The Luscious Little Dessert Company

Classic Southern Comfort….with Ham. This ain’t my Momma’s Mac N Cheese.

3/18/2015

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You don’t mess with a time-tested, family approved recipe until you have good reason. My reason was ham, leftover ham to be exact. For Christmas dinner we had this lovely, twelve pound ham; hickory smoked, slow baked and glazed with honey and stone ground mustard. We ate ham for weeks afterwards-ham with the leftover sides, ham sandwiches with smoked Gouda and homemade tartar sauce, ham and eggs, deviled ham, we even used the bone to make soup. Two adults, twelve pounds of ham, you do the math. Finally with only about a pound left, we exiled it to the freezer, thinking Eggs Benedict, grilled ham and cheese, but at a later time, maybe in a month or so.
Every two or three months I try to clean out my freezer and that’s what leads me to embellish our traditional family Mac N Cheese recipe. The one her grandmother taught her, the one she taught me. I knew was messing with generations of Southerners; hardworking, god-fearing, every given Sunday mac n cheese kinda people, but sometimes you just have embrace change especially if ham’s involved. It was “pasta” Wednesday. I found a lone red pepper peeking through the vegetable bin. What else could I do? So with a heavy heart and that curious sense of culinary adventure I dug in.

Baked Mac N Cheese with Ham
RECIPE
Prep time 40 minutes
Total time 1 hour, 15 minutes
Serves 12

HAM MIXTURE
2 T butter
2 T garlic, minced
1/2 C chopped onion
½ C chopped red pepper
12 oz. chopped ham
1 lb. dried macaroni

CHEESE SAUCE
½ C butter
6 T flour
5 C milk
2 T kosher salt
½ t white pepper
1 t black pepper
1/8 t nutmeg
1 ½ T mustard powder
7 C coarsely grated Colby Jack and extra-sharp cheddar cheese plus 1 C for topping
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 T parsley, finely chopped

Special Equipment
9 by 13 inch baking dish

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in the middle of oven. Butter the baking dish. Set a large pot of salted water over high heat to boil.

HAM MIXTURE- melt 2 T butter in a medium saucepan. Sauté garlic, onions and peppers over medium high heat for   3 minutes, until onions are transparent, add ham and set aside.
Add macaroni to boiling salted water and cook until just al dente. Drain macaroni, return to pot and stir in sour cream and ham mixture.

CHEESE SAUCE – melt ½ C butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Sprinkle flour over butter, whisking to incorporate. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until roux is light golden, about 5 minutes. Gradually pour in milk, whisking constantly to incorporate. Raise temperature to medium-high and bring sauce to a low boil, whisking constantly. Reduce to a simmer, whisking until béchamel sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes.
Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg and mustard powder.   Add cheeses in three batches, stirring until each addition is completely melted before adding more.   Stir in the beaten egg yolks.
Add the cheese sauce to the macaroni mixture to coat.   Transfer macaroni mixture to the buttered baking dish and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the remaining cup of cheeses and chopped parsley over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 30-35 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

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It’s Chili time! LAMB CHILI

2/25/2015

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It’s Chili time! LAMB CHILI

Driving home today, I saw mounds of snow, long past the white powdery stuff. This snow was a dirty gray and hard like concrete hugging curbs like a winter coat. There were yards covered in blankets of ice so thick and inviting you could skate across into shrubs stiff and unwavering like ice sculptures. Passing a local bus stop, I saw what I suspect were perfect strangers huddled like penguins. And then I heard a radio announcer say it was warmer in Alaska! So, with the temperature steady dipping, the wind singing this woeful winter tune, all I could think was; it’s Chili time!

In my world, if there is a meal that can soothe a frigid winter soul, it has to be chili. The ultimate comfort food….slow cooked, succulent meat (lamb, beef or pork) in a rich sauce. Chili enthusiasts tell me it’s just meat and gravy, but like all storied dishes you can take a few liberties, maybe beans (pinto, black, white) added at the end, maybe served over rice or mashed potatoes.
My favorite is lamb chili topped with thin sliced green onions, fresh cilantro and cream fraiche or sour cream. Add a good sourdough bread, a large green salad and a glass of full bodied red wine and just forget about the white stuff.

LAMB CHILI
Prep time – 15 minutes
Cook time – 1 ¾ hours
Total time – 2 hours

1 T corn oil
1 ½ C onion, chopped
6 ea. Large garlic cloves, chopped
3 dried Mulato chilies*, seeded, torn into pieces
3 dried Ancho chilies*, seeded, torn into pieces
2 C chicken broth
1 14 ½ oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
2 t dried oregano
1 ½ t ground cumin
½ t ground allspice
1 ½ lbs. lamb stew meat (preferably shoulder), trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces
*Ancho and Mulato chilies are available at most supermarkets.

PREPARATION
Heat 1 T corn oil in a heavy medium stockpot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté until just translucent, about 3 minutes. Add both chilies, tomatoes, chicken broth, oregano, cumin and allspice. Bring mixture to a boil. Cover pan and simmer until chilies are tender, about 30 minutes.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325 F.
Puree sauce in batches in blender. Return sauce to the same pot. Add lamb. Cover and bake until lamb is almost tender, about 1 hour. Remove from oven. Uncover pot and simmer chili over medium low heat until lamb is very tender and liquids are thickened to sauce consistency, about 40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm over low heat before serving. Serves 4 to 6.
Adapted from Bon Appetit, February 1995

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THE STOVE:

11/17/2014

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The stove in her farmhouse was eons old.

It had been her mothers’ and no one can remember beyond that.   Her stove, a cast iron York, that burned coal and wood, warmed us in the winter, sometimes tormenting us in the summer,   had been in the family forever.

It was her friend. She had teased and coddled it into submission.   Nothing was ever burned or dried.   With a steady hand and watchful eye, it did her bidding. Singing with smells and sizzling with bacon, the fat used for flavoring everything from cornbread to mustard greens, “the kitchen stove is where the magic happens” she once told me with a twinkle in her eye.

I was too young to understand, too bored to listen, but it was her eyes that I remember. If Big Ma had a lover, it was her stove.   She would leave great-granddaddy George in a warm bed on cold winter mornings to stoke the coals, add some wood and   make coffee, fresh biscuits, fried green apples, eggs and bacon.   The smells woke him, though being a farmer, the rooster would have crowed.

At lunch, the big meal, there were pork chops smothered in gravy, boiled or mashed potatoes and collard greens flavored in bacon grease,   fresh cornbread and country butter.   Dinner was usually lighter,   pinto bean soup flavored with bacon poured steaming from a cast iron pot and the rest of the mornings’ bread warmed in the oven, a cup of hot hard cider laced with whiskey.

I remember her gleaming black stove and her strong, nut brown hands making me cornmeal pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup, sausage and a small cup of coffee with too much milk. There were lunches of ham sandwiches on homemade white bread, so thick and meaty you could share and not feel slighted.   Dinners of fried catfish and red skinned potato salad and a peach cobbler, so deep and fat it spilled over the pan. It all came from that stove and her hands, stirring and kneading and pounding, feeding us, keeping us warm and happy.

One day, a few years before she died, we were reminiscing about her life and dreaming of what was to be mine, I asked her “how”, all she said was “love”.

“If you share what you have, you always have enough”

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OPENING POST

11/17/2014

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“OPENING POST” by The Little Feast
It was always on Sunday that we laid the good china and crystal glasses and used the ancient silver from the big wooden box. Big Ma dressed the dining table with a white linen tablecloth and whatever was in bloom from her small garden. In winter, the centerpiece was a tray of gourds and branches. Having planned the menu and grocery list on Wednesday evening, she would shop on Friday morning. Most of the meal was prepared on Saturday afternoon.

The first Sunday of the month was always a fat, roasted chicken or two, vegetables in season, potatoes or rice and two desserts, usually a pound cake and something with fruit that was to be served with ice cream, almost always vanilla.   She made the lemonade and sweet tea before Church with a sugar syrup prepared a day or two before.

She always said “ if you share what you have, you always have enough”. So, on most Sundays after church, she would open our house to the minister and any of the congregation without a family in addition to a friend or two, and a few neighbors.    This was not charity, but a weekly feast, a celebration of life and loving, sprinkled with laughter, and good music.

Big Ma died many years ago, but I remember and long for those simple luscious meals. My name is Diana Scott-Sho, owner and baker of THE LUSCIOUS LITTLE DESSERT COMPANY.   I’ve created Luscious Feast as a tribute and celebration of my great-grandmother, Big Ma who through her boundless patience and generosity filled both her table and my heart with the appreciation of good food and friends to share it with. She taught me to celebrate where we come from, who we are and to be thankful for what we have, but most of all to share that with our family and friends.   Enjoy!

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GARLIC ROASTED CHICKEN IN A CLAY POT:

11/17/2014

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“Simple, simple, let your ingredients work together-this is cooking not a chore.   Salt and pepper, fresh vegetables and herbs from your garden, a few spices now and again but nothing overpowering because cooking is a relationship. Just remember most of your ingredients could go it alone, but the right mix will make you sing”.   That was Big Ma, lecturing over the “first Sunday bird” like some sorceress in an apron, but she was right, she always was.

I like a simple roast chicken, no oil, not too many spices, just tender, brown, floating in garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little paprika for color. My secret is a clay pot, unglazed, well used, soaked in cold water for 15-20 minutes.   Now, Big Ma used her cast iron roasting pan that needed two people to get it into the oven.    Times have changed, so where ever she is, I hope she’ll forgive me. I start with the largest chicken I can find because this bird is not just for one meal, there are the leftovers to think of; chicken salad, chicken croquettes and there is usually enough for chicken hash for breakfast once you get close to the bone. Nothing is wasted. I buy the freshest garlic I can find: big, plump heads that are heavy and dense.   There is nothing quite like the garlic roasted from this dish.   The cloves have a sweet, mellow flavor and are delicious spread on toasted sourdough bread or in a sun-dried tomato and garlic dip.
I repeat; nothing is wasted.   Enjoy!

GARLIC ROASTED CHICKEN IN A CLAY POT   (serves 4-6)
Prep time – 20 minutes
Cook time – 1 ¼ hours
Total time – 1 ½ hours

10 heads of garlic plus 12 peeled cloves
1-2 T kosher salt
2 t black pepper
1 t paprika
5-7 lb. roasting chicken
Medium to large unglazed clay pot

Instructions:
Wash the chicken in cold water and pat dry with paper towels, inside and out. Soak the pot (top and bottom) in cold water for 15-20 minutes. While the pot is soaking, combine salt, pepper and paprika in a small bowl.
Smash garlic into cloves, peel 12 cloves for inside the chicken. Tuck the wings behind the neck.

Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with the salt mixture and put the peeled garlic cloves inside the cavity. Remove the clay pot from the cold water   and layer the unpeeled garlic cloves in the bottom. If you see

space, you aren’t using enough garlic.   Place the chicken on top of the garlic, sprinkle with paprika. Cover and put on the lower rack of a cold oven.   Heat oven to 425 degrees. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.   If you don’t see the garlic swimming in a golden broth, return chicken to oven for another 15 minutes.

NOTE: When removing your baker from the oven, please remember to keep it off cold surfaces, sudden temperature changes will cause it to crack.

2 Comments

Classic Southern Comfort….with Ham. This ain’t my Momma’s Mac N Cheese.

It’s Chili time! LAMB CHILI

THE STOVE:

The stove in her farmhouse was eons old.

“If you share what you have, you always have enough”

OPENING POST

GARLIC ROASTED CHICKEN IN A CLAY POT:

Diana Scott-Sho

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