In our home, this is the crème de la crème of breads—a quintessential part of any mountain table. We serve it alongside about any meal, with cabbage, chili, pot roast, my Chicken and Dumplings, and more. You need a cast-iron skillet to make proper cornbread. Although my grandmother was a cornbread purist, every so often I like to break tradition. One of my favorite cornbread variations is to slice a large onion and lay the rings flat in the skillet before pouring in the batter. What you have is a sort of onion upside-down cornbread that pairs grandly with soup or beans. Another option that goes great with chili is to add a cup of whole kernel corn before baking.
ACTIVE TIME: 1 HOUR — BAKE TIME: 35 MINUTES — TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 35 MINUTES — MAKES ONE 10-INCH PIE
Known to some as Tamale Pie, this one-dish meal is great for busy weeknights because it’s quick, easy, and filling. Our family changed the name because it bears no resemblance to a tamale, but whatever you call it, it’s sure to draw everyone to the table.
As a large restaurant chain, Howard Johnson’s relied on a commissary system of centralized kitchens. The clams would have been prepared as strips by the supplier, but here the whole clam body is fried. Individual recipes of this size were adaptations for family cooks, but nevertheless, the result is an authentic evocation of the chain’s most famous dish.
Ingredients
With the crunch of the cornmeal crust and kick of the Jamaican spice blend, this chicken is brimming with flavor and texture reminiscent of the much more time-consuming traditional Jamaican jerk marinade and fried chicken.
Cornbread is a sacred thing in the South, almost a way of life.
This is a recipe that allows time and low heat to work their magic. I like to rub the roast with the seasoning and let it cure for a day before cooking. At Gramercy, as a way to use the whole hog, we slow-roast bone-in pork shoulders.
In this recipe I've replaced the sweet elements in biscotti with pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and fennel seed, to make a savory adult biscotti that is perfect with cocktails. Around the holidays I bundle them with a bottle of sparkling wine to give as gifts.
When Tony Fortuna, the owner of Lenox, one of my favorite restaurants in New York City, gave me this recipe for his biscotti, I stopped making any other almond biscotti and started making these in double batches--twice a week. They are perfect--crunchy but not rock solid, dippable, dunkable and eminently munchable, as good with breakfast café au lait as with late-night herbal tea. They're great with ice cream, fruit salad, mousses and puddings too. Mille grazie, Tony.