Taste-testing Sheri Castle's THE NEW SOUTHERN GARDEN COOKBOOK

THE NEW SOUTHERN GARDEN COOKBOOK

by Sheri Castle

(The University of North Carolina Press, 2011)

At the beginning, there was the garden. Then, eventually, came the dollar and the quest for convenience, and things got dicey. In THE NEW SOUTHERN GARDEN COOKBOOK, food writer, cooking teacher, and recipe tester Sherri Castle offers a vision for Southern cuisine that's based wholly on locally grown, seasonal foods. The book is organized alphabetically by produce and includes such colorful, regional recipes as Hoppin' John Risotto with Collard Pesto, Chicken Smothered in Onions and Snappy Cream Gravy, Chestnut and Cornbread Dressing, Muscadine Streusel Pie, and Sweet Corn Custard Ice Cream.

The ingredient lists are seductive on their own, but Sheri is a warm and engaging writer with the kind of practical wisdom that enlightens any kitchen. While her focus is on local, Southern flavor, she gives credit to international and extra-regional influence when introducing dishes like Street Salad with Chile and Lime (a nod to her community's Mexican and Central American immigrants) and Comeback Sauce ("Several establishments claim to have invented this legendary sauce, but it's pretty clear that it originated in the restaurants operated by Greek families in Jackson, Mississippi"). She's also generous with anecdotes and tips collected over her long tenure as a devoted epicurean. In her introduction to the shell beans chapter, she writes:

Butter bean love never fades. People crave them all their days. Food writer Eugene Walter is credited with the story that on a summer evening some years ago he and two of the South's most celebrated writers, William Faulkner and Katherine Anne Porter, were dining together at a posh restaurant in Paris. As Eugene put it, "They'd gone all out. You wouldn't believe what we'd had. It was a hot summer evening, and there was that moment when we sipped our 1870 cognac or Grand Marnier or whatever we had after the coffee, when Katherine Anne Porter said something like 'Back home, butter beans'll be coming in.' And he said, 'The baby speckled ones.' After all the triumph of French cuisines. It's a warm summer evening, and they're thinking about the first butter beans back home."

To celebrate Sheri's new book and grease our insatiable taste buds, we tested: Skillet Apples; Roasted Beets with Sour Cream, Horseradish, and Sumac (with potatoes and turnips substituted for beets); Lentil Salad with Beets; Savory Carrot and Cheese Soufflé, Chicken Smothered in Onions and Snappy Cream Gravy; Turnips in Maple Cream Sauce:

Skillet Apples

Cook's Comments: The minimalist approach to spices left something to be desired—lemon, perhaps—but permitted room to improvise.

Roasted Turnips and Potatoes with Sour Cream

Cook's Comments: Despite gourmet flourishes like the freshly grated horseradish, the presentation smacked of a Super Bowl party offering—a dilemma the elusive sumac garnish would have helped to avoid. Traditionally, sumac might have been a local ingredient, but evidently not anymore.

Savory Carrot and Cheese Soufflé

Cook's Comments: Although Castle explained this wasn't a true soufflé, the heaviness of the pureed carrot-and-gruyere mixture ended up being more savory than expected. An emphasis on the carrots, maybe by including a lighter complementary cheese, might be an improvement.

Chicken Smothered in Onions and Snappy Cream Gravy

Cook's Comments: While this ended up producing a rich and hearty dish, Castle's recipe offers a substitution of thighs instead of breasts, but without any further guidance. The cooking time was a lot longer than expected.

Lentil Salad with Beets

Turnips in Maple Cream Sauce

Cook's Comments: Okay, so we secretly used Vermont maple syrup and Vermont crème fraîche, but the pecans were local! Also, the minimalist directions failed to explain exactly how to chop the turnips. While this is an easily solved problem, it still seemed a little odd.

—JHB

Photos by Nicholas Pippins