River Road Recipes

Growing up, my Mother always had her River Road Recipes Cookbook on the kitchen counter.  I believe she probably cooked from it often.  I know that she made her fudge and French cocoa balls from this cookbook every Christmas.  When I moved out on my own, I knew this was one cookbook I would have to have in my collection.  The cookbook was published by the Junior Leage of Baton Rouge.  It was first published in 1959 and has had many printings over the years.  The recipes are tried and true and if you like southern cooking, this cookbook should be on your shelf.

One weekend back in August, my husband and I went to Canino’s produce market in the Heights.  As a child, I remember my grandpa shopping there and always bringing home a huge box of apples.  He did this about once a month when apples were in season. Canino’s produce is always fresh and they have individual local growers selling their produce in the back.  It is so much fun to go look around.   Anyways, my husband loves lima beans, in fact, I think he is the only one in our family who will eat them.  He saw a bag of frozen lima beans and quickly put them in our cart.  Well, I still had more than 1/2 a bag in the freezer, so I decided to make a recipe to use them up.  I found the perfect recipe to go with our bacon-wrapped chop steaks and baked potatoes…. “Barbecued Lima Beans”.  Believe it or not, they were really good and I even ate them.  As usual, I made a few changes to the recipe and below is my version of the barbecued lima beans.

Barbecued Lima Beans

 

½ pound fresh or frozen

1 smoked ham hock

1 tablespoon salt

1 clove garlic, crushed

Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1  8-oz can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon vinegar

Boil lima beans with ham hock, salt and garlic.  Simmer until beans are soft.  Drain, reserving ½ cup of liquid.

For sauce, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent, being careful not to burn garlic.  Add remaining ingredients for sauce; stir well.  Add cooked lima beans to sauce and stir.  Heat on stove until heated through or bake at 300F for 40 minutes.  If baking in the oven, a slice or two of bacon can be added to the top.