Hey y’all! How
ya doing? Yet again I must apologise for how late this post is, I know it is
becoming something of a habit lately but I had two VERY good reasons for not
getting it out to all of you in November... firstly, I have been away on a super
fun trip to St Andrews to be reunited with my amazing university friends, we
had such a good time. Please can I go back to being a student? Secondly, I
have moved on from the world of funemployment and got myself a job! Woopwoop!!
All these
activities haven’t left much time for blogging but thankfully I did manage to
whip up some Southern delicacies with mixed success... let me just warn you now
that there was almost the need for a fire blanket which was tricky seeing as
though we don’t have one... note to self, buy fire blanket!
Now this blog
post is best served with a side of Country music, it’s not the South without Country!!
So go ahead and pop on some classic Dolly Parton or something newer like Lady
Antebellum and tuck in.
Meatloaf
Have you ever
had meatloaf? I haven’t but it is great! It takes a bit like a squidgy burger
which may not sound very appetising but believe me it really is tasty. I really
should have chopped the onions finely instead of my usual rough, haphazard fashion
but other than that I thought it was good. The texture might not be to everyone's taste but it is definitely worth a go.
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| Don't let the texture put you off, it is super tasty! |
Pulled Pork
I seriously
love pulled pork and anything done in the slow cooker gets my vote because it
is just so easy! It is also unbelievably satisfying to come home from work to
find your tasty dinner is ready and practically on the table waiting for you.
Like many other slow cooker dishes I’ve made, the seasoning needs to be ramped
up a notch (I doubled all the spices) and I did add the BBQ sauce. The only
thing that gets me a bit about pulled pork is that it goes cold quickly once
you have shredded the meat but all the more reason to eat it as quick as
possible!
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| I can't get enough of this pulled pork! |
Southern Fried Chicken
Well folks,
this is a contender for biggest cooking disaster of the year! It is of course
up against the Arabic
Bread disaster in bite four which was spectacular but that one didn’t involve
us looking around to see if we had a fire extinguisher in the house while smoke
billowed from the pan and the smoke alarm chirped!
Needless to
say folks this was not a culinary triumph. Dave was kindly helping me with this
dish because we were having 10 people over for lunch and I was making lots of
other Southern dishes at the same time. We didn’t have a thermometer for the
pan and I stupidly suggested me need to get the oil really hot first then turn
it down before we could fry the chicken... this was a mistake! The oil did not
cool down at all and when we started putting the chicken pieces in the oil bubbled
ferociously and the chicken turned black. There was a genuine moment of panic
as the smoke started to pour out of the pan. I quickly ushered our friends from
the kitchen, and when I turned back round I found Dave looking frankly terrified!! So we quickly rushed the pan outside and left it to cool
down on the patio for several hours.
Needless to say we did not serve fried
chicken for that lunch and as much as I enjoy eating it I will NEVER be serving
it for breakfast, lunch or dinner! I am sure that if we had a thermometer or
even a mini deep fat fryer then the chicken could have been delicious but I don’t
think mine or Dave’s nerves could handle another try!
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| It should have looked something like this... It DID NOT! The results were too awful to photograph! |
Fried pickles
I never got
close to making these after the fried chicken disaster but I’m sure they are
delicious! Please feel free to try them out but only if you have a fire blanket
and the emergency services on speed dial.
Peach cobbler
Cobbler is
sort of the American equivalent of crumble but it is more cakey in consistency.
Peaches are a classic southern fruit, sweet, juicy and the state fruit of
Georgia, where I lived for a year. I chose this recipe because it is
quintessentially southern and it is by the iconic southern chef Paula Deen. She
is known for using as many high fat, artery clogging ingredients as possible in
her recipes and this one is no exception. It should be noted that while I love
Paula and her recipes she does now have Type 2 Diabetes so I wouldn’t encourage
you to eat her dishes too often. The cobbler was soooooo easy to make and it
was a real crowd pleaser with our lunch guests. Dave loved it so much he
requested it as his birthday cake!
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| Cobbler, Hummingbird Cake and Biscuits... mmmm delicious! |
Hummingbird cake
Despite my
love of all things cake related I had never actually tried Hummingbird cake
before but as I was reliably informed that it was commonplace in the South
(thank you Wikipedia!) then I thought I would give it a go. It was really
tasty, sort of tropical and spicy, it reminded me of Caribbean food. The cake itself
is quite dense and the cake to icing ratio was a little light on the icing
front but otherwise it was tasty. Remember that the three layers make it a
HUGE cake so invite plenty of friends over before you make it.
Biscuits
My favourite
restaurant from my time living in Atlanta is the Flying Biscuit. It is a
quirky, eclectic little place which serves up an amazing variety of
breakfast/brunch items all day every day. Mmm my mouth is watering just
thinking about it. They are famous for miles around for their light, fluffy,
cloud like biscuits. Oh before we go any further I should just explain that I
am not talking about a hob-nob, digestive type biscuit here. American biscuits are like a slightly savoury
(but still quite sweet) version of a scone. They are served as a savoury on the
side of main dishes, a bit like a bread roll.
I used the recipe from the Flying
Biscuit cookbook hoping to try and recreate their little clouds of yumminess and
while they were great they lacked something... I can’t quite put my finger on
it... I think they must sprinkle some southern flying magic powder on them
before they bake them!
Ingredients
- 3 cups
all-purpose flour (plain flour to you and me)
- 1 tbsp double
acting baking powder (I couldn’t find out if this is
different to our usual baking powder so I just put in a bit more baking
powder, maybe one of my American friends can help me out??)
- ¾ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp granulated sugar, divided
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups of light
cream (Again I couldn’t be sure exactly what the equivalent
for this is so I just used single cream)
- 1/3 cup
half-and-half (I also used single cream for
this)
Method
1)
Preheat
the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line a baking tray with baking
paper.
2)
Combine
flour, baking powder, salt, and 3 tbsp of sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cut
butter into bits and add to flour. Using your hands work the butter into the
dry ingredients – don’t hold back! I suggest closing your eyes, turning the
music up, and enjoying the texture of the flour mixing with butter. Mix until butter
is the size of small peas.
3)
Max
a well in the centre of the flour and then pour in the light cream. Stir the
dry ingredients into the wet by using your hand in a circular fashion, knocking
the flour mixture into the liquid. Stir just until dough comes together in a
sticky ball.
4)
Turn
the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead three times. Do not overwork
the dough. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness
of 1 inch. The correct thickness is the key to making your biscuits fly (maybe this is
where I went wrong, I don’t think my biscuits were able to fly anywhere).
5)
Dip
a 2 ½ inch diameter cutter in flour and then cut the dough. Repeat until all
the dough has been cut. Do not twist the cutter – apply pressure straight down
then pull back evenly.
6)
Place
the biscuits on the baking tray leaving about ¼ inch between them. Brush the
tops of the biscuits with half-and-half and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake
for 20-23 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown on top and flaky in the
centre.
So just like
the Deep South this bite of the Delicious Dozen has been sweet, often hot and
sometimes smoky but overall delicious! I do not want to repeat the anxiety
inducing fried chicken incident but Southern foods will definitely be part of
my repertoire from now on. If nothing else if gives me the excuse to turn up
the Country music and dance around the kitchen!!
The final
bite of the Delicious Dozen and the end of this year’s challenge is upon me! Gosh
where has the year gone?? But I have saved one of my fave cuisines for
last... Mexican! Roll on the guacamole and margaritas!!
Happy eating
(and dancing round the kitchen) xx Linds xx
P.S On a totally unrelated food subject I learnt an AMAZING tip this month that I MUST share. Do you ever buy expensive bags of salad leaves that go soggy really quickly? Well my friends you will have never have a soggy salad again because if you line a Tupperware box with kitchen roll and then pop your salad in there with the lid on nice and tight then the leaves stay crunchy and delicious for weeks!
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