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February 2006
To skin or not to skin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week Sarah posted her secret to the second-best fried chicken in the world (first place, she claims, goes to her mom.) “The secret is indeed in preparation, and a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, but skinning the chicken first is a must at my house!” she says. Was I the only one wondering how she pulls that off without the meat drying out? You certainly save some calories and cholesterol by skipping the skin…but do you sacrifice crispiness as well? There are some ways around these dilemmas — one of which I just ran across in our archives: Peanut Fried Chicken. You cut the chicken in small pieces so it will cook quickly, dip it in an egg wash and roll it in finely chopped peanuts (okay, maybe this method doesn’t save you THAT many calories.) It’s certainly not Grandma’s fried chicken — but it is one tasty way to maintain both the moistness and the crunch without the fatty skin. Any other ideas out there for frying chicken without the skin?
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Praise the lard!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought lard, but last night was a special occasion. The friends I regularly get together with for Sunday dinner were coming over to celebrate the life of our Southern culinary hero Edna Lewis, who died last week.
Our menu consisted of some of her greatest hits: wilted salad, catfish stew, corn pone, biscuits and blackberry cobbler with brandy sauce (most of those recipes can be found in “The Gift of Southern Food,” which she co-wrote with her best friend, chef Scott Peacock of Watershed in Decatur.)
Aside from the light, herb-redolent catfish stew, it’s doubtful anything else on the menu would escape the nutrition police.
The salad not only contained bacon but its rendered fat, which was mixed with cider vinegar and sugar for the dressing. The corn pones were deep-fried.
And the biscuits and pastry for the cobbler achieved their melt-in-your mouth flakiness to pork fat in the form of lard — which has fallen so far out of favor these days it took a major scavenger hunt to find a tub of it.
But I have to tell you, honestly: we all unanimously agreed that they were the best biscuits and cobbler we had ever tasted. We also unanimously agreed that we felt no guilt for enjoying them.
Especially in light of recent reports that trans fats — found in common lard substitutes like shortening and stick margarine — are probably even more likely to clog your arteries than saturated animal fat. Since homemade biscuits and cobbler are rare treats for me, when I have them I don’t want to compromise. I’d rather cut the biscuits a smaller, and eat a half-portion of the cobbler.
That was yet one more lesson I learned from Edna Lewis, who I had the pleasure of dining with on several occasions. She ate whatever she wanted, but knew when to stop. And she lived most of her 89 years in excellent health.
So I ask you — is lard deserving of its bad reputation?
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Edna Lewis and the Gift of Southern Cooking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just about all of us who are passionate about Southern food were saddened to learn of the death on Monday of Edna Lewis, one of the country’s greatest treasures of gastronomy. John T. Edge, the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and our regular guest blogger, was among them and filed this:
“When I learned that Edna Lewis had passed, I called my wife. Blair gasped. And then she told me that she was – at that very moment – in the midst of making “Good Chocolate Cakeâ€? from The Gift of Southern Cooking, the book Ms. Lewis wrote with Watershed chef Scott Peacock, her colleague and caretaker. Blair and I will savor that cake on Valentines Day.
Back when I lived in Atlanta, I took cooking classes from Ms. Lewis. But Blair never had the pleasure of meeting her. Like many admirers, Blair came to know the Virginia-born woman who called Atlanta home by way of her recipes.
Among the recipes Blair has made her own, my favorite is Ms. Lewis’s catfish stew, also from The Gift of Southern Cooking. It’s brothy. It’s chunked with potatoes. It’s spiked with tomatoes. It’s swimming with pearlescent farm-raised catfish. And it’s flat-out delicious. “
Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Ms. Lewis gave much to many. She gave freely. She gave warmly. Please tell us which Edna Lewis recipe matters most to you, which dish conjures her spirit. Or if you have a personal memory about her you would like to share, we would love to read about that, too.
The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bethel Baptist Church in Unionville, Va. Flowers and cards can be sent to Satchell’s Funeral Services, 118 E. Church Street, Orange, VA 22960, 540-672-4490. Donations can be sent to Bethel Baptist Church, 12387 Marquis Road, Unionville, VA 22567.
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Edge Bams Emeril
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On February 2, the New York Post quoted Emeril Lagasse on what’s happening in his adopted hometown, New Orleans: “Nothing. The mayor’s a clunk. The governor is also a clunk. They don’t know their (nether sections) from a hole in the ground. All my three restaurants got hit. I’ve reopened Emeril’s, but only a few locals come. There’s no tourists. No visitors. No spenders. No money. No future. No people. It’s lost. It’ll never come back.”
Lagasse, a native of Massachusetts, has served New Orleans best as a fabulist, as a telegenic cheerleader for the city’s sundry indulgences. On those terms, I have long admired his work. And I have long believed that his popularization of American cooking in general and New Orleans cooking in particular has been a boon for traditional foodways.
But this quote throws me. I’m not willing to agree with a friend who quipped, “Just goes to show you what happens when a Yankee tries to pass for Southern.� And I’m almost willing to dismiss his foot-in-mouth moment as a product of post-Katrina stress. Yet, neither sits right.
What New Orleans needs now – in addition to a sustainable revamp of the levee system – is a clarion call from its hometown heroes. Emeril is the man with the megaphone. So why did he shout out this message?
Tell us what you think. And, by the way, I recently spent a weekend in New Orleans. Clancy’s was packed on Thursday night. Upperline was packed on Friday, Restaurant August on Saturday. If no one is eating with Emeril, could comments like this be why?
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How do you like your chicken fried?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC food columnist John Kessler, who is not a Southerner by birth, is determined not to let that handicap stand in the way of nailing fried chicken. After talking it up with other fried-chicken aficionados and doing a comparative sampling around town — from Watershed’s to Popeye’s to Gladys Knight and Ron Winans Chicken & Waffles — he set out to give it a shot himself. He came pretty close, but no cigar yet. See Story. Do you know the secret to perfect fried chicken? Or where to find it? Is it pan-fried or deep-fried, marinated in buttermilk overnight or simply rolled in flour? John is open for some guidance and so are we!
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Southern Food
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