HONEY AS SWEET AS SOUTHERN SMILES

The grande dame of delicious and sweet, of timeless and flavorful, of our flowers and the bees this my all time favorite sweetener: Honey. Honey comes in as many flavors as there are flowers. Honey has no shelf life as proven by the recovery of jars of honey from the Valley of the Kings in the North African desert. The tombs of Egypt have taught us many things about the ancient world that reflect upon our lives today from architecture and painted languages (hieroglyphs) to grains, sweets and the fermented drinks that followed. Honey was a favorite among my more vulgar ancestors as molten cup of courage by the name of mead. Mead is a fermented honey beverage that is a predecessor to beer and ale though higher in alcohol content. The Roman armies used honey as a salve to increase healing of open wounds. Honey is seen as a nice way to thwart allergies as well. I eat a lot of tulip poplar honey because tulip poplars surround my house. Does it make a difference? I really don’t know but it does taste great. Honey, like wine, reflects the soil, the weather and the flower. The nuances and flavors in honey is one of those wonderful things in the food world. In my house right now there is: blueberry, wildflower, sour wood, buckwheat, orange blossom, tulip poplar and star thistle (many in the area), tupelo, Hawaiian white honey, leatherwood from Tasmania and a crazy fireweed honey from Alaska. It is actually spicy. So here we go honey, there’s a lot to learn.

Eighty percent of the honey in a batch must be from a particular source to be named as from that source. Bees that make honey in America have had a tough time of it over the years due to pesticides, weather, population explosion and our attempt to cure a bee “cold”. We should have let nature run its course on that one. A hive will kick the queen out of the hive if she is not reproducing. If a hive becomes disorganized then they will kick out the queen as well. The hive is only as good as the queen. Hive collapse is widespread in the U.S. but we can help them along with proper husbandry and control of pesticides.

One third of all crops are pollinated by bees. Honey is not vegan because it comes from an animal. Honey should not be heated above 140 degrees as the properties change and it loses it’s honey flavor and value, and honey should not be chilled below 55 degrees because it will crystallize and become somewhat firm or solid. Bee trucks are driven through agricultural regions so that the crops can be pollinated, like the almond and hops groves in the Central Valley of California. Bees make honey, bakers make bread, and me, I’m a chef and I make things with bread and honey! What incredible things yeast and honey are, and the way that each appears throughout our diet is just as amazing as the fact that honey lasts forever and that yeast is a living organism.

Honey orange butter for plain white French bread, whipped wild flower honey with rosemary and lavender for creme brulee (custard dish with burned sugar on top), honey and Makers Mark glaze for arctic char, lemon and truffle honey for thyme roasted chicken breasts, blue cheese and brie with honey, mint, raspberries and cashews, figs and almonds roasted with honey, orange blossom honey ice cream, honey muffins and honey breads, honey on granola, granulated honey rubbed into a slab of ribs before smoking, honey in black and green teas as well as herb teas and a spoonful of honey does help the medicine go down, honey and peanut butter on Kava wafers and so it goes. Honey is good anywhere it appears. How do we even begin? How can I really grasp what honey is in a few paragraphs? Probably not, but we can at least explore how to taste and use the flavors in this bounty of the bee.

My personal from the hive favorites are orange blossom, Hawaiian white (rare, expensive), granulated and sourwood. My favorites to make by infusing the honey are truffle, licorice (REAL licorice root), lavender and sichuan pepper. We will make honey infusions so don’t worry. Best all round honey in any class is clover. Most of the honey you find in pantries across America is wildflower. Wildflower honey is a durable all purpose honey whose value as a sweetener should never be overlooked. Granulated honey is high up as my favorite powdered/granulated sweetener because of it’s earthy yet slight flower sweet, and that it can be sprinkled in on hot or cold dishes/liquids without worry of it sinking to the bottom of the container or being overly sticky. You can’t stir honey into a cold glass of tea but you sure an dissolve granulated honey in that same glass. Granulated honey can be found in all grocery stores that specialize in Korean products and in most large chain grocery stores.

INFUSED HONEY

Honey does not have to stay the way it is after  you bring it home. You must treat it with care or else it will crystallize. If it does do this then a few seconds in the microwave will return it to liquid status. If you don’t have a microwave then heat the bottle over steaming water and that will loosen the honey up as well. Storing at room temperature is fine as long as don’t live in an ice house or a home over 100 degrees!

You can add corn syrup or brown rice syrup to the honey you are infusing. Generally, honey used for this purpose is all purpose wild flower. Generally. If you are making an rosemary honey then orange blossom is perfect. If you are making a rosemary lavender honey then wildflower or lavender honey will do the trick. Truffle honey is best made with sourwood or buckwheat because the deeper flavors then do not act against each other, they compliment and lift the earthy, mineral sweetness to the sides of your tongue when tasting or eating it with strongly seasoned meat.

Tasting honey. People who hate food will say that there should not be method to tasting. They will also be the ones who say that food must be bold and fatty to satisfy them. This is OK, there is room for everyone in the world, but don’t rely on them when developing menu items or when cooking for a group of people that you want to impress.

Tasting, as an exploration of flavor is in essence, how we taste things. The tongue of course has different areas that identify and react to different flavors or primary ingredients such as hot, sour, salty, sweet and umami/savory, right? BUT NO! The flavors are experienced all over the tongue, the specific areas is more or less that they are more sensitive. How about that? It was once believed that the front, sides and backs were THE regions, but this is not the fact, we taste all over. I like that because it gives credence to the technique of tasting that involves blowing air across your tongue with mouth closed.

For the sake of gustatory history though we will acknowledge that the flavors are tasted from front to back as: sweet, salty, sour, umamai/savory, bitter. Makes sense in a way, doesn’t it? When I was researching this one article instructed that honey is to be tasted from the tip of the tongue and then moved around to the back of the tongue. It is also of note that umami is to the back side closer last edge of the mouth where there is a good bit of saliva action going on. Umami is that sensation that makes the mouth water, which in turn makes it easier to taste things. Chocolate, green tea, red wine, sea salt, sea weed and fish in the mackerel family (tuna) and grass fed beef have this ability to increase our ability to taste, hence umami. Think about this for a bit and then do your own taste tests with our honey examples, with chocolate, unfermented teas and sea salt.

Wine tasting is a good example of tasting all over at once, then the after taste echoes that arise once the wine has been swallowed is one of those wonders of life. This blowing pushes oxygen over the liquid/solids and allows the taste receptors to be opened even more to allow saliva, air and food to be fully tasted. Enemies to food will argue and have argued that if a technique is required to fully taste something then there must be something wrong with the food. These are the same people who never got past simple sentences, burning hot flavor, the knowledge that the world is round and man landed on the moon. Avoid them. Life is for the living.

Never heat your honey over 120 degrees when infusing. Never. Smokers have dulled papillae (the little “buds”) due to the constant deadening by tar products. Never trust a smoker when they try to tell you about how things taste as what they taste is always “smoked”

TRUFFLE HONEY

Take one of the most expensive things you can find and add it to the sweetest and there you have truffle honey. Don’t bother with saffron honey, I have tried making it but could never get it to that perfect spot between plastic and floral. It is just too expensive for the experiments. The truffle can be whole, shaved, fresh or canned. Fresh gives you the best flavor while using the least amount. Canned is more available and at a lower price. You can use dried porcini or dried Chinese black mushrooms as well in order to get that dirt basement aroma. Come on, you know you love the smell of root cellars, caves and dirt basements.

4 ounces buckwheat honey

1 ounce brown rice syrup (Korean and health food)

1 teaspoon truffle shavings

a very few grains of sea salt

Combine and heat at 90 degrees on the stovetop for 15 minutes. Do not let it get over 100 degrees. Do not stir. So not shake the pan. Best thing for this is stainless steel or copper. Remove from heat and store in a sanitized glass container. This honey is perfect with blackened meats like beef filet or any fish in the jack family. A little bit on roasted lamb really does charm the fat right onto the fork!

If you are preparing some really spicy hot foods then use a bit of truffle honey on one part of the meat and leatherwood honey on the other. You will be amazed at what flavors are suddenly awakened.

LAVENDER AND ROSEMARY HONEY

We are making this with the assumption that you do not have lavender honey readily available. This kind of infused honey is one that I keep mainly for desserts but is also great with lemon-garlic roasted chicken. Think about it, can you imagine the taste?

Not so good in drinks, like truffle honey, it is designed for cooked foods. This would be nice drizzled over sliced oranges and Texas grapefruit though, wouldn’t it?

Paint this on the top of creme brulee after it cools so that when it is time to burn the sugar on top it will be even more glassy textured and flavorful.

4 ounces orange blossom honey

2 ounces light karo corn syrup

½ teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves, this is 24 leaves

10 blossoms lavender, find them dried

Combine and heat at 100 degrees for 15 minutes. Do not stir. After 15 minutes remove from heat and let it sit until the temperature goes down to 78 degrees. Strain. Store in sanitized glass container in pantry where the temperature remains stable.

LICORICE HONEY

Yes, you will never understand why there was ever a chewy black licorice whip after trying a little bit of this nice stick of flavor. Licorice is a bush. The dried wood is what WAS used to make the candy in years gone by. Licorice can be bought in many places on line. A little goes a long way. I keep one jar of sugar with a broken licorice stick and one with a vanilla bean. There is always flavor. Granulated honey is nice with a stick of cinnamon in to season it. Small containers with differently seasoned sugars and honey granules makes dessert time and spicy food dinners all the more pleasurable because of the surprise of such great flavor with so little effort.

1 stick licorice, this is about a 1/3 of an ounce

1 cup fireweed or clover honey

No  need to heat this, just bust up the true licorice stick and store it in the honey jar, also can be stored in container with mix of granulated cactus honey and turbinado sugar. Licorice honey is very good drizzled over chocolate mousse, grilled figs and roasted dates stuffed with feta and pistachios. I have even added a small amount of licorice honey granules to ceviche to add a sense of mystery to an already simply complex small set of ingredients. Mystery as in “what kind of seaweed is this”?

If you have never had licorice freshly grated onto your palm so that you taste what it really is then come by the restaurant and I’ll turn you onto this aromatic wonder called licorice. You’ll be mad that imitation has been forced upon us all for so many decades. Actually, you should be mad about all the imitation foods that are marketed to us day in and day out. Tasting what is real can never be matched by buckets of white sugar, fat, salt and vegetable oil with flavor enhancers and saw dust thrown in to bind the  flavor profile into something identifiable as “food”.

CASHEW BUTTER

One of my best peanut butter memories was white bread with whipped honey and peanut butter sandwiches. I think it was somewhere in the third or fourth grade that this was fed to us at Tucker Elementary School. I was forever impressed. Food memories are great things. Let’s put together a variation on this theme so that as adults we can swoon over our little sandwich with a nod to the truth that fat and sweet just go together well. Nuts as the fatty, honey as the sweet and the bread as a little bit of both.

6 ounces chunky peanut butter, buy the best

6 ounces roasted cashews

3 ounces clover honey

Put the cashews and honey into a food processor and run it just long enough to crush up the nuts and honey. Then add the peanut butter and run the machine until it is smooth. There ya go! Peanut butter and honey for grown ups. Just add sour dough bread and it’s an afternoon pick me that is all good and all fresh.

I limited the list to infused honey because of the widespread uses that can be had just by a small change in composition. Few things truly are “simple”. Simple is misunderstood. Think of all the things necessary for bees make honey and baker makes bread, that the butcher sees in meat and the chef his next creation. It takes a lot to make things nice, it takes even more for complex and unified. Honey. A taste of honey; and with a taste of honey all things can be romantic.

Saying Yes is the thing

Where living it is even more.

Sometimes love looks a lot like this:

On a stairway leaning big smile and laugh,

On the back porch singing to cicadas and gnats,

On horseback racing along 10 mile beach,

On a table resting looking over a plate of barbecue,

On the bedside whispering about the beauty of the day,

On a sandy dock peeling fresh shrimp at dusk,

On a walk on a bridge on a life together,

On a promise to believe in what is yes.

CEVICHE RECIPES

Mix cocoa butter powder for all of these if they are going to be served a day later.

SHELLFISH

8                                    fresh in the shell bay scallops

8                                    fresh oysters in the shell

1                                    lime or lemon

1                                    jalapeno, seeded and minced

1/3 teaspoon              sea salt

Shuck the oysters and scallops. Squeeze the lime over the meat, sprinkle with jalapeno and salt.

ANY FISH, SIMPLE AND DIRECT CEVICHE

8 ounces                        sliced between the thin membranes of flesh, thin

1                                     lime

10 leaves                      cilantro

1/3 teaspoon                sea salt

(½ ounce                    extra virgin olive oil, optional for crudo style)

CORVINA AND SNAPPER

8 ounces                        corvina or snapper species, boneless/skinless

1                                     orange

1                                     lemon

1/3 teaspoon                 red aji pepper, ground (New Mexico Red Pepper)

½ teaspoon                   sea salt

½ ounce                       cilantro, leaves and stems

1 ounce                        olive oil, a mild one

1 tablespoon                poblano pepper

1 tablespoon                        red bell pepper

Thin slice the fish between the grains so that you have very thin slices with no membrane or silver skin. Place between sheets of plastic wrap or butcher paper and gently tap with the back of a cleaver, or use a flat meat hammer, gentle. Mash the rest of the ingredients into a paste. Rub a small amount on each slice of fish, let set five minutes and then eat. This is good with fresh fruit or on lettuce leaves.

TILAPIA

8 ounces                        tilapia, cut into small cubes, very small cubes

1 tablespoon                  celery, minced

1 tablespoon                  red onion, minced

1 teaspoon                      jalapeno, minced

2 tablespoons               cilantro, minced

1 clove                              garlic, minced

1                                     lime, juiced

1                                     orange, juiced

½ teaspoon                   sea salt

1 teaspoon                    granulated sugar

1 ounce                        sweet rice or apple cider vinegar

1 ounce                        corn oil

Combine ingredients and let marinade 15 minutes

WHITE MACKEREL

8 ounces                        white mackerel, small cubes, very small

2                                     lemons, juice

6 ounces                        pineapple, small dice/mince

6 ounces                        tomato, no seeds, small dice/mince

1                                    green bell pepper, minced

2 cloves                        garlic, minced

6 stalks                        green onion, thin sliced from root to pale green part

1 tablespoon                        poblano pepper, minced

½ teaspoon                        jalapeno, minced

½ ounce                        mint, leaves

½ ounce                        cilantro, leaves

1 teaspoon                        sea salt

1 ounce                        Worcestershire sauce

5 ounces                        olive oil

Combine ingredients in large bowl and refrigerate. Let chill 30 minutes before eating. Presentation on this kind of ceviche would be nice in a martini glass with shredded lettuce. Also, if you have a mandolin slicer use this to cut very thin spaghetti style zucchini and carrots. Mix them with a little olive oil and coconut juice and then toss with the ceviche, serve as a light appetizer

MAHI MAHI

8 ounces                        mahi mahi, almost minced

4 ounces                        ketchup

1                                     lime, juice

1                                     orange, juice

1 tablespoon                        chipotle

½ cup                                    cilantro, chopped

1 stalk                                    celery, minced

1 cup                                    cucumber, peeled, seeded and minced

1 teaspoon                        sea salt

½ cup                                    clam juice

1 ounce                        Worcestershire sauce

1 ounce                        olive oil

Combine ingredients and refrigerate 15 minutes. Serve with nacho chips or fried won tons. Also, something like this with the ketchup is good with fried plantains or fried sweet potatoes.

RED DRUM OR SNAPPER

8 ounces                         red drum or snapper chopped

3 ounces                        young coconut juice

2                                     lemons, juice

1 ounce                        olive oil

½ cup                                    white onion, diced

1 cup                                    papaya, peeled, seeded minced

5                                    green tomatilla, chopped, par boil and drained

1 ounce                        soy sauce

1 ounce                        cilantro, chopped

1 teaspoon                        coriander

1 teaspoon                        Guajilla pepper

1 teaspoon                        sea salt

Combine and eat within a few hours. Keep chilled until ready to eat. You can eat it right away.

TUNA

8 ounces                        sushi grade yellowfin or big eye tuna, thin sliced into strips

1 ounce                        ponzu vinegar

½ cup                                    seaweed salad with sesame seeds

½ cup                                    macadamia nuts, chopped

1/2 cup                        tomato, chopped

1/3 cup                        red onion, chopped

5 stalks                        green onion, chopped

1 tablespoon                        red chili pepper, chopped

2 ounces                        mushroom soy sauce

3 ounces                        firm tofu, chopped (one of the things for modern poke)

2 tablespoons            tobiko (flying fish roe, crunchy)

Combine ingredients and eat as soon as you can. It will hold overnight, but why wait? Eat this with chilled nishiki or jasmine rice, with pita bread, over lettuces, in a tomato or avocado.

SALMON

8 ounces                        Chinook or sockeye salmon in season (best May to October)

2                                     limes, juiced

1 ounce                        mandarin olive oil (a mandarin orange olive oil)

Combine and set aside.

1                                    mango, peeled and minced

1                                    Asian pear, peeled and minced

1/2 each                        poblano and red bell pepper, minced

1 stalk                                    celery, minced

1 ounce                        cilantro, chopped

½ ounce                        basil leaves, chopped

10                                     chives, minced

½ ounce                        fresh ginger, minced

4 ounces                        white peach puree or unfiltered peach juice

HALIBUT

8 ounces                         halibut, slice very thin, broad cuts into 10 slices

1                                    blood orange, juice

10                                     blood orange wedges, no pith or skin

1 ounce                        Spanish extra virgin olive oil

5 shots                        Cholula Sauce

1/3 teaspoon                        Hawaiian pink sea salt, coarse

10 leaves                        oregano, fresh, chopped

10 leaves                        mint, fresh, chopped

Lay the halibut slices under plastic wrap and gently pound so that the fibers in the meat separate just a little bit. Set the fish slices around on a plate and place an orange on each slice. Sprinkle with the juice, sauce, salt and herbs. All you need are green olives, cucumbers, peppers, artichoke hearts and you have a really impressive array of fresh foods.

TUNA SUNDRIED TOMATO

8 ounces big eye or yellowfin tuna fillet, thin sliced

1 lemon, juiced or two tablespoons juice

1 tablespoon celery, shaved thin with microplane grater

3 cloves garlic, shaved thin with microplane grater

3 tablespoons red bell pepper, shaved thin with microplane

1 teaspoon jalapeno, shaved thin with microplane

1 tablespoon sundried tomato, thin sliced softened in hot water

10 leaves oregano, sliced

5 leaves basil, sliced

5 leaves mint, sliced

1/3 teaspoon sea salt

1 ounce Spanish or Tuscan olive oil

STEAMED MUSSELS WITH LEMON GRASS AND TOMATO

DIJON AND SESAME CRUSTED CHICKEN BREAST

WITH VEGETABLES, FETTUCINE, APRICOT AND

SOY SAUCE

BANANAS AND COCONUT CREAM

Please don’t be afraid of buying mussels. Just plan this meal when the grocer gets them in. Make sure they are all closed tightly. Don’t use any that are open, which means they are dead and you really can’t eat them. Place the mussels in cold water with a handful of cornmeal. This will plump them, and they will pass any impurities possibly gathered in the shipping and storing process. You can keep them in the water for at least an hour and as long as overnight. Lift them out of the water under cold running water, throw away any that have opened. Now you are ready.

If, and only if, you cannot find fresh black mussels, then look for the frozen New Zealand green lipped mussels. They are bigger and meatier but the flavor is not as acute. This kind of mussel is a picture of neon drama. They have bright green and black rippled shells, and pale yellow flesh, it fairly jumps up off of the plate.

You will need a pot of boiling water, a cone-shaped strainer, and a large high-sided skillet for this dish.

MUSSELS WITH LEMON GRASS AND TOMATO

20                                                black mussels

1/4 cup                                    pure olive oil (virgin isn’t necessary for this)

2 tablespoons                        chopped garlic

2 stalks                                    green onion, diced up to the deep green

part. Use the green for garish.

1 stalk                                                lemon grass, peeled and chopped

use the first two inches from the

root. If you can’t get fresh, try to obtain

the dried stalk and then grind it in your

mill. Powdered works, but use extra. Like any

powdered herbs the taste is a shadow of what

you’re looking for. Powdered = 2 tablespoons.

2 tablespoons                        fresh ginger. Peeled and minced.

2                                                 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons                        basil, chopped

1 cup                                                tomato sauce

1 teaspoon                                    salt and pepper mix

Wash the mussels in very cold water and place them into the strainer, lower the strainer into the boiling water and let them cook until they all are opened. Lift the strainer out and set it aside in the sink to drain.

Heat the oil in the skillet on high heat. Add the garlic and onion, then lift the pan off of the stove and turn the heat to medium high. Stir, add ginger, tomato and tomato sauce, heat until it begins to bubble and add the mussels. Be careful at this stage, the sauce may pop if you’re too rough in stirring the mussels and sauce. Stir the mussels so that they take in all the sauce. Add the basil, salt and pepper, and lemon grass. Stir. Let them cook in the sauce for a couple of minutes so that all the flavors blend and incorporate into the mussels. The taste will be deep and flowery, with a hint of citrus.

A splash of lemon juice, red wine or both adds a nice touch to this dish. The lemon or wine will brighten the flavor.  As with all recipes, when you’ve got it down and can replicate the dish, then experiment and build on what you like. Use lime, orange, guava puree, peach juice, pear juice, currant juice, etc.

Slowly, ice melting around the shells,

sleek, black ships waiting,

smell of the sands and tides

rising from the refrigerated air…

and she turns from the mounds

of chopped tomato and vidalia

to the stalks of lemon grass

and deep green fresh basil.

“Come here, peel away the skin

from the base like this,”

and the room filled with the fragrances

of crushed tangerine and lemon leaves

from the single bulb of lemon grass.

And if I didn’t know better I would swear

I was standing in the groves

of the Indian River,

but I wasn’t, it was we in the kitchen

with the greens of Mandalay,

with mussels from the heart of Hudson Bay.

<Note for side panels:> OK, let’s talk about herbs. It’s a known conceit of chefs and gardeners to use fresh herbs as much as possible and we expect everybody else to do the same, and that’s not fair. Granted, we cannot replace the flavor and beauty of fresh, herbs, but we can at least approximate in a pinch. We all have a cabinet full of dried herbs, or at least a few essentials such as oregano, thyme, basil and bay, and now we hope that lemon grass and cilantro are there as well. Here’s what you do to get the best out of the dried stuff: Wash and dry your hands. Place the herbs in your palm, now clasp your hands together with your thumbs opposing, and rub the herbs into a powder. Open your hands and smell. Pretty neat, huh?

The oil from your hands, plus the flavor release from mashing the herbs does the trick. That’s as close as you are going to get to fresh from dried. It’s a primitive version of the mortar and pestle, and that’s not a bad thing, it works. When you try this method do it directly over the dish as you prepare it so that you get the most out of your effort.

The coffee mill. This thing is great for quick grinds and the powdering of peppercorns, dried lemon grass, coriander seeds, kosher salt, chilies, et al. Use and wipe out with a dry cloth or paper towel.

The mortar and pestle. Marble or wood. Use this and use this often. It is as old as food. Some prefer the wooden variety for its earthy feel and texture. I like the clink and clean sound and feel of marble. They are most useful for blending herbs and seeds, for curries and compound spice mixtures. Just put your coriander or cardamom seeds in and mash them around with the pestle. Inhale, yep, that’s what dinner smells like. It’s nice to use when two are cooking together, which is what this book is all about, because you can blend herbs and talk and move around in the kitchen without getting in the way if you are the one doing the grunt work, uh, being the assistant.

<End panel note.>

The next dish is a stir-fry and I recommend that you use a wok. Otherwise use a very large, high sided skillet. You need even heat for optimum cooking.

The wok: Use a carbon steel, stainless steel or copper-bottomed

wok. Carbon steel is the best because of its ability to evenly transfer heat. Season by rubbing with corn oil and rock salt and heating it on medium heat for about thirty minutes. Maintain by cleaning with warm water only, no soap. If it rusts then clean with an abrasive cleaner and soft sponge. After you have cleaned it reseason the pan. There are non-stick woks on the market now that are pretty good, you don’t have to worry about acidic reactions staining the pan. The choice is yours, authenticity or modernity that actually works.

The hottest part is the bottom. The sides are where you push the parts of a dish that require less rapid cooking, or when a sauce is reducing and you don’t want the particular ingredient to overcook. An average wok will hold about a gallon and a half of liquid. They require very high heat for the best results. Even heat is essential; this helps you to cook an entire dish in one place with speed and control over the process.

Always oil the wok before cooking in it. Don’t use virgin olive oil, as it will catch fire. The oil with the highest resistance to burning is corn oil. Use corn, peanut, vegetable or a blend of olive and canola, or a blend of olive and corn or peanut oil. If you are using butter then add it late in the stir- fry. Once you are used to using a wok you will find it difficult to just use a regular sauté pan. The wok, like the iron skillet is essential to a well-rounded kitchen. The iron skillet holds heat longer. The wok returns to high heat faster. You blacken Cajun dishes in an iron skillet, you sauté in a wok.

As the book progresses and your skill increases you will more fully understand how the wok works. Experience and, trial and error teach more than any volume of literature can.

SESAME AND DIJON CRUSTED STRIPS OF CHICKEN BREAST SAUTÉED WITH MIXED VEGETABLES, APRICOT AND SOY OVER FETTUCINE

1/2 cup                                    all purpose flour

3 tablespoons                        butter

1 tablespoon                                    sesame oil

10 ounces                                    chicken breast sliced thin into 20 strips

2 tablespoons                        brown mustard

2 tablespoons                         honey

1 cup                                                sesame seeds

Dust chicken in flour.

Coat chicken in honey mustard mix. Roll chicken in

sesame seeds so that it is completely covered. Set

aside on plate.

VEGETABLES

5 medium stalks                        asparagus sliced long and thin

2 medium                                     carrot peeled and very thin sliced

1 medium                                    yellow squash cut in 4ths and sliced thin

1 large                                    yellow onion cut in 4ths and sliced thin

SAUCE

3 tablespoons                        apricot preserves

1 teaspoon                                    prepared horseradish

1/4 cup                                    soy sauce

1 tablespoon                                    brown sugar

1/3 cup                                    apple juice (optional)

PASTA

8 ounces                                     fettuccine (will yield 12 oz cooked)

<Note for side panel> If you have access to fresh pastas, then by all means be experimental and buy them. Just remember that cooking fresh pasta is quite different from the cooking methods for dried. Just drop it in boiling water for about a minute or two, stir it around and immediately mix it with the sauce. A flavored pasta such as tomato, lemon or orange would go well with this dish. Otherwise, stick to the recipe until you feel more comfortable with branching out which we will do in later chapters. <end note.>

Cook the pasta, rinse in cold water and set aside until ready to mix with entree.

In a large skillet or wok, sauté the chicken and onion in butter. Stir with care, you don’t want to burn or dislodge the sesame seeds. Add sesame oil. Add the vegetables, turn up the heat and cook until the asparagus is shiny and just crisp. This is the very definition of stir-fry.

Add the juice and horseradish and cook until it begins to boil. Add apricot, soy and sugar. Stir. Reduce heat to simmer. Taste. Adjust if necessary.

NOTE Is it to your liking? Does it need anything?

This is the part where you have the chance to design the dish to your personal tastes. If you are happy with it then by all means continue, if not, then think about what you have added and what you might like more or less of. If more, then add, if less, then add more liquid to cut the flavor. Maybe you like ginger or garlic, basil or cilantro. This is your moment and no one else’s. Both of you taste it, that’s what this book is all about, cooking together for your own happiness and pleasure. END NOTE.

With the pasta still in a colander wash it under very hot water, then shake off all the water and drain.

Turn heat on sauce up to high. As it begins to boil add the pasta, and stir so that it is all mixed together and hot. Remove from heat and divide between two plates. Eat.

BANANAS AND COCONUT CREAM

You are going to make more than you can eat in one sitting for this dish. Why? Because you will freeze the leftovers and make milkshakes with it for a later menu. YUM!

4 cups                                                coconut milk. Shake the can before you

open it so that the milk and cream mix.

2/3 cup                                    sugar

1/4 cup                                    honey

1 teaspoon                                    salt

2 pounds                                    bananas, firm. If red bananas are

available use them and cook longer,

they are great for cooking.

Place everything except the bananas in a medium saucepan and bring to a low boil, simmer and stir occasionally with a whisk for about ten minutes. There should be no lumps and it will be slightly thick, just enough to coat a spoon with a thin film. Don’t let it rise to a hard boil, this will separate the milk and scorch the pan!

Peel and cut the bananas in two-inch long slanted slices. This is called cutting  “on the diagonal.” It looks like an oblong circle. Add to the mixture and stir with a spoon until it returns to a low boil. Simmer two to three minutes.

Remove from heat and pour into small bowls. You may eat this warm or at room temperature.

If this seems too unusual and you want to do something to make it a little more familiar, then pour it over thick slices of pound cake. It’s good either way. Freeze the leftovers. There’s a recipe for that later in the book.

So it’s like this, OK?

You cook, I’ll chop,

I’ll do anything,

Anything to be here

Where we are close,

We are doing,

We are in our lives together.

Together. . . through the steam

And color of our finished table

It is just you and I

In a moment shared,

In a moment here.

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WHERE THE WILD MEATS ROAM
A Story About Why Roast Pork Butt With Persimmon And Plum

Rod Stewart And Faces had an album, Every Picture Tells A Story, well, for me, so does a recipe. Born of a family going back to the 17oo’s on the same soil, in the same tracts of Georgia land, sharing the same names, church and graveyard, there are tales and legends as deep as any pecan root, and yet also as shallow as the creeks running all around the suburbanized and cemented maze that now stands on that once fertile ground. I will be buried in the same common earth as my first Irish American ancestor, Finn or Sinn, Cofer and Thomas, off of First Street in once tree lined and pasture rich Tucker, Georgia. Before I die I will have to eat a last meal, I hope, and that involves pork. Some want fried chicken, veal chops or carbonara, fat scallops or fried crappie, me, I want pork roast with persimmon and root vegetables.
The Finns, Englands and Cofers settled and fought, farmed and built railroads, general stores and family neighborhoods. The ground gave a lot of produce and tobacco, and then in the Depression it was all taken away, even my grandfather served time for throwing sacks of corn and wheat off the railroad cars as they mounted the hill that was Tucker. The Robin Hood thing was real. When a nation hungers, it hungers for real. The food that arose from these times became legendary, as they were then lost in the era of canned and frozen convenience foods. The Great Depression changed the way that people shopped and cooked. In my hometown we had two butchers, a couple of grocery stores, lots of vegetable stands, and of course Matthews Cafeteria.
Food dominated the cultural landscape. This is the South. This is the Deep South. Ethiopian and Irish, French and German, our foods developed from their kitchens and from their tilled ground. All cultures have “their” food that is often delicious in the place of origin. Learning how to approach indigenous or ethnic cuisines is challenging, and even moreso if it is the food of one’s own ancestors. Many times I’ve coaxed Chinese Chefs to trade the “good stuff” with me by eating Hunan style sweet and sour intestines. Cracks me up, Soul food is soul food all over the world. Wild and fresh killed meat is always good for no matter what part of the body, it is always good.
Plum trees were all over my neighborhood by a nameless creek and the small bream, perch and crappie filled lake below. Maypops, blackberry, pecan, peach, persimmons, muscadines and gone wild watermelons showed up here and there. Our own small yard had three purple plum trees. They were toys to me, things to throw around, to toss at rabbits and squirrels, and of course to play fetch with mix breed beagles that my father raised for rabbit hunting.
My Mother married without the slightest idea of how to cook. She was the bobby sockser, the pretty girl, The Southern Belle of the Cofer/England family. So, my grandmothers and aunts would fix dinner for her and then bring it over before my wild Thomas father came home from the hard labor brick mason jobs he held all over Dekalb and Fulton counties. We ate everything that my grandparents and their grandparents ate. And Mother, well, she became to me the best cook in the world; she learned and she handed it down. We loved her Sunday suppers of beef pot roast, and the yeast rolls that rose by the heater vents while we were at church were the best. But pork, the rest of the week, pork was a food of the people, affordable, high yield, fatty and adapts to just about any kind of preparation.
Buffets were the best part of births, deaths, new homes and marriages, of church socials and Tucker Days celebrations. It was an elaborate and tasty youth. These gatherings are now called “Taste of (insert city name)” where restaurants display their foods. I still envy the ways they handed down, yet much was lost in a land overpopulated and built up to the extent that town halls and mainstreets were to become the “Make believe” property of developers and sell out relatives. I miss the South of community and closeness, safety, and of course great fresh food.
I miss the foods the most. Great thing is that we are now bringing these foods back home in the home as more natural meats and local produce become available. Who would have ever thought that fried green tomatoes would be a restaurant dish? This was something we cooked at home when there were just too many tomatoes growing. Today this is tapas or amuses bouche in restaurants, and that’s cool. You gotta love the food. I keep trying to work out a fried green tomato bruschetta that can pass as a nod to Mediterranean or Pan Asian styles.
Today our South foods come close to what gave the food so much flavor, and I mean outside the family farm, the fresh killed meats, the iron skillets and 200 year old bbq pits, I mean the good love between us all, the setting aside of grief and anger, the lifting up of the love and the song that is a long family history, the worship in the only church around, the Tucker First Baptist (land donated by my maternal Grandfather), the only High School around, Tucker High (some of the land donated by my paternal Grandfather), the whole thing, the hanging out at my Grandfather Thomas’ general store, butcher shop, gas station and lunch counter, going to Matthews Cafeteria because that is where we went to eat out and socialize, not because it was charming and kitschy, but because that was where we went out to eat, period. Well, except for the Dairy Queen or Fountain’s Drugs. We ate together. We lived. The mention that we were quaint or kitschy can piss off landed gentry or two, and sometimes even me. That was the life before Atlanta was again the Phoenix in the late 70s and 80s.
The food has been revived and that’s the beautiful thing, our bloodline lives, our accents live and our food is being revived. Now if only the love and comradery could be resurrected. How can I touch this? By food cooked at home. My wife learned to cook collard greens with ham hock from my niece! Yeah, the family meals follow a twisted path but they always lead back to the family. Rough economies push us back to the family table, a place of conversations and true adoration of the food.
As an American Chef my foods have traveled the globe, my culinary path is the World, but my history, my training and much of my style belongs to what I saw in my Mamaw England’s and Mother’s kitchen, and of course from what Daddy Bill and Gertrud Thomas cooked one strange Sunday in the long ago. Long ago before appropriating the magic and hardships of dirt and clay, pine tree and pecan hard luck life became a marketable influence, long ago when it was real and it was now, when it tasted so warm and sweet. Warm and sweet, cold and sweet, that’s how I remember, that is the South I adore. Fusion began in the South. This stands as a kind of culinary confessional, doesn’t it? But it’s richer than this; the world of food unites us all beyond boundaries and beyond languages.
Why this long introduction to one dish built in so many ways for three hundred years? Why do all these New South restaurants get on my nerves? There is no ‘New’ South; we’ve always been here, welcoming everyone home. The ingredients have changed a lot now that the world is drawn in so close with modern farming, even for the small local there is modernity, this is how we survived, by change, by adaptation, and yet the main thing about the food never changed, the cooking style and the pork.
The variations are many, but persimmon, plums and sweet potato are what it takes for this roast pork butt to be the best Sunday dinner of the month, that’s for sure. And always remember that slow food is not our invention nor is it a novelty act for a hundred same menu farms to table restaurants to espouse. The only places not cooking fresh or natural are the big box chains that tell you they are cooking fresh and natural.
The pig itself is of importance. I use the breed known as Duroc. Berkshire and Ossabow are very popular among pork connoisseurs and rightly so for the rich, fatty flavor, but I like an in between kind of pig and Thomas Jefferson’s pig is a perfect fit for me. If you want Ossabow pork there is a ranch in Georgia that is now producing them so you don’t have to sign up for hunts in South Georgia and the islands there. The name of the ranch is Nature’s Harmony.
Fuyu persimmons work best for this recipe. If you have a persimmon tree then that’s just even more value to the meal. They can be found at Super H and many of the Farmer’s Market’s, organic grocers and Whole Foods.
Plums? What is there to say other than “alright, plums in a savory dish”.
Use the big dark firm slightly sweet ‘n sour Damson ones. If not fresh then just pass this over and use apricots or nectarines, and apples or pears.
PERSIMMON AND PLUM PORK BUTT ROAST
The flavor in a pig is always in the butt, leg, shoulder, bacon and country ribs. Since we cook with electricity and natural gas now instead of propane and whatever wood would fit in the stove some of the details are lost. I was finally able to cook my Mamaw’s fried chicken while cooking on a wood burning stove on the wild Mendocino Coast one home sick lonely long rainy winter. I am forever thankful for a Big Green Egg that my brother, Gary Lyle, gave to me last Christmas. I have learned again how to cook more natural, more to the heart of what I love about food.
Same for this butt recipe except that I was cooking wild boar. Northern California wild boars tend to be Berkshire, good stuff. Something about being away from home that brings home all the more close. So, I learned to cook the foods of my home by being away from home. I love this life, I really do.

6 pound butt
2 large yellow onions, or vidalia if available
3 carrots, chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled
2 sprigs fresh thyme
3 bay leaves
½ cup fresh mint, or a handful of stems and leaves
2 sweet potatoes cut into medium sized cubes (1 x1 inch)
1 pound plums, Damson, cut in half, remove stone
1 pound ripe persimmons, washed, peeled and cut in quarters
1 ½ tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup peach moonshine or light rum
1/2 cup sugar, light brown
½ cup molasses
2 tablespoons lard
Day before cooking chop the herbs. Rub the pork down with the salt, pepper and sugar. Mix the herbs with the molasses and rub this over the pork. Refrigerate overnight. The day of cooking preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat a deep iron roasting pan or clay Dutch oven on the stove top on medium heat. Add the lard. Add the onions and carrots. Stir and let them cook for a minute. Add the pork butt and sear on all sides for a minute each turn. Add the sweet potatoes, plums, persimmons and heat for three minutes. Be careful not to let the herbs and sugars burn. Add the liquids. Simmer for three minutes.
Cover the pot and put it into the oven. Cook two hours. Remove the lid and cook for fifteen minutes. The pork should have a temperature of 150 to 160 degrees. Remove from oven. Take the butt out of the pot and set aside. Put the pot on the stove and bring to a boil. From here you will adjust the seasonings. Add more Damson plums if you need it to be richer and thicker. Simmer to a thin sauce. Strain and pour sauce into serving bowl.
Slice the pork. Serve persimmons, plums, sweet potatoes on the same tray and the sliced pork. Best eaten with yeast rolls, brunswick stew and any kind of cabbage or slow cooked collards or turnip greens.

ROSCOE HOLCOMB ON THE STEREO

So…Did I really think
the sun would shine down in my house out on hillbilly row?
When the rains flowed and fed great fields of kudzu and honeysuckle
I watched my gardens fade and fall, dry and die in the granite mothered

barren soil, and all the bream and bark in the world just wouldn’t
fertilize, wouldn’t hold the sands long enough to seed, but still I believe,
still I try. And when it’s good, on the front porch above the haze

it’s a vision of green mountains and steaming thin rivers cutting
through the gorge, beautiful. And when it’s corn and bean shucking time
I still have the heart to whistle “In the Pines”,

and I hope someone can hear me, I hope someone will shout back
through the woods, maybe even cross over to this plot of land.

Dried flowers, a dusty letter, Japanese figurine, yellow light on the brick
mantel shines, wipe my eyes, look again, and still it shines a cracked
and dingy pastel, and the morning itself seems like a postcard,

a loved memento of the life I’ve had. But waking always brings this pause,
this gaze into the past…wish it was easier to shake away the dreams,
just set them on the shelf beside the light, turn around and go my way.

Sitting in the kitchen staring at the rusty well water in my James Joyce mug,
have a smoke, try to forget those other warmer mornings and fonder beds,
sip and think about how with today I begin again, yes again, yes.

Daybreak walking down the hill, chestnut and red clover line the path,
wild strawberries and may pop vines perk up beneath the early dew,
think about it: this is my life? Here, earthsongs grew and flourished,

and I knew all the talk about whispers on the wind and the life of the wee
folk was more than legend, it simply was. It simply was the way of things.
River rock and Cherokee rose lead the way creekside to the barbwire line
that marked the place grandfather had his still, and there today I see
the blue tagged stake for the county tax man, fresh, deep, weak nonetheless,

and there today I just kick it down and keep on walking, glad this is a place
where I feel and feel, and feel so much the today of it all, just the today.
Strange water, this mountain blood: Black bear heart and Appalachian spirit,

Van Gogh hands given to the land, knowing the light is sweet and giving,
yet the Adam in me still curses anyway, and I pace in and out of the creek
and moss like this here is the one true baptistery, and I do dare it all

to come to pass……….yeah, these Ecclesiastic days will surely pass,
but until then there’s another song waiting, another blues, another hymn
to hard work and struggle, another reason to stomp and wail,
and then another day to fight the silence on the hill.