"Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America."

Reposted March 20, 2019, for OLD WAYS Oldways is a nonprofit organization helping people rediscover and embrace the healthy, sustainable joys of the "old ways" of shared cultural traditions.

Jessica Harris

Jessica Harris is one of my favorite cookbook authors when I try out recipes for the first time. Although I am profiling her during Women's History Month, I praise and honor Jessica B. Harris because she is "Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America." She gives you the recipe and gives you knowledge in her narratives.

Educator and culinary historian Jessica Harris is the author of twelve cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora. Her most recent book is High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. In addition, she has written extensively about the culture of Africa in the Americas, lectured widely, and made numerous television appearances.

 High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. 

Jessica holds a Ph.D. from NYU and is an English professor at Queens College, CUNY. In addition, she consults at Dillard University in New Orleans, where she founded the Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. Harris is a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, IACP, and Les Dames d'Escoffier. 

Her articles have appeared in Eating Well, Food &; Wine, Essence, and The New Yorker, among other publications, and she has been profiled in The New York Times. In addition, Harris has spoken about the food of African Americans on The Today Show, and Good Morning America, and at the Museum of Natural History, and has been a frequent guest at Philadelphia's The Book and the Cook. 

In 2004, Harris was awarded the Jack Daniel's Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also recently inducted into the James Beard Foundation's prestigious Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. To learn more about Jessica, go to www.africooks.com.

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WORKIN' ROOTS: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A SHARED ORAL HISTORY

Reposted March 20, 2019, original interview by Gabrielle Etienne March 22, 2018

WORKIN' ROOTS: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A SHARED ORAL HISTORY

A friend of mine who was born and raised on Sapelo Island, in a lush and self-sufficient Gullah community they call “Hog Hammock,” once shared something with me I will never forget. He said the old folks used to say: “You don’t plant anything in the ground until you see the pecan trees bloom.” I asked why the pecan tree and his response was, “it’s one of the oldest and wisest, and it knows when the season’s last frost has hit.”

   

 Dr. Jessica B. Harris discusses the sharing of agricultural knowledge and the complicated culinary implications of the African Diaspora

This wasn’t something he learned in school; it was something he learned from his father, and his father from his father, all by word of mouth. When I think back to the fullness of their citrus trees, weighed down and overflowing with fruit, or to their ability to not only maintain their abundant crops but to share them with others, I started to consider this as fact over folklore.

This all makes me wonder how many other things go unwritten and are eventually lost. Recipes, traditions, names, and full histories can be at risk of becoming null and void until someone takes notice and gives them life for another generation. In Mali, the Griots were the storytellers that shared the land’s history. They were advisors to the king, and they memorized all of a village's significant events—births, death, marriages, seasons, wars—ensuring that the collective culture and lineage of each clan continued. This oral inheritance has been a way of life throughout the African Diaspora for centuries, but who are the storytellers now?

I recently sat down with Dr. Jessica B. Harris, one of these modern storytellers, to discuss our vast, interesting, and colorful history. But that rich color isn’t without pain too, and we also discussed some of the stigmas caught in the misunderstanding of our history. Over a glass of wine, I gifted her some okra seeds in a small silk pouch collected from my family’s garden and soon-to-be homestead in North Carolina. We both took a sip and deeply breathed into my first question:

You made the statement once that African-Americans might be the only people that demonize their own food. What exactly did you mean by that?

Our traditional food comes out of our history, and when I say “our,” I’m talking about "up from the south" African-Americans, who are here not as immigrants but as a result of enslavement. It’s not all of us that demonize our food (I don’t think you do, that’s why you gave me those okra seeds, and I don’t think I do, which is why I’ve got okra on the front of my business card and watermelon on the back) but we often demonize our food, I think, because ours is such a difficult and torturous history.

Because it involves unspeakable pain. Because it involves us making the best of stuff that was not even given to us but thrown at us. It's an easy thing to say, “that's not my food, I don't eat pig's feet.” But the reality is if somebody hadn't eaten that then, we wouldn't be here today. So, we at least need to honor the journey that they had to take and acknowledge that we stand on their shoulders. I am not here to be an advocate for chitlins, but we do have to acknowledge that that's the food that enabled survival then. That food enabled me to be here and eat lamb chops, or for someone to be vegan.

That's the stuff that allowed it to happen, and we should not demonize it.

Game Night Theme Taco Bar

Game Night Theme Taco Bar

Host: Chiquita Lewis is the owner of Yail's Garden

Here at the Phantom Gallery Chicago Loft, we must go all in to make it feel like "Family Game Night" while catering to a new audience of folks having a first-time experience at the gallery.  

The House DJ was the vintage radio cabinet that artist Roger Carter's converted into a sound system, speaker, and blue tooth adapter. Cool and made the perfect sound of a house DJ.

Games played were DOS, Phase 10, Name 5, Can You Name 5? It was a sound mixer, and Chiquita, who never gives herself a birthday party, was treated to Sugar Girl Infused Cookie Bits, which she said is very trendy and in with her guests.

Menu: Jerk Taco Bar & Toppings with a twist of the islands.

Appetizers Street style mini Jerk Tacos, Tortilla Chips & Salsa

Jerk Tacos Bar Topping:

Ground beef in jerk sauce, add seasoning to taste while cooking the ground beef, pour off excess grease.  Warm-up Refried Beans, thin with 1/4 cup of salsa, grill the flour or corn tortilla shells, and melt the cheese before adding the meat and or refried beans.

Condiments:

Grated cheese, Pickled jalapenos, Mild Salsa, Guacamole, Lemon Chile

Lemon and Lime wedges

PUNCH with a Punch 

Fruit Rum Punch: red oranges, pineapple, lemon wedges, lime wedges, red grapes, white grapes

Fruit Tequila Punch: oranges, pineapple, lemon wedges, lime wedges.

Sugar Girl Infused Cookie Bits

This is what you serve when you have young adults with a frugal budget and want the affair to seem like it has endless food. That's why we decided to do a taco bar, serve a refreshing drink that seemed to have unlimited pours without a bartender, or budtender, or catering service doing all the work. 

Sunday Dinner with Airbnb South Side Passport

There is nothing like planning for Sunday dinner, especially when the guest has just attended worship services and bypassed their own home to come to my home just to meet. Sundays are reserved for family, resting, and getting ready for the workweek.  So, this Sunday, I made an entire course dinner, starting with appetizers and dessert for a special friend who does so much in her community. She is planning a reception and fundraiser to support the Wakanda Conference in July, held here in the Bronzeville Art District.

Guest: Suzetta Whittaker is the co-chair of Airbnb Chicago Southside Passport. She is an active host and business owner of Airbnb and one of the group's founders. She coordinates events and gatherings for the Airbnb owners on the Southside of Chicago. The members meet to discuss policies and support each other's business endeavors in a social environment.

Menu

Appetizer:

Lemon, cucumber, lemon, mint water

Stuffed Hawaiian Bread with Artichoke Jalapeno Dip

Spring Mix Salad with Tomato Basil Dressing, pecan, cranberry

Meal: Smothered Rotisserie Chicken, 

Low sodium Mashed Potatoes

Grilled asparagus

Sparkling White Grape Party Punch

Dessert: Lemon Merage pie

Women's history month I'm celebrating my friends by pulling out all the stops when preparing simple Sunday dinners and asking them to join me for a one-on-one experience.

Let’s all agree that it’s nothing like coming home to a fully prepared meal, starting with appetizers and ending with dessert.

Lemon, cucumber, lemon, mint water

1 cucumber
1 lemon
2 limes
1 bunch of mint
Slice them all and divide the ingredients between four 24 oz. Water bottles and fill them up with filtered water. Drink daily. Not only does this taste delicious and help flush fat, but it also counts toward your daily water intake!

Lemons: Help absorb sugars and calcium and reduce your cravings for sweets.

Cucumbers act as a diuretic and flush fat cells. In addition, it is alkalizing to the body (if you have an alkaline body, no diseases can live there) and increase your energy levels.

Limes promote a healthy digestive tract.

Mint is a natural appetite suppressant that also aids in digestion.

Hot  Artichoke Dip in a Bread Bowl

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1/4 cup mayo
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 15 oz can quarter artichokes chopped and drained
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 KING'S HAWAIIAN® sweet round bread

Instructions from scratch- I used a premade dip omitting all the hard work.
Chop artichokes into small pieces and place them into a large bowl.

Microwave cream cheese in a microwave-safe bowl for 1 minute.
Mix cream cheese, yogurt, mayo, garlic, grated parmesan cheese, and salt.
Add cheese mixture to bowl with veggies and mix together until well combined.
You can cut the middle section out of the bread bowl, leaving a small layer of bread on the bottom so the mixture doesn't leak through.

Could you add the mixture to the center of the bread bowl? Top with shredded parmesan cheese.
Wrap bread bowl sides with aluminum foil (leaving the dip portion uncovered).
Broil in the oven for 1 minute or until cheese is browned and gooey.
Remove from oven and serve with cubed KING'S HAWAIIAN® sweet round bread that you cut out of the middle of the bread bowl earlier.1 jar (6-1/2 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped.

Grilled Asparagus

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cook garlic in butter for a minute, but do not brown. Add asparagus, and cook for 10 minutes, turning the asparagus to ensure even cooking. (I used spray-on olive oil, didn't use the butter, added sea salt to season, and used my grill skillet to make the grill marks on the asparagus.)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
1 pound fresh asparagus spears, trimmed

Smothered Rotisserie Chicken

After trying a similar chicken dish in a restaurant, I re-created it home. I used a rotisserie chicken, to begin with. Then, I used some oxtail broth I had saved, red salsa, jalapeno peppers, and red onions. This savory dish comes together in no time and uses the ingredients I usually have. And since it cooks in one skillet, it's a cinch to clean up!

 But if you are one of those who need to do it from scratch, here is the recipe.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup 2% milk
8 bone-in chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), skin removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
2 cans (8 ounces each) of tomato sauce
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin

In the same skillet, sauté onion and jalapenos until tender. Add the tomato sauce, water, and spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or thickened, stirring occasionally. Pour over chicken and serve on a bed of mashed potatoes.

Sparkling White Grape Punch 

This classy Sparkling White Grape Punch Recipe will be perfect for your next dinner party!

Ingredients
1 bottle (64 ounces) of sparkling white grape juice, chilled.
1-1/2 cups of S. Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water
2 liters lemon-lime juice, chilled.
Cane Sugar to taste
Seedless red or green grapes are optional.

Ingredients- to give it a kick,
1 pint of Moscato White Wine
2 liters Ginger Ale, chilled
64 ounces White Grape Juice, chilled

1-1/2 cups white cranberry juice, chilled.

Oxtails, Cabbage, Cornbread- for Saint Paddy's Day

Oxtails, Cabbage, Cornbread- for Saint Paddy's Day Sunday Dinner 2019. I just had a taste for a slow cooker oxtail stew for the weekend. The most effortless way to enjoy hearty oxtail stew or soup for dinner involves tossing all the ingredients into a slow cooker after breakfast then coming back eight to 10 hours later to a complete hot meal.

Oxtails, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, over Aunt Martha's Cornbread

Oxtails Guyana one morning my friend June Bobb called to say that her husband Robert, had purchased some oxtails, which she despised, and we pondered over the telephone how to prepare them so that she and Kamau, her son, would be able to eat them with as much relish as her husband did. The result: Oxtails Guyana. The recipe takes the traditional ingredients of that country and adds a Gallie Fillip of red wine. The result was deemed a success by all. Jessica B. Harris

 2 pounds oxtails
1/2 cup cider vinegar (Trust me here if it says 1/2 cup, don't use more, it will ruin the entire dish)
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon of corn oil ( I used olive oil extra virgin)
1 cup red wine
2 large tomatoes, chopped (I used roasted tomatoes and olive)
1 bay leave
salt to taste
1 tablespoon cassareep (optional the juice of a boiled down shredded cassata flavored with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and other ingredients used in Guyana stews)
4 medium-sized carrots, scraped and diced ( not a fan of boiled carrots)
3 large potatoes, chopped ( I used small gourmet red potatoes)

Jessica says to wash the oxtails with vinegar and place them in a pressure cooker or crockpot. Now here in this recipe, it doesn't say to pour off the vinegar or stew it with the oxtails. I over poured like two cups of vinegar, and then didn't pour off the marinade, but slow-cooked it overnight in the vinegar, onions, and garlic. In the middle of the night,  I removed the oxtails, from the pot and put in the refrigerator, so that the excess grease from the meat would rise to the top and solidify. And also I can save this for another soup. Then I rinsed the oxtails because of vinegary and poured off all but two cups of the liquid from the marinade. (Trying to correct the mistake)

Next, place the oxtails in a skillet with the onion, garlic, and corn oil and cook over medium heat until the onion and garlic are browned.  I flour-coated the meat before putting it into fat to make the base for gravy and put it back into the crockpot to finish stewing with potatoes, sundried tomatoes, and olives. Seasoning to taste.  Cook until tender.

In an article for the "Los Angeles Times," food writer Merle Ellis describes the culinary history of oxtails. In pioneer days, oxen were used primarily as beasts of burden and only slaughtered for their meat after no longer working. That's when people made two discoveries: Oxtails were not only delicious but tasted even better when the male oxen they'd been attached to were castrated -- steers. So even though oxtails now come from cattle, not necessarily males, the name stuck. In the Caribbean, oxtail stew occupies pride of place as a down-home classic. According to cookbook author Jessica B. Harris, the theory is that oxtails were considered throwaway meat given to slaves after the masters had butchered the most desirable cuts for themselves.

If you like beef on the bone but haven't tried oxtails, you don't know what you're missing. Unrivaled for a richness of flavor, oxtails figure in the culinary traditions of many countries, including the UK, Italy, the Caribbean, and throughout Asia. They can be a challenge to find in North American supermarkets; if your local one doesn't carry them, try butchers or grocery stores catering to a West Indian clientele. Tenderizing this tough meat requires lengthy cooking times, but your presence isn't necessarily needed throughout the process.

Traditional Jamaican Oxtails

Oxtails simmered with beans is a traditional Jamaican dish. The recipe can take between four and five hours to cook, but the result is well worth the wait. Oxtails contain 54 percent protein, and one serving of broad beans includes 1 percent of the daily doses of vitamins A and C and 7 percent and 14 percent of your daily calcium and iron, respectively. There are many recipes to choose from, but most are variations.

1. Prep and chop the scallion, garlic, scotch bonnet pepper, onion, thyme, tomatoes, and carrots. Don't chop them too small. Blanch the broad beans in boiling water for approximately 30 seconds. Put them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Their waxy coatings will slip off. Set the clean beans aside.
2. Season the oxtails with garlic, scallion, scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, allspice, salt, and pepper.
3. Add one tbsp. Of oil to a pan and fry the seasoned oxtails for about 10 minutes. Add the water and stir in the chopped carrot, onion, and tomatoes. Turn down the heat and simmer for about three hours. Stir occasionally.
4. Once the oxtails are tender, add the beans. Simmer for another 30 minutes. Finally, your Jamaican-style oxtails with beans are ready. 

Tip
You can serve it with Jamaican rice and peas, just white rice, or potatoes. If you want the dish to be more healthy, trim the excess fat from the oxtails before seasoning. Add Tabasco to the seasoning for a more profound taste.

I served my oxtails with homemade Aunt Martha's Cornbread.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk OR 1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil
2 cups Martha White® Self-Rising Enriched White Corn Meal Mix OR 2 cups Martha White® Self-Rising Enriched White Buttermilk Corn Meal Mix

Preparation Directions
HEAT oven to 450ºF. Spoon shortening into an 8-inch ovenproof skillet or 8-inch square or round baking pan. Place in oven to heat for about 5 minutes.
WHISK egg in a medium bowl. Stir in buttermilk, oil, and cornmeal mix until smooth. The batter should be creamy and pourable. If too thick, add 1 to 2 tablespoons additional buttermilk. Carefully tilt the skillet to coat the bottom with shortening. Pour batter into the skillet.
BAKE 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
SELF-RISING CORN MEAL VARIATION: Prepare as directed above but substitute self-rising cornmeal for self-rising cornmeal mix and increase buttermilk to 1 3/4 cups or if using milk to 1 1/2 cups.

Steamed Cabbage:

Cabbage is another one of those dishes you have to cook just right for folks to enjoy. I used Braided Cabbage (United States) from Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons by Jessica B. Harris.

1 small head green cabbage

2 tablespoons bacon drippings (I used olive oil)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 tablespoons of water.