American By Birth, Southern By the Grace of God: Maw-Maw Falls' Vegetable Soup

Maw-Maw Falls

The late, great Lewis Grizzard used to say he was "American by birth, Southern by the grace of God." I can identify. I love being from the South, and I love coming from a long line of amazing Southern cooks. I'm fortunate enough to have known both of my maternal great-grandmothers (who were, in fact, amazing Southern cooks), and remember times spent with them very well. Like so many other great memories, food plays a huge part in my memories of time spent with them.  Every Sunday we'd all head up to my Ma-maw and Pa-paw Ford's (Mom's dad's parents) house for a huge spread, with vegetables fresh from their garden out back and gorgeous, delicious desserts. I always had to help Ma-maw make the cornbread- it was my special job. (And the cast iron cornbread stick pan is hers- it makes the best cornbread ever. I highly recommend getting a stick pan if you're going to make Southern cornbread often. It has more surface area, and therefore more crusty goodness. Plus your cornbread looks like a corn cob- how fun is that?!)

My other great-grandma, Maw Falls lived with my grandparents and took care of me and my brother after school. She was always cooking up something tasty. One of my favorites was her vegetable soup. We'd come in the house after school and an electric pot would be sitting on the counter bubbling away and smelling so good. It was full of veggies, lots of them frozen or canned from the garden. In fact, I was asking my mom where to get "flat green beans" (pole beans) from the store, and she said, "Oh, I think those were the ones they canned..." So I have to settle for regular green beans until I can grow my own flat ones. In any case, here's Maw-Maw Falls' vegetable soup recipe.

Maw-Maw Falls' Vegetable Soup


Ingredients:

• carrots, diced or cut into rounds
• celery, diced
• onion, diced
• fresh or frozen peas (crowder, zipper, black-eye, pigeon, whatever you've got- I used some frozen lima beans from my grandpa's garden and a handful of frozen crowder peas)
• fresh or frozen okra (if frozen, about half a bag)
• half a head of cabbage, chopped
• fresh, frozen, or home-canned green beans (flat/pole beans are my favorite!)
• tomatoes- fresh if they're in season, home-canned or canned if not. 
• water 
• butter
• salt and pepper
• cayenne pepper
• bay leaf
• (optional stock- chicken, turkey, veggie)

Directions

• Saute carrots, onions and celery in a large dutch oven until softened. 
• Add the rest of the ingredients. (note: Maw-maw made hers with water and butter- I used some turkey stock I had frozen from Thanksgiving, my mom uses low-sodium chicken stock. The water/butter way works great, but takes a little longer for the flavors to meld)
• Let cook until vegetables are tender and flavors are melded. Adjust seasoning and serve with cornbread. 

The great thing about this recipe is you can put pretty much whatever you have lying around in it. Corn, potatoes, different beans, squash... the possibilities are endless. You can add some fresh herbs if you happen to have them- thyme is a good option. Have fun with this great (and super-healthy) soup!

Southern Cornbread
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated- this isn't my great-grandma's recipe (I'll post it another time) but it's fantastic!


Ingredients:

• 4 tsp. bacon drippings
• 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/3 cup rapidly boiling water
• 3/4 cup milk (or buttermilk)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

• Put a daub of bacon drippings in each muffin tin, corn stick mold, or 8" round pan. Place pan on lower-middle rack and heat oven to 450. 
• Put half the cornmeal in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the remaining cornmeal and other dry ingredients and set aside.
• Pour bowling water into the bowl of just cornmeal and mash into a paste. Whisk in the milk gradually, working out the lumps. Whisk in the egg. 
• Once the oven is preheated, add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into the hot tins from liquid measuring cup. Bake 13-20 minutes, depending on size of pan.
• Remove from oven and immediately flip onto a wire rack, gently using a butter knife to pry it out if necessary. Cool 5 minutes and serve. 

Sage Spaghetti with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Caramelized Onion Sauce, and Toasted Pecans

Sage Spaghetti with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Caramelized Onion Sauce, Toasted Pecans, Goat Cheese and Brown Butter

I've always loved making fresh pasta. In fact, the first thing I cooked for my husband back when we were dating involved fresh pasta: Chicken Noodle Soup with tri-colored noodles (roasted red pepper, spinach, and garlic-herb noodles). That was before I had my trusty Kitchenaid stand mixer, my food processor, or my newest kitchen toy: pasta roller and cutters for my Kitchenaid. Back then, pasta making was an all-day ordeal. Roasting peppers, steaming and squeezing spinach, kneading and rolling pasta dough by hand, cutting pasta into somewhat uniform sizes... it was tiring! 

Now I can have fresh pasta cooking in under an hour, and we get to have it a lot more often. The first batch I made was sage spaghetti. Fresh herb pasta is easy to do and you can add pretty much any fresh herb you have lying around. Since I had sage, I was inspired by one of my favorites at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur; Pierogies with Browned Butter, caramelized onions, spiced pecans and fried sage. I had pecans, onions, sage, and of course butter. Instead of the potato filling used in the pierogies, I substituted a superfood, sweet potatoes. This time I used goat cheese because that's what was in the fridge, but I think next time I'll use fresh shaved parmesan instead. The goat cheese tends to overpower the other flavors. 

Sage Spaghetti

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 eggs

fresh sage

Directions:

• Process sage in food processor until finely chopped, add flour and process 30 seconds. 
• Add eggs and blend until a loose ball is formed. It should hold together but not be sticky to the touch. If it's too sticky, add flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If it looks like pebbles, add water 1 teaspoon at the time. Turn out onto floured surface and knead. 
• Cut the ball of dough into 6 pieces. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at least 15 minutes, at most 1 hour.
• Run through pasta roller, starting with the widest setting and thinning until the sheet of pasta is almost translucent and you can see the outline of your hand through the dough. 
• Switch to spaghetti cutter. Run each sheet of pasta through the roller and hang on pasta drying rack. (If you don't have a rack, get creative- prop a broom over two chair backs and you can dry them over the handle... Just make sure your broom handle is clean!)
• Let the pasta dry at least 15 minutes. If you're not going to cook it immediately, let it dry an hour and then refrigerate or freeze it. 
• Boil salted water in a large pot, add the noodles and cook 4-5 minutes until al dente. Drain in a colander. 
• Top with whatever you have around, or use the following recipes to make it the way I had it.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2" dice

1 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

salt and pepper

Directions

• Toss diced potatoes with butter, oil, salt and pepper.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or silpat. Arrange potatoes in a single layer. Cover baking sheet tightly with foil. Put in a cold oven and turn on to 425. Cook for about 30 minutes.
• Remove foil cook until the bottom edges are golden, 15-20 minutes.
• Flip the pieces over, roast until the bottom edges are golden, 15-20 minutes more. 
• Let cool 5-10 minutes and serve.

Caramelized Onion Sauce

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. brown sugar

2 pounds onion, halved peeled and sliced in 1/4 inch slices. (Half pearl onions, whole)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 shallot, minced

1 cup chicken stock (I used homemade, just because I had it around. If you use store-bought, get low-sodium)

1/2 cup dry white wine (2 Buck Chuck works just fine)

Directions:

• Blanche pearl onions. (Boil for 3 minutes, then immediately in an ice bath) Peel. 
• Heat 1 Tbsp. butter on high. When the foam subsides, add 1/2 tsp. salt and all the sugar. 
• Add onions and stir to coat, cook until onions soften and release moisture, about 5 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently until onions are deeply brown and slightly sticky. 
• Add garlic and shallot, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. 
• Add chicken broth and wine, simmer until reduced to about 2 cups, 2-3 minutes.
• Off heat, whisk in 3 Tbsp. cold butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. 

This was really good on top of the pasta, but could be great on some nice toast as an appetizer too.

Your meal is almost ready. Toast some chopped pecans in a saute pan until fragrant and nutty smelling. Be careful not to burn them! Take the pecans out, brown some butter in the same saute pan. Toss the spaghetti with the butter, top with sweet potatoes, then onions, then pecans. Add cheese of your choice. (Like I said, I did goat cheese this time, but would probably go with a hard Italian cheese next time)

Serve and enjoy!