Garden Fresh Feast

Everything on this plate was made from scratch and most of it came out of 

the Harrell Family Farm garden.

Creamed white field corn, cayenne pepper, better boy tomato,
Adirondack blue potato cake, cornbread hoe-cake, double-battered fried okra,
black-eye purple-hulled peas topped with home-canned chili sauce.

Tonight was the night of a garden feast. Patsye, my mother-in-law, and I got BUSY in the kitchen and this is how it went down. . .

Black-eyed Purple-hulled Peas 

I love peas. In the picture above you will notice that the black-eyed peas are topped with home-canned chili sauce. This is sort of like a sweet relish/salsa that we put on our peas and cornbread. It contains tomatoes, chilies, cayennes, onions, garlic, spices, and vinegar. All the ingredients are boiled down in a large pot until the mix is quite chunky. The mixture is then put into jars and stored for consumption and it is one of my very favorite foods to consume!  

Picked

Washed

Shelled

Cooked

Fried Foods!

Okay... so down in Mississippi we tend to fry a lot of foods... and it is delicious! So, I mentioned three fried foods - potato cakes, hoe-cakes, and double battered okra. I shall now explain each of these foods just in case you are from... let's say Michigan. 

Potato cakes! Or as my nephews call them - "tater cakes." Potato cakes are just something that I like to make with left-over mashed potatoes. My potato cakes are only purple because I grow Adirondack Blue potatoes. These potatoes are a deep purple and then become a lighter hazy purple when they are cooked. They have about the same taste and texture as Irish Red potatoes. So, simply mix the leftover mashed potatoes (which I made for lunch on Wednesday) with some onion and garlic powder, an egg, a few tablespoons of self-rising flour (the only kind of flour that Mississippi women think exists) and a splash of milk. Mix these ingredients to a medium thick consistency and FRY.

Hoe-cakes! The term 'hoe-cake' is a southern slang for fried cornbread. It is thought that this name came about because in the 'old days' field workers would make a paste from cornmeal and oil and fry it over hot coals on the flat metal surface of their hoe. Hmm... sounds like it might be gritty - with garden dirt. Anywho... my hoe-cakes are just a variation of cornbread that is fried in canola oil. This is such a simple and delicious recipe! Simply mix a scoop of white self-rising cornmeal with a dash of salt a spoonful of sugar and just enough milk to make a medium-thick batter. Heat about 1/4 (just enough to cover the bottom of a pan) of canola oil and add single spoonfuls of the batter. The batter will spread out and rise as it cooks so each hoe-cake is only one spoonful. Toss in pan and FRY!

Purple Potato Cakes made from Adirondack Blue Potatoes
Fried Cornbread Hoe-Cakes

Oh yum!

Double-battered Okra! There is a reason I say 'double-battered.' Most people just slice and toss their okra in a combination of flour, cornmeal, and salt and then fry it up. Ah, but there is a secret to making the BEST okra. After I coat my okra in a blend of salt, pepper, onion power, flour, and cornmeal... I bath them in an egg and milk mixture AND THEN I coat them in the flour and meal AGAIN! This makes the batter extra thick and also makes is stick to the okra. Okra that is only battered once tends to loose it's batter in the pan and then burn. So, you usually end up with a mess of burnt okra and burnt crumbles on the bottom. This okra is perfect every time. And yes, it is FRIED!

Double Battered Fried Okra

Fried Golden

Fresh Veggies

Ahhh... Fresh vegetables. I love anything fresh from the garden. On the Harrell Family Farm we eat fresh tomato slices with nearly every meal in the summer. This variety is called Better Boy. These tomatoes are fairly large and very sweet. This is the perfect 'sweet' to counter all the salty of any meal.

We also like to add a little spice to out meals. My father-in-law and I enjoy eating fresh cayenne peppers with our meals. At the beginning of the summer I eat all I can hold. They have such a fresh, green taste. However, as the summer progresses and the intensity of the summer heat increases, so does the intensity of the pepper! Hotter weather = hotter peppers. After the recent heat wave I only consumed one single cayenne with my dinner this evening.

Fresh picked Cayenne Peppers & Better Boy Tomatoes

After the table was all set it was time to feast. You may notice that a glass of sweet iced tea was being poured as the picture was taken. My mother-in-law and I prefer water with our meals, but Pop (my father-in-law) has to have sweet tea after a long day of picking peas and hauling manure. We wouldn't want that sugar to drop. Gotta keep that energy up! 

On the Dinner Table

"Heavenly Father, we thank You for the bounty You have laid before us. Bless this food to our bodies and our bodies to your service. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

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