Good morning…you all! How is everyone today? We’d like to welcome you back to Ridin Out the Recession, in Miz Judi’s Kitchen once again.
As you know, Deb and I are eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and most know our reasoning for this…
Anyway, there’s only so many ways to fix your vegetables, and with this in mind, we’re always looking for “new twists” in preparing them. You all are aware that from a nutrition standpoint, the most nutritious way to eat them is raw.
The other day going through a cookbook, we came across a recipe for Remoulade Sauce. This is a mayonnaise based sauce that is widely used in one of New Orleans classic dishes…Shrimp Remoulade.
This is boiled shrimp served cold over salad greens with this sauce. It is also used with “po boy sandwiches,” and as a topping for cold beef, pork and chicken. The recipe we’ll be sharing with you today is a Remoulade Sauce that is based on several different recipes from the 1880’s to the 1960’s.
I didn’t know what it was, and after looking over the ingredients in the recipe I told Deb that I believe this would be delicious as a dip for our raw vegetables, and she agreed, so…we made up a batch.
I gotta tell you guys that this Remoulade is just like we figured it to be! It tastes so good when used as a dip, and we thought it good enough to share with you today. We chill it, and then serve it with our veggies.
Anyway, if it sounds as if you might like it, then we suggest giving it a whirl. We’re glad we did, and we both doubt you’ll regret tryin it out!
Again, today’s recipes come from the cookbook, “An Irresistible History of Southern Food,” and it was written by Rick McDaniel, and published by The History Press, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Before we fire off the dern cook stove this morning, how bout a look on the lighter side. I have to admit, when I was reading this joke I got “sucked in” hook, line and sinker. The ending was not what I was figuring it to be, and I found this pretty funny.
Maybe you will too, as a good smile, or laugh is in reality…the best medicine! So hang on to your hats, and let’s get us a good grin going on this morning at the very least!
Beware of Older Women
I’ll confess, I ended up with an older woman at a bar last night. She looked pretty good for a 60-year-old. In fact, she wasn’t too bad at all, and I found myself thinking she probably had a really hot daughter.
We drank a couple of beers, and she asked if I’d ever had a Sportsman’s Double?
‘What’s that? I asked.
‘It’s a mother and daughter threesome,’ she said.
As my mind began to embrace the idea, and I wondered what her daughter might look like, I said, ‘No, I haven’t.’
We drank a bit more, then she said with a wink, ‘tonight’s your lucky night’.
We went back to her place. We walked in. She put on the hall light and shouted upstairs:
‘Mom…you still awake?’
Remoulade Sauce:
- 1 pint mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Creole Mustard
- 2 tablespoons grated onion
- 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white wine Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- ¼ teaspoon hot sauce
Mix the ingredients well….that’s it. Quick, easy, and very good!
Sawmill Gravy:
Rumor has it that this gravy according to Joe Dabney, author of the cookbook, “Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread and Scuppernong Wine,’’(a cookbook Deb and I have, and just love it”), dates back to the Treemont Logging Camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains at about the dawn of the twentieth century.
The rumor has it, that after cooking biscuits for the loggers in camp, the cook didn’t have enough flour left to make gravy. SO, the cook substituted coarsely ground cornmeal.
The loggers asked what kind of gravy it was, and the cook replied that he’d made it from sawdust. From there on out, the loggers started calling it…sawmill gravy.
- 3 heaping tablespoons of white cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon bacon drippings
- 2-1/4 cup of milk
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- A dash of salt
In a 10 inch frying pan, combine cornmeal and bacon drippings; stir until brown. Add milk and simmer until gravy thickens, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Red-Eye Gravy:
One version of how red-eye gravy got its name is from Mr. Mark Twain. It seems that Mr. Twain was served this yet-to-be-named delicacy by the hotel cook.
The story has it, that this particular cook was more than a little hungover at the time he served this dish to Mr. Twain. After the cook left, Mr. Twain quipped, “That fellow’s gravy is as red as his eyes!”
In a 10 inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, fry the ham slices until they’re done. Remove from pan. Add water or coffee to ham drippings and stir, scraping up the brown bits off the bottom of the skillet.
Serve with country ham, biscuits and honey.
“Hoover Sop”:
When the stock market crashed back in 1929, it sent the U.S. into the worst economic disaster in our Country’s history.
Meat suddenly became a luxury on many tables, and as jobs and food became even more scarce, gravy made from leftover salt pork grease or lard, and water substituted for milk became a staple food for many Southerners.
This last gravy we’ll share with you guys today, made in its most elemental form, was indeed a simple dish that sustained people through these rough times.
The President back then was Herbert Hoover, and by his being our President, this last gravy was named in his honor…“Hoover Slop.” Somehow, I just don’t see this gravy being named in his honor as being a compliment, do you?
- 2 tablespoons flour or cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
- 2 cups water
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a 10 inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, whisk flour into hot bacon drippings. When flour turns golden brown, stir in water and allow to simmer until it reaches the desired thickness. Season to taste with salt and pepper.