Crispy Corn Breadby Matt and Ted Lee
The kings of Southern cooking show you how to bake this must-have bread like never before.
Golden, crispy-on-the-outside, moist-on-the-inside corn bread is a magical food. Corn bread brings brightness to a dreary day, and manages to steal the show, no matter what else is on the plate. This version is made in a 12-inch skillet, rather than the more traditional 9-inch skillet, so that “the batter lies thinner in the pan. The bread bakes up only about a half-inch thick,” explain the Lee brothers, “which means the crust-to-crumb ratio is quite high. It’s a thin, elegant flatbread, and if you start baking it daily, you just might make up for all those thick, Sahara-dry corn-bread bricks you’ve eaten.”
Click here for the recipe.
Fried Okra by Frank Stitt
The James Beard-dubbed Best Chef of the Southeast brings one of the most quintessential and delicious Southern side recipes to your table.
Okra is a tricky vegetable. Cook it for too long and it gets mushy on the inside; not long enough and it gets gummy. Bread the okra too heavily and you lose the Southern vegetable’s delicate flavors, but without enough breading you fail to achieve that perfect crunch. Alabama native and Southern food guru Frank Stitt has figured it out, though. He promises: “With a big cast-iron skillet, and no more than six to eight hungry mouths to feed, you’ll be able to cook up a perfect batch.”
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An Assembly of Southern Greens Cooked in Pork Stock by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock
Greens aren’t just for salads, and certainly aren’t for diets once you head down South. This recipe, from a woman who is known as one of the best Southern cooks of her generation, will have you asking for seconds every time.
Collard greens are the traditional green vegetable of the South. They are, however, a little bit of a pain to cook. They’re naturally tough, which means they have to be braised for quite a long time, and in that process have a tendency to become soggy and lose their subtle flavor. They do, however, have more antioxidants than nearly any other vegetable, which makes us really want to eat our greens. The combination of greens in this recipe—turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, and chard—is a delicious, healthy, and manageable way to meet that desire. Enjoy them with a dash of vinegar hot sauce and a slice of corn bread for the true Southern experience.
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Southern Buttermilk Fried Chicken by David Burke
The prestigious and highly decorated chef behind some of this country’s greatest steakhouses switches gears and unlocks the secret to perfecting one of the tastiest and trickiest main dishes in town.
The appeal of fried chicken is undeniable. A crispy, crunchy, salty exterior coupled with a juicy, succulent inside is a chicken-eater’s dream, and nowhere do they understand this more fundamentally than in the South. While familial and cultural traditions dictate the cooking method for most Southern cooks, those of us who don’t hail from below the Mason-Dixon require a little help in perfecting our recipes, which is where David Burke comes in. “The main consideration,” he says, “is to keep the fat as near 365 degrees as you can, from the moment you place the chicken in the pan right up until you lift it out. This will give you the crisp skin and juicy meat that makes fried chicken so tasty.”
Click here for the recipe.
Southern Red Velvet Cake by Pat and Gina Neely
Memphis’ culinary power couple presents a surefire way to sweetly wrap up a savory, Southern-inspired dinner.
If you’re going to go through all the trouble of making dessert, it might as well be a show-stopper. And if you’re aiming for impressive, then red velvet cake is the way to go. The cake’s exterior is a simple cream-cheese frosting, giving no hint of the bright red, cocoa-infused buttermilk cake that is hiding inside. Cutting into this cake is a dramatic surprise, and one that delights both adults and children.
Click here for the recipe.
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