Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Bodacious Biscuits

Best. Biscuits. Ever!

When flipping through a new cookbook, you spy a recipe called “Ginormous Biscuits.” You’re going to stop in your tracks completely breathless, aren’t you?

I mean, who wouldn’t with that temptress of a name?

The folks behind the new cookbook, “Tupelo Honey Cafe” (Andrews McMeel), sure knew what they were doing when they coined that name for these bountiful butter behemoths.

The book, of which I recently received a review copy, was written by Southern writer, Elizabeth Sims, and Brian Sonoskus, executive chef of the Tupelo Honey Cafe, which opened in downtown Asheville, NC in 2000 and now has a second location on the south side of the city.

I actually had the pleasure of dining at that adorable downtown cafe years ago, while touring the South after attending a journalism conference. Asheville is a thoroughly charming city. Like so many college towns,  (it’s home to the University of North Carolina at Asheville), it is imbued with youthful energy, culture and artistic spirit. It’s also got one of the best self-guided walking tours around with iconic sculptures marking each significant landmark. One of the most famous ones is the restored boarding house that was run by the mother of American literary giant, Thomas Wolfe, where you can sidle up to his bronzed size 13 shoes at the entrance.

After working up an appetite from all that walking, head to the popular Tupelo Honey Cafe for down-home Southern fare made with seasonal ingredients from Sonoskus’ farm, Sunshot Farm.

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Heaven On A Bun

Now, THIS is a burger.

Oftentimes, burgers leave you wanting.

They turn out to be a little dry. Or not so flavorful. Or just kind of ho-hum.

Not so with this baby.

“Grilled Pork Burgers” from “Sunday Suppers at Lucques” (Alfred A. Knopf) is everything you want in a great burger and more. The recipe is from Chef Suzanne Goin of the wonderful Lucques restaurant in Los Angeles. Its Sunday Suppers are legendary for how fresh and vibrant the dishes are, as well as what a deal they comprise at $45 for three impeccable courses.

Lucques’ pork burger is far more complex than your average beef one.  It’s more like a fabulous pork sausage shaped into a hefty disk.

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Getting Acquainted with Goat

Fluffy dumplings made with goat  milk, goat butter and two types of goat cheese.

Seventy percent of the red meat eaten around the world is not cow, nor pig, nor lamb. Would you believe it’s goat?

Yet for most of us in the United States, goat merely brings to mind a creamy chevre, and little else.

The prolific food writing duo of Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough are hoping to rectify that. Their latest cookbook is “Goat: Milk, Meat, Cheese” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), of which I recently received a review copy. This comprehensive book includes a wealth of information about all things goat, as well as recipes that include “Goat Shanks with Cabbage, Port, and Vanilla,” “Chilled Blueberry Tzatsiki Soup” made with goat yogurt, and “Goat Cheese Brownies.”

They realize that a lot of folks are predisposed to hate goat meat, even if they may never have tried it. So many people fear it’ll be too barnyard-y or funky tasting. But goats that are slaughtered between six and nine months possess none of that. Instead, the meat is slightly earthy and quite tender. Ounce per ounce, goat is also lower in calories, fat and cholesterol than chicken, beef, pork or lamb.

Latin chefs have had a love affair with goat for generations. Nowadays, more and more chefs are discovering how fabulous the meat is and even spotlighting it on pricey tasting menus.

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Dorie Greenspan’s Sensational Scallops

A scallop dish that will make any day a whole lot better.

“Scallops with Caramel-Orange Sauce” should have to be registered as a mind-altering, mood-enhancing dish.

That’s because this dish from Dorie Greenspan’s “Around My French Table” (Houghton Mifflin) is guaranteed to lift your spirits, put a delirious grin on your face and give you happy feet.

That’s how incredibly delicious it is.

Stressed over your job?

Eat this dish.

Stressed about not having a job?

Eat this.

There’s magic in this dish. It’s really just seared scallops, but it’s the thick, syrupy, buttery citrus glaze that gets spooned over that makes it extraordinary. Seriously, one taste and you’ll want to pour it over everything — grilled halibut, broiled shrimp, chicken tenders, pork loin and even French toast.

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Lemon Lasagna

Sausage, Swiss chard and slivers of lemon make this lasagna unforgettable.

Can you stand just one more lemon recipe?

After all, you know your friends are still foisting their backyard lemons on you or you’re still picking ripe ones off your own tree.

So, dedicate one of those lemons to this fabulous dish: “Sausage, Chard and Lemon Lasagna.” It’s from the March 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

It’s a very rich dish. I won’t kid you about that, what with the creamy, cheesy white sauce made with full-fat milk that binds everything together. The lemon gets sliced very thin. As you layer the no-bake lasagna noodles, sausage, and Swiss chard-white sauce mixture, you also add a layer of lemon slices, which have been blanched ahead of time to remove some of their bitterness.

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