Curry Chicken

Ingredients:


2 lbs of chicken breasts or chicken parts
4 tsp. curry (more if you like very spicy)
1 onion
garlic powder (optional)
2 tsp. garlic salt (or to taste)
2 tsp of ground black pepper

Directions:

Wash and drain chicken. Cut into bite-sized parts and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place in skillet with 1/4-inch of oil. Completely brown the chicken and remove from skillet.

Sauté the onions in skillet over remaining oil until transparent. Add the curry powder saute; stirring for a few minutes. Add about a cup of water (enough to cover chicken) to make a gravy mixture. Add back chicken and remaining ingredients. Cover and stir periodically.

Allow to cook for approximately 45 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

www.cooks.com

Southern Catfish Stew

INGREDIENTS:


1 lb catfish fillet
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1⁄2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1 cup water
1⁄4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
1⁄2 teaspoon thyme

DIRECTIONS:

Wash the catfish fillets and cut them into 1-inch pieces; set aside.

Fry the bacon for 2 to 3 minutes in a large heavy saucepan; add the onion and bell pepper and cook until tender.

Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.
Cook, covered, for 30 minutes.

Add the fish and cook for another 20 minutes.

Correct the seasonings,  if necessary, and serve hot with cornbread.

www.food.com

Country Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 6 medium)
1 ½ cups of mayonnaise (no Miracle Whip please)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
3-4 tablespoons of chicken stock or broth
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about ½ cup)
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Directions:

Peel and dice potatoes into cubes. Place potatoes into a large pot of water.  Boil for about 20 minutes (or until fork tender). Take care not to overcook your potatoes – you don’t want them overly mushy.

Mix mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, chicken stock and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add potatoes, celery, onion and stir gently. Stir in eggs.

Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours to blend flavors and chill.

Cook’s Note: Potatoes love to soak up all the mayonnaise, so if you noticed your salad is just a little dry when you are ready to serve, add a little more mayonnaise and chicken stock and it will restore the creaminess of your potato salad. How do you make the perfect hard boiled egg?  Put eggs in a medium pot. Cover with cool water. Place on burner over high heat. Bring to a boil then take pot off of heat and cover with lid. Set timer for 15 minutes. Dump water out of pot and rinse with cool water. You will have perfectly hard boiled eggs and no green rings!

www.thecountrycook.net

Quick Greens

Ingredients:


1-2 bags of greens (whatever type you prefer)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup chopped onion
pinch of sugar
smoked meat (whatever you prefer for added flavor)
chicken soup base (creamy)

Directions:

Put washed greens in a pot.
Pour vinegar over greens.
Add, onion and sugar, allow to set.

This opens the greens up so they will accept flavor and be tender.

Mix chicken soup base and hot water together; to taste.
Pour over greens.

There should be enough liquid to at least cover the greens.

Boil for 1 hour or until you feel the greens are done (nice and tender).

www.chefrick.com

Salt and Pepper Catfish

Ingredients:


Yield: 2-4 servings

1 cup buttermilk
4 catfish fillets
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher or freshly ground sea salt
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

Place buttermilk in a 2-quart baking dish; place fillets in buttermilk and allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
Place oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet to a depth of about 2 inches. Heat until oil registers 375 degrees F. on an instant-read thermometer.

In a large, zipper-lock food storage bag, mix remaining ingredients by zipping them inside bag and shaking until well blended. Remove fillets from buttermilk; allow excess liquid to drain. Place fillets in bag and shake gently until completely coated.

Gently shake off excess coating mixture and carefully place into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

www.chefrick.com

Old-Fashioned Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

1 (5 to 6 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 onions, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1 recipe Basic Rice

Directions:

In a 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat, brown chicken pieces in oil. Remove from pot and allow to cool. Remove meat from bones and set aside.

Sprinkle flour in pot and stir until brown. Add onions and celery; cook until tender. Add a little of the water slowly, scraping brown bits from bottom and stirring to combine. Add remaining water, chicken and poultry seasoning.

Reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 1 hour), stirring occasionally as stew thickens. Serve over rice.

www.chefrick.com

Baked Ham with Pineapple

Ingredients:

1 fully cooked bone-in ham (6 to 8 pounds)
Whole cloves
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1 can (8 ounces) sliced pineapple, drained
5 maraschino cherries

Directions:

Place ham in roasting pan. Score the surface with shallow diagonal cuts, making diamond shapes; insert cloves into diamonds. Cover and bake at 325° for 1-1/2 hours. Combine brown sugar and pineapple juice; pour over ham. Arrange pineapple and cherries on ham. Bake, uncovered, 30-45 minutes longer or until a meat thermometer reads 140° and the ham is heated through.

Yield: 16-20 servings.

www.tasteofhome.com

Chocolate Roll

Ingredients (Chocolate Roll)

1 cup sugar, divided use 3 tablespoons cocoa
6 eggs 1 pint heavy cream, whipped with 3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon baking powder ¼ cup chopped pecans (if desired)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions (Chocolate Roll)

Preheat oven to 350°. Line one 15½ × 10½ inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper and grease and flour lightly. Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until stiff and gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Cream ½ cup of sugar with egg yolks and stir in vanilla. Sift the cocoa, baking powder and flour together and add to egg yolk mixture. Carefully fold in beaten egg whites. Evenly spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, or until cake springs away from sides of pan. Let cake cool for 5 minutes. Turn cake onto a towel sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, peel off parchment paper and roll cake up with the towel. Let cake cool completely. Unroll cake and spread with the whipped cream. Roll again, frost with chocolate frosting and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Ingredients: (Frosting)

1 cup sugar 1 egg white
½ cup water 2 tablespoons cocoa (or to taste)

Instructions: (Frosting*)

Beat egg white until stiff. Boil sugar and water until reaches soft-ball stage (a drop will form a soft ball in a cup of cool water). Stir in cocoa, cool slightly and fold gradually into beaten egg white.

Mrs. Willie P. Gramling
Orangeburg’s Choice Recipes

* Mrs. McKay usually sprinkles with powdered sugar instead of using the frosting.

www.charlestongateway.com

Sweet Tea

Ingredients:  (1 Gallon)


6 cups boiling water
4 family-size tea bags
1 to 1½ cups sugar

Instructions:

In order to make a gallon of this southern delight, bring 6 cups of water to a boil, remove it from the heat and add 4 family-size tea bags to the water to steep. Next pour the warm tea in a pitcher and add 1 to 1½ cups of sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and fill the rest of the pitcher with cold water or ice cubes and your “southern house wine” is ready! For an even more refreshing drink, gather a few mint leaves out of your garden and add them to your glass of Southern Sweet Tea. Remember, the sweeter the tea, the better!

www.charlestongateway.com

Tomato Sandwich (Southern Style)

Ingredients:

Tomatoes, ripened in the hot summer sun, still warm from the garden. Never put them in the refrigerator.
Mayonnaise, real, full-fat
Squishy, cheap white bread, like Wonder Bread

Instructions:

Slice your tomatoes and thickly spread mayonnaise on the bread. Put the sandwich together, adding salt and pepper to taste. Cut in half before eating. Use lots of napkins because the sticky, delicious tomato juice will run down your chin while you eat. Repeat until summer is over, and fresh tomatoes are only a tasty memory.

www.charlestongateway.com

Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients:

1½ pounds medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and halved
Juice of 1 lemon
Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
1½ teaspoons salt or more to taste
1½ cups stone-ground grits, not instant or quick-cooking
6 thick slices bacon, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup thinly sliced scallions
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup (about ¼ pound) grated medium to sharp Cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Combine the shrimp with the lemon juice and a couple of generous splashes of hot pepper sauce. Let sit while you begin the grits and gravy.

Make the grits in a large heavy saucepan, first bringing 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of the salt to a boil. Whisk in the grits a few handfuls at a time. (They will bubble up initially.) When you have added all the grits, reduce the heat to a very low simmer and cook over low heat for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally at first and more frequently toward the end.

While the grits simmer, get the gravy under way. Fry the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat until brown but still limp. Stir in the onion, green pepper, and garlic and continue cooking until the onion and pepper are limp, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions, sprinkle the flour over the mixture, and continue sautéing for 5 minutes longer. Stir in the stock and remaining salt and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove from the heat while you finish the grits.

When the grits are thick and creamy, stir in as much of the butter as you wish, followed by the cheese. Add a splash of hot pepper sauce and additional salt if you like. Cover the grits while you finish the gravy.

Return the gravy to medium heat and stir in the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are opaque throughout, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately, mounding the grits in large shallow bowls or on plates and covering them with shrimp and gravy. Serves 4

A Real American Breakfast, by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. This is one of many ways to prepare shrimp & grits. Find more recipes in any Charleston cookbook.

www.charlestongateway.com

Creamy Shrimp and Grits

Ingredients:

1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined *
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups water
1½ cups hot stock (shrimp, chicken or vegetable)
¼ cup butter
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup stone-ground grits **
3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Salt and black pepper to taste
6 bacon slices
2 tablespoons finely-chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely-chopped green or red bell pepper

Instructions:

* Add additional flavor: Place the shells of the shrimp in a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer over low heat approximately 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the broth, discarding shells. Add shrimp broth to hot stock.

** If using quick-cooking grits (not instant), reduce cream to ½ cup and reduce stock to 1 cup.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cream, water and hot stock; bring to a gentle boil. Add butter salt and pepper. Slowly add grits, stirring constantly (so that the grits do not settle to the bottom and scorch), until all are added; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally (be careful not to scorch mixture), or until the grits are tender.

Grits should have absorbed all of the liquid and become soft and should have the same consistency as oatmeal (moist, not dry). If the grits become too thick, add warm stock or water to thin and remove from heat.

Sprinkle shrimp with lemon juice, salt, and pepper; set aside.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, cook bacon until brown but not crisp. Remove from heat and pat dry with paper towels; set aside. Coarsely chop bacon when cool. Reserve 4 tablespoons bacon grease in the frying pan. Add onion, garlic, and green or red bell pepper; sauté 10 minutes or until the onion is transparent. Add shrimp mixture and bacon; sauté 5 to 7 minutes or until shrimp are opaque in center (cut to test). Remove from heat.

To serve, spoon hot grits onto individual serving plates and top with shrimp mixture.

Makes 4 servings.

whatscookingamerica.net

Cassoulet (adapted from Saveur recipe)

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 cups dried Great Northern or other small white beans

1 pound ham hocks

3 large yellow onions, peeled, quartered

5 sprigs thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/3 pound cubed bacon

1 ham bone

1 tablespoon duck fat (I used bacon drippings)

1 pound fresh pork sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces

1 large head garlic, separated into cloves, peeled (about 3/4 cup)

Confit of 1 quartered duck, or 4 whole legs

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

Rinse the beans, picking out any damaged beans or pebbles.

Put ham hocks in a large pot. Add 1 onion, thyme, salt and pepper. Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for 2 hours. Remove from heat, cool for 15 minutes, then drain ham hocks, discarding onion and thyme. Remove meat from each hock, cutting it into small pieces. Discard bones.

Meanwhile, place bacon, ham bone, and 1 onion in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until bacon is rendered, about 20 minutes. Add beans and enough water to cover by 1⁄2 inch (about 8 cups) and season with salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook until beans are tender, about 45 minutes. Adjust salt, if necessary, then set the beans aside to cool.

Heat duck fat (or bacon grease) in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausages and cook, turning to brown on all sides, for about 10 minutes.

Place garlic, remaining onion, and 1⁄2 cup water in a blender and purée until smooth. Add garlic paste to sausages and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, turning sausages occasionally, for 10 minutes more.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a slotted spoon, remove and discard the ham bone and onion from beans (it is okay if some pieces of onion remain). Using a slotted spoon, transfer about half the beans with bacon to a heavy wide-mouthed 5 or 6-quart cast-iron, clay, or earthenware pot, about 4 inches deep.

Assemble cassoulet in layers: Place meat from the ham hocks on top of the beans and cover with sausages and garlic paste. If using a whole quartered duck, separate into pieces and cut breasts in halves. Arrange duck on sausages, then spoon in the remaining beans with bacon. Season with nutmeg and add just enough reserved bean cooking liquid to cover the beans (about 3 cups). Reserve remaining liquid. Bake, uncovered, until cassoulet comes to a simmer and a crust begins to form, about 1 hour.

Reduce oven heat to 250 degrees, and cook for 3 hours, checking every hour or so to make sure the cassoulet is barely simmering (a little liquid should be bubbling around edges of cassoulet). If cassoulet appears dry, break crust (browned top layer) by gently pushing it down with the back of a spoon, allowing a new layer of beans to rise to the surface. Add just enough reserved bean cooking liquid (or water) to moisten beans.

Remove cassoulet from the oven. Allow to cool completely, then cover with a lid or aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.

Remove cassoulet from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature for at least 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 1 hour.

When the cassoulet begins to simmer, break the crust and add enough warm water to just cover beans (about 1 cup). Reduce heat to 250 degrees and bake, breaking crust and adding water as needed, for 3 hours. Remove the cassoulet from oven and allow to rest for 15–20 minutes. Serve the cassoulet from the pot, breaking the crust at the table.

www.nola.com

Original Taco Salad

Ingredients:


1 large head iceburg lettuce or 1-1/2 medium heads
1 to 1-1/4 pounds lean ground beef
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
15-ounce can Ranch Style beans or "chili beans", drained
3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion or green onion (both white and green part)
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups slightly crushed Fritos
2 ripe Haas avocados, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

With a paring knife, remove the core from the head of lettuce, as well as any thick ribs. Wash and drain well on paper towels in the refrigerator. Pat excess water from lettuce with more paper towels.

Brown the ground beef with the chili powder, cumin, garlic and oregano. Drain well. Set aside and keep at room temperature.

Tear the chilled lettuce into bite-size pieces and combine in a large bowl with the beef mixture, beans, tomatoes, onion, cheese, Fritos and avocados. Toss to combine ingredients.

Mix the salt and lemon juice with the mayonnaise and stir until smooth. Pour mixture over the salad and toss again. Serve at once. Makes about 8 to 10 generous servings.

Prep time: 35 minutes; Cooking time: 10 minutes; Total time: 45 minutes

Note: This recipe makes a lot of salad. It's a great choice for a buffet or gathering of eight, ten or a dozen guests. If you are making the recipe as stated here, you'll need a very large bowl in which to toss the salad and a somewhat smaller bowl in which to serve it. However, the recipe can be easily halved if you're cooking for a smaller group.

www.texascooking.com