Green Pea Soup with Hot Dogs

Written by GAIL MCGLOTHIN | Photographed by APRIL MCGLOTHIN-ELLER

When I learned my assignment for this issue was to write a cooking column based on Georgia authors and books, well, as a writer who likes nothing better than cooking and reading, I was happier than a pig in slop – otherwise known as ham hocks in turnip greens.

Looking at a list of Georgia authors makes me want to run to the nearest bookstore or library. Their stories are as rich as whipped cream on cheesecake.

Ferrol Sams’ “Run with the Horsemen,” Erskine Caldwell’s “Tobacco Road,” mystery/ detective novels by Karin Slaughter or Laura Lippman, and books by famous personalities like Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Strength to Love” and Jimmy Carter’s “The Hornet's Nest” are books that have taken me out of my everyday, ordinary life into exciting adventures and inspirational calls to action.

Looking at a list of Georgia authors and their books can substantially lengthen a to-read book list. Reading Georgia authors also can substantially lengthen a to-try recipe list.

Good food is an integral part of living in the South, and living in the South is what Georgia authors write about. Sitting around a picnic table, dining room set or breakfast nook, characters discuss, argue, meet, apologize or even murder one another.

“The Great Santini” is one of Pat Conroy’s most talked about books, but the book that sold the most is “Prince of Tides,” my personal favorite. The most memorable dining scene features dog food served to the father for being such a jerk. Count on Conroy, the creative storyteller, to write that “stick to your ribs” entree into a book while enjoying fine cuisine in his world travels.

Conroy paired short biography snippets with recipes he developed as he studied culinary arts in a formal setting with a partner. “The Pat Conroy Cookbook” is aptly subtitled “Recipes of My Life” and includes a recipe in which he worked with yeast to make Sweet Potato Rolls.

Lewis Grizzard, another writer from Coweta County, was a humorist whose quotes about food entertained people from around the world. “It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato,” Grizzard said, suggesting to me that everyone should have a garden. He threw in diet advice with, “If you eat something, but no one else sees you eat it, it has no calories.”

When it came to favorite food, Grizzard said about church dinners, “Fried chicken is one of my personal favorites, especially when it’s free.” I don’t fry chicken often, but my family celebrates when I do.

Alice Walker won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her novel “The Color Purple,” a book read by middle schoolers and high schoolers all over the United States. She is a pescatarian who loves vegetables cooked with soul, and she adds fish and other seafood to her diet. I might be kicked out of the Alice Walker Fan Club by adding bacon to her pescatarian diet, but Swamp Cabbage can be a meal by itself with a little protein added – with cornbread, of course.

Flannery O’Connor loved Peppermint Chiffon Pie as served at the Sanford House Restaurant in Milledgeville, where O’Connor lived with her mother until she died. She grew up in Savannah in a strong Catholic family, and her religion shaped her writing. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is one of her most well-known collections of short stories. Even though she was a storyteller of great renown, her stories are sometimes left on the shelf as they reflect real life and tough situations and may be challenges to read. But there is always a moral to the story.

Enter Sue Monk Kidd with her best-selling, but not her latest, novel, “The Secret Life of Bees.” Honey is mentioned in this book filled with tales of Southern food and drink. Butterbeans and cornbread, salted peanuts and CocaCola, eggs deviled and pickled, and chicken smothered and fried reads like Sunday dinner on the grounds to me. I’m sure she would approve of the Sour Cream Coffee Cake, very rich and moist with a Honey Nut Topping that will make you need a glass of milk or cup of coffee to help wash it down.

An article about Southern authors cannot end without at least a comment about Carson McCullers and a book that will make you curl up and cry –in a good way: “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” From everything I’ve read, McCullers did not care about cooking or eating. It was said that when eating at the McCullers residence, one dined on her favorite food: green pea soup with hot dogs cut up in it.

My family are my guinea pigs and they all said they would not eat green pea soup with hot dogs, nor did they even want the concoction cooked on our stove. So, I did not.

Sweet Potato Rolls

Adapted from “The Pat Conroy Cookbook”

1 package dry yeast

¼ cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large eggs

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

½ cup milk

1½ cups mashed cooked sweet potato

5-6 cups all-purpose flour

Cornmeal

Place yeast, warm water and sugar in the work bowl of a standing mixer and let the combination stand until it becomes foamy, about 5 minutes. Using the paddle attachment, add salt and then beat in the eggs, melted butter, milk and mashed sweet potato until thoroughly combined.

Begin adding flour, 1 cup at a time, up to 5 cups, reserving the remaining cup. Transfer dough to a large, greased mixing bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Lightly flour a clean, dry work surface and transfer the dough to it by inverting the bowl. Punch down the dough and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too sticky to knead. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease round cake pans. Sprinkle cornmeal on them and set aside.

Using a serrated knife, separate dough into halves, then quarters, and then eighths. Cut each eighth into three pieces. Press each piece of dough with the heel of your hand in a circular motion, forming a ball. Transfer the rolls to the prepared pans, cover with a dish towel, and let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours. Bake for about 20 minutes until rolls test done. Makes 24 rolls.

Note: In a cool air-conditioned house, finding a warm spot to rise dough can be challenging. I cover mine with a kitchen towel and put it in my car with the windows rolled up. The dough rises perfectly.

Crunchy Fried Chicken

1 (4-5 lb.) fryer, cut into pieces

1 egg

2 cups milk

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons seasoned salt

1 good grind of pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Oil for frying

In a small mixing bowl, beat egg well. Stir in milk. In a large mixing bowl, stir flour, seasoned salt, pepper and garlic powder together. Dip chicken pieces in flour mixture, then milk, and then again in flour mixture. Set each piece on wax paper. Heat oil, about 1 inch up, in a large Dutch oven on high. Throw in one small, floured piece of skin. When the skin starts to cook, roll each piece of chicken in flour mixture again and immediately place in hot oil. When the chicken gets brown, turn it over and turn the temperature down to medium. Continue to cook until done. Drain, turn the heat back up, and start frying the other half. Keep first half warm as you cook the second half.

Note: Cook the meatier pieces, like breasts and thighs, together first, and then fry the backs, wings and legs together.

Peppermint Chiffon Pie

2/3 cup whole milk

2/3 cup water

3 eggs, separated

¼ cup sugar

10 peppermint candy pieces

1 envelope plain gelatin

Red food coloring

1½ teaspoon peppermint flavoring

½ cup powdered sugar

½ cup whipping cream

Chocolate crumb crust

Whipped cream in can

Extra crushed peppermints

Soak gelatin in cold water. Slowly warm milk. Break up candy and dissolve in milk. Beat egg yolks with ¼ cup sugar. Add hot milk to egg yolks ¼ cup at a time, beating constantly. Return egg/milk combination to pan and cook over medium low heat until mixture coats a spoon. Remove from heat and add gelatin. Stir well. Set aside to cool. When cool, add peppermint flavoring and red food coloring, if desired. Beat whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff. Fold into cooled custard. Pour into pie shell and refrigerate. When ready to serve, use canned whipped cream to pipe stars around the border and sprinkle with crushed peppermint.

Swamp Cabbage

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 slices bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces

½ head white cabbage, chopped in bite-sized squares

½ large green bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 small sweet onion, chopped in small pieces

2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic

1 (16-ounce) can chopped tomatoes, drained

Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat vegetable oil and bacon. Add bell pepper, celery and onion; sauté 5 minutes. Add cabbage and garlic to the mix, and sauté until cabbage starts to soften. Drop tomatoes into the cabbage mix and stir well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as desired. Simmer 2 to 3 minutes and serve.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Honey Nut Topping

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9x2-inch pan or 10-inch round pan. Beat butter until fluffy in a large bowl. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Stir flour mixture into the sugar mixture alternately with sour cream. Spread in prepared pan. Bake 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack, cool completely, and then spread top with Honey Nut Topping.

Honey Nut Topping:

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

6 tablespoons whole milk

3 tablespoons honey

½ cup chopped nuts

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar, milk and honey. Bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until thick and creamy. Blend in nuts and cinnamon. Cool 5 minutes. Spread over cake.