Guest writer: Pamela Walker, writer and local farm and food activist (www.GrowingGoodThingsToEat.com)
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Houston, my hometown, stays heavy on my mind, and I’ve been cooking Texas comfort food, to comfort myself in my grief about the havoc and about not being there to share food with my friends and neighbors. It’s my way of feeling our companionship even though we can’t gather together physically at the same table just now.
I moved to Santa Fe a little over a year ago, and I figured that certain southern vegetables would be hard to come by from local farmers here. Fortunately, I was wrong. I’ve bought beautiful collards from Malandro Farm and Green Tractor Farm, and okra, both green and purple, from Green Tractor, and, from Vigil’s Chimayo Produce, one of my favorite things to eat in the world – black-eyed peas!
Collards, I like to cut in strips and braise in a cast iron skillet with garlic, salt pork, and salt. And just before I eat them, I add a little of Mary Campbell’s unfiltered apple cider vinegar.
Okra, I like to cut in little rounds and bread with cornmeal and fry in canola oil in a cast iron skillet. Alternatively, I like to sauté the pods whole with olive oil and lots of salt and pepper, this, too, in a cast iron skillet.
Black-eyed peas, I like to simmer slowly for a whole day in water with a little Red Mesa salt pork or bacon, adding water as it cooks down, and stirring frequently and being sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. (I prefer a Mexican or New Mexican clay olla.) The result is a rich brown, slightly thick sort of soup with a robust flavor.
I don’t have photographs of my table-ready collards, okra, or black-eyed peas, so I offer instead a photograph of my latest cornucopia from the market, which includes them.
Here’s wishing the best for everyone affected by Harvey or, for that matter, by Irma, and, alas, by any number of other current disasters.
