Fried Catfish! Yum yum. We have a recipe from Southern Living’s All-Time Favorites for one of our favorite dinners, fried catfish. You need to be sure and have all your other side dishes ready and steaming on the table when you get the catfish out of the cooking oil and drained for serving. There is nothing much to recommend cold fish!
Charleston Receipts shares Hush Puppies from Mrs. Taft Walker. This will go very well with the catfish recipe, above.
A chicken pie recipe from Rochelle Rogers in the cookbook from First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda titled “A Taste of Heaven” makes me hungry.
We found in this Southern Living’s 1997 Annual Recipes, Potato Latkes from Julie Benson of Louisville, Kentucky.
Mrs. Meggett says, “I always want you to cook with your own tastes in mind. This vegetable soup is a great chance to do just that. Though I list vegetables like bell peppers, tomatoes, butter beans, and carrots, you should feel free to use the vegetables you enjoy, and determine how many vegetables you need for the amount of soup you want. It’s very easy to change the measurements here, and this soup works best when you use vegetables that are seasonal and are the best in whichever region you live. I suggest serving this soup with my homemade biscuits, saltine crackers, or toast.” Note: We ran Mrs. Meggett’s recipe for Biscuits from Scratch last week in this column.
Emily Meggett says, “I learned how to make this dish at the Dodge House. But I made it my own by creating my own brown sugar crust, the real star of this dessert. Pineapple upside-down cakes can be found throughout the American South, but my cake is one of the lightest and perfectly sweet versions in South Carolina. If time is short, you can use a yellow cake mix instead of the cake batter. Instructions for Mrs. Meggett’s Whipped Cream follow.
FRIED CATFISH
Recipe from Southern Living’s
All-Time Favorites
6 (4- to 6-ounce) catfish fillets
2 cups milk
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil
Garnish: lemon wedges
Place catfish fillets in a single layer in a shallow dish; cover with milk. Cover and chill 1 hour. Combine cornmeal and next four ingredients in a shallow dish. Remove catfish fillets from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Remove from milk, allowing excess to drip off. Sprinkle evenly with 1 teaspoon salt. Dredge catfish fillets in cornmeal mixture, shaking off excess. Pour oil to depth of 1-1/2 inches into a large skillet. Heat to 350 degrees. Fry fillets in batches about 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Drain on wire racks over paper towels. Garnish, if desired. Makes 6 servings.
MRS. TAFT WALKER
(MARY TAFT) HUSH PUPPIES
Recipe from Charleston Receipts, America’s Oldest Junior League Cookbook in Print,
a Cookbook by The Junior League of Charleston, Inc.
2 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Red pepper, to taste
6 tablespoons chopped onion
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
Mix all dry ingredients, add chopped onion; then milk and egg, beaten together. Drop by small spoonfuls into boiling deep fat. They will float when done. Drain on brown paper. Serves 8.
ROCHELLE ROGERS’ MELT IN YOUR MOUTH CHICKEN PIE
Recipe from First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda,
A Taste of Heaven
3 pound fryer
2 cups reserved chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup,
  undiluted
1 stick butter or margarine, melted
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
Cook chicken until tender. Remove meat from bones. Save broth. Cut chicken into pieces and put in 9- x 12-inch dish. Put reserved broth and chicken soup in sauce pan and bring to boil. In another bowl, combine butter, flour and buttermilk. Mix thoroughly to form batter. Pour broth mixture over chicken and then spoon batter over top. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown.
JULIE BENSON’S POTATO LATKES
Recipe from Recipe from Southern Living’s 1997 All-Time Favorites
4 medium baking potatoes, peeled
1 small onion
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Shred potatoes and onion in a food processor; transfer to a bowl. Stir in flour and next 3 ingredients until blended. Drop mixture by 2 tablespoonfuls into hot oil in a large skillet; fry over medium-high heat, turning once, until browned. Drain on paper towels.
Yield: 12 servings.
EMILY MEGGETT’S
VEGETABLE SOUP
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
10 large tomatoes quartered or
  cut in half
1 large white or yellow onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, Â Â Â chopped
Seasoning salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Crushed red pepper
1 cup canned butter beans
2 cups chopped or sliced carrots
1 large potato, diced
1-1/2 cups corn kernels
2 cups green beans
1-1/2 cups sliced or
  diced yellow squash
1-1/2 cups sliced or diced zucchini
1) In a large pot over medium heat, cook the tomatoes with the onion, bell pepper, basil, oregano, seasoning salt to taste, sugar, and crushed red pepper to taste for 20 minutes. 2) Add the butter beans, carrots, and potato. Cook for 5 minutes. 3) Add the corn, green beans, yellow squash, and zucchini. Cook for 5 more minutes. The total cooking time should be about 30 minutes, unless the vegetables are still too crunchy. If so, then cook for 5 minutes longer. TIP: If the base of the soup is too thin, thicken by mixing 1 teaspoon cornstarch with 1/3 cup water. Stir the mixture into the soup at the end of cooking and continue to cook for a few minutes longer to thicken.
EMILY MEGGETT’S
PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
For the crust:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick)
  unsalted butter, melted
1 20-ounce can pineapple slices
1/2 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained
For the cake batter:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks)
  unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2-1/2 cups cake flour, preferably
  Swans Down
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, whole or 2-percent
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg Fahrenheit. 2) Make the crust: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar and butter. Using a spoon, press the mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch round cake pan, ensuring that the bottom is fully covered. 3) Open the pineapple can. Drain the pineapple juice from pineapples, saving the pineapple juice. Place the pineapple rings on the brown sugar mixture in an arrangement of your liking. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. 4) Make the cake batter: In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat all the ingredients and 1/3-cup of the reserved pineapple juice together. Once combined, pour the mixture over the pineapple. 5) Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until done – an inserted toothpick should be clean when removed. 6) Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, turn the cake upside down onto a cake plate. You will get to see your pineapple and cherries on the top. Slice and serve with whipped cream, if you’d like.
For serving: See recipe for Sweetened Whipped Cream (below).
EMILY MEGGETT’S
SWEETENED WHIPPED CREAM
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
1 pint whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream until peaks begin to form. While mixing, add the sugar. Continue to mix until stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes total. Add a spoonful of this topping to each piece of pie before serving.
