On Cooking Southern: Dippity Do-Dah, Scoop Up Some Tasty Garden Goo

SOUTHERNISM OF THE WEEK
Haint: Double Southern noun and verb contraction… (Noun) A restless, often angry, spirit trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead and not happy about it. Haint Blue porch ceiling paint was developed by the Gullahs to fool the haints, who can’t cross water. In recent years, extended to refer to some living individuals with really bad dispositions… (Verb) Contraction for have not, particularly in the mountains. (I hain’t got it)

TRY THESE OFFBEAT USES FOR PERSISTENT PRODUCE

Ah, the climate in Mississippi, where the four seasons are definite and the weather tends to be extreme. Right now, it’s too hot to think or do much of anything except cover the car, hunker down in the shade, seek air conditioning and guzzle thirst-quenching drinks.

I’ve resorted to dumping ice into the pool. It doesn’t help.

For the past month, out of a self-torturing desire to gauge the Lafayette County weather-related misery index, I have been comparing Oxford’s temperatures and humidity to those in New Orleans and my hometown of Memphis, where we all know summertime weather is terrible.

Heck, the Crescent City should be much hotter and more humid than just about any place in America except Houston, Savannah, Charleston, the U.S. Capitol, and most of Florida. After all, NOLA is in a swamp between a lake and the Gulf and is 5-1/2 hours south of here.

But noooooooo, this summer, Oxford keeps on winning. Our Mississippi weather feels like a communal menopausal hot flash. It’s no wonder that some of our most famous Southern authors have penned angst-ridden odes to the long hot summers….

About the only thing to be recommended for staying around here this time of year (apart from the people, of course) is the farm produce… and even that becomes a bit eccentric during periods of extreme heat.

After weeks of 90-plus temperatures, the corn is drying up. The peaches have about finished, and the ripening tomatoes are getting that sunburned, cracked appearance. Herbs such as basil and mint are taking over the flowerbeds. Eggplants and zucchini squash are just begging to be embraced.

The good news is that all can be flavorful additions to a Southern menu. Basil and mint work equally well in beverages, sauces or spice seasonings. Eggplant and zucchini perform tastily as the platforms for any number of main and side dishes in the Italian, Cajun and Greek culinary repertoires.

Our recipes this week explore offbeat uses of the eggplant and basil, along with a tomato jam that appeals to taste buds not totally entrenched in the flavors of tomato sandwiches and tomato salsa. NOTE: Sunburned tomatoes work just fine in our jam recipe.

We’ll save the zucchini and mint for another day. It’s certainly not going away. …The mint is creeping, creeping closer to the Black-eyed Susan patch even as I write.

ROASTED EGGPLANT DIP
Believe me, this is a knockout of an appetizer or snack. Set aside all previous prejudices against eggplant.

2 small white eggplants

Extra virgin olive oil

Table salt

1 T Cavender’s Greek seasoning

1/2 tsp Creole seasoning, to taste

Pita bread, Ritz crackers, or puffed wheat thins

Sliced golden Pepperoncini peppers

Sliced roasted red pepper or pimento

Peel the eggplants and cut into quarter-inch thick slices. Cube the slices. Soak in cold salted water for about 20 minutes. Drain well and place in large mixing bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with Cavender’s seasoning; toss to blend. Repeat with Creole seasoning.

Spread out in a large roasting pan and bake at 375˚F for about 30 minutes, until fork tender.

Use a slotted spoon to remove roasted eggplant to a large mixing bowl. Mash and stir until smooth.

Serve warm as a dip with puffed wheat thins or crusty bread, or chill and serve on Ritz crackers topped with a slice of Pepperoncini and a slice of red pepper or pimento. Refrigerate leftover dip.

TOMATO JAM
This has been one of the recent IT foods of the culinary in-crowd. I have experimented with various versions and finally settled on one that contains as much bite as sweet. If not prejudiced in favor of more traditional chili sauces or chutneys, try it on meatloaf, pork chops, or beans. Of course, it’s quite tasty slathered on a hot biscuit with crisp-cooked bacon as a sweet twist on a BLT, or on a cracker with cream cheese, as a tomato-based twist on pepper jelly and cream cheese.

5 lb ripe tomatoes (Roma, beefsteak or Campari)

2-1/2 c white granulated sugar

½ c local honey

4 T fresh lemon juice

3 tsp table salt

1 to 2 large jalapeño peppers, deseeded and minced

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Core and chop the tomatoes, skin on. Place in a large stockpot. Add the sugar, honey, lemon juice and salt. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Stir in the peppers and spices and lower heat to medium-low.

Simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours until reduced and thickened to a jam consistency. Temperature of the mixture should be 220˚F (check with a candy thermometer). If you don’t have a thermometer, test jam thickness by placing a scant teaspoon on a frozen plate. If thick enough, when pushed, the jam will “wrinkle” on the plate.

Pour into sterile jars and refrigerate for immediate use, or prepare using appropriate canning method (sterile jars and hot water bath) for long-term storage at room temperature.

Serve as a condiment instead of ketchup or chili sauce.

PESTO
Basil is one of the herb stars of summer. Caprese salad, bruschetta and antipasto trays wouldn’t be possible without it. But the most decadent, go-for-it use of basil is as the pesto. Originating in Genoa, in the Liguria region of Italy, the word pesto comes from pestare, the Italian word for crushing — in this instance, crushing the garlic and nuts.

6 large cloves of garlic (about 3 T)

5-6 c packed fresh basil leaves

2/3 c chopped pine nuts (pignoli) OR pine nuts and walnuts

1-1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 c grated Parmesan or Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheese

Pulse garlic and nuts in a food processor for about 15 seconds. Add the basil, salt and pepper while processing until pulverized and blended. With processor turning, slowly pour in the olive oil in a steady stream. Continue processing until mixture is a thick paste. Add the cheese until completely pureed. Yields 4-5 cups.

Serve immediately as a condiment, or toss it with hot pasta. Stores well up to a month in the fridge, and freezes well.

There’s a trick to keeping the basil from turning dark: Add a thin layer of olive oil on top and covered with plastic wrap directly on the oil. Another storage idea is to pour the pesto into an ice cube tray and cover each cube with a thin layer of oil before freezing.

PESTO BUTTER

1 T of pesto

1/2 c (1 stick) salted butter, softened

Mix the two ingredients until blended. Refrigerate the pesto butter until firm and use a melon baller to scoop out single servings. Refrigerate up to a week, or pack into a small container and freeze until ready to use.

Serving suggestions: Grilling is where this butter achieves its best flavor — on bread, pork chops, steak or salmon.

Laurie Triplette is a writer, historian and accredited appraiser of fine arts, dedicated to preserving Southern culture and foodways. Author of the award-winning community family cookbook GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’, and editor of ZEBRA TALES (Tailgating Recipes from the Ladies of the NFLRA), Triplette is a member of the Association of Food Journalists, Southern Foodways Alliance and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Check out the GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’ website and follow Laurie’s food adventures on Facebook and Twitter.