This article originally appeared in The Local Voice #207.
To download a PDF of this issue, click here.
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Saturday, post farmers’ market, my kitchen.
I’m staring at a pile of produce. Squash, green beans, onions, jalapeno, and bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and parsley. Out of the corner of my eye I spy my great-grandmother’s big, old cast-iron pot.
The shiny black pot is almost mythical to me. A culinary titan. An unbreakable giant. A time capsule holding generations of food tradition. I can only imagine the many hundreds of Southern meals this pot held.
The pot, a wedding gift from my mother and grandmother, is well loved and used.
Cast iron cookware dates back to the BCs and is prized by chefs and home cooks for its durability and heat retention abilities. A well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or pot is non-stick and, I swear, cooking in a good skillet just plain makes food taste better.
So I’m standing in the kitchen surrounded by the day’s farmers market haul, trying to figure out what to do with it, and lo and behold that old pot speaks to me: “How about a light summer squash gumbo? You can serve it with rosemary bread. It will be delicious!”
Here’s the recipe the pot and I came up with…
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Betsy’s Great-Grandmother’s Summer Squash & Corn Gumbo
4 cups summer squash, medium diced (bite sized)
1 cup green beans, ends snapped and cut into 2 in. pieces
1 cup celery, diced
2 cups fresh corn, cut off the ear
1 cup bell pepper, diced
1 ½ cup sweet onion, diced
1 ½ cup ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1 ½ cup French fingerling potatoes, halved (depending on how big they are)
3 jalapenos, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 bay leaves
handful of fresh thyme
2 Tbs. butter, for saute
2 Tbs. butter, reserved
3 Tbs. flour
Tabasco, salt & pepper, taste
⅓ cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
6-7 cups water, chicken or vegetable stock (I used Not-Chicken Boullion)
Clean and chop vegetables. Have everything ready to go! Get your pot hot over medium heat. Throw in 2 Tbs. butter and when it’s melted toss in onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and thyme. Salt the vegetables and sauté until tender.
Add the other 2 Tbs. butter. When it’s melted, add the flour and blend until smoothly incorporated with butter and vegetables. (We’re not making a real dark roux here to keep the dish light but you can if you want to.)
Toss in squash, corn, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, jalapenos, and bay leaves, and then add enough water or stock to cover. Add bullion at this point as well, if you’re using it.
Give everything a good stir. Add pepper and Tabasco, maybe a pinch of salt. Cover with lid tilted and turn down the heat. Cook it low and slow, a few hours until vegetables are tender and flavors are mingled. Adjust seasoning. Maybe add a little of your favorite Cajun seasoning or a dash of Worchestershire sauce. Let it sit and cool for awhile before serving. Stir in chopped parsley. Eat with bread, sweet tea, extra hot sauce, and lemon icebox pie.
Yokna Bottoms Farm will have summer squash, green beans, onions, jalapenos, bell peppers, potatoes and tomatoes at Midtown Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Oxford City Market on Tuesdays! 
