Southern Staples: Lady Cream Peas and Buttermilk Cornbread

So traditionally speaking, down South, New Year’s is a time for black eyed peas and cabbage. You know, for good luck. Got helg! 

It's a Southern tradition, a staple in so many ways, but more than anything, it is a comfort food for me and always, always reminds me of my grandparents.

And I can’t help it, but I always crave these Southern staples in January because that’s what I grew up with as a child. 

But I do recall another special pea that my grandmother favored when they were available and in season: the Lady Cream Pea. 

This legume has now become a coveted heirloom that’s like the black eyed pea’s sweet baby sister but with a more delicate flavor and texture. Lady cream peas are more of a regional vegetable and I hadn't come across them outside of Louisiana or really thought about them much in quite a long time.

When I discovered these on Amazon during lockdown, it was like a jolt of nostalgia and I remembered my grandmother being a big fan of them. I had to have them! And I paid a pretty penny for them at the time, which probably still wasn't expensive but for the fact that it was a bit special for a little 'ol pea. But boy, was it a treat! It really sparked a culinary adventure when they finally arrived and I haven't been able to do without them since.

Here is how we make them at my house whenever true Southern Comfort is in order.

Ingredients:

• 4 smoked ham hocks
• Water to max
• 2 tbsp better than bouillon beef
• Sprig of thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• Instant pot pressure cook using stew/chili. 30 min normal pressure
• 1 lb bag of lady cream peas

Or... if you are obsessed with these like I am, buy in bulk from Camellia. :)

1. Add cleaned and washed peas to the Instant Pot, filling the remaining inner pot with water no higher than the Max marking on the inner pot.
2. Add your ham hocks, thyme and bay leaves to the pot then secure the lid for cooking.
3. Select the Stew/Chili setting, ensuring the pressure valve is locked and secured
4. After cooking, the Instant Pot will automatically switch to Keep Warm and at that point, you can manually release the pressure, carefully, to ensure they don't overcook.
5. Add the Better than Bouillon and stir in until incorporated.

Cornbread

Crap, I forgot the flour! I have to lead with this because it’s a happy accident that I very much enjoyed. It made it gluten-free, if not necessarily non-gmo. I say that because I don’t actually know if my white cornmeal is non-gmo, but it’s possible. I’d have to check the brand. But the point is that when accidents happen, don't automatically assume the recipe is a 'fail'. Often it is not and in this case, even though I missed an ingredient, it didn't change the outcome. The cornbread turned out fine. It truly was delicious.

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cups yellow, white or blue cornmeal
• 1 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I used a cast iron skillet because why wouldn't you? If you have one, go ahead and use it. Preheat your oven at 400 degrees F and let your skillet heat up with the oven. Just when you are ready to put the cornbread in the oven, add a tbsp or two of butter just before pouring in your batter. Bake for 20 min or until set in the middle.

Southern Perfection - Fiesta Pickled Hard Boiled Eggs

Oh guilty pleasure.... this would be one of many. Then again, you can't feel that guilty over eggs, can you? I mean, it's like a perfect food, in my carnivorous opinion. And when you pickle this perfect food, it becomes a double perfect, triple perfect kinda deal.

Yep, we pickle almost anything. And this might turn some people off but way back in the day, pickled eggs were a real treat. For most Southerners, pickled eggs are a common regional delicacy you can still pick up at the corner store or the deli. My mouth waters thinking about it.

Although growing up, the pickled eggs I often encountered were vinegary, delicious, punchy packages with a kick. Often pickled in a beet-colored, vinegary pickling brine or colored with red food coloring or more commonly, hot sauce.

We've pickled eggs before using our hot sauce brine. I mean....this. is. so. good. So this is my all time favorite way of doing this at home. Tsunami also loves pickled sausage, another deep South picklicious tradition. So we've pickled eggs in pickled sausage brine. You get the picture.

But recently, I decided to make this again after coming across pickled eggs on pinterest, which reminded me to do it again. And I've also been doing batches of quick dill pickles with my favorite cheater pickling spices from Ball. Now, this isn't a traditional fermented pickle but an American-style, vinegar pickle. Both are popular at my house and we go through some pickles, y'all.

I had a bit of the Fiesta Salsa mix from Ball in the pantry, but I've never used it for salsa actually. Instead, I've used it for pickling tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, carrots and onions, which are outstanding in bloody marys. I thought this would be a great flavor profile for the eggs so that's just what I did.

Here is what I used for a half gallon batch:

Ingredients for pickling base:
1/4 c Ball Fiesta Salsa pickling spices
2 tbsp vinegar
4 c hot water
hot water, to top off, if necessary

~12-15 hard boiled eggs
3 sliced jalapeños, optional
1 sliced sweet onion, optional
1 clean half gallon Ball or canning jar with fitted lid, ring

Method:

1. Hard boil your eggs and make sure they are cooled and peeled.
2. In a separate container, mix your pickling base and allow it to cool.
3. Put eggs in the jar and any other goodies you like, then fill with the pickling base. My base above almost filled the jar perfectly but I wanted to ensure there was enough to cover all veggies.
4. This is optional, but I vacuum sealed my jar just to keep things tidy and clean while I let it sit for a few weeks in the fridge to marinate. That is essentially what you are doing. You are marinating these eggs in a vinegary bath of tasty love.

Consider these variations:

• Spicy Portuguese or Italian or Cajun sausage 
• Sliced carrots
• Celery (sounds weird but pickled celery rocks!)
• Hot chilis (I used jalapeños, but my next batch will have Reapers)
• No pickling mix? How about Bloody Mary mix as a pickling brine? I've even seen Tsunami save his pickling juice from his favorite pickle of the week and reuse that. We love spicy so anything with a vinegar base, even the canned pickled jalapenos en escabeche you can find at most grocery stores will work great. My next batch will probably be a full on dilly pickle brine as I have loads of fresh dill in the garden coming.

Rockstar Veg - Deep Fried Brussel Sprouts

Ok, this may not be a long post but it is a cool one. If you have never tried this before, but want to, then run, don't walk to your kitchen fryer. Or your turkey fryer...

Simplicity at it's best. I probably had the most chill Thanksgiving ever this year. No guests. Just me and the Boo and the baby girl.

Now, I won't lie. Felt rather indulgent to have Tgiving all by ourselves. But that's not to say that we wouldn't have loved the company but this holiday, we wanted to hang in Hawai'i. We can plan our mainland visits whenever it suits so that's what we decided to do. And we loved every stinking minute of it.

But, that is not to say we didn't cook. Oh, we cooked... but part of what we discovered when planning our Thanksgiving dinner this year was how luxurious it really is to cook whatever the hell you want and know that there won't be the random dish that some random relative decided was good enough to bring in exchange for the really really good eats the rest of the family slaves away to make and share. Oh yea, there's always "one of those" in every family. But, it's all in the gathering and the total humor of it all, so still, I kinda missed that part.

Anyway, this year, since we could make whatever we want and didn't have to, out of obligation/devotion/madness, make anything we didn't want to, it was stellar!!

Dividing up the cooking in our house, easy. Planning the execution, iffy, but pretty easy and that's only because unlike me, my partner needs almost perfect isolation in the kitchen when he's doing his thing. I can cook in total chaos. Hold a solid convo and cook, no, but still, I can manage. Sergeant Perfection must have order. So, hell, I give him all the space he needs to focus like the Iron Chef he actually is.

Truth be told, I like his serious approach and he delivers and that kind of focus, I appreciate too. We are both curious cats so keeping out of each other's way is harder than it sounds when you want to see what the other is up to. It's professional curiosity, I tell him. And that's the truth. My Star Lord of the Kitchen Stadium. (He's that funny, too.)

We agreed on the whole menu. Agreed on the plan, the execution and worked the plan, as Star Lord expresses it. It was a dream and we both got such a kick out of how easy our dinner was. Almost sans stress entirely. Except he is a Cowboys fan, which we have to excuse and ignore. Other than that, total drama free, complete and utter indulgence.

My favorite thing this Thanksgiving turned out to be the Rockstar Brussel Sprouts. Who knew? Who knew you can make yourself sick eating brussel sprouts? It's a real thing, people. You can. As one of my closest friends pointed out: "of all things to make yourself sick over, you chose brussel sprouts? What the hell, Tinker Bell? I ate 2 pies, you ate 2 lbs of brussel sprouts. I hate you."

But dude, these brussel sprouts were kinda inspired by some hilarious episode of holiday Chopped or something. Guy's Grocery Games. No idea, but I remember saying, hey! That's a damn good idea.

That's just what we did. Fry the turkey. Drop the sprouts. Boom! By the time the bird had rested, the sprouts were perfectly done and boy, oh boy! FREAKING THE BOMB.

I added my own little twist, check this out:
White truffle oil
Fresh parmesan cheese
salt, pepper
minced garlic, optional

Just grated the parm, drizzled in a little truffle oil, salt and pepper and tossed the lot. Done. The garlic, we did the second time we made them in the same week. lol! Seriously, that good.

Dipping sauce (if you need it):
Reaper Aioli or
Thai sweet chili sauce or
your favorite sauce

We used peanut oil for our frying, as usual. I think the temp was right around 350-375 degrees F. I don't think it took more than 10 minutes but you definitely know they are done when they begin to caramelize and look like they may burn. They won't really but you will also see that the brussels will "bloom" like a little flower and open up it's outter leaves ever so slightly. Perfect. If you aren't sure, pop one out and eat it. But careful, they are hella hot right out of the fryer.

A few days later, despite overdoing it the first time, we made them again. Yes, that good... but this time we did it in our little kitchen deep fryer and again, total perfection. And I ate too many, but beside the point.

Now, we had other stuff for Thanksgiving like Star Lord's mother's oyster dressing. Turned out almost perfectly but like I said, he is the perfectionist, not I. I loved it but he knows the bar is kinda high and he also knew that I know if it's not the same as his Mom's. She is a serious, serious pro. Hm, kinda makes some sense, huh? ;)

All day we were both getting texts from Mama expressing concern about the whole process. It was hilarious. But she knows him well and sticking to the recipe ain't one of his strong suits. Still. It was de-freaking-licious. The only thing he said was, "Please don't tell Mama." lol! Ok, Groot. Secret is safe with me.

I have my own take on that recipe I'd love to try and I might just do it one random night next year...Roland, my brother in law's bff, does his mother's oyster dressing and it is also to die for. But his mom's has hot Cajun jalapeno sausage as well as oysters and I love that version, too. But if I tried to do that without a trial run on a less thankful day, it's asking for trouble in the Dirty South.

So, as usual, I did have a longish story for a short recipe. Oh well. C'est la vie au Hawai'i... Hope you enjoy this lovely turn on a classic Thanksgiving staple. I won't be going back to any other way of cooking them any time soon. And I just might make them again this week.

Buttermilk Fried Oysters

Fried oysters aren't something one eats everyday, but down South, we seem to find them on the menu more often than not. I love fresh shucked oysters, too and my first husband and I used to eat these as often as we could, wherever we could find them. I think living on the East Coast, probably any coast for that matter, means you may get them fresher more often.

One of my closest friends lives in Seattle and one of my favorite memories is of visiting her one year and taking a drive in the Washington mountains. Tucked away off the road was a tiny little restaurant carved out of the cliffside that had the most amazing porch style dining area with spectacular views of the oyster fields, far down near the water below at the base of the mountain. 

When you have fresh oysters like that, it's hard to imagine anything more sublime. Except maybe oysters on the beaches of of a sleepy fishing village in France... Or maybe on a visit up the East Coast to see my cousins in Virginia Beach where we can harvest them ourselves.

Oysters to me are treasures of the sea so to fry them, isn't necessarily my favorite way to have them. After all, nothing beats a fresh shucked oyster naked in its shell. Or simply dressed with champagne or red wine vinegar and shallots. Or heck, one of my favorites, with Tabasco and horseradish. Or with a little sour cream, caviar and green onion.  Jeez, I really do love 'em no matter how I have them prepared.

But Southern fried everything is prevalent where I live so instead of typical bar-fare of mozzarella sticks or fried mushrooms like you might see up North, we tend to see a lot of fried seafood. And don't forget the pickles. We love fried pickles.  Fried oysters, fried clams, fried conch fritters, Key West shrimp, gator, catfish, okra, softshell crab... it's hard to say no even if fried isn't exactly your thing. And yet, it's so my thing when it's done well.

It's beer food. Perfectly delicious, fresh, local snackalicious beer-food. And one of the first times I had fried oysters was after a long day at the beach at an extremely popular joint in Jupiter called the Food Shack. Bad to the bone, this little place that is practically standing room only with a line of people waiting for it to open it's doors. Worth the wait as everything on the menu is worth having and it makes making a selection awfully hard when the food is this fresh, this local and quite tropically inspired.

An all time favorite, which we have every time we go, is the panko-fried oysters on a bed of greens with homemade cilantro ranch dressing, red onions, fresh seasonal fruit. May not sound like it goes together, but trust me, it is divine.

So to replicate this awesome little snack, I picked up some fresh Willowpoint oysters that you can get fresh at Costco on the weekends. Already shucked in sealed canisters on ice, it's a steal of a deal. About a dozen in their own liquid for about $8. I will usually pick up 2 or 3 because we love oyster shooters, oyster stew and of course, now, fried oysters on a kickass salad.

Here's what you need:

Fresh oysters, shucked

Buttermilk

Flour

Rustic Tuscan seasoning from Costco

Paprika

Crushed red pepper, optional if you like a little kick

Peanut oil for frying

Prep:

1. Prep your oysters a day or two ahead. If you buy canned fresh oysters at Costco like I do, drain the oyster liquid and reserve it for something else, like oyster stew. The liquid freezes quite well and does come in handy in my household as we do make oyster stew quite often. 
2. Refill your oyster canister, with the oysters still in of course, with buttermilk. Cover and keep refrigerated until you are ready to fry. Not less than an hour, no more than 2 days. (I make my own buttermilk as you may already know and always have it on hand. I'm sure I have a post about this somewhere if you want to make your own buttermilk, too.)

Flour Dredge and Fry:

1. Once you are ready to fry, preheat your fryer with peanut oil to about 340 degrees. You can pan fry or use a deep fryer, whichever you have available.
2. Drain your oysters from the buttermilk and reserve this liquid for stew, if you like. You can put them on paper towels and lightly salt and pepper the oysters before dredging in flour.
3. In a small dish or on a plate, add flour and seasonings. I didn't give measurements as it really depends on how many oysters you will be frying so use your best judgement when seasoning your flour. About a teaspoon of each seasoning to a cup of flour is a good rough estimate.
4. Gently dredge your oysters in the seasoned flour and fry for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

We eat these on their own or on greens as a salad. I make a delicious buttermilk ranch dressing with Hidden Valley seasonings, homemade buttermilk, homemade mayo and minced garlic. You can't go wrong with that either to dip them in or as a dressing.

The texture of the oysters stays creamy dreamy while the buttermilk adds great flavor and tang combined with the crunch of the breading. Optionally, you can add panko crumbs to the seasoned flour for a little extra crunch, which we love to do when we have panko in the house.

**Alternatively you can serve these on their own, just as they are. Sometimes, we have leftover oysters that we like to fry up the same way and serve with homemade marinara. Super yummy and they never last terribly long!