by Maya Angelou
I said, “I offer you this home whenever you need it or even if you just want it.
“Would you like eggs and bacon? Grits and sausage? Ham and green tomatoes?”
She laughed and said she’d like some of the previous night’s dinner of chicken and biscuits.
At the table she asked, “What do you call this dish?” She pointed to the chicken.
I said, “That’s smothered chicken.”
She said, “No, this is too good for such a simple name. This is suffocated chicken.” She then added, “This chicken never knew what hit it.”
Smothered Chicken
SERVES 8
Two 3-pound fryer chickens
Juice of 2 lemons
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
½ cup vegetable oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1 pound button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth
Wash and pat dry chicken. Cut into pieces, and put in a bowl with lemon juice and water to cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Wash lemon water off chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Dredge pieces in ¾ cup flour.
In large skillet, fry chicken parts on high heat in butter and ¼ cup oil until dark brown. Remove from skillet.
Add remaining flour and oil to skillet. Cook flour until brown. Add onions, mushrooms, and garlic, stirring constantly. Put chicken back into skillet. Add chicken broth and water to cover. Turn heat to medium, and cook for 25 minutes.
Serve with Buttermilk Biscuits (p. 41).
A DINNER WITHOUT MEAT can satisfy. Prepared with skill, it can even delight. But I did not know that when I was a child. I grew up during an impoverished time and in a poor part of the United States.
The Depression, which assailed the entire country, hit the South with a particularly heavy blow. Poor people who lived in a cotton economy and who were happy to have fresh meat once a month were challenged to find enough work to put the sparest vegetarian dinners on their tables.
Those who were used to eating fresh meat at least twice a week were challenged to find the resources to buy it twice a month.
I belonged to the first group, and although we did have chickens and cured meat, vegetables dominated our meals, whether we wished it or not. Inventive cooks found ways to use the cured meat that was included in their cooked dishes. Each pot of greens was stewed with as much smoked or cured meat as the cook could afford. Country ham slices and boiled bacon slabs were offered at least once a week, and one could be assured that it was definitely chicken on Sunday.
After I grew up and away from the days of poverty and the southern place of need, I found that I often wished for a meatless dinner of crunchy vegetables and an oven-roasted Irish potato, or pasta with a fresh tomato sauce. However, until I met Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford I had never thought it could be exciting to be creative in cooking vegetarian food. The songwriting couple came to visit me in North Carolina, and within hours they had taken my heart. I could think of nothing more pleasing than to please them. Valerie would eat chicken and fish, but Nick was a definite vegetarian. I bought the prepared dishes made of soybeans from the supermarket. They were concocted of mushrooms and oats and rice. I tasted them and they were horrible. I decided I would simply try to cook vegetables so well that the diner would prefer my dish to a standing rib roast. I know that was wishful thinking but I also knew that good veggies well prepared could please any palate.
First I offered a dish called chakchouka in North Africa and ratatouille in France. Then I served a tomato soufflê with snow peas and celery gratin as side dishes. Nick loved it. One day I offered a salad that Nick liked so much I named it the Ashford ’96.
When I served another mixed salad with feta and golden raisins, not only did Nick decide that I was one of the best cooks he had ever known, he had to know the exact measurements in all my salad recipes.
The Ashford-Simpsons were a bright and beautiful couple, quick and funny, and I had long admired their talent, but their shared laughter, love, and gentle personalities won them to my heart. I gave the recipes to them a number of times, but they swore they could not replicate the dishes.
When they visit me in North Carolina and when I go see them in New York, they look at me with such large, longing eyes that without being asked I will go to the kitchen and make one of “Nick’s green salads.”
Here are the recipes for the salads and other vegetarian dishes I created for
Nick Ashford.
Tomato Soufflé
SERVES 8
Three 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt, plus pinch
4 slices white bread, torn into medium-size pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup cold milk
5 large eggs, separated
Sauté tomatoes in large skillet with 2 tablespoons butter, sugar, and ¼ teaspoon salt until dry. Add bread, and mix well. Cool. Preheat oven to 350°E
Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease soufflê dish. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon salt in soufflê dish so that it coats bottom and sides.
Melt remaining butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and cornstarch, and stir for 1 minute. Add milk all at once. Stir. Remove from heat. Add egg yolks into mixture one at a time. Add sautéed tomatoes, mixing well.
In a clean, dry bowl, beat whites of eggs with pinch of salt until stiff. Fold into soufflê mixture carefully. Pour mixture into soufflê dish, filling it three-quarters full. Bake for 35 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Serve immediately.
Chakchouka
(Moroccan stew)
SERVES 8 TO 10
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 large eggplants, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 large onion, sliced
2 green bell peppers, cut into large pieces
1 red bell pepper, cut into large pieces
2 zucchini, cut into large pieces
2 yellow squash, cut into large pieces
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat oil in large, heavy pot. Add eggplant, and fry for 4 to 5 minutes. Add onion, and sautê until translucent. Add remaining ingredients, cover, and stir over medium-low heat for 25 minutes. Check seasonings and adjust if needed.
Ashford Salad ’96
SERVES 6 TO 8
2 heads romaine lettuce, with tough outer leaves removed
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 large English cucumber, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
1 large ripe tomato, cut into small wedges
1 tablespoon sugar
Wash lettuce, dry, wrap in paper towels, and put into refrigerator. Mix oil, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, and garlic in large salad bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Mash avocado with potato masher, and mix with ingredients in salad bowl. Check seasonings. Mix in tomato and cucumber. Just before serving, remove lettuce from refrigerator. Break into large pieces, and toss into salad bowl. With salad tongs, mix vigorously until each lettuce leaf has been flavored with dressing.
Mixed Salad with Feta
and Golden Raisins
SERVES 4
1 head Bibb lettuce
1 bunch watercress
1 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh garlic<
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Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
Remove and discard old leaves from lettuce and watercress; then wash. Wrap in paper towels and refrigerate. Put raisins into small pot with water to cover, and simmer for 3 minutes. Take off heat and set aside so raisins can plump. In large salad bowl, place oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Just before serving, remove greens from refrigerator, and tear into large pieces. Drain raisins, discarding water. Mix dressing and raisins and greens, and sprinkle feta cheese on top. Serve at once.
About the Author
Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director MAYA ANGELOU was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then went to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?, as well as the celebrated poem “On the Pulse of Morning, ” which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton; “A Brave and Startling Truth, ” written at the request of the United Nations and read at its fiftieth anniversary; and “Amazing Peace, ” which she read at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., in December 2005.
Copyright © 2004 by Maya Angelou
Photographs copyright © 2004 by Brian Lanker, Sockeye Studios
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Angelou, Maya.
Hallelujah! the welcome table / by Maya Angelou.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-52973-2
1. Cookery, American. 2. Angelou, Maya—Anecdotes. I. Title.
TX715.A5697 2004
641.5973—dc22 2004044902
Random House website address: www.atrandom.com
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