Pinto Beans and Cornbread

This is the equivalent of red beans and rice for poor mountain folks in the Southern Appalachians. Most old timers around here were raised on "soup beans." For some, it was a daily staple, along with cornbread and maybe some greens.

Dried beans are easy to harvest, store well over the winter and are a cheaper source of protein than meat. To give the beans extra flavor and make them more filling, a ham hock or fat back was added to the cooking water. Since those aren't staples in my kitchen, I substitute bacon grease and add some additional seasonings. But I do still serve them with my Southern Skillet Cornbread and collard greens. 

1 cup dried pinto beans

1 T. bacon grease

1 1/2 c. chopped onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 t. ground cumin

1/4-1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes

6 cups water

1/2 t. salt

Cover pinto beans in cold water for 6 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse. Heat bacon grease in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes and sauté until tender (about 5 minutes). Add water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook beans in a slow boil partially covered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until beans are tender and liquid has thickened.

While beans are cooking, prepare cornbread and collard greens. Season beans with salt and serve. 

Choucroute Garnie (avec Biére)

Translated from French, this is Packed Sauerkraut with Beer. The idea for this recipe came from one of my favorite food/cooking shows, The Splendid Table. The host, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, had a caller ask what to make with sauerkraut. My attention was piqued, having made sauerkraut the last few summers and still having a few quarts in my pantry. Lynne's suggestion was a Choucroute Garnie, a dish from the heavily German-influenced Alsace region of France, that pairs pork and potatoes with a mound of classed-up sauerkraut. I took Lynne's suggestions, along with some cues from Jacques Pépin's recipe in Food and Wine, swapped out the wine for some beer and called this our St. Patty's day dinner. There's sausage, cabbage, potatoes and beer, so I think it counts, even if it is German!

2 T. bacon grease or peanut oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. fresh thyme
1 qt. sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1 12 oz. beer
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 lb. beer brats
3 lbs. thin-skinned potatoes (such as Yukon Gold or red potatoes), cut into 2" chunks
1/4 c. butter
1 T. dried marjoram

Ingredient notes:

• If you don't have your own homemade sauerkraut, buy some that is refrigerated in the grocery store, not the canned stuff! 
• You can use any beer, but I would choose one that you're going to want to drink with dinner. I used a flavorful pilsner. If you use a sweeter, full-bodied stout or porter, you may want to omit or cut back on the brown sugar. 
• Jacques used pork ribs in his recipe, that he coated in salt and brown sugar the night before. Next time I make this, I'm going to try that in place of the brats. Again, you would want to omit the brown sugar in place of this.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large, oven-safe skillet (preferably one with a lid), melt the bacon grease over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and thyme and sauté until onions are caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add sauerkraut , beer, sugar, pepper and bay leaves, and stir to combine all ingredients. Once the beer begins to boil, add brats and remove from heat. Put a lid on the skillet or top it with aluminum foil and put in the oven. Bake for 1 hour or until brats are cooked through.

While brats are cooking, prepare potatoes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, reduce heat to a steady simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes or until tender but not mashable. Drain potatoes and return to the pot you cooked them in. Add butter and marjoram and stir to coat.

Serve each brat on a mound of sauerkraut with potatoes on the side. Accompany with some spicy or grainy mustards and sweet pickles. 

Sausage Gravy with Biscuits and Poached Eggs

Biscuits and Gravy is my favorite item on the breakfast menu!

When I moved South, my husband's Aunt Frances showed me how to make sausage gravy, and this is her recipe. She was born in Appalachian East Tennessee during the Great Depression.They lived off the land, raising hogs and slaughtering them each fall. To preserve the meat through the winter, they would smoke some and turn some into sausage that they packed into jars and kept in the outdoor cold cellar.

As I watched her make sausage gravy, she told me that back then, their sausage had more fat in it. What you buy in the grocery store today is quite lean in comparison. She's had to modify her recipe over the years to include bacon grease as a replacement. (You do save your bacon drippings, right?)

Frances makes a brown gravy, which means she lets the flour in (what I would call) her roux brown before adding the milk. This will give it more flavor. I make mine a little less brown because I get impatient and I like my gravy and biscuits to be done at the same time. You can adjust to fit your taste.

Serve your gravy any way you like, but I take mine with a biscuit and a poached egg. If you want to serve bacon or sausage patties as well, cook those first and reserve the grease. Start your gravy in the same skillet.

Serves 4-6

First I make up my biscuits using White Lily self-rising flour and the recipe on the back of the bag. I cook mine in a 10-inch cast iron skillet with 4 T. of butter melted in the bottom and brushed on top. Once I put them in the oven to cook (for 25-30 minutes), I start the gravy.

1/2 lb. ground breakfast sausage

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. sugar

1/4 t. ground black pepper

1-2 T. bacon grease

1/2 cup flour

3 cups milk

In a large, cast-iron or deep non-stick skillet, brown your sausage over medium heat. Add salt, sugar and pepper and stir in. Add flour and stir to coat the sausage. If there's not enough grease in the pan to absorb all the flour, add 1/2 T. of bacon grease at a time until you see no more raw white flour. 

For a more brown (and flavorful) gravy, continue cooking sausage for 10 more minutes to brown the flour in the hot grease. Once it has reached your desired brownness, add milk 1/2 cup at a time and stir until a paste forms. Then add more milk until you've used all 3 cups. It may seem thin enough without all the milk, but trust me, it will continue to thicken!

While gravy is thickening, poach your eggs in boiling water (3 minutes for light, 4 for medium, and 5 for hard). Layer biscuit, egg, gravy, then enjoy.

Ham Barbecue Sandwiches

Before Primanti Bros. had the signature Pittsburgh sandwich, it was the the ham barbeque sandwich at  Islay's! Known for their deli meats and cheeses, this company set up shops around the Pittsburgh area in the early 1900s, where their chipped chopped ham and barbequed ham sandwiches became a local favorite. This is a my grandmother's recipe for ham barbecue, using Isaly's chipped chopped ham and Heinz ketchup as the base for her sauce.

Required kitchen gadget
Double boiler

Ingredients
1 cup Heinz ketchup
1 T. brown sugar
1 T. grape jelly
1 T. white vinegar
2 T. water
1/2 t. dry mustard
salt and pepper
1/2 t. dry mustard
1 lb. Isaly's chipped ham
1 dozen sandwich buns

You can buy Isaly's chipped chopped ham across the country today at Wal-Mart stores. You can also improvise by asking your local grocery store deli to give you boiled ham so thinly-sliced that it's basically falling apart. You want some slices, but there will be shavings in there, too.



Instructions
Combine ketchup through mustard in a double boiler. Heat for one hour, stirring occasionally. Add meat and let it heat through. Serve in sandwich buns.