Destination # 3 - Oklahoma

Oklahoma is where my people hail from. My "kinfolk" as they might say in Okie-speak. My maternal Grandmother, "Big Grandma," birthed about 636 babies (give or take) and raised all but one of them in Oklahoma. My own mother was the baby of the bounty and she experienced what I could only imagine was a very different upbringing in California. We used to visit Oklahoma most summers right around the time when the heat and humidity were so oppressive that steam would ooze from my ears and sweat would flood my little body in the short sprint from the air conditioned houses to the cars in the driveway. I remember wild and somewhat terrifying lightning storms and chasing fireflies after sundown. There were nights of dizzying blackness; a darkness so complete only the country could offer and the tiny buzzing glow of the fireflies that always left me both stunned and delighted. Parts of Oklahoma have nothing but Indian red clay roads as far and as flat as your eyes could see and little mini-marts every few miles that were called "the # 9" or "the # 3", 7 and so on. For some reason this charmed the pants off of me and was such a complete culture shock from the 7-11 laced California suburb that I called home. Lastly, before I move on to the food, and by far my fondest memory was the ho-downs (for lack of a better word) we used to have out by the lake. I'm proud to claim that I have a couple of musical prodigies in the family (a cousin that contended and I believe tied with Allison Krauss in a fiddling competition and an Uncle and cousins that produced a few albums in a Bluegrass band for several years. Those guys would whip out their fiddles and banjos and we'd all sing along and dance to blue-grass music and picnic by the lake, jumping in frequently to beat the heat. Throughout my childhood, my friends would constantly make vicious fun of me because I always sang with a country accent but hey... that's what I associated with stellar singing so there ya go. I'm over the country accent now, AND I can't sing worth a lick. Coincidence? I don't think so.

When I think of Okie food I think fried okra, monkey bread and all things buttermilk. I used to drink buttermilk by the gallon every Tuesday when I visited with Big Grandma while my mother would make faces and gagging gestures at me in the background. I'm also over the buttermilk obsession but I don't think it's affected my ability (or lack thereof) to sing. My mom told me the other day that Big Grandma used to make her "Chicken and Dumplings" every Sunday for supper and that it tasted like nasty slop with boiled chicken and blobs of raw dough dropped in. BINGO! I had my Okie culinary challenge. We are attempting to make a Chicken and Dumplings dish that will get the Mommy stamp of approval and turn her around on Chicken and Dumplings for good. I'm typing this as Drake is in the kitchen fixin' dinner now (I'm sick so I'm free of any cooking duties on this one) and there are a few alarming exclamations coming out of that kitchen, I must confess. Truthfully, we're both pretty out of our domain here. To quote Drake directly, "it's so interesting to cook a food that you've never eaten, never seen anybody eat, or even imagined eating." I don't even know what dumplings are, much less what they are supposed to look or feel like.

Chicken and Dumplings
4 slices of bacon
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - diced
3 cups chicken broth
1 t. poultry seasoning
1 1/2 cups half and half (original recipe called for 3 cups)
1 1/2 cups 2% milk (original recipe called for 1 cup whole milk)
1 can Pilsbury Biscuit Dough

1. Cook bacon over med heat until evenly brown. Drain and crumple; set aside.
2. Add potatoes, onion and chicken to bacon drippings and cook 15 mins, stirring occasionally. Pour in chicken broth; season with poultry season, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 mins.
3. Pour in half and half and milk; add crumbled bacon.
4. Cut each of the four biscuits into eighths and roll gently into balls.
5. Drop biscuit balls into boiling mixture; reduce heat and simmer 10 mins, uncovered, then another 10 minutes covered. Do not stir. Serve hot.

Fried Okra
10 pods okra, sliced in 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Soak okra in milk for 15 minutes.
2. Combine cornmeal, flour, salt and pepper in seperate bowl.
3. Heat oil in skillet over med-high heat. Dredge okra in the cornmeal mixture, coating evenly.
4. Place okra in oil, stir continuously. Reduce heat to med when okra first starts to brown and cook until golden.
5. Drain on paper towels and server hot.


Post Meal Notes:





Okay. Hmmm... that was, well, interesting! Drake surprised me with fried okra which was about as awesome as I remember it the last time I tried some in 1982. LOVE IT! Drake on the other hand, did not. Sure, okra has a bit of a slime factor to it but it's the clash of textures when you fry it that makes it so fun and good. The chicken and dumplings turned out okay. Drake would describe it as a bland potato soup while I would describe it as a bowl of yellow things, none of which had a whole ton of flavor but I feel that the recipe probably turned out okay. She did make a few of modifications to cut back on the caloric level a bit (do southern people really cook with 3 cups of half and half)??? YIKES!

Overall take-a-way: Mom - you're off the hook but I am super excited that I got to sample some okra again and now I know that chicken and dumplings are really just not for me.

Time to wrap this up but if you have any Okie or Southern heritage and wish to try this, I'd be real curious what your thoughts are. Authentic? Yes? No?

And as they always say in Oklahoma, "Ya'll come back now, ya' hear?"