Southern Food Favorites: Okra Pickles and Banana Pudding
There are some things that, to me at least, represent southern food. I grew up in NC and there are traditional foods that just speak to home, particularly home in the summer with fragrant evening breezes that smell of kudzu flowers and wisteria where cows are lo-ing in the background over the ever present chorus of frogs and cicadas.
First of these is the okra pickle--spicy of course. We had a farm and grew bounteous summer veggies, of which okra always had a starring role. But no matter now much you love okra, there comes a point where eating it boiled, sauteed or pan fried every day just gets old. What to do with the rest? Make pickles of course! Our family is partial to the kind made not only with our own okra, but also onions and garlic, with the previous year's dried tabasco peppers for good measure. Mmmm, spicy.
Okra Pickles
Place in hot sterilized jars:
uncut okra, tops removed but seed pods intact
1 clove of garlic
1/4 wedge of onion, white
two dried tabasco peppers
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Pour hot white vinegar over all, and seal. Ready to eat in a week and better cold.
Another southern classic is banana pudding, known most places as 'nanner puddin'. This buffet staple appears to be made these days with instant pudding and Cool Whip. Personally, I find that incarnation to be less than appealing. That's not the way things used to be, and when my father asked for old fashioned banana pudding for Father's Day, how could I say no? He wanted the one his mother used to make, back before things like Cool Whip were around in his tiny eastern NC town, so I set about finding a recipe that would bring back his childhood in all the best ways. This recipe is moderately time intensive, and does rely on skills such as custard and meringue making, but it's well worth it in the end.
Old Fashioned Banana Pudding
3/4 cup sugar
5 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 c milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 small box Nilla wafers
2 medium ripe bananas, sliced thinly.
Mix the dry ingredients. Heat milk in double boiler and stir in dry ingredients. If you do not have a double boiler, place a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure not to let the hot water touch the metal pan. Cook slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently with whisk. Stir in egg yolks and cook until the yolks thicken the mixture, about 5-8 minutes. Add vanilla. Using half the box of wafers, line the bottom of an oven-safe pan, such as a soufflé dish. Add layer of pudding and layer of bananas, repeating a second layer of Nilla wafers/pudding/bananas. Add meringue topping, covering all exposed areas of bananas, and bake for ten minutes, or until the meringue is set and golden brown. Serve warm or chilled, best the next day.
Meringue Topping:
2 egg whites, careful to make sure no yolk is present
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 T sugar or 4 T powdered sugar
Wipe either glass, ceramic or metal bowl with vinegar on a paper towel. Do not use a plastic bowl as fat can clean to the surface. Do same to beaters. This is important to remove any fats that may be left over after the previous cleaning of the bowl and beaters, otherwise the fats interfere with the formation of air bubbles, the key ingredient of a fluffy meringue. Add room temperature egg whites to bowl with cream of tartar. If eggs are too cold, they will not beat properly and retain air--75 deg. F is best. Whip on high until soft peaks just form, which looks like floppy peaks when beaters are removed from egg whites. Add sugar by 1/2 T until combined, careful not to over beat. Add vanilla and whip until incorporated. This topping is also suitable for any 9 inch pie requiring a meringue top, such as lemon or chocolate. Mmm, chocolate meringue pie.
Hope you enjoyed a culinary trip down my southern foodie roots!
First of these is the okra pickle--spicy of course. We had a farm and grew bounteous summer veggies, of which okra always had a starring role. But no matter now much you love okra, there comes a point where eating it boiled, sauteed or pan fried every day just gets old. What to do with the rest? Make pickles of course! Our family is partial to the kind made not only with our own okra, but also onions and garlic, with the previous year's dried tabasco peppers for good measure. Mmmm, spicy.
Okra Pickles
Place in hot sterilized jars:
uncut okra, tops removed but seed pods intact
1 clove of garlic
1/4 wedge of onion, white
two dried tabasco peppers
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Pour hot white vinegar over all, and seal. Ready to eat in a week and better cold.
Another southern classic is banana pudding, known most places as 'nanner puddin'. This buffet staple appears to be made these days with instant pudding and Cool Whip. Personally, I find that incarnation to be less than appealing. That's not the way things used to be, and when my father asked for old fashioned banana pudding for Father's Day, how could I say no? He wanted the one his mother used to make, back before things like Cool Whip were around in his tiny eastern NC town, so I set about finding a recipe that would bring back his childhood in all the best ways. This recipe is moderately time intensive, and does rely on skills such as custard and meringue making, but it's well worth it in the end.
Old Fashioned Banana Pudding
3/4 cup sugar
5 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 c milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 small box Nilla wafers
2 medium ripe bananas, sliced thinly.
Mix the dry ingredients. Heat milk in double boiler and stir in dry ingredients. If you do not have a double boiler, place a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure not to let the hot water touch the metal pan. Cook slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently with whisk. Stir in egg yolks and cook until the yolks thicken the mixture, about 5-8 minutes. Add vanilla. Using half the box of wafers, line the bottom of an oven-safe pan, such as a soufflé dish. Add layer of pudding and layer of bananas, repeating a second layer of Nilla wafers/pudding/bananas. Add meringue topping, covering all exposed areas of bananas, and bake for ten minutes, or until the meringue is set and golden brown. Serve warm or chilled, best the next day.
Meringue Topping:
2 egg whites, careful to make sure no yolk is present
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 T sugar or 4 T powdered sugar
Wipe either glass, ceramic or metal bowl with vinegar on a paper towel. Do not use a plastic bowl as fat can clean to the surface. Do same to beaters. This is important to remove any fats that may be left over after the previous cleaning of the bowl and beaters, otherwise the fats interfere with the formation of air bubbles, the key ingredient of a fluffy meringue. Add room temperature egg whites to bowl with cream of tartar. If eggs are too cold, they will not beat properly and retain air--75 deg. F is best. Whip on high until soft peaks just form, which looks like floppy peaks when beaters are removed from egg whites. Add sugar by 1/2 T until combined, careful not to over beat. Add vanilla and whip until incorporated. This topping is also suitable for any 9 inch pie requiring a meringue top, such as lemon or chocolate. Mmm, chocolate meringue pie.
Hope you enjoyed a culinary trip down my southern foodie roots!