Snacking State-by-State: Missouri II - The Show Me Slaw!

Cole slaw: it's one of those unassuming yet still classic of American dishes.  And it exists in many forms: creamy, vinegary, boiled or non-boiled dressings, with or without sugar, with big slivers or small bits of cabbage, with red or green or even Chinese cabbage, with a very few ingredients or with many, and even some varieties from outside our country (such as the simple curtido variety brought in by Salvadorans and easily found in any Central American community in the DC region).  And anyone can tell you that cole slaw is the quintessential barbecue side dish.

Official Name: State of Missouri

State Nicknames: The Show-Me State
Admission to the US: August 10, 1821 (#24)
Capital: Jefferson City (15th largest)
Other Important Cities: Kansas City (largest), St. Louis (2nd largest), Springfield (3rd largest), Independence (4th largest)
Region: Midwest, South; Wet North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Corn Bread & BBQ; Bison
Bordered by:  Iowa (north); Illinois and the Mississippi River (east); Kentucky and Tennessee (southeast); Arkansas (south); Oklahoma (southwest); Kansas (west); Nebraska (northwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Eastern black walnut (tree nut); channel catfish (fish); Norton/Cynthiana grape (grape); bobwhite quail (game bird); crayfish (invertebrate)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Midwestern and German foods to the north, Southern and Ozark foods to the South and in the center of the state; Kansas City BBQ (sweet BBQ sauce, with dry rub before barbecuing), gooey butter cake

Marcia Adams notes in her Heartland cookbook - the definitive Midwestern cookbook that I keep coming back to for this project - that Midwestern cole slaw dressing is typically sweet and creamy.  This is how I like it, and this is the cole slaw I ended up making (I have a lot of left over mayonnaise I need to use up).  But a small contingent in Missouri and other parts of the Midwest like the boiled variety, which is unfamiliar to me.

In Missouri, as it is nearly everywhere in the Midwest, cole slaw is mostly creamy style... but there is a school of slaw makers who still prepare a boiled dressiing: the early forerunners of commercial bottled salad dressings like Miracle Whip.  It is a tradition worth reviving.  Laced with dry mustard, boiled dressing is good on potato salad: thinned with additional cream, it can also be served with roast pork, ham or fish [Adams 1991: 166]

Her boiled dressing, and the adaptation I followed for the typical non-boiled creamy version, are on page 166 of her Heartland cookbook.  And yes, it is a lovely accompaniment to the Kansas City style spare ribs I made in the last post.

The recipe: Creamy Cole Slaw

To make this cole slaw without the boiled dressing you will need to replace all the eggs and flour and mustard and olive oil and cream with three things: mayonnaise (I used Duke's, which I have a whole lot of right now), sugar and apple cider vinegar.  You will add that to the following:

* cabbage (I used Savoy because it was a much smaller head - in retrospect I will just use plain green cabbage; Savoy makes a pretty cole slaw, though not a terribly crunchy one.  Use it if you don't demand crunch in your cole slaw)
* parsley (no fresh on hand so I just used some of the dried - but do try to use fresh)
* carrot (shredded)
* celery (finely chopped)
* onion (also finely chopped)
* green bell pepper (yup - finely chopped)
* celery seed, mustard seed and ground black pepper (had all on hand)

Shred the cabbage as finely as you can (or as finely as your brain can stand), and finely chop or shred the other vegetables.

Mix together all the non-dressing ingredients, and then add the mayo, sugar and vinegar.  Stir until well-blended.  It's easier to mix the dressing first instead of adding the separate ingredients.  (Note to self: read the whole recipe over again before adding your ingredients).

Though not as creamy or as sweet as my grandmother's cole slaw, this is still a pleasant slaw.  I wish I had used the more standard green cabbage which Adams likely would have recommended as well.  Adams notes that you can make this up to a day ahead.  I have been eating this along with the ribs, and though it is a bit messy to hold the fork (as it always is - it is barbecue after all), it still provides a nice crunch even with the Savoy cabbage.

Sources:

Adams, Marcia. Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens. Clarkson Potter: New York, 1991.

Bittman, Mark.  "For a Smoky Taste in Oven Ribs".  The New York Times website.  Published: December 4, 2009.

Goldwyn, Craig "Meathead".  "A taxonomy of American barbecue sauces".  Amazing Ribs website.  Last revised September 12, 2011.

Lee, Jennifer 8. "St. Paul Sandwiches (in St. Louis), Made with Egg Foo Young Patties".  The Fortune Cookie Chronicles website.  Published April 8, 2009.

"noahw" (Instructables.com user).  "Oven Smoked Ribs".  Instructables.com website.  Copyright 2011.

Oland, Sydney.  "Sunday Brunch: St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake".  Serious Eats website.  Published May 28, 2011.

Raichlen, Steve.  How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques.  Workman Publishing: New York, 2001.


STLToday.  "St. Paul Sandwich (Fortune Express)".  STLToday website.  Published August 17, 2011.

Stradley, Linda. "Gooey Butter Cake". What's Cooking America website.  Copyright 2004.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Missouri" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Missouri".

Snacking State-by-State: Mississippi II - A potato salad fit for a shrimp

When we think of the Gulf Coast, we think of seafood.  Though Louisiana and Florida usually get the lion's share of the nation's attention when it comes to Gulf oysters, crabs, crawfish and shrimp we would be remiss to leave out the marine resources right off the coast of Gulfport and Biloxi.

Official Name: State of Mississippi
State Nicknames: The Magnolia State; The Hospitality State
Admission to the US: December 10, 1817 (#20)
Capital: Jackson (largest)
Other Important Cities: Gulfport (2nd largest); Biloxi (5th largest), Tupelo (7th largest)
Region: South, Deep South, Gulf Coast; East South Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Corn Bread & BBQ; Gumbo
Bordered by: Tennessee (north); Alabama (east); Gulf Coast (south); Louisiana (southwest); Arkansas (northwest); the Mississippi River (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: white-tailed deer (land mammal); wood duck (waterfowl); largemouth/black bass (fish); honeybee (insect - the honey is what you eat, of course); oyster (shell - again, you eat what lives inside it)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: typical Southern foods, with Cajun foods (gumbo, étouffée, etc) in the southern part of the state; seafood along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast (especially crawfish, shrimp, oyster and blue crab)

The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources has made it incredibly easy to find recipes to choose from when exploring Magnolia State seafood.  They've done this through a line of cookbooks, all completely available for free on their website, from their 2010 Mississippi Seafood Cookoff Cookbook (we have such things here too) to books of recipes for shrimp, oysters and even southern Mississippi-specific recipes, for that more Cajun-flavored part of the state.   I must add that the MS DMR didn't make choosing a recipe all that easy.  There were just too many tempting ones to choose from.  But I finally settled on a simple but delicious Southern potato salad, accentuated with Gulf shrimp throughout.

The recipe: Biloxi Bay Potato Salad

Irvin Jackson, Directorate of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, provides the recipe that I ended up making.  It's in the "Shrimp" section of their 2005 "Mississippi Seafood Recipes" cookbook (no page numbers, but it helps to know that the same recipe is featured on cards 3 and 4 of their Shrimp Recipe Cards, with a helpful photo of the dish on card 3).  Once you assemble everything, putting it all together is pretty simple.

* potatoes (any potato salad needs potatoes - in this case half of a $5 quart of spuds from the I-83 farmers' market)
* shrimp (Rock shrimp from the Gulf - these were about $14 per lb.  I got half a pound)
* green onions and celery (about $3 total - you will need them raw)
* eggs (hard boiled)
* sweet relish (a little more than a dollar)
* yellow mustard (had it)
* salad dressing (I just used mayonnaise - many a Southern potato salad is coated with mustard and mayo.  Since Hurricane Irene took my previous jar of mayonnaise, I needed a new one.  In this case, I splurged on a jar of Duke's Mayonnaise, that Richmond-based classic and favorite of Southern cooks for almost a century)
* Cajun seasoning (or in lieu of that, Old Bay, which is also quite popular throughout the South)

You will need to boil three things: the potatoes, the eggs and the shrimp.

Yes, we prefer to steam those shrimp here, but that's not how they do it in Mississippi, and since this is a Mississippi recipe I figured I would stick with the spirit of their shrimp.  A quick way to do it is to follow the instructions for steaming shrimp that you find on the side of the Old Bay can, only with enough water to boil it.

Boil, peel and cut up the potatoes, and mix them with the chopped green onions and celery.

Mix into the veggies the boiled shrimp, sliced eggs, relish, mustard, mayo and Old Bay.  And that's pretty much all you need to do.

Like the Mississippi mud cake, this shrimp filled potato salad was quite easy to make - a running theme in these specific Mississippi recipes I chose, it seems.  Add salt, Old Bay and Cajun seasonings to taste (I like mine slightly saltier than this) and serve with just about anything, or eat it on its own.  It's substantial enough after all.

Sources:

Civil War Interactive & Blue Gray Daily.  "Welcome to the Civil War Interactive Cookbook: Articles and Recipes for your 19th Century Cooking", date of publication unknown.  Copyright 2011 Civil War Interactive.

Edge, John T. A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South. An Ellen Rolfes Book. For the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. G. P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1999.

Jackson, Irvin.  "Biloxi Bay Potato Salad".  Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (recipe card) copyright Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, 2011.  Also published in Mississippi Seafood Recipes by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, copyright Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, 2003.

Wilson, Charles Reagan. "Introduction: The South: Who, Where, and What's for Dinner".  In A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South by John T. Edge. An Ellen Rolfes Book. For the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. G. P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1999.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Mississippi" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Mississippi".

Lunch on a 100° Day

On a hot day like today, where the heat index was 111° at 10 in the morning, cooking is not a great option (even though I will be doing it at some point, but just a little). What to eat to cool off? How about a nice garden salad (from my garden), with mint and Thai basil and some olive oil and salt? Couple that with a mint julep, some ginger ale and a freshly made gazpacho of Roma tomatoes I just bought, thrown together with olive oil, water, ice cubes, dried chilies, salt, a small red onion and two cloves of garlic (don't like bread crumbs in mine, and I don't have cukes on hand), blended until smooth. It's about as refreshing as you can get in this weather.

Snacking State-by-State: Iowa II - It just ain't salad without bacon grease

This project would have been so much more difficult without the insights and travel experience of Jane and Michael Stern, whose Roadfood books have been cited and utilized various times throughout this State-by-State round-up. I turn again to the semi-regular guests of NPR's Splendid Table for the lowdown on a few more Iowa curiosities.

Official Name: State of Iowa
State Nicknames: The Hawkeye State
Admission to the US: December 28, 1846 (#29)
Capital: Des Moines (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Cedar Rapids (2nd largest), Davenport (3rd largest), Sioux City (4th largest)
Region: Midwest; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ, Bison
Bordered by: Minnesota (north); North Dakota, Nebraska (west); Missouri (south); Illinois, Wisconsin & the Mississippi River (east)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: none
Some Famous & Typical Foods: again, typical Midwestern foods, especially corn; Native American and pioneer foods; soybeans; Red Delicious and "Hawkeye" apples; Dutch, German, Amish and Scandinavian foods

One dish that specifically caught my attention speaks to Iowa's notable Dutch-American community, this time in and around central Iowa. When the Sterns described the dish that Sully and Pella residents refer to as Dutch lettuce, my mind went back to my visit to Amsterdam a few years ago, where I sampled so many wonderful things. And then I sampled Dutch food. Don't get me wrong: the stroopwafels and pannenkoeken were lovely. The other Dutch curiosities were, well, niet lekker. Let's just say I won't be eating hutspot again.

That said, I know I should not pan a whole cuisine. This last month, I learned that in my exploration of Midwestern food. This time, I better give Dutch food another chance. And I will do that with the dish that the Sterns describe as a combo of, at least, "hard-boiled eggs, bacon, sweet-and-sour dressing, and, of course, lettuce" (Stern and Stern 2009: 241). This time I figured I would give Roadfood a rest, and try to find another recipe for Dutch lettuce. I was successful, finding a recipe on the website for the Pella Historical Village. Their Dutch recipe section features a slew - er, a slaw - of Dutch recipes for breads, desserts, soups and salads. Did I mention their recipe for "Dutch Mess"? It's the Stern recipe, but with potatoes.

The recipe: Dutch Lettuce with Potatoes (Slaw met Aardappels, or Dutch Mess)


For this version of Dutch lettuce, originally given to the Pella Historical Village by Jo Harmeling & Jenny Messer (of Pella, I assume), you will need:

* lettuce (well duhhhhh. Fortunately the lettuce in my garden is literally exploding right now. I had lettuce. Lots of it).
* potatoes (had them. This does not seem to be a common thread running through all Dutch lettuce recipes)
* green onion or sweet onion, chopped (the Sterns' recipe calls for sweet onion; PHV's needs scallions instead. I picked up a bunch for a few bucks).
* hard boiled eggs (had them)
* bacon (both the bacon itself and the grease, which you will need below. Yes, I actually ran out of bacon, so I needed to buy some - $5 for a package at Harris Teeter)
* the dressing that you will make from the following: the aforementioned bacon grease, plus apple cider vinegar, one raw egg (yes, in addition to all the hard boiled ones), sugar, flour and butter (had them all)


Before making the dressing, prep your other components.


Wash the lettuce and chop or rip it up into medium or small pieces. The Sterns suggest a crispy lettuce like iceberg, but I settled for what was growing in my garden (which tastes better than iceberg lettuce anyway). Boil the potatoes till soft. You will smash them a little, or at least chop them up. It doesn't have to look perfect. Also boil your eggs so you will have them ready to put in your salad.

Next, make the sweet-and-sour dressing. This is actually the most tedious part, and I don't think I got it quite right.


First, melt the butter, and blend in a little flour, and then some water.


As you bring that to a boil, mix in a separate bowl your raw egg, sugar and apple cider vinegar. Add this to the pot and let it come back to a boil.


Next, fry (or cheat like I did and microwave) up the bacon. The recipe suggests you cut up the bacon before cooking it. Save the bacon grease. You will end up adding it to the dressing. I put all of mine into the pot, since I didn't really get that much bacon grease. Stir occasionally and keep it heated on the stove.

And it may or may not look like this.

Now to assemble the Dutch lettuce.


Start with a layer of potatoes.


Next, add some of your lettuce.


Then some sliced hard-boiled egg...


...some of the bacon...


...and a good amount of your dressing.


Finish it off with the rest of the potatoes, lettuce, eggs and bacon.

You are supposed to serve this up while the dressing is hot, though for leftovers, I just ate it all cold.


I have to say, my expectations were not very high for this salad. However, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The flavors and textures together made for an extremely hearty salad. This is no side salad we're talking about. With the eggs, potatoes, bacon and dressing over all that lettuce, this is a meal unto itself. It lasted me for several days. Though the dressing is, again, tedious to make, this is one salad I would be willing to try again. Dutch food is again redeemed!

We're not quite out of the Midwest yet. Somewhere nearby, just south of Nebraska, just west of Missouri, lies Kansas with its prairies, wheat fields and twisters. And I don't even have to go over any rainbows to get there. Y'hear me, Auntie Em? I'm comin' for you, express-style.

Sources:

Pella Historical Village. "Old Dutch Recipes - Pella Tulip Time". Copyright 2011 Pella Historical Village.

Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston, 2009.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Iowa" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Iowa".