Friday, November 13, 2015

Remembering A Natural Cook, Estelle Byerly

Today would have been my grandmother’s 102nd birthday.  I’ve been without her for only 5 short years.  I can’t believe it has been such a little time.  It feels like I’ve been missing her forever.  Mamaw was more than a grandmother.  She helped raise me.  She was my second mother and the woman I spent the most time with as a child, since my own mother had to work.  She is also my cooking role model.
Mamaw never learned any advanced techniques.  She never did a croquembouche.  She never drank a latte.  What she did was honest southern cooking and she did that so darned well.  I was really lucky.  She made her foods from unprocessed ingredients and hardly ever did anything out of a box.  The only thing I remember her ever doing out of the box was Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  That was a rare treat.
Mamaw was born near the Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana meeting point, called Three States.  I think it lists Ravanna, Arkansas as her birthplace on the birth certificate I have for her.  She had 13 brothers and sisters that made it to adulthood.  He mother was a tiny thing who outlived two husbands and taught my grandmother to cook on a wood stove.   Mamaw worked hard as a child.  She took care of the farm animals, helped out around the farm, picked cotton and helped deliver it to Jefferson for sale.  She didn’t stop working until old age finally caught her, at around age 95.  Before that, I seldom saw her sitting still.
Back to her cooking!  I miss her very simple pinto beans.  She only used a few ingredients but somehow it was the best thing I ever ate as a kid.  Her hot water cornbread was AMAZING.  I can’t forget the crispy texture and the goodness of it with her fresh cooked yellow squash.  I will ALWAYS make my fried okra in her style.  The other stuff reminds me too much of the bagged junk that SYSCO churns out and people rave about.  Blech. 
Mamaw always disdained fried food.  I guess she was ahead of her time.  We ate it very seldom.  Generally it was fried chicken, which she had cut up herself.  I remember pulling the wishbone with my Pawpaw.  He always got the breast.  It was his favorite.  I got the drumstick for a long time, till I decided it was yucky.  I don’t remember when that was.  We ate fresh food every day.  For most of my life, that was food that we had grown, unless it was winter time and we had not put up enough for us to have.  In the early years, living in that New Moon trailer, we couldn’t put up much.  Once Mamaw and Pawpaw got their place near Atlanta, Texas, we could do more.  They bought a huge upright freezer and Mamaw filled that thing up with the good food that she and Pawpaw grew.  I worked in that garden more than I wanted to, but now I know that I actually loved it.  I wish I could do it again. 
The way my grandmother cooked was simple.  She didn’t like complex meals.  In general, her dishes featured bell peppers and onions cooked with something else.  Tomatoes mixed with those could be used to make spaghetti sauce or added to ground beef and okra to make a filling “gumbo”.  Mix up the onions and bell peppers with chayote squash and you have a tasty treat, add tomatoes, even better.  That simple combination has carried me to places I never thought it would. 
Mamaw never let me cook with her.  She worried that I would cut a finger or burn myself.  I watched her though.  I watched her skillfully handle a stovetop full of pots and pans.  I watched her mount a huge effort for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  She could make cornbread stuffing that would put any chef to shame.  We would fight over it as the supply dwindled.  She made the most amazingly delicious sweet potatoes with just pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar and some margarine.  Not sure what her ratios were to this day and I can’t make it the same.  I can’t make any of it the same, no matter how I try.  I have not been able to crack her simple code.   Maybe it was just her love for me and my love for her that seasoned everything so well. 
In spite of the fact that I can’t match her dishes, I still try.  I also have branched out and tried all kinds of cuisines and techniques that she would never thing of attempting to cook, let alone eat.  Be that as it may, the things that I love to make the most and the things that go deepest to my heart are those simple dishes she made so lovingly well with fresh, simple ingredients and years of love for me and the rest of her family.

I miss you, Mamaw.  Happy Birthday.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

A Thawing of the Hearth-fires and Chana Masala for Diwali

We have been a long time away.  Since our last post, we have experienced loss in the family, some gains and moved to a new home.  During the away time, we found ourselves in a deep and abiding funk.  Depression often comes with loss and I must say that we have experienced our share of it.  Personally, I have only recently felt like I was really coming out of the depression, like a great spring thaw.  I am starting to enjoy my new home and starting to enjoy cooking in it.  A house cannot be "home" without an active hearth.  We now have that beginning.

Diwali celebrations are in full swing in the Hindu cultures of the world.  Being a festival of lights, it is similar in tradition to ancient Solstice celebrations in northern Europe and even the more recent Christmas celebrations are a nod in that direction with our fascination with lights at this time of year.  I am lucky enough to work for a wonderful company that helps us thrive in our appreciation of the diversity of our workforce.  Recently, we have added many great folks from the wonderful country of India.  We are enjoying a great deal of cultural exchange.  One point where we can all come together is the table.  Folks at my workplace love food.  Who doesn't.  We also use food as a way to share our cultures and to tell our coworkers that we care about their traditions and cultures.  Every year, since I've joined, we have had a Diwali feast.  This year's was the best yet.

We had lovely decorations that were hand made by our staff and many of us brought food to share for the occasion.  Most of it was made by Indian cooks, so we had some of the tastiest and most authentic food you can get.  Some of us European rooted folks made things that belonged on a traditional American table.  Others, such as myself, thought that we should try to get into the spirit and make some food from India.  I was nervous about serving a food to folks who grew up with it, but it all turned out just fine.  I'm pleased to say that my Chana Masala (Chickpeas in a masala curry) turned out pretty good.  I now have some refinements that I would make for my table, but overall, it was a good attempt at a basic dish.

I used the recipe from AllRecipes.com.   It is for a drier version of the dish, which I thought would be nice. I tripled the recipe, since I knew I needed a bigger batch.  That basically meant I was winging it through the multiplication of the spices.  Tripling the peas to 3 cans was easy.  The spice list was pretty standard, so I felt like I was up to the task.

I made some changes in that I added more of the spices than the recipe called for.  I especially added more of the pepper flakes and used a few varieties.  I used our standard American red pepper flakes along with some Paprika for a sweetness.  I then added in a couple heaping teaspoons of Korean chili powder for good measure.  I like the way the Korean pepper doesn't hit you in the face but comes as a slow building burn in the back of your mouth and blooms like some fiery flower in your mouth.  I also used ground cumin instead of cumin seeds.  Although the seeds are much more traditional, I think that the powder gives you a better mouth feel so you don't wind up with little seeds sticking in your teeth and gums.  Finally, I upped the ante on the onion.  I added one and a half onions but instead of chopping them, I pureed them.  Making the onion paste is a bit more like the methods used in a lot of Indian kitchens and it magnifies the onion flavor while not adding a lot to the volume of the food.  I liked doing the paste and it is called for in the recipe.  Don't skip the puree.  It is what really makes the sauce cook quickly and come together well.  

Best of all, this is a one pot meal and cleanup was a breeze.  I liked that I wasn't in the kitchen for hours cooking and cleaning for this one.  I was done in about an hour.  Nice.

Finally, I did get some compliments from the folks at the party.  I sincerely hope they were not "just being nice".  I don't think that was the case, as I liked the dish pretty well myself and it was all gone by the end of the lunch.

I wish I had some pictures to share with you, but I don't.  I do have some Diwali wishes to share.  May the light of love and family shine every brightly on you and your family.

It's good to be back.

Lisa.