we are in South Carolina about to visit Charleston and Sullivan's Island. When South Carolinians relocated to places like New York, St. Louis, and Chicago, African American Southern migrants brought with them a tradition of church membership and Watch Night services which was a well-attended service where down-home southern cooking was available in abundance for free. Southern superstition established the tradition of serving hoppin’ John, black-eyed peas (cowpeas from West Africa) and rice and collard greens in addition to other traditional dishes depending on where the southern migrant community was from. Hoppin’ John was black-eyed peas and rice, beans, red peppers, and salt pork cooked to a stew like consistency. It is probable that hoppin’ John evolved out of the rice and bean mixtures such as dab-a-dab (the rice, beans, vegetables, meat, palm oil, and pepper dish) that West African slaves survived on during the middle passage. Many southerners believed that the black-eyed peas symbolized coins and and the greens dollars. Many believed that eating them insured economic prosperity for the coming year. A similar tradition exist in Latin America where the Atlantic slave trade resulted in the forced migration of thousands of enslaved African there too. Below are Hoppin’ John recipes.

Traditional hoppin’ John: http://blog.syracuse.com/entertainment/2009/12/hoppin_john_a_traditional_dish.html

Vegan hoppin’ John: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=406

Pork Seasoned Collard Greens: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/collard_greens_with_bacon/

Healthier Collard Greens: http://www.healthyselfandhome.com/InTheKitchen.html

Vegan Collard Greens

Ingredients

1 bunch of greens: collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, or chard
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt, depending on the saltiness of your stock

Liquid smoke or smoked paprika

Method

Wash the collards good in plenty of slightly salted water, strip the leaves off the steams, discard the steams and cut the greens into small pieces. Start out with 3 bunches which will serve 6 people, they are big but they cook down like spinach. I steam mine in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes until the fibrous leaves are easy to eat. Steaming preserves the water soluble vitamins that are killed when you just boil the greens down like most of my ancestors have done for years. Remove the collards from the pressure cooker and save the water to make the pot-licker or stock. Season the water with 3 cubes of vegetable bullion, dried bay leaf, dried red pepper flakes, little vinegar, and some honey. Had some smoked paprika or a little liquid smoke which most grocery stores sell if you like that smoked meat flavor (the traditional recipe calls for a smoked ham hock or a hunk of smoked fat back). The pot-licker is full of vitamins and great seasoning for the greens Sauté the steamed greens with chopped onions and garlic in olive oil with your preferred seasonings like pepper, salt, etc. Add sautéed greens to the pot-licker and let them marinade for 30 or more minutes.

African Heritage in SouthCarolina: http://www.sciway.net/hist/chicora/slavery18-2.html

Anthony Bourdain in SouthCarolina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlsuKTebbbM

Those Who Passed in 2011: Joe Frazier the Wizard of Boxing

2011-12-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

Ali and Singer Arthur Prysock in the kitchen eating a burger at one of his Champburger franchises in Northwest Miami, 1969

Last month boxing legend "Smoking" Joe Frazier died. The son of a South Carolina sharecropper, Frazier migrated to Philadelphia where he came up through the ranks as an extremely disciplined hard working and hard hitting no flashy stuff boxer. He stood in stark contrast to his handsome, charismatic, poetic, and militant arch rival Muhammad Ali. As a Muslim Ali refused to be drafted into the U. S. army during the Vietnam War, telling a reporter, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Congs. No Viet Cong ever called me Nigger.” His position resulted in Federal charges of violating the U. S. government’s Selective Service Act, a sentence of five years imprisonment, and a fine of $1, 00,000. He appealed the decision consequently keeping out of jail. However, The World Boxing Association stripped him of his title and boxing license and the government forced him to surrender his passport thus preventing him from earning money as a professional boxer at home or abroad. Growing up in my black power (mom) and race man (dad) home we lampooned Frazier because Ali openly ridiculed him as ugly and an Uncle Tom. Years later my view of Frazier changed as one my students did a research paper in which he found that like Booker T. Washington, Frazier had another side to him that few knew: he admired Ali stance against the war and support of the civil rights and black power movements; insisted Ali accept his financial when he went broke why banned from boxing; and he lobbied hard to get the ban lifted. If Washington was the Wizard of Tuskegee, Frazier was the Wizard of Boxing. During Ali's almost penniless time in his life he later signed a restaurant franchise deal that netted him $900,000 from the Champburger Company for the use of his name and image and a 1% royalties on the company’s annual profits. In 1968, Champburger stock sold for $5 a share. The licensing contract he signed stipulated that all franchise menus sell Muslim friendly food thus in addition to the all beef Champburger, the menu including all beef “hot dogs, fried chicken, fried fish, boiled fish, and Mr. Champ soda.

Remembering Joe Frazier And An Epic Boxing Rivalry: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142123491/boxing-legend-joe-frazier-loses-cancer-battle

Ali’s recipes for life: http://lybio.net/muhammad-ali-recipe-for-life/boxing/

Daily News Remembrance of Joe Frazier: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-2058866/Joe-Frazier-obituary-The-little-guy-shocked-The-Greatest-Muhammad-Ali.html

Never seen Life Magazine photos of Ali vs. Frazier 1971: http://www.life.com/gallery/56541/never-seen-ali-vs-frazier-1971#index/4

Remembering SomeRemarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Those Who Passed in 2011: Archibald Clark West

2011-12-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

"Arch" West Inventor of Doritos Brand Tortilla Chips Playing gold in Palm Springs, 1970

Related recipe below

I confess in high school I could best be described asa Doritos junkie. Consider by many, but not by Frito-Lay, the inventor of theDorito brand, Arch West died in September of 2011 at the age of 97. The childof poor Scottish immigrants, West was born in 1914 in Indianapolis, Indiana.Poverty led his parents to put West and his brother into the Masonic children'shome. After graduating high school he attended Franklin College near Indianapolis. He earned earn his degree and worked for a short stintas a traveling salesman eventually landing in New York City where he joined aMadison Avenue advertising firm. His most notable early work included workingon the J-E-L-L-O gelatins andpudding marketing campaigns. He served in the Navy during World War II andafter the war he joined the Dallas-based Frito-Lay company in 1960. While onvacation in San Diego in 1961, Frito-Lay marketing executive Arch Westpurchased some fried Mexican Tortilla chips at a roadside stand. The experienceinspired him to develop a market. What became the brand name Dorito based onthe word doradito the Spanish wordfor little golden. Frito-Lay Company took the traditional Mexican snack foodand added coloring and flavor enhancers. In 1964, they released the product inSouthern California, where it became a hit and nationally in 1966 to ravereviews by customers around the country. Over time, the company developed a number of flavors. Most recently in response to health concernsthe company reduced amount of salt in the product and transfats from itsingredients. Today Doritos represents Frito-Lay's second-best seller after Layspotato chips with annual sales approximately $5 billionannually.

Remembering SomeRemarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Kick Start the Forthcoming documentary Soul Food Junkie: http://umystic.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/soul-food-junkies/

Those Who Passed in 2011: Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt Part

2011-12-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

I have talked about the Black Panther Party’s Free Food Program in earlier post http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_09.html.Former Black Panther Elmer Pratt, who changed his name in 1968 to Geronimo Ji Jaga, died in Tanzania on June 2, 2011 at the age of 63. Born in 1947 in Morgan City, Louisiana, Pratt joined the Army where he served in Vietnam as a highly directed solider. After the military he migrated to Los Angeles where he attended UCLA on the GI Bill. Pratt joined the Panthers Los Angeles chapter and quickly rose through the ranks to become its Minister of Defense and then its leader. At the time the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program carried out a plan to destroy radical groups like the Panthers, Students for Democratic Society (SDS), The Young Lords, Brown Berets, and others late 1960s groups. FBI documents show that U. S. officials with the help of informants murdered a number of radicals including member of the Panthers and framed others leading to their arrest and incarceration. FBI informants also fomented schism within radical groups that led to internal conflict and violence. In 1969 the LA police department arrested Pratt in connection with a 1969 SWAT team attack on the LA Panther office. He was held without bail and finally gained release in 1970 after which time he went underground. He went to Texas and set up a secret military training camp for the Panthers. The FBI learned is location arrested him and extradited him back to Los Angeles.

Louisiana Jambalaya Poem and recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/04/historic-poems-and-food-series.html

Related Links on Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=pratt

Remembering SomeRemarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Those Who Passed in 2011: Elizabeth Taylor

2011-12-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Tayloer as Cleopatra in 1963, related recipes below

Elizabeth Taylor is another notable who died in March of 2011. Taylor was born in 1932 a suburb of London in the UK during the Great Depression as the daughter of two U. S. expatriates from Kansas. Her parents relocated back in the United States shortly before the start of World War II eventually settling in Los Angeles. A particular beautiful child, several family friends urged her parents to have their daughter tryout of a Hollywood role. Childhood star in the picture industry, Taylor went on to become an “A” actress who could demand lucrative contracts. In 1960 she became the highest paid actress of her era when she signed a contract with 20^th Century Fox to star in the movie Cleopatra. I remember as a child hearing my mother resenting racist casting practices in Hollywood and how symbolic it was that 20^th Century Fox had white actors playing North African characters in movies like the Ten Commandments and Cleopatra. Now here is the food angle to this post. Elizabeth Taylor demonstrated her foodie credentials during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome when she had buckets of Chasen’s chili ordered as takeout from the Los Angeles based restaurant and flown to Italy. Now that’s star power! Below is a recipe to Ms. Taylor favorite chili, a vegan chili recipe, and some related links about her additional food qualifications.

Chasen’s Chili recipe: http://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/blogs/a-chili-recipe-to-honor-elizabeth-taylor

Vegetarian chili recipes: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/1275/

Chicago Tribune article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-23/entertainment/chi-elizabeth-taylors-food-favorites-20110323_1_elizabeth-taylor-diet-book-debbie-reynolds

1966 movie clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQeJr65CBVE&feature=related

Remembering SomeRemarkable Lives Lost In 2011: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/144190937/remembering-some-remarkable-lives-lost-in-2011

Jack Lalanne The Pioneering Food Rebel

2011-12-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Jack LaLanne's Cook Book (photo from http://www.jacklalanne.com/blog/)

This week I will be doing some biographies on notable people who died in 2011 through the lens of food. Jack Lalanne died last January at the age 96! Correctly most people associate Lalanne with exercise and fitness (grew up watching him do his thing in his body suit on TV in the 1970s) but he was also what I call a food rebel. Like Dr. Alvenia Fulton http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_21.html, Lalanne was one of the early pioneers in the good food movement. Born in 1914 in San Fransico, Lalanne converted to healthy eating after hearing nutrition guru. Lalanne’s conversion happened at age 15 while attending Paul C. Bragg lecturer at a women’s club that his mother attended in San Fransico. At the time Lalanne had a regular diet of junk food and he had recently dropped out of high school. Bragg inspired Lalanne to go cold turkey and beat his junk food addiction. Lalanne insisted that he made himself both start exercising and eating hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal, soy milk, and fresh fruit for breakfast and for lunch and dinner foods such as raw vegetable salads, egg whites, fish high in omega 3s like salmon and drinking a glass of red wine. Overtime he transformed his body from skinny and out of shape to a rock hard physique. In 1936 at the age of eighteen, in Oakland, California he opened a first of its kind modern gym with equipment he designed, a juice bar that sold raw fruit and vegetable juices, and nutritious baked goods that his mother made. His facility also included and a health food store. As his business grew he turned to television to market his message about the power of exercise and good food first starting on local stations in the Bay area in 1951 and then on national day time television in 1959. With his increased popularity he went on to market his own juicer and warned against the evils of sugar, tobacco, caffeine asking, “You like your dog? Would you get your dog up in the morning and give him a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a doughnut?” Another memorable Lalanne saying is Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together, and you’ve got a kingdom.” Here are some magnificent videos including one of the old Jack Lalanne show and an interview of Lalanne and his wife when he was 92.

The Jack Lalanne show: http://www.jacklalanne.com/watch-jack/

Jack Lalanne Washington Post video interview: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/05/18/VI2007051800916.html?sid=ST2011012401518

So Are Waffles a Southern Christmas Thing?

2011-12-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

Scrumptious Decorative Waffles

My wife grew up in the South with the tradition of eating waffles on Christmas morning. Most likely her mother introduced the tradition from growing up in Pinehurst, Georgia. So are waffles a southern Christmas tradition? The Dutch introduced waffles to the Americas. The majority of Dutch society generally ate pancakes and waffles prepared in frying pans and waffle irons on iron spider legged stands placed over hot coals. From the Netherlands waffle culture spread to other parts of Europe like Belgium where they changed and altered to satisfy local taste and desires. After 1492, the Dutch West India Company shipped these kitchen tools to settlers in the Caribbean and the New Netherlands (New York). From New York pancake and waffle culinary culture most likely spread to other North American colonies visa vise sailors based in the port of New York who traveled on merchant ships to Baltimore, Charleston, Mobil, and New Orleans and introduced waffle irons to the folks who ran boarding houses and inns. As you can see from the photo, waffles, particularly Belgium waffles may have started out as working class comfort food, but it has come in some instances haute cuisine. But for my Christmas breakfast, there is little better than a simple piping hot Belgium waffle eaten with melted butter and hot maple syrup with chunks of strawberries or blueberries in it.

Why My Father Gave To the Salvation Army

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Salvation Army distributing Christmas baskets of food, Chicago 1903

As an adult, my Dad Fred Opie Jr. made regular donations to the Salvation Army as homage to the work they had done in the Tarrytowns during the Depression when he was growing up, especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He would periodically say, “If it wasn’t for the Salvation Army, my family would have never survived the Depression.” My Aunt Dot [Dorothy] told me that during the Depression and the war, “I can remember them knocking on the door, and they would bring us food for Thanksgiving and Christmas . . . when we lived” in a cold water flat. During my Dad’s youth in the 1930s and 1940s, the Salvation Army provided food relief to needy families in his working class neighborhood with no regard to ethnicity. As I did during Thanksgiving, I encourage everyone to give your money and or your time to their ministry this Christmas season to help feed families in need.

Cakes on Christmas Have An Old History

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Coconut Layer Cake, recipes below

In an earlier story in my Christmas series I talked about Fruit cakes. However cakes with icing on Christmas also a old history. During the antebellum period and for many years thereafter, Christmas would have been one of those rare times that the marginalized—be they enslaved Africans, freedmen, or impoverished whites—ate cake. Why, because the ingredients including the flour, baking powder, sugar necessary to make a cake represented a sum of many that would have taken the average person weeks if not months to earn. Most for example ate far more cornbread than fine flour biscuits which most considered a special occasion food served on holidays or when your family had the honor to host the preacher or some other special guest. I found a source that described how a female slave owner on a plantation in nineteenth century Norwood, Louisiana served her slaves a lavish Christmas meal including “frosted cake” among other special occasion items. Here’s a coconut cake recipe that you might consider for the holidays it derives from the work of my friend food chemist Shirley O. Corriher of Georgia. Here’s link to Shirley’s latest book Bakewise and a video in which she explains why the book is essential reading for anyone serious about baking http://books.simonandschuster.com/BakeWise/Shirley-O-Corriher/9781416560784.
Coconut Cake Recipe:
Ingredients
Pam
Wax paper
2 large eggs at room temperature or substitute
3large egg yolks at room temperature or substitute
½ cup buttermilk or substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cake flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened or substitute
1/3 cup almond oil
Cake Method:
Cake: place oven shelf at the top of the lower third and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 2 round cake pan with Pam; shortening will work too. Note: mixing all the fat with the dry ingredients greases the proteins, which prevents the gluten formation and makes for a very tender cake. Mix eggs, yolks, buttermilk, and vanilla extract in a medium sized mixing bowl. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a cake mixer on low to moisten dry ingredients. Then increased speed to medium and mix for 1.5minutes. Next introduce the egg mix and beat for 20 minutes. Again until all of the egg mixture is incorporated. Pour into the cake pan and bake for about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for approximately 10 minutes. Loosen the sides then turn upside down onto wax paper and then a cooling rack; be sure the cake is cool before icing.
Icing:
1 ½ cups of sugar
16 ounces of sour cream or substitute
18 ounces flacked sweetened frozen coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing Method: 30 minutes before icing the cake, stir together the sugar, sour cream, coconut, vanilla, keeping 3tablespoons coconut to garnish the cake. Refrigerate mix for 30 minutes. While the cake is still warm, cut horizontally into three layers. Using a tooth pick, poke holes approximately 1-inch apart until entire cake has been poked. Spread 1/3 of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process again. (As you stack layers together stick them with toothpicks to prevent cake from shifting). Garnish the entire cake with remaining coconut flakes. Refrigerate for about 2 hours before serving or over night for best results and serve cold.

BBC Fruit Cake Recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/fruit_cake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_moist_all-purpose_35561

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

BBC Marzipan Christmas cake with butter icing recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

American Fruit Cake Recipes: http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcakerecipes.html

Where Is The Rice?

2011-12-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

A bowl of Carolina long grain rice, related recipes below

One year my children and I joined some members of our church in making dinner for male residents of a YMCA in their forties and over. Many of them could best be described as brothers, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers estranged from their families for the holidays for various and sundry reasons. We prepared a Christmas ham and several sides including sweet potato casserole, string beans, biscuits, and pineapple. For dessert we served fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. The residents of the Y slowly poured into the make shift dining room in the church’s fellowship hall and started through the buffet line filling their plates. They then sat and enjoyed the food with many raving about how good it all tasted. A short time later, an African American Y resident in his fifties started through the line filling his plate like the previous men, but stopped half way through the buffet line with a confused look on his face. I asked, what’s the matter? He said with a heavy southern accent, “Where is the rice?” I said you must be from the Carolinas? He said “yup I’m from South Carolina.” The exchange reminded of the centrality of rice in the culinary history of many parts of the Americas where slave traders imported thousands of Africans from the West African rice belt between Cape Verde andthe Gold Coast. I found a similar reaction to Christmas meal in sources on turn of the century Cuba. At a Christmas supper, people of all social classes in Cuba, the Carolinas, and the West Indies would regard but indifferently the sliced ham, boned turkey, or the fish if a huge bowl of rice did not accompany them. So you don’t forgot the rice this Holiday season I provided some rice stories and recipes below. Please share your related memories in the comment section below, we love to read them!

Rice Pudding: http://www.roadfood.com/Recipes/88/rice-pudding

Vegan Rice Pudding: http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2010/03/veggie-might-vegan-rice-pudding-or-what.html

Mushroom Risotto Recipe:http://schnitzelandthetrout.blogspot.com/2010/09/memorable-mushroom-risotto.html

Vegan Mushroom Risotto Recipe: http://veganventures.blogspot.com/2006/08/mushroom-risotto.html

My Rice and Beans/Peas and Rice Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Rice+and+Beans%2FPeas+and+Rice+Series

You've Come A Long Way Dumpling!

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Apple dumpling, recipes below

Dumplings and their multitude of cousins—wonton, ravioli, and matzo ball just to name a few—have an ancient history. The term dumpling first appears in written form about the start of the 17^th century. Like its cousins, dumplings most likely originated in the kitchens of peasants (subsistence farmers) and proletarians (wage workers) as a savvy cost saving filler made with vegetables and little bit of meat to season the flour based dumpling. But people also made dumplings with fruit. In short, Various forms of dumplings exist; some filled some not. But they all originated as poor folks attempt to provide an inexpensive, nutritious, and filling meal. In the African American tradition dumplings have their roots all the way back to Africa, the European colonization of the Americas, and the African slave Trade. Who had the stronger influence on dumplings during the colonial period--European settlers or enslaved Africans--depended on what part of the Americas you are talking about and who settled where in what ethnic ratio. For example in the Chesapeake region which was pretty homogenous in terms of Africans and Europeans, Virginia slave Louis Hughes recalled, “Peach cobbler and apple dumpling were the two dishes that made old slaves smile for joy and the young fairly dance.” Here are some apple dumpling recipes:

Video Apple Dumpling recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p6L4qokz-c

Apple Dumpling Recipe: http://www.history.org/almanack/life/food/fdapdump.cfm

Vegan Apple Dumpling Recipe:http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/10/vegan-apple-dumpling-cinnamon-rolls.html

Chicken and Dumplings For Christmas

2011-12-20T06:30:00.000-08:00

Chicken and Dumplings, recipes below

Making dumplings represented a creative way people have used for centuries to utilize scraps from the production of biscuits and breads to fill the stomachs of a large family and one practiced across the world. The tradition came up in interviews I did with southerners and the children of southerners who grew up in northern cities. A case in point is that Ruth Thorpe Miller’s mother from Savannah, made chicken ’n’ dumplings for Christmas long after migrating to Harlem in the 1920s. Similarly my great aunt Maggie White from Windsor, North Carolina migrated to Ossining, New York, in Westchester County, 30 minutes north of New York City. During the Great Depression she kept her “big boned” children filled with chicken ’n’ dumplings during the holidays. And Joyce White tell us that in the 1940s, Christmas as a child in Alabama would be filled with the “warming aroma of Chicken ’n’ Dumplings, which was made with a big hen,” in her mom’s kitchen. Below are some chicken ’n’ Dumpling recipes. Please share your dumpling stories from your childhood in the comment section below. I know that many people have them and I and others read them with great interest.

Traditional Chicken ’n’ Dumpling Recipe: http://www.ifood.tv/network/chicken_dumplings_southern_style/recipes

Vegan Chicken ’n’ Dumpling Recipe: http://veganchicksrock.blogspot.com/2007/10/vegan-chicken-and-dumplings.html

British Influences on American Foodways: Fruit Cake

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

A classic British influenced Holiday Fruit Cake, recipes below

While doing interviews for my book Hog and Hominy I found a number of Americans with vivid memories of fruit cake from their childhood. They remind us of the British cultural footprint print left throughout her colonies long after independence. This is another chapter in our continuing series on British influences on the Americas. Clara [Bullard] Pittman, is a terrific cook born in 1948 in the very rural farming community of Pinehurst, Georgia. She recalls that on Christmas her mother made homemade fruitcake from what she grew in her yard. The children of West Indian parents I interviewed also associated childhood Christmas memories with homemade fruit cake. Making Christmas fruitcake was a long process, according to the 84 old Benjamin Outlaw. When asked what Christmas was like growing up in Windsor, North Carolina, Outlaw responded, “Oh boy, it was like heaven.” Mother “would start cooking her fruitcake, sometime about a month before Christmas. And she always made [either apple or grape] wine.” Hattie Outlaw poured the “wine on the cake until Christmas . . . building it up.” This must have worked to season the cake, “because it was the best fruitcake I have ever eaten.” Here are an host a fruit cake recipes the UK and the Americas. We would love to hear about your childhood fruit cake memory in the comment section below.

BBCFruit Cake Recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/fruit_cake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_moist_all-purpose_35561

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

BBC Marzipan Christmas cake with butter icing recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

American Fruit Cake Recipes: http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcakerecipes.html

BritishInfluences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html

British Influences on North American Foodways: Eggnog Part 2

2011-12-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

Recreated old English wooden carved mugs called noggins (Image from http://www.bushcrafttuk.com/forum.php)

Tavern Scene 1685 by David Teniers, recipes below

Yesterday I shared Part 1 of how of the origins of eggnog. The term eggnog evolved out of two slangs words used in urban areas like colonial New York, Boston, Charleston, and Mobile: colonist referred to rum as grog; bartenders served rum in small wooden carved mugs called noggins as shown above. Thus the drink eventually became egg-n-grog and over time eggnog. When the American Revolution resulted in dwindling trade between North America and the Caribbean, Americans began to substitute locally distilled spirits or moon-shine for rum in their eggnog. Abraham Oakey Hall traveled to New Orleans about 1898. He had this to say about related culinary culture of New Orleans: “I tremble to think of the juleps, and punches, and nogs, and soups, and plates of fish, and game, and beef and loaves of bread, that I have seen appear from side doors and vanish . . . among the waiting crowds at the long counter; or of the piles of dimes that each devoted . . . barkeeper” took in. In 1910 Harnet County, North Carolina we found that after opening presents on Christmas morning, young Erwin Stephens and his brother “went to the kitchen where eggnog spiked with whisky was served, the only time in the year.” Here are some contemporary egg-recipes for the holidays and some other related links to the series on British Influences on North American Foodways. Love to read your thoughts on the piece in the comment section below.

TraditionalEggnog: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/eggnog/

Vegan Eggnog: http://www.egg-nog.info/Vegan_Egg_Nog_Drink_Recipe.html

AlmondMilk Eggnog and shortbread recipe: http://dreamaboutfood.blogspot.com/2010/12/almond-milk-eggnog-and-holiday.html

BritishInfluences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html

British Influences on North American Foodways: Eggnog Part I

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Glass of Eggnog, recipes below

Colonial British North American Tavern

As part of my series on European influences on North American foodways let's turn to a classic holiday beverage—eggnog. I grew up associating with Christmas. I came across sources that mentioned “nogs” and “eggnog” that made me curious about the history of this Christmas drink. Eggnog has its roots in the winter drinkways of the British aristocracy back in Europe. Commoners would not have had the resources to have access to fresh milk and eggs. In the winter, the wealthy would at times drink their warm milk and egg beverage seasoned with pricey spices such as ground nutmeg and cinnamon and expensive liquors like brandy and sherry to keep it from spoiling. The concoction traveled across the Atlantic in the 18th century with several modifications after it arrived in colonial American taverns and homes. In colonial North America the abundant availability of dairy products and traded rum from the Caribbean made the drink popular among free commoners, white indentured servants, and enslaved Africans. Rum—the drink of the marginalized—became the substitute for the heavily taxed brandy and wine in the colonies. Here are some recipes you can try. More on this tomorrow.

TraditionalEggnog: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/eggnog/

Vegan Eggnog: http://www.egg-nog.info/Vegan_Egg_Nog_Drink_Recipe.html

AlmondMilk Eggnog and shortbread recipe: http://dreamaboutfood.blogspot.com/2010/12/almond-milk-eggnog-and-holiday.html

British Influences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html

Italian Influences on American Christmas Traditions: Part 2 Feast of the Seven Fishes

2011-12-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

Fish and grits, this and other fish recipes below

As I wrote yesterday, I grew up in a northern suburb of New York Cityaround lot of Italian-Americans but until recently I never heard of the feastof the seven fishes—a Italian Christmas tradition with origins from southernItaly. The tradition calls for serving seven various seafood dishes onChristmas Eve. In my research I found three theories all rooted in Catholic andbiblical culture about why the tradition calls for serving seven fishes. YesterdayI talked about the first today let's talk about the last two: The seven deadlysins—pride, envy, anger, gluttony, sloth, lust and greed and the seven days ittook Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem where the baby Jesus was born. Thefish feast on Christmas Eve can include among other dishes Lobster Ravioli,Tuna Fish and Cannellini Beans, Salmon and Chick Peas, Mussels Marinara, FriedFlounder Filet, and Fried Calamari. As the NPR story below illustrates, if you grow up in the U. S. south the tradition takes on a different taste. Please share your Holiday cultural tradition in the comment section below.

Seven fishes recipes from variousnewspapers: http://shenews.projo.com/2009/12/30-feast-of-the-seven-fishes-r.html

Christmas Eve, A Feast, Fry Pans And SevenFishes: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143654121/christmas-eve-a-feast-fry-pans-and-seven-fishes

Fish and grits recipe: http://www.esquire.com/features/guy-food/fish-and-grits-recipe-ll-0309

Healthy Fried Fish for Fish & Grits Recipe: http://www.chow.com/recipes/29070-healthy-fried-fish-for-fish-and-grits

More on the History of the ItalianDiaspora in the U.S. South and food: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-4-mac-and.html

Italian Influences on American Christmas Traditions: Part 1 Fish and More Fish

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve Bacalla stew, this and other recipes below

As part of this years Christmas series today I want to talk about Italian foodways. I grew up in Croton-on-Hudson a small village in Westchester County about 35 miles north of New York City in the beautiful Hudson Valley. There is a long history of Italian migration to the the valley with laborer attracted to my hometown to do work on the construction of the Croton Dam, the aqueduct that provides water to New York City, and the railroad that connects the city with northern suburbs such as Yonkers, Tarrytown, Ossining, Croton, Peekskill, and Poughkeespie among other communities. As a result I grew up with allot of Italians as both classmates and teammates on my lacrosse team and regularly enjoying great homemade Italian food. But until recently I never heard of the Feast of the Seven Fishes a Italian Christmas food tradition that migrants brought over from Italy. So naturally as a professor of history foodways started doing some research into the tradition. It's difficult to precisely pin down the origins put it apparently comes from southern Italy and calls for serving seven different fish dishes on Christmas Eve. There are three popular theories about why serve seven fishes, today I will talk about some of them and share some related recipes: the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church—baptism, penance, Holy Eucharist, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, and the sacrament of the sick.

Mario Batali's Feast of the Seven Fishes recipes: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/christmas/batalisevenfishes

Bacallà stew recipes and more: http://www.stephencooks.com/2005/12/christmas_eve_m.html

African Plants and Christmas in The Caribbean

2011-12-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

Ackee Fruit (African plant)

Callaloo (African plant)

Ackee and codfish served with callaloo, biscuits, and fried plantains (Asian plant)

By one estimate, “80 percent of British imports of Gold Coast slaves went to Jamaica, the largest British sugar-producing region in the eighteenth century.” In Jamaica, planters supplied slaves with weekly rations of salted fish like cod and set small parcels of land aside for their slaves to cultivate produce food plants. The African choose to plant foods from home including the Ackee fruit, watermelon, callaloo, peanuts, rice, and okra among others. Ships introduced these food plants to the Caribbean from Africa during the Atlantic slave trade. As the slave trade proved extremely profitable in the Caribbean, British planters quickly became the minority to an enslaved African majority whose culinary aesthetic dominated the region then and now. For example, callaloo (and salted codfish) is widely used in the kitchen of many parts of the Caribbean. Today ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and an essential part that country's Christmas traditions including serving a breakfast of ackee and codfish with calloloo, fried plantains, rice and peas, and others sides (Notice the plate above contains foods familiar to southerners: biscuits and callaloo-similar to collard greens). You can purchase the necessary ingredients to make ackee and codfish at a Jamaican bodega, international market, or as canned products.

Ackee and codfish recipe: http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/food_and_drink/ackee_and_saltfish.htm

For more on cod history: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurlansky-cod.html

My Rice and Beans/Peas and Riceseries: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Rice+and+Beans%2FPeas+and+Rice+Series

Here's a link to Christmas gifts for foodies: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf111126foodie_holiday_gifts

Cookies For Christmas Then and Now

2011-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Chunky Brazil Nut and Coconut Cookies

Yesterdaya colleague at work game me some homemade baked cookies for the holiday. Hergesture reminded me of a story I found while doing research for my book http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/excerpt at Duke University’s Rare Book, Manuscript, andSpecial Collections Library in Durham, NorthCarolina. On Christmas morning in Harnet County, North Carolinacirca 1910, Erwin Stephens and his brother remember waking up and rushing tothe living room to find out what had been stuffed in their Christmas stockings.They would fine apples, oranges, candy canes, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and perhapsa small toy. The scene reminds us of Christmas presents made simple and yetvery gratifying to young children. In addition if you have children, bakingcookies with them is a great way of introducing them to the joys of producingfood for others. My six-year-old daughter loves to cook with daddy in thekitchen. It is a terrific bonding time and she's becoming familiar withthe ins and outs of preparing food, plus she gets to lick the spoon and mixingbowl I use to make the cookie dough. Why not try reintroducing a tradition thatproved so satisfying to the producer and receiver of a scrumptiousgift? Did you grow up baking cookies with a parent for Christmas? Please shareyour story the comments section below

Chunky Brazil Nut and CoconutCookies Recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/nutcookies/r/50716c.htm

Here's a link to Christmas gifts for foodies: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf111126foodie_holiday_gifts

Molasses and Christmas in Civil War Era Charleston, South Carolina

2011-12-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

Molasses Spice Cookies, this and other recipes below

This is an interesting story that fits into three different ongoingseries I am working on: Molasses and Atlantic World Foodways, Civil WarFoodways, and Christmas Foodways. A look at sources on Christmas in theAntebellum south reveals that what enslaved Africans considered Christmas foodsproved far from monolithic. For example, we know that folks in Virginia cravedturkey and rural peoples in Louisiana basked in open pit barbecue. A source on1850 Charleston, South Carolina shows that in that southern city enslavedAfricans reveled in molasses which they purchased with proceeds from the saleof eggs, chickens, and pigs they raised. Many of the southern recipes thatcall for molasses today may have originated both from enslaved African cooksand during the Civil War when the confederate government rationed luxury itemssuch as sugar, particularly in non-sugar producing states. Union blockadesprevented the importation of sugar from Louisiana, Florida, and the Caribbeanto ports in the Carolinians and Virginia. To meet the challenge of cookingduring the Civil War and World War I and II sugar rationing, many recipescalled for molasses. Below find the related cookie recipe featured in thephoto below that is easy to make. Also check out the slew of related linksincluding stories on this month's special anniversary addition on theCivil War in Atlantic Magazine, a related series on NPR, and myseries on the Civil War with related recipes.

Molasses Spice Cookies Recipe that wouldbe nice for company over the Christmas holidays: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/molasses_spice_cookies/

The Atlantic Remembers Its Civil WarStories: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143164530/the-atlantic-remembers-its-civil-war-stories

BlackScholar Of The Civil War Asks: Who's With Me?: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/08/143291199/black-scholar-of-the-civil-war-asks-whos-with-me

MyCivil War Series With Related Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Civil+War&updated-max=2011-06-18T04:26:00-07:00&max-results=20

Part 2 Hog Killing and Christmas in Rural Societies

2011-12-11T04:35:00.001-08:00

Sign from Yatesville, Georgia. Pork related recipes and stories below

Halifax, Virginia circa 1939 courtesy of the Library of Congress

Yesterday I did part one of a two-part series on hot killing talkingabout hot killing in tropical regions such as the Caribbean and South America.Today let's talk about hot killing in places like North Carolina and Virginiawere both sides my family respectively comes from. Dating back to the colonialperiod rule folk in the South slaughtered hogs around Christmas time using the coldwinter weather as a natural refrigerator. Slaughtering hogs can best bedescribed as a highly skilled labor-intensive process. As a result in mostrural societies hog killing became a community event in which neighborskilled and butchered six or many more hogs at one time. Responsibilities weredivvied up with some making crackling, sausage, chops, preparing choice cutsfor curing and smoking hams, all the way down to cleaning the intestines for achitlin strut or hoedown like similar one advertised above. Hog killing continued as acollective community event, and often an integrated one until affordablerefrigeration technology became widespread and available. Still the traditioncontinued even after World War II in some places. For example my father toldhow his grandfather “Wash” (short for Washington) Opie would, as part of hishog killing day, butcher and prep hogs for his farm in Virginia as well as boxand ship a whole butchered and salted hog to my father’s home in Sleepy Hollow,New York.

PatriciaDorsey-Neely’s Poem Hog Killing Time: http://patricianeelydorsey.webs.com/poemsouthernlife.htm

My pork related stories withrecipes:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/12/watch-night-series-eating-low-on-hog.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/02/eldridge-cleaver-on-chitterlings-and.html

http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/2010/01/grandmas-duers-north-carolina-lima-bean.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/history-behind-ham-for-easter.html

Iberian Influences on American Cuisine: Part 1 Pork

2011-12-10T09:28:00.001-08:00

Pork related recipes and stories below

The Spanish first introduced large numbers of domesticated hogs to theIsland of Hispaniola in the Caribbean in the 16th century. Because the islandshad no predators and many root crops to graze on, the pigs thrived. Europeans quickly learned from locals how tosmoke and barbecue the pig. In 1555, one traveler described the residents ofSanto Domingo as having great amounts of pork and poultry. The pork, he writes,is “very sweet and savoury [sic]; and so wholesome that they give it to sickfolks to eat, instead of . . . poultry . . . I” Before the invention of refrigerationnecessity required meat lovers to eat locally and for many that meant pork fromhogs they raised or their neighbors raised. In tropical regions like theCaribbean, rural folk slaughtered, butchered, and consumed themeat of the hog generally on the same day or they smoked, salted, and or jerkedthe hog. Jerking (salting and drying it in the sun) to conserve meat has a longhistory and that extends around the globe. For example we know that in theAndes the Inca made jerked alpaca andllama meat. Finally, in part, the Spanish Inquisition also contributed toincreased consumption of pork in the Americas among colonist in Iberian America. Eating massive amounts of pork becamea strategy for avoiding public suspicion that one did not adhere to Catholicismand instead practiced a native American religion, Judaism, or Islam. Below are some pork related recipes and stories.

My Pork related stories andrecipes from the Iberian World:

http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=mafongo

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/11/try-spicy-caribbean-stew-this.html

A Global Look At Christmas Foodways: Guatemala

2011-12-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Traditional tamales, this and other recipes below

In 1996 Ispent my Christmas holidays in Guatemala City as a graduate student doingarchival research for a doctoral dissertation in history. From that research Ipublished Black LaborMigration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923 http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=OPIEX001.I observed that for many Guatemalans, Christmas meant eating tamales, drinkingpunch, and setting off firecracker at all hours of the night. I loathed hearingfirecrackers going off at 2 a.m. as I tried to sleep in my humble hotel room inZona 1. Recently I used the autobiography of Rigoberta Menchu a GuatemalanIndian women in a class I taught on Race and Ethnicity in Latin America. In thebook Menchu explains the origins of the relationship between Christmas andtamales. “The Guatemalan Indian custom for a very important fiesta is to makeatol (corn based thick hot drink) and tamales,” she writes. Ladinos, continuedthis custom particularly as part of Christmas celebrations. What I have learnedis that tamales at Christmas is the tradition in Mesoamerica. Here are a host of tamale recipes.Also check out the link to the series I did on my graduate school experience and food including Spanish language training in Mexico and field work in the United States and Guatemala with lots or related recipes.

GuatemalanTamales with Ancho Chile Sauce: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Guatemalan-Tamales-with-Ancho-Chile-Sauce

VariousChristmas tamales: http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2009/12/wrappers-delight.html

Surviving Graduate School, Field Work, and Food: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=surviving+graduate+school

Food and Sanity in GraduateSchool: http://chronicle.com/article/FoodSanity-in-Graduate/126970/

British Influences on North American Foodways: Mince Meat Pie

2011-12-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Mince meat pie, recipes below

I have given allot of thought over the years as a professor of history and foodways and author to the topic of British influences on North American foodways. In my research I came across a 1661 recipe in an English cook book for mince meat pie written in old English. During the Christmas holidays my grandmother Lucy Opie, a southerner from Virginia, made mincemeat pies in her home in Sleepy Hollow, New York located on the banks of the Hudson River just 30 or so miles north of New York City. But it was very different from this 1661 interpretation which is decidedly savory: “To make a minced meat pie. . . . Take a large Neats [ox] tongue shread it very well, three pound and a half of Suet [The hard fatty tissue around the kidneys of cattle and sheep] very well shread, Currans three pound, halfe an ounce of beaten Cloves and Mace, season it with Salt when you think’t fit, halfe a preserved Orange, or instead of it Orange P[ee]ls, a quarter of a pound of Sugar, a little Lemon Pill sliced very thin, put all these together very well, put to it two Spoonfuls of Verjuyce, and a quarter of a Pint of Sack [a dry fortified wine with brandy such as Port or Sherry].” My grandmother learned to make a sweet and very rich mince meat pie in Virginia made with currants and raisins seasoned perfectly with lemon and orange zest along with hints of nutmeg, allspice, brown sugar, and the slight taste of brandy. The baking pie created a unique fruity and spicy aroma throughout her house that told me as a toddler that it was Christmas time again. Here are some modern mincemeat pie recipes you can try some savory and some sweet.

Savory Traditional mincemeat pierecipe: http://www.seabrite.com/jeffs_great_british_eats/minced_meat_pie.htm

Traditional sweet Mincemeat pie recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mincemeat-Pie-104437

Vegan sweet mincemeat pie recipe: http://mincepierecipes.com/vegan

Savannah Red Rice: A Georgia Christmas Tradition

2011-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Savannah red rice, this and other recipes below

As a college professor I am busy doing end of the semester paper grading thus its hard to think about the holiday season. However when I see or smell certain foods they trigger me to think about Christmas. I recall the joy that came to the faces of senior citizens I interviewed when researching and writing my book Hog and Hominy http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy. I asked them and now you, what foods remind you of Christmas when you were a child? Ruth Thorpe was born in Harlem in 1932. Her mother migrated from Savannah, Georgia, to Harlem, where she worked as a professional cook. Ruth had vivid memories of her mother’s Christmas holiday cooking including or mother’s “[Savannah] red rice, okra, and tomatoes” dish. As in Cuba and low country South Carolina, low country Georgia folk viewed a huge rice dish like Savannah red rice as an absolute essential at any meal they served. Roy Miller, born in Harlem in 1924, said, “that’s interesting because that’s a crossover. Because my [West Indian] aunts used to do red rice and all of that. I can’t say that is a purely West Indian dish, it may be part of an assimilation . . . it emanated from the South, but my aunts used to do that beautifully also.” My research shows that indeed Savannah red rice is an adaptation of a similar dish made all over West Africa called Jollof rice. Here are some related recipes below.

Traditional Savannah red rice: http://www.grouprecipes.com/47133/mrs-wilkes-savannah-red-rice.html

Vegan Savannah red rice: http://www.recipezaar.com/Savannah-Red-Rice-218552

Jollof rice story and recipe: http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/06/west-african-wedding-food-family-affair.html

Here's a link to Christmas giftsfor foodies: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf111126foodie_holiday_gifts

Molasses and the Spanish American War

2011-12-06T03:49:00.000-08:00

Vitamin rich chocolate molasses smoothie, this and other recipes below

As part of my series on Molasses and Atlantic Foodways we turn to the Caribbean basin. During the Spanish American War, the U.S. military invaded and seized Puerto Rico in 1898, forcing upon the island commonwealth status with the United States. As a result of U.S. colonialism, less expensively produced Puerto Rican molasses flooded U.S. markets after 1898. Thus after 1898 Puerto Rico became an important agro-industrial producer for markets in the United States. Puerto Rican molasses essentially tasted the same as U.S. produced black strap molasses in Louisiana in other parts of the South and it was less expensive to purchase for North American consumers. Sugar is full of empty calories while molasses is rich in minerals and vitamins. For instance, two teaspoons of blackstrap molasses provides 13.3% of the daily recommended value for iron, 14.0% of the daily recommended value for copper, 18.0% of the daily recommended value for manganese, and 9.7% of the daily recommended value for potassium. Molasses is also high in calcium, a necessity for strong bones and teeth, blood clotting, and the transmission of nerve impulses to and from the brain. Calcium also removes toxins from the colon, thus reducing the risk of colon cancer. Molasses is an excellent source of copper which helps in the healthy development of bone and connective tissue. Manganese-rich molasses is essential to the healthy functioning of the nervous system and contains potassium that assists in proper muscle contraction and nerve transmission. Finally, molasses is rich in vitamins B-1, B-2, B-6, and vitamin E. Here is a related recipe.

Chocolate Molasses Smoothie

Ingredients
2 cups vanilla soy milk

2 tsp tablespoon coco or carob powder

1 scoop protein powder

1 diced frozen banana

3 tablespoon blackstrap molasses or sweeten to taste

2 tablespoon ground flax seeds
Method

Blend all the ingredients on high speed until smooth. Serves 2

Molasses and Atlantic Foodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=molasses+recipes

Bartering and Buying Molasses in Virginia Before World War II

2011-12-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

Apple molasses bread, this is and other recipes below

Our food systems (the process by which we produce, process, exchange, and make a food available) have undergone radical changes since World War II. Those changes occurred slowly as new technologies for, growing, processing, exchanging a product along with transporting it developed and people gained access to them at different times and in different regions depending on the availability of cheap labor and access to investment capital. Ella Baker's childhood memory of molasses in Virginia provides a good illustration. Born in 1915, Baker grew up in Cloverdale, Virginia. Every autumn, a one-legged African American man name Henry Lewis would go from house to house with a portable sugar cane grinder and a vat pulled on a horse drawn wagon. Those who cultivated sugar cane in the rural farming hamlet of Cloverdale bartered with Lewis to have him turn their small sugar cane harvest into cans of molasses. For example, Lewis would produce nine cans of molasses and receive three of them as his processing fee. In parts of Virginia where subsistence farmers did not cultivate molasses country store owners stocked large wooden barrels of black-strap molasses imported from Puerto Rico. In those instances customers brought glass jars from home to fill them with molasses. Here is an apple molasses bread recipe.

Apple molasses bread recipe:

http://www.ichef.com/recipe.cfm/recipe/Apple%20Molasses%20Bread/itemid/407916/task/display/recipeid/117689/recipecategoryid/200

Molasses and Atlantic Foodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=molasses+recipes

Born Out of Practicality: The Pennsylvania Dutch and Shoe Fly Pie

2011-12-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

Shoe Fly Pie, this and other recipes below (image from http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com)

Today’s story in my series on molasses is rooted in the origins of Pennsylvania Dutch foodways which began in 1730s Lancaster, Pennsylvania with the arrival of the Anabaptists-Mennonites, the Amish, and Brethren, all Christian groups fleeing religious persecution in Germany and Switzerland. They traveled to the Americas on boats with food that would keep on the long voyage across the Atlantic. The food staples they brought on the boats became the basis for shoe fly pie: molasses, flour, brown sugar, molasses, salt, lard, and spices. They disembarked in North America in the fall and arrived in William Penn’s (1644-1718) Pennsylvania after the harvest season. The pie developed out of practicality; they had little to nothing else to eat until the spring. The pie has its roots in the old British Treacle Tart. More like a coffee cake with a gelatinous molasses bottom, the pie is most often today served warm with whipped cream on top and served with coffee. I gave a talk last Spring at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Jersey about how cooks are like jazz artist in which they take a written piece of work or something learned by ear and then they solo. I argue that cooks do the same with a written recipe or one passed down orally; they take the basics and then the improvisation occurs as they solo. A great illustration is the shoe fly pie with some cooks topped with chocolate icing, some use spices in their recipes, some prefer a flaky crust, others prefer a thin or thick crust similar.

Shoe fly pie recipe: http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/06/winning-pie.html

Shoe fly pie recipe: http://makingromaroma.com/2010/05/28/shoofly-pie/

Molasses and Atlantic Foodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=molasses+recipes

Molasses and Social Standing in Colonial America

2011-12-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hasty pudding topped with vanilla ice cream, this and other recipes below

In the British Atlantic world, English planters in the Caribbean sold molasses along with sugar and rum to Africans, Indians, English commoners, and to colonists as commodities. Colonists in Virginia and the Carolinas traded furs and cedars for molasses from the Caribbean where they used it in a variety ways such as a sweetener in porridges and bread. A common use of molasses among whites was as a sweetener in “hasty pudding”—a combination of oatmeal and porridge that was served with butter, milk, and molasses. In short, molasses consumption indicated that a person was a member of the lower sect of the British Empire who ate far from the tables of the rich. An anonymous observer wrote around 1730, “Molaffes is generally used throughout all the Northern Colonies, and at our Fifheries, in brewing their Beer, and the poorer Sort, who are very numerous, eat it with their Bread, and make Puddings of it, Ec [sic].” Here is a great hasty pudding recipe that reflects the spirit of this story about molasses in colonial America.

Hasty pudding recipe: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HastyPudding_IndianPudding.htm

Molasses and Atlantic Foodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=molasses+recipes

The Asian and African Roots of Molasses

2011-12-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

Buttermilk biscuits, this and other recipes below

Here's the second installment in my series on molasses and Atlantic food ways. So what is molasses made out of anyway? there are two ways to make molasses: one uses the sweet sorghum plant and the other uses sugarcane. Sweet sorghum is a sticky grass indigenous to Africa. Like sugarcane, The Portuguese most likely introduced sweet sorghum to the New World during the Atlantic slave trade. The sugarcane plant is indigenous to Asia. The Portuguese first introduced its large-scale cultivation from Asia to the island of São Tomé off the coast of Africa in the fifteenth century using enslaved African laborers. Travel accounts tell us that before their arrival in the Americas, West Africans women merchants traded, sold, and made sweets from sorghum and sugarcane. Today you can find sorghum molasses, which is sweeter than regular molasses, in some stores. Try my buttermilk biscuit recipe below then cut a hot biscuit in half, butter it, and pour some sorghum on it. I can’t think of anything better with a cup of tea, coffee, or juice in the morning.

Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups spelt flour 1/8 teaspoon baking soda to up the flour rise/ or use 2 cups self-rising flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup sugar
4 tablespoon vegetable shortening
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream/half and half works too
1 cup buttermilk, or until dough is like cottage cheese
1 cup whole-wheat flour for shaping the wet dough into biscuits
2 tablespoons melted butter to brush over the baked biscuits

Method

Preheat the oven to 425; spray cook sheet or cast iron skillet with non-stick spray; combine dry ingredients except for the 1 cup flour for shaping the dough; stir in buttermilk and cream and let stand for 2-3 minutes. Flour your hands and softly shape your biscuits. If you’re rushing, use an ice-cream scooper. Place the biscuits tightly against each other on wax paper so they will rise up instead of out. Sprinkle with flour then place then on the sprayed surface for baking. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with the melted butter and serve (makes about 10 biscuits).

Molasses and AtlanticFoodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=molasses+recipes

Molasses and Atlantic World Foodways Series

2011-12-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

Bold chili, recipe below

Blackstrap molasses, related recipe below

Today I am starting a new series on the history of molasses with related recipes based on oral and documented history I came across while doing research for my book Hog and Hominy. If you have any molasses based recipes please share them in the comments section below. Historically molasses was labeled as one of the three M’s of southern foodways; meat (salt pork) and meal (corn meal) are the other major staples. Molasses served as a baking ingredient, condiment, cold remedy, and was central to special occasion meals in the South. But what do molasses production and consumption tell us about class and race in the South? Below find a great chili recipe that calls for molasses. You can find molasses in the baking section of most grocery stores. The recipe taste great, its nutritious, economical, and perfect for a cold day like the one we have today in New England.

Bold vegan chili recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bold-Vegan-Chili/Detail.aspx

Native American Foodways: Squash and Pumpkins

2011-12-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin bread, this and other recipes below ( image from http://my miscellaniblogspot.com)

As part of my ongoing series on Native American foodways Iam going to talk about the last American plants and cookery that have impactedthe world—squash and pumpkins. Archaeologistpoint to Mesoamerica as the origins of the largest concentration of squash andpumpkins in the world. We know that the Maya ate large numbers of squash seedsalone, toasted, grounded, with Chile, and in corn-based drinks, and stews. Thesurvival of Native Americans across the continent depended in large part on thesuccessful cultivation of beans, corn, and squash. Native Americans introducedsquash to Europeans and Africans when they arrived in the Americas. The wordsquash is a Native American term that became part of European languages inAmericas such as Spanish, English, and Dutch. Below are some related recipes for your enjoyment.

Pumpkin bread recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pumpkin_bread/

Squash and zucchinirecipes:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_muffins/

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_with_thyme/

Native American Foodways Series: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Native+American+Foodways

A Culinary Prenuptial Agreement

2011-11-30T17:42:00.001-08:00

Mango Brown Betty

I asked my wife Tina Opie to be a guest blogger after her response tomy mango brown Betty recipe that I fixed for her over the ThanksgivingHoliday.

When my husband and I were dating, I learned that one of the attributeshe desired in his ideal mate was, “a woman who would allow me to cook”. WHAT! Sold brother! After knowing each other for almost 15 years, I stilllove it when Fred heads to the kitchen to unwind and invent. This morningwas no exception. I don’t eat sugar so my husband loves to create dishesthat are delicious and healthy for me. This morning’s treat wasMango Betty (a take on Apple Brown Betty) made with oatmeal, mango, raisins, steviaand coconut. I first experienced the dish with my eyes, noticing the mangowhich was flecked with green (basil I later learned) and looked like it hadbeen grilled. The golden oatmeal looked both crispy and chewy (just likeI like it). The raisins were plump and swollen. I spooned a bitinto one of my crystal dessert dishes (it’s a small dish that: 1) makes me feellike a queen; and 2), helps with portion control). Next, I poured someplain goat’s milk yogurt on top (yes, I’m also lactose intolerant). Thefirst spoonful made me close my eyes and moan. I am one of those peoplewho has a visceral response to food. I don’t just eat, I smell, gaze,feel, lick my lips and then enjoy. The mango was velvety sweet and theslightly acidic goat’s milk yogurt was the perfect complement. I keptsaying, “Fred, this is amazing. Seriously, this is sooooooo good”. It was the kind of meal that I didn’t want to end. I’ve heard some peoplesay that eating is simply about nutrition; they’ve clearly never tasted myhusband’s Mango Betty.

Fred’s Mango Brown Betty Recipe

Ingredients

3-4 cups of mangoes (I use defrosted Traders frozen mangoes)

2 cups uncooked oatmeal (I use Whole Food organic oats)

¼ cup of stevia which I buy at Trader Joes (or sugar)

¼ cup of raisins

½ cup of margarine (or butter)

¼ cup of unsweetened coconut flakes

½ teaspoon of salt (I use sea salt)

Approximately ½ teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, cloves, Jamaicanspice, ginger, basil

Optional: sliced almonds or pecan pieces

Method

Mix mangoes, coconut, raisins, and some of the spices and sugar and ina microwave safe glass bowl. In a separate mix bowl add the oatmeal, margarine,the remaining of the sugar, salt, and spices and stir well. Then spread theoatmeal mix on top of the mango mixture so that it covers the mango mix (youshould have a layer of fruit with a layer of moist oatmeal covering it). Coverthe bowl (I use a microwave safe plate) and cook in the microwave for 15minutes. Then uncover and cook again in microwave for 10 minutes then cover andremove from the microwave and let it cool for 10 minutes; serves 3to 4 people.

Tina Opie's Faculty Bio: http://www.babson.edu/faculty/profiles/Pages/opie-tina.aspx

Tina Opie’s Hair Blog: http://tropie7189.blogspot.com/

The Changing Landscape of Soul Food in New York

2011-11-28T02:55:00.001-08:00

A Sunday morning at the Old M & G Soul Food Dinner in Harlem

Following is an interview I did with reporter Jason Bell of the Columbia Daily Spectator at the beginning of 2011.
"The Changing Landscape of Soul Food in New York": http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/article/2011/02/03/soul-searching

Thanksgiving Day Reflections: Part 2 Thankful To Share

2011-11-27T03:33:00.001-08:00

Pumpkin cheesecake topped with vanilla ice cream, this and other recipes below

YesterdayI talked about the Thanksgiving meal my family and I enjoyed at a localrestaurant with two invited guest, both of them African-American female undergraduatesfrom a city in the Southeast http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-day-reflections-part-i.html. As I explainedthey are high school friends from low income families who had the opportunityto attend a college preparatory high school and go on to be the first membersof their family to attend college. One of them is student at Babson College formy wife and I are profs the other attend a HBCU in the Southeast. Over thecourse of the meal we learned a lot. For example, the student from the HBCUstold us that my wife and I and our family served as the second stable marriedAfrican-American couple with children that she had ever met. We also learned aboutthe troublesome family dynamics and financial hardships that they knew growingup in impoverished black urban neighborhoods in the South. It became evidentwhy they both chose not to go homefor the Thanksgiving Day holiday and spend it instead on an empty BabsonCollege campus. Listening to their stories made my wife and I feel verygrateful that we invited them to join our family Thanksgiving Day and that wehad chosen to eat at a posh restaurant. This year we do not have any leftovers froma traditional home-cooked meal but we are thankful for our family and economicstability and careers (including grading papers), that we have and can sharewith others. As I mentioned in my previous post our guest are had therestaurant’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. “This is the best dessert I'veever had, me too,” the two students said as they enjoyed forks full of the orange, creamy, and heavenlycheesecake. Here are some links pumpkin cheesecake recipes and other relatedrecipes. In the coming days I look forward to sharing Christmas food historytraditions and related recipes.

Pumpkin cheese cake recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pumpkin_cheesecake/

Pumpkin cheese cake for two recipe: http://dailyfoodgasm.com/2010/11/07/pumpkin-cheesecake-for-two/

Gluten-free cheesecake recipe: http://www.glutenlessfoodie.com/2011/11/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars.html

Turkey Leftover Recipes andtips: http://tipnut.com/turkey-leftover-recipes/