3 tablespoons bacon fat or Crisco
Wipe the fish with a damp cloth. Mix the flour, salt, pepper and cornmeal. Roll Mr. Catfish in the mixture and fry in hot bacon fat until golden brown on one side. Then turn and brown the other side. Total cooking time about 8 to 10 minutes.
Thank God for catfish!
MILK GRAVY
Use hot drippings from chicken or pork chops. For each 3 tablespoons of drippings, stir in 3 tablespoons of flour and blend well Cook and stir until lightly browned. Gradually add 1½ to 2 cups hot milk. Cook and stir until thickened.
Goes with everything.
PORK CHOPS GRAVY
4 slices bacon
4 large thick pork chops
1/3 cup flour
Salt and pepper
1½ cups milk
Fry the bacon first, then dip the chops in flour, with salt and pepper. Save what's left of the flour. Fry your chops in the hot bacon drippings until brown on both sides. Turn down heat, cover, and cook till chops are tender and thoroughly cooked—about 30 minutes. Stir your leftover flour into the fat and cook until browned. Pour the milk over the chops and simmer until gravy is thickened.
Big George could eat eight at a time.
SNAP BEANS
1 hambone, cooked
2 pounds snap beans
1 teaspoon sugar, brown or granulated
A few hot red pepper flakes
Salt to taste
Place hambone in pot and add water to cover beans. Bring to a boil. String the beans and snap or cut into desired lengths. Add to the pot along with the sugar and pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour.
Happy beans . . . fun to eat.
SIPSEY'S BLACK-EYED PEAS
1¼ cups dried black-eyed peas
1 piece salt pork or 8 pieces bacon
4 cups water
1 onion, chopped
A little red pepper
Put all the ingredients together in a pot and cook slowly until tender—about 3 hours.
Even better the next day!
CREAMED CORN
6 ears sweet white corn
½-1 cup milk and water
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Cut corn off cob, then scrape the cob down with the back of a knife to get what's left. Cook with butter over low heat and slowly add milk and water and salt and pepper till you like it. Stir for 10 minutes till just right.
Good for you.
LIMA BEANS BUTTER BEANS
1 quart fresh beans
1 piece salt pork or 6 pieces bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
Add water just up to the top of the beans. Let it come to a boil, then simmer until tender. Add salt and pepper till you like it
Right out of the Victory garden.
CANDIED YAMS
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
6 medium-sized sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled, and sliced
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water
2 pinches cinnamon
In a heavy frying pan or skillet, heat together butter and brown sugar until melted and blended. Add the sliced sweet potatoes and turn until coated in the syrup and brown. Add salt, water, and cinnamon, cover, and cook slowly until potatoes are tender.
Sweeter than candy.
FRIED OKRA
Wash your okra well and cut off the stems. Cut pods into sections about l/2 inch long. Roll in cornmeal and fry in hot bacon drippings and deep hot fat until a nice crisp brown. Drain on paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot.
Better than popcorn.
TURNIP COLLARD GREENS
Wash greens well and take the leaves, roots, and stems off from the collards. Boil a hambone or some fatback or bacon. Add greens, a red pepper pod, and salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Cover tightly and cook until greens are tender. Drain and place on serving platter; reserve the liquid. Serve the liquid as "pot likker" to dunk your cornbread in.
Will cure what ails you!
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
1 medium green tomato (per person)
Salt
Pepper
White cornmeal
Bacon drippings
Slice tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick, season with salt and pepper and then coat both sides with cornmeal. In a large skillet, heat enough bacon drippings to coat the bottom of the pan and fry tomatoes until lightly browned on both sides.
You’ll think you died and gone to heaven!
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES WITH MILK GRAVY
3 tablespoons bacon fat
4 firm green tomatoes, sliced ½ inch thick
Beaten eggs
Dry bread crumbs
Flour
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Heat your bacon fiat in a heavy frying pan. Dip tomatoes in eggs, then in bread crumbs. Slowly fry them in the bacon fat until golden brown on both sides. Put your tomatoes on a plate. For each tablespoon of fat left in the pan, stir in 1 tablespoon of flour and blend well; then stir in 1 cup warm milk and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper till you like it. Pour over the tomatoes and serve hot
The best there is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FANNIE FLAGG began writing and producing television specials at age nineteen and went on to distinguish herself as an actress and writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (which was produced by Universal Pictures as Fried Green Tomatoes), Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, and Standing in the Rainbow. Flagg's script for Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for both the Academy and Writers Guild of America Awards and won the highly regarded Scripters Award. Flagg lives in California and in Alabama.