Thursday, July 23, 2009

Colachee. So good it's not even funny.

Tonight's dinner featured "Colachee," a succotash-like side dish made from corn, zucchini, tomatoes, onion, and green bell pepper. And that's a tamale I ate it with. Garnished with a slice of heirloom tomato.

I'm guessing my mom gave Colachee its name. And--let me pontificate--what's in a name, anyway? Colachee by any other name would taste as good, true? Ah, yes..although it may sound less inelegant.

Mom made and froze a large quantity of Colachee one summer when we lived in Idaho and must have had it's ingredients growing in the garden located on our 1/2 acre back lot. I remember as a kid being surprised that I really liked it. Recently the memory of it and the fact that I had some of its ingredients on hand made me want to figure out the recipe. Colachee has the distinct characteristic of tasting even better after it has sat in the fridge for a day or two. And it freezes very well. I recreate it here probably the way my mom originally made it..that is, without a real recipe. But these approximations will probably get you close. Adjust as you'd like.


Chop 1 green bell pepper, 1/2 to 3/4 of a large onion, 1 large tomato, and 1 large zucchini. Cut the ears off 1 corn cob. Saute all but the tomato in about 1/4 cup of butter. Cook for a while until veggies get a little tender, then add the tomatoes and cook them a while. Remove from heat and salt and pepper.

Here's a pretty heirloom tomato from the Farmer's Market that I added. I also used purple onions and a combination of purple bell peppers and Anaheim chile pepper. Don't do this. It definitely needs that green bell pepper taste. The purple onions were fine, though.

And here's dessert: plain yogurt with honeydew from the 99 Cent store and sweet plums from the Farmer's Market.

Last but not least, this meal's compostables, which were fed to the worms in my parking garage bin.

3 comments:

SuperSpencer said...

I'm surprised that I've never actually heard of this one! It looks good! Did you make the tamale?

Winnow D. Asael said...

No..wish I knew how to make tamales. Bought at the Farmer's Market. This is one of those things mom made but never made again because she was probably just throwing things together and probably didn't write down the recipe. Turns out it was really good and so it stuck in my head and I wanted to re-create it. I think you were a baby when she made and froze it so that's why you don't remember it.

Mike and Kristin said...

I remember eating a lot of this! I'll have to recreate. Thanks for the recipe. Your pictures are wonderful. Even the worms meal looking tempting.