Southern Table – serie

The Sazerac, the Hurricane, and the absinthe glass of Herbsaint are among the many well-known creations native to New Orleans's longstanding drinking culture. But more than vehicles for alcohol, the cocktails and spirits that complement the city's culinary prowess are each a token of its history. In every bar-side toast or street-corner daiquiri you can find evidence of the people, politics, and convergence of ethnicities that drive the story of the Crescent City.In Lift Your Spirits: A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans, Elizabeth M. Williams, founder and director of the Southern Food and Beverage Institute, and world-renowned bartender Chris McMillian illuminate the city's open embrace of alcohol, both in religious and secular life, while delving into the myths, traditions, and personalities that have made New Orleans a destination for imbibing tourists and a mecca for mixologists.With over 40 cocktail recipes interspersed among nearly three hundred years of history, a sampling of premier cocktail bars in New Orleans, and a glossary of terms to aid drink making and mixing, Lift Your Spirits honors the art of a good drink in the city of good times.

Cassandra Harrell remembers watching her grandmother, Big Mama, fry hot-water corn bread in a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet on her electric stove. Only four years old, Harrell had to crawl onto a kitchen chair to see the yellow cornmeal batter skillfully dropped into sizzling oil. Once fried to a golden brown, the bread was served with one of Big Mama's many delicious meals like a plate of turnip greens and smoked meat or a bowl of beef stew. Growing up in a small, close-knit community in southwest Tennessee, Harrell received a culinary education from her family, learning her trade by example: she listened to her mother and grandmother and watched them in the kitchen as they cooked tomatoes, onions, and cabbage they gathered from the family's large backyard garden. Over the next forty years, Harrell honed her appreciation of good food through cooking, both at home and as a professional caterer.Soul Food Advisor shares more than 150 of Harrell's personal and family recipes, from Big Mama's Neck Bone Soup to Harrell's own low-cholesterol, low-sodium Country Black-eyed Peas and Okra. Recipes range from modern favourites like hush puppies, barbecue, and Tennessee-style coleslaw, to lesser-known dishes such as hoecakes, mayonnaise drop rolls, jelly cake, and a whole chicken baked on top of cornbread dressing. In addition to delicious recipes, Harrell includes snippets of southern food history, personal memories from the kitchen, and time-tested cooking tips. Both home and professional cooks, as well as food historians, will embrace Harrell's celebration of soul food as she recounts its authentic recipes, iconic dishes, and irresistible flavors. From the home kitchens that perfected this family-centered cuisine, Soul Food Advisor reveals the secrets of southern cooking, one dish at a time.

Mémère's Country Creole Cookbook showcases regional dishes and cooking styles associated with the ""German Coast,"" a part of southeastern Louisiana located along the Mississippi River north of New Orleans. This rural community, originally settled by German and French immigrants, produced a vibrant cuisine comprised of classic New Orleans Creole dishes that also feature rustic Cajun flavors and ingredients.A native and longtime resident of the German Coast, Nancy Tregre Wilson focuses on foods she learned to cook in the kitchens of her great-grandmother (Mémère), her Cajun French grandmother (Mam Papaul), and her own mother. Each instilled in Wilson a passion for the flavors and traditions that define this distinct Cajun Creole cuisine. Sharing family recipes as well as those collected from neighbors and friends, Wilson adds personal anecdotes and cooking tips to ensure others can enjoy the specialty dishes of this region.The book features over two hundred recipes, including dishes like crab-stuffed shrimp, panéed meat with white gravy, red bean gumbo, and mirliton salad, as well as some of the area's staple dishes, such as butterbeans with shrimp, galettes (flattened, fried bread squares), tea cakes, and ""l'il coconut pies."" Wilson also offers details of traditional rituals like her family's annual November boucherie and the process for preparing foods common in early-twentieth-century Louisiana but rarely served today, such as pig tails and blood boudin. Pairing historic recipes with Wilson's memories of life on the German Coast, Mémère's Country Creole Cookbook documents the culture and cuisine of an often-overlooked part of the South.

For over four decades, John Coykendall's passion has been preserving the farm heritage of a small community in rural southeastern Louisiana. A Tennessee native and longtime master gardener at Blackberry Farm, Coykendall has become a celebrity in a growing movement that places a premium on farm-to-table cuisine with locally sourced, organic, and heirloom foods and flavors. While his work takes him around the world searching for seeds and the cultural knowledge of how to grow them, what inspires him most is his annual pilgrimage to Louisiana. Drawn to the Washington Parish area as a college student, Coykendall forged long-lasting friendships with local farmers and gardeners. Over the decades, he has recorded oral histories, recipes, tall tales, agricultural knowledge, and wisdom from generations past in more than eighty illustrated and handwritten journals. At the same time, he has unearthed and safeguarded rare varieties of food crops once grown in the area, then handed them back to the community. In Preserving Our Roots: My Journey to Save Seeds and Stories, Coykendall shares a wealth of materials collected in his journals, ensuring they are passed on to future generations. organised by season, the book offers a narrative chronicle of Coykendall's visits to Washington Parish since 1973. He highlights staple crops, agricultural practices, and favourite recipes from the families and friends who have hosted him. Accompanied by a rich selection of drawings, journal pages, and photographs, along with over forty recipes, Preserving Our Roots chronicles Coykendall's passion for recording foods and narratives that capture the rhythms of daily life on farms, in kitchens, and across generations.

Every year on March 19, Roman Catholic churches and households in and around New Orleans celebrate St. Joseph's Day. As centerpieces of these celebrations, the elaborate tiered displays of foods, prayers, and offerings known as St. Joseph Altars represent a centuries-old tradition established in south Louisiana by immigrants from Sicily. In Celebrating with St. Joseph Altars, Sandra Scalise Juneau expertly documents the stories, recipes, and religious symbolism of this rich tradition passed down through multiple generations. While the altars have adapted over time to local ingredients and tastes, most of the customary dishes still follow cooking and baking methods that remain relatively unchanged from over a century ago.Juneau traces the history and symbols associated with the St. Joseph Altar from its Sicilian origins to its establishment among Louisiana's celebrations, then its later embrace by multicultural communities across the United States. She also provides a guide for preparing an altar, complete with recommended timelines and suggestions for physical setup. She offers over sixty carefully selected recipes centered on delectable breads, fish, pasta, and spring vegetables. Pastries receive special attention, with detailed instructions for carving the intricate fig cake designs known as cuccidati. Celebrating with St. Joseph Altars chronicles a cultural tradition that continues to draw families and communities together in a generous spirit of hospitality.

From meatball po'boys to Creole red gravy, the influence of Sicilian foodways permeates New Orleans, one of America's greatest food cities. Nana's Creole Italian Table tells the story of those immigrants and their communities through the lens of food, exploring the ways traditional Sicilian dishes such as pasta and olive salad became a part of—and were in turn changed by—the existing food culture in New Orleans.Sicilian immigrants—Elizabeth M. Williams's family among them—came to New Orleans in droves in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fleeing the instability of their own country and hoping to make a new home in America. This cookbook shares Williams's traditional family recipes, with variations that reveal the evolution and blending of Sicilian and Creole cuisines. Baked into every recipe is the history of Sicilian American culture as it has changed over the centuries, allowing each new generation to incorporate its own foodways and ever-evolving tastes.