A Southerly Course: Recipes and Stories from Close to Home [Hardcover]

Martha Hall Foose (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 12, 2011

In the highly anticipated follow-up to her bestselling Screen Doors & Sweet Tea, Martha Hall Foose shares recipes and stories that are even closer to her home and heart.

A Southerly Course delves deep into Mississippi Delta flavors and foodways, where Martha finds inspiration in local ingredients—from figs and sweet potatoes to crawfish and venison. In her signature style, she pairs each recipe with an anecdote or words of advice, her memorable tales about each dish lingering long after the last bite has been polished off.

Martha’s beloved Southern cuisine is a fresh take on homey favorites fiercely protected by the locals, including Skillet Fried Corn, Sweet Pickle Braised Pork Shoulder, and Blackberry Jelly Roll. Dishes such as Sweet-and-Sour Salsify and Peanut Chicken, on the other hand, reflect the influence other cuisines have had on Southern cooking. Martha’s lifelong bond with Mississippi is most apparent when she introduces her friends and family; she dedicates Burgundy Duck to a fiery group of women duck hunters called the Swamp Witches, while her cousin’s new wife inspires Korean-style Grilled Green Onions. And in recalling her former neighbor, the famed author Eudora Welty, she reveals the secret to a perfect Custard Pie.
 
With more than 100 recipes and beautiful color photographs, this book is a wonderful, personal look into the South that Martha loves. Gather around her table in A Southerly Course for unforgettable food and vivid stories, both hallmarks in a rich Southern tradition.


From the Hardcover edition.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the highly anticipated follow-up to her bestselling Screen Doors & Sweet tea, Martha Hall Foose shares recipes and stories that are even closer to her home and heart.

A Southerly Course delves deep into Mississippi Delta flavors and foodways, where Martha finds inspiration in local ingredients—from figs and sweet potatoes to crawfish and venison. In her signature style, she pairs each recipe with an anecdote or words of advice, her memorable tales about each dish lingering long after the last bite has been polished off.

Martha’s beloved Southern cuisine is a fresh take on homey favorites fiercely protected by the locals, including Skillet Fried Corn, Sweet Pickle Braised Pork Shoulder, and Blackberry Jelly Roll. Dishes such as Sweet-and-Sour Salsify and Peanut Chicken, on the other hand, reflect the influence other cuisines have had on Southern cooking. Martha’s lifelong bond with Mississippi is most apparent when she introduces her friends and family; she dedicates Burgundy Duck to a fiery group of women duck hunters called the Swamp Witches, while her cousin’s new wife inspires Korean-style Grilled Green Onions. And in recalling her former neighbor, the famed author Eudora Welty, she reveals the secret to a perfect Custard Pie.
 
With more than 100 recipes and beautiful color photographs, this book is a wonderful, personal look into the South that Martha loves. Gather around her table in A Southerly Course for unforgettable food and vivid stories, both hallmarks in a rich Southern tradition.

Featured Recipe: Creamed Onions

Creamed Onions
Egyptian Walking Onions
Serves 2

Egyptian walking onions do just that; they walk their way across a garden. These unusual plants produce clusters of onion sets at the top of their stalks. As the sets at the top mature and become too heavy for the stalks to hold them upright, they lean over to the ground and replant themselves, traveling across the yard. When the new sets are buried, a petite onion will form. Once these are established they will travel, producing onions along the way, for years. The onions harvested from walking onions are very similar to pearl onions and, like their cousins, are delicious creamed.

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound Egyptian walking onions or pearl onions, peeled (see Notes)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Dash of hot pepper sauce
• Grate of fresh nutmeg
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350°F.
2. Combine the onions, cream, garlic, and salt in a small baking dish. Dot the top with the butter and add a little hot sauce, nutmeg, and pepper.
3. Bake for 25 minutes or until the onions are beginning to brown and are very tender.

Notes

• To peel pearl onions, cut off a small bit of root end from each onion and drop the onions in boiling water. Let boil for 3 minutes, then submerge in cold water. The peels will slip off easily.
• If you like, add 1/2 cup blanched almonds to the onions as Helen Corbitt did.
• One of my favorite Southern authors is Clyde Edgerton, who wrote a novel called Walking Across Egypt. The title comes from one of the lead character’s favorite hymns, which was written by Mr. Edgerton himself!

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It takes a clever food writer to transcend the mythology and easy stereotypes of a place, and this collection of recipes and essays is a colorful, nuanced exploration of Mississippi eating. Following up her James Beard Award–winning Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, writer and chef Foose celebrates the "eccentricity, ingenuity, and creativity" of Southern cooking as she personally has experienced it. Yes, there are the usual suspects, like pimento cheese, crawfish, corn. and peaches. But there will be many quirky surprises for non-Southern readers—Rum Tum Tiddly, or tomato-and-cheese toasts, doe loin with winter biscuits, and mirliton or chayote squash stuffed with ham, shrimp, and breadcrumbs. Foose, who got her culinary degree in France, also dabbles in the international influences that have inspired her, with recipes for a Mississippi Masala-style peas and paneer and Korean grilled green onions. Finally, there are her own inventive concoctions like sweet and sour salsify and Delicata brown butter crepes. Offering meditations on subjects like congealed salads and family china, Foose has all the savvy of a local tour guide, leading the way through her native state with poetry and wit. Photos. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1 edition (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307464288
• ISBN-13: 978-0307464286
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 0.9 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Look at Old Southern Cooking April 21, 2011

By Story Circle Book Reviews

Format:Hardcover

Be warned: this is not your grandmother's sentimental southern cookbook. No cheese grits or spoon bread. Few if any casseroles--although there is a good one for crab. But you'll still find jellied salads and other favorites.

Martha Hall Foose has lived up and down the Mississippi from Minnesota to the Mississippi delta, where she grew up and now lives again. For this lavishly illustrated book, she followed back-roads, visited modern and classic kitchens, and explored southern ingredients. The result is a book that offers, at least for me, a fresh look at southern cooking and some recipes I can't wait to try.

There are a few scattered essays which discourse on various ingredients or customs. Foose's essay on venison includes an anecdote (funny only in retrospect) about the time she spilled Tink's Doe-in-a-Rut Buck Lure on her new dress on the first day of seventh grade. But, though not a hunter, she loves to cook with and eat venison, and mouth-watering recipes include Venison Meatballs with a Mustard Sauce, Doe Loin with Winter Biscuits, and Jalapeño Rolled Loin.

An essay on congealed salads compares the salads to the pageant girls of the South. There should, she says, be a contest, "some way to genuflect towards the spectacles of the congealed salad." She mentions Blushing Peach Melba, Cherry Co-Cola Salad, Carrot Pineapple Salad (who can forget that?) and Jeweled Lime Surprise. A recipe for Cranberry Salad follows the essay.

A recipe for Skillet Fried Corn is preceded by an essay on corn, the difficulty of growing it in the delta, the importance of holding a cob in your hand and eating it, and the traditional corn at the state fair. There is no mention of that Texas state fair favorite, corn dogs. Similarly, creamed corn, she claims, is not a native dish because dairy products were difficult and expensive to obtain. Mississippians used the creamiest thing on hand--bacon fat or lard. Before you start complaining about cholesterol, she suggests you research cream and then get back to her. For the skillet fried corn, like many other dishes, she insists on cast-iron cookware.

The most interesting essay in the book is on Eudora Welty and her strong presence in Jackson, where Foose lived as a youngster. When she was a young girl, an aunt gave Foose a cookbook that already had a name written on the flyleaf--only later would she realize that it was Eudora Welty's name. In recent times, Foose spent time Eudora Welty's house, now home to the Eudora Welty Foundation, exploring the annotated cookbooks and recipes from which the famous author, always hospitable, had cooked. Miss Eudora's recipe in this book is for Custard Pie.

New to me was Rum Tum Tiddy, made from tomato soup, cheese and toast and traditionally fed to sick children. The recipe for Welsh Rarebit cast a whole new light on that dish, which I've loved from childhood--this version is much better. There are recipes for oysters and crawfish (pickled), burgundy duck and rabbit terrine, salsify (or oyster plant) bisque, Potato and Anchovy Salad, that old stand-by Copper Pennies, and many others. I'll be dipping into this book for a long time to come.

A Southerly Course is an oversize book but still one meant for cooking, not the coffee table. The photography is spectacular, from a close-up of a Butterscotch Pot de Creme to a swamp landscape, the billboard for a cafe's menu, or a store counter with a bored-looking clerk above a sign that reads "Catching is Good for the Appetite; Fishing is Good for the Soul."

Welcome to modern southern cooking, which retains the best of the traditions behind it.

by Judy Alter
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A new one from Martha!! April 21, 2011

By South Lover

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Another wonderful book from Martha Hall Foose. A unique combination of recipes and recollections of the south and southern living and lives. It is an enjoyable read, beautiful photography and delicious food. The journey through the south with it's quirks, people and great food continues. Does it get any better? Highly recommended!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful escape! June 13, 2011

By Jemma C. Gabriel

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just received my copy of A Soithern Course and am thrilled with my purchase. Her essays are flawless,much in the vein of Sara Foster. I can't wait to make the blackberry roll and the pimento cheese soup. It will be a delight to be able to spend a few hours in the kitchen with this one! Thanks,Martha.