Down-Home, Southern Dishes, On A Budget

Catfish On The Menu As Chef, Author Martha Hall Foose Preps Meal For Four

(CBS)  It's summertime and the livin's easy, and there's nothing like down-home, Southern home cooking to stay in that mindset.

On The Early Show Saturday, Southern chef Martha Hall Foose took on our "Chef on a Shoestring" challenge of cooking up a three-course meal for four on a budget of only $40.

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Foose cooks Southern food with a contemporary flair.

She trained in France, then returned to Mississippi and opened Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, which became a Southern institution, and later, with her husband, the Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood.

Foose brought some of her favorite recipes to our plaza from her new book, "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook" (Clarkson Potter), which is loaded with simple Southern dishes.

FOOD FACTS

Sweet tea: Has long been a staple beverage in the American South. It is almost universally made with black tea, sweetened with large amounts of cane sugar, and served over ice. The sugar is added to the tea while it is still hot, a process that creates a super-saturated solution of sugar and water. It is this higher-than-normal level of dissolved sugar that makes it distinct from most other regional varieties of sweetened tea. It is a signature drink of the region, to the point where the Southern use of the word "tea" is largely used to refer specifically to cold, sweet tea and not to hot or unsweetened varieties.

Catfish: Have been widely caught and farmed for food for hundreds of years in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Judgments as to the quality and flavor vary, with some food critics considering catfish as being excellent food, and others dismissing it as watery and lacking in flavor. In the South, catfish is an extremely popular food. The most commonly eaten species in the United States are the channel catfish and blue catfish, both of which are common in the wild and increasingly widely farmed.

En Papillote (the method used on the show to cook the catfish): A French word meaning "in a paper bag." En papilotte is a cooking process that cooks foods in their own juices in a bag (sealing the foods to cook in their own juices, rather than adding water as in steaming; re-enforces flavors rather than diluting them). Traditionally, the food is enclosed with parchment paper, but today, it's also cooked enclosed in aluminum-foil bags. Pastry is also used in the same way, such as pasties. The bag is slit open tableside so that the diner can enjoy the escaping aroma.

Black-eyed peas: The black-eyed pea is a small beige bean with a black circular "eye" at its inner curve. It can be purchased fresh or dried. Though originally cultivated for animal feed, the black-eyed pea is now a popular food, and important in Southern cuisine.

MENU

Sweet Tea
Watermelon Salsa & Chips
Baked Catfish with Black-eyed Peas
Lemon Icebox Pie

TAKE-HOME TIPS:

Discard lemon after squeezing juice; the bitterness of the pith will infuse tea.

Paper bags cook food in their own juices, delivering flavor without a lot of butter.

To help the cream whip, place whisk and bowl in freezer 10 minutes before using.

RECIPES

Sweet Tea

4 pitcher-size cold-brew tea bags, or 6 tablespoons orange pekoe tea leaves in a diffuser
3/4 cup sugar
2 lemons, sliced
Ice cubes
Fresh mint sprig (optional)

Place the tea bags in a large pitcher.

Add 3 quarts cold water, and steep for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water and the sugar. Boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.

Remove the tea bags.

Add the sugar mixture and stir to combine.

Serve over ice with lemon and fresh mint, if desired.


Watermelon Salsa

4 cups diced, seeded watermelon cubes
1 cup diced, seeded cantaloupe cubes
2 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped basil
Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
1 bag tortilla chips

In a large bowl, combine the watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, jalapeno, salt, sugar, chile powder, cilantro, basil, and lime zest and juice.

Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

For more recipes, go to Page 2.

Continued

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Add a Comment

by yongamerica August 23, 2008 1:23 PM EDT

This is a home run. Thanks

Reply to this comment

by tootall10142 August 23, 2008 1:59 PM EDT

Catch and clean one large catfish,go outside pick wild onion from pasture or yard,wash and chop fine.crush one half clove of wild garlic.one medium slice of lemon.light salt and pepper.place all ingredients inside catfish,wrap in foiland place above hot coals or place in oven.athree pound fish will cook in about 20 minutes on grill or 20 to thirty in 350 degree oven.

Reply to this comment

by gawoman August 23, 2008 2:08 PM EDT

Waht a strange and complicated way to make sweet tea! None of my family or friends would use such a complicated process - not even the young ones who like to brew tea in the microwave. Tea is usually steeped for 5 to 10 minutes in water that has been brought to a boil. Then the hot tea is poured into a pitcher and sweetened. Cool water is added and the mixture served over ice. I''ve never seen mint added to iced tea, but that may be common in other parts of the south. Some of the other recipes do sound good.

Reply to this comment

by erasmus81 August 23, 2008 4:39 PM EDT

"Watermelon Salsa"

What''s up with having fruit and green onion together?

I went to a party once and someone had made something like this with the two of them together. I thought I was going to throw up.

Reply to this comment

by skeezix06 August 23, 2008 10:30 PM EDT

Chef on a shoestring?

How many of us do you think spend $40 to make a three course meal for 4?

Hint: Try few, very very few.

Reply to this comment

by cyberus-2009 August 23, 2008 11:50 PM EDT

The pie has 10 ingredients and the "cost" list has 5 ... doing government math again to come under budget again CBS?

Reply to this comment

by deweyhowe August 24, 2008 12:13 AM EDT

"You best get use to everything on a budget after eight years of pilfering and plundering of the U.S. treasury by republicans to make Haliburton and Bechtel richer. No child left behind? Try no multi-billion dollar corporation left behind. Republicans don''''t give a hoot about educating our children."

WOW, some people are so crazy that they need to let it out everywhere, to everyone, without even the slightest pretense at discrimination. They are wrestless, friendless, paranoid, see political intrigue everywhere, even in a bunch of steamed catfish. Sheesh.

Reply to this comment

by bobsfox66 August 24, 2008 3:12 AM EDT

I have to feed 3 adults on $40-50 a WEEK! If we spend $40 on one meal, it''s the RARE occasion we get to eat out at a nice restaurant. sheesh!

Reply to this comment

by mswolfestock August 25, 2008 2:01 PM EDT

The prices for some of the individual items are way, way low. Twenty-five cents for a lime is a great price. I have to pay seventy-nine cents for a lime at my grocery store.

The point is I would probably pay at least $10 more for this meal if I was dumb enough to waste my time trying to do it.

And forget about the paper sack thing. Tootall 10142 has the right idea - cooking smaller-sized whole fish or fish portions in foil is the way to go.

And the sweet tea thing . . . . . sheesh! I''m not even a "real" southerner and I know that nobody does tea that way. Boiling water goes over the tea bags (any brand except Lipton, thanks) in a pitcher. Stir in the sugar. Add cold water to the pitcher; don''t put it in the fridge until it''s at room temp so you don''t get the fridge all warmed up. Am I right, y''all?

Reply to this comment

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[yongamerica]

This is a home run. Thanks

[tootall10142]

Catch and clean one large catfish,go outside pick wild onion from pasture or yard,wash and chop fine.crush one half clove of wild garlic.one medium slice of lemon.light salt and pepper.place all ingredients inside catfish,wrap in foiland place above hot coals or place in oven.athree pound fish will cook in about 20 minutes on grill or 20 to thirty in 350 degree oven.

[gawoman]

Waht a strange and complicated way to make sweet tea! None of my family or friends would use such a complicated process - not even the young ones who like to brew tea in the microwave. Tea is usually steeped for 5 to 10 minutes in water that has been brought to a boil. Then the hot tea is poured into a pitcher and sweetened. Cool water is added and the mixture served over ice. I''ve never seen mint added to iced tea, but that may be common in other parts of the south. Some of the other recipes do sound good.

[erasmus81]

"Watermelon Salsa"

What''s up with having fruit and green onion together?

I went to a party once and someone had made something like this with the two of them together. I thought I was going to throw up.

[skeezix06]

Chef on a shoestring?

How many of us do you think spend $40 to make a three course meal for 4?

Hint: Try few, very very few.

[cyberus-2009]

The pie has 10 ingredients and the "cost" list has 5 ... doing government math again to come under budget again CBS?

[deweyhowe]

"You best get use to everything on a budget after eight years of pilfering and plundering of the U.S. treasury by republicans to make Haliburton and Bechtel richer. No child left behind? Try no multi-billion dollar corporation left behind. Republicans don''''t give a hoot about educating our children."

WOW, some people are so crazy that they need to let it out everywhere, to everyone, without even the slightest pretense at discrimination. They are wrestless, friendless, paranoid, see political intrigue everywhere, even in a bunch of steamed catfish. Sheesh.

[bobsfox66]

I have to feed 3 adults on $40-50 a WEEK! If we spend $40 on one meal, it''s the RARE occasion we get to eat out at a nice restaurant. sheesh!

[mswolfestock]

The prices for some of the individual items are way, way low. Twenty-five cents for a lime is a great price. I have to pay seventy-nine cents for a lime at my grocery store.

The point is I would probably pay at least $10 more for this meal if I was dumb enough to waste my time trying to do it.

And forget about the paper sack thing. Tootall 10142 has the right idea - cooking smaller-sized whole fish or fish portions in foil is the way to go.

And the sweet tea thing . . . . . sheesh! I''m not even a "real" southerner and I know that nobody does tea that way. Boiling water goes over the tea bags (any brand except Lipton, thanks) in a pitcher. Stir in the sugar. Add cold water to the pitcher; don''t put it in the fridge until it''s at room temp so you don''t get the fridge all warmed up. Am I right, y''all?