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What I Eat On The Soul Food Diet

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Meats/Beans:

My proteins on this diet are usually baked. Skinless, boneless chicken breast, pork loin chips, ground turkey burgers, shrimp, salmon and fish in general. Once in a while, I’ll have rotisserie chicken or grilled if I get lucky enough to get it before somebody puts bbq sauce on it! If I’m in a hurry, I may pan fry a burger (low fat beef or turkey) using EVOO or EVCO – just a touch in the pan with lots of sweet peppers and onion. I also eat water packed tuna, oysters and clams. Poultry, game and fish have always been staple soul food meats. Rabbit, ground hog, possum, deer and squirrel were all common game eaten back in the day. Today, we’re not quite so adventurous mostly because we don’t have to be, so we tend to take the easy way out. A trip to your local grocer is easier and faster than a trip into the woods, shot gun in hand, in search of dinner! Because I’m dieting, I stay away from dark meat and skin for the most part. I love beans and I eat them all the time! My favorite beans are pinto beans which I eat on this diet with brown rice. I didn’t know how good brown rice was until I started eating it as part of my diet for it’s nutritional value. It’s delicious and to me it has a slight nutty flavor – yum! I’ve also discovered that there is such a thing as brown rice pasta, bread, bagels, bread – wow, who knew? I stick with brown rice and brown rice pasta for the most part.

Vegetables:

My vegetable of choice are sweet potatoes, collard greens, cabbage with red, green and yellow peppers, green beans and pinto beans. I eat lots of salads so but no iceberg lettuce. All other kinds of lettuce are ok – but avoid iceberg as it has little nutritional value. I eat tons of other fresh vegetables with my salad, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, black and green olives and tomatoes. Soul food means farm to table eating. Back in the day, people ate what they grew and what they grew was greens, onions, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and okra. In the summer we always had sliced tomatoes and onions on the dinner table. Cucumber salad was also a seasonal favorite at our house! My father grew tons of vegetables in his garden and he gave away as much as we kept. It’s amazing how much produce one backyard garden will yield! In my world of soul food, ALL vegetables were served at my families table! Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, wax beans… everything! Soul food has always been heavy on sides and light on meat because meat was hard to come by back in the day. A little smoked meat was used for seasoning and for special occasions there would be one to two types of meat served, but the table would be laden with vegetable and grain dishes.

Seasoning:

I season my greens with exta virgin olive or coconut oil and/or smoked turkey. Once in a while I use a tsp of chicken base if needed. I also use sea salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, onion & garlic powder and whatever other seasonings I think appropriate. Your seasoning and herbs are up to your own taste buds. Sometimes I use curry powder, sometimes oregano, sometimes turmeric. It just depends on what I’m fixing. Something I love to do is mix collards and cabbage so I rarely eat just collards or just cabbage because the two of them together is simply awesome! Add sweet peppers, onions a tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil to sauté them in and you’ve got some good eating!!! For the soul food diet I flavor my sweet potatoes with the same spices you would use if making candied sweet potatoes… cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves… whatever you like!

In Conclusion:

The soul food diet embraces whole foods which is where “soul food” came from. Farm to table (field to table), fresh, home cooked food. You ate what you put it in, not some chemicals that the manufacturer added to make it last longer on the store shelf. Soul food was and is simple food, country food that someone takes the time to cook with love for their loved ones. Every day you find more and more “experts” embracing the way we ate back in the day. There was a time when they said it was “all wrong and killing us”!!!!  Today, you can find more and more people turning back to the “slow food” movement because the truth is that it’s the new way of eating, fast food and processed food that is killing us! That’s the reason I can eat soul food and lose weight. Greens, beans, tomatoes, stews, soups and roasts when prepared correctly are wholesome and nutritious! Don’t get me wrong, today’s soul food is definitely not what people were eating in the 50s for the most part. Too much of today’s soul food is heavy on meat, starchy sides and has high sugar content. Not really what my great-grandparents had access to! Well the soul food diet takes you back to the old land mark. Our emphasis will be on vegetables and  the right cuts of meat, cooked the right way!  You’ll get your sugar fill too, you’ll just get it through fresh fruits! You’ll discover a whole new way of eating that’s as familiar as you favorite dish!

 

The Soul Food Diet – Week 3

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Oven Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash

Oven Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash

Welcome to the soul food diet – week 3! In addition to eating right, I’m stepping up my exercise game and I’ve been doing more time on my rebounder (mini trampoline) using music from my cable tv music channels to work out/bounce to. It makes it more fun and I work out longer! I have done a lot of research into rebounders and the health benefits from rebounding are unbelievable! Rebounding is considered to be the best workout on earth for your body. It strengthens cells, detoxifies your lymphatic system and decreases the amount of time blood pressure rises after intense exercise, just to name a few (very few) benefits! Truth is that I am actually at the weight limit for the rebounder that I have. My goil is to get a Bellicon rebounder. Bellicon is the top of the line and uses bungees instead of springs which means your rebounder will be easier on your joints, give you a better bounce, last longer and be a whole lot quieter! Bellicon is the world’s premier rebounder and a Bellicon workout increases strength and vitality – regardless of your age, which for me is a real plus! To read more about Bellicon rebounders and rebounding, click the Bellicon photo links below! If you like me can’t afford the Bellicon right now, get a rebounder and start doing the health bounce! So good for every part of you! I presently bounce on a Stamina In Tone 38″ rebounder. It was $59 plus tax and shipping but I was over the weight limit when I started (by 6.8 lbs)! Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good deal for what I paid – AND – it doesn’t have springs! But I’m realistic and don’t expect it to last too long based on the price I paid.  When it’s finished, I’m upgrading to a Bellicon, for sure! This is the exercise that I plan to do for the rest of my life! So good for me yet so easy on me. Love!!!

Oh – by the way, my weigh in this week showed a total weight loss of 5.4 lbs! Which is a total loss of 11 lbs 10 oz yea!!! I found a program that is based upon speeding up your metabolism and has loads of recipes – check out Fit Cooking  Click Here!

Pinto Beans (with Smoked Turkey)

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Pinto Beans

I love pinto beans more than any other kind of bean. I can eat pinto beans with a piece of corn bread, white bread or biscuits and nothing else! A bowl of beans, a loaf of bread and thou! When I cook my beans, I always use a smoked meat for seasoning and I prefer either smoked turkey (tails, wings, legs) or ham hocks but you can also use a ham bone, ham, salt-side or bacon. Do not use an overwhelming amount of meat! Just enough to season the dish, depending on how many pounds of beans you’re cooking. If I’m cooking one to three pounds of beans, I’m using 8 oz to 1 1/2 pounds of smoked meat. My favorite seasoning meat is smoked turkey tails! They have enough meat, fat and flavor to make my dishes sing! Beans have a flavor all their own and it’s your job to bring that flavor out, not to cover it up with too much meat!

Pinto Beans
Author: Sweet Mother
Ingredients
  • 2 lb pinto beans
  • 1 to 1-1/4 lb smoked meat (turkey, ham bone, ham or ham hocks)
  • 1 onion diced
  • 2 stalks celery diced (optional)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 3 quarts chicken broth
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp base (ham/bacon or chicken)
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
  1. Pick through beans to remove debris (stones, mud, bad beans).
  2. Rinse beans and put into a large pot or container. Cover with cold water at least 6 inches over the top of the beans and soak overnight. Discard water and rinse beans.
  3. Put smoked meat into a 6 quart stock pot with 1 quarts of broth or water. Add sauteed onion and celery. Bring to a boil and cook 20-30 minutes over medium flame.
  4. Add beans and chicken broth to cover.
  5. Cook over medium flame about an hour. Skim off any foam that rises to the top of your stock pot. Turn down to simmer and add seasonings. Cook an additional 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. Stir occasionally and add more broth if needed.
  6. Beans are done when they can be mashed easily with a fork or back of a spoon and when the liquid thickens slightly and develops a creamy consistency (see photo).Do a final tasting and adjust your seasonings as needed.
  7. Serve with rice and biscuits or corn bread.

Cat Head Biscuits

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Cat Head BiscuitsCat head biscuits are buttery, flaky biscuits so named because if you make them right, they bake up big as a cat’s head! 🙂  Big, bodacious, delicious biscuits… enjoy!!!

Cat Head Biscuits
You can omit the cheese in this recipe and just make plain biscuits. Either way, they’re delicious!
Ingredients
  • 3c AP flour (white lily or similar)
  • 4tsp baking powder
  • ½ c unsalted butter (make sure it’s cold)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2/3 c heavy whipping cream*
  • 2/3 c plain yogurt
  • 1 cup grated cheese (sharp, asiago & parm combo – 1/3 c each)*
  • 1 T garlic powder
Instructions
  1. Place flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into the flour, using your fingers until the flour mixture looks crumbly and resembles corn meal. Stick dough in fridge or freezer for a few minutes throughout process to keep your butter cold. Cold butter equals light, high, fluffy biscuits! Combine the cream and the yogurt and save about ¼ c. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in all the cream/yogurt mixture.
  2. Stir the dry ingredients and cheese into the wet and mix with a large spoon until dough just begins to come together into a ball. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 2 or 3 times. Do not overwork the dough or you’ll end up with tough biscuits.
  3. On a clean, floured surface, roll the dough to 1 to 1 ½ inch thick. Do not roll the dough out too thin or you’ll end up with flat biscuits – which I’ve done many times. They were good but big fluffy biscuits are better! The thickness of the dough is important! Roll and fold the dough over itself once or twice to make it thicker. Dip a glass or biscuit cutter in flour and cut your biscuits placing them in a pan about an inch or so apart. You can re-roll your bits and pieces of dough to make additional pieces. Be gentle with the dough when re-rolling. Only re-roll one time or just bring dough together with your hands, shape and put in pan.
  4. Brush the tops of the biscuits with left over cream and yogurt mixture.
  5. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Biscuits should be lightly browned.
  6. Makes 12 biscuits
Brush Tops With:
  1. ½ stick melted butter
  2. tsp garlic powder
  3. ½ teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  4. pinch salt
  5. Or – brush with the honey butter topping we use for our cornbread – it’s soul good!

The Soul Food Diet – Week 2

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My two nieces in the back, Ree & Missy (Sue) with Tonya, me and Becky. I like seated photos better – can’t really see it all, you know?

 

Well, so far, so good with me and my soul food diet. The food is more than enough and I have been able to fix it in ways that it actually tastes delicious to me. I am also rediscovering my love for fresh fruit and vegetables! Funny how good real food tastes if you will just eat it! We get so hung up eating on the run, fast and furious that what should be the pleasure part of eating, delicious, fresh, wholesome food get replaced by how fast we can consume it. Oh well, no soap box today, just the facts! I am calling this diet the soul food diet because that is what I choose to use where my diet calls for vegetables. I am sautéing cabbage in coconut oil and eating collard greens mixed with kale. I have never used coconut oil for cooking but I am now and I found out that I love the sweet nutty flavor it gives my food. I especially love to cook cabbage with it! Soul good!!! I also eat lots of salad greens with tomatoes and cucs but there are certain days when no tomatoes are eaten so be careful and pay attention to you phase specific foods! The diet allows you to have sweet potatoes in every phase so I eat my greens with sweet potatoes. I add my protein of either baked chicken or broiled pork chops, oven baked salmon or shrimp and I’m a happy girl!Yes, I am eating pork on a diet. I even cooked collards last week and used a ham bone for seasoning. Caution: When I say ham BONE that’s what I mean, not a bone with a lot of ham on it. A bone that you would need a magnifying glass to find meat on. There’s a difference and I’m trying to lose weight not make a fool out of my self, so I’m real careful!!! I also add frozen peppers and onions to my meat and veggies when I cook them. They make everything so yummy! The last tip is use fat free chicken broth instead of water for more added flavor.

I started light exercise this week. Nothing serious, some resistance band workouts. Also, because I have severe hip pain due to arthritis in my hip joint, I have to work my way up to real exercise – if you know what I mean. I went online to youtube.com and found a site called GYM-Ra which has beginner resistance band exercises. I also have a small rebounder in my room that I was using to store things on. I dusted it off and started doing the health bounce on it. LOVE!!!

As a reminder, April 20 I weight in at 251.2

My stats this week:

April 27, 2015 – weighed in at: 245.8 = 5.4 lbs. lost (yippee!!!). See ya next week!

 

The Soul Food Diet – Weight Loss Secrets

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Me - The Big Girl in White

I’m the one on the end in white. So big I can’t even hide behind my sisters, Tonya in blue and Becky in orange!!!

 

Well, this year, I am really going on a diet, the soul food diet! I have some confessions – I’m overweight (nothing new), on blood pressure, pain and incontinence meds and totally unhappy with myself – so “a change is gonna come”! I am inviting you along on the journey with me, if you want to come and I hope you do! You can jump on board now and lose weight with me, or, you can wait (weight – lol) till I’ve reached my goal and then get motivated and start later! The choice is yours!!!

Almost every week since the beginning of the year, I’ve planned to start a diet. I’ve been overweight for years but the last year or so, I’ve gained about 60 pounds! I don’t why all of a sudden so my weight ballooned to a place it’s never been but enough is enough! I’ve decided the time is now to do something about myself. So no more excuses about why I can’t start this week (holiday, birthday, rainy day!), I started this diet 12 days ago and there’s no turning back now!

The name of the diet I’m on is called “The Fast Metabolism Diet” by nutritionist Haylie Pomroy. The diet is really more than just a diet – it really is. It’s a lifestyle. After being on “The Fast Metabolism Diet” only 12 days, I feel better – inside, you know what I mean? I actually FEEL better! If I feel this good after only 12 days, I can’t wait to see how I feel after 28 days! By the way, the program is  28 days in length. Yes – only 28 days. Of course you can go back on it for as long as you want until you reach your goal and believe me, it’ll take quite a few 28 day cycles until I reach my goal! Truth.

I found this diet because another lady in the pre-K where I work was on it and had lost 10 pounds in a couple of weeks. A cook in another center whom I know was on it, and had lost double that amount in about a month, and a couple of other people in the company had lost significant amounts of weight on ” The Fast Metabolism Diet” by Haylie Pomroy! I started “The Fast Metabolism Diet” on Monday, April 13 which means I have had one weigh in (Monday, April 20) and I’m happy to report that I lost 6.6 pounds!!! I weigh again on Monday, April 27 so stay turned!

This diet gives you LOADS of food to eat – and I mean LOADS! So many fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, grains, seafood, fish – yum! The hardest part of the diet for me? OK – the hardest partS of the diet for me are…

  1. Drinking half my weight in ounces of water everyday (125 – three ounces short of a gallon!!!)
  2. Eating at the right times. You have to eat every 3 to 4 hours and it’s difficult when you work!
  3. No matter where I’m at, always knowing where the closest restroom is because of all the water that I’m drinking! (LOL!)

But like I said – no more excuses so…

Join me and check here every Monday. I promise to post my weight loss information for the world to see! Gosh, I’m a little bit brave, huh!

5 Things You Need To Know About Soul Food

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What 5 things do you need to know about soul food?5 Things About Soul Food This short list addresses some of my most asked questions when it comes to soul food. Why do you need to know them? Well, you might not need to know them right now, but you may want to check them out and stash them away for future reference! You never know when you may have a soul food trivia question on Jeopardy! 🙂

1. What is soul food?

When people say “soul food” exactly what are they talking about? Does soul food only belong to one culture or is it cross-cultural and world wide? Well the term “soul food” was born in the soulful 60s – when everything in the black community had soul! It didn’t matter if it was the music, the people or the food – it all had soul! Today, soul music is now “old school” and the soul brothers and soul sisters are now Grand and Great-Grand parents. The one soulful term that still endures today is soul food!

The term refers to food that can find it’s origins in the cotton fields and plantations of the South. It was simple food, prepared with care. It was prepared by slaves and eaten by southern plantation owners, their families and friends. Leftovers were thrown away, given to the animals or scavenged by the slaves. From theses humble beginning a cuisine that some say is the only truly American cuisine that exists in this country was born. Slaves saved the tops of vegetables like turnips and hunted for small game like rabbit, groundhog and turtle.  Fishing also provided much needed protein which could also be smoke dried or salted and preserved.

2. What are the top 5 soul food dishes?

The top five soul food dishes in no particular order and in my personal opinion are, macaroni & cheese, collard greens, candied sweet potatoes, corn bread and fried chicken! As I said, this is my personal opinion and not the result of a poll or survey of the top 5 soul food dishes in America! Please notice that there is only one (1) meat dish listed in the top 5. Don’t believe the hype about soul food being bad for you because of all the meat people eat. Black people never did eat hugh amounts of meat! We couldn’t afford it! It was always scarce which is why soul food has always been “sides” focused!

The real secret to making soul food like mom & grandma used to cook, is knowing how to clean, season and cook it! Believe me when I say that everybody doesn’t know how to clean chitlins and everybody doesn’t know how to cook chitlins!  As one of the original members of “soul food”, chitlins are now often considered a delicacy because most people don’t have the time or the know how to prepare them! If prepared properly, chitlins are one of the most delicious soul food dishes you will ever eat!

3. Are sweet potatoes and yams the same thing?

No – yams are yams and sweet potatoes are tubers or potatoes.  I found a great article that offers an explanation of the difference between sweet potatoes and yams on a website called “Everyday Mysteries” which belongs to the Library of Congress:

Question: What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Answer: Even though yams and sweet potatoes are both flowering plants, they are not botanically related. Yams have one embryonic seed leaf and sweet potatoes have two. Sweet potatoes are also from the morning glory family but are often called yams while yams are more closely related to lilies and grasses. Yams are also native to Africa and Asia and can grow quite large (record is 130 pounds). There are hundreds of varieties of yams and over 90% of them are grown in Africa. Yams are also starchier than sweet potatoes.

In the United States soft and firm are the two varieties of sweet  potatoes. Skin color and flesh colors are varied and can range from white to purple. Firm sweet potatoes stay firm when cooked and soft cook up soft and moist. African slaves called the soft sweet potatoes yams because they closely resembled African yams. The soft varieties of sweet potatoes are still referred to as yams. Today, the USDA requires labels with the term ‘yam’ to be accompanied by the term ‘sweet potato’. Basically – unless you specifically look for yams, which are usually found in farmers and international markets, you are probably eating sweet potatoes!(1)

4. Is soul food a cuisine that refers only to the food that originated in the American South created specifically by African slaves?

When “soul food” is referred to in America, it is a term coined or created in the 60’s that referred specifically to the food that had it’s roots in slavery. Today soul food has been elevated to it’s own special status thanks to the Sunday dinners, chicken shacks, rib joints, church dinners, family reunions, juke joints, fish frys and pig pickins that contributed along the way! Soul food may have originated from slavery food, but there are a great many differences between what soul food is today and what the slaves ate to survive.  You can believe that during slavery, our ancestors weren’t sitting around the plantation “throwin down” on Barbeque, fried chicken wings, macaroni and cheese, candied sweet potatoes and pound cake! I’m not saying that the food didn’t exist or that it wasn’t being created, prepared, served and eaten. I’m saying it wasn’t being eaten by us – until it was thrown away, if then!

What we call soul food today is the result of the way our ancestors were treated and what they were forced to eat but on a highly evolved level with a lot of additions and a lot more meat! They were given the worst of it and they made the best of it! Soul food reaches far beyond the cuisine of the deep south that was created and perfected by slaves. Every culture has soul food! Some call it peasant food, comfort food, country food or just plain old food! Every culture has it and every culture embraces it! For Polish people, it may be Haluski, for Moroccans it may be Harira and for Jamaicans it may be ackee and salt fish.  The real point is, we all have food that takes us back to our roots! Food that holds real, comforting and intimate memories of from whence we came!

5. Is soul food in America a dying cuisine?

Within the last 20 years, cooking, something that in America in general and the South specifically, was the work of slaves and then later domestic workers, has become very mainstream. Due to the popularity of television food shows, the internet focus on food and recipe sites and our love affair with food in general, there is money being made hand over fist in the food industry! But who’s in the kitchen? The same people who have always been there since the beginning? Absolutely not! You will be hard pressed to find a black chef on TV let alone with their own show! In fact even today  I can count the shows featuring black chefs on one hand!

Looks like once again we’ve fallen from grace to grass. Once again, as soon as the worth of something is discovered, we are “quietly” removed and not spoken of, like we were never here, there or anywhere!  As if we never created and originated this truly American cuisine! Simply put – we’ve been replaced! This is very obvious with soul food! First of all, it’s not referred to as soul food – ever, even on food shows! The menu can consist of fried chicken, chitlins, ribs, macaroni & cheese, collard greens and corn bread, the words “soul food” NEVER escapes the lips of the shows chef/host! It’s Southern Food or Comfort Food or maybe even Country Food, but never ever Soul Food!

What also happens is that credit is never given to those who originated the cuisine! The host gives credit alright, but it goes to their Grandma Moses or Uncle Bud or Mama May I, but never any mention of the people who actually taught their relatives how to fix those dishes! Once again, history is abused and trampled under foot! I know, I know, since the slaves were not permitted to learn to read and write, they could not write down recipes! But recipes were written, they just were not written by the slaves! They were written by the mistresses of the house who then proceeded to take credit for those recipes! But if you think about it, the person who owned the recipe, owned the person who created it so to them it was their recipe. They didn’t consider it wrong to take credit for what belonged to them through ownership. But now we know that it was wrong so how can we ensure that the right people get the credit?

As people continue to take credit for every grit and green recipe they can find, southern food pioneers like Chef Edna Lewis and our other ancestors  who literally slaved over this food, are ignored or simply never mentioned! Now all of a sudden, every Chef on TV cooks grits, beans and greens, and let’s not forget corn bread! They’re fixing gumbo, frying hush puppies and cooking tripe. It’s up to each of us to research, remember and honor our own culinary heritage. If we don’t, just like we can’t trace our ancestral roots back to the land of our ancestors, we will not be able to trace our culinary roots back to those who really created the dishes and recipes.

African American chef and historian Edna Lewis documented the fact that unless something is done, the history of southern food and how it was grown, cooked and served will be forgotten forever. She co-founded, The Society for the Preservation and Revitalization of Southern Food, to try to ensure that those ways be preserved for future generations to know, learn and understand. And even that institution has been replaced and given a new name. It’s now called Southern Foodways, even though it has merged with the organization Ms. Lewis helped to co-found. Ms. Lewis is no longer with us so again, we must be careful to protect and preserve what she started because we want to make sure that those who should get the credit!

In closing I will say that yes, Soul Food is alive and well in America, it’s just quietly being slowly losing it’s roots and it’s culture, dish by dish! The next time your turn on your favorite cooking show and you see the Chef/Host making his or her Aunt Carly’s sweet potato pie recipe, just remember, you’ve been warned!

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(1) http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sweetpotato.html. Everyday Mysteries Fun Science Facts From The Library of Congress. What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? November 23, 2012. April 11, 2015.

How to Brine – Anything

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The boring stuff:

According to Wikipedia.org:

Brining is a process similar to marinating in which meat or poultry is soaked in brine before cooking. Salt is added to cold water in a container, where the meat is soaked anywhere from 30 minutes to a few days. The amount of time needed to brine depends on the size of the meat. More time is needed for a large turkey compared to a broiler fryer chicken. Similarly with a large roast versus a thin cut of meat.

Brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked, via the process of denaturation. The brine surrounding the cells has a higher concentration of salt than the fluid within the cells, but the cell fluid has a higher concentration of other solutes. This leads salt ions to diffuse into the cell, whilst the solutes in the cells cannot diffuse through the cell membranes into the brine. The increased salinity of the cell fluid causes the cell to absorb water from the brine via osmosis. The salt introduced into the cell also denatures its proteins. The proteins coagulate, forming a matrix that traps water molecules and holds them during cooking. This prevents the meat from dehydrating.[1]

Got that? Well to me, brining is simply submerging a food in liquid to flavor and moisturize it from the outside in. I understand that the reasons and results detailed in the above wiki explanation means that the process is much more involved that what we may think, which is why I included it for your reading pleasure! I still stand by what I said, I consider brining a process of flavoring and moisturizing – that I happen to love to use! I brine whole turkeys before I roast them to keep them from being dry and flavorless. I also brine pork shoulder before slow cooking when I make pulled pork. When I was first introduced to brining, I was told to use equal amounts of salt and sugar dissolved in water and to cover the meat and leave it in the brining liquid overnight. I now add other things to my brining liquid. You can also “lace your bird” by adding garlic, ginger or lemon under the skin. Add garlic powder, onion powder or liquid smoke to your brining liquid. Try using different flavor liquids and to see how it affects the meat. For example, using a little apple juice or apple cider in the water. How about a little wine in the brining liquid – etc! Experiment and see how you like it! It’s only food and it’s all good!!!

How to brine: Get a large stock pot and fill it with liquid based on our discussion above. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of salt and sugar. Add any additional flavorings and the meat of choice. Make sure meat is totally submerged in the brining liquid. Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight for best results. Remove meat from brining liquid and discard liquid. Drain meat, season skin and cook based on your chosen cooking method (roast, bake, fry, grill – etc). When meat is fully cooked, rest (let it sit) 15 – 20 minutes before cutting or carvings to allow the juices to redistribute throughout the meat.

Brining

 

 

 

 

 

http://wearenotfoodies.com/jalapeno-brined-roasted-chicken/

 

1. Brining. (2014, December 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:38, January 19, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brining&oldid=640382948

 

Pigs Feet (AKA Trotters)

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Pigs Feet

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to call pigs feet what my Mom always called them – trotters! So much cooler than pigs feet right? Even though I rarely indulge anymore, I can still hook up a foot! Sit down, grab some hot sauce and vinegar and jump (hop) right in – with all 4s! (lol) Anymore feet jokes?

 

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:38]

Who’s In The Kitchen: Chef Abby Fisher

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mrs.fishers.cookbook

A former slave who lived for a time after the civil war in Mobile Alabama, Abby Fisher became a Chef when she and her husband were freed (emancipated) and moved to San Francisco California in the late 1870s. Abby and Alexander Fisher had 11 children. Her cookbook, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern cooking”,  is believed to be the oldest cookbook by an African American in existence. It was published in 1881. Chef Fisher and her husband were both illiterate but she was known to be a talented, sought after Chef.  Abby Fisher is also credited with being one of the early pioneers in the use of precision ingreditent measurements in her recipes. In some recipes she uses measurements such as quarts, pounds, gallons, tablespoons and even teaspoons and half-teaspoons, which is the type of recipe we are used to today. The recipe I used from Mrs. Fisher’s book below, is more traditional of the time and does not use standard measurements.  Abby Fisher’s cookbook was obviously transcribed by another person but “What Mrs. Fisher Knows…” is considered by many to be the original soul food cookbook, with recipes for beat biscuits, plantation cornbread, creole chow chow, oyster gumbo soup, and many other traditional dishes.  Mrs. Fisher was awarded two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics’ Institute Fair, 1880, for best Pickles and Sauces and best assortment of Jellies and Preserves.  Mrs. Fisher says in her Preface and Apology: “The publication of a book on my knowledge and experience of Southern Cooking, Pickle and Jelly Making, has been frequently asked of me by my lady friends and patrons in San Francisco and Oakland, and also by ladies of Sacramento during the State Fair in 1879.” The table of contents in this important book reads a little like the alphabet…

Breakfast Breads

Broiled Meats

Croquettes

Cakes, Etc.

Pickles, Sauces, Etc

Pies, Etc

Puddings

Preserves, Spices, Etc

Roast Meats

Salads

Sherbets

Soups, Chowders, Etc

Miscellaneous

Below is an original recipe from Chef Fisher’s cookbook:

I love this recipe because it’s all open to interpretation! Other than 2 eggs, you have no idea how much of anything Chef Fisher used of any ingredient! Pure old school cooking by eye and feeling! Enjoy!!!

Mrs. Fisher’s Original Recipe Crab Croquettes

Have crabs well boiled in salt and water, then pick them clean from the shell; chop fine; take the large end of a piece of celery and grate into the crab; chop with crab a small piece of onion fine; mix half a teacup of fine powdered cracker into crab; season with pepper and salt, also the least bit of fine red pepper, as crabs should be seasoned high to be nice.  Have your lard hot, and fry just before wanted at table.  Beat two eggs, dip croquettes in the egg, roll in powdered crackers before frying; make them oblong shaped.

A reprinted copy of Mrs. Fisher’s cookbook, which can be purchased by clicking the book cover below:

mrs.fishers.cookbook