My Sweet Southern Santa

new additions piled in my messy office

My first foray back into blogging is not a new recipe, but a combination of what my husband’s folk would call a “humble brag” and a reading recommendation.  Many of you may not know that my birthday falls shortly after Christmas so sometimes there is a bit of overlap and it not unusual for birthday fun to drag on into the new year. With my online birthday mad money (thanks Dad and Sue!) I fulfilled one of my bucket list culinary library purchases: a copy of the revered Southern writer Eugene Walter’s contribution to the Time Life Foods of the World series from the 1970s, “American Cooking: Southern Style.”    Since shortly after high school I’ve gradually collected most of the entire series, both the hardcover explorations of each country’s culinary traditions along with the spiral bound book of recipes, like the penny-pincher I am, putting nearly the entire series together somewhat randomly by picking them up in thrift stores and rummage sales and used bookstores for a dollar or two.

Mr. Walter’s book has been elusive. As a well known and much loved writer, artist, actor, theatrical designer, home entertainer and goodwill ambassador of the South across the countries in which he lived, his contribution (including consultation from James Beard and Michael Field, tweee!) rarely turns up in a bin of used books and especially not where I now live in North Carolina. Digging through musty volumes at my local Goodwill (where I have found several others from the series) I imagine all the households across the region passing down their copies to the next generation or single editions from the series remaining on shelves next to a battered copy of the local Junior League cookbook when all the other books have been tossed or donated.

Those of you who have searched for your own copy will hopefully appreciate what follows.  I have seen and continue to see copies of this book sold for around $80-90 dollars. Copies that are damaged, copies that come without a spiral bound recipe book, and copies of uncertain condition are right now on the market for even more than $90 so I cannot imagine the confluence of events that produced this result: The book was purchased from a Seattle bookstore (who will remain unnamed as I plan to scour their online offerings for time immemorial) for the sum of eight dollars plus three dollars shipping. It arrived in my home beautifully wrapped in brown paper, encircled with recycled cardboard to protect it during shipping and then wrapped in its own carefully folded white paper at the center, not unlike a fine roast from the butcher.  A complete set.  And when I say complete, I mean that the hardcover book and the spiral bound recipe book were encased in the original full color binder meant to ensure that the happy couple remained bound together for life. I am still bubbling with joy and astonishment.  The 1971 first edition copy (did I mention that?) shows little wear, other than a few dings and a little discoloration on the cardboard binder, possibly that from sitting for 42 years on a dusty bookshelf, and a small notation inside in pen “from Hillard 12-22-73”

My luck may have been a combination of the bookseller’s desire to rid themselves of a volume on cooking no North Westerner thought they should touch (flour coated lard fried vegetables, no?) a nation-wide Paula Dean backlash (y’all, she is just misunderstood), and the suspicious disbelief on the part of any potential online purchaser of a book that such a thing priced SO under market could be of any value. But I hope it’s because Santa knew that what I really wanted for Christmas wasn’t on my wish list.

As a treat for this incredible find, I also finally purchased a new copy of Eugene Walter’s book “The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink,” where Mr. Walter writes effusively about the southern tradition of “cocktails” and the use of liquor in southern dishes (as well as some recipes for foods to go with drinks). The recipes look great, but buy the book for his delightful take on the history of liquor and foods of the region and his storytelling woven throughout, including the origin of the word “cocktail” and his comments on a “dry” South. I have no idea if what he’s written is historically accurate, but as we know, the true delight in a story is in the telling and not in the truth of it.

Spiced Peartini

I am not above liberating great ideas from the other Doristas.

Inspired by Trevor’s suggestion to use the poaching liquid from the spice poached pears in a drink, I present to you

The Spiced Peartini.

2 shots of homemade pear “vodka”

1/2 shot, more or less, of spiced pear poaching reduction

1 dash bitters

Pour ingredients over ice in drink shaker, shake, strain into glass. Add slice of spiced poached pear as garnish. Cocktail is on the sweet side, if you prefer you may serve over ice with several splashes of club soda.

Pear vodka can be made by pouring a bottle of vodka, and 1/2 cup of simple syrup (regular or sugar-free) over 4-6 pears placed in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Allow to steep for 3 months. Lasts indefinitely. Tastes fantastic after two years.

French Fridays with Dorie: Spice-Poached Apples or Pears

From my banner photo you might guess that I like poached fruits and you would not be wrong. The picture above is a pan filled with Marsala and vanilla poached pears ready to be baked into a hazelnut cake and glazed with the reduced poaching liquid. Pears have always been a favorite fruit: as a young child, my Nana and Grandpa had a pear tree in the backyard. In good years the pears were so heavy on the branches that the limbs had to be propped up with the poles they used to keep the laundry lines from dragging the ground. My Nana canned pears to store for the entire year. I’m sure that at some point I pouted about eating pears yet again, but I have fond memories of the soft yet slightly nubby texture of canned pears and still love the multitude of ways she used them with jello.  (My favorite? Lime jello surrounding pears halves filled with sweetened toasted nut cream cheese.) Though we never had an apple tree, this summer, when apples were completely out of season, I missed them terribly. With the crisp air of fall descending on us (finally!), I’d been looking forward to biting into the new season’s harvest, and cooking with some heirloom varieties.

This week’s French Friday recipe is fruit, either pears or apples, poached in a sweetened citrus and spice laced liquid. Vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon, lemon and orange combine to give what could be a bland poached fruit a refreshing lift. I could not make up my mind to use pears or apples, so I did both.  D told me last week after eating up half of the eggplant tartines (which included roasted eggplant & olives, neither of which are favorites) that there will be no more pre-judging Dorie recipes based on titles and ingredients. Not sure if it’s the artful combinations or D’s changing tastes, but several FFwD dishes have become instant favorites in our house.  So with this new perspective, I dove into this week’s recipe which included the dreaded “bark”  in the fruit poaching liquid, which is then reduced to form a finishing sauce.

Overall, the pears with the spiced citrus flavors worked better on my palette than the same flavors combined with apple. Perhaps the tartness of the lemon and citrus amplified the slightly tart apple, but it felt like something was missing. I tried each fruit alone, and with my new favorite treat, vanilla non-dairy no sugar added coconut milk ice cream by Soy Delicious. [I’ve gotten no compensation for promoting their products. I likely could make the stuff myself in my ice cream maker but Kitchen Mayhem is also sometimes Kitchen Shortcut].  D, to my surprise, liked the spiced syrup over regular sugar free ice cream, but was not a fan of the fruit.  In fact, we ate rosemary garlic pork loin roasted with onions, carrots and bacon for dinner (Gourmet Cookbook). D mistook the fruit poaching syrup for a savory sauce, drizzled some over the pork and declared it more delicious than the roast alone.  (So much for worrying about mixing savory and sweet in the future – ha!) The spices were reminiscent of the spiced tamarind fruit compote I made last year that included ginger and lemongrass (Its a long post. Scroll to “Saturday” for a picture and description of the compote.) The vanilla, anise, cinnamon spice mix in this week’s recipe is subtle, and worked with the pears, but something more bold is needed for me to truly enjoy poached apples.

Notes:

• The major alteration I made was sweeteners. Since I don’t use sugar or large amounts of honey, I substituted a combination of erythritol (1/3 cup), sucralose (1/3 cup equivalent), Ace-K (one little packet), along with 1.5 tablespoons of honey flavored maltitol and 1.5 tablespoons of agave nectar.  You can read more about no/low calorie sweeteners on my resource page.
• Don’t you hate recipes that use half of something? I’ve wasted an orchard of half lemons, limes and oranges over the years (and don’t get me started on egg yolks and whites).  These days, if it calls for half of anything I try to figure out if I can use the entire thing rather than risk tossing it out later.  This is a long way of saying there is a whole lemon and orange in my poaching liquid – making it more tart, which could also explain its impact on the tart apple.
• Pears were Red, Apples were Gala. It’s a little early I think for some local organic heirloom varieties, though I did find some in August last year but not so far this one. The Gala I found were a bit tart and I’d like to try this with something sweeter.

The French Fridays set are not publishing recipes. You can pick up a copy of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan at fine booksellers everywhere and follow our cooking exploits at French Fridays with Dorie.

Eggplant “Tartine” with Tomatoes, Olives, and Cucumbers

French Fridays is making my transition back to blogging so easy.  This week is another simple dish using mostly ingredients that were on hand and two fresh from the garden, tomatoes and oregano. Dorie’s “tartine” in this case is not presented on toasted bread, but instead on a round of roasted seasoned eggplant. The tart salsa topping has the flavors of an Italian deli olive salad – sharp with vinegar, olives, capers, sweet onion and celery but includes fresh tomato and a final topping of crisp thin sliced cucumber. A single herb, fresh chopped oregano, graces the mix.

D and I had the same thought when we dug in – this would be perfect as an antipasti or even a first course at this year’s Taste of Italy fundraiser. (Oh you lucky donors – the dinner is December 1st in Greensboro, NC. Message me if you want info on tickets.) At first I was concerned the salsa was too heavy on the vinegar, but once the chopped vegetable mix hit the roasted eggplant the flavors mellowed. The plain cucumbers provided a soothing contrast to the intensity of the salsa ingredients. I tried it both with and without the cucumber because initially I thought they were too much of a distraction from the smooth rich flavor of the eggplant. Both versions were satisfying and for a fall or winter dish, I might consider some warm roasted red peppers instead of cool cucumber.

The French Fridays set are not publishing recipes. You can pick up a copy of Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan at fine booksellers everywhere and follow our cooking exploits at French Fridays with Dorie.

French Fridays with Dorie: Minted Zucchini Tagliatelle with Cucumbers and Lemon

Doristas I’m back! And I promise it’s for good. What have I been doing for 5 months? Well, clearly not blogging. More on this in later posts but to catch you up with the Twitter-sized version: lost 20 pounds, dropped 30 cholesterol points & planted a new garden. D helped a lot with the garden, but since we did it old school and dug up all the grass and weeds by hand a lot spare time went into digging, digging, sifting, and more digging. Just this week we moved two ten year old privets from the front yard where they were blocking access to opening one’s car door in the driveway to new spots along the back fence. Oh, but enough about the ongoing yard transformation…

This week’s French Friday recipe was a good way to start back into things: an easy cold salad where I get to use an obscure piece of kitchen equipment and try to track down an exotic ingredient. Tasty Mayhem heaven. I had a moment of concern seeing the word “tagliatelle” in the title since I’m not eating pasta; no worries, these “noodles” are strips of zucchini which are mixed with chunks of cucumber and dressed lightly with lemon, mint and pistachio oil.

If there is a store in the Raleigh area that carries pistachio oil, I have yet to find it, but I hope I do at some point because I imagine I might have more fun trying to track it down. After 3 stores and $50 bucks worth of food I wasn’t looking for (Bulgarian sheep’s milk feta, raw organic hibiscus and ginger flavored chocolate, babaganouj, okra stewed with tomatoes,  spiced pecans, a vanilla bean, you get the idea) I gave up the hunt and settled for some walnut oil.

Then I got to use the mandoline slicer D’s Dad got me for Christmas (BTW, I’m the luckiest – D’s family loves buying me weird kitchen tools for Christmas). Its just like the one I borrowed from Sarah P last year to julienne strips of green papaya for som tum thai and I even got a pair of those cut resistant gloves to protect my hands when using it. The mandoline made short work of the zucchini – cutting into long thin strips just like the tagliatelle noodles the salad is named for.

It was cool and refreshing; mint and lemon are a favorite combination, evoking memories of middle eastern food like tabouli. The sweet onion in the dish does not overpower, as I feared. The flavor of zucchini and cucumber are still present through the stronger flavors. D also liked it and agreed that it was a great summer dish, even without the mysterious pistachio oil.

Every Friday the folks in French Fridays with Dorie write about their exploits cooking up another dish out of Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, but they are not publishing recipes. Pick up a copy of the book at your nearby bookseller!

Asian Slow Cooked Beef Short Ribs

(This is as good a a picture of brown food gets. But the savory scents of star anise, soy, and ginger rising from the dish are mouth watering.)

[Note: As we head into the cooler weather of fall, braising and slow cooker dishes have great appeal. This post was written May 20, 2012 and never before published. No idea why. Likely my head as well as my body has been consumed with gardening and thoughts of blogging are as elusive as the humming bird that graces my salvia plant.]

I breathe a sigh of relief when I see a magazine feature on a chef who notes that they have 600 cookbooks, as I think my collection is more in the 200 range. So that’s not so bad right?…but hey, who’s counting? Not me. In the last two or three years I’ve become a bit obsessed with braising and slow cookers, to the point where I now own two slow cookers (plus one of those mini fondue/sauce pots) and all the slow cooker cookbooks are starting to take over a shelf. There would be more cookbooks, but I like to think my tastes are discerning. My purchases focus on books that feature proteins with veggies and don’t have a ton of recipes for canned soup and rice dishes or slow cooker cake mix cakes (but I have made a berry cobbler and several puddings in the slow cooker that have been great).  I’m so keen on finding new recipes for the slow cooker that I almost bought a book yesterday that I already had, which just shows that while one can have hundreds of cookbooks, one cannot really cook out of hundreds of books very thoroughly.  Though, to my credit, as I was skimming through it, it DID look a bit familiar and quite delicious. It was a good pick.

So, inspired by recipes from Daniel Boulud’s “Braise” and America’s Test Kitchen “Slow Cooker Revolution,” here is my recipe for Asian Beef Short Ribs. The final flavors remind me very much of one of my favorite restaurant meals of my youth “Vegetables in a Clay Pot” from the West Bank Café, a Southeast Asian restaurant that features dishes from Vietnam and China, as well as others inspired by the region and its influences. Versions of the clay pot stews on West Bank’s menu (catfish, for example) are fragrant with star anise, spiced with ginger, all in a sauce base with the rich, tangy taste of soy sauce.

This recipe also uses a technique from ATK that removes the bones from the ribs and then “roasts” the bones in the microwave. I was skeptical too, but this is a great shortcut to get the bones and attached meat browned, thus adding that roasted caramelized flavor to the slow cooker, without the time and mess to brown the meat on the stove. You’ll need a microwave proof dish with a cover, or cover them with a paper towel while microwaving to reduce the oil splatter. It also allows you to remove some of the fat from the short rib meat – I’m not afraid of fat, but fatty meats like short ribs can seem even fattier when cooked in the slow cooker. The fat tends to stay in the meat and not render off as it does in oven cooking.  Oh, and be sure to read through the recipe, I accidentally set fire to something again, always fun.

Slow Cooker Asian Beef Short Ribs

4-5 pounds of beef short ribs, cut “English” style in blocks with the large bones intact

Salt and pepper for the beef

1 medium onion, chopped in ¾ inch pieces

12 oz of mushrooms (Your choice, I like baby bellas/crimini, but the stronger flavored shitake would be good as well in this Asian dish), cut in quarters or thick slices*

2 star anise

Xanthan gum or another thickening agent for the sauce, optional

For the seasoning sauce:

½ cup soy sauce (I use tamari, a wheat-free sauce)

½-1  ripe pear (depending on your desired sweetness), peeled, cored, and chopped. Or you can do what I did and use two small snack bags of freeze dried pear slices.

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons of garlic chili paste or some other spicy Asian chili paste (you can add more if you like it hot!)

1 cup of beef broth**, chicken broth, or lacking that, water

(If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can braise dish this in a dutch oven type pot in 275 degree oven for about 4 hours. You may need to check on the liquid periodically and add more stock or water if it gets too low.)

Remove the bones from the beef ribs as well as any excessive amounts of fat on the outsides of the rib meat.  Place the bones in a microwave safe dish that can handle oil and heat (pyrex casserole dishes, or a microwaveable bowl, work great) and cook for 10-15 minutes until they are browned. You may need to do this in two batches if your dish is small. Salt and pepper the rib meat and toss in the slow cooker dish. Add the onions, mushrooms and star anise to the slow cooker. In a blender or food processor, blend the seasoning sauce ingredients until the pears, garlic and ginger are chopped fine and blended into the liquid (a few short bursts of power should suffice). Pour the seasoning sauce over the meat and vegetables, cover, and set the slow cooker for 9 hours. Resist the urge to open the lid.

When the ribs are done cooking, they should be tender and infused with flavor. At this point, you can skim the fat off the top and remove the bones. If you can bear to wait a day to eat it, you can refrigerate the dish, allowing the fat to solidify on top and making it easier to remove.  Be sure to drain the sauce into a saucepan and reduce it by about half, as well as add some thickener to make it more of a gravy then return the reduced sauce to the meat and vegetables.

To serve:  those of you eating grains, in particular rice,  a sticky rice or even rice noodles would be a good addition. As for vegetables, some stir fried Asian greens like bok choy or water spinach would be a nice side, or a cool Asian cucumber salad in the summer.

*Diakon radish, my favorite potato substitute, would be a good addition to this dish as well.

**I learned the hard way today that you cannot thaw a “juice pack” type box of frozen beef broth in the microwave. Those suckers are lined with aluminum, which I think I sort of knew, but it became quite apparent when the edge of the box caught on fire in the microwave. Kitchen Mayhem almost had another toaster oven incident.

French Fridays with Dorie: Asparagus with Bits of Bacon

Oh my. Its been a month since I’ve posted anything. I have lots of excuses reasons for that,  work, busy, projects, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. I did manage to make this week’s recipe – and how could I not since it includes my favorite ingredient, bacon and my favorite spring vegetable, asparagus. Asparagus is spring to me: I’ve picked the fresh sprouts directly from the ground in a childhood friend’s garden and I remember my mother showing me how to carefully clean and peel them (since the asparagus we got was generally gritty with sand and dirt). My favorite risotto was always a simple one of parmesan rice and asparagus, with asparagus stock as the base and lots of parmesan stirred in. The green stalks are going to find their way into a dish for my Easter guests: a primaverde pasta salad using some of the fresh vegetables I found at the farmers market this morning; arugula, cucumbers, fresh herbs, along with some slow roasted tomatoes.

Dorie’s recipe is very simple and lets the few ingredients shine. Steamed asparagus is dressed with a little lemon and oil, topped with bacon bits and onion. Fresh, tart, smokey and salty – very enjoyable flavors to go with just about any protein such as grilled or roasted pork, beef or chicken. Last night however I had a bag of shrimp to use up, so I improvised a Cajun inspired dish. Recipe is below and it includes some spiral sliced ham, so add it to your list of ways to use up Easter leftovers.

Notes:

Other Dorista’s who dislike raw onion, take note, the finely chopped onion was sauteed in a bit of bacon fat before tossing onto the asparagus.

I normally have thick cut bacon on hand, but instead I had a bit of leftover jowl bacon and some regular sliced center cut, so this bacon is a combination.

These thin asparagus were on sale at Food Lion this week for 1.49 a pound!! They were steamed, not blanched, for my version.

Cajun Shrimp Saute

2 lb raw shrimp, thawed if frozen, tail on or off

1 cup of chopped ham, or some other smoked pork product like sausage

2-3 teaspoons of Cajun spice or blackening spice

2-3 T bacon fat, or your choice of oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large saute pan. Cook the onions and celery until soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the bell pepper and garlic, cook another 5 minutes. Add ham and cook until heated. Remove these ingredients from pan and set aside. Heat rest of oil, add drained shrimp and Cajun spice. Saute until shrimp are cooked, around 3-5 minutes, add rest of cooked veggies and ham, mix together and serve immediately.

In the hopper is a post on the Oscar party we hosted in February and it includes recipes that I’ve promised my guests, so look forward to that one next.