Jalapeño

In the South, you usually find pepper sauce in the middle of the dinner table beside the salt and black pepper. Don’t confuse this pepper sauce with a Tabasco-type sauce; this simple seasoning is made from vinegar and whole peppers. Over time the peppers will flavor the vinegar, and the longer it sits, the better it gets! Pepper sauce is used as a seasoning and an ornamental decoration. A few dashes will heighten the flavor of black-eyed peas, all types of greens, barbecue, and many other traditional Southern dishes. Pack your pepper sauce in glass containers of any size and shape. The aesthetic value of the glass combined with the color and variety of peppers creates a beautiful conversation piece.

What better side dish to serve beside Cuban Pig (page 165) than moros y cristianos, or black beans and rice? Black beans are a staple of Cuban cooking, used in soups, stews, and sauces. Black beans can be traced back 7,000 years to southern Mexico and Central America, and their popularity has spread throughout the Caribbean and the southern United States, especially the Southwest and Florida. This spicy and filling recipe breaks the mold on traditional barbecue side dishes but can also be served as a complete meal.

Memphis in May is a barbecue competition that takes place the third weekend of May at Tom Lee Park on the Mississippi River. It is the largest pork cookoff in the world and is often called “The Super Bowl of Swine.” The Big Bob Gibson Competition Cooking Team has attended this contest since 1997 and to date we have never finished out of the top ten. We’ve won the pork shoulder category six times, won first place in sauce three times, and won the Grand Championship twice. But it is not our success in the competition that stirs the fondest memories of this event; it is the time spent with friends and family while enjoying the relaxing atmosphere. It is a tradition for us to put on a big feed the Friday night before the most serious part of the competition begins. Our menu changes year to year but almost always includes pork tenderloin, bean salad, homemade pies, and this stacked cornbread vegetable salsa salad. I am not sure where this recipe originally came from, but my mother-in-law, Carolyn McLemore, and her friend Joyce Terry always treat us to a big batch at this annual event. It’s good and it goes really well with smoked pork tenderloin.

While there are twelve or thirteen sandwiches in this book that Tom calls “my absolute favorite,” this one truly is Sisha’s. We use the pork shoulder, a very flavorful cut that benefits from slow cooking—so slow, in fact, that we set the oven on the lowest setting and leave the pork cooking overnight, which breaks down the textures, develops the flavors, and renders a lot of the fat. For the amount of meat called for in this recipe, you can get the same great texture and flavor in about four hours. This recipe has its origin in pork barbecue, which is often served with coleslaw. The cabbage in our sandwich—a nod to that side of slaw—is seasoned with olive oil and red wine vinegar. It is assertive and acidic, balancing the richness of the pork, while the jalapeños add a nice kick. Peppers vary in intensity—sometimes two slices are more than plenty while sometimes eight won’t be enough—so be sure to taste-test yours before layering them on.

Embellishing a recipe as iconic as corn bread could be a disaster of New Coke magnitude, so when a friend suggested dolling up the recipe with jalapeños and cheddar cheese, I proceeded with caution. I have issues with vegan cheese—it’s often overprocessed, packed with preservatives, and usually gross—but Emily, my office Queen Bee and resident persnickety vegan, suggested Follow Your Heart’s cheddar and made me a convert. I found nary a gluten globule or preservative in sight, and it melted! My mind adequately blown, I got to work in the kitchen, and a new bakery regular emerged. The cheese has the perfect creamy texture to complement the corn bread’s slightly grainy quality, and its sweetness is offset by the heat of the jalapeños. Bring this along to your next barbecue, but be sure to make extra: Those non-vegan eat-everything sorts tend to devour an unfair share.

Pickled onions such as these are most often used as a garnish for tacos, burritos, and guacamole in Mexican cuisine. I think they are just as delicious on most of the burgers in this book, and they add a level of intrigue that raw onion slices could never do. The fresh lime juice is essential for its fresh, clean flavor as well as its acidity. If you want to pump up the volume on flavor and add a bit of heat, try adding a few whole jalapeño or serrano chiles to the mix.

I love the spicy, vinegary punch of pickled jalapeño chiles. There’s no need to reserve these for nachos only; this pickle goes well with any Mexican- or Southwestern-inspired dish—and that includes burgers—that could use an acidic touch of heat. It’s simple to make your own, and I think you’ll find that the freshness of home-pickled jalapeños beats any jarred or canned supermarket version, hands down.

The patty melt first appeared on the American diner scene in the 1940s and is still a favorite more than sixty years later. Take a good look at what it is—meat and cheese pressed between slices of buttered bread—and you might wonder: Was the patty melt America’s first panini? As a rule, my perfect burger consists of a thicker patty served on a soft roll, but everyone needs to break the rules, even their own, once in a while. This patty melt, with its sophisticated jam-like onion relish and buttery Gruyère cheese, makes breaking the rules extra delicious.

My love for the ingredients of the American Southwest is pretty well documented at this point, making this burger something of a signature. Cool and creamy avocados and spicy tomato-chipotle salsa make this burger a tribute to that region. Blue corn chips supply the crunch factor that lettuce would normally provide, but in a far tastier, more southwestern way. This couldn’t be called “Nacho” without cheese; sliced Monterey Jack fills the bill perfectly.

From fruit to dairy, the farms of California yield so many fantastic ingredients. Two of my favorites are pebbly-skinned Hass avocados and Monterey Jack cheese. In fact, the two are somewhat similar in their mild taste and creamy consistency. To create a bit more contrast in flavor and texture, I nix simply sliced avocados in favor of a chunky avocado relish made with diced onion, bright leaves of cilantro, fresh lime juice, and a touch of spicy jalapeño.

Like chocolate, the chile peppers that give chili its name and flavor come from Mexico. By assembling the many ingredients below and allowing them to cook together over low heat, you can easily imagine earlier versions of this Mexican stew (despite a few modern concessions). The cocoa powder adds depth and earthiness to the spicy indigenous flavors. This is a big batch and serves 15 people. You can also freeze it.

Combine leftover ham with frozen hash browns and get an incredibly easy casserole to serve for brunch or dinner.