C O U R S E Y • H A R R E L L S F E R R Y • M I L L E R V I L L E • O L D J E F F E R S O N • PA R K V I E W • S H E N A N D O A H • T I G E R B E N D • W H I T E O A K
THE SOUTHEAST
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
W e d n e s d ay, O c t O b e r 23, 2024
1Gn
Jan Risher THE DISH
Making Granny Sonnier’s meatball fricassee
‘She was a bonafide Cajun’
When I began to plan this new column about food and cooking, I knew I had a few friends in my back pocket who could help kick things off. David D’Aquin was near the top of that list. David grew up in Lafayette, lived and worked in television news in Baton Rouge for a number of years and now Recipe, calls Atlanta Granny home. Sonnier’s He was torn Meatball between two Fricassee recipes, both his 2A grandmother’s, but ultimately went with her meatball fricassee. David’s grandmother, Thelma Legere Sonnier, was born in 1922 in the rural Lafayette Parish community of Ossun. She grew up speaking Cajun French and was reprimanded in school for speaking it. David said she was a bonafide Cajun, if ever there was one. She eventually graduated from Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) with a degree in home demonstration. “The way she described it to me, she taught women how to be wives — like she was a home demonstrator. She showed people how to do stuff in the house, in the kitchen,” he said. “She did that for a long time, and then eventually, she became the school food supervisor for Lafayette Parish Schools. She oversaw all the lunches that kids would eat in Lafayette Parish.” His grandparents lived only a block away from the home where he grew up, so he spent a lot of time with them. He cut their grass and then cooked with his grandmother on a regular basis. His family ate lunch with his grandparents
ä See THE DISH, page 3G
PROVIDED PHOTO
Meat ball pas t a and ‘g r aveyar d dir t ’ unear t h swee t Halloween memor ie s In the 1960s, Halloween in New Orleans was a special time, filled with spooky decorations and the eerie charm of the city’s haunted history. For 5-year-old Kevin, Halloween was extra thrilling because I was trick-or-treating with my cousins, Lorna and Chet. Lorna was 15 and loved telling scary stories, while Chet, 10, had a mischievous streak. The air was crisp, and the streets were filled with kids dressed as witches, ghosts and monsters. I remember dressing as a cowboy, following behind Lorna and Chet, who were costumed as a black cat and a pirate. Chet mischievously asked. “How about we visit Madame Delphine’s house?” Madame Delphine was one of Lorna’s scariest stories. She had lived in an old, crumbling house and legend had it that she practiced voodoo and never left her
Monstrous Meatball Pasta
Kevin Belton CREOLE COOKING
house after dark. Lorna smirked, catching on to Chet’s plan. “Come on, Kev,” she teased, “it’s just an old story.” Reluctantly, I followed Lorna and Chet as they made their way down the street, the sound of our footsteps muffled by the thick fog as we approached the old, overgrown yard of Madame Delphine’s house. The iron gate was rusted and slightly ajar, creaking softly in the wind. “I dare you to knock on the door,” Chet whispered. I hesitated. The house was dark, its windows covered in
ä See MEMORIES, page 2G
PROVIDED PHOTO
Thelma Legere Sonnier, David D’Aquin’s grandmother and author of the recipe for meatball fricassee, known as ‘Granny’ to D’Aquin, cooks in her kitchen.
ANOTHER RECIPE Graveyard Dirt 2G
1 pound ground beef ½ onion, finely chopped ¼ cup breadcrumbs 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped 1 egg, beaten Salt and black pepper to taste 1 pound long macaroni noodles 1½ cup marinara, warmed Provolone, cut into small rounds Black olives, sliced crosswise into rounds 1. Preheat oven to 400 F and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment. 2. In a large bowl, add beef, onion, breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, and egg. Season generously with salt and pepper. Mix ingredients together until well combined, then shape into 1” balls. Place onto baking sheet. 3. Bake meatballs until done, about 13 minutes, then add a piece of cheese and an olive to each meatball to create “eyeballs.” Bake until cheese is melty, 2 minutes more. 4. Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted, boiling water, cook long macaroni pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and transfer to platter. 5. Pour warm marinara sauce over macaroni, then scatter with meatballs.
TH E BE E T G O ES ON
It’s time to embrace the versatility of earthy vegetable
BY BETH DOOLEY
I like them best either steamed or roasted. Cooking mitigates the effects of I adore beets of all kinds: the Recipe, geosmin, the earthy sweet, the lurid maRoast Beet natural earthy genta, the striped pink and the Salad compound that goldens. Sure, they’re not to ev- with eryone’s taste, but their strong Horseradish- beets contain Yogurt Cream that is associatcharacter stands up to a range of intense flavors — vinegar, ed with the veg3G horseradish, mustard, piquant etable’s smell of dairy sauces, vinaigrettes, “fresh rain” and “forest soil.” smoked fish. Early in the season, beets are The Minnesota Star Tribune (TNS)
mild and sweet; as they mature, they become more assertive, more themselves. Beets are like sponges and absorb flavors quickly, especially if dressed while still warm and left to cool beforehand so the flavors are fully absorbed and then re-dressed before serving to give them a boost. The same applies to
ä See BEET, page 3G
Beets are like sponges and absorb flavors quickly, especially if dressed while still warm and left to cool beforehand so the flavors are fully absorbed and then re-dressed before serving to give them a boost. DREAMSTIME/TNS PHOTO