Succotash
Roasted turkey and pumpkin pie take center stage on Thanksgiving, but side dishes cannot really be called supporting players. Turkey and cranberry sauce are common to every table fortunate enough to be so blessed, but it is with side dishes that each family's personality asserts itself. Every family has its own recipe for the expected bowls of potatoes mashed and sweet. Stuffing takes on special significance -- cornbread versus sourdough, herbed versus plain, moist versus dry, in-cavity versus en casserole. One reader reported that she never heard the end of it the one year she didn't offer baked manicotti, and another reported the same of baked fennel. My grandmother always served wild rice tossed with fresh sage, and carrots seasoned with maple and anise. And our beloved Mama Diva's Thanksgiving would not have been complete without her justfiably world-famous greens.
To this line-up, might I suggest adding succotash? It is an ideal harvest dish, combining last summer's fresh sweet corn with onion and shell beans. Cooking corn with beans was a common practice in any land where the two grew -- not just the Americas, but in Africa as well. Appropriately, succotash is a study in compliment and contrast. The two fundamental ingredients compliment each other not just on the palate, but in the food chain: each contains one half of a protein that, together, is completed. And not only do corn and beans nourish our bodies, grown together they replenish the very soil: growing corn removes nitrogen from the earth, while growing beans replaces it.
First Americans taught the colonists how to make succotash, each in their own way. The beans used to make msickquatash were probably cranberry beans. There were versions incorporating everything from pumpkins to walnuts. The dish migrated to the colonists' hearths, beginning in New England and spreading from there. Thus, it became known as a dish from "Plymouth cooking," a distinction not many have heard today but that also includes such dishes as baked beans. Plymouth succotash could have included anything from meat and potatoes to turnips and hominy. By the time succotash reached the American South, it had come to refer to any dish in which mixed vegetables were combined with cream, butter, or lard, and that incarnation became a staple of Depression-era cooking. There are recipes for American Southern "succotashes" containing everything from stewed tomatoes to a pie crust.
Here is a recipe for a Thanksgiving succotash that is simple to prepare with modern groceries but retains respect for the dish's Native origins. If you froze any of last summer's corn or pressure-canned any of last autumn's lima beans, by all means use those. But if not, you can pick up everything you need to make this succotash when you make your Thanksgiving grocery run. And if, as you're preparing your own feast you take a moment and a few dollars to remember those less fortunate, then that would be in the spirit of sharing that the First Americans would recognize as the very soul of giving thanks.
SUCCOTASH
This recipe uses home-canned or frozen beans and corn. If you prefer to use fresh beans, soak them overnight and cook them to doneness before adding them to the succotash. If you prefer to use fresh corn, boil the corn until the kernels are tender and then slice the kernels from the cobs before adding them to the succotash.
10 ounces lima beans, either home-canned or frozen
10 ounces corn kernels, either home-canned or frozen
1 small yellow onion
1 small red pepper
3 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons butter, plus extra as needed
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Salt (Greek sea salt works well)
1. Place frozen vegetables into a colander. Place the colander on a layer of paper towels and set aside to begin to defrost, approximately 1/2 hour.
2. Fill a bowl with warm water. Following the package directions, add a few drops of vegetable cleaner to the water. Remove produce labels if any from the pepper. Submerge the pepper in the water and gently swirl.
3. Remove pepper from the cleansing bath and rinse well under warm water.
4. Place the red pepper on the cutting board. Cut the pepper in half from cap to bottom. Cut away and discard the stem; cut away any pithy white from inside each half. Rinse each half under warm water to remove the seeds; if saving seeds for planting, do this step over a fine mesh sieve to catch the seeds. Cut off and discard the rounded top and bottom of each half and set aside. Flatten the remaining pepper, skin side down, against the cutting board. Cut each flattened half into 1/2-inch strips and cut across the strips to form 1/2-inch squares. Scrape the chopped red pepper into a bowl near the stove top; set aside.
5. Peel the onion and remove the root and stem ends. Halve the onion from root to stem; halve each half. Cut each quarter into crescents. Cut across the crescents to form dice. Scrape the dice into the bowl with the chopped red pepper.
6. Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Half each clove; remove and discard any sprouting from the center. Place the garlic halves and a garlic press near the stove top.
7. When ready to cook the succotash, place a medium saucepan on the stove top. Place the butter in the saucepan and heat on low, until the butter melts.
8. As the butter melts, press each half through a garlic press into the melting butter. Swirl to combine. Cook, swirling often to keep the butter from browning, until the garlic begins to give off its fragrance, approximately 30 seconds.
9. Use a silicon spatula to add the diced onion to the butter-garlic mixture. Raise the heat to medium. Cook, using the spatula to stir frequently, until the onions are soft and translucent, approximately 3 - 5 minutes.
10. Add the cayenne pepper to the mixture in the pan; swirl to combine.
11. Use the silicon spatula to add the defrosted corn and beans to the mixture to the pan. Sprinkle the mixture with Greek sea salt. Use the spatula to thoroughly combine the ingredients in the pan.
12. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until all the ingredients are cooked through, appproximately 10 minutes, checking the pan after 5 minutes and adding more butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the pan is running dry.
13. Once cooked, keep the succotash warm until ready to serve.
To this line-up, might I suggest adding succotash? It is an ideal harvest dish, combining last summer's fresh sweet corn with onion and shell beans. Cooking corn with beans was a common practice in any land where the two grew -- not just the Americas, but in Africa as well. Appropriately, succotash is a study in compliment and contrast. The two fundamental ingredients compliment each other not just on the palate, but in the food chain: each contains one half of a protein that, together, is completed. And not only do corn and beans nourish our bodies, grown together they replenish the very soil: growing corn removes nitrogen from the earth, while growing beans replaces it.
First Americans taught the colonists how to make succotash, each in their own way. The beans used to make msickquatash were probably cranberry beans. There were versions incorporating everything from pumpkins to walnuts. The dish migrated to the colonists' hearths, beginning in New England and spreading from there. Thus, it became known as a dish from "Plymouth cooking," a distinction not many have heard today but that also includes such dishes as baked beans. Plymouth succotash could have included anything from meat and potatoes to turnips and hominy. By the time succotash reached the American South, it had come to refer to any dish in which mixed vegetables were combined with cream, butter, or lard, and that incarnation became a staple of Depression-era cooking. There are recipes for American Southern "succotashes" containing everything from stewed tomatoes to a pie crust.
Here is a recipe for a Thanksgiving succotash that is simple to prepare with modern groceries but retains respect for the dish's Native origins. If you froze any of last summer's corn or pressure-canned any of last autumn's lima beans, by all means use those. But if not, you can pick up everything you need to make this succotash when you make your Thanksgiving grocery run. And if, as you're preparing your own feast you take a moment and a few dollars to remember those less fortunate, then that would be in the spirit of sharing that the First Americans would recognize as the very soul of giving thanks.
SUCCOTASH
This recipe uses home-canned or frozen beans and corn. If you prefer to use fresh beans, soak them overnight and cook them to doneness before adding them to the succotash. If you prefer to use fresh corn, boil the corn until the kernels are tender and then slice the kernels from the cobs before adding them to the succotash.
10 ounces lima beans, either home-canned or frozen
10 ounces corn kernels, either home-canned or frozen
1 small yellow onion
1 small red pepper
3 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons butter, plus extra as needed
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Salt (Greek sea salt works well)
1. Place frozen vegetables into a colander. Place the colander on a layer of paper towels and set aside to begin to defrost, approximately 1/2 hour.
2. Fill a bowl with warm water. Following the package directions, add a few drops of vegetable cleaner to the water. Remove produce labels if any from the pepper. Submerge the pepper in the water and gently swirl.
3. Remove pepper from the cleansing bath and rinse well under warm water.
4. Place the red pepper on the cutting board. Cut the pepper in half from cap to bottom. Cut away and discard the stem; cut away any pithy white from inside each half. Rinse each half under warm water to remove the seeds; if saving seeds for planting, do this step over a fine mesh sieve to catch the seeds. Cut off and discard the rounded top and bottom of each half and set aside. Flatten the remaining pepper, skin side down, against the cutting board. Cut each flattened half into 1/2-inch strips and cut across the strips to form 1/2-inch squares. Scrape the chopped red pepper into a bowl near the stove top; set aside.
5. Peel the onion and remove the root and stem ends. Halve the onion from root to stem; halve each half. Cut each quarter into crescents. Cut across the crescents to form dice. Scrape the dice into the bowl with the chopped red pepper.
6. Peel the garlic and remove the root end. Half each clove; remove and discard any sprouting from the center. Place the garlic halves and a garlic press near the stove top.
7. When ready to cook the succotash, place a medium saucepan on the stove top. Place the butter in the saucepan and heat on low, until the butter melts.
8. As the butter melts, press each half through a garlic press into the melting butter. Swirl to combine. Cook, swirling often to keep the butter from browning, until the garlic begins to give off its fragrance, approximately 30 seconds.
9. Use a silicon spatula to add the diced onion to the butter-garlic mixture. Raise the heat to medium. Cook, using the spatula to stir frequently, until the onions are soft and translucent, approximately 3 - 5 minutes.
10. Add the cayenne pepper to the mixture in the pan; swirl to combine.
11. Use the silicon spatula to add the defrosted corn and beans to the mixture to the pan. Sprinkle the mixture with Greek sea salt. Use the spatula to thoroughly combine the ingredients in the pan.
12. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until all the ingredients are cooked through, appproximately 10 minutes, checking the pan after 5 minutes and adding more butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the pan is running dry.
13. Once cooked, keep the succotash warm until ready to serve.
Our succotash always had cheese in it. In fact, if my mom picked up a can of succotash, she added cheese to it when she reheated it for us. I never had succotash without cheese until I moved up north. Is cheesy succotash a Southern thing?
ReplyDeleteIn the south, succotash became an umbrella term for any mix of vegetables combined with milk, cream and God only knows what else. So I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there is a Southern succotash made with cheese. Thanks for reading.
ReplyDelete