Prepare to ring in the new year, making a classic, southern feast that family and friends can enjoy, with the help of a local cook.
Local Cook Sally Lewis said she has been cooking familiar New Year favorites for many years. Lewis said some of the iconic dishes she makes are pork chops and fried chicken.
“Pork chops, we roll them in our batter, and then we fry them in an electric skillet,” Lewis said. “The chicken, we’ve got our own batter that we mix up, roll them, and fry.”
Lewis said she dips the pork chops and chicken breasts into an egg batter before covering them in a flour batter. Lewis said the key to cooking a delicious meal for family and friends is seasoning, but also patience.
“Of course, I have been cooking most of my life in a restaurant, and if it’s something that you love doing, things you like take more patience with it,” Lewis said. “And you want it to be more home, like home.”
Lewis said she uses a meat tenderizer to give meats that extra flavor while using salt and ham when cooking cabbage, collard greens, and pinto beans.
Lewis said a common southern tradition is to serve black-eyed peas and hogs’ jowls as a New Year’s breakfast, frying hogs’ jowls like bacon in a skillet. Lewis said pork chops, fried chicken, and corn bread are staples for a southern New Year’s celebration. Lewis said these dishes have been a family tradition for New Year’s.
“My grandma did it, it came down to my mom, then I did it, and I showed my daughter, they do it,” Lewis said. “And it’s just, it’s a tradition that just has gone down the line.”