Gift of Southern Cooking:
Recipes and Revelations from Two Great Southern Cooks
by Edna Lewis
$29.95
YOU PAY $25.00
0375400354
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Edna Lewis--whose The Taste of Country Cooking has become an American
classic--and Alabama-born chef Scott Peacock pool their unusual cooking
talents to give us this unique cookbook. What makes it so special is that it
represents different styles of Southern cooking--Miss Lewis's Virginia country
cooking and Scott Peacock's inventive and sensitive blending of new tastes
with the Alabama foods he grew up on, liberally seasoned with Native American,
Caribbean, and African influences. Together they have taken neglected
traditional recipes unearthed in their years of research together on Southern
food and worked out new versions that they have made their own.
Every page of this beguiling book bears the unmistakable mark of being written
by real hands-on cooks. Scott Peacock has the gift for translating the love
and respect they share for good home cooking with such care and precision that
you know, even if you've never tried them before, that the Skillet Cornbread
will turn out perfect, the Crab Cakes will be "Honestly Good," and the
four-tiered Lane Cake something spectacular.
Together they share their secrets for such Southern basics as pan-fried
chicken (soak in brine first, then buttermilk, before frying in good pork
fat), creamy grits (cook slowly in milk), and genuine Southern biscuits, which
depend on using soft flour, homemade baking powder, and fine, fresh lard (and
on not twisting the biscuit cutter when you stamp out the dough). Scott
Peacock describes how Miss Lewis makes soup by coaxing the essence of flavor
from vegetables (the She-Crab and Turtle soups taste so rich they can be
served in small portions in demitasse cups), and he applies the same principle
to his intensely flavored, scrumptious dish of Garlic Braised Shoulder Lamb
Chops with Butter Beans and Tomatoes. You'll find all these treasures and more
before you even get to the superb cakes (potential "Cakewalk Winners" all),
the hand-cranked ice creams, the flaky pies, and homey custards and puddings.
Interwoven throughout the book are warm memories of the people and the
traditions that shaped these pure-tasting, genuinely American recipes. Above
all, the Southern table stands for hospitality, and the authors demonstrate
that the way everything is put together--with the condiments and relishes and
preserves and wealth of vegetables all spread out on the table--is what makes
the meal uniquely Southern. Every occasion is celebrated, and at the back of
the book there are twenty-two seasonal menus, from A Spring Country Breakfast
for a Late Sunday Morning and A Summer Dinner of Big Flavors to An Alabama
Thanksgiving and A Hearty Dinner for a Cold Winter Night, to show you how to
mix and match dishes for a true Southern table.
Here, then, is a joyful coming together of two extraordinary cooks, sharing
their gifts. And they invite you to join them.
