divalasvegas

YES Fried in cornmeal (best fast food version is definitely Church's Fried Chicken's); okra and tomatoes; okra, corn, tomatoes, lima beans (yes, lima beans, damn it), onions, peppers, stewed together; in gumbo; plain stewed with butter, salt and pepper; okra and butter beans. And I love the slimey quality. Umm, slime. And also I would love to try all of the preparations mentioned here that I haven't tried: pickled, Indian-style, Filipino-style, etc. LONG LIVE OKRA.

Oh JamericanDiva I agree with all of the above.............. kudos to you and with a 15-month old too!? Just how are you going to keep your little one out of those beautiful creations? Your work is gorgeous and your cake/filling choice sounds luscious. Out of curiousity, are you using bagged coconut or making it from scratch? Either way, I'm sure it will be delicious. Also, would you please share how/why you decided to venture into such intricate cake baking/decorating? Personally, I've never had the nerve myself, although I have turned out some pretty good tasting, but homey looking, desserts. And as for your screen moniker, great choice; but, then again as you can tell from mine, I'm a little biased.

I'd have to truthfully state that I haven't had an LIIT in at least 20 years. I guess that that's an answer in itself. And, dear Divalasvegas, I guess that also means you'd find me a lot less fun than I was back in the day. Ah, well. ← On the contrary Splificator I'm quite confident that you as well as winesonoma, like fine wine, have only improved with age. But back to the subject at hand, I was wondering if what also made for a poor, Godawful LITT was the use of rail liquor. I'm not saying that I would use the most expensive gin, tequila, vodka and rum, but would you say taking a step or two above the usual suspects would make a difference? And what specific brands would constitute a cut above? For instance, should one use Smirnoff for the vodka portion of the drink or should one venture further and use Absolut, which I'm sure many here would say is a waste? Finally, my apologies Grub. I meant to say simple syrup, not "simple sugar" as previously posted.

You know, I must admit that I pretty much hate the texture/results of any nuked food. I would mash the potatoes in advance and keep them refrigerated in an ovenproof dish--Pyrex or whatever--and then take them out and reheat in a real oven on a low temperature (don't put the dish in ice cold, though, let it sit out for a while). I know this sounds cumbersome, but to me the flavor and texture of the final results would be well worth it. Good luck.

Oh winesonoma and Splificator, how come I can't find "classy" guys like you where I live? Got any brothers? Seriously, I really agree with mbanu that this drink really works; at least I like it. However, I strongly recommend homemade sour mix (3 parts lemon juice/zest, 1 part lime juice/zest, simple sugar; refrigerate overnight) to do it right, using the "Long Island Iced Tea - Snob Style" recipe. Damn, I think I know what I'll be drinking this weekend.

Hi CurlySue. My experience with doing this did not turn out well. Years ago, I was cooking beef stew in a crock pot for the first time. I asked a friend of mine for advice on how to get the best results. Among some of her suggestions she said to make sure I DID NOT put in the potatoes, that the meat and other vegetables would be fine. I can't remember if I decided to ignore her advice or just forgot, but I included potatoes. Well, they turned out horrible with a unpleasant mealy texture. They were inedible as a matter of fact and I had to fish them out and discard them. I can't imagine that they would fare any better if you cooked them alone. Hope this helps.

I'm "gluten challenged." I can't make bread, biscuits, pizza dough, pie crusts,............ you name it. Even my dumplings (as in chicken and dumplings) are aren't very good (I usually resort to Bisquick). I'm so ashamed and frustrated that I think I should turn in my double-Southern girl card. I always pay rapt attention to any cooking show where someone is demonstrating how to make any of the above and as always they come to that queasy (for me) moment when they talk about how the dough should "feel" or about not working "too much" flour into the dough when kneading or not putting in "too much" water or make sure you don't "overwork" the dough or that it "rests" enough and blah, blah, blah. Those concepts are just a little too abstract for me. How the Hell am I supposed to know how the stuff is supposed to feel or if I've overworked it? The process just seems too elusive as if I'm missing out on how to become one with the dough. As for my long ago last attempt at overcoming this shameful condition, all I can say is that if anyone here had tasted my last batch of biscuits, well let's just say we wouldn't have had to go to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction! Edited for spelling and to ask for directions to any thread(s) that addresses my affliction.

Great website joiei! Now that I think of it, I do remember hearing of Deborah Ford and her book: G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South). I shall have to add that book and her new one to my extensive grits research in preparation for whatever comes of my www.eHominy-Grits.com--NOT A LIVE LINK YET--website, blog, whatever. As for your previous July 12 post--sorry I don't exactly know how to include quoted information from a different post--where you gave a link to the Weight Watchers recipe for their Slow Cooker Chicken and Grits: you were dead on. Not only did the picture of the finished product as well as a recipe itself, make me queasy, but the final line of the recipe which gave serving suggestions stating "(Note: This dish will be soupy so serve in bowls.)" really set my "hurl-o-meter" off. Gag.

Okay *Deborah* you definitely beat me to the punch with your question. With all due respect to the vegan wine, isn't that like worrying about how many thousands--and there are thousands--of microscopic critters you wash down the drain every day when you take a shower and wash your hair? Best of luck to you battleofthebulge and your friend, but as for me, life is hard enough without putting veganism on top of it. Please write back and let us know how your dessert efforts went.

I have a vegan coworker and recently ordered some pastries that he would like from a bakery specializing in vegan bake goods which he loved. Personally, pastry without benefit eggs, butter, milk or cream is not my cup of tea but it takes all kinds to make the world go around. I was thinking about baklava. Does this person like walnuts? I was thinking that instead of the melted butter used for the baklava you could use a combination of margerine and walnut oil instead of the butter, and then proceed as usual with the syrup normally used for baklava. Wait a minute! I forgot. I almost said to make the syrup using honey, lemon juice, cinnamon, etc. BUT I JUST REMEMBERED VEGANS DON'T EAT HONEY (Aargh!) Let's start over. You could probably make a decent honey substitute using demerara (raw sugar) made in to a simple syrup AND THEN proceed. I hope this person appreciates how dear you really are.

This is one my favorite threads at eGullet. My story is not as horrifyingly hilarious as many as I've read here, but after many years it still makes me laugh. One of my worst meals at someone else's home actually happened twice: once after a girls' night out which included myself, a few co-workers and a friend of one of the co-workers, the friend of the co-worker kindly allowed me to sleep over on her couch as I was a little too tired and buzzed to drive home. In the morning she generously offered to make breakfast: sausage and scrambled eggs. At the time it never occurred to me that someone could actually screw up sausage and eggs. Well, first she proceeded to cook the sausage patties.............. and cook them and cook them and cook them until a very dark crusty brown. I like my sausage a little crispy and browned, just not all the way through. They actually made a clanking sound as she placed them on the plate as one hard surface met another. Then, using the sausage grease in the pan, she began to scramble the eggs. She scraped and scrambled and scraped and scrambled while I bit my tongue to keep from asking why it was taking her so long to scramble a few eggs since it usually only takes me a minute or two. Finally, she served us both the petrified sausage and eggs. I'm not sure I have the words to describe the appearance of the eggs. They were like little pellets, with the size and shape of the kind pellets that one would purchase from a pet food store to feed small, pet rodents or rabbits. Little brownish/greenish pellets. Perhaps someone out there conversant in food science can tell me what chemical reaction would cause eggs to turn brownish green. Anyway, I glanced over at the frying pan and noticed that every drop of grease that had escaped the sausage was gone (into the eggs, of course), but that approximately one quarter of the eggs she began with was solidly stuck to the surface of the pan. Again, since she was really such a nice person, I honestly did try to eat those eggs. However, I'm afraid I just could not overcome: a) their appearance, b) their taste--hard, chewy and greasy and, c) the fact that they rolled around the plate forcing you chase them down with your fork. I did manage to crunch down most of the sausage though. Finally, she noticed that I was not making any progress with the eggs and asked what was wrong. I said, "I'm really sorry, but I usually eat my eggs a little [meaning a lot] less 'done' than these. I'm really sorry." She was so nice and proffered, "Oh, I'm sorry, why didn't you tell me? I can make you some more." I declined, but always remembered more so than the eggs, what nice and generous spirit she was. As I mentioned at the start, this happened to me twice. Years after that event, those scrambled eggs appeared again. This time it was my former sister-in-law. The only difference was that she started out with even MORE GREASE than the other woman! I didn't eat them.

I've never thought about it. The whole hominy is so wonderful, I only make grits as a leftover treat when I get tired of the whole corn. But I do have a grinder somewhere around here, so I'll try it and report back! ← Well whenever you do try it rancho_gordo--and I can't wait to see the results--I think the perfect dish would be Low Country Shrimp and Red Grits. Maybe we could even charge French Laundry-style prices for it and finally give polenta a good, swift kick in the ass.

Okay andiesenji I being a mere mortal only have your everyday kitchen appliances: a food processor/blender combo, George Foreman Grill, a Food Saver vacuum sealer, and a whole fruit juicer. But you have definitely taken things to the next level! Thanks also for your insights on handling heirloom grits. And I have never had freshly ground grits; Hell, I never even thought about eating freshly ground grits, but I surely look forward to doing so.

I don't think I saw tomato or pasta sauce mentioned, but I like to make a big portion of sauce inspired by the original "Godfather" movie (I think the cook's name was Clemenza). All of the ingredients can be bought on the cheap--canned plum (or regular) tomatoes, tomato paste, sometimes I add tomato sauce as well, garlic, inexpensive wine, either red or white depending on your tastes, salt, pepper, pinch of sugar if necessary and that's it. No herbs, no onions, no green pepper, no parmesan cheese, etc. Now you have a basic sauce which can be used to top or simmer anything in: chicken, mussels, eggplant, ground beef, ground turkey, inexpensive cuts of pork. At that point add onions, herbs, peppers, whatever you need to individualize the sauce. When I think of how much I've paid for jarred sauces compared to how little it costs to make my own.......................

PLUG-OLA: I sell Red Osage corn hominy/posole on my website. It's an heirloom variety and when ground in a food processor after being cooked becomes grits. ← rancho gordo what would happen if one were to grind the corn hominy/posole before attempting to cook grits? Bad things? Would the final result be red (as in the picture on your website)? I think red grits would be way cool.

Are fresh pomegranates a fall crop in the U.S.? I remember loving them as a kid, but haven't had a fresh one for a long time. Someone upthread mentioned juicing them and making a mess, but a few years ago I recall watching a Martha Stewart show where she used a citrus juicer like the one below to juice the pomegranate, which she blended with fresh--what other kind would Martha use--orange juice. Not messy at all, didn't spill a drop, at least when she did it. Of course, it was Martha Stewart, afterall. Link to Manual Citrus Juicer at Cooking.com

My oh my racheld only on eGullet would I ever hope to see, all in the same post, the words: heirloom, Ducasse, grits, Paris, and lobster. Hard to imagine, but why not? Have you ever tasted this "pre-WAWAH" strain of grits? What exactly is all the fuss about? Sounds intriguing. Just the thought of risotto having to step out of the spotlight to make way for grits makes me feel extra Southern AWL OVA.

My mother's side of the family hails not that far from South Carolina "low country" and she was a damn fine Southern cook. After dining there a few times JCPTX IMHO, it's citified Southern food. Some dishes were okay, but just okay; others fell a little short of the mark for me, not just in taste but in price as well. And bilrus you nailed it as to why they are so popular.

Thanks Kathleen for your insights. I wrote the following in response to being asked on another thread about what exactly pork pudding is. Here's my recollection: "Pork pudding, as I recall from dim memories, is a type of sausage, but not in texture, only in the sense in that the mixture is stuffed into pork casings and shaped into a big ring. The texture was smoother, almost country pate like and the color was frankly kind of beige. I think it was a mixture of "variety" pork parts, rice (I think the rice was mashed or crushed, not whole grains) and seasonings, and maybe some pork stock. The final product had a ring or horseshoe shape. To prepare it, you would just it's had slice off a chunk--can't remember if it was floured it first--then cook in a frying pan of hot grease until it was all crusty on the outside and creamy and porky on the inside. Being that this was natural casing it would kind of flatten out and since the ends of the piece were open, unlike regular link sausage, some of the insides would ooze out into the grease creating extra crispy pork pudding at each end. I know that may sound totally unappetizing to many her, but I'm drooling as I write this. My mother told us a story about how she was craving her mom's pork pudding and made the mistake of buying it "up north" from a grocery store. She said became deathly ill from that fraudulent pork pudding. And when her mom/my grandma heard that, she got on a train from little ole Lone Star, South Carolina all the way to DC to bring her baby girl "real" homemade, pork pudding." That's the best I can do to discribe this dish. I hate it that so often when we lose those close to us, we lose not only them but the wonderful dishes that make up our various heritages. Thanks.

Shelby, N.C., is the home of livermush. That's actually about 50 miles from Charlotte. It's the home of the yearly livermush festival. Yes, it is essentially scrapple. Makes sense if you know the migration patterns of the 19th century. The Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia brought German settlers to Western North Carolina. Bob Garner also has a credible theory for why that gave N.C. two styles of barbecue. I wrote a whole story on livermush once. Even tested recipes for things made with livermush. (In the interest of journalistic integrity, followed up with a column admitting to the world that I detest liver.) I also had to get up at 3 a.m., after flying back on a late-night from Seattle, to go watch it being made. A great moment from a food-writing career: Seeing an industrial-size kettle on one side of the room, I wandered over, stretched up on my toes and peered over the side. Behold: a sea of pig snouts smiling up at me. The moment is etched in my mind and floats back up when anyone starts talking about the "glamour" of food writing. Don't know if I could post a whole link, as that was a few years ago, but I could probably send a copy to you if you were interested, Holly. A couple more tidbits: In North Carolina, there is a "mush/pudding" line. On one side of the state, it's called livermush. On the other, the texture is smoother and it's called liver pudding. I'd have to look it up to be sure, but I seem to recall the dividing line is the Yadkin River. And the greatest livermush moment in Charlotte history, of course, was the arrest of the Baghwan Shree Rajneesh, who was nabbed at the airport here while trying to flee the country. In jail, he supposedly partook quite happily of the standard inmate breakfast fare: Fried livermush and grits. ← Kathleen great background information. Actually reading your post I think you are my last hope in ever finding a recipe/information on another Southern "delicacy." My mother's side of the family came from a little town in Orangeburg, South Carolina called Lone Star. There was a breakfast food that they made in the fall after the hogs were slaughtered. It's called pork pudding and I haven't seen it for years. I was wondering if you had any information on it. My guess is that it's a close cousin to Louisiana's boudin blanc. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

Melkor Regarding your SYSCO comment, I'm stepping out and revealing my ignorance here: is this true? You're not kidding? I had no idea. When you say buy everything, does that include pre-prepared items or just the raw ingredients, or a mixture of both for that particular cuisine? ← From the furniture to heat-and-serve dishes. They can even come out and train your staff. Why do you think the brown sauce at thousands of 'Chinese' restaurants in strip malls across the country tastes exactly the same? ← Euwwwww.................... Thank you for that insight, I think.

In conservative markets such as the one where I live the "but it's too spicy" misperception describes who most people perceive Afghani, Persian, Vietnamese, Thai, Jamaican and darn near any other cuisine that they have never tried. On a business trip I actually convinced three of my colleagues ot join me at a Morroccan restaurant in Chicago. Had them finally convinced that it would not be "too spicy" and we'd already begun enjoying some mint tea with honey. Then the boss and a senior manager showed up and dragged us off (quite unceremoniously) to an Italian restaurant. Bummer. But very typical. ← In my experience in the U.S. phaelon56, and I'm thinking of a couple of people close to me, it's even worse than that when it comes to "too spicy." I have a friend whose husband and his parents are always complaining about not liking things too spicy. I would always tease her about this since it really limited their restaurant choices when dining out together and she's always very open to new things. Poor thing, it's always the same for her: the same couple of Chinese and Italian-American restaurants and a few middle of the road American family-style restaurants. She once told me about them going to one of their familiar haunts (Chinese) and the MIL complaining that the dish she ordered was too spicy. Well she tasted it and it wasn't spicy at all. It finally dawned on both of us that too spicy for her husband and in-laws meant ANYTHING THAT STRAYED TOO FAR FROM BASIC SALT AND PEPPER!!! This would include many of the spices found in Moroccan, Indian, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Thai etc. cuisines. What these people seemed to have an aversion to was actually too much flavor. I don't think there's anyway to overcome that hurdle.

Melkor Regarding your SYSCO comment, I'm stepping out and revealing my ignorance here: is this true? You're not kidding? I had no idea. When you say buy everything, does that include pre-prepared items or just the raw ingredients, or a mixture of both for that particular cuisine?

Chefzadi I have so many thoughts about what I have read so far by you and everyone on this fantastic and illuminating thread. I don't know where to start really; but here goes. I love my country, but one of the things that breaks my heart is when I hear that some people from other countries feel the need to almost redefine themselves racially/ethnically to adapt, fit in, or survive in this country, even though I know we're not the only country in the world where this is so. I guess we're still working on that melting pot experiment. Oh well, progress not perfection. I had never even heard of the term "Magrebi cuisine" in my life until I learned it from you. The great thing about you is that you inspire me, and I know many, many others, to want to learn more. There are so many great suggestions here as to how to get people to step outside of their comfort zone/misconceptions and just try something different. My take on this is that from a very young age I know that I always had the desire to try different cuisines and learn about the people and countries where those cuisines originated. How do you teach that? With children, anything is possible. With adults set in their ways, it's a much harder proposition. I remember many years ago wondering about a strange, interesting looking exotic cuisine that I wanted to know more about, but didn't exactly know how to go about it. It was: Louisiana cajun and creole! I had seen a couple of Louisiana chefs on tv--Justin Wilson, Paul Prudhomme--make these marvelous looking foods which at the time I had never tasted. File powder, jambalaya, boudin blanc? Where to start? I was blessed to be working with a native Louisianan who patiently explained to me: "no, the food isn't too spicy, just well seasoned" "no, adding the 'trinity' to a lot of our dishes doesn't make everything taste the same" and so on. I'm cringing right now when I remember the now seemingly ridiculous questions I asked her. She guided me to recipes and companies that made products widely used by Lousiana cooks and I never looked back. And I love spicy food now, the hotter, the better. Of course, the blackened redfish craze did wonders for making this cuisine nationally popular. I know I've been rambling, but as I said at the outset I had many thoughts on this topic. [End rambling]

Oh *Deborah* you are so right, I should have known better, but I actually like this TV chef and thought I'd take a chance. I'm damn sure both your Dad's and my Mom's meatloaves would easily put the smack down on the doggy chow loaf I was served. Actually, I've read the recipe for the meatloaf I was served, at the least the one the TV chef demonstrated on air when he was a "chef du jour" on Foodtv back in the good old days, so I had at least modest hopes that the kitchen staff would get that right. But hey girlfriend: COLD MASHED POTATOES? Is that yet another new take on a classic dish--hot real mashed potatoes with butter, cream or half and half, seasoned with salt? Oh the misery.