Thufferin' Thuccotash
When I was a wee bandicoot lad, I knew the word ‘succotash’, via Loony Tunes cartoons, it being a favourite expletive of both Sylvester the Cat and early Daffy Duck. I only realised it was a food, when I read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
Now, as a small bandicoot boy, I was interested in the food of the US -particularly barbecue, the Cajun/Creole food of New Orleans, South-Western cuisine, and Tex-Mex cuisine. And now, as full-grown bandicoot, I revel in it!
But succotash is special.
Succotash is a North American vegetable dish consisting of maize kernels and lima beans. The name succotash is derived from the Narragansett word ‘sahquttahhash’, which means ‘broken kernels’. The original succotash, encountered by the first English colonists, in what is now Massachusetts, was made up of maize and beans, boiled with fat bear meat.
So, succotash is an indigenous American dish, which is still eaten in the Western world today, albeit in a somewhat developed form. There’s a few of indigenous American foods still eaten in the West, but most of them are from Mexico and the South-West - things like guacamole, mole, pozole, tamales, and tortillas. Succotash is from the North-East, which makes it a bit of an outlier.
And furthermore, succotash is delicious. You can add other ingredients to it; bacon, capsicum, onions, potatoes, salt pork, smoked sausage, and/or tomatoes. It’s a remarkably forgiving dish. And pretty healthy; combining corn with beans and a small amount of meat, creates a dish that contains complete amino acids.
Now, a couple of random things. First off, traditional recipes for succotash almost always include salt pork. Indeed, one food writer, Henry Ward Beecher, writing in the Western Farmer and Gardner in 1846, called salt pork "an essential part of the affair”. Secondly, nowadays, succotash is a traditional part of Thanksgiving menus, in Liberia, New England, and Pennsylvania. It’s also common in the South and Midwest, but beware! In many parts of the American South, any mixture of vegetables prepared with lima beans and topped with lard or butter is considered succotash.
So. Here’s my recipe for succotash.
Succotash
Ingredients
* 3 cobs sweet corn, 4 rashers bacon, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 1 ½ smoked sausages, 1 bunch parsley, ½ cup roasted red capsicum, ½ cup frozen soy beans, ½ cup frozen green beans, ½ cup blended tinned tomato, ½ cup chicken stock.
* Olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, ground chipotle, paprika.
First, prepare all your ingredients. Cut the kernels off the corn cobs, put the kernels aside and discard the cobs. Cut the bacon into small pieces and put it aside in its own bowl. Peel and chop the onions into small dice and put them aside in their own bowl. Core the tomatoes, chop them into small pieces, and put them aside in their own bowl. Chop the andouille into small dice and put them aside in their own bowl. Strip the parsley leaves off the stalks, discard the stalks, put the parsley leaves aside in their own bowl, and shred the leaves roughly with scissors. Measure out the roasted capsicum, soy beans, and green beans. Put all three aside separately, in their own bowls. Blend the tinned tomato, measure out half a cup, mix it with the chicken stock, and put it aside.
Step back and run a quick check. You should have a bowl of corn kernels, a bowl of bacon pieces, a bowl of chopped onions, a bowl of chopped tomatoes, a bowl of chopped andouille, a bowl of chopped parsley, a bowl of roasted capsicum, a bowl of soy beans, a bowl of green beans, and a cup of tomato and chicken stock mixture.
Next, sear the corn kernels in a hot pan, with a big pinch of salt and a little drizzle of oil. When the corn looks slightly browned on the edges, take it out and put the corn aside. Fry the bacon pieces in the same pan, with a knob of butter and a good drizzle of oil, until the pieces look browned all over.
Add the onions and fry it with the bacon for around ten minutes. Add a good teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of pepper, a half teaspoon of ground chipotle, and a tablespoon of paprika, the chopped tomatoes and the andouille, fry it for around ten minutes, stirring it constantly, then add the capsicum and soy beans, stir them around and fry them for a few minutes, stirring it occasionally. Add the seared corn, the green beans, and the tomato and stock mixture, stir it thoroughly, turn the pan down to a simmer, and simmer it for around forty-five minutes. Stir in half the parsley, adjust the seasonings, and send the dish to the table, with the rest of the parsley.
Serves four as a main course, six as an accompaniment.
This stuff is delicious. It was big in Colonial America, kinda died away, and was rediscovered during the Depression. And by all means, replace the fresh corn with frozen or tinned corn kernels.
Now. Since salt pork is kinda traditional in succotash, and because salt pork can be hard to find, here’s my recipe for preparing salt pork.
Salt Pork (The Old Lounge Bandicoot)
Ingredients
* 1kg pork belly in one piece, 4 cups coarse salt, 2 cups sugar.
First, wash the pork belly well, and cut it into four, roughly equal pieces. Put the pork aside to dry for an hour or so. Measure out the salt and sugar, pour both into a large bowl, and mix them together thoroughly. Take a big (4-5l) plastic storage container and pour about a third of the salt and sugar mixture into the bottom. Nestle the pork pieces into the salt and sugar layer, and pour the rest of the salt and sugar mixture over the top; make sure that all the pork pieces are completely covered. Put the lid on the container, put the container in the back of the fridge, and leave it for eight weeks.
After the eight weeks has elapsed, take the pork pieces out of the container, dump the salt and sugar mixture, and simmer the pork pieces for about twenty minutes, then take them out of the water, pat them dry, wrap each piece in plastic wrap, and put them aside in the freezer.
Makes about 700g.
This stuff is important for a lot of traditional recipes, but it’s almost impossible
to buy - in Sydney, anyway. It should keep in the freezer for two years.
