Edna Lewis's Roast Pork with Black Currant Sauce

 Not being American by birth nor that familiar I have to admit with the vagaries of American regional cuisines, I had never heard of Edna Lewis until quite recently.

Her name came to my attention when I was looking up lists of classic cookbooks; I have evolved this scam where whenever my partner, Juhee goes to the US on business I order a number of second hand cookbooks (from Abebooks- which has a data base of some 3.5 million pre-loved books!) and get her to bring them back to India.

So on a number of the lists I was perusing  a cookbook on regional Southern cuisine, “The Taste of Country Cooking” – first published in 1976 – kept appearing.   The book’s cover describes it as a celebration of  “the uniquely American country cooking Edna Lewis grew up with some 50 years ago (now closer to 80 - sic) in a small Virginia Piedmont farming community that had been settled by freed slaves.”   The book is credited with reviving the nearly forgotten genre of refined Southern cooking while offering a glimpse into African-American farm life in the early 20th century.

Edna Lewis was the granddaughter of a former freed slave in the American South and was born in 1916, one of eight children.   By the time she died in 2006 she had been a highly sought after seamstress, ran a pheasant farm, written 4 cookbooks – of which “The Taste of Country Cooking” was the most well known – and had cooked in restaurants in New York as well as the South.   Late in her life she was instrumental in helping to revive a nationwide interest in the quote “close-to- nature” style of Southern country cooking.

I liked the line in her New York Times obituary where her editor described her as “a lover of Jack Daniel's, Bessie Smith and understated conversation.”

The pork roast covered in coarse salt

“The Taste of Country Cooking” – a copy of which of course I had to buy after discovering the above story – is divided into four sections coinciding with the seasons of the year.   And the chapter headings give you some idea of the writer’s approach to recipes – “ An Early Spring Dinner after Sheep Shearing”, “Putting Up Fruits and Vegetables and Wine”, “Breakfast before Leaving for Race Day” and “A Dinner of Chicken and Dumplings and Warm Gingerbread”!   I can't wait to cook my way though this book over coming months.

The carved meat after 90 mins cooking

Here is an Edna Lewis recipe which I discovered on the internet.   It’s a side of roast pork that is first cooked in a heavy layer of salt – which is washed off during the cooking time – and then swathed in a rich black currant jam sauce.   Really delicious and my kids loved it!

EDNA LEWIS’S ROAST PORK WITH BLACK CURRANT SAUCE

Ingredients:

3 kg of pork – trust with cooking twine  (I cooked just a 1.5kg piece),  black peppercorns, bay leaves, coarse salt, black currant jam

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 240C.   Cut slits in fatty side of the roast and insert 3 peppercorns and a bay leaf in each slit.   Cover entire roast with layer of coarse salt.

Place on rack in oven and cook for 5.00 mins and then reduce heat to 175C. And roast for 30 mins per ½ kilo.

30 mins before roast is done remove from oven and pour cup of iced water over the meat ... (not clear from recipe but I drained  the water off.)    Let cool for 3 mins and then spread black currant jam over entire roast and return to oven.   Baste 3 times during last half hour of cooking using juices from the pan beneath rack.

When cooked remove from oven, let rest for 10 mins then carve meat into slices.   I served this with roast potatoes and a salad.   Lovely.

Roast potatoes on the side

Tony saab/Hyderabad June 2012