Monday 8/29/2011
by David Cecelski
My visit to the Early
Girl Eatery here in Asheville
has me thinking about tomato gravy. It’s a very old Appalachian recipe. It’s
usually made with cooked-down tomatoes (fresh or canned), a little flour, a
spoonful or two of grease, and salt and pepper. It’s sort of an all-purpose
dish. I’ve seen mountain people serve it on biscuits, on grits for breakfast,
as a condiment for meat or beans at supper, and as a sauce for beef and pork
dishes.
The Early Girl Eatery is one of my favorite places
to have tomato gravy. This wonderful restaurant’s chefs are devoted to
vegetarian cookery, but they somehow manage to preserve the spirit of that old
way of making tomato gravy without using the meat.
With mountain tomatoes being so flavorful, of
course, they knew they didn’t have to do much. They just replace the
traditional recipe’s bacon grease or fried-out fatback with vegetable oil, and
they add chopped onion and a little basil and thyme.
My favorite way that they serve tomato gravy is on
fried black bean and sweet potato cakes. I know that doesn’t sound like a
traditional Appalachian dish, but it works for me. Sweet potatoes and beans
(maybe not black beans, but beans) are mountain staples, after all, and the
spirit in which they’re put together in this dish, coupled with the tomato
gravy, somehow fits a traditional mountain way of cooking.
You can find Early Girl Eatery’s recipe for black
bean/sweet potato cakes with tomato gravy at www.earlygirleatery.com.
I make them here at my house and even my son relishes them, which, considering
his usual wariness of vegetarian fare, is saying a lot. And you can do a
hundred things with the leftover tomato gravy. I usually eat mine with grits
for breakfast or on fried grits cakes that I make with leftover grits, a little
milk, and cheddar cheese.
* * *
The Early Girl Eatery is located at 8 Wall Street in
downtown Asheville.
You can reach them at (828) 259-9292.
Check their web site for hours. Expect a wait—but know that it’s worth it.
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The North Carolina Folklife Institute is pleased to present this blog, an exploration of the state's traditional cooking and foodways by David Cecelski, one of the state's most accomplished historians.
David's passion for the state's history takes him all over North Carolina. But David is also a closet chowhound--a connoisseur of little country cafes, old recipes, and backyard barbecues. His every trip is a chance to learn more history, and also a chance to find a new local delicacy or a great new restaurant.
Photo of David Cecelski by Stephen Jesse Taylor. Title photo of Altapass Orchard by Cedric N. Chatterley
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