Monthly Cooking Thread - October 2019

[Jamestown1630]

I’ve had a request from Freeper MomwithHope to post this month on ‘Hearty Fall Fare’ - and even though it’s still hot here in DC, with Wednesday threatening record-breaking temperatures, the leaves are falling and the trees are beginning to morph into their Autumn glory. We can smell Fall.

One of my first posts to FR, before I officially began this cooking thread, was about Virginia Peanut Soup. I can still remember how surprised I was on tasting it - while there was little in the soup other than peanuts, it was so rich and the flavor so unexpected. I originally posted a link to a recipe that was non-dairy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/virginia-peanut-soup/14444/

But here is a recipe, enriched with cream, from the King’s Arms Tavern in Williamsburg:

https://www.history.org/Almanack/life/food/fdpnutsp.cfm

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I’ve been interested in things to do with nuts, and recently remembered a recipe for spiced nuts from ‘Russel Wright's Menu Cookbook’, written by the industrial designer’s daughter, Ann Wright, from her memories of growing up; these would go nicely with drinks in front of your first hearth fire of the season:

Margaret Spader’s Chinese Spiced Walnuts

6 C. Water

2 C. Walnut Halves

½ C. Sugar

1 tsp. Hot Pepper Flakes

2 C. Salad Oil (any vegetable oil without a really pronounced flavor.)

Kosher Salt to Taste

Bring water to a boil in a 2-qt heavy saucepan. Add walnuts, reheat to boiling, and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinse under hot running water, and shake to drain well.

Turn the walnuts into a bowl, add the sugar and pepper flakes, and toss to coat the nuts.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan or electric skillet, heat the oil to 350 degrees. (Oil should be about 1 inch deep.)

Add half the walnuts, stirring occasionally, and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on a cloth towel (not paper as the hot nuts have a tendency to stick) or place the nuts in a colander over a deep bowl, so that the oil drains off. Sprinkle lightly with salt and toss gently to keep nuts from sticking together.

Fry the remaining walnuts. Keep tightly covered, these should keep for 1 to 2 months in the refrigerator. Makes 4-1/2 cups.

If you’re into Low-Carb/Keto/Paleo, here is a savory spiced nut without sugar:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/spiced-mixed-nuts-3058563

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Also from The Spruce Family, here are some clever but easy patterns for carving jack-o-lanterns:

https://www.thespruce.com/free-jack-o-lantern-patterns-4061776

(The painting at the beginning of this post is Camille Pissarro's 'Harvest', 1882.)

-JT

[MomwithHope]

OK thanks.

[Jamestown1630]

OK, I’ll play.

It’s originally a Native American (North and South) way of processing corn. One famous dish using hominy is Pozole and we get ‘grits’ from the same kind of process:)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy

https://www.thefoodieaffair.com/nanas-pozole-mexican-soup/

If you haven’t had a side of buttered, salt-and-PEPPERED grits with your breakfast, you’ve never had a real breakfast:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits

[Bull Snipe]

boiled in a mild lye solution. Once rinsed and dried, Hominy can be course ground (grits). In Mexico, if ground very it is called masa.

[leaning conservative]

Beautiful!

[leaning conservative]

Fall is always my first roast chicken. I cheated & did one with fresh rosemary 2 weeks ago. The aroma......

[Liz]

If you haven’t had a side of buttered, salt-and-PEPPERED grits with your breakfast,
you’ve never had a real breakfast........and to complete your Southern breakfast:

DIXIE BISCUIT

Runny yolk fried egg, cheese, sausages (or bacon--maybe a chicken tender), and Georgia peach jam on a warm buttermilk biscuit.

[leaning conservative]

That makes my mouth water.

[MomwithHope]

I’m in my 60’s. We went to San Antonio last spring. The hotel we stayed at had a breakfast buffet. They had grits. First time tasting them. I did taste them but well....meh. Thanks for the link. I really did not know what hominy was. When I got married and moved to Michigan I broaded my horizons food wise from the eastern European cooking I grew up with. Literally I never went to a restaurant with my parents until my older sister got married.

[MomwithHope]

Thanks forgot to mention we always cook with sweet onions so you might want to use them.

[Jamestown1630]

I’ll bet that was good! Have you ever tried one of those tens-of-cloves-of-garlic chickens?

I love smearing that roasted garlic on butter-soaked bread:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-with-forty-cloves-of-garlic-recipe-1944216

[Jamestown1630]

Well, grits can be pretty bland for people who weren’t raised on them. But you can do a lot of interesting things with grits:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/220895/old-charleston-style-shrimp-and-grits/

[MomwithHope]

I bookmarked that one, we love garlic, recipe sounds delicious.

[Jamestown1630]

I once made it and, strangely, the chicken didn’t come out tasting very garlick-y. But the cloves were wonderful spread over bread...

[MomwithHope]

One of my favorite snacks is roasted garlic, on anything, bread, in mashed potatoes, pizza.

[Covenantor]

Have a similar family recipe...but with a tablespoon of brown sugar with the sauerkraut, helps carmelize the kraut and adds to the sauce, yum.

[Covenantor]

Can’t go wrong with some bacon in the black eyed peas is what I say.

[Jamestown1630]

And you are absolutely correct!

(My Granny added bacon or its grease to almost everything :-)

I remember these haddock fillets that she would bake with bacon slices on top...

[mylife]

Time for chili, soup, beans..

[Jamestown1630]

Post a Chili recipe - after all, you’re in the ‘Land Of’ :-)

[mylife]

S Carolina goober peas, or boiled peanuts weird me out.

All slimy salted and un roasted. :)