by Edward Lee
6To make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the whiskey and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth. Turn the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, mixing until smooth. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.
7To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cake stand or a serving plate. Using a small offset spatula, spread a thin layer of frosting over the sides and top of the layer. Place the second layer on top, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides. Smooth out the sides, but don’t worry about making it too perfect. (Homemade cakes should always tilt a little. It makes them more fun to eat.)
8Just before serving, core the pear, slice into thin rounds and matchsticks, and toss with the lime zest and juice. Decorate the top of the cake with the pear and finish with a few borage blossoms, if desired. Slice and serve. The leftover cake will stay moist, well wrapped, in your refrigerator for at least 3 days.
Buttermilk
There are two kinds of buttermilk. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid, whey, that was the by-product of churning cream into butter. Milky and acidic, it was taken as a drink and used in a variety of recipes. Cultured buttermilk, what is sold today in our modern markets, is fermented by adding a lactic acid culture, Streptococcus lactis, to low-fat milk. It is more tart and thicker than old-fashioned buttermilk.
If you can get your hands on unpasteurized milk, you can make dreamy buttermilk out of it by allowing it to sour slightly in a warm, dark place for a few days. But most commercially sold milk, as well as buttermilk, has been pasteurized, which means it has been heated to kill off pathogens, and that kills the good enzymes too. If possible, get your buttermilk from a local dairy. Even pasteurized milk from their healthier cows will have a thicker, tangier texture and is better for you. Buttermilk is high in acid and protein and, despite its name, low in fat. Baking with it is useful not just because it adds a tangy flavor. When mixed with leavening to make everything from biscuits to pancakes, cakes, pie fillings, or cookies, it results in a moister, softer product.
NOTE: All of the buttermilk recipes in this chapter were tested with pasteurized cultured buttermilk for the sake of consistency.
Sweet Spoonbread Soufflé
Soufflés are tricky little devils. They seem to rise or fall with no rhyme or reason. This version combines the custardy nature of spoonbread with the meringue of a traditional French soufflé, so it’s a bit more forgiving. It’s also a bit more dense. It will still fall once out of the oven, so serve it quickly. I love to make this in summer when corn is ripe and sweet. Serve with powdered sugar or a little caramel. / Feeds 6 to 8
For the molds
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
Soufflé
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups corn kernels (from 3 large ears corn)
2 cups whole milk
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt
5 large eggs, separated
Powdered sugar for dusting
1Preheat the oven to 400°F. Generously butter six to eight 4- to 5-ounce soufflé molds (oven-safe coffee cups work great for this in a pinch). Add a small handful of sugar to one buttered mold and turn to coat the bottom and sides with an even layer of sugar. Tap out the excess sugar into the next mold and coat the mold. Coat the remaining molds, adding more sugar as necessary. Refrigerate the molds until ready to bake.
2To make the soufflé: Whisk the cornmeal and buttermilk together in a medium bowl; set aside.
3Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the corn kernels and sauté for 4 to 5 minutes, until tender. Add the milk, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 5 minutes.
4Transfer the corn mixture to a blender and puree on high. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the cornmeal mixture, then let cool to room temperature.
5Whisk the egg yolks into the cooled corn mixture.
6In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form; this is your meringue. Gently fold the meringue into the corn mixture. Don’t worry if it isn’t all smoothly combined; a few streaks are okay.
7Scoop the batter into the prepared molds, filling them almost all the way to the rim. Place the molds on a baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and puffed. Serve immediately, sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Cornbread-Sorghum Milkshake (or “Breakfast”)
This is not even a dessert, really. It’s a recipe without any real measurements or rules, fast and loose. It’s a Southern thang, a friend told me. I had to try it to believe it. And, boy, is it good. Your cornbread has to be stale and crumbly. I suggest buttermilk ice cream here, but I’ve made it with strawberry and even coffee ice cream too. Drink the morning after a long night. / Feeds 2 to 4, depending on how hungry you are
2 large scoops Buttermilk Ice Cream (page 258) or other ice cream
A fistful of crumbled leftover Lardo Cornbread (page 208)
2 tablespoons sorghum
Combine the ice cream and cornbread in a blender and pulse until roughly blended. Add the sorghum and pulse a few more times. Serve in large mugs or Ball jars.
Try this drink a few times to see how much sweetness you like in it. If you like it a little sweeter, just add more sorghum.
Sorghum
Sweet sorghum comes from the sorghum plant, which looks like tall sugarcane stalks. It’s different from grain sorghum, which is used in everything from animal feed to ethanol production. Sweet sorghum is juiced like sugarcane—by pressing the stalks between two heavy rollers. The juice is then slowly boiled until it turns into a sticky amber syrup, which is cooled and bottled. In color, it is somewhere between honey and maple syrup, but there are many different grades and varieties.
Kentucky farmers have been growing sorghum for generations. And Danny Ray Townsend is a rock star among sorghum producers—a two-time winner of the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association’s National Champion Award. His farm is near Winchester, Kentucky, which, conveniently, is where they make my favorite chewing tobacco. I took a road trip to see Danny Ray recently with Matt Jamie, who sells Danny Ray’s sorghum under his Bourbon Barrel Foods label (see Resources, page 279). Danny Ray sliced off a sorghum stalk and showed us exactly which section has the sweetest juice. And he showed us his old-time furnace and his mule that he keeps around just to remind people of how things were done in the ole days. To listen to him speak so eloquently about an obscure crop that he and his family have devoted their lives to for generations is a lesson in fortitude and devotion. I use Danny Ray’s sorghum in everything from pancakes to tea to milkshakes. As long as people like Danny Ray are producing sorghum, I will be drinking it up.
coconut Rice Pudding Brûlée
Rice pudding was a popular dessert at the diners I worked at in New York City. But those puddings were pretty awful—the texture was heavy and starchy, and the only relief came in the form of dusty cinnamon powder that made me cough every time I inhaled a bit. I never gave up on rice pudding, though. My version is more exotic, and the caramelized top makes it elegant. Coconut milk has a higher fat content than cow’s milk, so I generally serve this in small portions, in decorative ramekins. The rich dessert is perfect with a Framboise Lambic from Lindemans. / Feeds 6
Rice Pudding
½ cup long-grain white rice (see note)
2½ cups whole milk
½ cup heavy cream
2¼ cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 vanilla bean, split
1 star anise
1 cup sugar
½ cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Garnish
18 raspberries
Fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai basil
1To make the pudding: Combine the rice, milk, cream, coconut milk, vanilla bean, star anise, and sugar in a heavy pot, bring to a simmer over low heat, and simmer for 55 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is soft. Transfer to a bowl and let the pudding cool to room temperature, about 1 hour; it will thicken as it cools.
2Discard the vanilla bean and star anise. Add the buttermilk to the pudding, stirring it in gently with a wooden spoon. Divide the rice pudding among six 4-inch ramekins and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.
3Just before serving, spoon 1 teaspoon of the brown sugar evenly over the surface of each rice pudding. Using a blowtorch, gently heat the sugar until it turns a dark amber color. Cool briefly, until the sugar hardens.
4Garnish each pudding with 3 raspberries and a few basil leaves and serve. (The sugar will start to pick up moisture and become tacky if you don’t serve these right away.)
I use sushi rice for this recipe. Feel free to use arborio, but it will take a little longer to cook.
You can use the broiler to brûlée the puddings. Make sure you are using oven-safe ramekins. Place them on a baking sheet, add the sugar, and place them directly under the flame of your broiler. Watch carefully, as the sugar can burn quickly. With most broilers, I find that you have to rotate the pan every 40 seconds; it takes longer this way, but you’ll get an even brûlée and you won’t burn it.
The Musician
Johnny Berry is a real-life honky-tonk country musician, and with his band, The Outliers, he tears up stages around the country with his gospel of songs that harken back to a time when country music was less glitzy, more gritty. His live shows are a marathon of up-tempo hooks and lyrics that make people want to get up and dance. He and I were up late one night talking about where to get good shirts (Leatherhead) or drink good beer (Holy Grale) in Louisville, when I discovered how much he loves cooking. He loves to cook as much as I love music. And when we cross paths, it’s always a good time.
“For me, cooking and writing music are exactly the same when it comes down to it—you want to catch the moment. Man, when I look out and see ripe tomatoes in my garden, I just put them on the grill and let them sit there for a good long time ’til the flavor gets concentrated, to get rid of all that excess water and just get to the essence of it. Well, writing a song is no different. I can be inspired by anything that’s happening in my life; I can see something just driving down the road and it hits me. All these thoughts and words. Then I just cook it down to get it to where it’s flavorful; I get everything else out of its way.”
—Johnny Berry of Johnny Berry and The Outliers
Resources
I have a lot of ingredients in my pantry, some of which you might not be able to easily access. I know there’s nothing worse than finding a recipe you want to make and then realizing there’s an ingredient that you can’t find in your city. I use a lot of Korean ingredients, but the one ingredient I did not include in any recipe is the popular Korean chile paste gochu jang. Some might find this exclusion odd, but it is not easily found unless there is a real Korean market in your neighborhood. (Also, it is more often used as a condiment, and I chose to feature recipes that use chile as a layered note, not a sauce-on-the-side.) The remaining ingredients can be found in this list of resources—and don’t underestimate the power of a good Internet search.
Bacon
Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams
2603 Highway 411 North
Madisonville, TN 37354-6356
Tel: 423-442-5003
www.bentonscountryhams2.com
Bitters
Fee Brothers’ Orange Bitters
Fee Brothers
453 Portland Avenue
Rochester, NY 14605
Tel: 800-961-FEES or 585-544-9530
www.feebrothers.com
Regan’s Orange Bitters
Buffalo Trace Distillery
113 Great Buffalo Trace
Frankfort, KY 40601
Tel: 800-654-8471 or 502-696-5926
cast-iron pans
lodge manufacturing company
Tel: 423-837-7181
www.lodgemfg.com
Cheese
Goat cheese
Capriole Goat Cheese
10329 New Cut Road
Greenville, IN 47124
Tel: 812-923-9408
www.capriolegoatcheese.com
Sheep’s-Milk Cheese
Everona Dairy
23246 Clarks Mountain Road
Rapidan, VA 22733
Tel: 540-854-4159
www.everonadairy.com
Fish Sauce
Red Boat Fish Sauce
Tel: 925-858-0508
www.redboatfishsauce.com
Grits
Anson Mills
1922-C Gervais Street
Columbia, SC 29201
Tel: 803-467-4122
www.ansonmills.com
Ham
Browning’s Country Ham
475 Sherman Newton Road
Dry Ridge, KY 41035
Tel: 859-948-4HAM
www.browningscountryham.com
Col. Bill Newsom’s Aged Kentucky Country Ham
Newsom’s Old Mill Store
208 East Main Street
Princeton, KY 42445
Tel: 270-365-2482
www.newsomscountryham.com
D’Artagnan
Tel: 800-327-8246
www.dartagnan.com
For tasso ham
Father’s Country Ham
6313 KY 81
Bremen, KY 42325
Tel: 270-525-3554
www.fatherscountryhams.com
Finchville Farms
5157 Taylorsville Road
Finchville, KY 40022
Tel: 800-678-1521 or 502-834-7952
www.finchvillefarms.com
The HoneyBaked Ham Company
Tel: 866-492-HAMS
www.honeybakedham.com
More than 400 retail stores nationwide
Penn’s Hams
P.O. Box 88
Mannsville, KY 42758
Tel: 800-883-6984 or 270-465-5065
Available at fine stores in Kentucky and by mail-order
Scott Hams
1301 Scott Road
Greenville, KY 42345
Tel: 800-318-1353 or 270-338-3402
www.scotthams.com
Maple Syrup
Blis Bourbon Barrel Matured Pure Maple Syrup
www.blisgourmet.com
Sur La Table: www.surlatable.com
Williams-Sonoma: www.williams-sonoma.com
Mayonnaise
Duke’s
Tel: 800-688-5676
www.dukesmayo.com
Oysters
Rappahannock River Oysters, LLC
Tel: 804-204-1709
www.rroysters.com
Pretzel Salt
www.nuts.com
Rice
Carolina Rice
Tel: 800-226-9522
www.carolinarice.com
Available at most supermarkets, in bulk from their Web site, and from other online retailers
Kokuho Rose Rice
Koda Farms
22540 Russell Avenue
South Dos Palos, CA 93665
Tel: 209-392-2191
www.kodafarms.com
Sorghum
Bourbon Barrel Pure Cane Sweet Sorghum
Bourbon Barrel Foods
Tel: 502-333-6103
www.bourbonbarrelfoods.com
Soy Sauce
Bluegrass Soy Sauce
Bourbon Barrel Foods
Tel: 502-333-6103
www.bourbonbarrelfoods.com
Spoonbill Caviar
Shuckman’s Fish Co. & Smokery
3001 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40212
Tel: 502-775-6487
www.kysmokedfish.com
Tamicon Tamarind Concentrate
Available at most Indian markets
Other Good Stuff
DVD of Fred Provenza
Western Folklife Center: www.westernfolklife.org/vmchk/Foraging-Behavior-by-Dr.-Frederick-D.-Provenza-DVD/flypage_wfc.tpl.html
Le Creuset Dutch Ovens
cookware.lecreuset.com
Also available at www.chefsresource.com and major department stores
Southern Foodways Alliance
www.southernfoodways.org
Acknowledgments
There are so many folks who made this book possible. A heartfelt thank you to all of them!
To Francine, who is a champion of the underdog
To Ann Bramson, who welcomed me into her esteemed family at Artisan
To Judy Pray, for her precision and her limitless hard work; let us eat more pig’s feet
To Kim Witherspoon, for her wisdom and honesty, and to Maria, for introducing us
To Grant, for his talent and patience, cheers, and Rebel Yell
To Dimity, for her tireless devotion and good humor; Clay lives on