Regional foods, cultural foods.

[Sunbaneglasses]

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Biscuits and gravy?
Fried okra?
Sweet iced tea?
Fried yellow squash?
Cornbread?
Butter beans?
Collard greens?

The genesis of this thread was a conversation that I had with a British friend. BTW, he has developed a taste for gravy and biscuits in the time that he has been here, but he had no clue what okra was. When he asked me what okra tasted like the best reply I had for him was "I don't know, it just tastes like okra". Of course I have no concept of what a Branston Pickle and cheese sandwich would taste like either. I agreed to try it if he would try fried okra. Us southerners will fry anything.

Please share/explain/answer questions about some of your regional foods.

[Menolly]

Nice thread, SBG!!!

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Biscuits and gravy?

Yep!! I'll take the gravy over hash browns instead please!

Fried okra?

Yep! Yum!

Sweet iced tea?

Yep!! Yick!! Make it unsweet!

Fried yellow squash?

Nope!

Cornbread?

Yep! Yick! *unless it's Johnny Cake*

Butter beans?

Yep!! Yum!!

Collard greens?

Yep! Yum!!
I think I have already relayed my first experience with collards at my first meal in the FSU student cafetereia...

The genesis of this thread was a conversation that I had with a British friend. BTW, he has developed a taste for gravy and biscuits in the time that he has been here, but he had no clue what okra was. When he asked me what okra tasted like the best reply I had for him was "I don't know, it just tastes like okra". Of course I have no concept of what a Branston Pickle and cheese sandwich would taste like either. I agreed to try it if he would try fried okra. Us southerners will fry anything.

Please share/explain/answer questions about some of your regional foods.

Coolness...OK.

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Kishka?
Kugel?
Chug?
A Leo or Neo?
Gefilte Fish?
Matzah?
Jewish Penicillin?
Challah?

[bloodguard bob]

Biscuits & gravy? Every Sunday.
Fried okra? Picked out of the backyard.
We'd eat our cornbread with black eyed peas, not butterbeans.
For dessert we'd tear our cornbread up into a tall glass, pour milk over it and eat it with a spoon.
Yellow squash? No, we had zuchinni though, and when we had plenty we'd stuff, batter and deep-fry the blossoms.
Also fried green tomatoes picked from the garden.
No I'm not from the south but my Dad is.
Now that I'm in San Francisco it's all about rockcrab cakes, quesadillas de lengua (tongue), breakfast burritos with chorizo or chimichangas and everything bagels with lox and cream cheese.

[Sunbaneglasses]

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Kishka?
Kugel?
Chug?
A Leo or Neo?
Gefilte Fish?
Matzah?
Jewish Penicillin?
Challah?

No, please explain.

As far as the fried summer squash:
1. Slice several squash, toss them in flour.

2. Heat about a 8th of an inch of oil in a pan with a lid. (only heat to medium)

3. Cook squash slowly with the lid on, allowing them to brown and steam. (they will fall apart, but that is what you want) Season to taste, turn them every few minutes.

4. Once squash are well cooked, take the lid off and turn the heat up to brown them well.

[Menolly]

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Kishka?
Kugel?
Chug?
A Leo or Neo?
Gefilte Fish?
Matzah?
Jewish Penicillin?
Challah?

No, please explain.

Kishka, also known as derma:

Stuffed derma, also known as kishka (Slavic for “gut”), is traditionally a cow’s intestine stuffed with a mixture of grain, fat, and sometimes ground meat and vegetables. Nowadays, kishka is most commonly made with a synthetic casing, and when made at home, some people use chicken skin as a wrapping instead.

Typical filling recipes include flour, matza meal, salt, pepper, chicken or beef fat, grated carrots, and grated onions. It’s eaten plain, with sauce, or on top of the traditional Sabbath afternoon stew (called “cholent”).

Kugel:


recipe:
Noodle Kugel

s'chug is a hot pepper condiment

LEO or NEO:
[lox (salty smoked salmon) or nova (not as salty smoked salmon), scrambled eggs, and onion]



Gefilte fish
fish cakes served at festive meals during the salad course



Matzah
the unleavened bread served at Passover, used throughout the year



Jewish Penicilin
namely, matzah ball soup. Chicken soup with dumplings made out of matzah meal, fines crushed matzahs.



Challah
the braided egg bread served at meals that the blessing before eating is said over.

[duchess of malfi]

have you ever eaten these Michigan favorites?

pasties? (rhymes with "nasties")
saganaki?
Detroit style spinach omelets?
anything filled with cherries or blueberries? (we even stick them in our salads, fresh or dried )
Harvest Chowder?
planked white fish?
fresh pear pie?

[Menolly]

have you ever eaten these Michigan favorites?

pasties? (rhymes with "nasties")
saganaki?
Detroit style spinach omelets?
anything filled with cherries or blueberries? (we even stick them in our salads, fresh or dried )
Harvest Chowder?
planked white fish?
fresh pear pie?

pasties are hand held meat pies, right? If so, then yep!
saganaki, yum! oopah!!
do you accept pies or muffins for the fruit for an answer? I've had both in those.
the rest I have never heard of.

Good to see you here, Duchess.

[Sunbaneglasses]

Anyone ever had chicken and dumplings?

[Menolly]

Does Sweet Sue brand count?

Although my friend in Georgia made an awesome batch the year we stayed overnight with her on our way to Beorn's camp.

[stonemaybe]

Have you ever heard of or partaken of such delicacies as:

Biscuits and gravy?
Fried okra?
Sweet iced tea?
Fried yellow squash?
Cornbread?
Butter beans?
Collard greens?

The genesis of this thread was a conversation that I had with a British friend. BTW, he has developed a taste for gravy and biscuits in the time that he has been here, but he had no clue what okra was. When he asked me what okra tasted like the best reply I had for him was "I don't know, it just tastes like okra". Of course I have no concept of what a Branston Pickle and cheese sandwich would taste like either. I agreed to try it if he would try fried okra. Us southerners will fry anything.

Please share/explain/answer questions about some of your regional foods.

I like this thread!

I've always considered okra an Indian ingredient - looks a bit like a prickly green chilli but star-shaped cross-section?

And as for Branston Pickle! ! Do not limit to cheese sandwiches, please! It's great with cold meats, omelettes, and a plate of chips (that's fries to you) is not complete without a big spoonful on the side.

But, if you do go for that cheese sandwich, make sure you melt the cheese for maximum effect (the crunchy bits and pieces in the Branston are perfect with the gooey melted cheese).

It's hard to say what we eat that you USers might find odd. As far as I recall from another thread, our version of corned beef is very different (mmmm corned beef and Branston!).

Indian-influenced cooking is also a huge part of the UK's diet. And then there are kebabs (again, probably not what you think of!)

kebab:

[Sunbaneglasses]

I don't know if that looks like anything that I would want to eat. I would have to see a list of ingredients before I would bite that.

Someone please explain black pudding, my friend described it as "blood and other bits".

[Menolly]

Stoney's kebab looks like a gyro or souvlaki to me.

Make sure it has tzatziki and yummmm...

[I'm Murrin]

Someone please explain black pudding, my friend described it as "blood and other bits".

That's pretty much it. Various chopped up organs held together with congealed blood. I've never had it; it still appears on most breakfast menus, but despite what people seem to think in other countries it's not actually something that people here eat regularly (at least, not these days).

Biscuits and gravy?

I've heard of them, but all I know is, they're not biscuits, and it's not gravy. Silly americans.

[Menolly]

Biscuits and gravy?

I've heard of them, but all I know is, they're not biscuits, and it's not gravy. Silly americans.

Just because it's made with sausage drippings and milk does not cause this to not be gravy. At least in this not born but bred southana's eyes.

I do understand about the biscuits though. IMO the gravy goes much better over crispy hash browns than biscuits anyway.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Rather than muck up the Galley with a hopefully short thread, I thought I'd highjack this one momentarily to ask if anyone has a reliable pie-crust recipe? I'm tasked with the pumpkin pie this year, and I want to do better than those cardboardy store shells that always seem to lack flavor and burn too easily.

dw

[Menolly]

dw, there's an awesome recipe for a low carb crust made out of nuts I can try to hunt down if you're interested. I mean, yeah, it's not flaky but it works really well with a rich pumpkin pie custard filling.

I usually use a graham cracker pie crust, like the one on the key lime pie at elohimfest for my own pumpkin pies.

For a traditional crust, I've heard good things about Martha Stewart's Pie Crust. They also have additional crust making tips here.

Finally, I agree with you about the store bought pre-formed crusts. But the Pillsbury Pie Crusts that are sold folded in quarters in a box are pretty good.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Thanks. I'm interested in the low-carb crust for myself, but may check Martha out for the pumpkin pie crust - we'll see how complicated she makes it...

dw

[Damelon]

I'd always thought a kebab was a gyro; that kebab, Stone, looks like it's been out in the sun too long.

A gyro:

[Menolly]

Walnut Crust

Makes 1 nine-inch regular depth pie (not deep dish)

1.5 cups finely chopped walnuts (almost powder, but not paste)
3 TBS butter, softened
3 TBS Splenda (must be sucralose, other artificial sweeteners can't be
baked)

Mix the chopped walnuts and splenda together, then smoosh in the butter until it's all crumbly. Spray a 9 inch shallow pie pan (not deep dish) with non-stick spray then press the nut mixture on the bottom and sides of
the pie pan. Put in fridge to chill until ready to bake.

Make your custard. I start from fresh pumpkin meat I had already cooked, pressed, and froze, and make my own sweetened condensed non-fat milk with Splenda to use in my recipe when I make a lower-carb pie. If you have other sweeteners that you find work as well as Splenda, since I think some people don't like Splenda, you can try them, but Splenda works for me.

Pour the custard into the pie pan, but do not overflow the crust. Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes, then turn down to 350ºF for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes clean.

HTH!

If you want me to put up my recipes for the non-fat sugar-free sweetened condensed milk, and the pumpkin pie itself, LMK.

[Sunbaneglasses]

Biscuits & gravy? Every Sunday.
Fried okra? Picked out of the backyard.
We'd eat our cornbread with black eyed peas, not butterbeans.
For dessert we'd tear our cornbread up into a tall glass, pour milk over it and eat it with a spoon.
Yellow squash? No, we had zuchinni though, and when we had plenty we'd stuff, batter and deep-fry the blossoms.
Also fried green tomatoes picked from the garden.
No I'm not from the south but my Dad is.
Now that I'm in San Francisco it's all about rockcrab cakes, quesadillas de lengua (tongue), breakfast burritos with chorizo or chimichangas and everything bagels with lox and cream cheese.

Blackeyed peas and pinto beans are good too, I really have not met a bean that I don't like. Of course there is bbq also, the regional variation is smoked pork or chicken with a sweet and tangy tomato based sauce. Brisket is hard to find in this neck of the woods, and I am afraid that the one place I know of that does brisket does not do it very well.