Book Description
In the American South, entertaining is a very special art form, and in My Mother's Southern Entertaining, Jim Villas and his mother, Martha Pearl Villas, offer distinctive menus and more than 175 irresistible recipes to celebrate all sorts of seasonal occasions.
In My Mother's Southern Kitchen and My Mother's Southern Desserts, Jim revealed his mother's overall favorite recipes and cooking secrets. In this all-new collection, Martha Pearl now shares her ideas, procedures, and tips for the perfect party with twenty-nine complete menus. Meals for such traditional holidays as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are lovingly prepared with the Villases' typical flair and attention to detail. Shrimp and Grits, Sweet Potato and Apple Gratin, Country Ham Braised in Cider and Molasses, Holiday Bourbon Cake, and Southern Comfort Ambrosia can become festive must-haves in your family, too. And when it's not a holiday, there are plenty of other year-round occasions that call for good food and simple entertaining ideas, such as a Super Bowl blast, a graduation tassel celebration, a luncheon for the ladies of Martha Pearl's church guild, an elaborate bereavement buffet, and even a jingle bell party for tots.
Each tempting menu starts with a special libation (making a very strong case for the return of the punch bowl), then moves on to appetite teasers such as Curried Shrimp Paste and Tangy Pimento Cheese Dip. Martha Pearl's "receipt book" bulges with special casseroles (She-Jump-Up Pot, and Baked Country Sausage and Leeks Supreme), unusual salads and sandwiches (Football Broccoli Mold and Ribbon Loaf Sandwiches), baked goods (Prayer Bread and Cracklin' Biscuits), and luscious Southern desserts (Coconut Buttermilk Pie and Mixed Berry Cobbler).
Laced with lively family anecdotes, unique decorating and serving techniques, helpful down-to-earth cooking tips, and plenty of regional lore and history, this is a book about entertaining that also entertains in the gracious Southern manner.
Customer Reviews:
Delicious food for body and soul.......2004-07-02
Since my mother was from Connecticut and my father from Mississippi, they wisely decided to settle in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, as a cultural compromise with which both could live. Mother's New England basic cooking was good, but she often wished to be able to cook like her Southern sisters-in-law (until she would return from a visit South and discover a slightly wider waistline).
Regardless of whether you live in the North, South, East, or West, however, these are wonderful recipes that produce delicious food without the host having to hunt for exotic and expensive ingrediants.
More importantly, however, this book shows how good home-style cooking can re-connect neighbors in a community, something that modern culture sadly lacks. The format of the menu ideas for reaching out to others is inspirational, and could do a lot to bring folks together who have let frenetic life-styles erode relationships with family and friends.
Not only a GREAT cookbook, but one that demonstrates Christian love in action (Episcopal style). My warmest compliments to the Villas; I hope they read all these great reviews. (And don't worry about your waist-line--just take smaller portions and savor every bite.)
My Mother's Southern Kitchen - Part II.......2001-10-02
James and Martha Pearl did a knock out collaboration in "My Mother's Southern Kitchen." So I purchased this book with high expectations. It has some excellent recipes-her Savannah Red Rice on her Gumbo Dinner menu is a worthy addition to "things to do with rice." The menus were thoughtful, and something I had never seen before: The Bereavement Buffet. Ms. Villas suggests a good friend or family member take charge of the after-the-funeral gathering and have it at their home rather than the close friends and family, covered dishes in hand, troop to the home of the bereaved. Makes a lot of sense.
The problem with the book is evident on the front cover: A very handsome picture of various cooking entries placed on a white tablecloth. The picture features the food and no attention is paid to the setting. The book has sketchy comments here and there as to types of china and crockery used or maybe what flowers were picked from the garden to dress the table. I expect a book on Entertaining to have a few (hopefully many) lavish pictures of table settings. Schedules are a boon and things that can be cooked ahead are a must. Invitations and how they should be communicated is a big help. For instance, Martha Pearl does not give us a clue how people at the funeral are going to know where the buffet is.
The book is an extension of "Southern Kitchen" with barely a nod to Entertaining. However, the recipes are good, precise and easy to follow. It is written in an entertaining manner.
Another winner from Martha Pearl!.......2001-07-21
I have all three of Martha Pearl's cookbooks, including this latest, and I love them all. She's witty, she's opinionated, and she's sometimes hilariously dictatorial ("Don't be uppity about using canned salmon if you don't have fresh .... You really can't tell the difference" in this molded salad.) Martha Pearl's got some seventy years of experience giving parties, and y'all can tell she knows how to throw a party, southern-style! The recipes are very practically organized into complete (and I mean complete!) menus, each comprising seven or eight items, from the pre-dinner drinks and punches all the way to the desserts. Each menu makes for a lavish spread of elegantly simple foods that are just delicious. I have never tried a Martha Pearl recipe that wasn't utterly delectable. In addition to the customary holiday celebrations throughout the year, for which this book offers a wealth of good recipes and fresh ideas for entertaining, this book inspires me to want to give parties I never thought of before, like a Spend-the-Day Fruitcake Party (y'all bring your own dried and candied fruits to snip and soak, and luncheon will be served while y'all take a break at some point); a Gumbo Night; an After-Shopping Brunch (any excuse to throw a party!); a Tots' Jingle-Bell Party; etc. Martha Pearl's evident love for giving a good party is contagious. Having her recipes and party-planning tips is like having her in the kitchen with me, and she's like everyone's favorite grandmother: inspiring, dependable, and just delightful. If Martha Pearl comes out with a fourth cookbook, I'll have to have it!
My new favorite cookbook.......2000-07-05
This is wonderful. Very witty and inspiring to boot! Run, don't walk, to purchase this beauty!
Martha does it again.......2000-06-22
I have the other books she wrote and love her southern recipes and the great stories that are told about each one. Being a Southern gal myself, I so enjoy the recipes of my childhood. I have recommonded this book to many of my friends. Her books I go back to time and time again. And so far nothing I have made hasn't just melted in my families mouth.
Book Description
This beloved cookbook is now available in a handsome paperback edition. Completely revised and updated with 45 all-new recipes, each delicious dish reflects acclaimed chef John Ash's commitment to sustainable agriculture and his love of fresh fruits and vegetables. More than 300 recipes, inspired by the California Wine Country featuring soups, salads, pastas, pizza, risottos, poultry, fish, meats, vegetarian courses, desserts, breads, and more include wine recommendations and abundant tips on how to incorporate everything from chipotle chiles to persimmons into delectable meals. This is a time-honored classic, sure to continue enticing cooks for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Finally a New Revised and Expanded Edition.......2007-03-26
A new revised and expanded edition of an old favorite. We all know that the process of getting food is to plant, raise, or catch it, then cook and eat it. But John Ash takes it a bit further. He concentrates primarily on serving what is in season now, what he can get fresh - especially fresh from his own garden or at least local.
Sometimes, of course that's a little hard to do. For instance he cooks a lot of fish, tuna, sturgeon, pacific rock cod, halibut and more. It's a whole bunch of miles from here (Nevada) to the ocean, you want tuna, it's frozen. Sturgeon, never seen it here. Cod, I got some a couple of weeks ago for the first time. Now I wish I had had this book then, as the recipie of cooking it with oranges, tomatoes, and olives sounds really different and something worth trying. ==One point I really like about this book is his wine recommendations. With the rock cod he says sauvignon blanc, rieslings, Pinot Grigio or Noir. I think I could go with any of these.
On the whole, his earlier version of this book was good, this new one is even better, more recipies, more things to try, and nearly all of them sound good.
a great cooking philosophy.......2000-08-23
I love this cookbook, not only because I love the flavors of the wine country and John Ash has a great mix of recipes that convey them, but also because the philosophy behind the recipes relies so heavily on using fresh, seasonal, local ingredients. The recipes are not super-simple, but if you have some cooking experience and are willing to take the time to search for the best ingredients, the rewards are well worth it.
The best, freshest food that I've ever tasted!.......1999-01-15
I have used this book more than any other cookbook in my home. I am constantly learning about new, fresh ingredients and the results are really wonderful. Every time I cook using these recipes, my friends ask me for the recipe. I've purchased this book for several friends too - it's a great gift, especially if you live in Northern California. Visiting John Ash's restaurant is a wonderful experience too!
My most used cook book.......1998-09-07
As a collector of cook books and as one who entertains regularly (both for friends and for business - it is not unusual for us to have over a100 people in a month at home for corporate related dinners) I find this book the one that I most often turn to. It is imagnative yet practical, sufficiently different to a lot of theothers that I have and everything that I have tried has been a huge success. Would love to know if John Ash has written another one.
Amazon.com
You can hold this book the way you hold a child's hand. And you can let this book show you a whole new world, the way a child will reveal the secrets of a secret world if you take the time to stop and watch and listen. God bless Mildred Council and the time she took to get it all down in Mama Dip's Kitchen. And it's not just the recipes that come out of a life of good cooking--there's a great deal of Mildred Council in these pages, and we are better off for the reading, the cooking, and the sharing.
In her acknowledgments, Mildred Council thanks a woman who helped with the book. Then she thanks the woman's children, "Shawn and Chelsea, for playing so nicely while we flipped so many pages." She ends her cookbook with a recipe for a child's birthday party. Her enthusiasm for life growing through all its stages can be found on every page. "I realized my name was my earthly soul," she writes, "which needed to be tended like the pumpkin seed--tended, tilled, fed, and harvested, to have a good life. And that's what I tried to do ever since for my family and myself."
Part of that tending has been owning and operating Dip's, a popular Chapel Hill, North Carolina restaurant where she serves the kind of country food she grew up cooking. Mildred Council calls her style of cooking "dump cooking" because she scoops up ingredients without measuring and "dumps" them in the bowl or pan. It took her a good deal of time to measure out what she was doing so instinctively to be able to share her work as written recipes. But she encourages every cook to use her recipes like a sewing pattern, to experiment, to stretch here and cut there to make the food you like.
Mama Dip's Kitchen is a compendium of straightforward, simple, southern American foods in chapters devoted to "Breads and Breakfast Dishes," "Poultry, Fish, and Seafood Dishes," "Beef, Pork and Lamb Dishes," "Vegetables and Salad," and "Desserts, Beverages, and Party Dishes." In simple foods as in a simple life, the complexities run deep. --Schuyler Ingle
Book Description
For nearly twenty-five years, Mildred Council—better known by her nickname, Mama Dip—has nourished thousands of hungry folks in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her restaurant, Mama Dip's Kitchen, is a much-loved community institution that has gained loyal fans and customers from all walks of life, from New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne to former Tar Heel basketball player Michael Jordan.
Mama Dip's Kitchen showcases the same down-home, wholesome, everyday Southern cooking for which its namesake restaurant is celebrated. The book features more than 250 recipes for such favorites as old-fashioned chicken pie, country-style pork chops, sweet potatoes, fresh corn casserole, poundcake, and banana pudding. Chapters cover breads and breakfast dishes; poultry, fish, and seafood; beef, pork, and lamb; vegetables and salads; and desserts, beverages, and party dishes.
The book opens with a charming introductory essay, a savory reflection on a life in cooking that also reveals the story behind Council's nickname. It is both a graceful reminiscence of a country childhood and the inspiring story of a woman determined to make her own way in the larger world.
Customer Reviews:
Great down home southern cookin.......2007-02-18
If you like down home southern cookin this is the book for you!! I bought this and her other cookbook. Love Them!
absolutely devine.......2007-01-09
I would recommend this cookbook to anyone searching for some real down home soul food. The recipes are simple and easy. The food is beyond delicious. This is my firt mama dip's cookbook but it won't be my last. I look forward to ordering her other cookbooks soon. The other night I cooked the creole shrimp with rice, and my husband and I loved it. He is a LOUISIANNA native so it was home for him. There are so many great things that I can say about mama dip's cook book, but what i want to say to people who are skeptical and not sure if they want to purchase her book, GET IT, you will not be dissappointed at all.
Home cooking at it's best.......2006-04-28
I have the luxury of living fairly close to Mama Dips restaurant and it's always a real treat to go for lunch or dinner. It's the kind of cooking we grew up with in NC. I was so excited when she published her cookbook. I bought it and have read it cover to cover. I not only love the recipes but the story itself is inspirational. If you ever go to her restaurant - don't skip the banana pudding. Like the recipe in the book, it's served warm and it's TO DIE FOR!!
Cookbook Review.......2006-03-18
I have thoroughly enjoyed the cook book and have used it many times and share recipes with several friends. The recipes are quick, easy and delicious... My family has loved everything that I have fixed from the book.
Mama Dip's Kitchen Cookbook.......2006-02-26
Excellent book. Recipes are not difficult to prepare. Reading this book is an enjoyable as making the delicious recipes presented in it. This book enables us to make food like mom or grandma used to make!!
Book Description
In this much-anticipated follow-up to her bestselling Mama Dip's Kitchen, Mildred "Mama Dip" Council serves up an abundance of new recipes for home-style Southern cooking that is sure to please. From catfish gumbo to breakfast pizza and peach upside-down cake, Mama Dip's Family Cookbook offers recipes for more than three hundred dishes, including many Council family favorites. Also featured are party and celebration foods for family and community gatherings--a reflection of Council's belief that friends and family are essential to a rewarding life. To help novice cooks, Council includes basic information about staple ingredients, kitchen utensils, and important measurements, as well as diagrams for setting up a buffet.
In a charming introductory essay, Council intertwines food-related reminiscences of her rural North Carolina upbringing with a wry recounting of her experiences since the remarkable success of her first book. With this book she passes along to new generations the practical advice and wisdom that have made her a treasure to her family and her community.
Customer Reviews:
Mama Dip.......2007-02-21
Mama Dip is a legend in NC. Her recipes are wonderful. This was a gift for my brother-in-law in who lives in the Pacific Northwest, but loves Southern cooking. His family will certainly benefit from some TRUE Southern recipes from a TRUE Southern cook.
TRY MOMMA DIP KITCHEN COOKBOOK.......2007-02-05
I WAS VERY DISAPOINTED IN THE FAMILY COOKBOOK ,I WAS EXPECTING GREAT RECIPES LIKE HER OTHER BOOK MAMA DIP KITCHEN IT WAS FOOD REAL CAROLINA PEOPLE COOKED.
Mama Dip's Family Cookbook.......2006-02-26
As in the first book, this also is fun reading and even more fun making the recipes. Definitely recommend this for you all if you want to make things like your mom or grandmom did!
"EXCELLENT" .......2006-01-15
Excellent as every recipe mama dip has provided for us. love her cookbooks and her recipes.
A superb cookbook for creating meals and festive trays with down-home Southern flavor.......2005-12-06
A follow-up to the popular "Mama Dip's Family Kitchen," Mama Dip's Family Cookbook is a treasury of more than three hundred recipes for savory, homestyle Southern cooking, from traditional meals to festive party foods and dishes ideal for community gatherings. An introductory essay by author Mildred "Mama Dip" Council, winner of the 2004 North Carolina Restaurant Association Neighbor Award for her role in Chapel Hill's annual community dinner, offers memories of her early life and her experiences as her exceptional cooking style became increasingly well-known and appreciated. Taste-tested dishes such as Spoon Bread, Chicken Noodle Pie, Apple-Nut Squares, Candied Carrots are presented with easy-to- follow instructions. Mama Dip's Family Cookbook is a superb cookbook for creating meals and festive trays with down-home Southern flavor.
Book Description
Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook begins as Sylvia recalls her childhood, when she lived with both her mother and her grandmother -- the town's only midwives. The entire community of Hemingway, South Carolina, shared responsibilities, helped raise all of the children, and worked side by side together every day in the bean fields. Perhaps most important, the community shared its food and recipes. When Sylvia set out to write this cookbook, she decided to hold a cook-off back home in Hemingway at Jeremiah Church. Family and friends of all ages shared their favorite dishes as well as their spirit and love for one another. The recipes offered at the cook-off were then compiled to create this incredible collection, along with many of Sylvia's and the Woods family's own recipes.
Here are the kinds of recipes you'd find if you visited the Woods family's home. Sylvia's daughter Bedelia is well known for her Barbecued Beef Short Ribs, which are as sassy and spicy as Bedelia herself. Kenneth, Sylvia's youngest son, has loved to fish ever since he was a child, spending his summers by the fishing hole in Hemingway. Now Kenneth's son, DeSean, enjoys fishing, too. Kenneth's Honey Lemon Tilefish, DeSean's favorite, is just one of Kenneth's special recipes presented here.
And there are many, many other wonderful dishes, too. In this remarkable cookbook, Sylvia has gathered more than 125 soul food classics, including mouthwatering recipes for okra, collard greens, Southern-style pound cakes, hearty meat and seafood stews and casseroles, salads, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and more. These recipes are straight from the heart of the Woods community of family and friends. Now Sylvia gives them to you to share with your loved ones. Bring them into your home and experience a little bit of Hemingway's soul.
Customer Reviews:
Red Velvet Cake recipe.......2007-03-05
I have been searching for a tasty Red Velvet Cake recipe for a while now. I got the recipe from the Food Network website, and choose this one because I did not want to replicate Cakeman Raven's cake. I am happy with my choice (i used it to make cupcakes). The cake was soft and moist on the inside with a slighty chewy outside. I followed the advice of one of the other posters and used 2 tablespoons of the cocoa powder. When I tasted the raw batter, it had a pleasant chocolate taste, but when I tasted the final cake, it was a little more subtle. Another adjustment that I made was to increase the amount of sugar in the recipe; I added an additional 1/2 c of sugar which bought out the chocolate flavor. I did not make the frosting because I already had a recipe that my friends and family liked.
Once I tasted the cake I came on Amazon and purchased the book.
You can't go wrong!.......2006-07-24
I've read her cookbook from front to back many, many times. I love the receipes, as well as her family stories that help these receipes come alive and taste great! You can't go wrong with this cookbook. A MUST for your cookbook collection. I loved this cookbook so much, that I'm going to purchase her other cookbook.
Good even for beginners.......2006-02-04
I purchased this book and used many of the recipes for Thanksgiving dinner. It takes a while for someone like me, who is a beginner cook, to make the recipes, but they always taste great. My family loves the cheese ham and potato casserole the best! It's always the first thing gone. I have another book of hers that has more recipes, they are both assets to my cookbook collection.
Good for the collection.......2005-10-22
I collect historical cookbooks and this one is a must-have because Sylvia is a legend.
The recipes are a good starting point for soul food. I think that we all have to remember that soul food is that it is very much like jazz -- there is a basic formula, but improvisation is key. With that said, I think there are few soul food books that give the definitive recipe for a dish. While good, I think they are meant to be a starting point for our imagination and experimentation.
Soul food was a cuisine born out of creativity; don't expect one book to capture it all.
She redeemed herself with this one .........2004-05-04
I was afraid to buy this after her first book, but she really redeemed herself here. One day I just had to have smothered pork chops, macaroni & cheese & collard greens and this book DELIVERED on the pork chops & macaroni & cheese!! (use the first book for the greens though) .. These are now in the repertoire as my roommate prefers this to going out to a restaurant! Can't wait to try the red velvet cake!
Book Description
Since early colonial times in America, Jewish southerners have been tempted by delectable regional foods. Because some of these foods--including pork and shellfish--have been traditionally forbidden to Jews by religious dietary laws, southern Jews face a special predicament. In a culinary journey through the Jewish South, Arkansas native Marcie Cohen Ferris explores how southern Jews embraced, avoided, and adapted southern food and, in the process, have found themselves at home.
From colonial Savannah and Charleston to Civil War era New Orleans and Natchez, from New South Atlanta to contemporary Memphis and across the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates how southern Jews reinvented traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian world where they were bound by regional rules of race, class, and gender.
Featuring a trove of photographs, Matzoh Ball Gumbo also includes anecdotes, oral histories, and more than thirty recipes to try at home. Ferris's rich tour of southern Jewish foodways shows that, at the dining table, Jewish southerners created a distinctive religious expression that reflects the evolution of southern Jewish life.
Customer Reviews:
Matzo balls and memories.......2007-05-24
As a Deep South Jewish expatriate, I can't say enough about how thoroughly Marcie Cohen Ferris did her research. There is no doubt that she has covered the differences-and similarities-of the various southern states with great heart and accuracy! The sheer volume of names of those she got family information from is more than admirable. The book belongs in every Jewish household-northern and southern! And non-Jewish readers will get a wonderful picture of the influence food had in Southern Jewish homes-part of American culinary history.
Okay book.......2007-05-15
Good book if your into a history lesson but I was looking for more receipies.
Outstanding & interesting.......2007-05-13
This book is a wonderful compilation of Jewish history of the South and Jewish food of the South. Fascinating reading about the history and excellent eating. Enjoy!
Too much starch in the matzo balls.......2006-07-10
Fascinating subject matter as I grew up in an area where Jews were a vocal and very assimilated minority. The author's extensive research came to the same conclusions in every chapter: it was hard to keep Kosher in the South and black household help did much of the cooking. As a Jewish woman I am proud of our reputation for a sense of humor and delicious cooking. There are very few recipes; even those were not particularly tempting or typical. The book's major flaws lie in the author's dry, labored, one-note writing style that had me laboring to stay awake.
A Wonderful Read and a Surprise.......2006-04-19
I expected a cookbook (which is why it's 4 stars instead of 5, and that's the *only* reason), but got a history book instead.
It's an amazing book. My grandmother worked for Jewish families in the 50s and 60s and I remember accompanying her to their homes when I was a youngster visiting her in NC. There is a certain nostalgia there as the Jewish people always treated her with respect and dignity. All the while they were walking their own precarious tightrope between the gentiles and the black people.
I also found something more while poring over the pages of this book and that is a link to my family's own Jewish past. I have the utmost respect for the amount of research done by Marcie Ferris. It was a herculean task!
Oh. And the recipes (the few) are pretty terrific.
Book Description
"Breakfast shrimp and grits" has long been a staple of the South Carolina Lowcountry, the favored morning repast during the busy summer shrimp season. Now, renowned Southern cuisine maven and author Nathalie Dupree is pleased to offer an entire cookbook dedicated to this famed Southern dish that will inspire people around the world to discover its appeal and versatility for any meal!
Customer Reviews:
Great cooking recipes.......2006-09-03
Another fabulous cookbook by my favorite southern cooking author. I've already tried a recipe and it was a huge hit with my family. PS -- They don't particulary like grits.
Real South Carolina low country cooking .......2006-08-10
This is a terrific guide to real southern good food, centering around grits and, of course, shrimp. The truth is that grits are very closely related to polenta, and they can be great. This book is a terrific guide to good grits & good shrimp as they are eaten in the South. I am a California inhabitent myself, but this food is good. The receipes also are not too complicated and good for family or guests.
A dish born in South Carolina and elevated to new heights.......2006-07-04
Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp & Grits Cookbook presents a dish born in South Carolina and elevated to new heights. Authors Nathalie Dupree and Marion Sullivan reviewed the most famous and the most cherished recipes for shrimp and grits to cull out the best for a cookbook which even covers what kind of pan to use. Another plus: recipes come from top lowcountry chefs, are paired with color photos, and include plenty of variety, from Goat Cheese, Basil and Shrimp Timbales to Shrimp and Grits with Country Ham and Red-Eye Gravy and Quick Tomato-Bacon Shrimp and Grits.
Book Description
There's a whole world of flavor packed into an eighty-plus-square-mile area surrounding the cities of Charleston and Savannah. It's called the Low Country of South Carolina.
For centuries, Low-Country cooks have taken the diverse foods of Africa, France, Spain, and the Caribbean and turned them into one of the most intriguing regional cuisines.
Marvin Woods, chef/owner of Diaspora Foods in Charlotte, North Carolina, offers a new take on this extraordinary cuisine. By incorporating these international flavors with contemporary techniques, he stays true to the roots of the original dish, yet creates new flavors that are innovative and delicious. With the sure hand of a seasoned chef, Woods transforms standards like fried chicken and gumbo into updated dishes for today's kitchen. Try his Southern-Exposed Fried Chicken; it's fried, then baked, for crispy, greaseless results. His Vegetable Gumbo is light, flavorful, and satisfying. There's everything from Bourbon-Soaked Pork Chops and Barbecued Short Ribs to Pan-Seared Pompano and Southern Summer Ratatouille.
Rice, South Carolina's great contribution to the American culinary melting pot, takes center stage in Crab and Shrimp Pilau and Five-Greens Rice. You'll also find recipes for the ultimate Southern classics--biscuits and cornbread--along with sensational desserts such as My Favorite Mini Mud Pies and Praline Bread Pudding.
But The New Low-Country Cooking is much more than a great cookbook. Woods shares historical tidbits on how dishes and ingredients got their names, where they originated, and the indisputable importance of African-American cooks in Southern life.
The New Low-Country Cooking hits a high note in American regional cuisine.
Customer Reviews:
everyday comfort food with perfect flavor!.......2007-03-16
an excellent cookbook on a regional cuisine. excellent and accurate choice of recipes (although i wish there were more chicken dinner ones). these recipes are perfect for flavorful basic meals. this is without question the book i use most, especially for sunday dinner. i have passed along the mac/cheese recipe to dozens of folks. the smothered chicken recipe is a staple in our house. try the butternut squash succotash or the spiced apple pie or the stewed chicken. they're can't miss and delicious
the food in this collection isn't fancy or fussy, but it is very very good. this book is best suited for everday folks who have cooking and eating as an integral part of daily home life.
Southern cooking with a real flair.......2007-01-20
This is one of my favorite cookbooks, especially after spending a summer in Charleston last year. I was raised on very traditional southern cooking, and I was looking for something that added a bit of gourmet flair to traditional recipes (and made them a bit healthier). This cookbook does it beautifully, and has a lot of nice background on low country cooking, food traditions, and history. The collard greens and gumbo recipes are just spectacular. I like too that there are basic recipes for things like hoppin john and plain old rice. No pretty pictures, but the volume of recipes more than makes up for it.
If you are looking for something reminiscent of your grandma's cooking in the fifties, with lots of fatback and crisco, you won't find it here. But I think this is a much tastier, healthier turn on my favorite little bit of southern food.
Nice but ....uninspired........2004-11-18
I was eaagerly awaiting the delivery of this book and was disappointed. The recipies were little more than re-hashing some basic carolina cooking. Nothing innovative or even interesting.
I was hoping for more.
Not Authentic Soul Food.......2003-07-08
I really disliked this coobook because it did not capture the real way people of the south cook. I am born and raised in the south and this is nothing like the food you get from big momma's house. There is absolutly nothing "gourmet" about true soul food. You use what you have to make a great meal. It is not about splurging on items that you would not normally have on hand. You use what you have to make a meal. Thanks for the effort though...
Artful simplicity at it's best.......2003-06-22
This is a wonderful cookbook, with all the southern cookbooks out there this has to be the simplest one I've used that delivers southern food with a gourmet touch BUT without the complications that gourmet recipes sometimes present to the home cook. DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS
Book Description
The exquisite menu at The Old Post Office Restaurant on Edisto Island, SC, has garnered this one-of-a-kind establishment legions of fans from around the country. It has been written up in the New York Times, Travel and Leisure, USA Today, Wine Spectator and Gourmet.
This exciting new cookbook is part of the Roadfood Cookbook Series by Jane and Michael Stern, two of the most popular and successful food writers in America. Like a visit to this historic Southern island (less than an hour from Charleston), Lowcountry Cooking from The Old Post Office Restaurant contains more than 150 favorite recipes for Southern dishes with a classical twist, such as Fussed-Over Pork Chop, P.B.'s Ultimate Filet Mignon, Coca Cola Cake, and Key Lime Mousse. It includes an 8-page color insert.
Chef Philip Bardin says, "Breads and desserts are prepared daily and all of the produce and seafood are local and the freshest available in the area. Our stone-ground grits - milled to our specifications - have been a specialty since 1988."
Previous Roadfood cookbooks include: Blue Willow Inn Cookbook (1-55853-991-3), El Charo Cookbook (1-55853-992-1), Durgin-Park Cookbook (1-4016-0028-X), Harry Carey's Cookbook (1-4016-0095-6), Louie's Backyard Cookbook (1-4016-0038-7), Carbone's Cookbook (1-4016-0122-7), and The Famous Dutch Kitchen Restaurant Cookbook (1-4016-0138-3).
Customer Reviews:
FIVE STAR DINING IN YOUR OWN HOME.......2004-06-16
Having dined at The Old Post Office Restaurant on many occassions, I was thrilled to discover that Chef Philip Bardin has put some of his culinary creations to pen and paper for all of us to try at home. I'm blessed to live in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, near The Old Post Office Restaurant, and therefore I have access to some of the same sources of fresh produce, fresh seafood, and quality meats and poultry that the restaurant does. Chef Bardin emphasizes that you have to start with quality ingredients like they use in the restaurant to achieve the best results. With my already having access to quality ingredients, this book provides the final piece of the puzzle and allows me, and my friends, to create some of the same dishes we crave at The Old Post Office Restaurant. This book also provides a wonderful glimpse of our local culture on and around Edisto Island, South Carolina. Living near Edisto Island, I can say that the book gets it right when talking about the local culture, and if you're not from this area the book does an excellent job of introducing you to our wonderful, unique, paradise. If you don't think you'd enjoy the taste of "The Lowcountry" then you haven't tried our food or you haven't been able to try it done right. This book from Chef Bardin of The Old Post Office Restaurant will help you do do southern food right.
Book Description
Since 1979, Louis Osteen has been making Charleston mouths water with his sumptuous upscale adaptations of Lowcountry fare. When the success of Louis's Charleston Grill, located in the Charleston Place Hotel for eight years, was assured, he took the chance and opened his own freestanding restaurant, Louis's.
Louis Osteen's Charleston Cuisine delivers over 170 creative recipes that make the regional cuisine something to write home about. Structured around the seasons, these recipes allow even the home cook to re-create the sophisticated dishes served daily at Louis's. From Pepper Seared Tuna with Mustard Greens to Grilled Pears with Spinach and Clemson Blue Cheese in a Warm Onion Dressing to Warm Chocolate Soufflé Cake with a Molten Center, Louis makes food into a high art. Which might explain why he was selected to entertain the Prince of Wales during his visit to Charleston in 1990, why the New York Times named him "the spiritual general of the new Charleston chefs," and why Esquire selected Louis's as one of the Best New Restaurants of 1998.
Customer Reviews:
Solid Southern Cooking.......2001-02-20
This respected southern chef takes typical cooking of the lowcountry and dresses it up with slightly different flair with spices and sauces and accompaniments that are not your typical fare of the area.
For example, the Roasted Pork Loin with Red Cabbage Braised with Chestnuts or athe Roasted Squab with Wild Rice and A Shallot and Garlic Confit in a Cabernet Sauce are sophisticated yet with the down home feel and comfort of the southern cuisine.
I've found the dishes to be masterful in this mild fusion, e.g. Duck Breasts with Espresso-Infused Sauce and Creamy Grits or the Mashed Potatoes with Sun-Dried Tomatoes add just the touch of newer fare to enliven the finest of the sultry south.
Crab Cakes are the best around -- with the cracker base! Also a great Grill Section here, meat and veggies and all kinds of sauces and glazes including a standout "Cognac Barbecue Sauce."
Neat twist, one that my palete enjoys!
A different perspective..........2001-01-04
Having seen Louis in action (I was a Chef at Charleston Place Hotel) I can confirm that Chef Osteen's food is something to experience and is definately memorable. Buy this book for the Crabcakes with Dijon Mustard Sauce alone! And if you ever get a chance to eat at his restaurant - DO IT. I miss hearing his expediters calling "pickup" and "order in".
Better to enjoy Osteen's work in his restaurant.......2000-09-25
There's a lot to like in this book.....if you're prepared to try to be a professional chef in your own home. Like a lot of cookbooks written by great chefs (and I'll give Osteen that) or their ghostwriters, there are the problems of getting complicated recipes right, and whether one wants to take the time involved. Osteen's approach to "updating" Low-Country cooking takes a very "nouveau" bent, and strays pretty far from the original at times. If you're looking for new interpretation of this classic cuisine, a far better choice is "The New Low-Country Cooking" by Marvin Woods. If you want the real thing, then "Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking" by John Martin Taylor is the book for you; just make sure to keep a tub of lard on hand, as many the traditional recipes call for it. Finally, if what you're after is to "explore the culture of a part of America without actually going there", Osteen doesn't provide that; Taylor and Woods do, and very well indeed.
the friendly culinaire.......2000-01-18
Louis Osteen's Charlseton Cuisine brings the highlights of Southern Cuisine into the 21st century through the techiniques of European cooking fused with the ambitions of a New South Cuisine. The recipes, antedotes and guidelines are all written with a voice that expresses warmth and love for the foods presented in this excellent book. If you have ever wanted to explore the culture of a part of America without actually going there (almost) then this is the book for you. Food is the culture of any geographical region and Charleston Cuisine is a star on any map.
And even better, Louis is a great chef, one whose food expresses the chef more than the chef expressing the food.
He inspires and is a driving force for the foods of the always becoming new New South.
Buy the book, cook your way through it, and then explore other works of Charleston, or Carolina, or lowland cuisine.
This is as good a place to begin as any when trying to understand what it is that makes regional cuisine so good.
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Books Index
Books Home
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General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences
My Mother's Southern Desserts : More Than 200 Treasured Family Recipes for Holiday and Everyday Celebration
The Glory of Southern Cooking
American Taste (Cook's Classic Library)
James Villas' Country Cooking
