TFG’S Juneteenth Recipe Picks “Batch #2”: Another 5 Item Menu Plan …

This is Batch #2 of my TFG’s #Juneteenth recipe round-up series sourced from the 24 recipes I foraged from Food.com on assignment. Make sure to check out all five (5) recipe batches I’m serving up here on my website so you can mix & match to make your own menus! (PS. There didn’t appear to be a method to how Food.com served up the 24 recipes in the originally published piece, so this is an added bonus for you to enjoy — and applicable all summer long…

#6 BAKED RED BEANS

Long associated with nearby (to Texas) Louisiana when prepared creole-style with rice, red beans are beloved in Texas too. This recipe shows a different side of red beans, with a sauce combining brown sugar, honey mustard and red wine vinegar. This sweet-and-savory flavor technique originated with the African-heritage Moors, anchored in Andalucia and Granada who ruled Spain for nearly 800 years from the early 8th until the late 15th centuries.

Given the Islamic faith of the Black Moors, two ingredients you'll find here in this flavor-filled BAKED RED BEANS recipe i chose that was submitted on Food.Com by “Chef Cathy “ would NOT have been included back then: the salt PORK or the HAM slices. That said, if you're a non-eater of pork you can sub those two ingredients with smoked turkey and if you're vegetarian or vegan then you would bypass any meat altogether and could add smoked paprika as a key ingredient (+ use a smoked salt)

#7 SMOKED BEEF BRISKET WITH RUB & TEXAS BBQ SAUCE

I love that “Rita1652” who submitted this SMOKED BEEF BRISKET WITH RUB & TEXAS BBQ SAUCE recipe to Food.com made sure to let readers know to NOT leave out the oil or the salt: "The flavors in the rub are oil soluble and the oil helps penetrate the meat”. Mainstream food media has long loved to demonize salt and fat (even more so than sugar) when they are so essential for flavor in recipes like this one. I will say though that since I do not cook with canola oil [for a whole host of reasons — stay tuned for my “all oils ain’t created equal” post] so if this were MY recipe I would sub that out for “EVOO” or Avocado oil — basically a better bio-available oil. And b/c all salts ain’t created equally either, I’d make a note about using unrefined salt vs processed table salt— ideally with trace minerals that occur naturally for both better taste and health. I absolutely adore all the other ingredient choices for the rub and BOTH styles of sauce. Although i’d prolly sub out the white sugar for some kinda brown version too.

TFG INTEL: Barbecue is a Juneteenth staple, and Texas is beef country given the abundant cattle raised there. Yet few people know that in the late 1800s, one in four cowboys was Black. Several of the popular roping and herding styles came from West African Fulani tribe herding techniques. Cooking brisket slowly over a low fire ensures your meat will be tender and flavorful.

NOTE: for some reason the photo you'll see when you click onto the recipe is that of bbq chicken and NOT beef brisket. I'll try to bring that to food.com's attention — again. Help a sista out & chime in too, thanks!…

#8 (RED) RADISH SALAD...

I love this tart tangy , crisp (RED) RADISH SALAD recipe from a Food.com contributor who goes by the moniker “Chocolatl” . And something i REALLY love about it is that SUGAR is NOT an ingredient (like it seemed to be in the zillion other salad and salad dressing recipes i stumbled upon looking for this one.

Radishes are easy vegetables to grow that mature quickly and can be sown almost anywhere including in between rows of other vegetables. The exterior cardinal color and the bold, biting, sour-and-savory flavors of crisply sliced radishes are a perfect, refreshing accompaniment to the many meat dishes at any Juneteenth spread.

#9 POTATO SALAD WITH ROASTED RED PEPPERS — AND BACON!

It wasn’t until I went to serve up these recipes in batches that I realized this recipe for POTATO SALAD WITH ROASTED RED PEPPERS & BACON is the second one I chose from Food.com contributor , “KitchenCalPeezaz” — interesting considering there are over 500,000 recipe contributors to the site….

Anyway, It wouldn’t be a barbecue without potato salad! And in many Black families, “Who made the potato salad?” is a serious question. As a now-famous Saturday Night Live skit explored in 2018, a good potato salad should be “well-seasoned (with the right amount of salt and pepper!); it should be creamy; and it never, ever has raisins”. ~ King T’Challa of Wakanda (wonderfully — and comedically in this context — portrayed by Chadwick Boseman)

I’m not sure what T’Challa (or “Darnell Hayes”, the recurring character host of Black Jeopardy fabulously portrayed by Kenan Thompson) would have to say about the roasted red peppers and bacon, but when I looked at the line up of flavor fulfilling SAVORY ingredients in this delicious sounding potato salad dish , I gave it a big thumbs up. Let me know what you think!…

#10 THREE BEET HIGH & RISING COCKTAIL

Beets showed up in Batch #1 in an energy boosting non-alcoholic concoction, the Red Velvet Boost, long used as a natural source of vibrant red food coloring (said to be the original coloring used to make red velvet cake). In this THREE BEET HIGH & RISING COCKTAIL from food & drink writer Maggie Hoffman, using fresh, all natural ingredients available at your local grocery store, it’s GIN that steals the show IMHO. That symbolic spirit of speakeasy & juke-joint days, gin’s timelessly linked to a sense of inclusiveness vs. default ‘othering’ that emerged in the “roaring 1920's”, aka the Prohibition Era, when Black Americans owned and operated many of the uptown speakeasies in Harlem that non-discriminatingly served mixed crowds across ages/generations, professions, gender and race lines which led to social intermingling unprecedented in previous American eras ..PS. I’ve gotta DM Maggie to find out the meaning behind the cocktail’s name!)…

Up Next, TFG’S Juneteenth Recipe Picks “Batch #3 : Watermelon Soda, Texas Caviar, Redfish, Cucumber Tomato Salad, Fresh Strawberry Pie …