Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons (36 page)

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Authors: Colleen Rush,Gary Wiviott

BOOK: Low & Slow: Master the Art of Barbecue in 5 Easy Lessons
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Most recipes do not include the step of simmering and reducing the wine and vinegar, but this is the best-kept secret for a killer mignonette.
 
MAKES ABOUT ½ CUP
 
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar, sherry vinegar, or
tarragon vinegar
1 shallot, minced
 
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste Reserved oyster liquor (from the Smoked Oyster)
 
Simmer the wine and the vinegar in a nonreactive saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add the shallot, salt, pepper, and oyster liquor.
DESSERTS
 
BANANA PUDDING
 
Banana pudding is the mashed potato of desserts—a comfort food at its best only when made from scratch. Any fool can make the recipe on the box of vanilla wafers, but don’t even think of touching instant pudding for this dessert. The fresh, homemade custard is the pièce de résistance in this recipe. Based on a version in Beth Tartan’s North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery, this recipe comes courtesy of Dave Lineback, founder of the Society for the Preservation of Traditional Southern Barbecue.
SERVES 4 TO 6
 
½ cup sugar, plus 6 tablespoons, divided
Pinch of kosher salt
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 eggs, divided (3 yolks separated from whites)
2 cups whole milk
1 (12-ounce) box vanilla wafers
3 to 4 very ripe bananas, sliced
6 tablespoons sugar
 
Blend ½ cup sugar, the salt, and the flour in the top of the double boiler. Heat the water in the bottom section of the double boiler until just barley simmering. Add 1 whole egg and 3 yolks (reserving whites) and beat into the mixture. Slowly whisk in the milk until the custard is smooth. Cook the pudding, stirring, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pudding to cool.
Line the bottom of an 8-inch square glass baking dish with vanilla wafers, top with one-third of the sliced bananas, and cover with one-third of the pudding. (Use more wafers for a drier pudding and fewer for a soupy one.) Continue layering wafers, bananas, and pudding to make three complete layers.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. With an electric mixer, beat the 3 reserved egg whites and 6 tablespoons sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the banana pudding. Bake until the meringue is golden-brown, about 15 minutes.
Refrigerate a minimum of 24 hours before serving.
BLACK BOTTOM PIE
 
The toughest part about this recipe is choosing between the gingersnap and chocolate crust. (I vote gingersnap.) Like low and slow cookery, this Southern classic only looks complicated. And it only takes one forkful of the rich, rum-laced dueling-custard pie to make it worth every dirty dish in your kitchen.
 
MAKES 1 (9-INCH) PIE
 
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons rum
1 (.25-ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
⅔ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
½ cup semisweet chocolate morsels
½ cup bittersweet chocolate morsels
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Gingersnap Crust or Chocolate Crust (recipes follow) Chocolate shavings, for garnish
 
Combine the water and rum in a small bowl and stir to blend. Sprinkle the gelatin over the mixture, stir, and set aside.
Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan; slowly whisk in the milk and egg yolks. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Stir in the gelatin mixture until dissolved.
Set aside 1 cup of the custard mixture. Pour both types of chocolate morsels into the remaining 1 cup of warm custard mixture and stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate custard into the prepared crust. Chill until set, about 30 minutes. Beat whipping cream with an electric mixer until frothy. Slowly add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form.
Fold the whipped cream into the remaining custard mixture, reserving some whipped cream for a garnish. Spoon custard over chilled and set chocolate mixture. Chill pie until it sets, about 2 hours.
Garnish with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
GINGERSNAP CRUST
 
MAKES 1 (9-INCH) PIECRUST
 
Nonstick spray
25 gingersnap cookies (to make about
1½ cups crumbs)
2 tablespoons sugar
2½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
 
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch glass pie dish with nonstick spray. Grind the cookies to a fine crumb in a food processor. Combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, softened butter, and salt in a mixing bowl and blend. Press the mixture into the pie dish. Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
CHOCOLATE CRUST
 
MAKES 1 (9-INCH) PIECRUST
 
Nonstick spray
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
30 chocolate wafer cookies
(to make about ½ cups crumbs)
½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
 
Coat a 9-inch glass pie dish with nonstick spray. Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Grind cookies to a fine crumb in a food processor. Pour the warm chocolate mixture and salt into the food processor and pulse until the crumbs are wet. Press crumb mixture into pie dish. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
PECAN PIE
 
The sweet, smoky flavor of real sugarcane syrup sets this pie apart from the rest. If you can’t find true cane syrup, like Steen’s, don’t even bother. Corn syrup just doesn’t cut it.
 
MAKES 1 (9-INCH) PIE
 
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs, beaten
1½ cups cane syrup, such as Steen’s
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 unbaked (9-inch) piecrust
 
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Heat water in the bottom section of a double boiler until just barely simmering. Melt the butter in the top of the double boiler. Remove butter from heat. Add the sugar and salt and stir until butter is absorbed. Beat in the eggs, then the cane syrup and vanilla. Return the butter mixture to the double boiler over medium heat. Stir until the mixture is shiny, about 130°F if you have a candy thermometer handy. Remove from heat. Stir in the pecans.
Pour the mixture into the unbaked piecrust. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and bake until the center is set, about 30 to 35 minutes. Serve the pie warm or at room temperature.
TENNESSEE HIGHLANDS BUTTERMILK PIE
 
Bill Arnold’s Blues Hog Barbecue Sauce is the secret behind many a competition barbecue man, triggering a positively Pavlovian response in barbecue judges coast to coast. His buttermilk pie has the same effect on me.
 
MAKES 1 (9-INCH) PIE
 
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted, at room temperature
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 (9-inch) unbaked piecrust
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
 
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Combine the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into the piecrust. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if using. Bake the pie for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake until the pie is firm, about 30 minutes.
APPLE CRISP
 
You can substitute just about any type or combination of fruits in this crisp—peaches, pears, berries, or whatever looks good and is in season.
 
SERVES 6 TO 8
 
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter,
cut into ½ -inch pieces and chilled
5 large Granny Smith apples, peeled,
cored and sliced (about 5 cups)
1 lemon, juiced (about ¼ cup juice)
3 tablespoons sugar
Whipping cream, for garnish
 
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Place the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor and pulse two times to mix. Add the butter and pulse four or five times until the mixture is combined and has the consistency of wet cornmeal. Refrigerate 10 minutes.
Place the apple slices in a bowl, drizzle with lemon juice, and toss with sugar. Pour into a 12 x 8-inch pan. Cover the apples with the chilled topping. Bake for 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with whipped cream.
LOUISA CHU’S WHITE PEACH, BLUEBERRY, AND LAVENDER COBBLER
 
Louisa Chu is a chef of all trades—a graduate of a prestigious culinary school who has cooked at such restaurants as Alain Ducasse and El Bulli. Her inquisitive nature, coupled with a journalism degree, has afforded her a serious case of wanderlust. She has chefed in Alaska for a fishing charter, has judged Iron Chef, and is a correspondent for Gourmet magazine’s “Diary of a Foodie.”
You will need 8 (8-ounce) ramekins or 8 (8-ounce) wide-mouth canning jars for this recipe.
 
SERVES 8
 
FILLING
 
4 white peaches, halved and pitted
8 ounces blueberries
¼ teaspoon fresh lavender buds
Softened butter to coat ramekins,
plus 4 tablespoons butter, melted
Sugar to coat ramekins, plus more for sprinkling
 
TOPPING
 
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
For the filling, combine peaches and blueberries in a bowl. Gently rub the lavender buds between your hands to release essential oils and fragrance, and sprinkle over the fruit.
Coat the inside of the ramekins with butter; then coat with sugar. Divide the blueberries between the 8 ramekins. Place 1 peach half, cut-side up, over the blueberries. (If the peaches are too large to fit, cut into a large dice.)
Place the ramekins on a lined sheet pan and bake until the fruit is soft, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven.
While the fruit is baking, make the topping: combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk and the lemon peel. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring only until a thick batter forms; do not overmix. Spoon the batter over the fruit. Sprinkle sugar over the batter.
Bake until the batter is golden, about 17 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.
10.
 
SMOKIN’ LEFTOVERS
 
 
ONCE WORD GETS OUT
about your skills on the cooker, you will be smoking chicken, ribs, and pulled pork more often than you ever imagined for crowds of people who may or may not be deserving of your barbecue benevolence. And as hard as it is to believe, every now and then—even after the hungry descend like a locust plague in your backyard—you may have leftovers from these cooks. Likewise, if you’re practicing each cook a few times before you move on to the next lesson—as a good student should—you might grow tired of the same old plate of barbecue. This chapter is devoted to all of the creative and sundry ways you can repurpose those delectable leftovers into different meals.
 
 
RITA’S SMOKED CHICKEN WON TON SALAD
 
Smoky, crunchy, sweet, sour, and delicious on all counts, this recipe is sure to start a feud in my family, as there is much disagreement over which sister in-law was the original creator of the salad. It’s very important to let the mixture sit overnight so the chicken really drinks in the dressing. Fry the won tons yourself, or do like I do: buy them fresh from your favorite Chinese restaurant.
 
SERVES 4 TO 6
 
¼ cup canola or olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
4 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Morton kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 smoked chicken breasts, shredded
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
Sweet and sour sauce, for serving
Chinese hot mustard, for serving
½ pound fried won tons

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