Recipes: Southern traditions get a French twist in these Thanksgiving dishes

Even in this year when so much is different, chef Jennifer Hill Booker expects to spend Thanksgiving in Charleston, Mississippi, the place she considers “home.” There, at the farm of her grandparents Green and Bessie Scurlock, her family will gather in a safe way to celebrate Thanksgiving as they’ve done for dozens of years.

The crowd always included Booker’s immediate and extended family, and anyone who knew that Thanksgiving would be served at about 2 p.m. and dropped by around that time. The table would be covered with dishes: turkey and dressing, a ham, a mix of turnip and mustard greens with slices of turnips, field or crowder peas, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, fried cabbage, pig’s feet, candied sweet potatoes, tons of pickles and relishes and always a salad of cucumber, tomato and onion. Desserts would include a yellow cake with chocolate icing and a cobbler, often made with her grandmother’s own canned peaches.

”Although I’m sure other people helped, what I remember is that my grandmother did 90% of the cooking (for many years). Her dressing is still my favorite. She made biscuits religiously every morning until my grandfather passed away. That, along with a fresh pan of cornbread, were the base for the dressing. It had onions, bell pepper, garlic, lots of sage and broth from the turkey."

This will be the family’s first Thanksgiving without Bessie Scurlock. She passed away in January at the age of 97. “And in the past few years, she really hasn’t cooked. My mom and auntie and us grown girls took over the cooking, but dinner was always at Gram’s house.”

Booker expects this year’s menu to feature most of the standards. “There’ll be turkey and that same sage dressing, a ham, greens and beans and usually I do roasted sweet potatoes instead of candied. Definitely we’ll have that tomato, cucumber, onion salad, and there’ll be plenty of pickles and preserves on the table. But probably only two desserts instead of the three or four Gram would have served.”

Her family expects Booker to lead the meal prep since she’s the food professional in the family with two cookbooks, “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow” (Pelican, $28.95) and “Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes With a French Accent” (Arcadia Publishing, $26.95), a collection of cookbook journals and a brand-new line of spices, Your Resident Gourmet Cooks!, with five seasoning and sugar mixes ranging from chili seasoning to a poultry seasoning and rub.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

In going through her recipes, she selected four to share with us. Her Collard Green Salad is a variation on the traditional braised greens. “It’s raw and fresh and with the addition of red peppers, it’s a perfect holiday salad.”

During her time spent in Paris, she found that French and Southern dishes are easily married. “I make roasted sweet potatoes all the time, and when you have some left over, you can make a pretty high-brow French dish: sweet potato crepes. I love that it takes something we love and serves it in a different way.”

Hoecakes have always been a family tradition. “It’s really just cornbread cooked in a small round. You can dress it up or down. My grandmother would laugh at me because I would beg her to make them for me. I love them but I also like the connection they have to Black history.”

The last recipe, Sweet Peas with Tarragon and Creme Fraiche, is clearly a marriage of American tradition and French flavors. Booker remembers her mother serving English peas (from that famous silver can) cooked with carrots for special occasions. “It was a big deal and they were French! So I dressed it up with a little creme fraiche and some fresh tarragon.”

RECIPES

The ongoing pandemic has served as a reminder for chef Jennifer Hill Booker, as for many of us, of the importance of family and family gatherings. Until we can gather safely again, Booker offers four Thanksgiving recipes to make, and perhaps share, this holiday season.

Credit: Chris Hunt

Sweet Peas with Tarragon and Creme Fraiche

This combination of peas, scallions, celery and tarragon was a hit with everyone who tried it. The addition of cream puts it over the top. We were even inspired to use this same treatment for green beans and field peas.

Adapted from a recipe by Jennifer Hill Booker.

Credit: Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn

Collard Greens Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

If you’ve never considered eating collard greens raw, this recipe will change your mind. And just as when you cook collard greens, that big bundle of slivered greens, when massaged, melts down to a fraction of its former volume and makes them tender enough to enjoy raw.

To get the full flavor of the Shallot and Black Peppercorn Champagne Vinegar, start that recipe right away. It takes two weeks to come to full strength, but can be used much sooner. And if you don’t have pecan oil, we found pure olive oil (not extra virgin) worked fine.

Adapted from a recipe in “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow” by Jennifer Hill Booker (Pelican, $28.95).

Credit: Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn

Sweet Potato Crepes with Brown Sugar Butter

These crepes are a great way to use leftover roasted sweet potatoes, but not candied sweet potatoes. If you’ve got candied sweet potatoes on your Thanksgiving menu, save some of the roasted potatoes before they get sweetened to use in this batter. Resting the crepe batter allows any air bubbles to escape. The result is a crepe less likely to tear during cooking.

Depending on the consistency of your roasted sweet potato, you may need more liquid to make a batter that spreads easily. You can mix these up by hand or use your blender.

Since the crepes aren’t sweet, they’re delicious with the Brown Sugar Butter but would also be good filled with leftover turkey and dressing or leftover ham and a little Swiss cheese.

Brown Sugar Butter

Leftover Brown Sugar Butter is delicious on pancakes or waffles. It can also be used to saute apples or pears for a hot side dish.

Adapted from a recipe in “Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow” by Jennifer Hill Booker (Pelican, $28.95).