Follow Up Question

"Mm, yes--yes, Mr. Velazquez, you have a question."

As a refugee in the South (by the grace of God) the three questions for the Thursday three:

1. What the heck is "Hoppin' John"?

2. Did your mama actually open a can of cream corn and spoon some into hot grease? I ain't never heard of that.

3. Would your salmon croquettes be considered "southern" with the right additives? (maybe a pinch of red clay, or a little southern pine sap)

Thank you, sir.

Well, first, Hoppin' John is a wonderful New Year's concoction of black-eyed peas, ham, and rice that you slow cook all day. There are a billion different recipes, but I fix mine more along the plain side--peas, onions, a hunk of hambone, sausage instead of bacon or salt pork, salt, pepper, Louisiana Hot Sauce, and let simmer in the crock pot. Here's a recipe that's similar to mine.

Yes, for some reason, my mother would get the nasty white creamed corn and put it in a skillet and cook it with some salt and pepper. Imagine lumpy wallpaper paste. With salt and pepper. Blech.

Salmon croquettes can be made from catfish, in which case they are called catfish croquettes. I've never had them, but how bad could fried catfish pancakes be?

posted by Terry at 9:53:00 AM