My Summer Vacation Part 2: July & August

My final catch up blog. Now I'm not quite 2 months behind.

We usually do Lamb Turnovers for Catherine's Birthday (Observed) but this year we went a bit non-traditional with a meal inspired by an article from Saveur.  We still had lamb, but with a variety of other middle-eastern-ish sides. It was a success, though some of the items seemed to take forever to prepare. On her Actual Birthday, we ran down to meet Catherine at 82 Queen.

As was apropos for a Charleston-born girl, her first legal drink was a Dark & Stormy. (Charleston has a deep historical connection with Barbados, which is famous for Dark Rum & Ginger Beer). The food was incredible,  but then after 30 plus years, what would you expect? Go there. 

(Side-note: Stewart has been in Asia since early July, so he STILL hasn't had his first legal drink in the US of A!)

Recently we attended a cooking class at Charleston Cooks here in Columbia. Our buddy Sheri Castle was teaching the class. Sheri is an author, food writer, and educator from the mountains of North Carolina. (She’s also a great story-teller.) We met her several years ago and SFA Field Trip in Bristol Tennessee, where she was in her element!

Sheri has one of the greatest cook books we've come across in a long time. The New Southern Gardens Cookbook is all about using the wonderful bounty of fresh produce we have here in the South. Sheri directed about a dozen of us in whipping up 6 different dishes. Here's the line up: 

Salmon with Green Godess Dill Sauce

Lemony Deviled Eggs

Summer Vegetable Potato Salad

Summer Squash Gratin

Blueberry Cardamon Parfait

Another fun thing we kind of perfected this summer was the Bailey's Irish Cream Cake. It's boozey, but not too much for tea-totaler. The almost-but-not-quite pound cake consistency makes its perfect for a companion scoop of ice cream!  Here it is with homemade Nutella ice cream.

In August we headed to Folly Beach (aka The Edge of America) to check out Catherine's new digs.  The first official meal of the apartment: Butternut Squash/Quinoa Salad, Summer Squash Gratin, and Home Grown Tomatos.

While there, we went to The Early Bird Diner, where we had our first ever taste of Chicken & Waffles. They were extraordinary,  as was the Red Velvet Cobbler we all shared for dessert! 

Lastly,  in August our buddy Tommy Stone started providing us with Hot Peppers from his bounteous garden. Would you believe he's still getting them?  Aren't they gorgeous?

This is one of my favorite things to do with the surplus peppers. That's vinegar in the bottles, not bourbon! Let that steep a few months and then cook a mess of greens!

My Summer Vacation: Part 1 (May and June)

Ok, I'm sorry it's been a long time since my last post.  I started off the year doing well, but anyway, maybe I'll finish off the year doing even better.  Here goes:

Although some people don't consider May as part of summer, to put it bluntly, they're wrong. Memorial Day is in May, and it is the official start of Summer, so therefore May is in Summer. I could cite other examples, but I don't really need to press the issue.  My first Summer event was the annual Hospital Week Celebration. They close the street level of one of the garages and have great big ole barbeque.  What could be more Southern and Summer than that? They always use Shealy's BBQ from beautiful-scenic Batesburg -Leesville.  Shealy's has been around for over 40 years, and is part of our Priceless Cultural Heritage here in the Midlands.  Great Catering, and an awesome buffet!

Stewart introduced us to Chinese Hot Pot in June. We had it several times before he left. It's a great concept. You take pots of boiling water and add seasonings.

Then you drop in various items such as:

• Thinly Sliced Beef
• Chinese Sausage
• Bok Choy
• Fish balls
• Tofu
• Noodles
• Green Onions
• Mushrooms
• Bean Sprouts
• Crab Balls
• Lobster Balls

You scoop it out into a bowl, then dress it with soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, peanut sauce, hot sauce, or pretty much what ever you want. And then you do it again, with different items.

The trick is the timing.  (pretty much like most of life, huh?) You want the meat/fish/protein to be done, but you dont want to overcook the noodles or the veggies.  

Before Stewart left for his internship in Nepal, we tried some new recipes that he might need in his repertoire. The bagels turned out pretty good,

but we were disappointed in the cresent rolls, which turned out to be mostly salty white rolls. 

We had two other noteworthy events that I failed to document with photos.  One was Mother's Day, where we celebrated with a massive Prime Rib Roast, rather than the traditional fried chicken (since Catherine was fixin' to go Cambodia and Vietnam, which are moderately red-meat scarce). The other was a wedding shower/party/soiree for a cousin of ours.  She wanted a BBQ, so we happily obliged her with a choice of SC Mustard, NC Vinegar-Pepper, or Tennessee Tomato.  A good time was had by all, and true to form, the Mustard was the most popular,  second only to Mama Lucy's Baked Beans, which disappeared incredible fast!

Stand by for My Summer Vacation: Part 2 (July)

Soups and Stews: Part 3

We're always on the lookout for new bean dishes.  I found out about Rajma a while back.  Apparently Rajma, in India, is kind of like Chili here in the South-everybody has a recipe!  The spices in it can vary greatly, so please feel free to use this as a "guideline". You can make it as hot as you want, depending on your variety of peppers and how many you want to put in! We like the "curriness" and the paprika.    

(Seen with Roasted Brussel Sprouts)

Rajma (Indian Kidney Bean Stew)

2 tablespoons of neutral oil, like canola

4 cloves garlic minced

1 large red onion, divided

5 Serrano chili peppers or other hot peppers, to taste. Seeded and chopped

2 cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can crushed or diced tomatoes

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 stick cinnamon or ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

1-2 cups water, if needed.

Reserve one quarter of the purple onion, cutting cut it in fine slivers. Chop the rest of the onion. Sauté onions, peppers and garlic in oil over medium heat until they begin to brown. Add everything else, except the reserved purple onion slivers and the water. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for an hour. Add water if needed. This should be pretty thick, about like chili.

Serve over rice, (we use Elephant God Brown Jasmine Rice), Garnish with the reserved slivered red onion.

An additional benefit of this recipe is that except for the onions and peppers, it all comes from  a moderately well stocked pantry. Dried peppers could probably be substituted for the fresh ones. I'll try that next time we make it.

Soups and Stews: Part 2

Alice's family is from Scotland, where this recipe has been around in one form or another for about 500 years.  Obviously,  this is a crowd pleaser. And it much more palatable to folks than Haggis ever will be!  If you skim some or all of the chicken fat off the top you can pretty much call this health food. If you don't,  well. . . .you know.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

2 whole chickens, either whole or cut up in quarters or halves. About 5-6 pounds.

½ lb carrots sliced

4 quarts water, approximately

Seasoning Salt to taste, start with 1 teaspoon.

1 cup white wine

1 cup of old fashion oatmeal

3 large leeks, washed, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced into half moons, 1/8 inch thick.

This is not an easy soup to make, but it is well worth it, especially if you’ve got Scottish heritage. I cannot emphasize too much how important is to WASH the leaks. Wash them under running water after you’ve split them down the middle. Peel back each layer. Wash, wash, wash.

Sprinkle chickens with seasoning salt on all sides. Roast at 325 degrees for 1- 2 hours, turning once. You want them nice and golden. When they can be pulled apart at the joints without too much effort, put in them in a large stock pot and cover with about 2 inches of water. Pour all the dripping from the roasting pan into the pot. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Use some of the simmering water to deglaze the roasting pan, pouring it into the pot.

After 30 minutes or so, remove the chicken back to the roasting pan and let cool for a while. Strain the broth if you need to. After the chicken is cooled enough, pick the meat off the bones and shred it up with your hands. You want it really broken up, like good pulled pork barbeque.

Add the meat back to the pot along with the carrots, oatmeal and wine. Simmer for 30 minutes until the carrots are done. As soon as they are done, turn the pot off, and stir in the leeks, let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then dig in!

This is great with nice fluffy scones!