Sweet Mothers Kitchen

You are here: Home / Archives for Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Who’s In The Kitchen: Chef Edna Lewis In Her Own Words

by

Edna Lewis

Another one of my influences and a great African American female 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.

Chef Edna Lewis is considered to be the authority on Southern cooking and she was also a pioneer of the farm to table movement. Born in Freetown, Orange County, Virginia, on April 13, 1916, the granddaughter of a freed slave.  Chef Lewis considered southern food the only truly regional cuisine of this country, like jazz and the blues… true American art forms! Chef Lewis cooked her sought after dishes for the rich and famous at Café Nicholson in New York City and because she believed in good, fresh, simple food, the same dishes will be equally at home on your table being served to your family. It was as much what she fixed as how she fixed it. The lost art of home cooking from scratch can be found again! Among many other awards and honors that she has received, two which would be known to all the foodies reading this, in 1995 chef Lewis was awarded a James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award (their first ever) and in 1999 she was awarded the title of Grande Dame by Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international organization of female culinary professionals. A true farm to table cook, chef Lewis believed in fresh food, simply prepared as the basic recipe for an outstanding meal. To read Chef Lewis’ bio, click this link to The Edna Lewis Foundation , to go to her foundation website, created in 2012.

As I didn’t get to talk to chef Lewis personally, the videos and her cook books help give me a deeper understanding of who chef Lewis was. Better than just reading about her. We get to hear a little bit of her story – in her own words! Incredible!

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl6JVMoMN44

This is a series of photos of chef Edna Lewis. Some are from her cookbooks and some from life moments. Please take note of the last photo, it’s a stamp – yes a U.S. postage forever stamp commemorating the life of this great chef.

This is a short interview with Chef Lewis and gives insight into not only who she is but into her concept of the food she cooked. Chef Lewis seemed to me to be s a woman of quiet,  unassuming disposition who filled the space around her with elegance and wisdom. Enjoy!

http://youtubeid=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34hEzh-D7Qo

A few years ago, when I first started researching Chef Lewis, I found a play online called “Dinner with Edna Lewis” from Southern Foodways. According to the information on the page: “For several years now, we’ve capped off our fall symposium programming with a Sunday-morning fine arts performance—a chitlin ballet, a collard operetta, a pitmaster puppet show. In 2013 we premiered Dinner with Edna Lewis, a one-woman play written by Shay Youngblood and performed by Detra Payne. If you weren’t with us at the symposium, you can now watch this original interpretation of the late chef and writer Edna Lewis.”

Shared from: http://www.southernfoodways.org/dinner-with-edna-lewis/

http://http://vimeo.com/78759139

Chef Edna Lewis: Awards and Honors

Awards and Accolades

  • 1986 – Named Who’s Who in American Cooking by Cook’s Magazine
  • 1990 – Lifetime Achievement Award IACP (International Assoc. of Culinary Professionals)
  • 1995 – James Beard Living Legend Award (Their first such award.)
  • 1999 – Named Grande Dame by Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international organization of female culinary professionals.
  • 1999 – Lifetime Achievement Award from Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) (Their first such award.)
  • 2002 – Barbara Tropp President’s Award (WCR – Women Chefs & Restaurateurs)
  • 2003 – Inducted into the KitchenAid Cookbook Hall of Fame (James Beard)
  • 2004 – The Gift of Southern Cooking nominated for James Beard Award and IACP Award
  • 2009 — African American Trailblazers in Virginia honoree at the Library of Virginia (in Richmond)

Cookbooks

  • The Edna Lewis Cookbook (Ecco 1989)(Out of Print)
  • The Taste of Country Cooking (Knopf 1976)

the_taste_of_country_cooking

 

  • In Pursuit of Flavor (Knopf 1988)

in_pursuit_of_flavor

 

  • The Gift of Southern Cooking (with Scott Peacock)(Knopf 2003)

The_gift_of_southern_cooking

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edna Lewis. (2014, November 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:48, November 23, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edna_Lewis&oldid=632707482

Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Muffins

by

Chocolate Cip Sweet Potato Muffins is a think outside the box recipe. Why? Because most people wouldn’t think of combining chocolate and sweet potatoes! In my quest to prove that sweet potatoes are one of the most delicious and versatile tubers around I use this chocolate chip sweet potato muffin recipe as a delicious part of our sweet potato journey of discovery! We will have lots of delicious (and yes sometimes nutritious) fun along the way!  You’ll find that chocolate chip sweet potato muffins are just the thing for a special holiday breakfast or brunch, or just anytime you want something delicious! Yummy, mummy!

Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Muffins
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 24 muffins
Ingredients
  • 2 c. white sugar
  • 1 3/4c. pureed sweet potatoes
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2/3 c. water
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 1/2 c. AP flour
  • 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. allspice
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 c. chopped, toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)
  • Streusel Topping
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 1 large (24 each) muffin tin or 2 regular (12 each) size muffin pans. In a large bowl, combine sugar, sweet potatoes, oil, water and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda and salt. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Fill muffin pans using a 2 oz scoop. Bake for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool, remove from pan/s and sprinkle with powdered sugar and cocoa.
Streusel Topping
  1. Combine butter, brown sugar, flour and spices in a small bowl using your finger tips to combine until crumbly and butter is well incorporated. Sprinkle about 2 tsp. evenly on top of each muffins and bake. Unused streusel can be saved in a zip lock bag in the freezer up to 3 months. Remember to write what’s in the bag on the bag and date it before freezing.
Serving size: 1 muffin
Notes
If you don’t want to use muffin pans you can bake this in 1 large cornbread/baking pan.[br][br]Optional Toppings: Streusel topping added to muffin tops before baking or confectioners sugar and cocoa sprinkled on baked, cooled muffins. I do both!

Best Ever Macaroni and Cheese

by

Macaroni and cheese is a lot like gumbo or curry – everybody has their own family recipe or way to make it. I hope before it’s all said and done that we have family and friends that upload their special mac and cheese recipes, so you have lots to choose from! Let me start it off by posting our family macaroni and cheese recipe which is 75% my Mom and 25% me. At least that’s the way I feel about it, or as they say that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! I consider macaroni and cheese as one of soul food’s 7 elite side dish recipes, which to me are ( in no particular order)…

  • 1. collard greens (greens in general)
  • 2. cornbread & rolls
  • 3. macaroni & cheese
  • 4. candied sweet potatoes
  • 5. potato salad | cole slaw
  • 6. stuffing
  • 7. other starches – mashed potatoes | rice, etc

Just give me those 7 sides and I don’t really care what kind of meat you’re serving – it’s all good! This mac & cheese is rich and creamy with a velvety cheese sauce made from 5 cheeses, heavy whipping cream and eggs. For a really creamy mac & cheese, you can leave out the eggs and it will give you a delicious baked and creamy mac & cheese! Soul good!

Update: I don’t know what I was thinking but I forgot some other VERY important sides that should also be added!!! I left out biscuits, beans, grits, corn pudding – and so many others, the list goes on!!! Don’t know WHAT I was thinking!!! Not! 🙂 In my own defense, I think my list above is holiday/Thanksgiving & Christmas centered. Please forgive me for all the delicious side dishes that I omitted that are truly stars in their own right!

Best Ever Macaroni and Cheese
Author: Sweet Mother
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 18 x 24 pan
Ingredients
    • 3 lb elbow macaroni – boiled and drained
    • 3 c. shredded sharp cheddar – divided
    • 1 1/2 c. shredded parmesan – divided
    • 1/2 c. shredded asiago – divided
    • 1 stick butter – melted
    • 1/8 c. butter – melted
    • 6 c. Velvetta cut into cubes and divided
    • 2 c. half and half
    • 2 c. heavy whipping cream or evaporated milk
    • 2 c. milk
    • 3 eggs (optional)
    • 2 tsp onion powder
    • 2 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp black pepper
  • Mixed shredded cheeses for topping
Instructions
    1. Add 2 c. each of milk, half and half and heavy whipping cream to a 4 qt sauce pan on low heat. Add 2 cup of original velvetta cubes and 2 c. of sharp velvetta, 2 c. sharp cheddar, 1 c. parmesan and 1/8 c. asiago to warming liquid. Pour cooked, drained macaroni into a large aluminum bowl. Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 1 cup each of velvetta cubes, 1/2 c parmesan to bowl of macaroni and toss to mix. Add 1/8 c melted butter, salt and pepper and onion powder. Toss macaroni to distribute ingredients throughout.[br][img src=”https://sweetmotherskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSCN1223-150×150.jpg”]
    1. When cheese in pan has melted completely in the warming milk, add tempered, beaten eggs (optional) to cheese sauce. Spread remaining 1/8 c. melted butter in bottom of baking pan. Pour macaroni mixture into pan. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni mixture in baking pan until sauce reaches top of macaroni.[br][img src=”https://sweetmotherskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSCN1226-150×150.jpg”]
    1. Sprinkle top of dish with mixture of 1/2 c parmesan, 1/8 c asiago, 1 c shredded sharp cheddar) and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour, until set or until temp reaches 165 degrees on food thermometer, and has a golden brown crust.[br][img src=”https://sweetmotherskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSCN12311-150×150.jpg”]
  1. Enjoy!
Serving size: 3 x 3″ hunk of mac & cheese love
Notes
I made eggs optional for this reason. If you add the eggs you will have more of an old school baked mac & cheese souffle dish. Without the eggs, your mac & cheese will be creamier because the eggs aren’t there to make it bind & set as much.

I Was Invited To A Throw Down

by

I was invited to a throw down yesterday by my sister Becky. She told me to stop by after work to get something to eat because she was cooking. My two sisters Becky (Rebecca Suzanne) and Phyl (Phyllis Randa) and I all cook alike because all three of us were cooking “home schooled” by our Mom. Anyway, I was only too happy to stop by as Becky can truly “throw down” when she wants to. Not in the Bobby Flay “I challenge you to a throw down” way. I mean in the “come on over and eat cause I threw down” way!  Becky likes to pretend that  she “doesn’t remember how to cook” because she doesn’t do it as often as she used to when her kids were coming up! I figured out that if you pretend like you don’t remember how to cook, you get invited to eat other people’s cooking more than they get to eat yours! Smart, especially if you don’t love to cook as much as some of us do. Anyway as I was saying Sister Sue “threw down” yesterday!  Here’s the menu, which was quite fabulous for a “nothing special going on” Friday night meal.

The menu:

  • Baked chicken wings
  • Fried porgies
  • Stuffed peppers
  • Collards & cabbage
  • Macaroni & cheese
  • Potato salad
  • Tossed salad
  • Corn muffins
  • 7-Up pound cake & ice cream

And since I was so full that I refused to take a plate when I left, I’ll be going back for round 2 later today! (lol)

I”ll close this out with the words of Pharrell Williams, “Because I’m happy…  Clap along if you know what happiness is to you”

Beckys Threw DownDSCN1235DSCN1240

Creamed Chicken and Biscuits

by

Creamed Chicken

This creamed chicken is prepared in similar fashion to the way I make chicken pot pie filling. Simple, no fuss goodness – a blast from the past. This recipe is a favorite of the kids that I cook for so that is saying a lot! My little great-niece Akeelah, who just turned two years old yesterday also loves this dish! Make this recipe for your family soon and you’ll be making memories! Yummy, yummy memories!

 

Creamed Chicken
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 quarts
Your gravy in this dish should be the thickness of gravy that you would use over mashed potatoes. Not too thick – not too thin, just right! You are in control of how thick or thin the gravy is. Add more of the roux to thicken or a little more broth to thin it out a bit. Enjoy!
Ingredients
  • 3 lb of raw boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • 1 c flour
  • 1 c butter
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1 qt chicken broth
  • 1 T chicken base
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp pepper
Instructions
  1. Cut the chicken into medium size diced pieces. Rinse and drain. Put into a 4 qt saucepan and add cold water to cover 2 inches above chicken. Turn flame to medium and all the chicken to cook slowly. Skim foam off chicken as it gathers on top of water, Allow chicken to slow boil about 30 minutes. Add chicken broth to pot and bring back to slow boil. Add roux slowly, whisking it into the broth so that no lumps form. Turn flame down to low/simmer. Add remaining seasonings. Taste food and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve over biscuits.
Serving size: 1 cup
Notes
I use onion powder and garlic powder because I like a smooth and creamy creamed chicken but you can use fresh minced onion and garlic also. If you cook and add fresh veggies (potatoes, celery, peas and carrots) to this dish and pour it into a pie shell, cover with dough and bake, you’ve just make a chicken pot pie!

Perfect Cornbread

by

This cornbread is the best I have ever eaten and I’ve eaten a lot of corn bread! I also serve it to people who have eaten a lot of cornbread and they love it. The cornbread has a great texture and crumb with a sweetness that combines with the honey butter glaze to make it irresistible! Soul Good! Thank me later! 🙂

Perfect Cornbread

 

 

 

 

Perfect Cornbread
Ingredients
  • Cornbread
  • 1. 1 1/4 c AP flour
  • 2. 3/4 c yellow corn meal
  • 3. 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4. 1c milk
  • 5. 1 egg
  • 6. 1/4 c oil
  • 7. 2t baking powder
  • 8. 1/2 c granulated sugar
  • Honey-Butter Glaze
  • Melt 1/2 stick of butter on stove top or microwave
  • Add 1/4 c honey to melted butter and mix thoroughly
  • Brush on top of hot corn bread as soon as it’s removed from the oven
  • Be sure glaze is brushed along sides of bread also – use it all!
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased cast iron skillet or baking pan
  2. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and sides pull away from pan
  3. Brush liberally with honey butter glaze while cornbread is still hot

Online Recipes – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!

by

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Photo credit: Jody Horton, courtesy Chronicle Books

From Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Brown Sugar Kitchen

Ok – it’s time, I have to say it!  I am sick and tired of everybody and their brother thinking they have to critique every recipe someone puts online! Cooking and trying new exciting recipes is a wonderful thing, but to be a true foodie, you need an open mind as well as an open mouth! For example, a few minutes ago, I saw a yummy looking photo with a caption on yahoo.com of “Killer Buttermilk Fried Chicken”. When I clicked the link it took me to a page featuring a new cookbook by a chef out of West Oakland, CA Tanya Holland. Her cookbook is called “Brown Sugar Kitchen” and it’s full of great recipes!

All that is great,  except immediately after the feature is the comments section! People who simply have to have something to say are putting in their “2 cents” about how all the ingredients she uses are not necessary and how the cooking process is not the one they use and how and why you should follow their advice and do this and that instead of simply trying the recipe as it was given. One of my pet peeves is the comments sections after a recipe where people actually are proud to tell you how they didn’t follow the recipe – instead they added this or omitted that.

My point is, if you didn’t follow the recipe and you changed over 25% of it, then maybe you should just feature yours instead of commenting on someone else’s.  These are the same people who would tell Colonel Sanders that 11 herbs and spices were FAR TOO MANY and unnecessary to make Kentucky Fried Chicken and all he really needs is salt and pepper!  Come on, can’t we open our mind as well as our mouths and at least try something BEFORE we criticize it? You might even learn something!

I went to culinary school when I was in my 50s and I learned LOTS of stuff that I didn’t know even though I’d been cooking for years. Tanya Holland says that she grew up eating her Mom’s fried chicken but years later learned a new preparation method for chicken that “rocked her world”.  I guess my point is, “can’t we all just get along”? The point of online recipes, food blogs, cookbooks and the like is to share what we know with each other. Yes, you can make changes to what you learn, you can turn it upside down and make it your own – no problem. Just don’t do it at the expense of other people’s feelings and hard work.

Who are we to tell someone that “all those ingredients are not necessary”! Unless you try it, how do you know? Maybe what you think you know, based on what you’ve been doing is being improved immensely but you’ll never know it because you won’t even try any other way. OK – everybody, take deep cleansing breaths and repeat after me, “I’ll try not to criticize things that I haven’t tried”!  That’s all I ask!  Comment away, but please don’t be so one minded about things that you won’t even consider another way! Like my mom used to tell me and my sisters, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”!  I inserted the article below for your viewing pleasure. I left the comments out – for the same reason :)!   Congratulations Chef Holland and blessings to you and yours!

 

Our Cookbook of the Week: Brown Sugar Kitchen

Food Editor

Julia Bainbridge

Our Cookbook of the Week: Brown Sugar Kitchen

Yahoo Food’s Cookbook of the Week: Brown Sugar Kitchen: New-Style, Down-Home Recipes from Sweet West Oakland (Chronicle Books)

The Team: Brown Sugar Kitchen and B-Side BBQ executive chef and owner Tanya Holland, food writer Jan Newberry, and photographer Jody Horton.

The Restaurant: Brown Sugar Kitchen, which opened in 2008 in gritty West Oakland, California. (Diners will wait in line for nearly two hours if at the end of it they find this pot of gold: buttermilk fried chicken and cornmeal waffles.)

The Cuisine: Soul food, baby. Though she grew up in New York, Holland’s roots are in the American South; her mother is from Louisiana and her father, Virginia. Beyond the renowned chicken and waffles, you’ll find shrimp and grits, gumbo, and pulled pork on the menu—and in the book.

Who Should Buy It: Lovers of salt, sweets, the South, and soul.

Who Shouldn’t: Anyone on a juice cleanse.

Must-Make Recipes: Cornmeal Waffles with Apple Cider Syrup, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Creole Gazpacho, Dirty Rice, Sweet Potato Scones with Brown Sugar Icing, Westside Julep.

Noteworthy: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, who lives in Berkeley, wrote the book’s foreword. “I believe that I could be hauled back from the gates of the Underworld by the prospect of a bowl of Tanya’s shrimp and grits,” he writes.

image
Original article on Yahoo Food location: https://www.yahoo.com/food/buttermilk-fried-chicken-98838171056.html