My memories of Southern food stem back to my childhood. From as far back as I can remember I remember long summer afternoons spent drinking iced tea and shelling peas and butterbeans on my grandmother\u2019s porch. I have moved on from my roots and have made my way into other regions of the world. One thing, however, that has remained constant in my life is my deep and abiding love for southern cooking and cuisine.<\/p>\n
I was probably well into my teen years before I realized that tea could be served any other way than loaded with sugar and over ice. It was about that same time that I realized some folks would eat vegetables that hadn\u2019t been soaked in batter, dredged in cornmeal, and deep fat fried. Southern cooking is not for the faint of heart though it can cause many hearts to grow faint. One thing that can be said is that you\u2019ll never find anything else like it on earth.<\/p>\n
People in the south learned to make do with little in many instances. Some of the poorest people in America live in the southern part of the country. Of course, you will find that many of these people despite their poverty are also among the most generous. The same can be said of food. It\u2019s the one thing that seems to be in ample supply in most southern homes and very few will turn you away with an empty stomach.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s the seasonings that are often used when cooking this types of dishes. From the crab boil and gumbo file of Cajun Cuisine to the secret ingredient that almost every southern kitchen contains for their fried chicken recipes (and no one on earth can fry chicken like a born and bred southern grandma). Perhaps it\u2019s the Sunday church dinners where everyone shares a little of what they have with others or the love that goes into preparing these meals that are shared with friends and family. Whatever the case may be, if you ever have the occasion to experience real southern cooking, do not pass it up. You might shave a day off your life, but a good southern fried chicken leg is really living and well worth the sacrifice if you ask me.<\/p>\n
Of course it would be remiss to mention southern cooking without bringing up some of the more delicious desserts that seem to be perfection for the south. I mentioned banana pudding above but there are so many more. Pralines are a perfect for those living down around New Orleans as is bread pudding. A little to the east there are grandma\u2019s who have taken their lemon icebox pie recipes to the grave with them so coveted were these delicious deserts and the same holds true for pecan pies as well. We should never forget the flavorful Mississippi Mud cake though, and so many other wonderfully delicious treats that southern cooking has introduced to the world at large.<\/p>\n
Favorite vegetables in the heart of the south as I mentioned above included peas and butterbeans, snap beans, corn, summer squash (after all, it\u2019s summer all year in the south), and okra (fried or boiled in many southern kitchens). Not all vegetables were deep fried though few were off limits. I remember eating my share of fried okra, fried squash, and yes, fried green tomatoes. Life was good back when calories weren\u2019t counted and no one really worried about clogging arteries. While I wouldn\u2019t make these a daily dish in any household, I certainly would recommend trying them out if you ever find the opportunity.<\/p>\n
Another great thing about southern cooking is the wonderful fried seafood that seems to abound. From fried fish (almost any variety works well when it\u2019s southern fried) to fried oysters, seafood just seems to taste so much better in the south. If you are hoping to learn some of the southern cooking and cuisine you will most likely need to order your spices and have them shipped unless your grocery store has a rather extensive \u2018exotic\u2019 foods selection. You can sometimes find great southern seasonings on the International food aisles in grocery stores as well. Do something special for your family and cook up a Southern storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cook up a Southern Storm My memories of Southern food stem back to my childhood. From as far back as I can remember I remember long summer afternoons spent drinking iced tea and shelling peas and butterbeans on my grandmother\u2019s porch. I have moved on from my roots and have made my way into other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[297,294,295,298,299,296],"yst_prominent_words":[292,281,278,206,283,300,293,202,282,287,288,284,196,290,280,277,279,285,286,291],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vegetariancompanion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}