Grandma's best side dish...

I was just thinking about my (Italian) grandmother - a wonderful cook - and one of her best dishes: potatoes & cabbage sauteed with rosemary and garlic in imported olive oil. I was wondering if some of you have a memory of a special side dish from your grandma...

Potatoes and string beans in her homemade spaghetti sauce.

John

Let's not be so general here. Can either of you communicate a receipe for any of these masterpieces.

Same thing with future memories?

Hello All,
Wish I could give a detailed receipe, but it died with Grandmom.
She made the best green beans. Salt, pepper cooked with ham and a little butter.
She was able to cook them to death without making them fall apart.
She also canned sauerkraut that was out of this world. It was not sweet at all,
but not bitter. A pleasant lite crunch in its texture. The first taste would take your breathe away
due to the vinegar, what a rush!
Actually, any memories associated with her are special.
Thanks NYNM for rekindling my memories and love for her, beyond her food.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Anything my mom made..she learned from Grandmom.....
"Nuff said....

quote:

Originally posted by wheregreggeats.com

Let's not be so general here. Can either of you communicate a receipe for any of these masterpieces.

Same thing with future memories?

Very simple. Simmer cut up red potatoes & fresh stringbeans in sauce with garlic and whatever spices you like. I use Italian seasoning,
not the same as Grandma's though.

John

creamed onions, mashed rudabaga (turnip), fresh cut fruit cocktail, thinly sliced green beans (she'd sit for an hour or two right up till she was in her 90s slicing a big bowl of green beans).

I've been searching 50 years for fried chicken that even approaches what my grandma cooked. Guess I'll NEVER find it!

My Granny made the best:
Pinto Beans with Cornbread
Fried Banana Pies
Fried Corn
and many, many, more side dishes

My grandma was Hungarian (that's "nagymama"), and she made a dish of egg noodles with cabbage that was both addictive and volatile (). I know how to pronounce the name of the dish, but I couldn't spell it to save my life!

She also made a soup from caraway seeds that was amazingly delicious and complex, but simple to make: saute a couple of teaspoons of caraway seeds in about a tablespoon of vegetable oil until fragrant. Add a tablespoon of flour and cook another minute or two. Add 2 to 3 cups of water (you want something just slightly thicker than broth), and bring to a boil. Correct for salt/pepper and serve sprinkled with croutons (the real, homemade kind ... don't even THINK of using storebought or "seasoned").

Fried pumpkin flowers and polenta with meat sauce (Italian Nona).

Carrot tzimmes and knaidle.

"Baked" Spaghetti-we had it at every picnic and family gathering for the last 50 years. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Boil 1 lb of angel hair and drain. Mix into that pasta 3-6oz cans of tomato paste (mix well until all pasta is coated). Grate 1/2 lb of sharp cheddar cheese and mix in half of that with the pasta. I prefer Cabot, but use whatever works for you. Pour pasta mixture into a glass casserole dish (11x13) and spread our evenly. Sprinkle remaining greated cheese on top. Pour 1/2 cup milk evenly over spaghetti(to keep moist in oven). And then to the SECRET ingredient: sprinkle cinnamon-sugar (like you would make for cinnamon toast) liberally over the pasta. I use about 5-6 tablespoons of it. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Serve and enjoy. Goes great with hot dogs, hamburgers, bakes beans, and potato salad.

quote:

Originally posted by Fieldthistle

Hello All,
Wish I could give a detailed receipe, but it died with Grandmom.
She made the best green beans. Salt, pepper cooked with ham and a little butter.
She was able to cook them to death without making them fall apart.
She also canned sauerkraut that was out of this world. It was not sweet at all,
but not bitter. A pleasant lite crunch in its texture. The first taste would take your breathe away
due to the vinegar, what a rush!
Actually, any memories associated with her are special.
Thanks NYNM for rekindling my memories and love for her, beyond her food.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle
Thanks to you, too. I really miss my grandmother - she was a feisty woman & a great cook. You know how those old folks had no "recipe" they just cooked by feel. I remember once she was making beef stew and couldn't find any cooking wine, so she just poured in my Dad's best scotch. MMMmm tasty!!

Fieldthistle, There is a secret to cooking green beans to death with out turning them to mush.

Use just enough liquid to come almost to the surface of the beans. Cook Veeery slowly. You want the liquid to barely bubble, but not cause the beans to move.

Don't stir, That breaks them up. Turn over with a spatula evry half hour or so.

Works every time. I sometimes cook them for 3 hours one day and about that long the next.

Delicious canned leisure pea salad.

Hello All,
Thanks mbrookes to the tip. The wife puts green beans in boiling water for about
ten seconds and then serves them. I'll make a batch for myself using your tip.
Thanks.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

granma made macNcheese from scratch and when served with her salmon croquettes........ it seemed like family members dropped from the sky and crawled out of the woodwork when that was the menu

Butterbeans! I found out her secret not long ago. A teaspoon of sugar right before serving.

My American grandma's best side dishes were her mashed potatoes with gravy, her summer squash sauteed with brown sugar and onions, and her slow cooked green beans.
My German grandma's were her spaetzle with brown gravy, her cucumber tomato and onion salad with dill, and her Rot Kraut.
I would love to be in either of their kitchens again enjoying their company and soaking up the aroma!

Andrea

First, a thank-you for the topic and to FT for his tribute, which applies to my grandma, Gam:

Actually, any memories associated with her are special. Thanks NYNM for rekindling my memories and love for her, beyond her food.

All the green bean recipes remind me of my maternal grandma's; I don't think my paternal grandma ever cooked anything at all! Gam was a veteran of the Depression, during which her husband, Dandy, was a country doctor who was often paid in food as well as a serious hunter. She cold cook anything! Her venison CFS was to die for, as was her rabbit with white gravy.

Gam's green beans were cooked with some ham or a ham hock, a little onion, maybe a little vinegar, and S & P. They came out withered, not mushy, and with a very intense flavor.

I'm running on here. My very favorite recipe was her salt-rising bread. Kind of like durian in that it has an offensive smell while in preparation but an exquisite flavor when done. I can probably find the recipe if anyone wants it.

My grandmother Dorine was not known as a great cook. But her baked beans were masterful, and always her purview when covered dishes got assigned. She insisted she didn't have a recipe and was completely incapable of telling what her proportions were.

Basically, though, she pressure-cooked dry beans (usually small white ones)until tender, then dumped them into a casserole dish with molasses and/or sugar, a ham hock, salt and pepper, and then baked them til they were done. Nothing super-secret, but everyone always said that nobody made beans like her.
My dad and granddad poured lots of vinegar on theirs.

My grandmother on my father's side was Italian and her best side dish would be a homemade pizza. It was always served as a side dish rather than a main meal becuase there wouldn't be enough oven space to make pizza for all of us as a meal. It wasn't like your typical homemade pizza... it was very similar to what is offered at Pepe's.
My grandmother on my mother's side was African American and she made a lot of the traditional "soul food" type of meals. I recall that every time she made fried chicken she'd make buttermilk biscuits along with it which were the best I've had.

The first garden peas and new potatoes with a cream sauce(real butter and real cream, my grandparents had a dairy farm).

Green beans cooked with salt pork, salt, pepper, and a dab of sugar.

Creamed corn(again with butter & cream).

All cooked on a coal range.