A Heavenly Grain

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Corn flour is also known as Southern flour because it’s the key ingredient for so many Southern dishes. Here, from The Atlantic, comes a very interesting spotlight on corn flour, to which we all owe some gratitude whenever we enjoy a truly delicious Southern meal.

Image by Regina Charboneau

A Baker’s Well-Kept Secret: Corn Flour by Regina Charboneau

– Regina Charboneau is the owner of Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast in Natchez, Mississippi. She is the author of Regina’s Table at Twin Oaks.

Every week I have the task to come up with some topic on Southern food to write about for TheAtlantic.com. It typically is easy because my life is centered on food, and most often Southern food. Last weekend, as I was taking corn flour out of my baking cabinet to dust fresh shrimp for a quick Sunday lunch of fried shrimp and cole slaw, I knew immediately that I should write about this well kept Southern secret—corn flour.

Everyone knows about corn meal, white or yellow, used for breading catfish and making corn bread. Somehow I think we have done a good job of keeping this silky flavorful flour more of a secret. In many Southern kitchens, this is the key ingredient that makes a homemade cake, Chess Pie, or a breading for shellfish or fish just a bit more special. Corn flour is also used often in Italian cooking. No matter how proud we Southerners are of our cuisine, we do realize that Italian cooking was around long before Southern cooking. Yes, we know it all began in 1492 when Columbus’s men discovered this new grain in Cuba. Native to the Americas, it was exported to Europe rather than being imported, as were other major grains.

It is difficult not to get into a long-winded article about corn and all the fabulous products that come from this heavenly grain. Don’t worry—I will condense my information…

For the complete article, click here. To try Regina’s cake recipe using this characteristic Southern flour, click here – you don’t want to miss this one, it’s a Pineapple-Pear Corn Flour Cake with Brown Sugar Sauce!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake!

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We have a crush on crumb cake this week, and we always have a crush on rhubarb. Therefore, nothing makes more sense to us today than a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Cake

(borrowed from Diana Rattray: Southern culinary artist and author of the cookbook, “The About.com Guide to Southern Cooking“)

This delicious crumb cake is a great way to use this season’s rhubarb and strawberries. Serve this cake as a coffee cake for brunch or breakfast, as a dessert cake, or take it along to a potluck.

Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:

Filling:

2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (about 1/2-inch thickness)
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, hulled, and sliced and lightly mashed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoons alt
1 stick (4 ounces) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

Preparation:

Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
Combine the rhubarb, mashed strawberries, lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Combine the 2/3 cup sugar and cornstarch and add to the fruit mixture. Bring to a simmer, stirring. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.

Heat oven to 350°.

Combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat 1 stick of butter with the 3/4 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and sour cream. Beat in vanilla. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth and blended. Spread in the prepared pan.

Spoon cooled filling mixture over the cake batter.

Combine the 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, 5 tablespoons melted butter, and chopped pecans, if using. Mix well and sprinkle evenly over the filling layer.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the cake is firm and topping is lightly browned.

Some Southern Wisdom: Cake for Breakfast

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From a graceful little blog called A Southern Grace, comes a tasty recipe for Crumb Cake. This is the kind of cake you have for breakfast when you’re feeling like cake for breakfast is exactly the perfect thing (and we think it often is.)

Crumby Crumb Cake

(based on this recipe, which is based on this recipe – but all our credit goes to Grace from A Southern Grace for this one.)

Crumbs:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cake:
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt, low fat
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
To make the crumbs, in a large bowl, stir together the sugars, cinnamon, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in the flour with a spatula. It should look like a solid dough. Pat it down and set it aside.
To prepare the cake, in a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. In a larger bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the softened butter and a spoonful of the yogurt mixture and mix until flour is moistened. Add the remaining yogurt mixture in two batches, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter. Using your fingers, break the topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch in size. Sprinkle the lovely crumbs over the blueberries. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Bill Neal’s Hush Puppies

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Bill Neal tremendously important to the revival of Southern cooking in recent decades.  He co-founded and ran La Residence and Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, NC, and wrote several cookbooks.  He died far too young at 41, but has left a lasting legacy that extends to all regions of the South and many styles of cooking.  We recommend you read Sara Engram’s profile of Bill in Duke Magazine, “Some South for Your Mouth: How Corn Bread Cuisine Became Haute.”

“Neal approached the postlapsarian state of southern cooking as an anthropologist as much as a food writer.”
—Book Forum

In his wonderful cookbook, “Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie,” Bill Neal writes the definitive book on southern breads and pies.   His hush puppies are just the best.

“Hushpuppies are deep-fried cornmeal fritters and the classic accompaniment to outdoor fish fries and barbecues.  Some are little more than fried dough of the cornmeal dumpling variety, but most are enriched these days with eggs, butter, milk, and onion.  Almost every corn milling operation in the South puts out a hushpuppy mix and few cooks make hushpuppies from scratch.  For hush puppies from scratch, here is a typical recipe.

2 c. cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. black pepper
3/4 c. grated onion
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk
Fat for deep frying: shortening, lard, vegetable oil, or a combination

Sift together the dry ingredients.  Beat the onion, egg and buttermilk together; add to the meal mixture.  Beat well and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.  Cook a test hushpuppy – drop by the large teaspoon into 350 degree F. deep fat.   Test after it has browned, in 2-3 minutes; if the hushpuppy is not cooked through, add a little more cornmeal to the batter.  If the outside is very rough and the inside too heavy, add a little buttermilk.  Proceed, cooking the puppies about 2-3 minutes until golden brown.  Drain on brown paper and serve immediately.  Recipe makes 36 hushpuppies.

From: Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie: 300 recipes that celebrate the glories of Southern baking – with a generous accompaniment of historical lore, Bill Neal, originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1990 and now in paperback from University of North Carolina Press.

 

Clever & Glamorous Cinnamon Roll Cookies

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I found this recipe for Cinnamon Roll Cookies on Sinful Southern Treats. This treat is like the cookie equivalent of a platypus. Is it a cookie or a cinnamon roll? And really, does it matter if it’s as yummy as it looks in the photo below? I am dying to make these, a clever and glamorous cookie originally from Picky Palate (home of the recipe for Fluffernutter Cookies, a secret fantasy of mine that I promise you I will be baking before the week is through…)

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

(via Picky Palate)

ingredients
2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
6 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons softened butter, (slice 2 Tablespoons 6 times totaling 12 tablespoons)
1 1/2 Cups packed light brown sugar, divided into 1/4 Cups
1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon, divided
Frosting
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons milk, to thin icing

Directions

1. In an electric or stand mixer, cream the sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and sour cream until well combined. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined.
2. Separate dough into 6 disc shapes and chill for at least 2 hours for best results.
3. Once chilled, roll into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle, about 13 inches X 9 inches. Spread each rolled pieces of dough with 2 Tablespoons softened butter, 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Start rolling from the long end closest to you, rolling into a log shape. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/2 inch pieces of dough then placing onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
4. To prepare frosting, beat the cream cheese until softened and smooth, slowly add powdered sugar, vanilla. Add milk until desired consistency. Frost cookies then place in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Last Minute Real Southern Cobbler, Spoon Licking Good

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I found this authentic and easy cobbler recipe on the Rick-Rack and Gingham blog – a blog by a southern grandma who loves to bake and travel around in her RV with her husband of 34 years. Thanks Cindy!

…What all Good Southern Women keep up their sleeves for those emergency..ooops.. someone is coming over… recipes. Actually my daughter started it..I finished it..baby was calling her mama!

COBBLER OF COURSE!!

We went with the Blackberry/Dewberry cobbler version..it works great with peach and even apricot.

Now I know..this is too easy..we didn’t roll out the dough..we never said we were ancient Southern women!! This recipe has been around for-ever..it can be whipped up for the last minute company..Church social on Sun evening..because your husband is whining for a dessert…and because you have a new baby in the house..lol

I would rate it “Easy Peasy” and “Stick to your ribs Yummy”..we have been known to eat it for breakfast..Hey..there are no real rules for breakfast foods…

For the complete post and the cobbler recipe we all want to try, click here. For more of Cindy’s authentic recipes check out her blog.

Another bite of biscuit heaven…

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“Grazing is a state of being in the South. In fact, many of our community cookbooks from the twentieth century are front-heavy, with so many more hors d’oeuvre and finger-food recipes than main courses (or even desserts) that it makes you wonder why we even bother with the rest of the meal.  It’s actually plain good sense: as any southerner knows, a dizzying array of nibbles in view when your guests arrive is the utmost gesture of hospitality.”

— The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners)

Alrighty folks, I know that I say everything I post on here looks irresistibly scrumptious, but really, can this delectible concept be beaten? Spicy! Sweet! Salty! Enjoy! (And if you follow this recipe we want to hear from you how it turned out. And then we want you to FedEx us some.)

Buttermilk Biscuits with Kentucky Ham, Molasses Butter & Creole Chile Jam
(From Convivial.org)

One of my favorite Southern appetizers is a ham biscuit — Kentucky smoked ham on a buttermilk biscuit — it’s that simple.  However, because it’s only two things put together, the biscuits better be great and the ham even better.

A real, aged country ham is remarkably different in flavor and texture from a mass-produced ham.  An authentic country ham is considered the South’s prosciutto — it’s smoky, wild, gamy and salty.

Col. Bill Newsom’s Kentucky hams are hand-cured (nitrate & nitrite free) using a 200 year old family method, slow-smoked over hickory, and hung for several months to age.  This traditional, painstakingly long process is becoming a lost art.  Not mass-produced or distributed wholesale, these artisan hams are handled only 18 times before arriving at your door with a numbered certificate.   Foodies everywhere are grateful to Nancy Newsom Mahaffey (aka, the Ham Lady) for continuing her grandfather’s tradition.

Dryness tends to be a problem with just ham on biscuits, especially if they sit for any length of time…

For the complete article and the recipe (!) please click here.

The Science of The Southern Biscuit

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Creating the perfect biscuit is a theoretical question with as many answers as there are scientists racing toward finding a unified theory of Everything. With Knoxville’s first International Biscuit Festival on the horizon (June 4th and 5th), featuring a biscuit bake-off, this blog would be amiss if it didn’t feature a favorite classic biscuit recipe right about now. Of course, any baker worth her salt should claim her biscuit is the True Biscuit, that’s to be expected, but in my opinion Alton Brown, food scientist galore, has a mighty good one and it’s simple as pie:

Alton Brown’s Southern Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • 1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don’t want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that’s life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

For more Alton, click here. (Can you tell we have a little crush on Alton Brown?)

Corn Bread Nation

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The only thing better than eating is reading about eating.

So, in saunters Corn Bread Nation and everyone salivates: “Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing” debuted in 2002, and since then readers can’t seem to get enough of this anthology published in conjunction with Southern Foodways Alliance.

The fifth and latest anthology was released just last month.

Here’s an article about it from PopMatters –

Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing by Fred W. Sauceman and John T. Edge
By Carolyn W. Fanelli 5 May 2010

Have you ever eaten something so blissfully good that you wanted to write an ode to it or, perhaps, in the more modern fashion of Glee or Bollywood, burst into song and dance? The Cornbread Nation series captures just this feeling of unrestrained exuberance. Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance, it explores, explains, ponders, and celebrates Southern food and culture with such gusto that even if you’ve never ventured south of the Mason-Dixon line, you’ll soon be craving sweet tea.

In Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing, sweet tea is exactly what inspires Fred Thompson in his contribution to the collection, “Taste of Tradition”. It begins, “My mother swears she didn’t put sweet tea in my baby bottles, but the twinkle in her eye and the sly, sideways smile tell me she’s probably not being truthful.” If sweet tea can substitute for baby formula, than surely it’s no surprise that, in a dry Mississippi county, Donna Tartt’s family stored bourbon under the bathroom sink, “like medicine”…

For the complete article, click here.

Mountain Molasses Stack Cake! Yes!

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I am completely in love with the idea of having a celebration where each guest brings a single layer for a cake. The collection of layers would then be assembled into a magnificent cake for all to share. It seems that this folktale-like custom is something that actually exists in the South, where a deep sense of community and family combined with an enormous appreciation for food is the norm.

…I am also in love with the recipe you’ll find below for Mountain Molasses Stack Cake from a new cookbook “Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly” – a collection of southern Appalachian recipes:

Mountain Molasses Stack Cake

This is a cake that is easy to make with an apple filling.

— This dense, rich cake from Joan Aller’s forthcoming cookbook, “Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly” (a collection of recipes from southern Appalachia due out in June), is remarkably easy to make, but incredibly flavorful.

She says it is based on cakes assembled at family reunions and other celebrations in the region. She says each family would bring a single layer. The collection of layers then would be assembled into a single cake at the event.

For most of us, the two layers in this recipe probably will be plenty.

Mountain Molasses Stack Cake…

For the recipe and complete article please click here.