We could eat fancy smanchy, but this is better.
It took more years than I am comfortable admitting, but I always thought I had a good excuse. We moved from West Jackson to Clinton in 1961. The 12 X 14 feet family garden we had on Faircourt Street when we lived in Jackson was a pretty good size for a back yard enterprise. Mom and Dad usually had 10-12 tomato plants, 4-6 hills of yellow squash, several hills of cucumbers, two rows of sweet corn that were maybe 20 feet long, 6-10 okra stalks and the rest in purple hull peas and bunch butter beans.
Whatever Mom and Dad grew in that garden was supplemented by peas and beans they purchased by the bushel at the old farmer's market between the railroad yard and North West Street, just north of the overhead bridge on Woodrow Wilson. The vegetables were blanched and put away in the freezer, for dinner at some later date. By the way, a bushel of peas is 60 pounds weight measure and not a bag full, regardless of whatever they might tell you. Here comes a shocker. Not all merchants at a farmer's market are honest. To get 60 pounds of peas in one of those mesh bags, you must really pack it.
These days, only a few vendors sell their vegetables from that operation. I think most of what they sell comes from the vegetable wholesale company located between the Farmer's Market and North West Street. Back in the 1950's the Farmer's Market was a Happening Place in the summer. If you needed a couple of rattlesnake watermelons to eat with some aunts, uncles and seven or eight cousins at a picnic table in Livingston Park, it was the place to go.
Are you from the lineage of southerners who cut their melon lengthwise into wedges, or are you from those folks who sliced it into round slices? We were long slice folks and I always thought round slice people were weird.
Let me get back to my post. I think fried yellow squash is an overlooked vegetable treat. Mom loved them, sliced thin and breaded in cornmeal, then fried in a little oil. Dad (RIP) has been gone for a little over ten years now, but I can still remember the smile on his face when he realized the evening meal would include fried squash.
Here is how I cook them.
Need
A cup of white Corn Meal and a Tablespoon of AP flour, with a teaspoon black pepper and half a teaspoon salt.
Sliced yellow squash. I am a little anal and slice mine on the mandolin to give slices with a consistent 3/16-inch thickness. After slicing, I wet them in a little buttermilk and season them with black pepper and salt.
Then coat the slices with the cornmeal and flour mixture, while heating 1/8 - 1.4 inch of oil in a skillet to about 350 degrees F.
I like to start with a single slice to make sure the oil is hot enough.
Looks good, so I add more and turn when the first side has browned. When both sides have browned, out they come to drain on paper towels, with a bit of salt added to taste. Continue until all have been fried.
Green beans (Contender) home canned, with a few wedges of potato makes a nice addition. Cook with a little water, salt sugar and a bit of oil, plus the potatoes. I love tiny whole new potatoes, but we had none, so I made do with what we had.
I never had a meal at my grandparents' house west of Isola, MS that did not include some kind of pork. Usually, Grandma cooked ham or whole porkchops. We usually buy then at Sam's, but only had som Pork Loin slices, so that is what I fried. Start with thawed chops, season with salt, black pepper and a touch of Garlic salt, coat with a bit of flour and fry in 1/8 inch of oil. When the first side has browned, turn. When the other side has browned, they are done.
Time to eat. NO cornbread tonight (Sigh).
Here is another way to cook your squash that is nice. Cut and season, but do not coat with cornmeal. Add butter to skillet and then squash and onion. Cook slowly until the squash browns, stirring occasionally and use a lid if you like. The squash will pretty much fall apart, but that is ok.
Thanks for looking.
God Bless You
God Bless You
10 comments:
Who is Buehller?
8:18 - He is a misspelled guy in ZeroBear's imagination.
Sautéing squash, zucchini, and sweet onions in butter until they turn sweet and caramelized is one of my favorite summer meals.
Good stuff, zerobear.
Bear, this is nothing but straight up food porn, and I'm here for it.
My zucchini and yellow squash are going insane.(as long as I keep treating for squash bugs). I've given it away, I've frozen it, I've made stir-fries 2x a week for a month. I've prepared it the way my grandmother did with sautéed onions and you just cook in a skillet until it turns 1 texture. (Bacon grease, salt and pepper make it amazing). I haven't fried the squash this year yet though. I think people tend to think of fried green tomatoes only. But you can do squash and all sorts of other veggies like that too. And it's all good
This is southern deliciousness, Chef Bear. We still garden. Last week I put up 7 quarts of green beans the same day I picked them so you know they'll taste good this winter. This week, I blanched and froze 12 cups of pink eyed purple hull peas, and 36 cups of Top Row field peas. The tomatoes are just now getting ripe and I'll can them, too. I've made strawberry jam, peach jam and blackberry jelly so far and have a couple of gallons of blueberries in the freezer that I'll turn into jelly and jam. Then comes picking things - cukes, peppers, okra and whatever else strikes my fancy.
A couple of years ago I bought an electric, digital canning pressure cooker and it has revolutionized my food preservation. No more huge boiling pots of water on the stovetop.
Keep 'em coming, Bear. We love your recipes.
What 11:49 said.
And thanks for the canner endorsement, 1:46. That giant pot of boiling water in summer has thwarted my canning drive since 2002.
This looks wonderful. One of my favorites is yellow crookneck squash. Brenda at the Farmers' Market has a ton of the smaller ones and I've been eating squash in every form. haha
Caramelized squash and onions. Yum.
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