September 2008

I guess the crabs wereпїЅmostly for Nancy. I swear sheпїЅloves them more than anyoneпїЅI’ve ever known!пїЅHereпїЅs some of what I wrote in HoppinпїЅ JohnпїЅs Lowcountry Cooking:

Atlantic Blue Crabs:

Last night I cooked for seven, one of the most delightful groups I’ve entertained in quite a while. We began with a simple shrimp consomm? and followed it with Chicken Country Captain,пїЅthe classic one-pot curry dish from northern India that every southern seaport town claims as its own. A tomato-based curry enlivened with exotic spices, it’s at its best when you make your own curry mix, per the recipe. Served over steaming Basmati rice cooked in chicken broth and garnished with toasted almonds and freshly chopped parsley, the dish is served with a host of condiments — pear chutney (the recipe appeared here on December 17), roasted peanuts, freshly grated coconut, dilly beans (see July 11), and homemade caponata. We finished off the dinner with chocolate pots de cr?mes spiked with a little szechuan pepper, then, in lieu of coffee, tasted some of the more unusual items in our liquor cabinet, including my homemade Cherry Bounce, 10-year-old rum from Barbados, the delightful St. Germain liqueur made from elderflowers, and, the most surprising, N.V. Vi?edo de los Vientos Alcyone Licor de Tannat.пїЅThis fortified red wine from Uruguay is made from the tannat grape of Southwest France, now the “national” grape of Uruguay.пїЅAlcyone’s haunting aroma was hard to pin down — at first we caught hints of vanilla and almonds, but later it actually tasted of overripe grapes and black cherries. I’ve stoppered it well and placed it in the fridge and look forward to tasting it on its own after a hearty meal. It had the complexities of an old port but none of the heaviness.

P.S. The New York Times ran an idiotic article on Chicken Country Captain. To read my rant about it, go to January 27, 2009.

Shrimp Consomm? from Hoppin’ John’s Charleston, Beaufort & SavannahпїЅPhoto by Kelly Bugden from the book

 

For the stock:

1пїЅpound extremely fresh heads-on shrimp orпїЅ1/2 pound shrimp plus 1/2пїЅ

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ pound lobster,пїЅcrab, or crawfish shells

1 carrot

1 celery rib

aпїЅfew fresh herbs such as thyme, parsley, basil,пїЅoregano, and savory

1 small onion, unpeeled and halved

1 1/2 quarts water

 

For the consomm?:

1 small hot pepper such as a jalape?o, seeded andпїЅthinly sliced, to taste

aпїЅ1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

1 small carrot, peeled and finely julienned

2 to 3 scallions, cut both in slivers and slices

Salt and/or oriental fish sauce, to taste

Cilantro leaves

To make the stock, remove the heads and shells from the shrimp, dropping them into a nonreactive stockpot. Cover the shrimp well and place in the refrigerator.пїЅAdd the rest of the ingredients to the pot and cook at a low boil, uncovered, for about 45 minutes, skimming any scum that rises to the surface. The liquid should have reduced by a third. Strain out the solids and discard.

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To make the consomm?, warm the stock over medium heat, adding the reserved shrimp, the pepper, ginger, carrot, and scallions. Do not allow to boil. Remove from the heat when the shrimp are just shy of being cooked, no more than 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt or fish sauce, then divide among 4 warmed bowls. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

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Pots de Cr?me with Szechuan Pepper

 

Mikel and I are rarely formal in any facet of our lives, but we have inherited some lovely items from our mothers, including these prissy little Limoges pots-au-cr?me, demitasse spoonsпїЅfrom around the world, and gorgeous hemstitched linens. Little chocolate custards are always welcomed as dessert, and they’re very easy to prepare. My friend Tom Sietsema, the restaurant critic of the Washington Post, was recently in China and brought us some Szechuan peppercorns, which create a numbing sensation, not a hot one.

 

I made the pots-de-cr?me as follows, except that I ground a 1/4 teaspoon of the Szechuan peppercorns and added them to the cream and chocolate, then strained it out before mixing the chocolate mixture with the eggs.

 

These are so simple and delicious! And, by the way, the pots themselves are called pots-au-cr?me; the dish itself is called pot-de-cr?me. This recipe will fill 8 of these special little pots. You can use custard cups with makeshift lids of aluminum foil, but they are a bit larger, so you’ll only need 6 of them.

 

 

Use the best chocolate you can find, with at least 70% cacao. And feel free to experiment with flavors, the way I did. Orange peel, vanilla, other liqueurs, and other savory flavors work well with chocolate.

 

1 pint heavy cream

8 ounces dark, bittersweet, or semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces

6 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs plus 3 yolks

2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur, such as Kahlua

Preheat the oven to 350^o and set a pot of water to boil. Melt the chocolate in the cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and stir in. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks together until just blended, then pour in the chocolate and cream, stirring constantly until well blended.пїЅ Stir in the coffee flavored liqueur. Now fill the cups, pouring slowly and carefully, and with a demitasse spoon, remove any little bubbles on the surface of the custard. Place the lids on the pots or cover each custard cup tightly with aluminum foil. Set the cups in a baking pan and pour the boiling water about three-fourths of the way up the sides of the pots. Bake for about 20 minutes. Do not let the water come to a boil.

Most recipes say that the custards are done when a silver knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, but they will be too tough if you allow them to cook that much. I remove them from the oven and leave them in the water bath until they are cooled, thenпїЅchill them. I take them out of the refrigerator an hour or so before serving themпїЅin the pots with freshly brewed hot coffee.

Makes 6-10 desserts, depending on the size of the pots.

 

I went back out to Ayrshire Farm on Monday to taste lamb from 9 heritage breeds of sheep. The tasting was co-sponsored by the farm (where they do not raise lamb),пїЅ American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Humane Farm Animal Care, and Slow Food USAпїЅ with the help of the Virginia Organic Producers and Consumers Association. The ALBC is one of my favorite nonprofits. It works to protect over 150 breeds of livestock and poultry from extinction. Their site is a fount of information whence came much of the following information.

Like pork, lamb is not graded. Like veal and young pork, lamb — an immature male or female sheep between weaning and one year of age –пїЅhas much finer marbling, in much smaller quantities, than the mature animals have. In January on Barbados, I tasted the ultra-mild Barbados Blackbelly Sheep, which has evolved to have little hair or fat, which it obviously doesn’t need in the tropics. The lamb has none of the classic lanolin smell or flavor because it barely has any of that fat.

In America, no native sheep has ever been domesticated, despite being genetically quite similar to American domestic sheep. The earliest documented domestic breed of sheep is the Navajo-Churro imported by the Spanish Conquistadores. It is possible that Columbus had them with him on his 1493 voyage. British sheep arrived in America in 1609, and the first American woolen mill was built in Watertown, Massachusettes in 1662. For over a century, all children in the Massachusetts colony were required to learn how to process wool, so vital were sheep to their economy. Though lamb is no longer common on the American table and the American wool industry has all but disappeared, the low cost of raising sheep has saved them from the vertical integration of the hog and cattle industries, and hence from factory farming.

In other countries, sheep farming is is far more common. China has more sheep than any other country, followed by Australia. New Zealand has made a national economy out of the furry beasts, where the sheep (45 million) to human (4.1 million) ratio is highest.

In addition to the 9 rare breeds, we also tastedпїЅcommercial Australian lamb. It was quite good, I thought, ranking among the better tasting ones. The tasting, though blind, was not a scientific one. The sponsors wanted to educate the participants — food writers, chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, and everyday consumers — about the broad range of flavor and texture that these heritage breeds comprise. The lamb was all roasted plain, cut up into bite-size pieces, and put in numbered chafing dishes. We tastedпїЅlittle bites on toothpicks, also numbered. We were to rate flavor, texture, appearance (I added fragrance to the criteria for “appearance”), from 1 to 6 (1 being the lowest), then tally our figures.

After everyone has tasted all the lamb, the organizers asked us for a show of hands to see who preferred #1, #2, #3, etc. Only after a “winner” was chosen were we told the breeds.пїЅThe breed that I found the most flavorful, very fragrant, and with the best texture (though one piece I tried was overcooked) was also the crowd favorite, the Santa Cruz, an American breed designated as being in “critical” status. It’s from Santa Cruz Island, California, possibly introduced there in the early 19th Century. No one chose the Hog Island as his favorite, and the way the votes were tallied, it was ranked dead last. But in fact the Virginia sheep, long feral, was actually rated second only to the Santa Cruz, if you tally everyone’s numbers and take an average. I found it to be the most fragrant.

But it was really hard to judge the little bites against each other. What cut of meat were we eating? How close to the bone was each little cube, the size of a die? Some pieces were overcooked; some were bloody rare.

Never mind, though: they were nearly all delicious. My least favorite was the Navajo-Churro, but I was possibly simply turned off by its pale color,пїЅnot looking at all like any lamb I’ve eaten before. And the Gulf Coast breed from the American Southeast I found to have an odd, and bitter, aftertaste, but perhaps I had a morsel that had been next to a bundle of herbs, or near a pocket of fat

After the tasting, they fed us — imagine! — lamb sandwiches. In the photo are some of the tasters relaxingпїЅover lunch on the rear verandah of the estate.

Other breeds tasted were:

St. Croix, from the Virgin Islands

Tunis, an American breed developed from sheep from Tunisia other fat-tailed African breeds

Jacob, closely related toпїЅthe 17th-Century English breed, though the American is now considered separate

Katahdin, from Maine

Leicester Longwool — another 17th-Century breed

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ from Leicestershire, England

You can click on the highlightedпїЅbreedsпїЅto read more about them, and you can find sheep farmers in your area through the ALBC. Many thanks to Marjorie Bender of the ALBC for correcting some of my information here. You can read her comments on the Readers’ Comments page. (Thanks, Marjie!)

Kieffer pears are too hard to eat out of hand, but they are delicious when cooked. Most often, they are put into relishes such as this one, to be served alongside vegetables and meats.пїЅIt’s delicious with grilled sausage.

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1 tablespoon mustard seeds

1 tablespoon whole cloves

3 sticks cinnamon

1 tablespoonпїЅground turmericпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

1 peck Kieffer pears (1/4 bushel or 8 quarts), peeled,пїЅseeded and chopped (or other hard, underripe pears)

5 medium to large onions

6 medium bell peppers, 3 red and 3 green, or an equivalent amount of other mild peppers

2 fresh red cayenne peppers or one whole dried one, or a couple of jalape?os

3 cups sugar

1пїЅquartпїЅvinegar

1 tablespoon pure salt

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Grind the mustard, cloves, and cinnamon finely together, add to the turmeric, and set aside. Thoroughly grind the pears, onions, and peppers in a meat grinder or a food processor. Add to a large, nonreactive, heavy pot.пїЅAdd the spices and remaining ingredients and boilпїЅfor about an hour. Ladle the relishпїЅinto sterilized jars and seal.пїЅProcess in a boiling water for bath for 20 minutes.

Makes about 9 pints.

I’ve been cooking lots of Greek and Mediterranean dishes lately, including the grilled octopus pictured here. You can buy already cleaned octopi, but whatever you buy, be sure to buy very small ones or you’ll have to parboil them. The octopi you buy should also be Octopus vulgaris, the common (true)пїЅoctopus of both the Atlantic and the Mediterrean. There is a twin row of suckers along each tentacle of this species and its body is distinctively purplish. If the octopi have been frozen, then they also probably will have also already been cleaned, but cleaning them is a snap: turn the head insideпїЅout (you may have to make a small slit in the muscles that hold theпїЅinnards together), and remove the beak, eyes, and interior organs. Turn the head back right side out.

When I lived in Italy, we used to catch octopi by using a cane pole with a five-pronged hook lashed to the tip. On the hook, we attached a piece of white cloth — a rag, an old handerchief — and then jimmied the pole down between the rocks along the shore of the Cinqueterre. Attracted to the white, an octopusпїЅwould stretch out a tentacle and pull the white cloth and the end of the pole under a rock, out of sight. We’d wait a moment for the octopus to wrap its body around the end of the pole, then jerk the pole up, to set the hooks. Quickly we would then pull the pole up out of the water and slam the octopus down on the rocks to kill it. We would then unhook it and continue to bang it against the rock to tenderize it. We would then poach the octopus until tender, then serve it either warm with a tomato/basil sauce or cold in a classic dressing of olive oil, garlic, and fresh herbs, seasoned to taste with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

With these “baby” octopi, no pounding or parboiling is necessary, but you will need to marinate them for at least 24 hours. The octopi in the photo were 12 in number, a pound in weight — enough for 4 people as part of antipasti. I placed a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and fresh oregano from my garden in a plastic freezer bag and added the octopi, massaging it well every time I opened the refrigerator. When ready to grill, I used the gas grill with soaked hickory chips in a little distiller of aluminum foil added to the grill. I grilled then covered, over a medium-hot smoky fire for about 4 minutes on each side. Yum!

After the Greek meze, I grilled skin-on dolphin filets and served them with the yogurt baste (nonfat yogurt, minced garlic, lemon juice and zest) to which I added salted and drained cucumbers. The 1-/12″ fillets I seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled over a medium hot flame for about 4 minutes skin side down, coating it heavily with the yogurt while grilling. I then flipped them and grilled them for another 3 to 4 minutes and served them with fresh okra and crowder peas, with a little pepper relish alongside the beans (the recipe for the relish appeared on the March 24, 2008 blog).

I’ve been busy the past few days. On Sunday I gave speechпїЅon the culinary history of the Lowcountry to the Culinary Historians of WashingtonпїЅand yesterday I attended another tasting of heritage breeds (this time, lamb) at beautiful Ayrshire Farm out in Loudon County. I wrote about tasting turkeys at Ayrshire back in February, and will write about the lamb soon. But, for now, I have Kieffer pears and peppers to can!

Yesterday when I made a scuppernong pie (see recipe, below), I had some extra pie dough. I had a fresh, ripe pineapple, so I skinned it and cut it into 12 vertical pieces, sliced off the tough core, and tucked a piece into the leftover dough and baked it alongside the pie. We had it with a dollop of ice cream and it was delicious. Later in the day I was talking to my friend Bill Hughes in Owensboro, Kentucky, and he told me that he has been putting ripe peaches, pit and all, inside pie dough this summer. It’s an easy way to conjure an exotic dessert if you don’t have a lot of time:пїЅ just buy some gorgeous ripe fruit and the best vanilla ice cream you can find. You can even buy ready-to-use pie crusts: just be sure to get the ones made with lard, preferably non-hydrogenated. Cook’s Illustrated conducted a taste test of store-bought crusts that they have posted on their site, but I seldom agree with their findings or their palates. Obviously, store-bought won’t taste like homemade, but most folks just don’t know the difference, if truth be told.

Today is the birthday of two of my favorite people on earth: Dana DownsпїЅand Lucille Grant. Lucille, now in her seventies, is the granddaughter of a slave, raised on the water in the South Carolina lowcountry near Awendaw, north of Charleston. Lucille taught me so much about the traditional foods of the area, and I will always be thankful for her generosity, her kindness, and for sharing her vast knowledge and wisdom. Here’s to you, Ladies!

Today is our dear friend Chuck Dalby’s birthday and he and his partner Bruce Rashbaum will be coming over for dinner tonight (his choice: fried chicken, garlic mashed pototoes with gravy, collards, and cornbread). We’ll begin with prosciutto served with melons from their garden on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Mikel and I started the heirloom seeds here in Washington and transplanted the seedlings there. In the photo, the melons, which Chuck brought by yesterday, along with some heirloom tomaotes,пїЅare, clockwise from top left: Green Flesh Honeydew,пїЅ the hearty standard bearer for Honeydews, yielding 6 pound fruits with very sweet flesh;пїЅYellow Canary, a popular European variety with a musky aroma; and the luscious Casaba Golden Beauty, bright golden orange in color and fragrant and spicyпїЅwhen ripe.

I’ll make some of the scuppernong and muscadine dishes below as well.

It’s pouring rain, the tail end of Hurricane Hanna. I’m so glad that the hurricanes have thus far been relatively harmless. I know all about losing one’s home and business to a storm. And we need the rain. Perhaps not the 7 inches they are predicting, but still.

I went to the big old DC Farmers Market yesterday to look for small chickens, native American grapes, and crowder peas. This is the only place in town where I’ve been able to find the grapes and “peas.” No luck on the chicken, but I did find the crowders andпїЅboth scuppernongs and muscadines (pictured in the basket to the left).

Native American Grapes (some of the following was first published in Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking):

The summer after my grandfather died, whenпїЅ I was twelve, I went to spend some time with my grandmother, who lived 600 miles from the Lowcountry in South Carolina where we were living at the time. I learned more about food in those few weeks than I would learn in many years to come. It was Grandma’s approach to living more than her recipes, however, that so influenced me, and I am forever grateful for that one time alone with a real homemaker and her garden. There was much solace for her in her daily chores, and I,пїЅtoo, learned to enjoy hanging clothesпїЅ on the line, watching for cracks in the soil around the potato plants, and drying apples in theпїЅsun.

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We removed all the window screens from her house, scrubbed and hosed them clean, and set them in the sun to dry. We then gathered green summer apples from the trees that bordered the garden, and she showed me how to pare, core, and slice them. We placed the slices on the screens which were stacked on concrete blocks in the sun. Every night we carried them into the garage, away from the dew, thenпїЅ back out into the sun each day until, after about a week, the apple slices were perfectly — and naturally — dried. But the real treat of the summer came when the grapes were ripe.

More species of Vitis, the grapevine, grow wild in the United States than in all the rest of the world combined. And second to apples, grapes are our most widely cultivated fruit. At Grandma’s, there were both wild muscadines trailing up over the trees beyond her property, and cultivated American concords, whose flavor is what most Americans think of as “grape,” and wine connoisseurs, as “foxy.” The muscadines,пїЅ which grow only in the Deep South, are the sweetest of the American native varieties. They grow in bunches, not clusters, on vines which often climb into the highest reaches of hardwood forests. On our recent trip South for Mikel’s father’s funeral, we stopped in Kenley, North Carolina, for barbecue. I walked the dog out behind the barbecue restaurant, and picked wild, sweet purple muscadines from vines that rambled over the wood’s edge.

On the borderпїЅof the woods beyond my grandmother’s garden, vines of wild purple muscadines and tawny scuppernongs — each a variety of native vitis rotundifolia — could be found trailing up into the trees, entwined with reddish catawbas, a variety of vitis labrusca, which proabaly escaped from 19th century cultivation there. We would spread old sheets beneath the vines to catch falling grapes as we pulled vines down through the limbs. We didn’t worry that the birds left us but a few grapes, because her concords were trained along the fence and on an arbor.

Making grape preserves that summer with my grandmother remains one of my favorite memories, and I look forward each year to the however brief season, which varies from state to state, when I can buy these native American “slip-skin” grapes in farmers’ markets and roadsideпїЅ stands. Basic to my grandmother’s ideology was “waste not, want not.” She would be proud that I know wonderful uses for those vines we would pull down, and for the grape leaves as well.

Early English accounts of the Carolina coast speak of the vines so fragrant that they were smelled days before the boats reached land. Nowadays, agricultural spraying that coincides with the vines’ blooming oftenпїЅ prevents the fruit from setting. Fortunately, in the Lowcountry, both scuppernongs and muscadines have taken well to cultivation, and are widely available during the season in late August and early September. A delightful sweet muscadine wine is made from the grape. It is naturally fermented, but has an alcohol content of about 13%, more like the fortified wines and spirits generally served as ap?ritifs (though today 13, 14, and 15% are not uncommon in table wines! See the entry on wines, below, at September 3).

 

Greeks were among the earliest of the settlers in the Lowcountry, and many culinary traditions thought of as purely Southern — such as watermelon rind preserves —пїЅ have long histories in the Mediterranean, whence they came. Charleston‘s Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society first published its excellent POPULAR GREEK RECIPES in 1957, including instructions for canning grapevine leaves. Leaves are best gathered in the spring and early summer, when they are large and bright green. The fruits mature in late summer. Then, in the fall, just as the leaves begin to drop, vines can be pulled down — while they are still somewhat green and flexible — for use in wreaths or cut into foot-long twigs for grilling. If there’s a hunter in your family, have him bring home some vines when he’s out in the woods in the fall. The bright yellow and red leaves are unmistakable.

The English had embraced all sorts of pickling and preserving ideas from the Orient when Charleston was settled. Spiced grapes is a typical condiment. In India, the seedsпїЅ of grapes are often ground into chutneys, but the seeds of our native slip-skin varieties are far too bitter for the American palate. If you do not live in the Lowcountry, try any slip-skin variety available in your area. Concords are delicious in these recipes, but as they are sweeter than scuppernongs, you may wish to add a bit of lemon peel and juice to the recipes, and to reduce the sugar.

Preserved Grapevine Leaves

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Gather 50 to 75 leaves in early summer when they are still tender. Wash them well and stack them in piles of ten leaves per pile. Roll each little pile of leaves into a cigar shape. Add 1/2 cup of salt to 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Add the rolls of leaves to the brine, turn off the heat, and, using tongs, place the rolls into a sterlilized wide-mouth pint jar, packing it tightly. Pour the brine in to fill the jar 1/4 inch from the rim. Seal. When ready for use, remove a roll of leaves, unrollпїЅ it, and place in a bowl of warm water for easy handling. Rinse each leaf well before using. If you find that your leaves are too tough, simmer them for ten minutes in water. After opening, store the jar in the refigerator. Use for Dolmades (see below).

Spiced Grapes

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The recipe for spiced grapes which appears in CHARLESTON RECEIPTS is found throughout the South in cookbooks which antedate the Lowcountry classic. The tradition of serving spiced fruits with meats, in fact, goes back to Medieval England,пїЅ with its spiced barberries. Without the cranberries of northern bogs, it is far more likely that early Charleston settlers served local grapes with their fall harvest feasts of venison and wild fowl. I make spiced grapes in much smaller batches than called for in the older recipes, reducing the sugar and spice and adding some onion and lemon juice and rind.

2 pounds slip-skin grapes

1 teaspoon Quatre-?pices (see January 2007)

3/4 cup vinegar

1/2 pound sugar

1 onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)

the grated rind and juice of a lemon

Remove any stems of the grapes, then pulp them by squeezing them with the stem end pointed down into a saucepan. The pulp of the fruit will pop out. Set the skins aside. Add the spices and the vinegar to the pot and cook over medium heat until the seeds loosen, about five or ten minutes. Pass the mixture through a colander to remove the seeds, then return the vinegar and pulp mixture to the pot. Add the skins and the chopped onion and bring to a boil, then add the sugar and continue to cook until thick. Put the spiced grapes in a sterilized jar and seal.

Yields approximately 1 pint.

Grape Preserves

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Many cookery books tell us that grapes do not have enough pectin to jell, but this is simply not true of the native slip-skin varieties. If you follow a few simple guidelines, jelly-making is both easy and a sure success. First, don’t try to make big batches of jelly, and second, be sure to include the skins (where the pectin is) or at least one fourth of the volume in green,пїЅ unripe fruit. There is really no mystique to jelly-making at all, just a bit of patience. The jelly test is described in innumerable cookbooks — and none of them can replace experience. Quite simply, the jellying point is reached when the jelly spills off a spoon in a sheet rather than drops. You also may test your kitchen thermometer to see at exactly what temperature water boils, then take the jelly to exactly 8 degrees over that temperature. If you remove your fruit from the fire before it has jelled, don’t despair: you can always reduce it for a sauce or serve it over pancakes and waffles. If you cook it too long, so that it is rubbery, you can add some Bourbon or Scotch to it or melt it either alone or with a little wine and seasonings and use it as a glaze or in a quick, stove-top chutney.

Grape Jelly

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The first day:

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ 4 cups slip-skin grapes, at least 1/4 of which are unripe

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ1/4 cup water

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Stem and crush the grapes, add to the water in a large pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain all of the juice out of the mixture and allow to sit overnight.

 

The next day:

Strain the juice again to remove the tartrate crystals which should have settled out during the night, clinging to the bottom and sides of the container. Measure the juice and add 1/2 the volume of juice in sugar. In a heavy kettle, boil rapidly until the jelly sheets from a cold metal spoon or until the mixture is 220^o. Pour the jelly into hot sterilized jars and seal.

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Grape Jam

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JamпїЅ includes the tart skins of grapes and is far more flavorful than clear jellies. Remove the skins from the grapes, and, if desired, run them through a grinder or chop them in a blender or processor (I leave mine whole).пїЅ

Cook the skins of the grapes very gently for 15-20 minutes, adding the slightest amount of water necessary to keep them from sticking to theпїЅ pot. Cook the pulp until the seeds loosen, then run the pulp through a colander to remove the seeds. Add the pulp to the skins, and measure. Add 3/4 the quantity in sugar, and cook the entire mixture rapidly, about 10 minutes. Continue cookingпїЅ until the jellying point is reached, stirring often to prevent sticking. Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.

 

Grape Pie

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This is my favorite pie, though many people have never heard of it. It is a Lowcountry classic. Some people use wheat flour or instant tapioca to thicken fruit pies, but rice flour is tasteless and disappears, utterly transparently, into the fruit juices. If you can’t find it, use cornstarch.пїЅIt was Kelly Bugden, a brilliant pastry chef as well as an accomplished photographer (he took the photos for Hoppin’ John’s Charleston, Beaufort & Savannah) , who taught me his wonderful technique of making pie crust. Alas, I am never satisfied with my results unless I use lard. You may use butter or another solid shortening — or a combination — if you will, but be sure to have everything as cold as possible and to maintain the ratio of 4:1 (in weight) for flour to shortening.

If you use Concords in this recipe, add a little lemon zest and juice for flavor.

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For the crust:

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ 1 pound flour (about 4 cups)

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ pinch of salt

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ 1 tablespoon sugar

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ 1/4 pound chilled lard (or any combination of lard,пїЅshortening, and/or butter)

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ1/2 cup water, plus ice cubes

 

Sift the flour with the salt and the sugar into a large mixing bowl. Add a few ice cubes to the measured water and set aside. Cut the lard into the flour with a pastry blender, a large fork,пїЅ or two knives, until the mixture is uniform and, as the old cookbooks say, it resembles small peas. Do not touch the dough with your hands. Place a wet towel under the bowl so that it will not slide around on the counter. Working deftly, scoop up large spoonsful of the mixture from the bottom of the bowl with a metal slotted spoon while sprinkling water into the mixture a little at a time. Work quickly as you “lift in” the water, stopping before all the water is in. You should stop the second you feel the dough will hold together without more water. Now grab the entire mass of dough up in your hands and push it all together into a ball. If the pie filling is ready, wrap the dough in some wax paper or plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for ten minutes; otherwise put the wrapped dough in the refrigerator to chill while youпїЅ prepare the fruit.

For the filling:

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ 4 cups slip-skin grapes such as Muscadine, Scuppernong,or ConcordпїЅ– about 1-3/4 pounds

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ3/4 cup sugar

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ1/2 tablespoon rice flour (from natural foods store, not the Southeast Asian kind) or cornstarch

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ optional: grated citrus rind and lemon juice

Pulp the grapes by squeezing them over a pot. Reserve the skins. Cook the pulp for about five minutes, just enough to loosen the seeds. Press the pulp through a colander to remove the seeds. Combine the pulp with the skins, the sugar, and the rice flour. If the grapes are very sweet, such as ripe concords, you may add a little citrus peel and juice for flavor. The skins of scuppernongs, however, are very tart on their own.

For the pie:

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅreserved pastry dough and filling

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅmilk or half-and-half

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅsugar

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Preheat the oven to 450^o. Remove the pastry dough from the freezer or refrigerator and place on a large, lightly floured surface. Try not to touch it with your hands. Roll it out evenly to a thicknessпїЅ of 1/8″. Place a 9″ pie plate on top of the dough and, with a blunt knife, cut across the dough so that an area large enough to fill the pie plate is marked off as one large piece. Set the pie plate off to the side. Place the rolling pin on one edge of this large piece of dough, and gently roll it up off the surface and onto the pin. Lay the dough down in the pie plate, allowing it to roll off the pin, and always avoiding handling the dough. Press it lightly into place, allowing any excess dough to hang over the sides. Fill with the fruit.

Cut the remaining dough into long strips and gently make a lattice top on the pie. Run a sharp knife blade at an angle around the rim of the pie plate, trimming excess dough off. Brush the top of the pie crust lightly with milk or half-and-half, then crimp the edge of the pie crust down with a large fork. Sprinkle the pie lightly all over with a little sugar and place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for ten minutes, lower the heat to 350^oand bake for another 20 or 30 minutes,пїЅ or until the crust is nicely browned all over. Be sure to bake the pie well so that the crust will not be soggy. If you have clear glass pie plates, you can leave the pie in until the bottom has begun to brown. Don’t worry about the timing. All ovens and batches of flour bake differently. Bake the pie until it is a rich golden brown and it will be delicious. Allow the pie to cool to lukewarm before serving. Do NOT serve this pie with cream, or you will mask the distinctive grape flavor.

 

Scuppernong Sorbet

 

Dana Downs has been one of my best friends for over 30 years and when we live in the same town, I always cook dinner for her on her birthday, which is September 9. She always asks for this intensely flavored sorbet instead of a cake for dessert. I first learned the technique from Frank Lee, a South Carolina chef. You simply grind the grapes — stemmed, but with the hulls and seeds — inпїЅa food processor, strain it, add sugar syrup till it floats an egg, and freeze. The instructions are detailed here on my blog entry for May 7, 2008.

 

Now I’ve got my work cut out for me on this perfect rainy day.

 

I have loved wine for almost as long as I can remember, my parents always willing to let us at least try whatever it was they were having with dinner. (Though there is alcoholism in our family,пїЅnone of my siblings and I seem to have aпїЅdrinking problem, thank goodness. IпїЅthink that’s at least partially because we were taught to drink at home.)

I don’t remember when I first fell in love with Champagne — or other sparkling wines, for that matter — but it has been an ardent love affair that I have pursued with great pleasure over the years.

I’ve written about some of my favorite champagnes on the blog before (see, for example, September 10, 2007; December 31, 2007; January 3, 2008; and March 17, 2008). The two bottles pictured were the bookends for our dinner party last Saturday night (partially described below): R Dumont & Fils Brut Ros? to begin, andпїЅthe equally remarkable Domaine des Terrisses Cuv?e Saint-LaurentпїЅby Cazottes et Fils, a gorgeous sparkler from southwestern France made in a single fermentation, with no sugar added. I’ve raved about the Dumont vineyard before, but I had never tasted theirпїЅdelicious ros? of 100% pinot noir, which may well become my favored sparkling ros?. Its big, fragrant, plummy and citrusy nose is balanced with flinty hints of theпїЅchalky soil. A perfect ap?ritif and only 12% alcohol!

The Cazottes, like the Dumonts, have been winemakers for seven generations, and they, too, grow their mostly indigenous grapes on chalky soil. Mauzac and Len de L’Elh are the traditional varieties used in and around Gaillac. This AOC Mousseux Gaillacoise (traditional sparkling wine from Gaillac) employs the “Methode Gaillacoise,” which is the “rural method” also used in Limoux.пїЅThe fermentation is stopped by a series of rackings and the wine is bottled before all of the sugar is converted into alcohol. The wineпїЅtastes of peaches and roses. How peculiar that I had already chosen it to have after dessert, and that our dessert turned out to be peaches aswim in rose petals! There are those who say that dessert wines should not be served until after dessert, but, believe me, it worked this time, and it was as though someone had added some citrus to our dessert (see below) and made a sparkling wine from it!пїЅAnd at $17, a real bargain, too! Best of all, only 11.5% alcohol, perfect after a long evening ofпїЅwines and food. Serve it alongside simple fruit dishes after dinner. You will not be disappointed!

When I asked my friends to bring a chenin blanc to have with fried chicken (because the wines can be highly acidic yet show fruit even when paired with spicy and fatty foods), I had no idea that they would bring three different wines. And, boy, were they different!

They had hoped to find Chappellet’s famed wine from Napa Valley, one of the best versions of the varietal outside the Loire, but it seems that the winery has ripped out all its chenin blanc vines and replaced them with more popular grapes! What a shame.

What we opened to have with the chicken was Fran?ois Chidaine’s 2005 Les Tuffeaux (to the far left in the photo) from Montlouis-Sur-Loire, just east of Tours. Though the wine has been highly rated (and was the most expensive), I thought it was a mess of a wine with no balance. Its nose was tutti-frutti and the wine was flabby, a mouthful of honeyed fruit with no character, more like a breakfast dish than the complement to an evening meal. The wine merchant should have told my friends that the wine is typically a vin tendre, too sweet and round to hold up to fried chicken. And I probably should have told them to bring a simple white vin de table from the south or southwest of France, with some sauvignon blanc in it, but that’s my least favorite grape and I’ve had well-balanced chenin blancs with the dish many times before and they’ve always worked well. The next day we tasted the 2006 Vouvray from Didier and Catherine Champalou’s vineyard, which was like biting into a crunchy green apple. It would have done well, as would have the Kermit Lynch-imported 2007 Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc Stellenbosch from South Africa, a big (13.5% alcohol) fruity, citrusy Steen (as they call the grape there) with hints of the tropics.

“Les Rials” is the name of another amazing little wine from Gaillac, an inexpensive and perfectly quaffable white wine for summer made from the Loin de l’Oeil (or Len de l’Elh in dialect) grape, which is only grown in the region. Little is known about the grape, which ripens a full two weeks earlier than other grapes. The grapesпїЅare prone to rot on theпїЅvine, but often the benevolent form of the fungus BotrytisпїЅ(thatпїЅlends a sweetness to some of the world’s best dessert wines) is the end result. Les Rials is 100% Loin de l’Oeil (“far from the eye” or “out of sight”), said by some to refer to the relatively long distance of the grape bunch from the branch. The local AOC for this wine isпїЅFra?cheur Perl?e, which does not mean the пїЅpearl of freshness,пїЅ as some sources say, but is more at “perfectly fresh” in the sense of newness, purity, and refreshment. This slightly dry wine has a floral nose with a hint of citrus, and a delicate flavor of greengage plums and apricots. A pleasant 12% alcohol, the wine is able to carry the fruit flavor because it’s barrel-fermented and kept sur lie for awhile. This is one of the best under-$10 wines I’ve found all summer.

You’d never know that I rarely drink white wines from today’s blog, but it’s true. Other than an occasional big white Burgundy or a simple white C?tes du Rh?ne, I drink mostly red wines. In the summer, I do drink an inordinate amount of bone-dry ros?s, and, as you readers of my blog know, I love Champagne. But white wine has never been my thing, really. Not that I turn it down when offered, but I am a bit pickier about whites than I am about reds, perhaps because I usually find that I have to spend a lot more to get a white wine that I love.

I recently bought a case of Louis Latour’s 2005 white Beaune to lay down for a few years. I found it at a bargain rate, and I highly recommend that you buy some 2005 white Burgundies if you can find them at a reasonable price. They will last, and improve, for years to come.

I also occasionally indulge in a bottle of the magical bouquet of flowers known as Condrieu, an exceptional incarnation of the viognier grape from the steep slopes of the Northern Rh?ne Valley. One of the best white wines in the world, it tastes of honeyed apricots and is intoxicatingly aromatic.

Ugni blanc is another Rh?ne Valley white grape that exudes exotic aromas. It is used in white C?tes du Rh?ne and gives them their floral bouquet. It always fools me when I smell a glass of the wine, thinking that it’s viognier. Some people think it smells like bananas! To me, it’s more like peach blossoms (which I know from growing up in the South).

In northern Italy, to the east of Lake Garda, they make Lugana, the only varietal that I know of that is 100% ugni blanc (also known as Lugana or Trebbiano). I’ve travelled to vineyards and olive groves (the northernmost place they grow olives in the world is on the south shore of Lake Garda, but that’s for another blog entry!) in the region and have tasted many of their wines, including the distinctive wines of Maculan (see below). Recently at Locanda restaurant in Washington, Mikel and I had ordered Armando Piazzo’s Mugiot 2001, a big, chewy single-vineyard Barbera d’Alba to go with our dinner, even though we both had pasta dishes with seafood (mine: gossamer-thinпїЅravioli made by seventy-something Liliana Dumas, filled with crabmeat and herbs and tossed with a little butter). Michel, Liliana’s son and the sommelier, insisted that Mikel at least try the san Benedetto Lugana DOC 2007, another single-vineyard wine from their exciting wine list. The nose of the wine was both delicate and mineral-laden. It was well-balanced, withпїЅa long, clean finish, the perfect complement to his plate full of shellfish.

Michel and I began discussing the grape, and he brought us a glass of the Caldora Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2005 to compare the difference in flavors. Much lighter in character, but with similar citrus notes. An entirely different wine, but it, too, had an impressive, lingering finish. So many white wines go dead in the mouth, especially with food. The international style of winemaking that is insinutating itself into vineyards around the globe is an insidious one that many writers blame on Robert Parker. I don’t think it’s his fault that most folks respond to the more obvious characterisitics of high alcohol, tropical fruitiness, and the presence of oak. It takes time, patience, and a practiced palate to appreciate subtleties such as the peach blossom fragrance of ugni blanc, the hint of roses in Gaillac sparklers, and the taste of greengage plums in Les Rials. I just don’t see how it’sпїЅpossible to notice these things in wines that have an alcohol content over 14% (and the trend these days is for even more!), a smell of ripe pineapple, and a taste of fresh-cut grass. But I won’t rant. I’ve got too many good things to write about!

I had always thought that the Lugana was the only wine made from 100% Trebbiano/Ugni Blanc, and I think that the Caldora has some Malvasia in it. But I will have to do some more research. It was lovely nonetheless.

One last wine. Too full for dessert at Locanda, Michel insisted we have a glass of the disitinctive Dindarello Moscato from Maculan in Breganze, east of Lake Garda, just north of Vicenza in the Veneto. I’ve been to Maculan and, in fact, had dinner with the family (in the photo on the left, taken in 1995, Fausto is explaining the wine pairings with his mother’s food). The Dindarello vineyard is 100% Moscato Fior d’Arancio (orange blossom Muscat grapes). When I was there in November, they had harvested the grapes, and they were letting them dry for about two months to concentrate the sugars and the flavors to produce their extraordinary dessert wines that seem to ooze a floral sweetness not unlike the best honeys. This is a great dessert wine, and it is unbelievably reasonably priced, unlike muscats from other European countries. I highly recommend it.

Thanks, Michel!

(PS Sept 26, 2008: I have just heard that Michel, the lovely server Shannon, and the chefs Liliana and Alonzo have all left Locanda. I HATE writing about restaurants. You never know what’s going on!

Mikel and I grow roses, even in the tiny patch of land that is our dooryard in Washington, DC. Back in hot and humid South Carolina, it was a constant struggle against black spot, but here in DC — especially this year, we haven’t had anywhere near the problems that we had down south. We only had one or two really hot weeks this summer, and the cool nights have seen bloom after bloom after bloom appear on our handful of bushes. The varieties we grow are all fragrant roses, among them Abraham Darby (pictured at left, it’s a cross between a climber and a floribunda, one of David Austin’s modern roses that looks and smells like an old-fashioned English garden rose), Mister Lincoln (a deep red, fragrant hybrid tea rose, long an American favorite), and, our hands-down favorite, Papa Meilland (shown overblown in the vase, below), which is supposedly a clone of Mr. Lincoln, though some sources say that it was introduced in 1963, a year before the Lincoln. They’re both glorious roses, but I dare anyone to show me another rose that is more fragrant than the Meilland.пїЅOurпїЅfriends Elizabeth Schneider and Seth Shulman were coming to meet our niece Jennifer and to have dinner with us last Saturday, but we had to go out of town for Mikel’s father’s funeral on Tuesday. The Papa Meilland bush was covered with blooms, so I picked them and put them in the refrigerator, hoping they would last until the weekend. Elizabeth is a world-renowned food writer, and she has one of the most sophisticated palates — and senses of smell — that I have ever known. She once walked in our house and immediately asked “What’s that lovely fragrance?” What she smelled was a single Papa Meilland rose in a vase at the back of the house — on the other side of the kitchen where I had been cooking an intensely aromatic dinner of shrimp gumbo!

When we returned from South Carolina, I was thrilled to see the roses still holding up in the refrigerator, so I left them there until Saturday.

I had planned to serve fried chicken, because Elizabeth had never had the dish before! I asked them to bring Chenin Blanc, a highly acidic wine that I’ve always served with the dish. They brought several different winemakers’ bottles, about which I’ll write later.

For now, I want to share with you a dessert experience we had that I may never be able to duplicate again, one whose flavors were so ethereal and elegant, I don’t know that I even want to try to reproduce it.

We had stopped at a produce stand in South Carolina to buy peaches to bring home. Though neighboring Georgia calls itself “the peach state,” South Carolina grows more, and tastier, peaches. I planned to simply serve sliced peaches for dessert, but picked up the cookbook on Fruits from excellent Time-Life Good Cook series, which was edited byпїЅthe late, great food writer, Richard Olney. The book fell open to a recipe called “Peaches Aswim in Rose Petals,” which, coincidentally, came from Judith Olney’s “Summer Food.” (Judith was the sister-in-law of Richard, whose work I greatly admire.) I had never cooked from Judith Olney’s books before, but the recipe spoke for itself: highly scented rose petals poached in a simple sugar syrup, peeled peach halves added along with the almond-like kernel from inside the peach pit, and the cooled fruit served with a raspberry puree. I knew that both Elizabeth and I would love the dish. Neither of us has a sweet tooth to speak of, but we love fruit and nuts. I simply had to try the recipe.

As it turned out, the recipe also called for a scented geranium leaf, which I didn’t have; however,пїЅI do have a lemon verbena plant growing under Mister Lincoln, so IпїЅadded leaves from it to the infusion. And the raspberries I bought were flavorless, so decided not to serve the puree. I also did not refrigerate the dish, but plated the poached peaches and left them at room temperature before serving. I can’t think of a more delicious way to end a meal, which we had begun with a Gaillac Len de l’Elh (more about this lovely white wine to come) and ended with a Gaillac Doux (a slightly sweet sparkling wine).

Here’s my version of the twice-Olneyed dish:

пїЅ

6 highly scented red roses

1 rose geranium leaf or several small lemon

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ verbena leaves

3/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

6 large, ripe, fragrant peaches, peeled, halved,

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ and pitted, with the pits reserved

2 highly scented pink roses

Remove the petals from the red roses and tie them and the rose geranium or lemon verbena leaves loosely in a cheesecloth bag. Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, add the petal bag, and simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, and allow to steep, covered, for ten minutes. Remove the bag and press to extract all the flavor and color possible.

Crack the reserved peach pits and remove the almond-like kernels. (This is a tricky job that I do outside, on concrete, with a hammer, while wearing goggles. If you have a heavy-duty nutcracker, you may be able to do this indoors.) Add the peach halves and the kernels to the syrup and simmer until the peaches are tender. I use a large saut? pan that will hold all of the peaches in one layer, and carefully turn the fruits halfway through the poaching. Allow the peaches to cool in the syrup.

When the peaches have cooled, transfer them to dessert bowls, giving each diner two peach halves. Remove the kernels with a slotted spoon,пїЅskin them,пїЅand chop them coarsely. Pour the syrup over the peaches, then top with the chopped kernels. Allow the dish to sit at room temperature until serving.

Just before serving, remove the petals from the pink roses, cut off the white part from the base, and scatter the rose petals over the peaches. Delcious!

Serves 6.

Green Tomato Soup with Corn and Crab Pudding from The New Southern Cook

These are two of my favorite dishes, both easy to prepare and both delicious, and they complement each other perfectly. I first had the soup at Ben and Karen Barker’s Magnolia Grill in Durham, North Carolina. It’s become one of my favorites, infinitely variable, with no dairy products, and you can serve it either hot or cold. Green tomatoes (See blog entry for August 20, 2007) are among my favorite flavors.

For the soup:

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion sliced thin

4 to 6 whole peeled garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

2 jalape?os, seeded, deribbed, and sliced

2 anaheim chilies, seeded, deribbed, and sliced

2 pounds green tomatoes, cored andпїЅcut up

3 cups chicken or shrimp stock or water

3 to 4 tablespoons capers, chopped (See Note.)

1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

 

For the garnish:

thin julienne of cooked country ham or chicken

cooked crabmeat, boiled shrimp, or pickled shrimp

sour cream or cr?me fra?che

crab and corn pudding (see below)

chopped ripe tomatoes or diced green tomatoes

chopped scallions and diced sweet red peppers

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

In a large sauce pan cook the onion in the olive oil over moderate heat until soft but not colored, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, the bay leaves, and the chilies and cook for another 5 minutes.

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Add the tomatoes and the stock of your choice and raise the heat. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are thoroughly softened.

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Remove the bay leaves from the mixture and puree the soup in a blender, working in batches. Season to taste with capers, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and Tabasco or hot pepper sauce. Serve hot or cold with the garnishes of your choice. Ben says, “We typically serve it cold with crabmeat or pickled shrimp and cr?me fra?che or hot with country ham, boiled shrimp, and sour cream…but any variation works.”

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

I like to unmold the Crab and Corn Pudding into a pasta bowl and ring it with this soup, served cold.

Serves 4 to 6.

 

Debbie Recommends: This needs a very crisp, but not overly acidic wine, such as St. Sup?ry Sauvignon Blanc.

 

NOTE: Capers come in a variety of sizes, usually pickled in a vinegar brine. They are also available packed in salt. Whichever type you use, be sure to rinse them well first, or add them first and taste the soup before adding lemon juice or salt. пїЅпїЅ

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Corn and Crab Pudding

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Fresh corn and crabmeat belong together, and they are paired in souffl?s, soups, chowders, bisques, casseroles, stir-frys, and salads from Texas to Maryland. This is the most elegant recipe I’ve tried: no eggs, no cheese, no butter, no flour, and no heavy seasonings. Serve these as an appetizer and you’ll have your dinner guests crying for more!

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

1 cup fresh crabmeat

1/2 fresh lemon

1 cup fresh corn, grated from the cob

1 tablespoon cornmeal

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon finely grated onion

salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Preheat the oven to 350^o. Grease four 4-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Freshen the crabmeat with juice from the lemon half and pick it over, making sure there are no bits of shell. Add the remaining ingredients and season to taste.

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the puddings firm up. Serve in the ramekins.

пїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅпїЅ

Serves 4.

Debbie Recommends: If you serve the puddings warm, you’ll need a direct, but plump, Monterey or Sonoma Chardonnay. If you serve them cold with the green tomato soup, choose a Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc.