Simple Fresh Southern (Shrimp and Devlied Egg Salad Rolls, Collards, Greens and Eggs Migas)

 Hello friends, I have been absent for some time again.  Rather than drumming up some excuses, let's just jump right into it, k?  In the midst of a neverending, gray and snowy winter, sometimes we need a little reminder of sunnier climes and warmer times.  That's what these two recipes from The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern are.  Ironically, I actually made them before snowmaggedon hit Boston, but have not posted them until now (FYI, it is snowing right now outside my window!)  The Lee Brothers are my idols.  They went to my alma mater and have put out a great series of Southern cookbooks, showcasing the food of the South and of their fabulous hometown, and one of my favorites, Charleston.  As is my practice, I have all of their cookbooks, today I will tell you a bit about their second book, and more casual than their first book, an opus of Southern Cooking  - Simple Fresh Southern.  The book has lots of modern, accessible recipes inspired by the South.  I would describe the book as "sunny" - it makes you feel upbeat and provides delicious but not overwrought dishes.  Special enough for company but easy enough to make most nights.

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Americanah and Jollof Rice

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an amazing book that is many different things in one package - a coming of age story, an immigrant story, a commentary on race and at its vibrant, beating heart - a love story.  As you may be able to tell from my description, I absolutely loved it.  It was both thought provoking and emotionally satisfying on multiple levels.  The book tells the story of Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman who moves to the United States and then decides to return home to Nigeria.  The story starts in Princeton, where Ifemelu is doing a fellowship.  When we first meet her she has already decided that she is going to move back to Lagos, leaving her American boyfriend behind.  Before she leaves she needs to get her hair braided, and the only place for her to do that is an African hair salon in Newark - as she sits in the salon chair (with an uneasy relationship with the woman braiding her hair) for the long braiding process, Ifemelu thinks back on everything that has led up to this moment.  Adichie moves back and forth in time for most of the novel, moving back in time and returning every so often to this salon chair.   The hair braiding process and Ifemelu's choice of what to do with her hair (chemically straighten in, chop it all off, braid it) serves throughout as a touch point for her identify both in Nigeria and as an African woman in America.  Ifemelu (and Adichie) is a sharp, keen eyed observer of the world around her, particularly as an "outsider" in America.  Her experiences and commentary are both funny and painfully on point.  I could have read 300 more pages of her story.

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Greens, Biscuit and Telegraph Avenue

I am a big Michael Chabon fan.  The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay is one of my top 10 favorite books.  I was excited about when Telegraph Avenue came out - Chabon always creates characters that are quirky and unique but who I emotionally connect to (even though they are almost always male).  Alas, Telegraph Avenue didn't do it for me in the way Chabon's previous work has.  It took me over a month to get through it, which is a departure for someone who usually reads books in a week or two.   In the end I made it through and am glad that I did, but I am not sure I would recommend the book to others.  Telegraph Avenue is a street in Oakland that is traditionally African American but runs from Oakland into Berkley so serves as a symbol in the book of the particular Northern Californian mix - hippie, African American, affluent liberal whites.  The novel is about race, gentrification, growing up, love, marriage, family, fatherhood, sexual identity and friendship.  To me the book felt overstuffed - with ideas, with themes, with obscure movie and music references, and with long descriptive sentences.  It was hard for me to connect with the characters because of all of this other stuff.  While I didn't love the book, it did present good food inspiration.  As soon as I read the words "yeasted biscuits" I was intrigued.  I have made regular buttermilk biscuits often and lamented that they did not rise as high as the ones I would get in hipster Southern restaurants.  I hoped yeast would get that sky high look I had yearned for.  In the book, one of the main characters, Nat, makes these biscuits, along with greens and fried chicken, in an attempt to win over some people in his neighborhood to support the used record store he owns with his best friend Archie in an epic battle with a hip hop superstore looking to move into the neighborhood.  I decided to focus on the greens and biscuits - together a great warming winter supper. 

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Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

It has taken me a little longer than I would have liked to start my pumpkin party, but better late than never!  Part of the delay is that I was crippled by indecision - there are so many wonderful things to make, how would I ever decide!  I was particularly stumped on what to choose to make on the sweet, side, so I am kicking off this week or so of many pumpkin recipes on the savory side.  Without further delay, I give you Dorie Greenspan's pumpkin stuffed with everything good, and this really is a gift.  This pumpkin, oh boy, let me tell you about it  - it is filled with beautiful french bread cubes, lots and lots of Gruyere and cheddar cheese, garlic, oh yes, lots of garlic, and you know what else? bacon, yup.  Oh, and how is this lovely pumpkin finished off? with a little glug of heavy cream.  Yes!  This pumpkin is pretty insane, obviously over the top rich. I tried to make it a little less guilty by adding a whole bunch of steamed swiss chard, and it added a nice counterpoint to the richness loaded on richness.  Without the bacon, this would be a great vegetarian main for thanksgiving, truth be told, I would probably rather eat this than turkey, and I love turkey.  If the pumpkin a bit of an afterthought in light of all that goodness? Perhaps, but the right way to eat this is to dig into the sides and mix the soft pumpkin immediately into the stuffing.  If it weren't for the bacon, cream, bread and cheese, I would eat this every week during the fall.  Alas, this dish is so good I can't let myself eat it more than once a year, and I am already thinking about next year...

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Apple Fest: Quinoa with Caramelized Onions and Apples

Here is a healthy and seasonal side dish or meal combining apples and quinoa.  Whenever I eat quinoa (which is admittedly, not very often), I think that it needs a lot of help to taste really great.  With some other grains, like white or brown rice, I totally love the grain itself plain, on its own, with only a little fat and salt and pepper.  Quinoa does not have, for me, great flavor or texture on its own.  In sum, when I eat quinoa I know I am eating something healthy.   But because it is healthy, I want to try to eat quinoa more instead of rice, so I look for ways to jazz it up. For my apple week dish, I decided to make an apple quinoa salad kind of thing, adding some caramelized onions to punch up the savory flavors and some toasted pecans for some crunch.  This turned out to be the perfect sweet, savory, crunchy combination, and this side dish would be perfect for someone putting together a "healthy" thanksgiving meal (I will be filling my table, or more accurately my sister's table, with mashed potatoes, stuffing and squash...)  This would also be a great mixture to stuff a squash or pumpkin with, adding a little grated cheese to the top.  Without further delay, my side dish contribution to Apple Fest.

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The Kitchen House and Southern Cornbread

I have had a hard time finding the time to sit down and write my book reviews lately!  A big part of the reason is that I am having a bit of a tech overload  - I finally got an iphone (I have used a blackberry for years and still do for work) and then a couple of days later I decided I needed an ipad too.  As a result, I have been distracted by apps, apps and more apps - the exact reason I resisted getting an ipad for so long - I didn't want it to take away from my reading time!  Oh well.  I have put the ipad and iphone aside this evening so I can finally write about The Kitchen House, which I read in a three day frenzy a few weeks ago.  If you are looking for an engrossing book that will really engage you, The Kitchen House is it.  The book follows the story of a young (white) Irish girl who becomes an indentured servant on a Virginia plantation circa 1791.  She lives with the slaves who work in the "Big House"of the plantation owner, the Pyke family,   works with the slaves and becomes part of their family.  A white girl who will eventually gain her freedom living amongst slaves is clearly a situation that will cause drama and strife and the book chronicles the troubles of the Irish girl, Lavinia, the slaves of the Pyke plantation and the dysfunctional, destructive Pyke family itself. Once I got into the book, it was hard to put down - it is filled with dramatic turns and moments where the characters make such bad decisions you find yourself screaming at the book.  The cornbread above was an easy choice for a dish - even though this book is called The Kitchen House, in light of the extreme poor conditions slaves were forced to endure, food was not plentiful.  But good food was celebrated, and this simple cornbread is surely something that Belle, the cook and Lavinia's surrogate mother, would have made. I have heard The Kitchen House compared a lot to The Help, I see the similarities and will speak more about this after the jump.

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Ten Thousand Saints and Straight Edge Samosas

This week, with Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints, I am moving from a young adult book about teenagers who have to kill each other(The Hunger Games) to an adult adult book about teenagers who also end up killing each other, but here it is very real and non part of some futuristic game.  The kids in Ten Thousand Saints are not the admirable, brave, loving survivors of The Hunger Games, but rather they are surly, badly behaved and careless.  That said, despite this seeming unlikability, Henderson tells their story in way that compels the reader to at least feel sympathy for them.  The book revolves around three teenagers in the mid to late 1980's who get caught up in New York's punk/straight edge scene.  The book both vividly depicts the wayward youth characters and the place and time they occupy.  We as readers follow the three main characters, Jude, Eliza and Johnny as they deal with a horrible loss and try to muddle their way through a very difficult situation (which is entirely of their own making).  These baked vegan  [sorry for my stupidity, of course the egg wash makes these non-vegan, leave that step out for a vegan version!] samosas are not closely inspired by the book, rather, because some of the characters become straight edge (giving up drinking, smoking, drugging and eating flesh) and are into the Hare Krishna religion, I decided to make something vegetarian and Indian.  More about the book and these samosas after the jump.

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Backseat Saints, Biscuits and Hot Pepper Jelly

This post has taken forever for me to get out!  I read the book weeks ago, then made the biscuits and bought the ingredients for the hot pepper jelly.  The biscuits alone were not right for the book - I needed the spunky and spicy jelly in order to represent the spunky and spicy (and slightly crazy) main character in Joshlyn Jackson's Backseat Saints, Rose Mae.  So I made the biscuits, photographed them, saved three and brought the rest to my sister, my brother in law reportedly quickly ate them all, but still, I could not get my act together to make the hot pepper jelly!  Finally, this weekend, after a few weekends away and friends visiting I got around to making the jelly. I think the process of sterilization is what held me up - I was just scared of it.   I will only give rough directions on this process after the jump, but will refer to you better sources - I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting sick!  More about the food and the fun book after the jump.

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Parrot and Olivier in America and Freedom Fries!

I have been totally remiss in my blog posting as of late.  It's not that I haven't been reading - I have been reading A TON!  It's that with the heat and the sun and the draw of being outside on the weekends, I have not done any heavy lifting in the kitchen.  But, starting with this post I hope to get back on track with a bunch of fun books and recipes.  First up, Peter Carey's witty (but dense!) Parrot and Olivier in America - a re imagining of Alexis de Tocquiville's first experiences in the United States.  The book follows Olivier de Garmond (the de Tocquiville character) a silly and foppish (is that a word, I say yes!) French Aristocrat who is forced to escape to America during the French Revolution.  De Garmond is sent to America to study the American Prison system, and his meddling mother arranged this trip for him as a way to keep him out of harm's way during the tumultuous years in France during the First Republic.  Olivier is accompanying by a cheeky British servant, who goes by the name of Parrot.  More about the book after the jump.  Since the book was about a Frenchman's first impressions of America, I wanted to make a Franco-American dish - classic French Fries seemed the perfect tongue in cheek idea.  I used Julia Child's recipe - the American mother of French cuisine in the U.S. 

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