We spent a year traveling from one end of our great state to the other, visiting nearly 400 great agritourism destinations. We had fun at festivals, on farm tours, at producers of cheese, sorghum, country ham, and more. We dined in restaurants and shopped in stores that offer local products. There were things that surprised us like kangaroos on a cotton farm and cranberries in east Tennessee.

The thing that didn’t surprise us was the graciousness and warmth of our fellow Tennesseans. All across the state, there are people working to provide us with food, clothing, and shelter, but they will take time out of their busy lives to help others understand what they do and why they do it.

Farm Fresh Tennessee is a resource for everyone who eats their food on a wooden table while wearing cotton or wool clothes. Any and all of those products may have come from Tennessee agriculture. Families looking for an adventure for the kids or couples looking for a romantic getaway will find options here.

We hope you will check out Farm Fresh Tennessee. Chris Chamberlain of the Nashville Scene calls it “a book to keep in your glove compartment.”

We also encourage you to visit the official website for the book. We will be updating the site with new places to go as well as any closings that may occur. If you have any questions or suggestions for places to visit, you can contact us there.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Introducing Farm Fresh Tennessee

Taziki’s Menu

We had no idea the Jim ‘n Nick’s sister chain was opening in Memphis until our server at the Cordova location of the barbecue restaurant told us last week. We also had no idea of the opening date. It was a fortuitous trip for groceries that led us to the restaurant for it’s grand opening.

Mezedes sampler platter

When given a menu — especially at a new place — our standard protocol is to order as close to “one of each” as we can. We made a valiant effort at Taziki’s. We started with the mezedes sampler platter. It came with very good hummus and taziki sauce with toasted pita chips for dipping.

The highlight of the platter — and indeed of my entire meal — was the dolmades. There are two primary differences between these and other dolmades I have eaten. First, these were shorter and fatter. As with fat sushi rolls, that makes them difficult to hold and eat. On the positive side, the ratio of grape leaf to rice is shifted in favor of the rice, reducing any hint of bitterness from the grape leaves. The second difference was the seasoning. These dolmades were more highly seasoned than most I have had; there was even a pleasant backnote of heat. I would be happy with just a plate of these.

Lemon chicken soup

Our next item was the lemon chicken soup. I often think of typical chicken soup as that fifth of five meals from one chicken when you’re just getting by on the broth and a handful of rice. Taziki’s soup is far from that. More akin to chicken au jus, this is a really good soup. It was a bit different from our expectations in other ways as well. The soup was not creamy rich like a traditional avgolemono, but that was no problem. The abundant chicken was lightly smoky, and that was a delight. Our only wish was that the lemon was more front and center.

Cucumber tomato salad (Because it’s hard to make an egg and olive sandwich photogenic.)

Our main items consisted of two gyros and an egg and olive sandwich. My egg and olive was lovely. Angela’s lamb gyro was meltingly tender. Unsurprisingly, I never had a chance to taste Patric’s chicken pesto gyro. Everything was quite good. And it was still good from our to-go boxes the next day. We were too stuffed to even get baklava.

Chicken pesto gyro with pasta salad

Yes, I suppose to be fair we should return to Taziki’s after a few weeks to give them a proper review. Honestly though, I doubt we can stay away that long. Gotta get that baklava.

Lamb gyro with roasted potatoes

Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe
540 S. Mendenhall Road (map)
Memphis, TN 38117
(901) 290-1091

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe

Ok. We’re procrastinators. But at least we’re very good at it.

There are some things, though, that you can’t procrastinate about no matter how hard the urge strikes you. One of those things is an enormous box of fresh pears. They can only sit there for so long before very bad things start to happen, and you can only eat so many of them fresh. We received just such a box from Newman Farms (yes, the pork people have pears, too, and I do plan on making something that combines the two in the near future at some point).

So, I decided to make pear preserves. With this quantity of pears, this is not a one-person endeavor, so I started out by drafting Paul and Patric to help with the peeling, coring, and dicing of pears. We started later in the day than we should have (surprise!), and there were really a lot of pears in that box, so it was midnight and Patric the pear peeler extraordinaire was ready to never see another pear for the rest of his life when we were done. I got the dicing job, so I was close to being in a pear coma. It might have been a sugar coma, because these were really good pears, and dicing leads to eating. That’s why I took that job. To put this all in perspective, we ended up with 24 pounds of diced pears. That’s right. After processing, these pears weighed more than our overweight cat, Van Peesman. That’s saying something, there. Especially since he ate some of them. That’s a whole other story there, though.

Anyway, we let them all macerate overnight with sugar in the refrigerator safely away from Van, and the next day (believe it or not) Patric and I made pear preserves. Since I’m more than a little bit insane, we ended up with twenty small batches of differently seasoned pear preserves. (I figured with that many pears, we’d get tired of plain before long.) We have pears with crystallized ginger, with cardamom, with cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne, berbere, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, lemon zest, orange zest, fennel, smoked paprika, ancho chile, mace, Chinese five spice, and vanilla. See. More than a little bit insane, but we’ll have pears for every occasion for a long time.

Since it took me so long to get around to finishing this post, as a side note, cardamom pears turned out to be the winner hands down. Cinnamon is nice and homey. The rest were really interesting, and none of them turned out inedible, so I put that in the win column. I wish I had tried a garam masala batch now. Oh well, maybe next time.

There’s also been a cookie recipe bumping around in my brain for a while that I finally broke down and made. This is one of those dump cookies that has a little bit of everything in it, but they turned out nicely if I do say so myself.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Of Procrastination, Pears, and Cookies

Another draw is the name on the cover. There are the TV personalities depending on name recognition and the celebrity chefs acting on reputation. And of course, sometimes those two sets intersect.

There is another set of names that is far more interesting. These are the folks who captivate you with their writing, their recipes, and their knowledge. The right name on a cookbook cover will practically make you drool. Robb Walsh is that kind of writer. Robb Walsh is a three napkin name.

Robb is the undisputed king of Texas food writing with books ranging from Tex-Mex, The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos, to cowboys, The Texas Cowboy Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos, to barbecue, Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pit Bosses.

His latest, Texas Eats: The New Lone Star Heritage Cookbook is a wide-ranging homage to the finest Texas has to offer. And to say finest does not mean fanciest. Instead, it means most delicious traditions and the best incorporated influences.

Walsh discusses the seafood taken from the Gulf of Mexico. He writes about the influence of southern cuisine on east Texas and the Mexican half of Tex-Mex in the west. He includes the meals of the cowboys, and he acknowledges the flavors of immigrants both old and new.

One book can’t cover all of Texas — that’s why Robb will never run out of material — but Texas Eats just may be the finest look at the subject yet. That’s because Robb both eats and writes fiercely and fearlessly, as this passage shows:

Maybe I was staring too intently at the hot foie gras and sweet fig chutney appetizer my tablemate ordered at Indika, Anita Jaisinghani’s upscale Indian restaurant on Westheimer in Houston. He was dying to dig in, but instead he sat back and invited me to go ahead and have a bite. Politeness would have dictated that I insist he try some first. But, manners be damned, I reached across the table and cut off a big hunk with my fork. The chutney provided little more than a sweet glaze on my palate as the hot unctuous liver melted in my mouth. It was heavenly.
…
Having helped myself to major forkfuls of each tablemate’s appetizer, I offered them each a taste of mine. But they weren’t interested. When you order goat brain masala for a starter, you stand a good chance of eating it all by yourself.

The recipe for goat brain masala isn’t in Texas Eats, but many excellent ones are, along with similarly excellent stories.

We triple this recipe to make lazy enchilada pie. The process is simple (for lazy folk like us). Preheat the oven to 350. Shred two pounds of Velveeta and one pound of cheddar and dice two onions. Oil the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish. Line it with corn tortillas. Spread half the Velveeta and 1/3 of the onions. Place another layer of corn tortillas. Spread the remainder of the Velveeta and another 1/3 of the onion. Place another layer of corn tortillas and top with the cheddar. Bake for 35 minutes or until the Velveeta is all melted. Serve topped with the remaining onion.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Texas Eats

And yeah, we know what you’re thinking — “you’re writing your third book. Surely you can do better.” Look, you try eating tweaked versions of the same ingredient six nights a week. And there’s the cleanup after. (Um, just ignore the dirty dishes in the background of a couple of those shots.) And we are working. We wrote down the recipe after all.

And our creativity isn’t gone. (Would you have thought of this? I think not.) Admittedly, this an homage to the beloved TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it is at least a creative homage.

To those not in the know, in later seasons of BtVS, when times got tough financially, Buffy took a job at the Doublemeat Palace, a fast food restaurant famed for its Doublemeat Medley, a glorious creation consisting of “a pure beefy patty above the mid-bun and a slice of processed chicken product below the mid-bun.” This (and late night laziness) is the inspiration for the McBomination.

Long time readers of this blog (Hi, Mom! No, not really, she can barely work her cell phone. She just turned 77 after all. Happy birthday, Mom!) will remember (Not the beginning of this sentence, that’s for sure.) that we once did a Triple Meat Medley with free range chicken, pastured Angus beef, and pastured pork bacon to class it up a bit. To be more true to the original, though, we decided that this version should be Mc’d up.

Buffy fans, however, will be quick to point out that the “meat process” that resulted in the Doublemeat Medley involved no meat whatsoever. To them I say, “hey, we’re talking McDonalds here.”

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

McBominations

The Angela method

The sane method

Once the chiles were toasted, they went into a paper bag to steam so that the skins would be easier to remove. Ten minutes later, the skin rubbed right off, leaving smoky, sweet chile flesh behind. Okay. The skin should have rubbed off. It mostly did. Nobody noticed any that maybe got left behind when they were chopped up.

This was the first time Paul or I had ever had fresh Hatch chiles to deal with on our own. We were prepared for spiciness, but they were so mild and sweet. The heat level of them was comparable to a bell pepper, but the thickness and texture of the flesh was more like a poblano. I can see why Hatch chile season is such a big deal. I could eat these with everything.

We spent a while trying to decide what to serve with our creation. We definitely didn’t want anything that would overpower those chiles. We ended up keeping our meal seasonal by serving it with mashed sweet potatoes seasoned with sorghum and a healthy pinch of ancho chile powder.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Hatch Chile Stuffed Pork Loin

Combine the topping ingredients well and put in front of the filling.
Collect royalties.

Obviously, I am rather cynical about the world of romance novels. When it comes right down to it, though, it’s more a matter of envy than anything. I wish I could write dialog. I wish I could conceive captivating characters and intriguing plots, but that’s just not where my strengths lie. I am definitely a food guy, and I’m happy about it.

One nice thing about being a food guy is getting the occasional cookbook in the mail to review. The most recent one came with a surprise though–the publisher is Harlequin, the famed home of romance. The Sweet Magnolias Cookbook: More Than 100 Favorite Southern Recipes is by Sherryl Woods with Chef Teddi Wohlford. The cookbook is from Harlequin because Woods is the author of ten novels (so far) in the Sweet Magnolias series from the romance (and cookbook) publisher.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I have never read any of the series; never heard of it actually. I have to say I like the cookbook though. The series revolves around the town of Serenity, South Carolina, and the recipes come from places all over town, including the fine dining restaurant, the farmers market, and “Mama Cruz’s Recipe File.” It’s a community cookbook, even if the community isn’t real.

I’m a big fan of community cookbooks. The only thing I really remember from my grandmother’s cookbook, The Greenleaf United Methodist Cookbook, is Brother Pepper, the young pastor of the church at the time. (I was maybe 10.) But I do remember dinner on the grounds, the good food that entailed, and the sense of togetherness it promoted. We have other cookbooks from places we know absolutely nothing about, but we love them just the same.

I can see this cookbook being a big hit with fans of the Sweet Magnolias series because they already have a connection. I think that anyone who loves community cookbooks would like this one also. Just be warned, you may find yourself drawn into the world of Serenity, South Carolina, as well.

Of course we dived right into “Mama Cruz’s Recipe File” and decided to make Jacked-Up Tex-Mex Macaroni & Cheese. One change we made was to let Patric make his tacocat magic seasoning blend instead of a packet of mix. We had to make one tweak because the liquid binding was twice as much as we needed. I haven’t scoured the other recipes, but that did give me the community cookbook sense because those recipes always work best in their creators’s kitchens. The cynical part of me thinks this shouldn’t have happened in a “real” cookbook, but the romantic part of me is just charmed by the whole thing and doesn’t care that much. The results were darned tasty.

Disclaimer: This book was received from the publisher as a review copy.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

The Sweet Magnolias Cookbook

Stephanie is holding an online auction called Cookies for Cody to raise money to help her nephew. In the face of something as terrible and pervasive as cancer, it feels good to make a difference. It helps to know that we can do something for a child, for his family.

Angela and I are honored to be donating a personalized copy of The World in a Skillet. Other authors are also donating books to the auction. Even better, Stephanie’s baker friends are stepping up to provide the “cookies” part of Cookies for Cody. You have a chance to bid on cookies and other baked goods from some of the finest bakers around. The auction runs from July 27 to August 5. Please go check it out. Get yourself a sweet treat and do something good for a sweet little boy.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Cookies for Cody

Appetizer Course

Little Tokyo Tuna Tartare, Ohitashi, Cucumber Kimchi

Angela was in fine form with her plating. Everyone was wowed by kimchi rosettes

First Course
Pastel de Choclo

Second Course
Tarhana Corbasi, Chicken Kebab

We served the pastel, a Bolivian corn, chicken, and sausage pie in individual ramekins. The tarhana corbasi, a paprika and mint flavored Turkish yogurt soup, was served with a Kurdish chicken kebab on the side. It wasn’t that the dishes weren’t photogenic. It’s just that we were trying to stay out of the weeds, so we didn’t get photos of the finished dishes.

Third Course

Cevapcici, Bosnian hand-rolled sausages made with a blend of beef, lamb and pork served with kajmak cheese spread and avjar vegetable spread on flatbread we picked up at Jerusalem market.

Fourth Course

Twice Cooked Pork

Again Angela’s plating was impressive with her bok choy “pagodas.” This was everyone’s favorite dish.

Dessert Course

Calas, Mato ke Nabinyebwa

The picture is of calas, a New Orleans sweet rice fritter, straight out of the fryer. The mato ke nabinyebwa is a traditional Ugandan dish of plantains and peanut butter. Angela added allspice simple syrup for extra sweetness and Hatcher Dairy cream to make it into a mousse.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

WKNO FM Pledge Dinner

Sumac may not be a part of your spice rack, but it should be. It imparts a pleasantly tart flavor to food. Native Americans used sumac in a drink that was similar to lemonade. It’s not unreasonable to think that they would have used it to season their food. In this recipe, honey counters some of the tartness of the sumac, while also making for a nice glaze.

On the other side of the world, you’ll also find sumac used as a tart enhancement in Middle Eastern food, and it’s a common ingredient in the spice blend za-atar.

Kitchen Passport

If quail aren’t readily available to you, feel free to substitute 4 Cornish game hens. The glaze is also wonderful over chicken, turkey, or pork. The honey-sumac blend works with grilling as well and is great stirred into plain Greek yogurt.

Sumac is a beautiful purplish-red powder that can make intriguing sweets that can test your tasters’ palates. Pair it with the color and flavor of pomegranates. Add a pinch to chicken salad with grapes and almonds. Sprinkle lightly over grilled fish.

Post from: From the Southern Table
(C) 2013 Paul and Angela Knipple

Honey-and-sumac-glazed Quail