America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook (15 page)

Peel the onions, cut in half, and set aside.

Bring large pot of water to a boil and add the onions. Parboil them for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

When cool enough to handle, remove the inner core of the onion to create a “cup.” Set the “cups” aside.

Prepare the bison meat mixture by combining all the ingredients.

Fill the onion cups with bison meat mixture and pack it in just enough so that the mixture doesn’t fall out.

Glaze the top of the stuffed onions with the egg white wash.

Heat the olive oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Carefully place the onions, meat side down onto the hot fry pan. Fry for 5 minutes or until the meat mixture is cooked thoroughly.

Serve as an appetizer, stuffing side up.

Well into the 20th century, even as the adoption and enforcement of laws of equality eluded the senators they cooked for, the Senate cooks demonstrated skill and prowess with both complex and everyday dishes to tempt lawmakers’ palates.

Beef Turnip Stew with Rice

Hempstead, Texas

SERVES 4

Margo Gillum grew up in deep south Louisiana, about 50 miles west of New Orleans.

Her mother was always looking to stretch a dime and a meal. Plentiful turnips or cabbage were filling and cheap, but Ms. Gillum and her six siblings didn’t care for them much. “To get us to eat them, she would add them to any type of beef, mostly beef neck bones and stew meat,” she says. “The goal of the recipe was to change the taste of the turnips and it worked.” Today, Ms. Gillum says she loves turnips, ranking them as one of her top comfort foods thanks to her mom, Rebecca, down in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

¼ cup canola oil
1 pound beef stew meat or beef neck bones
4 tablespoons flour
1 large onion, chopped
1/8 cup chopped bell pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups water or beef stock (
page 11
)
5 medium to large turnips, cut into quarters
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the canola oil over medium-high heat in a deep, heavy pot.

Add the beef and brown on all sides, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the pot.

Pour canola in pot, brown beef, and remove from pot. Set aside.

Add the flour to the same oil in which you browned the beef. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture (roux) becomes brown, about 3 minutes.

Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook for 2–3 minutes, always stirring, and return browned beef to the pot. Stir in the beef stock and simmer over low-medium heat for 40 minutes or until the beef is tender.

Add the turnips to the pot along with garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Simmer 15 minutes more or until turnips are tender. Serve over rice or with cornbread.

Chef Jeff’s Slow-Braised Oxtails with Steamed White Rice

Las Vegas, Nevada

SERVES 4 TO 6

“Oxtails. I love them, love them, love them,” says Chef Jeff. “Slow cooked in beef broth with aromatic vegetables and fresh herbs, these tender pieces of meat on the bone will stand up against any cut of beef. I did not grow up eating oxtails. I was introduced to them some 20 years ago and I can tell you, they are best served with steamed white rice, braised cabbage, and sweet cornbread. Keep that natural broth, strain it, and let it cook down, then spoon it over oxtails and rice.”

3½ pounds oxtails, cleaned and fat trimmed
1½ tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
½ cup yellow onions, small diced
½ cup green bell peppers, small diced
2 bay leaves
4 cups beef broth

Rinse off oxtails, season with salt and pepper, set aside.

In a medium stockpot, add vegetable oil over medium heat.

When oil is hot but not smoking, add oxtails to pot and brown on all sides.

Add garlic, onions, bell peppers, and bay leaf. Stir all ingredients for 2 minutes.

Add beef broth, reduce heat to a very low simmer, and let cook for 4½ hours or until meat is tender and falling off the bone.

Spicy Steak & Mac

Okolona, Mississippi

SERVES 4 TO 6

Despite cooking for a “long, long time,” Teresa Fields says that cooking remains a major source of enjoyment. She considers her ability to cook things folks love a gift from above. “I just give it to the good Lord above that he allowed me to have this gift,” says Ms. Fields. “It’s all about making food fun and bringing family and friends together.” This perfectly easy one-pot meal will bring folks quickly around the table to enjoy the tenderness of the steak and the comforting creaminess of the macaroni and cheese.

2 pounds tender beef (such as tenderloin, London Broil, or other tender beef cut; or 2 pounds chicken breast, sliced)
3 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1¼ tablespoons cayenne pepper
2¼ tablespoons minced parsley
3 cups macaroni noodles
3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, or cheese of your choice
salt and pepper to taste

Place the beef or chicken in a wide, deep skillet with 3 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cover. Cook 15 minutes or until the meat is cooked through and tender.

Remove the lid and add the butter, onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, and parsley. Mix well and add the noodles. Cover and cook 5–7 minutes or until noodles are tender.

Stir in the shredded cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, uncovered, for 2–3 minutes or until the mixture is thickened slightly and not watery.

The Black Hunter

      
Courtesy: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’
Project, 1936–1938, Library of Congress American Memory Collection

During slavery and later during post-Emancipation subsistence farming, African Americans had little access to quality cuts of meat. Often protein came from the offal, or “garbage cuts” of slaughtered livestock that plantation owners would not allow to grace their tables. These included everything from organ meats to trotters, snouts, and tails. Because of this, hunting wild game and fishing was a way to put meat on the table in the form of venison, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, turtle, and rabbit.As Frederick Douglass Opie writes in
Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America
(Columbia University Press, 2008), these animals remained staples for rural blacks very much into the 1950s. Besides being plentiful, wild meat served another valuable purpose: Its relative toughness meant it could afford to simmer for long periods of time while a family tended the fields, finally returning to a hot and ready meal at home.

“I was born in Huntsville County, Alabama . . . in 1850 . . . [As a child] all the work I ever done was pick up chips [manure] for my grandma to cook with. I was kept busy doing this all day. The big boys went out and got rabbits, possums, and fish. I would sho lak to be in old Alabama fishing, ’cause I’m a fisherman. There is sho some pretty water in Alabama and as swift as the cars run here. Water so clear and blue you can see the fish way down and dey wouldn’t bite to save your life.”

— Ex-Slave Stephen McCray, 88 years old,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1937

Stuffed Quail with Cranberry Glaze

Atlanta, Georgia

SERVES 1

Quail is a small bird that has sweet, tender, and juicy dark meat. Chef Joel Rickerson says he receives rave reviews for his stuffed quail. It’s tasty and a welcome change from the traditional stuffed turkey or chicken.

½ tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup wild rice
2 cups chicken stock 1 quail
½ cup cranberries
½ cup red wine
½ cup granulated sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a small pot over medium heat, add olive oil. Sauté garlic and onions until tender.

Add 1 cup wild rice and 2 cups chicken stock. Cook over medium heat until rice is tender. Once wild rice is tender, allow it to cool down for 15 minutes and then stuff it into the boneless quail. Season well with salt and pepper and place into a small, lightly oiled pan. Cook for 18–20 minutes in the oven at 350° F.

To make the glaze, place cranberries into a small pan and add red wine. Add granulated sugar and cook for 15 minutes. Put cranberry glaze on plate and place quail on top.

PIGS & PORK

Did You Know?
The first pigs came to the New World aboard one of Christopher Columbus’s ships, which landed in the Caribbean. Later, the explorer Hernando de Soto came to Florida with 13 pigs aboard his ship, and soon enough their numbers grew into the thousands.