Fred Thompson - Fred Thompson’s Southern Sides: 250 Dishes That Really Make the Plate

Fred Thompsons Southern Sides

Fred Thompsons Southern Sides

250 Dishes That Really Make the Plate

The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill

Text and photographs 2012 Fred Thompson All rights reserved. Manufactured in China. Designed by Kimberly Bryant and set in Calluna types by Rebecca Evans. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Fred, 1953
Fred Thompsons Southern sides: 250 dishes that really make the plate / Fred Thompson.1 [edition].
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8078-3570-8 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Side dishes (Cooking)Southern States. 2. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. I. Title. II. Title: Southern sides.
TX740.T43 2012
641.810975dc23
2012004104

16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1

For Kyle Wilkerson

a great chef, friend, & son-in-law

Contents

The Importance of Side Dishes to the American South and to Me

The Legacy of Jiggly & Cool Sides

Tomatoes, Peppers, & Eggplants

e

Corn, Okra, & Squash

Turnips, Onions, Carrots, & Their Cousins

Collards, Kale, Turnips, & Cabbage

A Tribute to Dried Beans, the Savior during Hard Times & Good

Shell Beans, Green Beans, May Peas, & Petits Pois

Grits, Cornmeal, Flour, & Rice

From Barbecue to Comeback

A Riff on Rmoulade

Sidebars

Acknowledgments

A porch is an important platform of southern life. On a porch, you can visit with family and friends, watch the world go by, rock until your heart is content, or just be plain lazy.

A porch is also a good place to plot the future, and thats what David Perry, editor in chief at the University of North Carolina Press, and I did ten years ago with cigars and bourbon on the front porch of Taylors Grocery, just outside Oxford, Mississippi. We never really talked about a particular book, just some interesting generalities, but we did become friends. This book started on that porch.

So thanks, David, for believing in me and putting me together with my excellent editor, Elaine Maisner, who gently coaxed the idea of a southern sides book out of me. She has been a great editor, understanding above all else, even when both of us were under a lot of duress. Editors always make you look smarter than you are, and Elaine is a true champ. Thank you.

Kim Bryant is one of the coolest, most creative people Ive ever worked with, and I think her design for this book shows it. She was also a pleasure to work with as we did the photography, and I hope youll find that the photos make you just plain hungry.

UNC Press has a fine, fine team of dedicated professionals, and I cannot commend them enough for their efforts with this book. Gina Mahalek and her staff are top-notch when it comes to publicity. Dino Battista is truly a shrewd marketer. Thanks also to copyeditor Ellen Goldlust-Gingrich, project editor Paula Wald, who always patiently listened to me, and typesetter Rebecca Evans, who also played an integral part in the books creation.

Many folks have influenced me and in particular this cookbook. One stands out above all others. My son-in-law, Kyle Wilkerson, sous chef at Four Square Restaurant in Durham, North Carolina, and executive chef for Edible Piedmont magazine, was my unwavering coauthor as we tested, improved, and ate every recipe. His skill, taste buds, and soul are on every page. The real treat for me was spending so much time with this creative and talented young man. Every father would be lucky and proud to have a son-in-law like Kyle. You done good, Laura.

Kyle and Belinda Ellis made up the photo shoot team, and they made my job as photographer easy. Kyles food styling and Belindas propping improved the photographs immeasurably. Belinda is also my expert on all things with flour and cornmeal, and I appreciate her valuable input.

Nikki Parrish has been my word-processing guru for eight cookbooks, and her dedication to those projects has taken the pain part of my writing on her shoulders so I could be creative. Thanks, Nikki.

Some other influences that you will feel as you read and cook through this book are my mother, Jewell Thompson; Kat Thompson; Anne Haskins; Virginia Bagby; Ben and Karen Barker; Frank Stitt; Sean Brock; Amy Tornquist; my aunt, Janice Thompson; and the legendary Jean Anderson. Thanks also go to award-winning southern writer Jim Villas, who has mentored me over the years. Pam Hoenig was the first to tell me I could write a book and got me through several. When things get crazy, Pableaux Johnson always knows when its time to call and get me back on track.

I thank John T. Edge and the members of the Southern Foodways Alliance for making me proud to be a southern boy. Kudos go to Toni Allegra for her ongoing support and to Lynn Swann and Don and Joan Fry for their continuing efforts to make food writers better at the Greenbrier Professional Food Writers Symposium.

Without farmers and fishermen, there would be no sides or food, for that matter. Each day I thank these folks for the sacrifices they make to fill our tables. These people have always been heroes, rock stars, and are finally getting the respect they have long been due. A special thanks to the farmers who sell through the local farmers markets in Raleigh, Durham, and Carrboro. What you produce is outstanding, and it gives all of my recipes the extra stuff that takes them to the next level.

Southern cultural observer John Edgerton asked me many years ago if I was a writer who is southern or a southern writer. So, John, what do you think now?

Fred Thompsons Southern Sides

Introduction

The Importance of Side Dishes to the American South & to Me

The crunch of a well-fried piece of chicken, the tartness of a pile of vinegar-laden barbecued pork, and the smoke-kissed beauty of a perfectly cooked rib are the images that most folks conjure up when theyre asked to describe southern food. All of these dishes have been well documentedand deservedly soin cookbooks, magazines, and newspaper articles. But what really defines southern cooking, the fabulous juxtaposition of tastes from down-home to urban, is the mouthwatering sides balanced against the fried chicken, barbecue, and ribs. Southern sides and vegetables are the apex of southern cooking. Nowhere else in the country do you find so many restaurants that are more than happy to serve you a veg plate. In our homes, especially during the summer, a vegetable dinner once or twice a week is the norm. As much as our cooking talent is judged by our ability to fry perfect Sunday chicken dinner, the memories linger because of the collard greens slowly braised in a perfect pot likker until bitter becomes sweet and tough becomes tender. The way we wrap mayonnaise around a variety of ingredients to come up with delectable potato salad, still slightly warm, is heaven on the tongue. A simple grain, rice, transposes itself into regional variations that remove it from a bland category. Lets not forget a biscuit made with soft wheat flour, moistened with melted butter, and smeared with homemade preserves. A piece of cornbread, fresh out of a black cast-iron skillet, is dipped in buttermilk or used to soak up the pot likker from the greens. Everywhere you look in the southern culture of this country, you will find supporting players on the plate, and they deserve a spotlight of their own. Ben Barker, the chef at Durhams Magnolia Grill and winner of the James Beard Award, once told me, Most of the time its not the protein but what surrounds the protein that gives us our eating pleasure. I couldnt agree more. We need to celebrate those dishes that we hold so dear and that mark our culture and foodways in a unique and endearing way. The underpinning of southern cuisine is the sides we choose to serve. Im here to celebrate, glorify, and teach you the beauty of these recipes as they have been telegraphed through my life, my cooking experiences, and my joy of eating.