Most of my childhood was spent in the Midwest, but I moved to North Carolina when I was 15 and stayed until I was 28. Those formative years yielded a deep appreciation for Southern cuisine, and now that I live on the west coast I often lament the fact that authentic country delicacies are hard to find in my new environment. When California restaurants tackle Southern food, they turn simple fare into (unnecessarily) fancy and overpriced haute cuisine. I don’t like paying exorbitant prices for fried chicken, collard greens and mashed potatoes. I don’t care if it’s all organic and cooked with fancy spices and oils. I just want it to taste real, and I want it to taste good!

Foodbuzz 24×24 offered an opportunity to cook some Southern classics for my San Francisco friends. Some of these friends are just like me: Southern transplants in need of good home cooking. Others are native Californians who don’t know the important difference between grits and polenta. I couldn’t promise that my efforts would be as tasty as an established country grandma’s, but I could guarantee that we’d all have a good time and enjoy food not normally found in a California kitchen. My goal for this meal was to experiment with recipes, ingredients and techniques that were completely new to me. It would have been easier to fall back on my reliable recipes for NC pulled pork, cole slaw and baked beans, but I wanted to reach beyond my comfort zone and try a full repertoire of country classics.

First up: one of the dishes that scared me the most…collard greens. Done well, they’re tender and smoky with a subtle tang. Done poorly, they’re mushy and gritty and gross. I armed myself with a fabulous recipe (from this cookbook), a fabulous flavoring agent (ham hocks, where have you been all my life?!), and a fabulous friend, Leslie, who is ten times the Southern belle I could ever hope to be.

After an hour or two on the stove, that massive pile of collards cooked down in a salty broth filled with dark, tender greens and meat that fell right off the bones of the ham hock. No gritty, mushy collards here; these were nicely flavored with a bit of heat coming from a few teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes.

My second challenge: buttermilk biscuits. I was instantly terrified when my mother (who I consider an expert baker) told me that even her biscuits turn out like hockey pucks. Biscuits, like pie crust, are temperamental, becoming tough and tasteless if you overmix or overhandle the dough. Since my own mother couldn’t weigh in with a great recipe, I consulted a real Southern mama named Valerie, who – according to her daughter – has been making wonderful biscuits for most of her life. The recipe was simple, with self-rising flour, buttermilk, baking powder, and the power combo of butter and Crisco. Mix, roll, cut and bake. Easy, right?

Turns out it’s not that simple. I think I rolled the dough a bit too thin, because these were laughably small. Maybe you can’t tell from this aerial view…

…but this side-by-side comparison with Pillsbury biscuits really shows how tiny mine were. (Yes, I had bake and serve biscuits as a backup. My mama didn’t raise no fool!)

Does size matter? Probably not. These tasted pretty good, and they weren’t hard or tough, so I guess that’s the most important thing. My friends pointed out that two mini biscuits were perfect stackers for a ham sandwich.

After tackling the biscuits and collards, I felt more comfortable with the remaining dishes, which were still outside my comfort zone but not nearly as stressful to make.

Hushpuppies - fried, buttered (or ketchuped) and happily consumed as a pre-dinner appetizer. Rather than making these from scratch, I used a mix imported from Oak Ridge, NC. They were oniony and sweet, just as a hushpuppy should be.

Chicken and dumplings, made the North Carolina way. These are not biscuity dumplings; rather, they’re noodle-like pastry thrown into simmering chicken broth and cooked until tender and puffy. You can add veggies if you wish, but most traditional recipes are a simple combination of broth, chicken and the dumplings themselves. It’s little more than a basic chicken soup, but it still feels special.

Creamed corn, made under the capable hand of my friend Melissa. The combination of sweet, fresh corn with butter and half and half made this dish part vegetable, part dessert. It was absolute heaven and a far cry from any canned version.

Hoppin’ John, a salty combination of field peas, bacon, crushed tomatoes and long grain rice. I made this dish in advance and reheated it before dinner. This dried it out a bit, which was somewhat disappointing, but the flavors were nice.

And to accompany the aforementioned biscuits, a true Southern classic – country ham. You can’t find country ham outside the south, but through the magic of mail order, I procured one for this special occasion. We couldn’t be prouder of our little bundle of pork.

Country ham is distinguished by a strong salty flavor. As my friend Leslie aptly pointed out, some are so salty that they make you hurt. This one was pleasantly mild, but still offered that traditional briney twang. We brought it to room temperature, sliced it and served it as-is, with the option to add it to a  buttered biscuit.

All of the above was washed down with two bonafide Southern beverages: sweet tea, expertly prepared by Leslie…

…and Cheerwine, a cherry soda bottled in Salisbury, NC. Corey recalls a moment in his childhood when he visited family in West Virginia and was shocked to learn that this sweet nectar isn’t widely available outside North Carolina. It’s a true regional beverage, delicious on its own or mixed with a bit of gin, lime and club soda.

No Southern meal is complete without dessert, and our menu included two classics. Banana pudding (made by Melissa using this recipe, but with half the sweetened condensed milk and only 2.5 cups regular milk):

And Red Velvet Cake, made by me using this recipe:

The cake looked impressive – gorgeous color, perfect cream cheese frosting – but the taste was a bit lackluster. Maybe it was still too cold from being in the fridge overnight. Maybe I overbaked it. Maybe red velvet cake just isn’t that awesome. I was bummed about the final product, but instantly felt better after a few bites of Melissa’s banana pudding. That woman may hail from  Vermont, but she does the South proud with her ‘nana puddin!

As we gathered around the table to fill our plates, I was reminded of the thing I love most about Southern meals: they’re all about friends and family coming together to celebrate traditions, new and old. I was  surrounded by friends I’ve known for a long time…

…friends I’ve made since moving to San Francisco…

…and friends who like to randomly recreate scenes from Top Gun.

I’m thankful these friends were willing to sample my Southern experiments and give me valuable feedback on each dish. I’ll continue to tweak them and share the fruits of my labors at future group dinners. I’m not a bonafide country chef, but I’m as close as a Midwestern-Southern-West Coast hybrid can ever hope to be.

*****

If you’re curious about Southern cooking, please look beyond the world of Paula Deen and consider a few of these resources, which helped me create the meal featured in today’s post:

This cookbook is my new Southern foods bible. It’s friendly enough for newbies and experts alike, with a nice collection of recipes from various Southern states. If you’re new to country cuisine, this book provides an excellent introduction (and tasty results).

The chefs behind that cookbook, Matt Lee and Ted Lee, have a wonderful online store filled with Southern staples. I purchased my Cheerwine, hushpuppy mix and field peas there; other goodies include Duke’s mayonnaise, fruit preserves, canned pickled vegetables and true country grits. I was impressed by their selection and their excellent customer service.

Other Southern goodies are available via mail order from A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, NC. Country ham and other NC treats are just a mouse click away.

Of course, you don’t need to mail order anything special to create a delicious Southern meal – many recipes rely on fresh, seasonal vegetables and pantry staples found in most major grocery stores. But it sure is fun to experiment with treats only available below the Mason-Dixon line.

I’m usually wary of recipes that promise huge shortcuts in traditionally labor-intensive dishes. Usually, such dishes are labor intensive because they need a little extra time and effort to  become something spectacular. Risotto is a prime example of this; you stir and stir and stir to release starch and give the dish its trademark creamy consistency. I’ve made traditional risotto recipes in the past and didn’t really mind the long cooking and stirring process, but admittedly, the time commitment prevents me from making it on a regular basis.

Therefore, I was quite intrigued with a recent Cook’s Illustrated article promising an Almost Hands-Free Risotto. The article suggested we can avoid constant stirring by cooking the rice in a covered, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven to ensure slow, even heat. You stir for a few minutes in the beginning and a few more minutes at the end, but the rest of the process is similar to cooking any old rice: you let it simmer until the liquid is absorbed. I had my doubts, but the final product was just as creamy and tasty as any traditional risotto recipe.

I chose to flavor my risotto with chicken and herbs, though you could certainly leave out the meat for a nice vegetarian option. My only complaint – and this is a complaint I have with most risotto recipes – is that I felt the flavor of the wine was a bit strong for my tastes. I don’t know what it is about white wine; I love drinking it by the glass, but it seems too twangy and pungent when it reduces down in a recipe. I’ve used cheap wines, pricey wines, they’re all the same. Corey thought this had a nice wine flavor that wasn’t overpowering, so it’s probably just my weird taste buds. Regardless, this was perfect, easy comfort food that made our Sunday night a little more exciting – and there were tons of leftovers to make Monday lunch less dull than usual.

Easy Risotto with Chicken and Herbs

adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

serves 6 as a main course, more as a side dish

5 c chicken broth

2 c water

1 tbsp olive oil

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves (about 12 ounces each), each cut in half crosswise

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 c Arborio rice

1 c dry white wine (suggested: sauvignon blanc)

2 oz grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp chopped parsley

2 tbsp chopped chives

Bring the broth and water to boil in large stock pot over high heat. Reduce to medium-low and keep liquid at a gentle simmer.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and do not move until golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Turn pieces over and cook opposite side until lightly browned, about 2 minutes more. Add the chicken to the pot of simmering broth and simmer until fully cooked, about 10 to 15 minutes more. Transfer to a large plate and allow the broth to continue to simmer.

Add 2 tbsp of the butter to the Dutch oven used to cook the chicken, setting heat to medium. Add the onion and 3/4 tsp salt and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute more, then add the rice. Stir until the rice is translucent around the edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine to the pan and stir constantly until all liquid is absorbed.

Add 5 cups of the warm broth, bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer until almost all of the broth has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 18 minutes. Stir twice during cooking.

Add an additional ¾ cup warm broth to the risotto, stirring gently until the rice gets creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the parmesan, remove the pot from the heat and cover. Let the risotto stand for 5 minutes. Remove the skin and bones from the cooked chicken and shred or chop the meat into bite-sized pieces.

Uncover the pot and add the chicken, remaining butter, lemon juice, parsley, chives and salt and pepper to taste. If risotto seems too thick, add up to ½ c additional broth.

My mom’s chicken potpie is the stuff of dreams. She takes chicken and veggies, coats them with a layer of gravy, and tops the whole shebang with homemade pie crust. The crust is the key ingredient, but it also makes it a rather labor intensive dish. I could take the easy way out and use store bought crust, but there’s something extra delicious about making a potpie from scratch.

Enter Mark Bittman. His Bitten and Minimalist columns offer a reliable stream of easy, delicious recipes that seem to provide perfect solutions for all of my culinary conundrums. In a recent column, Bittman agreed with my assessment that traditional crust-topped potpies are delicious, but a little too time consuming for most home cooks. His solution is a quick stovetop filling topped with a simple biscuit dough. It’s still made from scratch – no Bisquick here! – and tastes almost as good as my mom’s pie crust version. The biscuit dough has enough butter to make it rich and flaky, but it’s not overpowering or greasy. Buttermilk adds some additional tenderness and flavor. It bakes to a nice golden brown and adds a nice crunch on top of the filling, which includes diced chicken, leeks, carrots, mushrooms and peas. (I added celery, too, because it just seems necessary to me.)

This was ridiculously easy to prepare, yet tasted like something I’d order in a restaurant. You can vary the fillings – swap white meat for dark, or leave it out altogether and make it a veggie potpie. Except for the addition of celery, I didn’t alter the recipe one bit. Head on over to Bittman’s blog to check it out. Let’s just hope Mom doesn’t read this and see how easy it is…I’m expecting her fully loaded pie crust version when I visit her in May!

Here’s a fun fact about me: I once appeared on a short-lived Food Network show called Calorie Commando. If you never saw it, the premise was simple: “real people” worked with the Calorie Commando, Juan Carlos Cruz, to come up with healthier versions of their favorite gluttonous foods. To be honest, I applied for the show because I really wanted to visit the Food Network studios. I had to pay my own travel expenses, but I spent a day in their studios and saw lots of cool behind-the-scenes stuff. (Example: you know how some of the chefs use canned/packaged goods with obviously fake labels so they don’t show any major brand names? There was a graphic designer on set whose sole job was to design those labels. I want that job!) Anyway, the point of this story is that I went on the show to have Juan Carlos Cruz revamp my favorite fatty food: nachos. This is the recipe he came up with, and to be honest, it was pretty sub-par. Juan Carlos did not successfully take command of my calories that day, but it was a fun experience – one I think about every time a nacho craving hits.

I had such a craving last weekend, but wanted something more substantial than chips smothered in cheese. I whipped up an easy, tasty casserole with the flavor of nachos and the hearty texture of enchiladas. (Nacholadas, if you will?)  It would be easy to adapt this to suit your tastes (baked chips instead of regular? all beans instead of beans and meat? red sauce instead of green?) and you can garnish it with an array of tasty toppings, though I strongly suggest sour cream, black olives and scallions.

“Nacholada” Casserole

serves 6

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 6 to 8 oz each

50 tortilla chips (roughly 1/3 of a bag – this is an estimate based on the size of my pan)

1 can refried beans (I use vegetarian)

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 oz can diced green chiles

14 oz can green enchilada sauce

1 jalapeno, sliced (optional – see below)

6 oz colby jack cheese, shredded

Black olives, sour cream and chopped scallions, for serving

Fill a saucepan 3/4 full with water and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken and poach, keeping the water at a simmer, until cooked through. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken; check after 10 minutes. Allow the chicken to cool, then shred using two forks or your fingers.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray the pan with cooking spray or oil. Add the onion and saute until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, one minute more. Add the refried beans and green chiles to the pan, using a wooden spoon or spatula to break up any large chunks. If necessary, add a couple of tablespoons of water or chicken stock to thin the beans out a bit – you want them to be smooth and creamy. Heat the beans for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. When hot, add 1/4 of the can of enchilada sauce and stir to combine.

Spread half of the tortilla chips in the bottom of an 11×7″ casserole dish. You may wish to lightly press/crush some of the chips to produce an even layer, but leave as many whole chips as you can. Top the chips with the shredded chicken, followed by roughly half of the shredded cheese, the refried bean mixture, and half of the remaining enchilada sauce. Top with the remaining tortilla chips (press/crush to produce an even layer), followed by the remaining enchilada sauce and the remaining shredded cheese. Add a layer of sliced jalapenos to the top of the casserole, if desired. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is melted. Allow to sit for a few minutes before slicing. Top each slice with black olives, sour cream and scallions.

Remember when I outed myself as a Rachael Ray fan? Nowadays, I find most of her recipes by accident as I search the Food Network website for ideas. I happened upon this recipe for Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce and both Corey and I found it so delicious, we made it twice in a three-day period. It’s rich without being too fatty, creamy without being too heavy. Plus, it embodies everything I love about a good RR recipe: it’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s adaptable to whatever ingredients you have in your fridge and pantry. That last part is especially important for me, as I always seem to be missing one or two key ingredients.

The first night I made this, we had it over rice and it tasted like a delicious, creamy casserole. The second time around, we had it over mashed potatoes and it tasted decidedly Thanksgiving-ish. Both meals were super fast since I used precooked chicken (leftover from a store-bought rotisserie) instead of starting with raw meat. 15 minute meal, Rachael…can you beat that?

Chicken with Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce

adapted from Rachael Ray

serves 2

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 small onion, diced

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp dried thyme

salt and pepper, to taste

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp half & half

1 tbsp flour

3/4 c chicken stock

8 oz cooked chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces

Heat the butter in a large skillet set to medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the sliced mushrooms. As the mushrooms begin to brown and release liquid, add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste.

When the mushrooms are golden brown, add the garlic and saute 1 minute more. Add the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables, and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock, using a wood spoon or spatula to scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Whisk in the balsamic vinegar and half and half. Bring the sauce to a low simmer and add the chopped chicken. Cook until chicken is heated through and sauce is slightly thick, 3 to 4 minutes more. Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or couscous.