A Bit Of Juneteenth Year Round

 Juneteenth is still being celebrated and rightly so. Yet the foods and the strong African influence on American cooking and baking should also be celebrated. Juneteenth recipes can be made all year round as reminders of sacrifices and freedoms won.

One of the most popular and already widely made is fried chicken. Frying itself came from West Africa where all sorts of foods, especially fritters were cooking in deep pots of oil. However the Scots brought the recipe with them, preferring to batter and fry the pieces in butter or oil instead of just boiling them. Enslaved Africans, belonging to Scottish slave holders elevated the recipe with their addition of spicing and cooking techniques. Today you can easily make fried chicken in an air fryer, eliminating the need for hot fat.Keep in mind that a traditional egg based batter won't work in it. Dipping the chicken pieces in batter than a good coating of bread crumbs works better. The perfect dish with this is collard greens,. They can be made with the original recipe of  chicken broth ,turkey necks and ham hicks. Apple cider vinegar is added to them for some zing along with hot pepper flakes. You can make them vegan, starting with the broth. Use a vegetable stock and enhance it with garlic and onions. A dash of smoked applewood salt give it that smoky bacon flavor. You can sub in or mix in kale and spinach for more nutrients.

Shrimp and grits are another Juneteenth dish worth having throughout the year. This Gullah Low Country classic has grits cooked in chicken broth along with milk and butter. Salt and pepper are added in too. The shrimp along with onions are cooked in bacon drippings until done. The crumbled bacon is added to the seafood and onions and then spooned over the grits. You could also make fried okra A gain use the air fryer for this. It;'s breading okra pieces and then air frying them until crisp and browned. These can even be turned into an appetizer with the addition of dipping sauces. The holiday also has its' share of sweets. There is strawberry soda which is delicious when it's homemade. Chop strawberries and then cook in a skillet with water and granulated sugar. Cook until the berries are mush and start to mash them. Keep simmering for a few more minutes. It's then straining them through a strainer. Mix the syrup with the seltzer and serve over ice. Another Junettenth dessert is red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Again it';s an easy recipe to replicate. You can make it as a cake or as cupcakes, frosted and then sprinkled with red sugar or sprinkles.

Juneteenth and its' dishes can be honored all year round . The dishes can be savory or sweet. They represent the glory and joy that is freedom.

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.

Your Must Have Thanksgiving Issue Part One

 Thanksgiving is almost two weeks away and it's going to be a big one. It's the first major holiday where we can sit down with family and friends after being separated for so long. The meal has to be spectacular  with fantastic recipes.

This is where today's New York Times Food section comes in It is an unofficial guide to Thanksgiving cooking and baking. It's definitely an inspiration with different spins on classic dishes and new recipes that every home chef has to try.Turkey and gravy lovers will enjoy trying Padma Lakshmi's spin on the holiday bird with a boozy gravy spiked with Calvados,. Regular contributor and great food developer herself interviewed Ms. Laksmi who is more known for being a judge on Top Chef and her eye opening travel and food show "Taste The Nation" streaming on Hulu. Yet it's her turkey recipe that will make an impact on mant Thanksgiving table. She treats the turkey as if it were a very large chicken.It's brined first  in a spicy blend of buttermilk for tenderizing and cayenne pepper for zing and heat. The turkey itself is stuffed with lemon , ginger thyme and garlic for a truly flavorful bite. It's then drizzled and rubbed with olive oil before being  slow roasted in a pan of water. The gravy is a blend of the Calvados with the combined juices of  mashed Fuji and Granny Smith apples, along with red and yellow onions and fennel. The juices are whisked into to a roux of butter and flour and then the Calvados is stirred in.

You could easily add some of the dishes from Liberia;s Thanksgiving day celebrated on the first Thursday of the month.It wasn't modeled on the American holiday and is fraught with a lot of history, festivities and food.Another weekly contributor to the New York Tines Food section, Priya Krishna interviewed Liberian-American chefs who bring their spin and traditional recipes to the American Thanksgiving table. Theirs is different. The day is spent with family , playing kickball and getting dressed up. The ingredients such as cassava and sweet potatoes. There is no turkey in Liberia. There is chicken however and Ms. Krishna gives a recipe for Liberian chicken gravy. This is chicken thighs first rubbed with a fiery mix of  black pepper, cayenne seasoned salt, onion powder and garlic. The gravy is then made with yellow onions garlic cloves and a cube of Maggi chicken broth. This is added to olive oil and tomato paste simmered together. It and the chicken is then baked together for thirty to thirty-five minutes. There is also pan fried collard greens.cooked with either a  cut up Cajum turkey or regular one neck and wings. You can add fish(!) such as dried barracuda or other kinds if you want, It;s still flavorful with  the addition of ham hock, yellow onions and habanero peppers  This is all cooked together for five to ten minutes on a stove top and served with rice.

These are just some of the recipes you can use for your own Thanksgiving table. They offer a fresh brightness to the table/.They will make this holiday stand out.

A Very Vegan Stracciatella

 Stracciatella is a must make soup for the winter. This Tuscan favorite is one of the tastiest and easiest to whip up. There are only three ingredients - eggs, chicken broth and fresh spinach. The problem is that this isn't made for vegans - until now. 

     Cooking in a vegan household is hard.  There's a lot I can't make  unless I find sub ins.Luckily I was able to get almost comparable subs.

I used Vegg egg yolk, Not Chick-n  bouillon cubes and baby spinach leaves. This cooked up into a really delicious soup for lunch.

It's taking five cups of water and two cubes.

Mash these with a wooden spoon until the water turns a golden yellow. The add two to three tablespoons of Vegg's Egg Yolk Substitute.

There are going to be lumps. Use a spoon to smash the larger ones to release more of the egg yolk powder. Leave the smaller ones. Stracciatella is meant to have lumpy egg strands . That's part of it's charm.

Once this is done add two thirds of an eight ounce bag of spinach.

It may seem like a lot but spinach cooks down quickly in a matter of minutes.

 The soup is done when the leaves turn a dark emerald green and look like collard greens.

Stracciatella is great with a sprinkle of Parmesan or a drizzle of olive oil. I like mine with a warm piece of garlic bread. Another great thing about it is that it reheats well too. You can make a big batch of it and then have it a day or two later.

A vegan stracciatella is the perfect soup for these frosty nights. It's an easy cook on the stove. Make up a pot and enjoy its' soothing warmth and flavor.