Month: November 2024

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Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Feta and Pecans

This is a good way to dress up sweet potatoes for a holiday table and simple enough for less formal occasions. Use can use ricotta, but a salty feta is better.

Bake potatoes by coating with vegetable oil and placing in a very hot oven for about an hour; bake an extra potato so you’ll have enough to over-stuff. Cool potatoes, slit and scoop out the pulp, mix with butter and brown sugar, honey, or molasses to taste, and about a tablespoon each of feta and chopped nuts per potato depending on the size of the spuds. Raisins are a nice touch.

Stuff skins with mix, top with cheese, and bake until browned. Sprinkle with pecans before serving.

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Chicken and Dressing

Regional favorites always have local trends; barbecue springs to mind, but more subtle examples are available.

Take chicken and dressing, for instance, a staple of the Mid South.  Along the coast, you’ll find dressings using a dried French loaf, but as you move north, cornbread enters the picture. I’ve seen recipes in north Louisiana and central Mississippi using a mix of the two. This is a typical north Mississippi recipe.

Make cornbread the night before, stick it in a paper sack, and put it somewhere it won’t get eaten. Next day, crumble bread into a large bowl and add enough strong chicken stock to make thick slurry.

To two quarts of such a mixture, add no more than 4 eggs well-beaten and at least two cups shredded chicken. Sauté a cup (more if you like) each of finely-diced white onion and celery in a half a stick of butter, and add to the mix. Some people like diced pepper in their dressing, but I find it overpowering.

Season with salt, pepper, thyme, and sage; some people use a lot of sage, but it makes the dressing bitter. Pour into a greased pan and bake at 350 until the top is browned and the center firm.

This goes with anything, anytime.

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How to Cook a Green Ham

Ham is the quintessential meat of the Southern table, either as main dish or providing support in dozens of sides across the board.

But as a great many of those smart-ass hillbillies from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky–the absolute worst–will tell you (in annoyingly nasal, condescendingly reverential tones), there are hams, and then there are hams.

The best hams are dry cured, usually with a mix of salt and sugar. These hams can be eaten very thinly sliced without cooking, but they need to be soaked in water for at least a day if baked for the table. These are often labeled country hams. So-called city hams, the kind you most often find in the supermarket, are wet-cured by brine injection. Smoked hams are usually a variant of both, with smoke and brine both providing preservation and flavor.

Then you have the green ham, which is what your old granny called a leg of pork. You’ll find it sold as a “fresh” ham. You may have to look for it, you may even have to order one, but a green ham is no more trouble than any other kind, and it’s a worthy option to the nitrate-infused clubs of meat you’ve been serving all these years.

A green ham will have a rind over a layer of fat. Score the rind in a tight crisscross pattern with a very sharp knife (honest to God, I use a box cutter), and coat with garlic, sage, a little brown sugar, coarsely-ground pepper, and sea salt. Put sprigs of rosemary and coarsely chopped white onions in the bottom of your roaster with enough water to cover them. Set the ham fatty side up on a rack.

Place in a hot oven, 450. After thirty minutes, lower to 350. For a ten-pound ham, give it three hours or until that little bone next to the big one wiggles freely. Add water to pan as needed to prevent scorching. Let sit for at least an hour before carving.

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Traditional Ambrosia

Southern ambrosia is traditionally made with  fruits from Mexico and Central America that came to stores in the rural South during the winter–oranges, pineapples, bananas, and coconuts–lightly sweetened with cane sugar. Maraschino cherries have long been an option.

Extract the meat from the coconut, skin and grate. The pineapple should be golden, aromatic, and somewhat soft, peeled, diced, and macerated.  Use sectioned Valencia oranges, which are sweeter than navels. These too should be macerated and chilled.

To serve,  drain fruit and layer into a glass bowl or trifle. Top with a generous sprinkling of hand-grated coconut and a light sprinkling of sugar. Add more fruit along with a few sliced (slightly green) bananas. Top with coconut. Combine some of the juices from the macerating to drizzle over the fruit; reserve the rest for rum punch.

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Whipped Potatoes

Rich, savory, and light as a cloud, this is a go-to potato recipe for formal dinners. Like most simple recipes—four ingredients—success is in preparation, which is admittedly involved. It’s worth the trouble. The recipe serves 12 generously.

Wash, peel, and cut into chunks ten medium russet potatoes. Cover with water, drain and rinse, then boil in salted water until done through. Drain and rinse again.

Mash well or rice while still warm, add a sliced stick of butter, a half-pint of whole cream, and 8 oz. of sour cream. Mix at low speed. When smooth, add another cup each of cream and sour cream. Set mixer to high, and whip until light and fluffy. Serve warm.

These refrigerate for up to three days and can be frozen, but the initial airiness is lost.

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Thanksgiving Muffins

Kitchen innovation emphasizing technique rather than ingredients can have impressive results, especially when you’re dealing with what’s familiar. This twist is simple: bake dressing in a muffin pan. It’s easy to do, and the result is a morsel that’s eaten handily, stored easily and kids love them. You can make these days before, freeze, and heat when needed. I like to top some of them with a bit of whole-berry cranberry sauce. They also look good piled on a pretty plate alongside your other buffet items.

Spoon dressing batter into oiled paper liners in a muffin tin and fill to the top, since these do not rise as much as a bread muffin would. Place your pans in the middle rack of the oven and bake at 350 until the tops are firm and the edges have just begun to brown, about 25 minutes. Top with whole berry cranberries when they’re about half-way done. Brush with melted butter and let them cool before taking them from the pan (use a fork) and removing the paper. Store for later and reheat on a cookie sheet.

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Easy-Peel Boiled Eggs

It doesn’t matter if the eggs are white or brown, cold or warm. Place eggs in a single layer in a pot, add about an inch of water, bring to a vigorous boil, and cover. I’ve found that for six eggs in a 2-quart pot, that steaming for 5 minutes will give you firm whites and a warm runny yolk. Three minutes more will give you a soft, firm yolk. I usually put the covered pot with the eggs and water on the stove, turn the heat on high, and set the timer for 10 minutes. Perfect results, every time.