Simpson-Fletcher's Soul Food Stuffings

I love Philadelphia. If you poke around in corners of the city, you can find unexpected treasures. I found Simpson-Fletcher's Soul Food Recipes at the Tacony Library Book Sale. 

Find out about the Church that created the cookbook HERE if you want to know more about the particulars. Just scroll on down past the chickens.

Simpson-Fletcher's Soul Food Recipes devotes a whole chapter to Stuffings. I produce two of the recipes verbatim. I am making the Fish or the Capon. Or maybe Roast Duck. I hate Turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Stuffing the Jamaican Way
from Ms. Thelma Graham

1 and 1/4 cups mashed Sweet Potatoes
7 slices toasted Bread cubes
6 links Pork Sausage
2 tablespoons Water
1/4 teaspoon crushed Marjoram leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped Celery
1 finely chopped Onion
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Sage
1/2 teaspoon ground Thyme
2 tablespoons Butter
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Salt

Combine toasted Bread cubes and Celery with mashed Sweet Potatoes. Mix and set aside. In a frying pan, put Sausage links and cold Water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes then pour off any fat and break links into small parts. Add chopped Onion to the pan and cook until Sausage is browned and onions are clear. Remove from heat and add all the seasoning. Mix well. Now add Sausage mix to the Sweet Potato mixture. Blend well and stuffing is ready for stuffing a large Capon.

Sweet Pickle Stuffing for Baked Fish
from Albert the Chef

2 cups Rye or Whole Wheat Bread crumbs
1 cup Sweet Pickles, minced
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
2 tablespoons Onion, minced
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Sage (optional )
2 tablespoons melted Butter

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Toss the crumbs so they are well coated with melted butter. Stuff the Fish cavity. This is enough for a 3 pound Bass or Trout.

Solomon Gundy

I love my library.  They fund raise by having a donated book sale every Tuesday afternoon. I always go directly to the cookbooks. I found two gems. They cost me $1.50. I am interested in Caribbean Food. Since I live in Philadelphia, capital of Food Nation, my local Bodega stocks Salt Cod which seems like a reasonable substitution. 

Solomon Gundy is a Jamaican Salad. The name of the salad is a transformation of Salmagundi or vice versa. Salmagundi is also an Art Club in New York City. Somehow the Name transformed. 

Salmagundi is a whole meal salad created in the 17th century. One takes cold cooked Meat, Seafood, Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Nuts and Oil and Vinegar and combines them. Sort of odd bits salad. In Jamaica they used 'pickled' fish. This and that. 

Here are two vintage recipes verbatim. I prefer the second recipe which actually helped me understand the first recipe.  This is a really good appetizer or lunch. Persevere. 

Traditional Jamaican Cookery by Norman Benghiat, Penguin Handbooks, 1985.

Solomon Gundy

2 lb. (1kg) pickled shad
1/2 lb. (250kg) pickled cod
1/2 lb. pickled mackerel
2 onions
2 hot peppers, preferably Scotch bonnet if possible, chopped
1/2 cup salad oil
12 pimento berries
vinegar

Place the shad, herring and mackerel in a large bowl. Cover them with cold water and leave to soak for at least 4 hours to get rid of excess salt. Discard this water and add enough boiling water to cover the fish completely. Leave for 5 minutes, then again discard the water.

Remove the skin and heads from the fish, and as many of the bones as possible. Either put the flesh of the fish through a food mill with the onions and hot peppers, or chop the fish, onions and peppers very finely. Mix very well. Add the oil, the whole pimento berries and enough vinegar to make a paste. Store in sterilized jars. It will keep indefinitely. Serve on crackers or thin slices of bread. If shad is unavailable, use increased quantities of the other fish.

Cooking the Caribbean Way by Mary Slater, Paul Hamlyn Ltd., 1965

Salamagundi (sic)

4 Servings:

4 large Pickled Herring
1 breast of cold Chicken, cooked and minced
3 Apples, minced
3 Onions, cooked and minced
1 hard boiled Egg
Lettuce
Radishes
Tomatoes
Salt and Pepper

Slit each Herring along the side, being careful not to take the cut right to the head or the tail, keeping Fish intact. Carefully scrape out the flesh and remove the bones. Clean the Fish skin, pound the flesh with Chicken, Apples, Onions and season with Salt and Pepper. Pack the mixture inside the Fish skins until they look full and plump.

Old Jamaican recipes tell you to garnish with Barberries and Samphire, but failing these, a bed of Lettuce and a garnish of sliced Radishes, Tomatoes and Egg are very good indeed.