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Low Country COOKing with Valerie Erwin of Geechee Girl Rice Cafe

by Sara Schuster on July 27, 2015 with No comments

While Philly often feels like it has never-ending food options, Low Country cooking (traditionally the foodways of Georgia and South Carolina) may still be foreign to many of us Northerners. Valerie Erwin, formerly of Geechee Girl Rice Cafe, set out to give us a taste last Friday.

Though she too was born and raised in Philly, and never visited the South, she grew up with Low Country-inspired cooking, and, as she tells it, with two great cooks for parents (she remembers her father’s bouillabaisse fondly). Yet her food is approachable and delicious; Low-Country comfort with modern elegance.

Our meal started with cucumber noodle salad in a buttermilk tzatziki and hot smoked salmon.

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Next up: a riff on the classic okra, corn, and tomato dish she’d grown up with. As a child, she’d avoided it like the plague, but realized as she got older just how delicious okra can be (so long, as she taught us, as it’s fried over hight heat until it’s just brown on the bottom). To the okra went grilled corn and tomatoes, topped with a tomato puree and crumbled bacon. If we’re being honest, it’s hard to ever imagine avoiding this dish.

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Valerie’s third course had everyone begging for more–so much so that plates were handed back multiple times for seconds and thirds! She began with grits cooked on the stovetop with shrimp stock, which she then topped with perfectly seared scallops and a pesto made of barely-blanched collards, toasted almonds, garlic in oil, and salt and pepper. While grits are often a breakfast food in Low Country cooking (plus a little butter, salt, and pepper), they were the perfect base for her scallops.

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Lastly, Valerie treated us to beignets made from sweet rice, or “Calla.” She first came across this dessert at a Liberian friend’s wedding, where they were served as a traditional starter to the meal. She recalled these and their connection to the French “Calas” found in New Orleans (they are pronounced the same way) and realized the two sweet fried dough dishes were one in the same; this is the sort of cultural crossover that Valerie loves about Low Country and New Orleans-style cooking, because much of the history is interlaced and plays out in the cuisine. To the pastries she simply added fresh peaches tossed with a touch of sugar, and we happily dug in.

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So many thanks to Valerie Erwin for letting us taste her cooking! 

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