Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook
Author: Martha Hall Foos
Gifted chef and storyteller Martha Hall Foose invites you into her kitchen to share recipes that bring alive the landscape, people, and traditions that make Southern cuisine an American favorite.
Born and raised in Mississippi, Foose cooks Southern food with a contemporary flair: Sweet Potato Soup is enhanced with coconut milk and curry powder; Blackberry Limeade gets a lift from a secret ingredient–cardamom; and her much-ballyhooed Sweet Tea Pie combines two great Southern staples–sweet tea and pie, of course–to make one phenomenal signature dessert. The more than 150 original recipes are not only full of flavor, but also rich with local color and characters.
As the executive chef of the Viking Cooking School, teaching thousands of home cooks each year, Foose crafts recipes that are the perfect combination of delicious, creative, and accessible. Filled with humorous and touching tales as well as useful information on ingredients, techniques, storage, shortcuts, variations, and substitutions, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea is a must-have for the American home cook–and a must-read for anyone who craves a return to what cooking is all about: comfort, company, and good eating.
Publishers Weekly
The warm, languid air of the South filters through this engaging book, in which Foose shares the traditional recipes that she ate while growing up on the Mississippi Delta and has returned to after training as a pastry chef in France and traveling the world. Gently humorous stories about family and friends form a seamless part of her instructions for community recipes like Strawberry Missionary Society Salad, as well as pleasant surprises like Tabbouleh, Curried Sweet Potato Soup, and Chinese Grocery Roast Pork that take Southern food beyond stereotypes. Fried chicken and grits do appear, but for such classics Foose emphasizes relatively simple, wholesome preparations that are rich without loading on more butter and oil than necessary. Although recipes for Gumbo Z'Herbs, Chile Lime Skirt Steak, and creamy succotash are mouthwatering enough just to read about, many cooks will be tempted to flip straight to the last chapters, where her enticing breads and pastries provide the book with a winning flourish. The cook may be Southern, but the appeal of the dishes she presents should reach well beyond people who grew up in the land of four-hour lunches and sweet tea savored on a porch swing. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Judith Sutton - Library Journal
Foose, executive chef of the Viking Cooking School (as in Viking ranges), has also worked as a pastry chef, and she and her husband are the owners of Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood, MS. A talented cook and baker, she is also an entertaining writer. Foose grew up in the Mississippi Delta and returned there five years ago after traveling and working in faraway places, and she has many stories to tell. Recipe subtitles provide a hint of the tales associated with the particular dishes: Midnight Brisket-Feed the Band, for example, or Mailbox Cocktail-Fold Down Door, Set Down Drink. Some of the recipes are for Southern classics, but even these have Foose's own personal stamp. Every recipe is accompanied by copious notes, including make-ahead info, suggestions for variations, and more. As much fun to read as it will be to cook from, this is highly recommended.
Smoke and Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue, Revised
Author: Cheryl Alters Jamison
Smoke & Spice , the James Beard Book Award winner that has sold more than half a million copies, is now completely revised and updated. Cheryl and Bill Jamison have added 100 brand new recipes, the very latest product and technique information, and plenty more of their signature wit and charm. The 400 recipes cover everything from Memphis ribs to Carolina port to Texas brisket, plus a huge variety of rubs, mops, marinades, sauces, appetizers, sides, desserts, and drinks.
Publishers Weekly
Nine years and a half million copies after its first edition, this handy resource for barbecue done the right way returns in an expanded volume. The Jamisons have added an extra 100 recipes as well as 20 new recipe variations. Classics like a Humble Hot Dog, which demands a bun of "squishy white bread," and Cajun County Ribs sopped in cider vinegar and Worcestershire share the pages with Jerked Salmon done Jamaican style in a sauce of tamarind, honey and ginger. Sometimes worlds collide as with Southwest Stew on a Stick, chili-powdered sirloin glazed in beer and molasses and served as a kebob. Given the proper amount of smoke and time, even the lowliest of meats find dignity, as with the Triple Play Tube Steak, wherein a two-pound chunk of bologna is draped in sauce and smoked for two hours; the sauce caramelizes, making for a sticky-sweet sandwich. An at-first-surprising inclusion is the Kentucky Burgoo, but it turns out to be merely a mix of chicken, beef and lamb, forgoing the possum and squirrel that sometimes turn up in the stew. The authors end the book with a selection of chilly desserts, such as Peach Melba Ice Cream, and cool drinks like Cold Buttered Rum. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
The first edition of Smoke & Spice has sold more than 500,000 copies since it was published in 1994. Yet at the time, real barbecue, as opposed to simply grilling, seemed a much more esoteric subject than it does today, when so many people have backyard (or indoor) smokers and outdoor cooking is popular year-round in many parts of the country. The Jamisons have updated their text (including Internet resources and the like), revised some of the original recipes, and added 100 new ones, for a total of more than 400 in all. Some of the new recipes are for quicker dishes, while others reflect influences from ethnic cuisines that were little known ten years ago. Many of the recipes include serving suggestions, variations, and/or tips, and there are dozens of sidebars devoted to barbecue legends and lore. For most collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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