Rosalie’s rice salad, featuring black-eyed peas, chopped celery, carrot, apple, basil and flat leaf parsley borrows a little from both her Italian and Mississippi grandmothers.
BY ROSALIE HARRINGTON
Friday afternoons were my favorite day as a child when I was visiting my grandmother in Crystal Springs, Miss. Summers of my eighth and ninth year I would spend a great deal of time with “Grandmommy.” Although I missed my brother, Anthony, I loved my time there.
Fridays were fun because they were all about watermelons. Around four o’clock, several of the “hands” would fill the wagon with watermelons from the patch and then hook up the mule for a trip downtown. Grandmommy and I would be the passengers. We would wave to people working in their fields on the way, and I remember feeling like a celebrity from all the attention we received. When we got to our destination, the train station, we would find a sort of “farmer’s market.” Baskets of okra, black-eyed peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peaches, figs, pecans and other locally grown products were on sale from area farms. We would line up our wagon and I would plant my big, handmade, “5 cents” sign in a prominent place. My recollection is that we would generally take in about five dollars, which would buy enough feed to take care of the chickens for a month.
That feed would come in seed sacks that were made of the prettiest floral material, and that material would end up as pretty pinafores, which complimented my handmade summer dresses that Grandmommy made me. Watermelons were replaced with supplies from the general store, which would include things like sugar and lard, which was used in baking biscuits and pies and cobblers and frying the best chicken you ever tasted, as well as bags of feed in the pretty sacks.
After all the selling ended there was a “barn dance” complete with caller, but the dance was held without a barn. “Swing your partner round and round, till they fall to the ground,” which I just about did. I had a “dirndl” skirt, made from the colorful seed sacks, and under it a pretty petty coat made from some of Grandmommy’s old curtains. If you held your skirt a certain way it would nicely show off the pretty petty coat as you “dosey-doed” your partner. I remember thinking of my Italian Noni back home doing the “tarantella,” her favorite dance. She loved to show her “mudandes,” as we called them, or underwear.
On Sunday mornings we would go to church, the Baptist Church. Grandmommy had decided that I should be baptized in her church. I was dunked into a huge vat of water; I thought I was drowning. After the ceremony there was a party with lots of fried chicken, corn dogs, macaroni and cheese and peach cobblers and many other pies. Those Mississippi Baptists knew how to have fun and they were “sho’nuff” the best cooks! When I really liked something and shared it with Grandmommy she would reiterate with “Sho’nuff chile,” her seal of approval.
Grandmommy would be shocked if she could see my favorite summer menu. Watermelon martinis with fresh mint, feta and watermelon salad and one item she would recognize, a centerpiece of a watermelon basket with a scalloped edge containing watermelon balls. She taught me that a little salt on the melon was delicious. Another favorite with roots in the South was black-eyed peas that were cooked with bacon, which would often be served with corn bread, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers piled on top. It was so summery and fresh.
Sweet potatoes were a favorite food in her kitchen, too. She made the best sweet potato pie, which is still one of my favorites. Now that Todd is eating vegetarian, I take sweet potatoes and combine them with other foods like golden beets, walnuts, black beans, carrots and fresh herbs to make veggie burgers. I often use squash and hearty greens like rabe or broccoli and cauliflower is nice, too, for adding a little crispness for a more interesting texture. The food processor is great for producing a slight chop — not mush — to provide just the right amount of texture. An egg yolk or a little mayo binds the ingredients together before shaping into burgers.
I like to think of introducing my Italian relatives to my Grandmommy and making foods like rice salad with ingredients from both cultures. When my Roman relatives and I were in Sicily several years ago we made the traditional rice salad, a summer staple, refreshing and perfect on those sweltering hot summer days in Sicily. We added leftovers like calamari, shrimp, grilled chicken or sausage to the salad, which usually contained fresh chopped vegetables and herbs, hard boiled eggs, tonno, the canned Italian variety of tuna packed in olive oil, and chopped red onion. Black eyed peas, corn, cucumber, okra, carrots, pecans and a little chopped apple gave it a more Southern flavor and allow the two cultures to merge nicely.
Black Bean or Black Eyed Peas Rice Salad
If you have the time it is nice to soak the dried beans or peas overnight. I really love the black-eyed peas for this dish.
- Rinse your beans well with fresh water and place in a heavy bottom pan, cover with water at least by three inches above the beans or peas. It’s fine to use canned product but they are not nearly as delicious as fresh.
- Add three or four rashes of chopped bacon, a few sprigs of flat leaf parsley, a stem of rosemary and thyme and allow to come to a boil. Skim the residue that surfaces to the top and lower the heat and simmer until the beans or peas are tender. With a slotted spoon measure out a few cups of the beans from the liquid.
- In the meantime cook a few cups of rice.
- In a large bowl place a few cups of the beans and the rice and toss gently with the following:
- One apple, cut into quarter inch chunks leaving the skin on for color,
- About a half cup each of chopped celery, red onion and carrot. Chopped herbs, about a tbsp. each, like cilantro, flat leaf parsley, basil, chives,
- Two hard boiled eggs chopped with other flavors you like such as a third cup of olives, walnuts, pecans or pine nuts, a few radishes, scallions, cucumbers, canned Tonno, all work nicely.
- Toss gently with a citrus vinaigrette: a third cup of olive oil whisked with the juice from a lemon and an orange or lime, a tsp. of Dijon mustard, a half tsp. of salt and pepper.
- If you have any leftover grilled fish, meat or vegetables add to your dish as you like.
