Food is a subject near and dear to my heart; I love to cook and love to eat! I have a huge cookbook collection, but to be honest, the food I love most is those so southern based recipes that my mom cooked and my grandmother. Bacon grease is usually the first ingredient in those recipes. My mother kept a metal canister on the stove that was filled with bacon grease. In these days when we microwave our bacon, you have to make more of an effort to collect your bacon grease and truly, good southern food just isn't the same without it! Good, cholesterol laden, artery-clogging bacon grease.
So when I came across this article in the NYTimes about Louise's Family Restaurant in Harlem, and their difficult times staying open in these heart-healthy days, it just made me want to boil up some ham hocks and cook some greens or something. By the time I finished reading about their menu (and bacon grease), I was starving.
I hate to see family owned or locally owned business go by the wayside. While all the chain restaurants running up and down our own Youree Drive are good for the economy, I dislike most of them. The saddest day in Shreveport-restaurant-history for me was the day Brocato's closed. Omigod the Snapper Brocato was to die for. My experience with chain restaurants has been mediocre food, uninspired service, and little originality. Give me a local L'Italiano or Monjuni's anyday, and you can keep your Olive Garden.
In solidarity for Louise's Family Restaurant in Harlem, and other local establishments, I encourage you to support the local places when you can! And for your heart, I offer a good, artery-clogging recipe:
Pinto Beans and Ham Hocks
Ingredients
3 smoked hamhocks
2 lbs. dried pinto beans
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 medium chopped onion
Directions
Boil hamhocks on high heat for 45 minutes. Add all seasonings except hot sauce and onion. Continue boiling for 20 minutes. Add pinto beans, hot sauce, and onion. Boil on medium heat until beans are done to taste.
Note: To speed up cooking of beans and reduce the gas beans produce, soak beans in cold water overnight or for three hours during the day.
Serve with rice and a meat sidedish. You can also use the hamhocks as your meat sidedish.
Ingredients
3 smoked hamhocks
2 lbs. dried pinto beans
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 medium chopped onion
Directions
Boil hamhocks on high heat for 45 minutes. Add all seasonings except hot sauce and onion. Continue boiling for 20 minutes. Add pinto beans, hot sauce, and onion. Boil on medium heat until beans are done to taste.
Note: To speed up cooking of beans and reduce the gas beans produce, soak beans in cold water overnight or for three hours during the day.
Serve with rice and a meat sidedish. You can also use the hamhocks as your meat sidedish.
(Photo credit: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times)
5 comments:
I have family in Lake Charles and heard you guys dodged a bullet yesterday. Lots of rain, though.
You cannot call yourself a Southerner if you microwave your bacon!
Yes, bookboy28, I think they let out a sigh of relief down south; I'm in northwest LA and sure wish we'd get a drop or two of rain. I'm parched!
Nikki, I want you to know, as I type this, your mother is cooking okra and tomatoes. She is going to flavor this delicacy, that I will soon savor in my palate, with bacon she fried in a black castiron skillet. Now how SOUTHERN is that?
much better
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