Skip to main content

Corn

Arepas

I first came across these tasty Colombian fried corn cakes stuffed with oozin’, stringy cheese at a Miami street festival. Back home, I messed around with the recipe and added whole corn kernels to the dough to make ‘em more interesting. In the restaurant we serve arepas with a pile of pulled pork in the center for a real Memphis-meets-Miami dish. But if you don’t have the pork on hand, they’re just as good served with some Fire-Roasted Garlic Salsa.

Cream-Style Corn

In the country, we planted a large garden every spring. It never seemed like a chore to shell peas or shuck corn because I always knew how good they were going to taste when they were cooked! If you’ve never had homemade cream-style corn, you don’t know what you’re missing. We always had a huge corn crop, so we made a lot of creamed corn and froze it in quart containers to enjoy year round. The kind of fresh corn you use can determine the thickness of the cooked dish. If it’s too thick, add a little water. If it’s too thin, add a little cornstarch.

Mexican Salad

What’s great about this salad is that it only involves opening a few cans and layering the veggies with shredded cheese. It’s simple, healthy, and looks pretty in a glass bowl to boot!

Winter Vegetable Soup

Some recipes in this book have been passed down from generation to generation, and some are newer recipes discovered in the past few years that have become family classics. This is one of the old-timers. My mom used to make this soup when I was a child, and I remember how much my dad loved it served over biscuits. For me, when a recipe has a great memory attached to it, it tastes even better. I make this soup at the first sign of cold weather every year and serve it poured over Buttermilk Cornbread (page 154).

Trisha’s Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken tortilla soup became really popular in restaurants a few years ago, but it was never something I made at home. Garth loves this soup and orders it almost every time he sees it on a menu, so I started studying the different versions at each restaurant and questioning Garth about what he liked and didn’t like about each one. This recipe I finally came up with doesn’t actually taste like any of those we tasted in restaurants, but we love it—and now we can enjoy it whenever we want!

Jack’s Brunswick Stew

My daddy was a great cook, and many of the recipes in this cookbook are his. If there was a fund-raiser in Monticello, people would always ask, “Is Jack making the Brunswick Stew?” or “Is Jack cooking the chickens?” before they bought their tickets. The food was usually prepared outside in very large quantities with the help of members of the sponsoring organization. Brunswick Stew is one of those classic southern dishes that varies from region to region, but I’ve never had Brunswick Stew that tasted like my dad’s. In his version, everything is ground through a food grinder, so it’s more like a wonderfully rich soup than a stew. His version also fed 160 people, so we’ve reduced our recipe to serve a cozy 16!

Vidal Blanc Scallop Grill Pouches

Used correctly, wines should intensify, enhance, and accent the properties of a dish, not overpower it. With years of experience in winery kitchens, Chef William Cornelius has mastered the fine art of cooking with wine. Using Vidal Blanc as the key flavoring component, he adds a remarkable richness of tropical fruit and a slightly spicy finish to this preparation of bay scallops.

Corn Griddle Cakes with Sausage

Consider making a double batch of Ed Lee's orange-honey butter to serve the next morning with toast or warm biscuits.

Tortilla Soup

A colorful array of garnishes offer a fresh contrast to this bold, smoky chicken soup from Nashville's Mas Tacos Por Favor.

Summer Corn and Tomato Salad

This colorful and refreshing salad is one of the most eagerly anticipated items in our deli case. We don’t start making it until the tomatoes are really ripe and the corn is sweet and abundant. Because the ingredients are fairly sturdy, this salad holds up for quite a while after you make it. It’s a great candidate for bringing to a picnic or barbecue, and it’s the perfect side for a burger! It’s also nice as a salsa or spooned onto a grilled fish fillet.

Summer Vegetable Stew with Oregano and Chiles

A spicy vegetable side dish from Chef Jon Mortimer, a 2007 Workshop participant, inspired this more substantial stew. By adding more summer vegetables, such as chayote and corn, Brian elevated Chef Mortimer’s dish to entrée status. Prepared with vegetable stock, it is suitable for vegetarians.

Seared Sea Scallops with Chardonnay Creamed Corn

Chef George Brown created this height-of-summer dish at the 2006 Workshop. He prepared the scallops in our wood-burning oven, but searing them in a hot skillet works as well. The creamed corn is thickened only by the corn’s natural starch, released when the kernels are grated. The chef’s idea of adding Chardonnay is a good one, as it helps to balance the corn’s sweetness.

Squash Blossom Soup with Corn and Poblano Chiles

Chef Scott Neuman is a Latin cooking enthusiast who transformed the zucchini and corn in Dolores’s garden into a lively chile-spiked soup during the 2009 Workshop. This recipe is an adaptation that goes well with Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay. The soup is light and bright, a distillation of early summer flavors and a delightful first course in warm weather.

Field Pea and Corn Salad

When Southerners like Birmingham chef Frank Stitt talk about field peas, they mean small shelling beans, such as black-eyed peas. (Crowder peas and lady peas also qualify, but they’re less common.) When field peas are fresh, in summer, Chef Stitt, a 1999 Workshop attendee, shows them off in this salad, tossing them with grilled corn cut from the cob, tomato, grilled red onion, and herbs. Serve the salad when you’re also grilling salmon, sausages, or pork chops, or with Brian’s Grilled Mahimahi with Preserved Lemon Butter (page 113). If you can’t find fresh black-eyed peas, use dried ones, soaked overnight, then simmered gently until tender.

Cheddar-Corn Spoon Bread

As its name implies, this savory Southern side dish is so soft it should be served—and eaten—with a spoon. You could serve the spoon bread as an alternative to cornbread with the barbecued ribs on page 202 or with the turkey chili on page 173.

Barley Risotto with Corn and Basil

Although traditionally made with rice (riso in Italian), risotto can also be made with pearl barley (and other grains, such as farro) to provide a slightly chewy dish with a nutty flavor.

Chopped Salad with Pork and Buttermilk Dressing

Use the extra loin from the Pork Loin with Figs and Port Sauce (page 217) in the recipes below (you’ll have enough meat to make both).

Pork Enchiladas with Green Sauce

Make the Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Apples and Leeks on page 205, and then use the extra roasted tenderloin in one of these recipes (page 206)—one with Asian flavors, one with Mexican.

Orzo with Chicken, Corn, and Green Beans

A bit of planning ahead makes preparing weeknight dinners a breeze. Use the extra chicken from Roast Chicken and Parsnips with Swiss Chard (page 149) in one of the recipes below.
18 of 64