Make your own chow-chow

This week’s blog is going Southern, and my intention is to express to you that Southern cooking stands up to any other cuisine in the world. Just use the best ingredients and technique you can.

One of my all-time favorite combinations is turnip greens, cornbread and chow-chow, what some people call tomato chutney.

The greens should be farmer’s market fresh, and should be slowly cooked with a fair amount of smoky pork, like ham hicks or sausage.

The cornbread should be made with the best-quality corn meal (yes, there is a vast difference in the quality of ground corn anything). The best is Mississippi made and can be found at the Ocean Springs Saturday morning farmer’s market.

The chow-chow has got to be homemade; there just isn’t any way around it. So here’s how!

1 large can whole tomatoes

1 chopped red onion

⅔ cup rice vinegar

½ cup sugar

1-2 hot peppers of your choice

3-4 whole cloves

Combine all the ingredients and simmer until thick. Let it cool, and store in a sealed mason jar. Nothing else will work! This recipe is delicious on greens, peas and beans of any type.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 5:52 PM.