Vegetable Gardens

» Sally125 - Okra Gumbo

In response to Okra Gumbo posted by bobcajun:

Bob, I'm going to post you the clam bake and the pig picking recipes here, but I'll put them into a blog as well. I'm glad to talk to people like you and Joy who appreciate culture and regional cuisine!

Eastern NC Clam Bake

Per serving:
* 8 to 12 clams
* 6 to 8 large shrimp (leave shells on)
* 1 medium sweet potato
* 1 ear sweet corn (remove husk and silks, then put corn back in husk)
* 2 onions (peeled)
* ¼ of a chicken
* Salt
* Black pepper
* Cheesecloth

Scrub the clams under cold, running water. Scrub the potato. Rinse the shrimp. Rinse and dry chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place all ingredients in the cheesecloth. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together. Place it on a steamer rack over boiling water. Cover and steam until potato is done. It usually takes close to an hour.

Note – If you don’t want your shrimp overdone, just steam them separately. NC clam bakes are often accompanied by cold Pepsi and rolls or cornbread, and are eaten with fingers! Serve with bowls of melted butter. Keep the salt and pepper shakers handy.

A Down East Pig Pickin’

A pig picking means a hog roast or pork barbecue cooked outside. Buccaneers comes from the word boucan (which means literally barbecue) and is the technique of slow cooking over a fire. The French who practiced this technique were called boucaniers. Pirates (Blackbeard being the most famous) loved to have pig pickings where they slow-roasted wild pigs on the islands in North Carolina. There is a little debate about the origin of our pig pickings, but that is the predominant theory.

A Down East pig picking is simply a hog that is slow-roasted (over a low fire of oak, hickory, coals or today, sometimes gas cookers) in a pig cooker (which is specially made in these parts usually from an oil drum sawed in half and welded to an axel and a trailer hitch). It is an all day process. When the meat is finally done, you bring your plate to the pig cooker and “pick” off what you want. That’s why it is called a pig picking. Of course, we are usually civilized and use forks and tongs, but sometimes NOT.

It is a BIG DEAL to cook barbecue in Eastern NC. They have pig cook-offs regularly and almost always, the chefs are men. They get the fire to the right point, then put the split pig onto the rack, baste it liberally with sauce and close the lid. You lift the lid every hour, put on more sauce and close the lid. Continue all day until it’s done.

Each man’s sauce is a closely guarded secret. The difference in Eastern NC BBQ and Western NC BBQ is the sauce. Eastern is vinegar-based (and the best by far) and Western adds tomato. If you visit Eastern NC and want to try the local specialties, go to Kings Restaurant in Kinston, Rolands in Beaufort, or Moores Restaurant in New Bern. None are fancy, but all have great BBQ.

With the barbecue, locals usually eat collards (another Down East MUST; the favorite is the old fashioned yellow cabbage collard variety, cooked with seasoning meat like ham hocks and cornmeal dumplings), potato salad (mustard based), and cole slaw. Lots of iced tea and hush puppies (small pieces of deep fried cornbread) finishes the main meal. For dessert, choose banana pudding.

A basic Eastern pork barbecue sauce (Experiment and develop your own extra ingredients!)

*2 quarts cider vinegar
*1/4 cup salt
*2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
*3 tablespoons red pepper flakes
*1 cup light brown sugar
*1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce

DIRECTIONS: In a large bowl, mix the vinegar, salt, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, light brown sugar, and hot pepper sauce. Stir it until salt and sugar have dissolved. Cover the bowl, and let sauce stand at least 3 hours. Add just one secret ingredient and you are ready to try your skills in a cook-off!

-- posted by Sally125