Ancient New Year's Customs To America

 Food and the New year are always entwined.  There are so many customs and legends. Many of our Black American food customs have originated from them and they are a delicious way to ring in a new year.

Kayla Stewart an award winning food writer and part of the Bittman Project, an online food journal write this informative piece in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Every New Year's Black Americans have some combination of green veggies and cow peas, namely collards and Hopping John. Why these foods?The choice of greens, usually cooked with pork for flavor symbolize paper moneys. collards do resemble folded dollars. The peas promise good luck,health and abundance according to Adrian Miller a food scholar and author. Yet African countries never had any food related New Year's customs. This is a messy marriage of using european based ingredients such as collards, a derivation of colewort or a non heading cabbage and African cooking methods, namely a long, low and slow simmer. West Africans did cook black eyed peas but these were for deities who had a fondness for the legume. Geography also played a strong part in the way the dishes are prepared. Lousiana has a surprisingly strong German influence so cabbage instead of collards. Black and Southern traditions became inextricable. The foods were the same. 

There are distinctions though. Amethyst  Ganaway, a Lowcountry chef and writer have noted that people interchange  black eyed peas and rice with Hopping John. . The last is a one pot meal of rice and field peas.It's also lighter , redder and creamier in look and texture than the other.. How people celebrate will factor in, it means sharing good will along with hope  from a marginalized and suppressed sector of society. It,s not just greens and beans either for welcoming another year. Other foods have also been included in the New Year's canon is seafood gumbo. It came from the Carolinas Low Country J.J. Johnson the and owner  chef of New York's Fieldtrip believes his grandmother's philosophy of if you eat good and healthy in the new year, you'll be good and healthy in the new year.Ms. Stewart includes recipes for all these dishes.There is one for collard greens plus cornmeal dumplings which are an easy blend of cornmeal, flour, baking powder and butter. The collards are flavored with green onions and garlic.  There is an easy black eyed pea  recipe made with salt pork or bacon. The gumbo is a bit more elaborate but worth it. You do have to create a gumbo spice mix first. The gumbo is a tasty mix of lobster , crab and scallops.

The traditions are a messy marriage of European and African yet it works. These recipes symbolize hope and happiness for the new year. It speaks to the aspirations in all of us.

Nourishing Help

Hurricane Florence has practically decimated the Carolinas. If you are there, know that everyone from around the country is praying and hoping for your best. If you're near the the area, and want to help.then donate food. It will be greatly appreciated.If you live far away, then consider bake sales to raise funds to help.

One of the biggest ways to help is donating money. Consider Harvest Hope Food Bank which is a regional organization that supplies food to the towns of Lexington, Columbia, Greenville and Florence , South Carolina. Their website allows you to donate meals affected by the crisis. To do so just select disaster relief when you fill out their online form. A mere ten dollars can feed fifty(!) people. Donate $100 and you;'ve fed a fraction of a town. (Remember to print out your receipt and keep it with your tax data. It is a considered a tax deduction)Also remember to donate to the American Humane Society as well. They give out food and water to those displaced animals , staying with their owners in shelters.Animal shelters taking in the lost and abandoned cats and dogs also need bags and cans of food. Stores like Pet Smart have set up tables where you donate money or pet food. If you are buying food, keep in mind to also donate puppy and kitten chow as well as specifically designed for for senior cats and dogs.

Even if you're several states away, you can help. It's still summer and you can easily help the kids set up a lemonade stand. Another money making idea is the classic bake sale. This can include several of their friends or classmates to offer a variety of different sweets and treats. Also instead of one day, think of a two day sale - again to garner more funds.Try to get local news to cover it, to bring awareness of those affected by the hurricane as well as bringing in more customers. Bigger groups such as houses of worship and civic groups can throw a sit down barbecue where guests can pay for an all you can eat hot dogs and hamburgers along with salads and other sides.Restaurant owners and chefs can also get involved in hurricane relief as they did with Hurricane Maria, last year. Some of New York's best chefs flew down to Puerto Rico and fed residents and volunteers for weeks on end,. Southern chefs with Carolingian roots can also come together and cook such Lowcountry classics as gumbo, Charleston Red Rice and Hoppin John,

Florence is a devastating superstorm. There are so many people and animals that need our help and food. Donate any way you can. Help them now.

The Fun Of Fish Boils

One of the greatest joys of summer is the fish boil. If you're by a beach whether seaside or lakeside then there's bound to be one. It's a great way of enjoying the day's catch as well as the veggies of the season. These beach barbecues are also a fun way to spend  meal with friends and enjoy good company.

The New York Times Food section featured  in its' outdoor cooking issue. Regular contributor , Kim Severson, got the chance to try several variations as well as writing about them. Boils are nothing new and are as American as squash  and popcorn..The coastal indigenous tribes first created them cooking, seafood along with corn as a meal after fishing. Potatoes were added probably in the early 1800's. Various regions have customized, for example the Great Lakes fish boils have a decidedly Scandinavian influence while the Louisiana is pure Cajun. New Englanders enjoy the Maine Lobster boil. The fish varies from region to region depending on where you are. The Great Lakes boil up white fish along with onions and potatoes. Peppercorns, bay leaves and allspice, the last taken from Swedish immigrants flavor it. Lousiana's boils boast of  - what else - crawdaddies and then lobster along with different spices. A Texas boil calls for the addition of Old Bay spice as and lemons.  Those along the Chesapeake Bay use crabs, fresh from the bay  with a good dousing of O.J. spice a mix of dried garlic and other seasonings.

One of the most famous boils is Frogmore stew. This is a relatively new invention being created by a shrimper, Richard Gay in the early 1960s. He threw shrimp and leftovers into a pot of boiling water while he was on a National Guard exercise. He named it Frogmore after a community on St. Helena Island.By the seventies it was a staple in Low Country restaurants. It is easy to recreate  and Ms Severson uses an expert , Ben Moises' a retired Game Warden's recipe. You'll need about six ears of corn and a cup and a half of Old Bay seasoning. Mr Moise recommends two pound of kielbasa or any other sausage. (Italian is fine here) and about two and a half pounds of  shrimp in the shell. The sausage and corn are boiled first in a large pot (think lobster pot or the largest soup pot you have) in a mix of water and Old Bay,The meat and corn are cooked for eight minutes and then add the shrimp. It;'s then cooked two or three minutes more and the whole pot is dumped onto spread  newspapers and then seasoned with more Old Bay seasoning. Anybody can create their own boil using the seafood and different spices. Just make sure you have the corn  and potatoes too, and beer. Beer is sometimes added to the water, most of the times it's just to wash down  everything. Also serve plain brown bread and cole slaw.

Fish boils are a fun way to enjoy both the season and seafood.Gather up some friends  , make an outdoor fire and cook the simple mix of fish ,potatoes and corn  for some basic deliciousness. It's the perfect cook out.