Cooking Up A New Series - Part One

I'm working on the new series, and doing a lot of research to make sure I get the details right.  Research can be challenging, it can be fun, and sometimes I need to ask for help.  Right now it's all three.

One of the things that will run through the series is a weekly dinner for Glory and her friends Karen, Ernie, and Felipe.  In MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS the foursome are focusing on traditional Southern cooking.  For me this means learning some new ways of cooking (challenging), tasting the food (fun), and finding authentic recipes (help!).

Fortunately, my mother-in-law (a wonderful lady) was born and raised in southeastern Alabama, just north of the Florida panhandle.  She was my first call when I started looking for recipes and she didn't disappoint me.  I now have a list of things to try.

But before I could start cooking, there was the problem of rounding up typical Southern ingredients in a small West Coast town.  Especially a small town on the beach, with limited shopping opportunities.

To the Internet for help!!  I found instructions on how to make your own self-rising flour and cornmeal, and also discovered advice about using masa - readily available in a town with a large Latino population - as corn flour (when you look at the label, the words "corn flour" are right there).  At this point I'm guessing that  "corn flour" is probably the functional equivalent of "fine ground corn meal."

I hope.

Armed with this knowledge, I made a trip to the "big city" in search of supplies.  I found self-rising flour, several varieties of cornmeal, and a bag of masa.

Back home I consulted with my husband - an escaped Southerner - about what to try first.  We decided on a few of his all-time favorites: fried catfish, hush puppies, and banana pudding.  I've made a lot of banana pudding over the years, and I even had all the ingredients on hand, so that was no problem.

Catfish was another matter.  We managed to find some frozen fillets at the market, in portions large enough to feed a half the town.  Fortunately the woman on duty at the meat counter was kind enough to break up the package and sell me just a pound of fish.  (Which was still quite a lot for two people!)

Now that I had ingredients - or at least instructions on how to make substitutes - I needed the proper utensils.

The first problem was getting an appropriate fryer.  We considered using a pot on the stove, but I had a couple concerns, first and foremost being temperature control.  I have a lovely new stove, but keeping hot oil at a consistent temperature can be a pain, and requires a good thermometer and constant monitoring.  I needed an electric deep fryer.

I hit the local Goodwill looking for a deep fryer, but struck out.  I went in the Bi-Mart next door, hoping to find one of those miniature fryers that wouldn't set me back too much.  For once luck was on my side, and I found a nice sized one on sale for $30.  I have no idea where I am going to store this thing, but it was a great price, so we dragged it home.

Back home I now had ingredients and tools, all I had to do was cook...
(To be continued!)