Advertisement Changes in attitude — moving away from the old stereotypes about "soul food," — changes in ingredients and changes in diet have led to healthier meals, said the author of five cookbooks and star of the cooking show "The Kitchen Diva!"
Her latest cookbook "The New African-American Kitchen" came out in November and her sixth, "The Kitchen Diva Cooks!" is expected to be published in late 2009. She is also the author of 90 children’s books.
Her goal as a chef and author has been to educate blacks and others about the history of African-American cooking, its roots in African culture and to encourage healthier eating.
"When the slaves came from Africa to South America and then to North America, they changed recipes and techniques for cooking. One of the major fusion cuisines in African-American cuisine," Medearis says. "On the slave ships also came fruits, vegetables, seasoning and other things that had never been seen in South America and North America."
It wasn’t always easy to get that message out.
"There was a stereotypical, somewhat racist look at African Americans and cooking and culinary history," she says. "When I started doing cookbooks, I couldn’t get on TV because they thought I’d be frying up a chicken or doing something with a barbecue pit ... I think we’ve progressed."
African-American cooking is now moving well beyond those stereotypes, she said. Recipes that use tofu or vegetarian meals are finding their way among comfort foods.
Health concerns and better education about diet have fueled some of the changes, she said.
Diabetes runs in her family, she said, and Americans are starting to understand that many traditional meals — like those that come with large portions of eggs and bacon — come from a time when people needed the protein and energy to work in the fields.
"Now we’re going to sit in front of a computer all day," she says. "I get a lot more requests now to take grandma’s greens and find a way to make this healthier."
She continues to push the concept that vegetarian meals have a long history in African-American cooking.
"The ethnic vegetarian was not something that was cooked up by a bunch of hippies. Vegetarian meals have been part of ethnic groups since recorded history," she said.
Talking about healthier diets is one thing. Her job is to find ways to make them taste good enough that people want to eat them.
"The problem with most healthy recipes is they taste terrible," she says. "I take a lot of time taking things like wheat gluten and tofu and teaching people ways they can taste great."
Use papaya to tenderize tough cuts of meat
Recipes such as this date to the slave era. At the time, what little meat was available to slaves usually was the toughest cuts. Some slave cooks used papayas, which are rich in enzymes, to tenderize the meat.
PAPAYA BEEF
Start to finish: 4 hours (15 minutes active)
Servings: 6
1 large ripe papaya, peeled, sliced and seeds discarded
3 pounds round steak, cut into 6 steaks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 large tomato, peeled and chopped
16-ounce can lentils
Arrange half of the papaya slices over the bottom of a large glass or ceramic baking dish (metal pans can react with the enzymes of the papaya). Lay the steaks over the papaya, then top the meat with the remaining papaya slices.
Cover the baking dish, then refrigerate for 3 hours.
Heat the oven to 325 F.
Coat a second glass baking dish with the olive oil, then arrange the onion slices over the bottom. Remove the steaks from the refrigerator, then season them with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce.
Lay the steaks over the onion slices, then top with the papaya slices and chopped tomato. Tightly cover the baking dish with foil, then bake until the meat is tender, about 30 minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and top with the lentils. Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for another 10 minutes.
(Recipe adapted from Angela Shelf Medearis’ "The New African-American Kitchen" (Lake Isle Press, 2008)
