Chicken yock is easy, if Virginia counts as deep south
Boiled Okra Bonanza
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh whole okra, cross-cut into tiny 1/4-inch wheels
- 4 cups warm tap water
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (do not substitute with Miracle Whip)
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
- Wash the okra thoroughly, leave the stems on for texture, and slice into thin rings.
- Bring 4 cups of tap water to a gentle simmer on low heat. Dump in the sliced okra.
- Cover and let it simmer for 40 to 45 minutes until the water transforms into a thick, ropey, translucent mucilage. Do not drain.
- Remove from heat and immediately whisk in 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and the white vinegar until it forms a lukewarm suspension.
- Pour into a shallow bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on top and serve with a spoon.
Is this…real? It sounds disgusting
Don’t say that in front of Meemaw!
Biscuits and gravy. Shrimp and grits.
Not on the coast. But could never get gravy to turn out right. It’s either too watery or too thick. There is a 3 bears reference in there somewhere.
I cook spicy breakfast sausage, scoop most of the meat out of the pan, add some butter to the sausage grease (i know 🤷) and stir in a couple of tablespoons of flour. Whisk it while it cooks to browned. Wisk in some milk, take it to just below boiling (tiny bubbles at the edge), and turn it down to thicken a bit. Mine is always a bit brown, never the bright white they have in restaurants, but my family likes it.
Bright white gravy is probably garbage from a packet. A gravy made with quality, flavorful sausage will always add a bit of color.
Feel free to use different sausage for preference as well. I like mild Italian or breakfast style for most of my gravies, but we have a couple people in my family who have gastro issues with spice from any actual peppers, so that’s a must for us lol.
Gravy’s a process. Too think? Add a little more liquid. Too thin? Add a little more flour (or even a cornstarch slurry)
Here is the gravy formula for one serving.
- 1 cup milk/cream
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 1/4 pound ground breakfast sausage
- two dashes hot sauce of choice
- salt and pepper to taste.
Make the roux and add milk sausage eyt and constantly stir until desired thickness.
Lot of grocery stores sell the white gravy mix packets in the baking/spices section. Add in some chopped breakfast sausage and you got yourself a pretty decent gravy for the biscuits.
Hoppin John
https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/classic-hoppin-john-recipe
Don’t let the number of ingredients scare you. It’s basically just bacon or ham, black eyed peas, and veggies over rice.
This version says to strain the cooking liquid (step 4). Sometimes I like leaving it in and eating it as more of a stew with cornbread (no rice).
Red beans and rice
It doesn’t get much easier than collards or baked beans.
ETA: or cornbread.
Braised collard greens. Takes probably 45 minutes to simmer, but they’re delicious, nutritious, and simple!
Pecan pie
I dont know your definition of easy, but fried chicken is always a winner, or grilled shrimp.
Hell a grilled rack of ribs is no effort, for me.
I’d call fried chicken pretty “not easy” on the easy scale.
Really? What is the hard part?
Deep frying is easy in theory. Nothing technically hard about it. But in practice it’s a hassle to do and a big mess to clean up.
It’s very messy and dealing with large amounts of oil has to be done with care. Plus it’s difficult for a novice to know the correct doneness often leading to undercooked chicken.
It can be easier to do fried chicken tenders from scratch since you can shallow fry them in less oil.
Plucking the feathers out of your teeth.
1 can pinto beans, 1 can mustard greens or collard greens. if there’s bacon on hand, throw some of that in. add vinegar or texas pete. done.
