Cooking with "Deep Run Roots" by Vivian Howard

[Thanks for the Crepes]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Today, I substituted seared scallops into the recipe for Miso Flounder with Cucumber Noodles and Gingered Collards.  Another great combination of flavors and textures.

I dug out the spiralizer for the cucumber noodles. They are delightfully fresh and crunchy, marinated in a mix of salt, sugar, scallions, sherry vinegar, chopped mint, lime juice and hot sauce.  I see that sesame seeds should have been added at the end but they remain on the counter.  Oops. These cucumbers are really good and I would use them as a bed for any sort of grilled seafood or shellfish.

The gingered collards seemed a bit chewy to me at first bite but were a good contrast in flavor and texture to the rest of the plate.  They are sautéed first with ginger, garlic, red chili flakes and salt and finished off with orange juice and a pinch of brown sugar.  The miso butter sauce has a bit of red onion, sake, miso, mirin, honey and hot sauce. And butter!  

White rice is recommended but after much searching, it appears the only white rice in my cupboard is arborio so I cooked up some brown basmati rice instead.  

 

 

This looks wonderful, and just adds to my sense of awe of your ability to cook up such interesting and varied dishes every day for only one person without falling victim to the monotony of leftovers!

 

I especially love to see your posts about this native daughter of my state, who is now officially a James Beard Award Finalist.

 

And yes, collards can be challenging, can't they? So many love them around these parts, and I have never developed a taste for them. I do wish I could, because they are one of the most beautiful greens I've ever seen.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Today's offering is another of the "pimp my grits" offerings - grits & greens with brown butter-hot sauce vinaigrette. The recipe calls for turnip greens but I used collards.  These are cheesy grits with sautéed greens and garlic stirred in, then baked.  The serving suggestion is to drizzle the sauce over the top and use pork rinds to scoop everything up like a warm dip or using them as a hearty side dish.  I have no pork rinds.  I don't think I have ever had a pork rind.  I decided on a side of grapefruit and cara cara oranges with olive oil and sea salt based on something I saw in the NYT.  I started with a light drizzle of that brown butter hot sauce but went back for more.  I like the combination.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Cool Cucumber Crab Dip for happy hour on the patio

 

I remember when almost every party had some kind of crab dip, often something warm and cheesy that did nothing for the crab.  This one is cool as a cucumber and nicely highlights the flavor of the crab.  It has cream cheese and a little yogurt, thinned with cucumber juice and flavored with lemon juice, horseradish, hot sauce, scallion and mint.  Plus crabmeat and sliced cucumber.  It has enough crab that it could easily be stuffed into an avocado or tomato and called crab salad. I went for the old-school potato chips.  The recipe calls for 1 lb of crab to serve 6.  I made up 1/4 of a recipe and what's pictured in the little dish is ~ 1/4 of what I made. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Cool Cucumber Crab Dip for happy hour on the patio

 

I remember when almost every party had some kind of crab dip, often something warm and cheesy that did nothing for the crab.  This one is cool as a cucumber and nicely highlights the flavor of the crab.  It has cream cheese and a little yogurt, thinned with cucumber juice and flavored with lemon juice, horseradish, hot sauce, scallion and mint.  Plus crabmeat and sliced cucumber.  It has enough crab that it could easily be stuffed into an avocado or tomato and called crab salad. I went for the old-school potato chips.  The recipe calls for 1 lb of crab to serve 6.  I made up 1/4 of a recipe and what's pictured in the little dish is ~ 1/4 of what I made. 

 

 

Gorgeous, just gorgeous.  By coincidence I have jumbo blue crab arriving on my doorstep in a few hours.  Not the dish I had planned, but still...

 

[blue_dolphin]

More grits!  Over on the PBS site, I found a recipe that uses the Sausage Ragout (served with spoon bread in the book) to pimp some grits so that's what I did.  Foolproof grits topped with Sausage and Pepper Ragout:

 

Also in the book is a recipe for something Vivian calls, "Sweet Potato Mostarda."  The sweet potatoes are sliced thinly and cooked very briefly (so the slices are becoming pliable but retain some crispness) in a fairly sweet brine that includes mustard and mustard seeds.   Mine has been in the refrigerator for a little more than the specified week so I pulled some out and put them on a little arugula salad with roasted pecans.  I spooned out some of the brine and used it to make a vinaigrette.  Not bad but if I do the salad again, I'd add some goat cheese, avocado or thin shavings of Parmesan.  The mostarda would be nice on a cheese or meat platter.

 

[kayb]

Bunch of enablers.

 

[blue_dolphin]

51 minutes ago, kayb said:

Bunch of enablers.

 

Who, us????

Heh heh heh 

 

Edited to add:  Looking forward to some posts from you, @kayb, in this thread!

Edited March 28, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

[kayb]

On 3/22/2017 at 8:54 PM, blue_dolphin said:

Today's offering is another of the "pimp my grits" offerings - grits & greens with brown butter-hot sauce vinaigrette. The recipe calls for turnip greens but I used collards.  These are cheesy grits with sautéed greens and garlic stirred in, then baked.  The serving suggestion is to drizzle the sauce over the top and use pork rinds to scoop everything up like a warm dip or using them as a hearty side dish.  I have no pork rinds.  I don't think I have ever had a pork rind.  I decided on a side of grapefruit and cara cara oranges with olive oil and sea salt based on something I saw in the NYT.  I started with a light drizzle of that brown butter hot sauce but went back for more.  I like the combination.

 

  3 hours ago, kayb said:

Bunch of enablers.

 

Who, us????

Heh heh heh 

 

NEVER HAD A PORK RIND??? Heresy, blasphemy, and a damn shame.

 

Thursday night, I'm taking a friend to a barbecue restaurant that serves perhaps the best pork rinds on the face of the planet. PM me your address, and I'll get a bag to go and ship them to you. This kind of break in the fabric of the universe cannot be allowed to exist.

[blue_dolphin]

Tonight I tried the recipe for Turnip Run-Ups in Parmesan Pot Liquor with Ricotta Cornmeal Dumplings and Tomato Jam

Run-ups are apparently a sort of fresh springtime green that sprouts up from turnip plants left in the ground over the winter.  I believe these come from a type of turnip common to the Eastern NC area which just produces greens, no big ol' root bulb. 

Since run-ups aren't a thing here in So Cal, I made do with regular turnip greens, a recommended substitution.  The broth is made by caramelizing onions and simmering them with Parmesan rinds and a few seasonings.

I followed the recipe and used a 2 oz scoop for the ricotta cornmeal dumplings.  They are fine, they puffed up a bit during cooking and are nice and light but next time, I will use a smaller scoop. 

The recipe includes what Vivian describes as a "bare bones" tomato jam and she says to feel free to add herbs, onions or spices to make a more complex condiment so I used a spoonful of homemade tomato chutney instead.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Rice-Crusted Catfish with Cilantro-Lime Sweet Corn and Sun Gold Sauce.  The header notes describe this combination as "summer on a plate" and since we had 80°+ temps, I figured I'd give it a try.

This is a 3 part recipe.  The Sun Gold sauce can stand on its own as a cold soup made with yellow cherry tomatoes, cooked down with onions and garlic then puréed with buttermilk, cream and sherry vinegar.  I've been avoiding tomato recipes until they are in season but these little guys are usually pretty safe. The Cilantro-Lime Sweet Corn uses a compound butter with cilantro, lime juice and zest.  I used frozen, roasted corn instead of fresh.  The fish gets an extended bath in buttermilk, garlic and lemon zest before breading in a seasoned mix of ground long grain rice and cornmeal.  Makes for a very crunchy crust.  

It went against my nature to fry up a crispy piece of fish and serve it with a cool or room temp sauce but the rice/cornmeal crust stays pretty crisp and it makes for a good dish. I would never have thought to put this together but I very much enjoyed it as I have with all the multi-part recipes I've tried from the book.

[blue_dolphin]

Chilled Sun Gold Tomato Soup with Lots of Summer Stuff for lunch on the patio. This is kind of a twofer recipe because I got to use it as a sauce with the fish I made last night. The tomatoes were not true Sun Golds but a basket of mixed red and yellow cherry tomatoes I bought at the farmers market from a local hydroponic grower. I used frozen roasted corn and am missing cantaloupe in what the recipe calls the "Summer Garnish." I like the way the garnish is marinated with lemon and olive oil to give it a bright fresh tang that contrasts with the soup - while it's a chilled soup, the tomatoes actually get a long cook with onions and garlic before being puréed so it has "warm" flavors.

 

OK. I know it's not summer yet, but doesn't this look like it?

[kayb]

6 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Chilled Sun Gold Tomato Soup with Lots of Summer Stuff for lunch on the patio. This is kind of a twofer recipe because I got to use it as a sauce with the fish I made last night. The tomatoes were not true Sun Golds but a basket of mixed red and yellow cherry tomatoes I bought at the farmers market from a local hydroponic grower. I used frozen roasted corn and am missing cantaloupe in what the recipe calls the "Summer Garnish." I like the way the garnish is marinated with lemon and olive oil to give it a bright fresh tang that contrasts with the soup - while it's a chilled soup, the tomatoes actually get a long cook with onions and garlic before being puréed so it has "warm" flavors.

 

OK. I know it's not summer yet, but doesn't this look like it?

That it does. I can't wait until this weekend to get into the kitchen with this book.

 

[blue_dolphin]

For lunch, I made this salad of Romaine and Sugar Snap Peas with Pecan Dressing and a variation of the Turnip Root and Greens Gratin, substituting kale for the turnip greens. The links go to the recipes in this month's Bon Appétit.  

I'd already made the pecan butter from the DRR Breakfast in the Car recipe and the roasted pecans so when I saw the salad, I was delighted to find a way to use up the last of the pecan butter, which serves as the base for the salad dressing. It's a great, easy salad, assuming you've got that nut butter on hand. I really liked it. You could add some cooked chicken or roasted squash cubes and a handful of dried cranberries and make it a meal. I added a dash of hot sauce and splash of fish sauce to the dressing because it seemed a little tart to me but that probably wasn't necessary.  

 

The turnip gratin is very rich for a side dish (the book suggests it as an alternative to stuffing for Thanksgiving) but it would be a great savory brunch or anytime meatless main dish. It takes a while between caramelizing the onions and infusing cream with garlic and thyme and finally baking but it can be completely assembled the night before and baked off the day of. I halved the recipe and baked it in the CSO so it got a little too brown on top and I used more kale than called for because I had it on hand but I'm happy with the result and would make it again. Sorry for the crappy photo, it's not the most photogenic of dishes but it's tasty with cubes of cooked turnip and crusty bread nestled into the creamy-cheesy mixture of greens and caramelized onions.

[blue_dolphin]

Following up on a comment from @Anna N on the dinner thread:

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

My meal planning skills are nonexistent.

 

I am much the same.  Last night, I set up the Anova to cook a piece of fish and plopped down on the sofa while it heated up.  Then cats came to be petted and I checked eG on my iPad and somewhere along the line, I lost interest in cooking the fish.  

So I give you Deep Run Roots leftovers....

 

I'd cooked up some nice RG Royal Corona beans with a big ol' smoked ham hock, according to the Deep Run Roots recipe for Slow Cooked Limas.  Holy cow, these Royal Coronas are some big ass, 2-bite beans! 

 

Sorry, no picture of the smoked ham hock.  This is as close to a necropsy photo as we're getting.  Rather alarmingly close, as a matter of fact...

 

I warmed some beans, spooned on some leftover sausage ragout, also from DRR, and grated Parmesan on top.  I enjoyed this with a slice of toasted ciabatta and a nice Syrah.  

The wine was excellent and wouldn't have gone nearly so well with the fish.

 

[Anna N]

 So glad to know I am not alone in my atrocious meal planning skills.

[scubadoo97]

Meal planning? What's that?  I might have a desire or idea that's been rumbling  in my head but it's usually get home, look in the fridge and freezer and figure something out on the spot before wifey gets home 

[kayb]

Finished reading the book last night. Not sure what my first effort from it will be. I do plan sweet potato and onion bread next week, as well as sausage ragout, and I'm going to pimp some grits for the weekend, as I will have a houseful of children and grandchildren here and that sounds like an admirable way to feed them.

 

[Yiannos]

Though I feel like I am cooking constantly, I haven't contributed a ton here yet and all of the beautiful (!) dishes in this thread inspired me to give the Blueberry, Buttermilk, and Lime Parfait a go, so I thought I'd share it with you nice people. I was thinking it might make a good 4th of July dessert and some pretty much OK Mexican blueberries on sale made the experiment seem worthwhile. For the blueberry layer the flavor is great, but I believe I didn't quite cook the blueberries down far enough as they didn't quite set fully, I'm thinking due to lack of pectin release but not positive. I imagined it almost like a jelly, but it is more like a very thick syrup, even after setting overnight. The book says nothing about the texture (just calls it a layer) so I guess it is possible it's correct, but either way it tastes good. I also really enjoyed the buttermilk panna cotta layer, only fiddly part was maybe adding the lemon juice towards the end of the step where Ms. Howard says "things will curdle up a bit". They do, just a bit, and I believe my strainer was not quite fine enough so the texture is not 100% smooth like I would have liked, but again great flavor and contrast to the sweet blueberry below. I was most happy with the lime curd, I am not a fan of overly tart/tangy curds and this one has a nice balance of the citrus and sweet. Would make a great filling on it's own I would think. Finally, the buttermilk whipped cream on top, sort of a hint of the panna cotta waiting below, with just a touch of the buttermilk tang found deeper in the dessert. The only deviation I made was the crumble, her recipe suggests her Spiced Pecan and Pumkin Seed, but I used some granola I already had that I got with a bread order from Manresa Bread. Her crumble has some savory notes (fennel, cayenne, Worcestershire), but the Manresa stuff is not overly sweet, with some cinnamon and ginger, so it filled that texture vacuum while complimenting the other ingredients well IMO. Probably use some Mason jars or something if I was going to put it out for actual humans to eat, but the random glasses I found in my cabinets worked fine for this try.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

That looks beautiful, @Yiannos, thanks for sharing!  That recipe has been tempting me - the combination of flavors is so appealing to me.  It's on my list for an occasion when I have enough people around to eat it all up!

[Yiannos]

Thank you @blue_dolphin, I am flattered, I totally agree on the combination of flavors as I just flipped to that page went OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH. I should have mentioned that I think the 8oz size is a bit much, it is really decadent with all those eggs and cream sugar etc, and I think it would be better scaled and served as 8 6oz servings as opposed to the 6 8oz portions in the recipe.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Yiannos (log)

[curls]

Finally joining the party! Tonight I made Scarlett's chicken and rice. I have been intrigued with this recipe ever since I saw a episode about this recipe. Doesn't look like much but it is wonderful! Planning to have some of the leftovers for lunch tomorrow (I think they will reheat well). I did follow some of the modifications that are in the recipe that is posted on her PBS site (http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/scarletts-chicken-rice/)... included an onion, bay leaf, and thyme (these are not in the book recipe).

 

[Okanagancook]

I made Viv's Addiction which is basically candied pecans with a spicy coating.  I only had almonds which worked just fine.  I also made a half batch.

We thought they could do with a tad more salt for that salty/sweet/spicy bite.

Seriously good and addicting as billed.

Probably only make these when there's lots of people around to eat them, otherwise, you know, before you know it you will have eaten the whole batch.

[scubadoo97]

@Okanagancook  No question.  Those are addicting snacks 

[Okanagancook]

Yeah, taking preventative action....a friend is arriving this afternoon and she loves to snack.

 

[Katie Meadow]

Yesterday, due to a confluence of events I actually had the ingredients for Country Ham and Celery Creamed Rice, including a smoky pot liquor and some leftover salty rosemary ham (not country, but very tasty). I did not have whipping cream, but I made a slurry of milk and creme fraiche and added that instead. Really this dish is a short cut risotto with no cheese. Anyway, it's very good. I used less of the cream mixture than called for, no doubt less than Vivian would approve of, and it was still rich and creamy.

 

I found the "salad" addition--mainly lemon juice and celery leaves--a bit underwhelming and a little strange, and I am trying to imagine what might make a good substitute. Maybe her dressing would benefit from an addition of olive oil to soften the straight lemon. One sub might be a fresh tomato and herb salsa or dressing. Chow chow comes to mind, although I don't actually know what that is! Or some kind of pickle? I've taken to putting mango pickle on lots of things these days, and it always works, but I'm an addict.