First Black MasterChef after Nine Seasons

Colorstream Media

Photo Courtesy of Fox

MasterChef Gerron Hurt tweeted, “After 24 hours I am still on cloud nine.”   He also said, “You are now looking at America’s first Black MasterChef.

Halfway through the two-hour finale of Fox’s “MasterChef” season nine, Louisville native Gerron Hurt had a feeling he’d be headed home with the coveted “MasterChef” title and the $250,000 grand prize.

“I am a very humble person, but when I got to the finale, I walked into the studio feeling really confident about what I was cooking,” Hurt told the Courier Journal. READ MORE

His style of cooking is Southern-inspired.

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Food Truck Wednesdays in Maryland

Hooray for Wednesdays! Yay! Fun! Fun! Fun! 

Why the cheers for the week’s “get over the hump day?” Well, it’s because in Maryland, there are tantalizing tastes just waiting to be discovered at Food Truck Wednesdays. This fiesta of food happens every Wednesday from spring to the end of October at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department in Arbutus, MD and Red Lion Hotel’s parking lot in Timonium, MD. 

The food trucks include all kinds of scrumptious local and international cuisine including: soul-food, Greek, Mexican, Korean, Indian and even dessert trucks. Here are just some of the food trucks who frequent the event:

• The Gypsy Queen
• Greek on the Street
• Beef on the Street
• Wanna Pizza This
• Kommie Pig
• Jimmy’s Famous Seafood
• Farm to Charm
• Mexican on the Run
• Deja Roux

The Multi Cultural Cooking Network had the opportunity to catch up with one of the founders of the event, Chad Houck of H2 Markets. What a chat! We talked to him about the origins of the event, how the trucks are selected and what to expect in the coming months. Check out the interview above, and find out more information about Food Truck Wednesdays by going to FoodTruckNites.com.

Photo and video provided by Foundation Media Services

Eat your food on the run at Food Truck Wednesdays. Here is a Korean Beef BBQ Wrap from the Gypsy Queen food truck

 

 

History of the Hoppin John Bowl

“Hoppin-john-bowl” by Srjenkins – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

The origins of the name are uncertain; one possibility is that the name is a corruption of the Haitian Creole term for black-eyed peas: pois pigeons(pronounced: [pwapiˈʒɔ̃]).

The Oxford English Dictionary’s first reference to the dish is from Frederick Law Olmsted‘s 19th century travelogue, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States(1861).^[7] However, a recipe for “Hopping John” in The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge,^[8] which was published in 1847, is also cited as the earliest reference.^[9] An even earlier source is Recollections of a Southern Matron,^[10]which mentions “Hopping John” (defined, in a note, as “bacon and rice”) as early as 1838.^[11]

Hoppin’ John was originally a Low Country food before spreading to the entire population of the South. Hoppin’ John may have evolved from rice and bean mixtures that were the subsistence of enslaved West Africans en route to the Americas.^[12] Hoppin’ John has been further traced to similar foods in West Africa,^[9] in particular the Senegalese dish,thiebou niebe.^[13]

One tradition common in the U.S. is that each person at the meal should leave three peas on their plate to ensure that the New Year will be filled with luck, fortune and romance. Another tradition holds that counting the number of peas in a serving predicts the amount of luck (or wealth) that the diner will have in the coming year. On Sapelo Island in the community of Hog Hammock, Geechee red peas are used instead of black-eyed peas. Sea Island red peas are similar.^[14]

The Fascinating History of Moon Pie and Recipe

oonPies have been made at the Chattanooga Bakery since 1917. Earl Mitchell Junior said his father came up with the idea for MoonPies when he asked a Kentucky coal miner what kind of snack he would like to eat, and the miner requested something with graham cracker and marshmallow which had been dipped in chocolate. When Mitchell’s father asked how big it should be, the miner looked up in the night sky and framed the full moon with his hands.^[2]

There is a custom for eating moon pies with RC Cola, although the origin of this is unknown.^[2] It is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the “working man’s lunch”. The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950s, by Big Bill Lister, “Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie.”.^[3] In 1973, NRBQ had a minor hit with the song, “An RC Cola and a Moon Pie.”

Since New Year’s Eve 2008, the city of Mobile, Alabama raises a 12-foot-tall (3.7 m) lighted mechanical moon pie to celebrate the coming of the new year. The giant banana colored MoonPie is raised by a crane to a height of 200 feet (61 m) as the clock strikes midnight.^[4] Also, the city had for the 2008 New Year’s celebration the world’s largest moon pie baked for the occasion. It weighed 55 pounds (25 kg) and contained 45,000 calories.^[5]

See Video:

An annual RC & Moon Pie Festival is celebrated in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest is held in Bessemer, Alabama.

On October 16, 2010, Sonya Thomas, a competitive eater known as the “Black Widow,” ate 38 MoonPies in eight minutes in Caruthersville, Missouri.

Newport, Tennessee held its first annual Moon Pie Festival in May 2012.

Click for Moon Pie Recipe

Vegan Herbed Buttermilk Biscuits

In the minds of many bread lovers, when you’re talking biscuits, you already have our full attention. So add a little to spice, or should I say herbs and spices, to our lives with these Vegan herbed buttermilk biscuits. It’s truly a show-stopper.

Yield: 12 biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced
1 tablespoon fresh chives, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
4 tablespoons vegan margarine, cold
3/4 cup cold soy milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice

For recipe directions click here 

Recipe from Vegalicious.org.

Frogmore Stew: A Tasty Southern Tradition

Having a family gathering and trying to think of what to serve? Turn dinner into an event when you serve up Frogmore Stew.  Frogmore stew (also known as Beaufort Stew and Low-Country boil), is a staple of South Carolina and is popular in many Southern states. It gets its name from the very small town of St. Helena Island, which has the mailing address of Frogmore. 

The history behind this dish is uncertain. Some people credit its invention to local shrimpers who would use whatever ingredients they had to throw together a meal. Others attribute the recipe to Richard Gay (owner of the Gay Seafood company), who is said to have prepared a cookout of leftovers for his coworkers and later bringing the recipe back to his hometown of Frogmore where he sold it and all of the ingredients necessary to make it.

 

This dish contains some basic ingredients, all seasoned to fit the taste of your family: shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, and smoked sausage. Prepare the ingredients and you’re ready to go. Perhaps the coolest part about this dish is how you serve it: cover up your table with a bunch of newspaper,  and pile on the food. Serve it with your favorite condiments (cocktail sauce for the shrimp, ketchup and sour cream for the potatoes, and butter for the corn. Clean up is a breeze – just roll everything up in the newspaper and toss it out. Cook, pile, eat, toss. What’s not to love about it?

Ingredients (Yields 12 servings)

• 6 quarts water
• 3/4 cup Old Bay Seasoning TM
• 2 pounds new red potatoes
• 2 pounds hot smoked sausage links, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 12 ears corn – husked, cleaned and quartered
• 4 pounds large fresh shrimp, unpeeled

Directions

1. Bring water and Old Bay Seasoning to boil in a large stockpot.
2. Add potatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Add sausage and cook for 5 minutes more. Add corn and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the shrimp and cook until shrimp are pink, about 5 minutes. Drain immediately and serve.

Modification: Add some of your favorite ingredients. My fave: crab legs! Yum!

 

Amount Per Serving Calories: 499 | Total Fat: 15.5g | Cholesterol: 299mg

 

 Written by Tiffany Hathorn

Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/frogmore-stew/detail.aspx

 

 

Read 4068 times

Texas 20 Minute Sheet Cake

My good friend Kaye Gibson is the lady at church that when she sets out her dish then you know it will be gone in a matter of minutes.  Her reputation for good Southern Style Cooking is quite impressive from Sour Cream Pound Cake to Chess pie.  Now she gives us some chocolate decadence with this Texas 20 Minute Sheet Cake Recipe:

 

Ingredients

• 2c. Flour
• 2c. Sugar
• 1 stick oleo
• 1c. Water
• 1/2 c. Shortening
• 3 1/2 Tbs. cocoa
• 1/2 c. Buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine flour and sugar in pan, bring oleo, water, shortening and cocoa to a boil. Pour over flour mixture. Add rest of ingredients.
Pour into a 12×18 pan. Bake 20 min. @ 400 degrees.

ICING

In the same sauce pan mix: 1 stick oleo, 3 1/2 Tbs cocoa and 1/3 c. milk. Bring to a boil. Add 1 box powdered sugar and 1 cup pecans. Spread on hot cake.

Read 4579 times as of 6/3/14

Justin Timberlake’s Southern Hospitality: Fried Pickle Chips

Southern Hospitality was co-created by Eytan Sugarman, Trace Ayala and Justin Timberlake. Approximately three years ago, Sugarman,Ayala, and Timberlake discussed the idea of bringing Memphis-style BBQ and ribs to the New York City marketplace. The three friends spent a year creating the Southern Hospitality concept and were actively involved in all elements of design, menu offerings, and musical format. (SEE LOCATIONS)   The restaurants serve authentic Memphis-style BBQ boasting traditional Southern specialties prepared by Executive Chef Jay Lippin, ranging from Dry-Rub Spareribs to Pulled Pork and Wings of the South.  On one of MCCN’s anniversary’s the restaurant share this recipe. Yield: 1 Portion 
INGREDIENTS:

• Pickle Chips 15 Ea

▪    Egg 1 Ea ▪     Water 1 Tbs. ▪     AP Flour 1/4 C ▪      Panko Bread Crumbs 1Ž2C. DIRECTIONS : 1. Crack egg into bowl. Add water and wisk until incorporated. 2. Dredge pickle chips in AP flour. 3. Lift pickles from flour, letting excess flour remain. Transfer to egg mixture. 4. Toss pickles in egg mixture until coated. 5. Transfer pickle chips to a bowl with bread crumbs. Toss with bread crumbs until each pickle chip is crusted with bread crumbs. 6. Heat deep fat fryer to 350F. 7. Lift pickles from bread crumbs, letting excess remain. Carefully drop into heated oil. 8. When pickle chips are evenly golden brown, remove from deep fryer. Transfer to a paper towel lined bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 9. Serve with your favorite dip. We use BBQ ranch, which is a blend of ranch dressing and BBQ sauce.     Read 3898 times Like this? Tweet it to your followers!

Southern Style Strawberry Cake Recipe

Recipe from Lex’s Cuisine

Now my grandmother Josephine would make strawberry cake.  It wasn’t this pretty truthfully but it sure was good.  She decorated in a style that kids would like with pink frosting and candy on the top.  The last time I ever saw my grandmother she decided to make Easter dinner.  She had not done it in years but this time she was determined to do so.   My grandmother prepared all the desserts she helped influence as her grandchildren’s favorites such as German Chocolate, Red Velvet,  poundcake, sweet potato pie and of course strawberry cake on this last holiday with her.  Thus, Strawberry Cake has an affectionate place in my heart.  She would use a box cake mix and always add this or that.   I hope you enjoy this recipe.  It isn’t my Grandma Josephine’s recipe but it is American Southern Style just like grandma.   – 

Crystal Johnson, MCCN Editor. 

Southern Style Strawberry Cake  Ingredients:

• 1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding)
• 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry Jell-O
• 1 Tablespoon self-rising flour
• 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jell-O, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the water and strawberries and mix well. Divide the batter evenly into three 8-inch round baking pans that have been oiled and floured. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan.

Bryant Bagel Bread Pudding Recipe

Recipe from Teresa of San Diego-I created this recipe after my loving hubby brought home enough bagels to feed all of San Diego. I certainly couldn’t let them make their way to the trashcan, so….Bryant Bagel Bread Puddingevolved! Super-dooper easy to make, and super-dooper tasty to eat — ENJOY! –READ MORE