Succotash is a perfect subject for this posting, my first on the foods of Virginia. You could argue that no dish is more Virginian than succotash, going way back, as many claim, to the Powhatan Indians, a tribe that lived along the eastern shore of what is now called Virginia. And it’s the dish that made me feel at home here during my first summer living in Richmond.

 

Last August, heading home from the Richmond airport on Route 5, past vestigial farm fields sprinkled among small businesses and light industry, I spied a tented farm stand on the left side of the road. After doing a quick maneuver, I pulled in next to the table of colorful produce.

 

“Do you add tomatoes to your succotash?” asked the farmer, as soon as I’d made my selection of tasseled ears of corn, shucked fresh lima beans, and bright red tomatoes.

 

Her question caught me off-guard. I hadn’t given the dish much thought, perhaps not since my childhood when I held it in low esteem. Back then, Great Aunt Evelyn, a Southerner who had moved to Ohio as a young woman for better job prospects during the Great Depression, made a simple form of succotash, consisting of the two key ingredients, lima beans and corn kernels, boiled together. She urged me and my sister to eat it, saying it was good for us.

 

In hindsight, those three words probably didn’t help to advance Auntie’s case. The way Auntie (pronounced Aaynee) made it, I didn’t like it much. This is strange because I enjoyed corn and lima beans as a kid, just independently of each other.

 

Even though Auntie’s succotash didn’t equal more than the sum of its parts culinary-wise, it did nutritionally. Combining a grain with a legume provides a dish that is high in all essential amino acids. This makes succotash an inexpensive form of protein, explaining its popularity during the Great Depression. (If factory farming hadn’t made us, as a Nation, so accustomed to cheap meat by the time of the Great Recession, at great expense to the well-being of animals and consequently our well-being, perhaps Succotash would have had a revival during that more recent economic crisis.)

 

I loved that the farmer had assumed I was going to make succotash, and wanted to know how I was going to make it. In no farmer’s market in the North would you be asked, after selecting corn, lima beans, and tomatoes, how you make your succotash. The truth is, because limas prefer a warm climate, you would be hard-pressed to find shelled fresh limas beans at a farmer’s market in the North anyway, but even if you did, I doubt the word succotash would be uttered. Unwittingly, by my selection of three ingredients, I had been made to feel part of a community, like a culinary insider.

 

Delighted and inspired, I went home determined to cook up succotash that would be better than the sum of its parts, and that my adult taste buds would love.

 

Succotash #1

“Do you see creamed corn on that plate?” Yes, and so much more: lima beans, bacon, herbs, tomatoes. Actually my reference to creamed corn, here, is misleading: This preparation is not the gloppy, overly starchy creamed corn that most of us have become familiar with thanks to the convenience of canned vegetables. This dish altogether lighter than the canned version and the acid in the tomatoes balance the bacon fat and moderate amount of cream. (The thing is, I simply couldn’t pass up this opportunity to reference a food moment in a Twin Peaks episode; click here to view.) When I created this succotash, I was thinking of two different corn and legume precedents for the inclusion of the tomatoes on the one hand, and the bacon and cream on the other: the addition of tomatoes in black bean and corn salsa with tomatoes; the addition of lardons and cream in French preparations of garden peas. Turns out, as I’ve learned just recently while reading James Villas’ The Glory of Southern Cooking, a regional style of creamed succotash hails from Delaware known as, according to Villas, Delaware Creamed Succotash. To make a side dish to serve about four people you will need:

 

2 cups fresh lima beans
4 ounces thick-cut bacon (3 to 4 slices), diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon finely chopped chili pepper (optional)
2 cups fresh corn kernels plus the milk scraped from the cobs (about 2 ears of corn)
1½ cups peeled and diced tomatoes (about 2)
¼ cup half-n-half
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup chopped or chiffonaded fresh basil
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives

 

Succotash #2

I came up with this preparation of succotash last week. I almost like it better than my creamed tomato version from last summer (above). This is equally good with fresh sorrel; simply replace the herbs listed below with the same quantity of chopped sorrel. To make a side dish to serve about four people you will need:

 

2 cups fresh lima beans
4 ounces thick-cut bacon (3 to 4 slices), diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 cups fresh corn kernels plus the milk scraped from the cobs (about 2 ears of corn)
½ cup crème fraîche
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1½ teaspoons lemon juice, plus more if needed
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup chopped or chiffonaded fresh basil
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives

 

Method for both versions:

Cook the limas in salted boiling water until they can be easily pierced with but are still firm, 10 to 15 minutes, then drain them.

 

In large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon. When the fat is rendered, pour off all but a couple tablespoons of the bacon fat. Add the onion to the skillet, season with a pinch or two of salt, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. (If making Succotash #1, add the chili pepper, if desired, and cook for a minute or so to soften.)

 

Add the drained limas to the pan along with the rest of the ingredients, except the herbs. Season with a few pinches of salt and pepper and give everything a good stir. Cover with a lid and cook for few minutes over medium heat, to bring the corn up to temperature, then reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until the corn and limas are fully tender, about 10 minutes total. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the herbs. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed. Give Succotash #2 a few extra turns of the pepper grinder and a little more lemon juice if you feel it needs brightening. Now it’s time to eat some mighty fine succotash.