German above ground sweet potato recipes

14 years ago

Dawn, you said you would give out some recipes for the above ground sweet potato and I am ready for them if you have the time. Mine are not quite as big as you said they would get to but I like to be prepared. Thanks.

Pat

Featured Answer

scarlettfourseasonsrv

14 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

How about Soul Food? I think in America there are many variations on a theme, and our foods have evolved to become regional specialties, and I love all of them!

This was especially interesting, although I can't say it is "THE" one cuisine represented as pure American. Even the native Americans had special recipes they used from the local foods they gathered, grew, or hunted.

Sorry I could'nt provide a link, as it was defunct, so will copy and paste. Just reading it made me hungry!

A History of Soul Food
"Every ethnic group has what it calls "soul food" - soothing, comfort food that brings back warm memories of family dinners. Today, in America, the term "soul food" simply means African-American cuisine. To fully understand the concept of "soul food," you must learn the traditional foods of Africa. Many common American foods are indigenous to Africa. Grains, legumes, yams, sorghum, watermelon, pumpkin, okra, and leafy greens could be found as early as 4000 BC on the African continent. Eggplant, cucumber, onion and garlic are believed to be African in origin, while only a small number of fruits are grown on the continent: wild lemons, oranges, dates and figs.

Many culinary historians believe that in the beginning of the 14th century, around the time of early African exploration, European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into the African diet. Foods such as turnips from Morocco and cabbage from Spain would play an important part in the history of African American cuisine.

As meat was used sparingly, the average African ate mostly a vegetarian diet, though seafood showed up often in stews served with a starch. Okra and native peppers were used as seasoning and salt as a preservative. Research scientist William Bascom found that a large portion of tribal Africans shared basic cooking techniques. Simplicity was the trademark in African cooking. Utensils for cooking and eating were made from earthenware or prepared gourds or other squashes. Africans cooked in boiling water and steamed food using leaves as a steamer. They often fried foods in palm oil or vegetable butters, toasted and roasted using fire and baked in ashes. Some ingredients were smoked for flavoring and others thickened with nuts and seeds. Africans also made rice dishes and created fritters.

A common African meal consisted of rice, chicken and milk while the poorest Africans ate a type of couscous with leafy vegetables. This made the African diet healthy and satisfying. The tradition of communal living with shared meals was the perfect environment for conversation and the reciting of oral history and storytelling.

When slave trading began in the early 1400s, the diet of newly enslaved Africans changed on the long journeys from their homeland. On these terrible voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, small portions of rice and beans, with the occasional vegetable or piece of fruit, replaced their normally healthy diet. A "slabber" sauce, made from old beef and rotten fish and salt, was poured over the rice and beans in an attempt to fill the slave's stomachs.

It was during this time that surprisingly some of the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the slaves new home in the Americas. Tall tales of seeds from watermelons, okras and sesame being transported in the slave's ears, hair or clothing could be true. The more likely idea would be that the European slave traders, urged by the African slave traders themselves, brought the food over for trade. Whatever the case, these familiar foods would soon become part of America's southern crops.

African slaves actually had a better diet than their owners did. The owners ate mostly fatty foods, with little or no vegetables and lots of sweets and alcohol that left them lethargic. The slaves needed to be strong and energetic to work the fields, so large vegetarian meals were encouraged and drinking discouraged. Ice tea and lemonade became typical drinks. As the Africans began to assimilate into the American slave society, they "made do" with the ingredients at hand. The fresh vegetables found in Africa were replaced by the throwaway foods from the plantation house. Their vegetables were the tops of turnips and beets and dandelions. Soon they were cooking with new types of greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard and pokeweed. With a lot of lard for flavor from the slaughtered hog and cracklin' from it's skin, they made a filling meal.

Weekly rations were given out from the smokehouse of corn meal, a few pounds of meat and black molasses. The women would use these ingredients, with onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaf, to create a variety of dishes. The cornmeal was turned into a bread. The meat (pig's feet, ham hocks, chitterlings, pig ears, hog jowl, tripe, and crackling) became the main dish with generous portions of greens, and the molasses and cornmeal would be mixed to become a dessert.

The slave diet began to evolve when slaves entered the plantation houses as cooks. With an array of new ingredients at their fingertips and a well-tuned African palate, the cooks would make delectable foods for their masters. Suddenly southern cooking took on new meaning. Fried chicken began to appear on the tables, sweet potatoes (which had replaced the African yam) sat next to the boiled white potato. Regional foods like apples, peaches and berries, nuts and grains, soon became puddings and pies. Possum was the meat of choice among slaves since hunting was done during the only free hours a slave had, after all the work for their master was complete, in the wee hours of the night.

Soon the slave's cuisine became knows as "good times" food. After long hours working in the fields or up at the house, the evening meal was a time for families to get together. The big pots became a meal for both body and soul. It was during the meal that the oral history was re-told, forbidden religious ceremonies held and family and friends visited.

Some slaves tried to escape from captivity and Native Americans took in many. From the Native Americans they learned to use the ground green sassafras leaves as a new spice. Sadly, many escaped slaves were re-captured and returned to their plantations. No doubt the ground sassafras went with them and was called "file'" by Lousiana slaves.

Because each state had its own cultural influences, the African dishes began to take on the qualities from that region. Rich and saucy dishes with a French accent came from Louisiana, while the Carolina's Spanish culture introduced dishes like jambalaya and a strange food called sausage into the cooking pots that sat over open fires in the slave's quarters. It could be surmised that from a bouillabaisse or a cassoulet found in the French cuisine, the slaves changed it into a gumbo using the shellfish from the bayou and the okra and file' to make a dish more to the liking of African taste bud.

Unlike the dishes from other countries with names that usually told what the ingredients were, black cuisine had names that did not necessarily give you a clue to the ingredients, but did tell you a little history of how it came about.

It is said that the hushpuppy got its name from the dredging of the catfish that would have been thrown out. Being thrifty, the cook from the house would send this down to the slave quarters and the women added a little milk, egg and onion and fried it up. It is said they were tossed at the dogs to keep them quiet while the food was being transferred from the pot to the table, i.e., "hush puppy! hush puppy!."

Hoecakes are a dish said to have been a corn bread batter that was heaped onto the spade or hoe which was held over the open fire to make a quick bread. Ashcakes are a corn meal mixture baked in an open fire, and the baked bread is washed after cooking then served. A "gut strut" is another name for a big pot of chittlin's.

No matter the stories, good, black cuisine was wholesome food that used everything available. Nothing was ever wasted in the black kitchen. Leftover fish became croquettes (by adding an egg, cornmeal or flour, seasonings and breaded then deep-fried). Stale bread became bread pudding, and each part of the pig had its own special dish. Even the liquid from the boiled vegetables was turned into "pot likker" which was used as a type of gravy or as a drink in and of itself. While the master would have an apple, peach or cherry baked pie, slaves were ingenious and produced fried pies that could be tucked into a pocket for a sweet pick-me-up in the fields.

When the emancipation came in 1863, slaves soon scattered from the confines of the plantation into other parts of the United States. Black cowboys could be found in Texas, domestics in Illinois and Michigan, porters worked the railroad stations up and down the eastern seaboard. As the railroad tracks expanded across the middle of the country, black cooks could be found working in train kitchens too. Wealthy and middle class whites and blacks in large cities hired black cooks. This brought southern black cuisine into the homes of many Americans.

So as not to lose contact with family members scattered far and wide, Sunday dinners became a common time for families to get together. It was common for a son or daughter to travel some distance just for a good home cooked meal. Aunts, uncles, cousins (both real and pretend) would converge, not to the largest home, but to the house with the best cook for a meal. Occasionally there would be a potluck where everyone brought their "best" dish, but the normal pattern was for the women to get in the kitchen and cook up a storm. Men seldom took part, unless there was cueing (barbecue).

In the mid 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, terms like "soul man" "soulful" and just "soul" were used in connection with blacks themselves. It caught on with mainstream America and someone coined the term "soul food" for black cuisine and it stuck.

Today when most people think of soul food, it is a table heavy with trays of watermelon, ribs, candied sweet potatoes or yams, greens and fried chicken. Each black family, however, has its own idea of what black cuisine is. Hogshead cheese sliced on saltine crackers with hot sauce and beer is one such dish. Crab cakes. Carrot and Raisin salad. Fried corn. Hush puppies. Corn pone. Red beans and rice. Greens. Liver and onions. Lima beans with ham hocks. Stewed okra and tomatoes. Cornbread dipped in buttermilk. Fried catfish. Smothered chicken. Pickled pig's feet. Fried cabbage. Neckbones. Tongue. Chittlin's. Tripe. Gumbo. Breaded fried pork chops with a mess of greens. Black-eyed peas...and, grits. Although grits is truly a southern dish, it is considered here as a part of black cuisine because black Americans eat grits for breakfast, lunch or dinner; plain, with butter, with gravy, with cheese or deep-fried.

Black owned restaurants have begun to stray from the traditional foods for health reasons. They sometimes substitute canola oil for lard, chicken for pork; oven fried chicken for deep fried and simple fresh fruit for the sweet cobblers and bread puddings they grew up on.

The aroma of "soul food" can fill the house and let the neighbors know that a big pot is cooking. Today, many are just too busy to spend hours in the kitchen cooking up the traditional foods of black America. In the search for the best soul food restaurant, there is one piece of advice: If you walk by and the aroma does not greet you at the door, keep walking."

Barbara

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (24)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Pat,

Since German Above-Ground Sweet Potatoes are winter squash, any recipe that specifies winter squash or pumpkin (pumpkins actually are winter squash) can be used for them.

Here's a few:

BASIC PREP DIRECTIONS FOR WINTER SQUASH:

To clean them: Wash them in cold water. Cut them in half. Remove the seeds and fiber from the center. You can bake them in the oven in halves or in pieces. Or, you can steam them. To steam them, peel the squash and cut it into 1 1/2" chunks. Arrange the chunks on a steaming rack. Place rack over boiling water and cover. Steam for 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Remove rack of steamed chunks from heat. Sprinkle with brown sugar and then return to pot and steam for 5 more minutes. Transfer chunks to a serving dish, add a little bit of margarine or butter, and toss gently to distribute butter/brown sugar, and serve.

You also can bake them in the oven or microwave to cook them.

ORANGE-GLAZED WINTER SQUASH:

1 large squash (if it is extra large, you may only need half a squash)
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 teaspoons grate lemon rind
1/8 teaspoon salt

Wash squash and cut into 1 1/2" chunks. Place chunks in a lightly greased 13" x 9" x 2" baking dish. Pour orange juice over the chunks. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Melt butter in a small saucepan and add brown sugar, corn syrup, lemon rind and salt. Mix well. Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Immediately spoon the syrup mixture over the baked squash. Return the dish to the oven and bake, uncovered, until squash is tender--about 15 to 20 minutes.

SPICED SQUASH PUDDING

Six-pound squash
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup milk
1 egg beaten
additional ground nutmet and ground cinnamon, optional

Cut squash into pieces and place in a shallow baking dish. Cover tightly with lid or aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until squash is tender.

Remove squash from baking dish. Remove pulp from the squash and discard the rind. Mash the pulp well using a fork or potato masher. Drain thoroughly.

Combine the mashed, drained squash with the butter, sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg and citrus rinds in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, or until thickened, stirring frequently. Add milk and egg, blending well. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Spoon the squash mixture into 12 lightly greased 6 oz. ramekins or custard cups. Sprinkle top with a little bit of additional spices if desired. Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes.

Serves 12.

WINTER SQUASH CHICKEN POT PIE (This recipe is from Amy Goldman's book, THE COMPLEAT SQUASH.)

6 T. unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the baking dish
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
2 cups frozen pearl onions
1 cup frozen peas
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 large parsnips, peeled and sliced (If you don't like parsnips, or can't find any, substitute more carrots. You want a total of 3 cups carrots/parsnips, or only carrots.)
3 cups peeled, seeded, cubed winter squash, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 T. all-purpose flour
2 C. chicken stock
2 C. plus 2 T. half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons dried chopped sage leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 cups cubed cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Butter a 3-qt. overproof bowl or baking dish and set it aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry dough into a square or rectangle large enough to cover the top of your baking dish, with about a 1 1/2" overhang all around the dish. Transfer the puff pastry to a parchment-paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions and saute' for about 5 minutes or until they begin to brown; add the peas, carrots, parsnips, and winter squash and continue cooking for several more minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the veggies from the skillet and set aside.

Make a roux by adding the flour to the skillet and cooking the mixture over low heat, stirring until it starts to color. Quickly whisk in the chicken stock and 2 cups of the half-and-half. Return the vegetables to the skillet and season with sage, salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring the vegetable/stock mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until the liquid is thick and smooth and the veggies are fork-tender and yet still slightly firm. This should take about 10-15 minutes. At this point, stir in the chicken and parsley.

To assemble the pot pie: Pour the filling into the greased baking dish to within one inch of the top of the dish. Drape your chilled puff pastry over the dough, pressing the dough to the outside edge of the dish to secure it. Make a few slits in the puff pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the pastry with the remaining 2 T. of the half-and-half.

Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the puff pastry is puffed and golden-brown. Serve immediately. Serves 6 to 8.

TO ROAST WINTER SQUASH:

You also can steam or roast winter squash along with other root vegetables like parsnips and carrots.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Dice your vegetables into pieces and place them in the roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Roast for one hour or until lightly browned and then serve.

TO MAKE A 'PUMPKIN' PIE: Steam or microwave your squash until softened. Scrape squash flesh into blender and puree. Substitute your squash puree for the amount of pumpkin puree called for in any pumpkin pie recipe.

Also, check out the attached link. It has a recipe for a winter squash soup and a southwestern-style squash chowder.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Thread With Two Winter Squash/Pumpkin Recipes
OklaMoni
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hmmm this former German never heard of above ground sweet potatoes.

I had also never had German Chocolate Cake, before I came to the US.

Moni
Related Discussions
German Above Ground Sweet Potatoes
Q
Comments (11)
Do your seeds look like squash or pumpkin seeds? The only vegetable I have seen referred to as German Above-Ground Sweet Potato is actually a large, heirloom winter squash. Seeds for this winter squash are sometimes offered for sale by the South Carolina Foundation Seed Association (they were on the 2006 and 2007 sale list). If this is what you have, you would plant it and treat it the same way you plant/raise any winter squash. I usually plant my winter squash seeds in May, when the ground is good and warm here in southern Oklahoma. Winter squash plants take up a LOT of space.....much like pumpkins. They spread and sprawl. You can let them run all over the ground, or you can contain them somewhat by raising them on a very sturdy fence or trellis. The German Above-Ground Sweet Potato produces large winter squash, approimately 18" to 20" long and about 6" to 8" wide at the widest point. Both ends taper down smaller....hence the resemblence to the standard sweet potato, and the name! By the way, there are other heirloom winter squashes that either resemble very large sweet potatoes or have the words Sweet Potato in their name. Winter squash, when properly harvested and cured, can be stored for several months at room temperature or in a root cellar, basement, garage or tornado shelter. You can find some interesting seeds (many developed at the university over the years) at the Clemson University website. If nematodes are a problem for you, they have some seeds for veggies, including southern peas, that are nematode-resistant. The South Carolina Foundation Seed Association has a lot of interesting heirlooms. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Clemson University link to SCFA seed lists
...See More
Sub for Brandy in Mustangs Sweet Potato Recipe?
Q
Comments (3)
Maggie, I just threw the brandy into this recipe because I try to incorporate wine/liquor/beer into recipes. Odd, since I don't drink. I have also substituted Jim Beam for this. It doesn't have an overpowering alcohol at all but it gives a rich taste to it from my perspective. So, bottom line, you can leave the liquor out or sub whatever you want.
...See More
RECIPE: German Potato Salad
Q
Comments (4)
Hmmmmm - that seems like alot of sugar to me. Here's my recipe: German Potato Salad 12 slices bacon 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon celery seed 1/2 cup vinegar dash of pepper 6 cups sliced cooked potatoes 4 hard cooked eggs, sliced Cook bacon till crisp; drain and crumble, reserving 1/4 cup fat. Cook onion in fat till tender. Blend in flour, sugar, salt, celery seed, and dash pepper; add vinegar and 1 cup water; cook and stir till thickened and bubbly. Add bacon, potatoes and eggs; heat thoroughly, tossing occasionally. I've made this recipe for years.....its really tasty. Barb
...See More
RECIPE: Looking For A Good Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
Q
Comments (1)
Just use mashed fresh sweet potatoes for this if you don't want to use canned: SWEET POTATO PIE WITH STREUSEL TOPPING One 23 oz can sweet potatoes, drained & mashed (1 3/4 cup) One 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle brand) 1 egg 1 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/8 tsp ground cloves, optional 1 unbaked pastry shell Mix potatoes, milk, egg & spices together until smooth. Pour into pastry lined pie pan & sprinkle w/streusel topping. Bake in a preheated 350Â° oven for 50-55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.~~ STREUSEL TOPPING 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 2 TBL flour 2 TBL pecans, chopped 1/4 tsp cinnamon 2 TBL firm butter Mix brown sugar, flour, pecans, cinnamon & butter together. Blend w/fork until crumbly.~~An Atlanta Tradition
...See More
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Moni,

I don't know why they have the word German in their name. They're just a winter squash and I don't know that they originated from Germany either, although I guess they could have.

Lots of old heirloom varieties often had a nationality affixed to their name merely because the person who named the variety had received it from someone of German or Polish or Italian origin, for example, even though that didn't mean the variety came from there.

Dawn
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
German chocolate has nothing to do with Germany but was named after the man who developed the chocolate type. It's a "made in the USA" concoction.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mr. German and his chocolate
OklaMoni
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Yeah, I know that now, but back then people always asked me, it it tastes like home.

Same thing when we had a Dutch exchange student; he had never had Dutch apple pie before living in Oklahoma with us. :)

Just seems funny, the way countries get linked to foods.

Moni
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Moni,

It is funny, and I wonder what foods would be linked to the USA by persons from other countries. Hot dogs? Hamburgers? French Fries? McDonald's?

We all know what Greek food is...or Italian food...or German. But what food, really, is American? It seems like a lot of our food (like our melting pot of people) has come from elsewhere.

How about Tex-Mex? Most of the "Mexican" food you get here in Oklahoma doesn't really taste like Mexican food from Mexico....but, rather, it is our version of their food. So, what food can we claim is 'uniquely' ours?

Dawn
mulberryknob
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Corn on the Cob. When my aunt had a german exchange student a few years ago, he had never eaten corn on the cob. He said that in Germany, corn was fed to pigs. It took a bit of coaxing on my kids part (they were close to his age) to get him to try it, but after he did he loved it. He said that was his favorite new "American food."

He also said that American bread wasn't worth eating. My aunt probably only bought white bread, and I wondered if he would like wholewheat better, but one of my cousins who had lived in Germany said there is simply no bread in America to compare with German bread.
OklaMoni
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Yes, I never had corn on a cob before Oklahoma. Neither did I have the average beer, it has more punch over there.

Bread, well, you have to hunt. Best bread (for Germans) Farrells in Tulsa. :)

Trust me, I couldn't eat the wonder bread I found here, when I first got here. I still bake my own, cept when I have to go to Tulsa. :)

Dawn, I really don't know, what you can call American cuisine.

Moni
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Barbara,

I did think about 'soul food' as a unique American type of food and it kinda, sorta is, but it still originated from another continent if you want to get really technical. Of course, the food of the Native Americans that were here before the white Europeans arrived is probably are closest to a truly American food.

I do love soul food, and being a southern girl (albeit a white girl), I grew up eating a lot of soul food. In high school, I took a Black American History course in 1976 (they were trying to offer courses at our high school that were 'relevant' to what was going on in society at the time....). We drew a class project out of a hat, and ours was to prepare 'Soul Food' for the class. At that point in time, neither my project partner nor I knew what "Soul Food" was. We went to the library to do research, and discovered that we'd been eating soul food our entire lives--so, it turned out the joke was on us! (Poor white folks like my daddy's white sharecropper family ate about the same food in the early to mid-1900s that the poor black sharecroppers ate, so 'soul food' was always a part of my family's meals.) For example, we always had red beans, corn bread, and turnip greens (cooked with fatback)for our Wed. night meal, and it was one of my dad's favorite meals until the end of his life.

I also thought about "Cowboy Food", i.e. Chuckwagon Cooking, as an indigenous food that is uniquely American, although likely it is not. It has, of course, strong roots in the Spanish and Mexican cultures because many of the early cowboys were of that heritage.

You know, nowadays when we decide to go out to eat, we have a lot of choices.....Chinese Food, Thai, Mexican, Italian....etc. I just think it is often harder to choose "American Food" unless you're talking about the all-American fast food meal of a burger, fries and soda. I'd hope, though, that our American food heritage is more than just that.

Dawn
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Even if we hadn't eaten "soul food" at home when we were growing up, we certainly ate it in the school lunch rooms of Oklahoma. My school had beans, greens, and cornbread twice a week. One day they were pintos and the other day they would be a white bean. My husband said it was the same in Arkansas.

I am old so that is why I remember this, but I remember when lunch was $1.00 or $1.25 for the WEEK. I don't think the government paid much to the local school lunch program. LOL

At any rate, you were going to get the cheapest food that they could provide, but still cook a balanced meal. The above meal also had eiher a serving of pears, or maybe a peach cobler, or piece of cake, and a half pint of milk.

I just read my answer to my DH and he said, "Yeh, and a lot of macaroni and cheese, and a lot of salads, which were a pear half served on a lettuce leaf with a dollop of mayonaise and shreaded cheese." I don't like mayonaise on any kind of sandwich, but I occasionally will eat a small amount on pears and I am sure that is where it comes from. I use it in potato salad, tuna salad, etc, but I don't like the way it taste. Pears are one of my least favorite fruits as well, and I would much rather have romaine lettuce than iceberg, so I don't know why I will eat that salad, but I sometimes still make it today. My husband always calls it "lunchroom salad".
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
By the way, the yams of Africa are not the sweet potatoes of America although we sometimes call them yams. My son can eat sweet potatoes, but he is horribly allergic to the African yam. It is a staple food in Africa where he lives. He has gotten in twice while eating out and the last time he was so violently ill, that he quickly used an "eppy pen" on himself and his co-workers still had to take him to the emergency room where they gave him a second injection.
scarlettfourseasonsrv
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
My goodness Soonermom! Bless his heart. Yes, some foods, like the humble peanut can cause tremendous allergies. I hope he'll be careful.

My friend's mom used to work in a school cafeteria as a cook. She'd talk about "Tommy Marzetti spagetti" with tons of American cheese on top.

Well, I've noticed that the new Better Homes and Garden's cookbook has many new recipes than the old one my mom went by, and I still love some of those awesome recipes.

Well, things change, and we adapt our own ways of cooking and that's just fine with me. I love all ethnic cooking.

But what I grew up with was similar to Dawn's. What ever grows in our neck of the woods is what we incorporate into our menus. (Most of the time, lol!)That's regional cooking American style. Why should we even bother trying to nail it down to one particular 'type' of food and labeling it as THE one and only American cooking, eh?

Is there any country in the world that has as many diversified styles of cooking as we do here in America? If there is, I don't know of any.

Dawn
Your recipes looked yumola-as usual! You must have a complete library!

Barbara
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Carol, I knew that about the yam versus the sweet potato, but hadn't thought about it in a while. Your son is living in a dangerous place given his food allergy. I am sure he is as careful as he can be, but those yams can sneak up on you sometimes when they are in mixed dishes where they aren't obvious.

Our school served lots of soul food too, but I hadn't thought about that in ages and ages. After my siblings and I, and our cousin, Patty, who lived a couple of miles from us and attended that school, got old enough that we all were at least in Middle School, my aunt (Patty's mom) went to work in the elementary school lunchroom. So, of course, she learned all the school recipes.

To this day, we still pester her for Texas Sheet Cake or some of the cookies they used to make at our school, as well as the school's yeast rolls or lemon chess pie. Please note that we DON'T beg her to recreate some of their disasters.....like the worst pizza in the world or their chili mac or chicken a la king or chipped beef on toast--all of which were made with, I think, texured vegetable protein because it sure wasn't meat! My aunt is a great cook, but it is the school stuff that we remember most fondly and we beg her to cook it for us. LOL I think our school keyed their cooking some days to the weather, because on chilly rainy days they'd have tomato soup and "cheese toast" which was a wedge of cheese with bread wrapped around it, held together by a toothpick, and toasted by the dozens on huge baking sheets in the oven.

My aunt and my cousin's family came up here to our house (along with my whole family) for our first 4 or 5 Thanksgivings and Christmases after we moved here, and it gave them "the fever" to move to the country. So, the last couple of years we've gone to their place in the country near Granbury for the holidays. They are having as much fun in the country as we are....and have three families in three separate houses on what we jokingly call "the compound". It has been fun watching them rediscover their love for the country life, and my aunt is back in the country near where she grew up--an area she left over 50 years ago. We joke that, sooner or later, everyone in our family moves "back" to the country, even if they've never lived there before.

Carol, I remember when a school lunch was about 25 cents a day and an extra milk was four cents. You can't get much now for 25 cents and next to nothing for four cents!

Barb, Most of my cookbooks are the old ones. I prefer cooking old southern style. My favorite new cookbooks are anything by Paula Deen, or her boys, because they cook and eat like we do.

Some of my favorite veggie recipes are from an old Southern Living Magazine Vegetable Cookbook from the 1980s. Even though they were published fairly recently, their recipes are the old-fashioned southern style ones. I also have a cookbook by Dorie Sanders called "Dorie Sanders Country Cooking: Recipes & Stories From the Family Farm Stand" and it has such amazing things as Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Orange Glaze, Peanut Soup, Summer Cabbage with Sweet Potatoes and Okra, Southern Vegetable Lasagna (very southern and not at all Italian!),Okra Parmigiana, Poke Pie and Pickled Pig Lips.....I haven't made that last one. It is hard to find pig snouts here, although you do see them in Fort Worth in the Mexican grocery stores.

I also have an old Amish cookbook full of plain and simple good food recipes and we've liked everything I've ever prepared from that cookbook too.

I do think our many food styles here are just as amalgamation of all the ethnic groups that came to America...so just a bit of everything!

Dawn
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I just found a 1981 Southern Living Cookbook and the recipes look really good. It was on the sale table at the used book store and turned out to be the best buy I made. I found it on line for $34.95. I went there looking for Gardening books but saw these on a table outside first.

I had only been there once before and that time I bought "The Complete Works of Josephus", and my son was so jealous and wanted a copy. I forgot to look this time for a copy for him. All I really looked for were gardening books and just happened onto the cookbooks.
mulberryknob
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
And peanut butter is an American product, though the peanut is African. Black Walnuts are American. These are individual items, rather than a cuisine,though.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You know, I think our traditional Thanksgiving meal is about as close as we get to indigenous food, right? The wild turkeys were here when the first Puritans arrived. The native Americans were raising corn and squash and beans, I think, and sunflowers as well, which was a major vegetable protein source for them via the seeds which are easy to preserve. Cranberries are native in some parts of the country, and so is wild rice. So, all those ingredients are more or less indigenous American foods.

Maybe one problem is that our nation is so large geographicaly, so we do have more regionalized "America food" depending on what foods are readily available in each region instead of a well-known "American" cuisine. For example, if you grew up in Boston, you might argue that lobster and Boston baked beans are true American cuisine, but if you grew up in Georgia or South Carolina, maybe you'd insist it was barbeque, baked beans, cornbread and grits.

I was thinking about what kind of native food a forager would find growing naturally here in Oklahoma....there's wild game, of course, and wild blackberries and wild grapes here in southern OK, and some of you probably have wild huckleberries or currants in some eastern parts of the state that we don't have here. Here in southern OK, we have the wild prickley pears (you can make jelly from them) and native pecans and walnuts, and persimmons. There's also several kinds of wild plums, and you can fish in the Red River for catfish.

Dorothy, I think I am going to grow peanuts next year so we can make our own peanut butter without all the additives. I remember having a Mr. Peanut machine when I was a little kid....you put the peanuts in his hat and turned the handle and got peanut butter (a peanut paste probably would be a better description). It was simple, so it seems like it'd be simple to make homemade peanut butter in the food processor or blender.

Carol, I love all those old Southern Living recipe books...they are my kind of cooking! Another great cookbook full of old-style southern cooking is Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook, which came out at about the same time that her book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, was made into the movie of the same name. If my grandmother and southern aunts had written a cookbook of the foods they prepared their entire lives, it would have been very, very similar to Fannie Flagg's cookbook.

Dawn
ilene_in_neok
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OK, what does an above ground sweet potato / squash look like? I Googled and found nothing.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It is a winter squash that is shaped like a sweet potato. In a great year with the right amount of rainfall (a lot, but not excessive coolness or cloudiness) and sunlight /heat (lots and lots) and in good, loose sandy or sandy loam soil where the roots can really spread out, it gets huge. Even in a bad year, it is pretty big.

I've linked the previous discussion from a couple of years ago. The one I'm most familiar with is Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato, which actually is a winter squash, which I grew for a couple of years in the late 1990s or early 2000s. There are quite a few winter squash with the words "sweet potato" in their name either because they are shaped/colored similar to a sweet potato, or because their flesh, when cooked, is reminiscent of sweet potatoes. Some of them got their names from the folks who saved the seeds and passed them down, while others were given their 'sweet potato' names by creative seed companies in the late 1800s or early 1900s when there were many seed companies all raising their own seed and competing fiercely for the market.

One thing about the sweet potato type winter squash is that, in colder climates where the ground stays too cold for sweet potatoes to grow, the gardeners can often get a good crop of the sweet potato-type winter squashes as long as their season is long enough for the squash to mature.

Normally, you can make a great pumpkin or sweet potato pie with Thelma Sanders and the other winter squash that are "like" sweet potatoes, and that makes it even more confusing. If you offer a southerner "sweet potato pie" they'll eat it, but just try offering them "winter squash pie" and you'll get some funny reactions!

Dawn
ilene_in_neok
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
OK, thanks! I did find a site with information about Tennessee Sweet Potato Squash. It has a picture.

I guess my palate is not as discriminating as some, because I just can't tell the difference between sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie. Granted, the sweet potato is thicker than squash, but I think less sweet potato is used in the recipe so that balances things out. However, I tend to not like squash when it's served with just butter and salt, but that's how I like sweet potato the best! Maybe I'm just not cooking the right kind of squash. Since the meat of the Warsaw Buff is so dark and rich looking I will have to try it that way.

Now about American food. I agree that it's regional. I can see how people in other countries can think American food is McDonald's though.
soonergrandmom
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I just bought a pack from Baker Creek and it is called "Upper Ground Sweet Potato" winter squash.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years ago
I don't know if I can bump up a thread this old, but Jennifer needs recipes for winter squash because she has a ton of Seminole pumpkins, so I'm going to try.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
4 years ago
You did it, Dawn. Thanks!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years ago
You're welcome.

German above ground sweet potato recipes

scarlettfourseasonsrv

Comments (24)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

OklaMoni

Related Discussions

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

soonergrandmom

OklaMoni

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

mulberryknob

OklaMoni

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

soonergrandmom

soonergrandmom

scarlettfourseasonsrv

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

soonergrandmom

mulberryknob

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

ilene_in_neok

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

ilene_in_neok

soonergrandmom

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

Nancy RW (zone 7)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US