On Hushpuppies, Yankees and Terrorists

The picture to the left was taken along the Appalachian Trail in late Spring. somewhere between Northern Virginia and Southern PA. I'm in need of a hiking trip. I had to postpone my trip west till the fall which makes me sad.

I continued my quest to bring culture above the Mason/Dixon line. Last night I fixed dinner for about 20 certified Yankees. These folks got treated to my barbecue (which implies pork when you’re from North Carolina), coleslaw, hushpuppies, roasted spiced potatoes (not really a southern thing, but what the heck) and plenty of ice tea (here too I don't follow the ways of the south for I hate sweeten tea). It was mostly an all afternoon affair. I had about 10 pounds of lean pork that I started cooking at about 10 AM. It was cooked in my own sauce (vinegar based, which is assumed when your from Eastern North Carolina). The meat was covered with the sauce and placed in a slow cooker and left alone. At 6 PM, about thirty minutes before serving, I took the meat out, discarded the sauce (and fat), chopped the meat and added fresh sauce to it and it was ready to be served.

Before before that, I made the coleslaw (the kind you use Miracle Whip and salad cubes and a pinch of sugar and some celery seeds to make folks think I’m uptown). Then I washed and diced the potatoes. In a plastic bag, I mixed some olive oil and a host of spices and seasonings and put the potatoes in and mixed it all together before laying out on a pan to roast. The last thing I made were the hushpuppies--I taught a few of them how to cook 'em. Every time I’ve fixed them for Yankees, they make a big deal out of them and talk about the heavenly hushpuppies they once had at some diner in Carolinas or Georgia on the way south to that new northern state, Florida. As a lot, it’s not hard to please a punch of Yankees. I served the barbecue on buns and in the typical North Carolina style, placed a scoop of coleslaw on top of the meat, to make the most perfect barbecue sandwich.

Directions for Sage’s Hushpuppies

Ingredients
1 ½ cup cornmeal
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
an onion finely chopped
1 beaten egg
1 cup buttermilk
a couple hot peppers diced (optional).

Mix the above together (mix the dry ingredients first, then add the onions, then the egg and buttermilk). Heat a deep-fryer or a pan with several inches of oil till it’s really hot. Take a teaspoon and scrape up a spoonful of hushpuppy batter (so that it rolls up), then drop it into the oil. Dip your spoon in water before you roll another hushpuppy. After a minute, turn the puppies over still both sides are a nice dark golden brown. The outside should be crusty, the inside soft and tasty. Some people like to put ketchup or honey on it, but I don’t see why one needs any kind of condiments. Enjoy them hot

Meanwhile, on an unrelated topic, I was glad to see that Moussaoui gets to spend the rest of his life in prison. As you know if you’ve read much of this blog, I don’t like the idea of capital punishment. Hopefully, Moussaoui will be quickly forgotten. Had he received death, he’d gotten what he wanted and been seen by many in the world as a hero. This planet doesn’t any more bad guys being sanctified into Islamic martyrs.