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Soul Food For You

Maintaining the traditions of cooking Soul Food

By Amatullah JabrielPublished 3 years ago 12 min read
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Soul Food Menu plated above.

Cooking has been apart of my life for as far back as I can remember, and for me, that’s as early as two and half years old. My grandmother always had me hip-side, so when baking sweet potato pies, I was the spoon licker and bowl cleaner or, if it was sugar snap peas, after she’d open the peas and throw the shell I would be sure to pick up remnants needing to be discarded. I was always there and in hinds sight I didn’t realize that not only was I physically present but I was paying attention…taking in the details, the aromatic smells, attention to seasonings and flavorings - never a measuring cup, just a dash of this, a pinch of that, a bit more of that there. My grandmother affectionately called Mom-ma was mostly quiet, wasn’t much on words and with so much noise inside the home from others her power was in quieting the soul with cooked food served.

Lima beans, okra, grits, collards, cabbage, corn-bread, fried chicken, fried whiting’s are some of the many foods that were prepared for me growing up. Today, I prepare! Soul food from my hands, with all my heart, with absolute intention down to each memories scent, I don’t use nor do I need a recipe. With these hands, my hands, my grandma’s hands, and all of her grandma’s hands I meticulously contrive every ingredients essence to present what I love to share…food for your soul affectionally Soul Food. Todays menu will consist of macaroni and cheese, candied yams, string beans, baked chicken smothered in brown gravy with scratch biscuits, freshly squeezed lemonade with a hint of mint and the citrus’s of lime and orange and sweet potato pie, for latter’s dessert.

As I too am a quiet cook, there is always music in the background, just like when I was growing up. With food I know I’m doing so much more then filling, fulfilling and satisfying hunger. I’m nourishing, extending, restoring, expanding, preventing, multiplying, sustaining and protecting; I’m passing down told and untold stories of ancestors passed from both lands known and unknown, I’m the griot of food, its rich and simple ingredients, the torch barrier for all subtleties sacred threw blood, through DNA that’s subconscious and impulsive. For I am loving each soul I plate, speaking my own love language. So I play soul foods’ music, the likes of Barry White, The Isley Brothers, Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Ashford & Simpson.

My face smiles, my heart is full and I feel invigorated, jubilant…my feet are moving, hands snaping, head is bobbing, hip is popping and then I start recalling them reminiscing, laughing, joking: my daughters, son, family members and friends all cackling, feeling well loved for eating such delectables, smacking and sucking in their lips to savor the flavors, using their fingers to make sure they catch and ensure their utensils do not miss. The conversation is familiar and similar…Gurl how you get that gravy so rich, tasty and no flour clumps; Mom, you put’cha foot in dat; Wait…what did you to those yams…how you get them so candied? You put them in the oven; You made them buiscuts or that Bisquit; Wait…tell me’gain bout them black eye peas and no meat either! Aaaaahahahaha Gurl….you some’in in that kitchen….Mom you did that, again! Mom! MOM! MOM! Aaaaahahahaha…I love you.

The Meat

Preheat that oven to 450. I start with the chicken, either halal or from the Amish people. I want the best ingredients because food should never be thrown together or just gotten. Just the thought of people saying that they throw food together makes me streak and cringe. I have never even thrown together a bowl of cereal. Food should always be prepared with intention, remember! And good intention too. I don’t want ill-intended feelings, with low vibrating energy as an added ingredient otherwise the end product is angry food, off and lacking, without character and when you eat it your face spontaneously contorts trying to figure it out. Like, why come!

Wash off the poultry, clean it with lemon juice, pick and pluck any leftover feather pieces, make sure the inside is properly cleared and any excess fat is removed. Then rinse it off good, squeaky clean before seasoning with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, Vegeta all purpose seasoning, paprika, parsley flakes, a little olive oil and a few slices of butter in and around the chicken. That’s right, no Lawry’s seasoning salt! I said I like my food thoughtfully prepared and the salt content in Lawry’s is too high…might as well just use extra salt. Cover, place in the oven, turn the oven down to 350 and let it do its own thing.

The Mac & Cheese

Keep it moving by keeping the space clean, lite and vibrant. I know its going down as I prepare the macaroni and cheese. I get the right pot, fill with water, add oil to prevent the noodles from sticking and bring to a rolling boil. Have your macaroni waiting to pour in, along with the pan you’ll use to bake it in. In the interim, the ingredients for the cheese sauce…mmhmm! That’s right cheese sauce: 3 cups cheddar cheese, 4 slices havarti cheese, red bell pepper (1/4 piece, diced), 3 teaspoons of butter, about 2 pot-spoons of oil, quarter cup of flour, milk of your choice, I’ll be using a tin of evaporated milk because that’s what I have today, water to fill the tin, turmeric – about a teaspoon set in hot water, salt, white pepper, Vegeta all purpose seasoning, paprika, mustard powder, breadcrumbs and 3 eggs.

Oh-oh…I need a moment. Woooo chi-ild! Earth Wind & Fire, Be Ever Wonderful, just came on and I’m having a moment. I love the words to that song. Yeahzzzzzzzz!! I throw up arms, start waving them from side to side like a candle lit concert moment while snapping my fingers and twirling myself around. I’m feeling the music, I’m feeling my cooking, I’m feeling sharing, I’m just feeling all kinds of feelings with this song. Good feelings, nothing I can’t share…just music that makes my body smile. What I say, Soul Food got its’ own music, feel, its own smell…its soul through in and out of you. Wrapping itself around you like the warmest throw blanky you have when that chill comes over you, then I just bus-out with the two-clap church clap. Oh yeah…it is a feel-good smiling moment.

The water is at a rolling boil and you can pour the macaroni in. Once in, give it a good stir and turn the fire down so it doesn’t cook to fast. The noodles should be firm to the touch when cooked. Don’t forget to stir intermittently while preparing the cheese sauce. In another pot, medium-low fire, add your oil and butter for the cheese sauce. When melted add and sauté the diced bell peppers. Add flour and it should dissolve into the butter and oil, stir continuously as the consistency should remain soupy, otherwise add a little oil at a time to loosen. Add milk and alternate with water and stir continuously never allowing the mixture to clump. This forms the soup base so be liberal about keeping its flow fluid in consistency. Season the mixture to taste and stir. Add cheddar cheese (and milk and water as needed), then Havarti and stir. Then turmeric. Turn off fire. Place macaroni into a strainer and rinse off in cold water. Place macaroni into pan, add seasonings, add eggs (already whipped with milk) and mix in thoroughly. Pour in cheese sauce and mix through thoroughly. Lightly and liberally sprinkle on bread crumbs to cover the entire top of mac and cheese which forms a crusty top. Place in oven uncovered. Don’t forget to check on chicken and keep covered.

The Yams

Okay, the kitchen is moving! The smells are going and its warm. Lets wash off those yams with a scrub brush, put them into a pot, add two-three sticks of cinnamon, water to cover yams on a medium-high fire. Boil until yams are soft enough to pierce with knife and slide off.

The String Beans

Start snaping the ends of those string beans. Once done, rinse off, add to pot, cover with water but not excessively, add salt, pepper, Vegeta all purpose seasoning, a bit of oil and boil until cooked over a medium fire.

The Brown Gravy

Once that chicken is done, remove it from the pan and set aside. About a half a cup of flour mixed with water thoroughly and put aside. Medium fire underneath pan with poultry drippings, add flour mixture and stir continuously adding equal parts water or more to keep gravy loose. Season with salt, pepper, a heaping gallop of paprika, Vegeta all purpose seasoning, parsley flakes and stir until smooth and creamy. Lower fire and continue to simmer. Use a large knife or butcher knife to chop up chicken into large pieces, add to gravy, mix and turn off fire. Remove macaroni & cheese when top is golden brown and crunchy looking.

The Black Eye Peas

The yams are cooked, fire is turned off and needs to cool. For black eye peas you need half a bag of the dried beans, ¼ onion, ¼ red and green pepper, frozen cooked squash, turkey or chicken bone broth, salt, pepper, Vegeta all purpose seasoning, ground mustard seeds (fresh in a mortis & pedal) about a teaspoon, oil. Rinse off peas, add water, all ingredients and stir occasionally until peas are soft.

The Biscuits

Biscuit time! I used Bisquick mix for many years akin to Jiffy being the all to, go to for all things corn bread. nuances of both are delicate and require something more than the mixing of ingredients, not overworking the dough or batter, something that’s innately inside of you. You not only bake this bread, you know it intimately, have broken down its DNA and can put it back together to create what can be eaten. All of my food and baked goods are always from scratch including any fillings needed and for this I take so much pride. When I finally stopped using Bisquick it was a proud moment but not one without strife. Biscuit making from scratch is an anomaly so when I went to North Carolina one year and ate at Tupelo Honey Café and ate their biscuits, I thought I died and went to biscuit heaven. I’m giving credit where it is deserved. I’m a foodie, my motto is bread for life which means I’ve made and eaten lots of biscuits from many hands. They are official. However, while during the Covid-19 quarantine I reached out to them and asked if they could ship biscuits to me. Instead they gave me their recipe, told me to make my own and to post when done!

The biscuit recipe as shared with me from Tupleo Honey Café: preheat oven to 450, two cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup of chilled shorting or 6 tablespoons of butter, ½ cup heavy cream, 1 cup buttermilk. Mix dry ingredients separate from wet. In the dry ingredients add butter and snap it in. Once crumb’ed in add wet ingredients, roll out, cut out biscuits using any ordinary cup, drop onto a baking sheet and bake at 425 until lightly browned.

The Yams Continued

While the biscuits are baking lets get those yams done. Take out the yams but save the cinnamon water it was boiled in. I do my yams on top of the stove…yeah, I said that! They don’t need to go into the oven! Cut the yams as you please, I like mine in large slices, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, salt, orange juice, 2 cups brown sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 3 tablespoons butter, enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot to make the sauce for the yams. On a low-medium fire put butter with oil. Once melted, add flour which should dissolve easily into mixture, add brown sugar (you may need a dash of cinnamon water to help dissolve), then add a few splashed of orange juice…okay about a ¼ cup, then continue to loosen with cinnamon water keeping in mind the sauce needs to cover the yams, turn the fire up to bring mixture to a rolling boil, stir continuously then add a teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle nutmeg over yams generously as this is the soul of candied yams, continue to mix then pour mixture over yams and done.

The Ending

Before plating, I again bless the food, the hands that prepared it and the person receiving it. I plate the menu on a white plate to best capture the vibrant colors. Smothered chicken, mac & cheese, string beans, black eye peas and candied yams. The biscuits are on a separate plate along side a tall glass of lemonade and sweet potato pie for dessert. Each of these foods are as authentic as I can make them with out the use of pork or beef which are no longer apart of my diet…actually neither is chicken anymore. However I struggle to complete a soul food dish that is lacking brown gravy smothering in some time type of meat, that does not have fried chicken or fish. I do struggle to merge the two, however in the meantime I will continue to make Soul Food as healthy an option as I best can staying true to its roots, flavors and consistency. Perhaps our next meal can be Soul Food inspired vegan style: fresh fruit of the season, grits with cheddar and pepper jack cheeses with sauteed garlic, onions and tomatoes with plant based meat, eggs of your choice.

I thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my story and I thank you for your reading time and judgement.

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