Sara Foster - Sara Fosters Southern Kitchen

Copyright 2011 by Sara Foster

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

R ANDOM H OUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Photographs courtesy of Peter Frank Edwards Photography.
Photograph of Sara Foster on courtesy of Quentin Bacon.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Foster, Sara.
[Southern kitchen]
Sara Fosters Southern kitchen / Sara Foster with Tema Larter.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-679-60457-0
1. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. 2. CookerySouthern States. I. Title.
TX715.2.S68F677 2011
641.5975dc22 2010029328
www.atrandom.com

v3.1

Sara Foster has always been the perfect hostesswarm, welcoming, relaxedand I have been a grateful guest for over twenty years at her innovative Fosters Markets in North Carolina, comfortable cafs where you can read a newspaper, write a novel, meet the girls for lunch (hint: choose the famous Tarragon Chicken Salad), conduct a power breakfast (sticky buns will make the meeting go your way), dissect a love affair (chocolate helps), or simply pick up a pan of vegetable lasagna for that last-minute dinner party at your house. I go to Fosters for therapy and community as well as food; theres not much that Saras chicken pot pie cant fix. There was nothing like Fosters until Sara came to townwhoever heard of bruschetta, for Gods sake? Or fennel? Or even wraps? We were pretty provincial. So Ive always thought of Sara herself as very cutting-edge and ultrasophisticated, and have been a bit mystified as to why I feel so much at ease in her aura.

Now, with this wonderful new cookbook, I get it! Sara is coming out of the closeter, the pantry, I guessas a secret Southerner! Well, not exactly secret, when I look back to consider her trademark cheesy grits casserole, those big fluffy biscuits, and the fact that some of her best recipes (like Says Bread Pudding with Bourbon Icing) have come from her mother. But whoever imagined that Sara Foster actually grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, with a pig named Pig, grandparents who owned two country cooking restaurants and, best of all, a big working farm, plus a pitmaster dad and mom who operated a barbecue stand on the Fourth of July and Labor Day? Sara tells all here, in charming narrative stylea very personal approach to cooking and life that is as much fun to read as it is to cook from (which I have been doing, nonstop, ever since I got my hands on this book).

Sara points out that many of these recipes are not even New Southern, theyre actually Old Southern (albeit simplified, faster, and healthier)classic dishes such as pimiento cheese, Brunswick stew, cornbread (yes, she uses sugar), gumbo, hummingbird cake, and boiled custard. Im especially glad to have this last one: in my own family, we always took boiled custard to the sick, and a ham in the case of death. I thought it was the law! The taste of Saras skillet-fried corn (cast-iron skillet required) takes me right back to my own grandmothers Virginia kitchen in the 1950s, eating from the old Blue Willow china at the oilcloth-covered farm table, her window ledge lined with Mason jars containing pickles, vegetables, and fruits glowing like jewels within. Oh yes, Saras back to canning, too, and makes the process so simple that even I can do itso far, Ive put up blueberry preserves and chow-chow.

Saras Know-how boxes and sidebar tips may be the most valuable part of this book, in fact: not only how to can, but also how to do all those other things you think you ought to know how to do but dont. Things youve always been too embarrassed to ask anybody: how to grill a steak, cut a chicken into ten pieces, carve a standing rib roast, make your own mayonnaise, make cracklings, and even deep-fry a turkey and produce your very own wood-smoked barbecued pig in your very own backyard. In fact, Pig: A Food Group All Its Ownis my favorite, as Sara demystifies many of these traditionally sacred processes and uses up every part of the pig but the squeal.

Dedicated to local food and seasonal eating, Saras approach is especially helpful now that most of us have ready access to fresh vegetables at farm stands and farmers markets. We can get them, but what are we going to do with them? Heres a simple yet comprehensive catalog and guide, plus recipes that range from the simplest preparations to traditional dishes such as stewed field peas or that sweet potato casserole, which you just have to have at Thanksgiving, to brand-new ideas like Grilled Peach Salad with Shaved Country Ham and Summer Herbs, Arugula Pesto Snap Beans, and Watermelon-Tomato Salad with Shaved Feta and Handfuls of Mint (this is unbelievably delicious).

Sara is not afraid of intense flavor or innovation. She has gone back to her Tennessee past to produce a vibrant new Southern-style cuisine, rooted in love, family, and memory, yet open to all lifes bounty.

lee smith

AUGUST 5, 2010

introduction
GOOD COOKING, GOOD EATING, AND GOOD LIVING

gOOD COOKING,
GOOD EATING, and
GOOD LIVING

Ive wanted to write a book about Southern food for a long time, but it took me a little while to figure out how to begin. My first three books welcomed readers to my Fosters Market cafs, shared my philosophy on fresh, seasonal eating, and talked about how to make room in busy schedules for good, simple home cooking. Each of my books has been personal, but with this one, I am finally going homeback to Tennessee, to the South, and to the Southern upbringing and regional dishes that first inspired and shaped my love of food.

Even though much of my cooking has Southern roots, I love to mix it up. Im not shy about adding my own twist to classic dishes with ingredients like chipotle chiles, soy sauce, and fresh mozzarella, which my grandmother would say have no business being in Southern food. I also prefer to cook my greens closer to four minutes than four hours, and Im always trying to find ways to cut some of the fat in my everyday, go-to recipes.

But no matter how far I stray in my cooking repertoire, Southern food is my home base. With my Tennessee origins, there was simply no way around it. Southern cooking is and always has been firmly rooted in place, a potent stew of culinary traditions arising from a region both geographical and cultural. Once you have it in your bones, it doesnt matter where you are; in that sense, Southern cooking is a state of mind. Accordingly, my deepest feelings and memories about food are all rooted in Southern traditions: the Friday-night fish fries; the Sunday fried-chicken suppers; the holiday dinners; and the picnics, potlucks, and tailgating parties that I relished as a child and that I continue to look forward to when I visit my family in Tennessee.