Fry

This is where you want to break out that lovely duck fat—the liquid gold saved from making Duck Breast with Dried Fruit and Vin Santo (page 152) or Cheater’s Duck Confit and Bitter Greens (page 154). If you didn’t remember to save the duck fat or don’t have any, you can certainly buy it. And in a pinch you can use olive oil. Duck fat is fabulous for frying because it has a relatively high smoking point (it can get really hot before it begins to break down), so it will make your potatoes golden brown and crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, and REALLY tasty. Save your duck fat; it’s worth it.

To me, absolutely anything fried is delicious. In this recipe I take a traditional crispy, crunchy, salty, fried preparation for chicken and apply it to pork. I serve the pork with escarole—the unsung hero of the salad world (I’m on a mission to popularize escarole). Then I toss some chopped nuts and pickled onions into the mix. My mouth is so excited it just doesn’t know which way to go; there’s crispy pork, crunchy escarole, salty sweet nuts, and bright acidic onions. So many different things are going on in this dish that even though it’s super-easy to make, it’s also incredibly exciting to eat!

There are so many things to love about chickpea fries—for starters you can make the base for this dish ahead of time and then fry up the fries just before you want to serve them. Also, I’ve added some crunched-up chickpeas into the mix for texture. And who ever thought of pairing these lovelies with a raw zucchini and onion salad? Look at me—always thinking up something new! Add a couple of grilled shrimp and some pine nuts, and you have something really special.

What better wintertime breakfast could there possibly be? The best part of this recipe, in my opinion, is that it delivers on all your gingerbread fantasies in a quick and easy way that sidesteps the comparative fuss of pulling together a full gingerbread loaf. Sheepishly, I’ll admit it here and now: I have been known, on occasion, to abandon the maple syrup and instead douse these with vanilla frosting or glaze . . . for breakfast. Give me the benefit of the doubt before you judge, please, and try it for yourself.

Pancakes! It is safe to say that besides ice cream, pancakes are my favorite food. Is that entire sentence strange coming from a gluten- and dairy-free baker? Probably. In any event, here it is, a recipe with all the buttery goodness added right in. Please note: I like my pancakes extremely thin, so expect that from this recipe. If you want them meatier, just add 1/3 cup more flour. You want another no-brainer of a recipe to go along with this one? How about the sweet aftertaste and the mildly chunky texture of banana mashed up against the crunchy outlines of the pancake crust and enveloped inside a slight billowy center? Take the day off work already! Personally—and by that I mean in this recipe—I sometimes add pre-mashed bananas so as to create a subtle fruit-to-batter mélange. But if you’re some sort of breakfast bungee-jumper or whatever, you could hack them up rough-like and have a deliciously rocky stack.

Not a designation by the church but a given name, Deacon Pattnotte ran the small grocery market on Grand Avenue in Yazoo City. He smoked meats and sold them sliced by the pound, but one of the most popular items in the store was his kibbeh. A Lebanese meatball of sorts made with ground beef or lamb and cracked wheat flavored with spices, kibbeh is quite a popular dish in the Delta. When making these in quantity, as Deacon did, the basic rule is for each pound of meat you need 1 teaspoon spice, 1 cup bulgur wheat, and 1 grated onion.

Since Mexican-made Coca-Colas have gained a cult following, varied myths have sprung up around the south-of-the-border beverage—everything from the notion that it actually contains cocaine (I would think it would be more expensive if it did) to the rumor that only two people have the top-secret formula for Mexican Coke. I know I like it—and kosher Coca-Cola, too. I suppose it’s simply because of the cane sugar used in the recipe instead of the now-standard corn syrup. These drumsticks are ridiculously sticky and messy to eat. Corral any children after dinner to wash their hands, and inspect them well before you turn them loose in the house or fingerprints will be found all about.

Back when I was in high school we hung out at Estella’s Tavern on Moonbeam Street. It had Formica tables, walls covered halfway with variegated shag carpet and then mirrored the rest of the way up, low lighting, and a hell of a jukebox that had the Nat King Cole song “Sweet Lorraine” on it. I remember some very-late-night meals of pan trout (which was most likely whiting) doused with hot sauce, fried, crisp, and served on slices of white bread—completed, of course, by cold beer in a can. Man, oh man, were those delicious! Pan trout are what we call just about any fish small enough to fit in a little skillet. Giving the fish fillets a coating of white bread crumbs and a good shot of hot sauce whisks me back in time and has me humming “Sweet Lorraine.”

When Ernestine Williams, mother of Ole Miss Colonel Reb and NFL football great Gentle Ben Williams, was teaching me how to make skillet fried corn, the top of the black pepper shaker fell off and a ton of pepper fell in the skillet. She scooped out as much as she could but there was still a whole lot that got left in. We liked it. Now when I make it I add a good bit of black pepper and a whole lot of garlic. You have to use fresh corn in this dish; frozen just won’t do if you want it to really fry up nice.

This is the best way I know to prepare ripe plantains, a classic Caribbean dish that is served with Crock-Pot Cuban Ropa Vieja (page 113). Ripe plantains are so sweet that they can actually be prepared this way and served over vanilla ice cream. But don’t let that sweetness intimidate you. Sweet often complements savory, and these are especially wonderful with hearty stews and grilled red meat. If the plantains are very mushy, they’ll need to be sliced thicker and will cook faster because they have more sugars, which caramelize really quickly in the hot oil.

The trick here is to add a lot of seasoning to the dredging flour and then use the leftover seasoned flour to make the gravy. Serve with Garlic Mashed Potatoes (page 149).

Ever since I discovered panko (see note), I make this easy dish all the time. The trick is to work fast once the chicken is cooked and add the salt and lemon as soon as you get the chicken out of the pan. Don’t worry if it looks like too much lemon juice—when the chicken is hot, the juice soaks through the crispy coating and adds fabulous flavor to the chicken.

One of my closest girlfriends is from the Caribbean. Every time I go to her house, whether just to gossip over a glass of wine or for a formal sit-down dinner, she puts out a big platter of warm, salty tostones. For an authentic Caribbean meal, serve these salty, crisp plantains as an appetizer before Crock-Pot Cuban Ropa Vieja (page 113). Be sure that the plantains don’t brown the first time you fry them; the goal is just to soften them so they can more easily be flattened into a thinner pancake for the second frying. For more on plantains, see page 153.

When I first tasted goat cheese, it was definitely not love at first bite. However, when I combined it with two of my favorite ingredients—lemon and Japanese bread crumbs called panko (page 80)—these addictive little morsels were born! These are especially good in place of the crumbled goat cheese on the Baby Spinach with Beets and Goat Cheese (page 55). The balls are surprisingly easy to make, but they are extremely delicate, so handle them with care. Don’t skip the freezer step, which firms them up so they can more easily be breaded and fried, and don’t try to handle them with tongs as you might usually do when deep frying. Use a thin, long-handled tool such as a spider (a stainless steel handheld strainer) or slotted spoon. Read about deep-frying on page 37.

I know it’s a bold statement, but this is the best damn crab cake you’re ever gonna eat! Unlike most recipes, this one doesn’t depend on bread crumbs or any other filler to hold the crab together. Sweet, succulent crab is mixed with not much more than butter and cream, which, when chilled, binds the crab cake together beautifully. When panfried, the outside gets crisp and brown while the butter melts inside, and what you bite into are warm lumps of luscious crab. When you want to pull out all the stops, this dish is impressive, elegant, and looks and tastes fantastic. The crab cake mixture is best if made ahead so it has sufficient time to chill and harden. For an hors d’oeuvre, form the crab mixture into mini cakes. The super simple carrot butter sauce adds not only a bit more richness but also a subtle sweetness and vibrant color. Try it with grilled fish, too.

If you’ve never tasted gnudi before, you’re missing out! Gnudi are small dumplings made with ricotta and Parmesan cheese mixed with flour and seasonings. The result is a delicate cheesy-pillowy morsel that literally melts in your mouth. They are absolutely incredible simply boiled and served with brown butter and sage, but I like to take things one step further by frying these little guys. Fried gnudi are an unusual, addictive party snack that feeds a crowd and is not at all difficult to make at home. I would describe the taste as a cross between gnocchi and a French fry. There’s nothing better than that!

Frying fish in peanut oil (like using lard for fried chicken) gives catfish the crispiest, least greasy coating imaginable.

Not far from Joe’s Mountain Gardens in Celo is Canton, a mill town that is home to Sunburst Trout Farm (see Sources, page 264), where Sally Eason raises delicate pink trout in the pure water that rushes down Cold Mountain. If a campfire is not in your immediate future but you have some sparkling fresh trout, this works well on the stovetop, too. Serve it with wilted ramps (page 27) or other greens.