New stuff in Southern cooking

Sample the South Eats Diet!

By Sally Ketchum
eDiets Contributor

Dieting? And missin'all that good ol' , soul satisfin' fried southern cooking? Chicken-fried steak? Red-eye gravy on ham with cream biscuits?

Well, you can dump those yearnings easier than you can say South Beach because there' s new stuff in Southern cooking. The new Southern trends and innovative, healthy dishes line up, side by side, competing with those caloric, marshmallowed buttered sweet potatoes, Smithfield hams and caramel-frosted, sugar syrup-soaked carrot cake.

There' s new recipes and new cooking methods, too, like doing southern greens faster and, conversely, cooking slowly -- very, very slowly -- to put the idea of frying right underneath that big iron pan.

Some of the recipes are mean and lean, as in "the cutting edge," with popular ingredients combined in fresh ways. New wraps are in -- perhaps one like spinach, Georgia pecans, blue cheese and dried cherries or dried cranberries, vegetable, fruit, nuts and cheese. Other healthy choices go back to historical southern cooking, like Southern Rice Popovers. The popovers are a bit shorter than the usual kind, but the creamy texture is a great trade-off.

In any case, southern dishes are long on vegetables and popular grains and are often new in the treatment of the ingredients. Consider classic southern greens. Collards, kale, mustards and turnip greens are the traditional assertive Southern greens, and now they join their sweeter cousins, like Swiss chards, in recipes.

New methods of cooking greens shorten cooking times, decrease the amount of cooking water, but still maintain the basics of first simmering the greens and, second, braising them in a cooking liquid. A new cooking method: Boil two pounds of greens, one kind or mixed, in two quarts of salted water for about 10 minutes until they are tender. (The old method simmered them in a huge pot of water all day back on the stove.)

When the greens are tender, rinse in cold water and squeeze excess water out. Add 3-4 teaspoons of olive oil (or an olive oil spread) to a pan and sauté 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion until soft, about 10 minutes. (If you desire bacon, chop and sauté 2 low-sodium strips and drain on a paper towel.) Add 2-3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon brown sugar and cooked greens and bacon bits, if used. Toss. Add 1/2 cup or more of low-sodium chicken broth. Cook 5-7 minutes or more or until the chicken broth is absorbed. Salt and pepper to taste. Then, in the Southern tradition, splash with a little cider vinegar before serving.

The new cooking method is quicker and also improves the health benefits of Southern cooking. Further, the new chards, "Bright Lights" and "Bright Yellow" come in amazing shades of reds, creams and yellows, adding color -- always a boon to dieting. Swiss chard is grown mainly for its wide stems. Chards are known for their leaves. All parts are edible and delicious.

Some new methods of cooking go further than decreasing fat, they eliminate frying in fat completely, citing evidence that frying foods at very hot temperatures is a health danger as it releases toxins that are aging may cause cancer. Thus, the return is to slow cooking, which started in Italy, is moving across most cuisines, including southern food.

The famed Burgoo of Kentucky, which once included squirrel, was historically cooked and served from huge kettles at political events. Now it slow cooks on the kitchen counter all day, its vegetables, onions, celery, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, chili peppers, lima beans, parsley; and herbs and sauces, thyme, bay leaf, hot red pepper sauce and Worcestershire sauce to taste, all meld as the foods absorb each other' s flavors.

Southern Rice Popovers
1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature
2/3 cup mashed cooked rice, whirled for 20 seconds in a food processor
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 jumbo eggs, at room temperature

Place a 12-cup muffin or popover tin in the oven and preheat the oven and the tin to 450 degrees. Pour the milk into a large mixing bowl; add the mashed rice, flour, vanilla and salt. With a rotary beater or whisk, beat until blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in completely before adding the next.

Remove the hot pan from the oven and spray with cooking baking oil spray. Fill the cups two-thirds full. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 20 minutes longer, or until the popovers are deeply golden and puffed. Do not open the oven during baking. Serve hot.

--"Marcia Adam' s Heirloom Recipes"

A little southern comfort on the table is welcome this time of year, and the slow cooker is ready with a stew full of vegetables, there' s a side of healthy greens in a pan on the stove and rice popovers warm from the oven. Dessert? Well a little Georgia peach sherbet ought to do it. Bon appetit, ya'll.

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Sally Ketchum is a northern food writer who loves southern food and grows specialty greens, especially Swiss chards, in her kitchen garden. She can be reached at ketchum@direcway.com