Southern Cooking: Easy Recipes From The Past

Southern Cooking: Cornbread Recipe

2009-05-01T13:32:00.001-04:00

Southern Cornbread

2 Cups of buttermilk self-rising cornmeal mix
1/4 Cup of vegetable oil plus a little extra to oil pan with
2 Eggs
Milk
3 or 4 slices of cooked bacon crumbled or chopped
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 Onion
2 to 3 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 small can of cream style corn
Butter flavored cooking spray(optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Oil down the inside of a cast iron skillet (or any baking pan) with vegetable oil.
Put skillet in oven to preheat.
While the skillet is heating, put cornmeal mix into a bowl.
Add oil, eggs, cream corn, bacon, onion, sugar, salt and cheese.
Add milk last and stir to make a loose batter (not too thick).
Pour batter into hot skillet, spray the top with butter flavored cooking spray and bake until golden brown.

Once you try this recipe you will agree that simple is better. It may not be one of your favorite healthy eating recipes, but it is a treat. The taste of this cornbread has southern cooking written all over it. It is a meal in itself.

Comfort Food: Southern Cooking Cinnamon Rolls

2009-01-18T14:22:00.005-05:00

Here's another good cold day southern recipe from Southern Cooking. Hot fresh cinnamon rolls. This recipe may be a little more complicated than the others and it helps if you already know how to make bread. I'll make it as simple as possible.

Dough:
Plain Flour
1 stick of butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
about 4 Tbs. sugar
1 Tsp. salt
1 Pkg. yeast
1 egg
oil

Put the stick of butter or margarine, the 1/2 cup of water and the 1/2 cup of milk into a bowl and microwave until the butter is soft but not completely melted. The liquid should be warm but not hot.
Add yeast to the warm mixture and stir. Add sugar and salt and stir. Add about a cup of plain flour and mix. You should notice the yeast starting to act. Add the egg and mix. Add more flour as needed and mix until the dough forms into a ball in the middle of the bowl. Remove the ball of dough onto a floured board or counter top and knead for a minute or two. Wash and dry the bowl and add about 2 Tbs. of oil to the bottom. Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl and flip it over to coat with oil. Place a dish towel over the bowl and wait for the dough to rise (about an hour) in a warm kitchen. Clean off the board or counter top and spray with cooking spray.

Filling:
Cooking spray
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Cinnamon
After the dough has risen to about double it's size place back onto the oiled board and knead again for a minute. Spray your hands with cooking spray and form the dough into a 12 inch by fifteen inch rectangle. Soften the 1/2 stick of butter or margarine and spread it evenly over the dough. Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon onto the buttered dough. Spread the brown sugar evenly onto the dough. Add the nuts and raisins to the dough rectangle. Starting from the 15 inch side of the rectangle, roll up the dough into a 15 inch roll. With an oiled knife, cut into 1 1/2 inch rolls and place on an oiled baking pan. Let the rolls rise for about an hour and place the pan into a 400 degree oven until the tops are light brown. Remove and allow to cool a bit.

Icing:
About 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1-2 Tbs. milk
1 Tsp. vanilla

Put the powdered sugar into a small round bowl. Add vanilla. Add milk, a very small amount at a time (so as not to make the icing too runny). Mix until the consistency of cake frosting. Add more milk or sugar if needed.
While the rolls are still warm but not hot, put about a Tbs. of icing on top of each one and spread with a spoon.
These southern cooking cinnamon rolls are good on a cold day.

Cold Weather Comfort Food: Southern Oyster Stew

2009-01-15T14:50:00.003-05:00

It doesn't get cold in Southwest Florida that often, but when it does, it cuts to the bone with the sea breeze and humidity. As I was growing up, my mother made this oyster stew recipe on cold days. We used to go to our favorite spot on the Gulf Coast and pick the oysters out of the water, take them home and shuck them and put them into jars. This is another easy comfort food recipe for cold days.

1 Pint oysters (Fresh or store bought)
1 Stick of real butter
Whole Milk
Salt
Pepper
Oyster crackers

Melt butter in a large sauce pan. Saute all of the oysters with the oyster liquor in the butter until oysters are firm. Turn down the heat. Here is the important part. Adjust the heat so that the stew will not boil, that could curdle the milk and ruin the stew. Add the milk, a quart to half gallon. The quantity of milk added should be your discretion depending on how many oysters you're using and how many people you are serving. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer, but do not boil. Once the stew is thoroughly heated remove from stove. Serve in bowls with oyster crackers or saltines. Add a few drops of hot sauce if desired.
The perfect southern comfort food for a cold day.

Southern Cooking: Sausage Cornbread Stuffing

2008-10-17T12:44:00.009-04:00

I learned this Southern Sausage Cornbread recipe from my mother which was passed down from her family in North Eastern Georgia. This is guaranteed to give you a fat belly. We had this stuffing at every traditional Thanksgiving dinner while I was growing up. With the sausage added, it is a meal in itself. A very unique and different stuffing, it can also be used for stuffed chicken. Again, I use approximations and not precise measures.

1 lb. Ground breakfast sausage
1 Pan plain cornbread
3-4 Hard boiled eggs
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 whole onion
1 bell pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
Butter to Saute

Crumble and brown sausage, drain and put into a bowl. Crumble up cornbread by hand and add to sausage in bowl. Chop boiled eggs and add to sausage and cornbread mixture. Finely chop onion and pepper, saute in butter and add to mixture. Empty can of cream of chicken soup into mixture. Add salt and pepper. Mix ingredients well by hand. Stuff into turkey or chicken and bake. If you have extra stuffing, you can put it into a casserole dish and bake, or use later in your favorite pork chop recipes for delicious stuffed pork chops.

Southern Cooking: Mustard Potato Salad

2008-08-05T10:34:00.005-04:00

The secret to this "Mustard style" southern potato salad is in the way that you cook the potato's. Most people peel and slice the potato's first and boil them in water. That can cause the potato's to overcook and become mushy and collapse while mixing the other ingredients. I boil the potato's whole along with the eggs. This way, they remain firm and have more of a potato taste that doesn't get washed away by the water.
4 medium size whole potato's
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 med size pickle sweet or sour
1/2 tomato diced
2 stalks celery finely chopped
3 eggs
about 1/2 cup mayonnaise
about 1 Tbs. prepared mustard
salt, pepper and paprika

Wash the whole potato's and put them in a pot with the eggs. Cover with water. Put the pot on the stove at high temp until it starts to boil then turn to med high heat. Check the potato's by inserting a fork into one. When the fork can go about 1/3 of the way into the potato easily they are done.
Remove from heat, empty the hot water and refill with cold water. You can use ice if you want. When the potato's and eggs are completely cool you are ready to put the salad together. Peel the potato's one at a time by scraping the sides with the side of a fork. The peels will easily fall off. Peel the eggs and wash. Chop the potato's into large chunks and place into a bowl. Slice the eggs and place into the bowl. Add the onion, pickle, tomato, celery, Mayo, mustard, and salt and pepper. Mix well and sprinkle the top with paprika. Refrigerate. This southern potato salad is best served cold so that the flavors can mix well.

Southern Cooking: Cheesy Potato's

2008-07-22T17:14:00.006-04:00

You can experiment with this southern recipe by adding bacon, celery or anything else that you think might be good. You can also substitute cooked macaroni for the potato's for a delicious macaroni and cheese dish.

4 medium potato's peeled and cubed
About 1/4 cup plain flour
2 Tbsp butter
2 1/2 to 3 cups milk
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Salt
Boil cubed potato's until partially done and place in a dish for casserole recipes or metal pan.
Melt butter in a small pot at high heat stirring with a wire whisk. Add flour to melted butter stirring constantly to make a roux. Add milk to the roux, whisking constantly at high heat until if forms into a thick white sauce. Remove from heat.
Add grated cheese to the hot white sauce stirring with whisk until smooth. Add salt to taste.
Pour cheese sauce over partially cooked potato cubes, mixing the cheese sauce into the potato's. Place potato cheese casserole into 400 degree oven for about thirty minutes or until the top begins to brown. Remove from oven and let cool, it will be very hot. As I said above, you can also use cooked macaroni in place of potato's for a favorite southern side dish.

Southern Cooking: Hash Browns

2008-07-13T18:17:00.013-04:00

You can make these hash browns one of two ways. With pre-cooked potato's or raw grated potato's. I like both recipes and will explain how I make them with raw potato's.
2 medium potato's peeled
1/2 small onion finely chopped
2 Tbsp plain flour
A little milk, 1/4 cup maybe
Salt and pepper

Grate the potato's with a cheese grater and place into a bowl. Add the chopped onion, flour, milk and salt and pepper. Mix well until it forms into a batter. Spray down a hot griddle with cooking spray (or spread vegetable oil on the griddle). Empty the batter onto the griddle and spread evenly into a layer 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. Let cook at medium temperature until the bottom starts to brown. It could take longer then you think, just keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn. When ready to flip, cut the batter into four squares with the tip of a metal spatula and flip one square at a time. Brown the other side until done.
These are delicious hash browns and you have to try them to believe it. I will be worth it to have this southern breakfast or dinner side dish.

Southern Cooking: Ground Beef With Onions Grits And Gravy

2008-07-08T12:19:00.008-04:00

About one Lb. ground beef
1 med. onion chopped very fine (or substitute instant dry minced onion)
1 pot of hot grits (about four or five servings)
2 beef bullion cubes
2 Tbsp. flour

You can make anything with ground beef, from meat loaf to hamburger goulash. This is a very cheap, easy and delicious meal. It could be called an American southern cooking version of shepherds pie.
Brown the ground beef with onion and drain, saving about 1/2 cup of drippings.
Season with salt and pepper. Put the meat drippings into a small pan over high heat. Add the bullion cubes and flour. Stir or whisk until dissolved. Immediately add one cup of water and continue stirring until thickened. Add gravy to browned hamburger and onion and mix. Serve over southern hot grits with a green side dish.

Southern Cooking: Ham And Beans

2008-07-01T20:57:00.013-04:00

Another southern favorite. Here's a good southern cooking method of how to cook ham with beans. We will use a one pound bag of dry large lima beans and cook them slow(about five hours) in a slow cooker or rival crock pot.

1 Lb. bag large dry lima beans
1 med size ham steak
1/2 med onion
salt(to taste)
pepper(to taste)
granulated garlic(to taste)
Dice ham steak into small pieces trimming away excess fat. Place into cooker. Pour 1pound bag of beans into cooker. Add water to about two inches above ham and beans and stir. Place lid on pot and let cook slow for about four hours stirring occasionally. After four hours of cooking add chopped onion, salt, pepper and garlic. Let cook another hour until beans are tender and a smooth broth has formed. Serve with my cornbread recipe.

Tip for people with gas: Add 1 Tbsp. baking soda to beans during the last hour of cooking. They will foam up for awhile but will settle back down. This trick reduces the likelihood of getting gas from this classical (gassy) southern meal.

Southern Cooking: Flour-less Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies And Brownies

2008-07-01T20:25:00.012-04:00

These are the easiest and best tasting southern cooking peanut butter cookies or peanut butter biscuits you will ever bake. One of my favorite cookie recipes. A good way to ruin your diet. Set the oven between 250 and 350 degrees. Keep an eye on these cookies because they can burn easily.

1 cup peanut butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup whole dry roasted peanuts
3/4 cup chocolate morsels
Spray cookie sheet with butter flavor cooking spray. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix with a large spoon. Form "dough" into about twelve balls and place on cookie sheet leaving enough room to separate. Mash each ball with a wet fork to shape a cookie. Place in oven and bake as directed above.

BROWNIES

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup powdered cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chopped nuts: walnuts, pecans, roasted peanuts or cashews
3/4 cup chocolate morsels
Stir melted butter and sugar into a bowl. add eggs and mix well. Combine the rest of the ingredients into mix adding the nuts and chocolate morsels last. Spray a 9 inch square or round baking pan with butter flavor cooking spray. Add brownie mixture. Shake pan to distribute evenly. Bake at 350 degrees. Southern style brownies.

How To Make Southern Fried Chicken With Gravy

2008-06-30T14:14:00.015-04:00

The secret to perfect fried chicken isn't necessarily in the breading or the "Eleven herbs and spices". The secret to great fried chicken is in the method and skill of the person cooking the chicken.
There are four ways to cook fried chicken. Pan fry, deep fry, pressure fry and oven fry. I will explain how I pan fry chicken in a cast iron skillet. There are plenty of fancy recipes out there using egg wash, milk, honey and other ingredients that make the crust easy to burn if you don't know what you're doing. I use plain flour and some breadcrumbs.
You must keep an eye on the temperature of the oil at all times. This is where people screw up and burn the coating. The chicken has to cook slow at a moderate temperature. Find the Right setting on the stove and leave it there. After adding the oil to the pan, I set the temp to medium high. After the oil begins to heat up I turn it down to medium. If the oil splatters, it is too hot. Great with Iced Tea.

About two cups plain flour
1 cup bread crumbs
3 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 whole chicken/ 8 pieces

Put all of the dry ingredients in a plastic bag and shake well to mix.
Prepare cast iron skillet and oil as described above. Wash the chicken pieces. Shake off excess water and place four pieces into bag with breading. Shake well. Remove breaded chicken and shake off excess breading. Repeat with the other four pieces. Put used breading aside. Check the oil again for med to med high temp. When oil is ready, place four pieces into pan. Some people cover the pan but I don't. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, the blood coming from the chicken should be changing in color from red to brown. Turn the chicken over. Fry about another fifteen minutes until you notice "splitting" in the chicken particularly the drumsticks. The chicken is done. If the chicken breast pieces are large, you may have to let them fry a little longer than the other pieces. Be careful not to burn the crust.

Chicken Gravy:
Pour the hot oil out of the skillet leaving about 1/2 cup and breading particles in the bottom of the pan. Add 1 chicken bullion cube to remaining oil in the pan. Add about three to four Tbsp of the breading that you put aside earlier. Using a wire whisk or large spoon return to high heat and stir until breading and bullion are melted. Immediately add one to two cups of water. Stir constantly until thickened. Serve with your favorite mashed potatoes recipe.

Southern Cooking: Fried Mullet: Cheese Grits: Pork & Beans And Hush puppies

2008-06-25T20:37:00.017-04:00

Often called "poor peoples food" down in southern Florida, this fish fry recipe dates from the great depression and further back. The only modification that I made was to add cheese to the grits, but who knows, they may have put cheese in their grits if they could find it or afford it.
The mullet are plentiful on the Gulf Coast of Florida so all you have to do is catch them. Grits, corn meal and flour are staples that even the poorest people could get. And a can of pork & Beans don't cost so much. Hence "poor peoples food".
For you folks who think that Mullet is a bait fish or some kind of throw away inedible fish then you're fooling yourself because you have never tried it. They can grow as large as one and a half feet long. Their roe is shipped to Asia as a Caviar. They are often smoked. If you don't know how to prepare smoked fish, I will post that recipe later. If you can't find any Mullet, Catfish fillets will do

Preparation: Cut a medium onion in half. Dice one half and chop the other half as fine as possible. Keep them separate and set aside.
Get a small pot of grits started on the stove, four or five servings worth maybe. Add a couple of Tbsps. of butter and a little salt. When done, cover and set aside.
Empty a can of pork & beans into a pot and start heating on low. Add the "diced" half of the onion to the beans. Stir and let them cook.

Hush Puppy mix:
1 1/2 cups corn meal
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 finely chopped onion (the other half, see above)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Warm water
Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir in warm water a little at a time. Try not to make the batter too thin. Mix by hand until thick enough to pick up a wet ball with a tablespoon. Set aside.

Cheese Grits:
After the grits are done, add a raw egg to the hot grits and stir briskly. Add a cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the hot grits and egg. Continue stirring until the grits change from white in color to yellow. Add more cheese if needed.

Fried Mullet:
Preheat some oil in a cast iron skillet. Just warm it up (not too hot).
Six skinless Mullet fillets
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
1 cup milk
Pour the milk into a shallow pan and place the fish into the milk (enough to coat them). Mix together the corn meal, flour, salt and pepper on a flat surface. Check the pork & beans, they should be done by now. Bread the fillets one at a time in the cornmeal mixture and set aside. Turn the stove up under the heating oil to about medium high. Place the fillets in the hot oil and fry. You can probably do the rest own your own. Once the fish are all cooked, re-stir the bowl of hush puppy mix. Drop gobs of hush puppies into the hot oil with a table spoon. Fry until done. Serve the mullet with tarter sauce or squeezed lemon juice.

These are the kinds of meals that my father had as a child during the depression. Food was plentiful in Florida. I still love fish and grits cooked any style today.
Fish and grits are a southern recipe tradition.

How To Make Southern Style Collard Greens

2008-06-24T20:28:00.013-04:00

This is an easy southern style recipe that actually requires more preparation then anything else. I learned it from my mother, who learned it from my grandmother. I made my own modification by adding chopped ham into the greens.
It seems like all of the collard green recipes that I see either call for ham hocks, smoked turkey leg or bacon as a seasoning. I use lean ham instead.

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of collard greens
About 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 Cup sugar
A little bit of salt
1 Small or medium ham steak/ finely diced into very small cubes

Tear the collard green leaves from the thick middle stems and put them in a sink full of water. Throw the stems away. Drain the sink. Take the greens a handful at a time and put them on a cutting board. Roll up a handful at a time and with a large sharp knife begin cutting them into strips. Once the greens are all sliced, make a big pile on the cutting board and chop them (not too small). Refill the sink with water and submerge the chopped greens into the water. Drain the sink.
Transfer the greens from the sink into a slow cooker or large stove pot. Add about a cup of water(you don't need much water because the greens extract their own juices). Add the 1/2 cup of sugar the vegetable oil and the diced ham.
If you are using a slow cooker, set it on high. If using the stove, set it to medium-low. Cover the pot and wait for the aroma to fill the room. Stir the greens as they begin to slow boil and wilt. Add a little salt if needed for flavor as the greens cook. Turn down the heat if they seem to boil too fast. It should take about two hours for the best southern style collard greens you ever had. Serve sprinkled with pepper sauce or vinegar and peppers.

Privacy Policy

2008-06-22T12:45:00.004-04:00

Updated April 2009

This website/blog uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when visiting this site. These third parties may collect and use information (but not your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can visit Google's Advertising and Privacy page.

If you wish to opt out of Advertising companies tracking and tailoring advertisements to your surfing patterns you may do so at Network Advertising Initiative.

Google uses the Doubleclick DART cookie to serve ads across it's Adsense network and you can get further information regarding the DART cookie at Doubleclick as well as opt out options at Google's Privacy Center

I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at this site southerncookingeasyrecipes.com. The following discloses how I gather and disseminate information for this Blog.

RSS Feeds

If a user wishes to subscribe to my RSS Feeds (powered by Feedburner), I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Users may opt-out of these communications at any time. Your personal information will never be sold or given to a third party. (You will never be spammed by me - ever)

Log Files and Stats

Like most blogging platforms I use log files, in this case Statcounter. This stores information such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring, exit and visited pages, platform used, date/time stamp, track user’s movement in the whole, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This blog doesn't use cookies. However, some of my business partners use cookies on this site (for example - advertisers). I can't access or control these cookies once the advertisers have set them.

Links

This Blog contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. I suggest my users to be aware of this when they leave this blog and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Blog.

Advertisers

I use outside ad companies to display ads on this blog. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the advertising companies and I do not have access to this information. I work with the following advertising companies: Google Adsense. Please check the advertisers websites for respective privacy policies.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ben Willis at bwillismusic@gmail.com