The New Southern Garden Cookbook , livre ebook

THE NEW SOUTHERN GARDEN COOKBOOK
The New Southern Garden Cookbook
ENJOYING THE BEST FROM HOMEGROWN GARDENS, FARMERS MARKERTS, ROADSIDE STANDS, & CSA FARM BOXES
SHERI CASTLE
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
Text 2011 Sheri Castle Photographs 2011 Stewart Waller
All rights reserved. Manufactured in Singapore. Designed by Courtney Leigh Baker and set in Whitman with Museo Slab and Avenir display by Rebecca Evans. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Castle, Sheri. The new southern garden cookbook : enjoying the best from homegrown gardens, farmers markets, roadside stands, and CSA farm boxes/Sheri Castle. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8078-3465-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cooking, American-Southern style. 2. Cookbooks. I. Title. TX 715.2. S 68 C 385 2011 641.5975-dc22 2010038338
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TO MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER , Lily Castle Tidwell THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PERSON I KNOW
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Apples
Asparagus
Beets
Blackberries
Blueberries
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Cherries
Chile Peppers
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Field Peas
Figs
Garden Peas
Garlic
Grapes
Greens
Jerusalem Artichokes
Melons
Okra
Onions
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Plums
Potatoes
Radishes
Ramps
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Shell Beans
Snap Beans
Strawberries
Summer Squash
Sweet Peppers
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Turnips
Winter Squash
Zucchini
Basics
Index
Acknowledgments
I've tested and developed the recipes for several fine cookbooks and written for several more. Based on that, I thought that writing my own cookbook would be pretty easy. Nope. Full authorship is to writing for hire what parenting is to babysitting.
This book would not have been possible without the support of more people than I can ever thank adequately, but I must try to specifically thank these few.
My husband, Doug Tidwell, not only put up with me through all of this but maintained his enthusiasm and constant support. He did everything from fixing computer problems (and cocktails) to proofreading to listening to me fret over every detail. He never declined a request, no matter how many times I asked him to read something or handed him a spoon and said, Taste this and tell me whether it's bookworthy. Doug is the wittiest, funniest person I know.
My unflappable agent, Michael Bourret, of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, patiently answered all my questions and consistently looked after my best interests. He knows his stuff, and I'm so glad he's in my corner.
I am grateful to everyone at the University of North Carolina Press. In particular I want to thank Elaine Maisner and Paula Wald, my editors. Elaine shepherded this book from day one, when it was nothing more than a dream I mentioned over lunch. When all was said and done, Paula made sure it was all said and done. I appreciate their patience, editorial insight, and friendship. Many thanks to everyone on the team who helped bring this cookbook to fruition.
Stewart Waller's beautiful photographs made the food I put on the plate come alive on the page. Thanks for sharing my vision of the food and for being so easy to work with.
Many thanks to Julie Walker for her expert prop styling and cheerful support during the photo shoots, not to mention sharing her enviable collection of art, fabric, and dishes. Thanks to Anne Dusek and Touchwood Antiques for lending lovely objects as well.
To my friends at the Carrboro Farmers Market: If you grow it, I will come. Thanks also to my cohorts in the Southern Foodways Alliance. I am proud to be a member of such a smart, cool, hardworking, and well-fed group.
Many of my friends will never know how much they helped while I was immersed in this book. They listened and they listened and they listened a little more as I prattled on and fretted more than a bit. Blessings to Elizabeth Beal, Sarah Blacklin, Sharon Brody, Kelly Clark, Anne and Alex Dusek, Anne Fairchild, Marcie Ferris, Kathleen Fitzgerald, Susan Gilpin, Nancy Halberstadt, Alex and Betsy Hitt, Ted Lee, Catherine Linford, Sheila Neal, Carol O'Laughlin, Sara Roahen, Bill Smith Jr., Julie and David Walker, Laura Werlin, and all the rest.
My beloved Domino is the best dog and truest pal ever. He has a pure soul and good outlook on life. He makes me happy every day. Thanks to Daddy Lynn and T. Mom for giving their granddaughter and our grand dog a summer place while I finished the book.
And to everyone else who did good things along the way: Thanks to each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.
THE NEW SOUTHERN GARDEN COOKBOOK
Introduction
Southerners are renowned for dishing up all sorts of good things to eat, but if you want to see a southerner's face really light up, ask about the last time they enjoyed fresh vegetables and fruits from the garden. The New Southern Garden Cookbook celebrates the pleasures of fresh, local, seasonal food. And it celebrates how much easier it is becoming to find produce grown in our communities. This cookbook promotes the delicious, healthful home cooking made possible by the diverse array of seasonal fruits and vegetables grown in the South-and in most of the rest of the nation as well. These pages hold good food for omnivores and vegetarians alike.
The history and art of southern cookery were built on seasonal and mostly homegrown vegetables. No other component-not even the barbecue, fried chicken, or hot biscuits-more clearly conveyed the southern approach to meals. Weekday meals usually included at least three vegetables or fruits. A proper Sunday dinner offered twice that. The dishes soared to a dozen or more on holidays and special occasions. Produce figured into the entire meal, not just the side dishes. With all that carefully prepared garden-fresh food, not to mention the jars of pickles, relishes, and preserves, traditional southern meals offered endless combinations of textures, nuanced flavors, and aromas. Such meals could give the fortunate eaters the feeling that no one anywhere was eating better at that exact moment.
The story is told that Eden, a garden, was paradise itself. The same is not said of fast-food joints. To quote an old song, We got to get ourselves back to the garden.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A GARDEN THESE DAYS?
A garden doesn't have to be a plot of ground out back. We can grow a few things in deck boxes, in patio pots, or in a square of a community garden. We can pick our fresh produce from local farmers markets and roadside farm stands. We can join a Community Supported Agriculture ( CSA ) program to have a farm box of local fare delivered to our door each week. We can accept an armload of produce handed across the fence from a generous neighbor. Even supermarkets sometimes feature locally grown food. With all these options, it's possible for many of us to eat from a bountiful garden without having to personally grow that garden.
The common thread among all these definitions of garden is that the food is local and seasonal, two ideas as old as the ages in southern cooking. Our good cooking always began with good growing.
Garden food is obviously local, because there is no place more local than our own backyards, farmers markets, and CSAS . Left to her own devices, Mother Nature insists that garden fare be seasonal because things can grow only when they are supposed to. There is no better time to eat a food than when it is ready, in the place it is ready. Each season, even each week within a season, brings something new. The appearance of a certain food on the table can be as true a mark of a season as the position of the sun in the sky. There are certain everyday smells in the kitchen, but there are others that turn the page of the calendar, telling us that a new season is beginning and another is closing until next year, when it all comes around again.
It is estimated that the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles. That's far from fresh. Local and regional produce enjoyed at the height of its natural season delivers better value and can cost less than when it is shipped across the globe year-round. A three-dollar basket of luscious, local, sun-ripened strawberries enjoyed on the same warm spring day as they are picked is a better value than a three-dollar basket of hard, bland, gassed berries shipped across many time zones in the dead of winter. Perfectly ripe berries picked from homegrown perennial plants cost pennies. When it comes to flavor, freshness trumps, and it shows on our plates.
Gardens, farmers markets, and CSAs offer us variety that most supermarkets and mega-marts cannot. Large markets must focus on produce that meets requirements for shipability, uniformity, and shelf life-regardless of season or flavor. In contrast, local food outlets can reflect local tastes and preferences, giving us more variety in our familiar favorites and introducing us to new things along the way.
Local food can bridge the gap between producers and consumers, letting us know exactly where our food comes from, who grew it, and how. Home gardening closes that gap altogether. That is one of the reasons that, for the first time in decades, the popularity of home gardening and