Betty Schrock's amazing Amish peas!
By Kevin Williams
"Eat your vegetables!"
Those dreaded words. But do they have to be? SIGH, with all the other "good stuff" on the Thanksgiving table: turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes (those don't count), gravy, giblets, etc, it is so easy to skimp on the green beans. But a fresh vegetable dish can add some balance to any feast and the Amish are no different in that regard. Now, with veggies you will see a wide, wide spread among the Amish. In more conservative midwestern settlements you'll simply see a bowl of home-canned corn or green beans on the table. These vegetable dishes, while very, very simple, are still amazingly good. Now when you get into more progressive settlements or the Pennsylvania Dutch-influenced communities in the Keystone State, that is where you see your more elaborate vegetable dishes like corn pie and stuffed squash. Here are five vegetable winners for your table!
GLORIA'S DELICIOUS GREEN BEANS - This is a delicious green bean dish courtesy of The Amish Cook herself. Enjoy! Click here for the recipe.
DER DUTCHMAN'S MARINATED CARROTS: Hands-down the best carrot recipe I've ever eaten. I mean these carrots taste like candy. When we have fixed these in the past I have helping after helping and I don't really even care for carrots, but these are amazing. This recipe is what Der Dutchman, the chain of Amish-inspired midwestern restaurants, serves. Click here for the recipe and a winner for your Thanksgiving menu!
BETTY SCHROCK'S AMISH PEAS: I stumbled into this recipe while attending an Amish benefit meal in southern Ohio. Wow, peas...who would have thought peas could be THIS good? I was shoveling these in like they were candy also. Good stuff. Click here for the recipe!
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH CORN PIE
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
15 ounces of drained whole kernel corn
15 ounces of cream-style corn
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 /2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
Two 9” inch pie crusts
Preheat the oven to 425. In saucepan over medium heat, stir together potato, corn, salt, pepper, and milk. Simmer for 15 minutes. Press pie crust into a pie plate. Pour hot filling into the crust. Dot with butter. Add top crust and flute edges to seal. Cut a few steam vents in the top. Place pie on a cookie sheet in the oven. Bake 30 minutes and then reduce temperature to 350 and cook 10 more minutes.
This next recipe comes to us from an Amish woman in Union Grove, North Carolina, one of the only Amish settlements in the Tarheel State and a very progressive one. I've written a lot about Union Grove and how it is very open to outsiders. It is a horse and buggy settlement,but the homes do have electricity causing some to name this settlement the "Electric Amish." The community also, not surprisingly, has cooking that features a southern flair. This recipe did not come with many instructions so I can't tell you how long to cook the squash (15 minutes at 425 might be about right)
RACHEL YODER'S SOUTHERN STUFFED SQUASH
Cook yellow summer squash in salted water until fairly soft. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out some of the middle and mix it with chopped hard-boiled eggs,diced onion, and a bit of mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper. Pile back into squash and bake until nicely browned.
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