Alabama’s Hot Summer Food by Ruth Paget
A meal of fried chicken, corn on the cob, cornbread, stewed collard greens with ham hock pieces, and iced tea is always welcome in Alabama, but cooks in summer there tend to do barbecue and cold foods to deal with the sweltering heat.
As the world grows hotter, some of Alabama’s traditional ways of dealing with extreme heat and humidity might be appealing to chefs in other parts of the country and world.
I thought the following recipes in Alabama Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker give a good picture of Alabama’s cool cuisine for beating summer heat:
-Crawfish cornbread – the sweet, cooked tails of the “crayfish” are chopped and added to the batter in this recipe. Jalapeño peppers, cream style corn, and cheddar cheese also go in this dish. This recipe qualifies as a simple man’s hidden luxury.
-Crawfish hushpuppies – “crayfish” hushpuppies made with chopped crawfish tails, onion, and buttermilk that are deep-fried balls of crunchy delight
-peach preserves – made simply with chopped peaches, sugar, and water by boiling and storing in hot jars. These are perfect on pancakes, French toast, waffles, and ice cream
-Creole eggs – a sauce made with onion, Andouille sausage, and Ro-tel tomatoes is poured over raw eggs in ramekins and baked.
-marinated slaw – this is just the thing to go with BBQ. It is made with shredded cabbage and chopped green bell pepper, onion, and celery with a vinegar and oil dressing. It is refrigerated overnight and served cold with BBQ.
-cranberry salad – set in cherry Jell-O with cranberries, celery, pecans, and chopped oranges
-orange gelatin salad – made with orange Jell-O, orange juice, cheddar cheese, crushed pineapple, mayonnaise, and evaporated milk
-grape salad – made with green and purple seedless grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla, and chopped pecans
-stewed collard greens with ham hocks – stew made with ham hocks and collard greens
-muffeletta sandwiches – Louisiana’s heat beater is a favorite in Alabama, too. It is made with a black and green olive salad, pickled Italian vegetables, ham slices, salami, Swiss cheese, and provolone cheese on deli rolls.
People who are looking for heat beater recipes can find many in the Alabama Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
