Carla Hall - Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You

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Contents

To Granny, for all the love she brought to the table and to my life

Introduction

Hootie hoo! Welcome to my very first cookbook. Ive been a chef, a caterer, a lunch lady, a dancer, a runway model, a reality show star, a daytime cooking show host, even an accountant (really!)and now Im a cookbook author. But most of all, Im a simple Southern girl who loves to cook and who cooks to love. What youve seen on The Chew and Top Chef isnt a gimmick, or an act, or something that ends when the dishes are cleared. Thats who I am and what I cook. Food that hugs you. What could be better than that?

Now, giving a hug is easy, but making food that hugs requires a little bit of practice, but its actually easier than most people thinkand so much more fun! Whether youre starting to cook for the first time or youve been in the kitchen forever, Im here to give you the techniques, the recipes, and the confidence you need to cook with love.

As youll see, my food comes from all over the place. I draw as much comfort from Italian flavors as I do from Japanese ones. But at the end of the day, much of my inspiration comes from the American South. I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, home of the Grand Ole Opry and the Titans. But my grandmothers house is my favorite spot in town. Every week of my childhood, I was smothered with a giant food hug at my Grannys Sunday supper. I cant say that I learned how to cook at Grannys side, though. Most of the time when we went to her house for a family meal after church, the closest I came to cooking was making mud pies.

Then one afternoon, Granny asked me to help harvest collard greens from the garden. Like any kid, I tried to beg my way out: Really? Do I really have to pick the greens? My complaining didnt get me anywhere, so I relented and did it. I wasnt happy about it. When we sat down to eat, I had to make sure I wasnt asked to pick the greens again and informed everyone, I dont know what youre eating. I couldnt tell the difference between the greens and the weeds. You might just be eating weeds right now.

Ive learned a lot since then: the difference between greens and weeds, the fact that, of course, Granny knew which was which and cooked only the collards, and how much the memories from our Sunday suppers have defined me. Grannys weekly ritual started long before I came around. She was born Freddie Mae Price to Jessie, who came from a family that was spread across South and North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Jessie had been bought as a slave by the Price family and was among the last to be freed. In her 102 years on this earth, she lived to see generations of change in the South. She also passed on to Granny the depth and breadth of great Southern black cuisine. I wish every person in America could have sat at Grannys table and been transformed by her cooking, warmth, and hospitality. Im writing this book to honor Grannyand the women who came before herand to give you a taste of just how much joy can be had in the kitchen and at the table.

Im even giving you some of Grannys treasured recipes, like her buttery pound cake and juicy smothered pork chops, and passing on my interpretations of soul food. Sure, I cook my collard greens low and slow, but guess what? I also saut them quickly and top them with gremolata, an Italian parsley-lemon-garlic mix. And I do a mean French bouillabaisse sauce of fennel and tomatoes to serve with a roasted whole snapper. Yep, I do all that. Ive been cooking professionally for years (and I mean years!) and travelling and eating around the world. Ive discovered that I can draw comfort from all types of cuisines. Here Ive created a collection of my all-time favorites. Sort of an all youll ever need repertoire of global comfort food. Because its not the geographic origins of the food that matters, its the heart you put into it.

And the book is about making comfort food good for your heart, too. I never count calories or sacrifice flavor. Instead, I boost flavors by using just the right amount of butter (which I love!) and the ideal cooking technique. I say no to nothing. Its all about moderation. For example, I always make sure that both my pan and the oil are hot enough when cooking cornmeal-crusted Southern fried catfish. That way, the cornmeal doesnt soak up the oil, it just gets super crisp in it. My dishes end up being naturally nutritious. My goal is to create the most delicious, comforting dishes possible, but Im also always thinking of ways to lighten ultrarich soul food classics and other soulful hearty favorites. Its a way of bringing out the fresh, natural flavors in great ingredients, but my motivation hits closer to home.

While living abroad, I received a call and found out that my mama was seriously ill. I flew home right away and was relieved to find that her emergency surgery had been a success. Since that experience, Im constantly tinkering with dishes to make them lighter, healthier for Mama. Even when I started my first professional cooking company, delivering lunches using a retired mail truck and sheer grit in getting my food out through rain, sleet, and snow, I was providing options far superior to the surrounding fast foods, both in flavor and nutrition. With my company, The Lunch Basket (which I later renamed The Lunch Bunch), I became the lunch lady of Kennedy Street in Washington, D.C., a primarily African American neighborhood with lots of beauty salons, barber shops, florists, and doctors offices.

Even though I didnt realize it at the time, my decision then to not use beef or pork (though some of my recipes here do) came from a desire to show people how tasty food could be without those things. I stuffed my biscuits with lean smoked turkey and put together fresh green salads, seasonal fruit, and rich veggie soups. At the end of the day, Im giving you delicious fresh foodwhole ingredients, lovingly prepared. Im making dishes good for my family, in every sense of the word, and Im here to help you do the same for your family and friends, too.

The act of cooking for and feeding loved ones yummy wholesome food is deeply fulfilling. I didnt completely understand that until I was an adult well into my food career. I went through a heart-wrenching breakup (boyfriend left me for best friendyou know the story), so I poured myself into my lunch business to shield myself from the pain. By cooking for others, I was nurturing them with food, and in turn, felt nurtured myself. I expanded the lunch business into a catering company and called it Alchemy Caterers, because I needed it to change my life, to turn the lead in my hurt into gold. I wanted my food to do the same for others and be a conduit for healing. I dont know exactly what you need right now, but I do know that theres comfort in food. Alchemy is all about transformation, and I want to change the way you experience food by cooking with love.

The only way you can make transformative food, even if its one of the simple dishes in here, is to cook it from the heart. You have to want to do it. If youre not in a good mood and dont feel like cooking, the only thing you should make is a restaurant reservation. And you cant cook with fear. I didnt grow up in the kitchen and I know how it feels to be intimidated by a recipe and be immobilized by that fear. Im here to tell you its okay to mess up! Ill help you avoid screwing up and tell you what to do in case something does go wrong.