A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (56 page)

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

½ cup cold water

One 7-pound chunk ripe watermelon

One 6-ounce can frozen pink lemonade or limeade concentrate, thawed

¼ cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice, or to taste

¼ teaspoon salt

Two to three drops red food coloring (optional)

• 1.
  Soften the gelatin in the cold water in a small heatproof bowl, set in a larger bowl of boiling water, and stir until the gelatin dissolves. Set aside.
  
• 2.
  Discard the watermelon seeds and rind, then cut the flesh into 1½-inch chunks. Purée in batches in a food processor or electric blender at high speed. Reserve 6 cups of the purée. Drink the rest as a “smoothie” or combine with a fresh fruit cocktail.
  
• 3.
  Mix the dissolved gelatin into the purée along with all remaining ingredients. Taste and add more sugar and/or lime juice, if needed.
  
• 4.
  Pour the watermelon mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
  
• 5.
  Dish up and serve.
  

FROZEN FRUIT SALAD

MAKES
8
SERVINGS

No southern cookbook would be complete without at least one frozen fruit salad because they were all the rage fifty years ago. Apparently they were known even earlier; in
Fashionable Food
(1995), Sylvia Lovegren reprints a frozen fruit salad recipe that had appeared in
The Kelvinator Book of Recipes
in the late 1920s or early ’30s—just when refrigerators were replacing iceboxes in homes across the South. (In some areas, Kelvinator is generic for refrigerator, as in “Honey, would you go to the Kelvinator and get me a Coke?”) As for frozen fruit salads, I don’t remember their being popular in my hometown of Raleigh until the ’50s. Suddenly everybody was talking about them. And in competitions as fierce as any card game, bridge club hostesses were one-upping one another by creating ever more cloying frozen fruit salads. Calling them “salads” was absurd, a silly euphemism. They were dessert pure and simple although often served on iceberg lettuce
—
with
the main course. This recipe is representative of the frozen fruit salads so popular in the 1950s South, also of those endlessly recycled in community cookbooks. I like the fact that it contains chopped pecans and doesn’t contain canned fruit cocktail or whipped cream. Still, it’s plenty rich.

One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature (use the lighter version, Neufchâtel, if you like)

One 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, with its liquid

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

One 6-ounce jar red maraschino cherries, drained

One 3.5-ounce jar green maraschino cherries, drained

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

• 1.
  Combine the cream cheese, crushed pineapple, and lemon juice in a large bowl, then fold in all remaining ingredients.
  
• 2.
  Scoop into a nonreactive 8 × 8 × 2-inch baking dish, spreading to the corners. Cover with aluminum foil and freeze for several hours or until firm.
  
• 3.
  Cut into large squares and serve.
  

SWEET POTATO CHEESECAKE

MAKES
10
TO
12
SERVINGS

Southerners so love sweet potatoes that they will stir them into soups, salads, breads, puddings, cakes, even cheesecakes. There may be as many cheesecake recipes as there are cooks who make them but this one of mine “gets a gold star,” as one friend put it. The variety of sweet potato that I prefer is the red-skinned Beauregard because of its brilliant orange flesh. Note:
For better flavor, I bake the potato instead of boiling it—one hour at 400° F. is about right. Be sure to prick the potato several times before it goes into the oven, otherwise it may explode. Cool the potato until easy to handle before peeling and puréeing—a snap in the food processor. I also buzz the gingersnaps to crumbs in the processor and chop the pecans there as well. I’ve even been known to mix the filling by processor, churning the first nine ingredients until smooth, pulsing the eggs in one at a time, then with the machine on, drizzling the milk down the feed tube as slowly as possible.

Crust

2 cups fine gingersnap crumbs (about forty 2-inch-round cookies)

1 cup pecans, very finely chopped

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

¼ cup raw sugar (available at most supermarkets)

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Filling

Two 8-ounces packages light cream cheese (Neufchâtel), at room temperature

1¼ cups firmly packed puréed, baked sweet potato (about 1 very large or 1-pound sweet potato)

²
/
₃
cup raw sugar ¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon bourbon

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

2 jumbo eggs

1 cup evaporated milk (use “light,” if you like)

Topping

1 cup sour cream (use “light,” if you like)

¼ cup raw sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup finely chopped, lightly toasted pecans (4 to 5 minutes in a 375° F. oven)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 2.
  For the crust: Combine all ingredients and pat over the bottom and halfway up the sides of an ungreased 10-inch springform pan. Slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or just until the crust firms up a bit. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
  
• 3.
  Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Beat the cream cheese, sweet potato, two sugars, bourbon, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a large electric mixer bowl at medium speed for about 1 minute or until smooth. Beat the eggs in one by one, then with the mixer at low speed, add the milk in a thin, slow stream. Beat a few seconds longer or until smooth.
  
• 4.
  Rap the bowl of filling on the counter several times to expel large air bubbles, then pour into the crust and spread to the edge. Set on a large baking sheet, slide onto the middle oven shelf, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the filling is set like custard.
  
• 5.
  Meanwhile, prepare the topping: Whisk the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together in a small bowl, then set aside.
  
• 6.
  When the cheesecake tests done, remove from the oven (baking sheet and all), set on a wire rack, and cool for 10 minutes exactly. Also raise the oven temperature to 475° F.
  
• 7.
  Using an offset spatula, carefully spread the topping over the partially cooled filling; it should touch the crust all around. Sprinkle the toasted pecans evenly on top.
  
• 8.
  Return the cheesecake, still on the baking sheet, to the middle oven shelf and bake for 10 minutes—no longer.
  
• 9.
  Remove the cheesecake from the oven and from the baking sheet. Set on a wire rack and cool for 45 minutes, then place in the coldest part of the refrigerator and slide a large round tray on top (a pizza pan is perfect). Cool for at least 12 hours or better yet, overnight.
  
• 10.
  To serve, release the springform clamp and lift off the sides of the pan. Leave the cheesecake on the pan bottom and cut into slim wedges.
  

BANANAS FOSTER CHEESECAKE

MAKES
10
TO
12
SERVINGS

I’ve breakfasted on Bananas Foster at Brennan’s, the New Orleans restaurant where chef Paul Blangé created the recipe more than fifty years ago. Named for Richard Foster, a local merchant and Brennan’s regular, this classic (bananas caramelized, flamed with rum, and served over vanilla ice cream) has appeared in countless cookbooks and is now all over the Web. But few know this elegant variation, which I had the good sense to order at Café Vermillionville in Lafayette while researching a Louisiana article for
Gourmet
.
Bananas Foster Cheesecake is a make-ahead and about all it has in common with the Brennan’s classic are bananas, butter, brown sugar, and rum.

Crust

Nine 5 × 2½-inch graham crackers

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted

12 to 13 ladyfingers, halved crosswise

Banana Filling

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons banana liqueur

2 tablespoons dark rum

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¹
/
₈
teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 medium firm-ripe bananas, peeled, halved crosswise, then each half cut lengthwise into slices ¼ inch thick

¼ cup lightly toasted sliced almonds (about 5 minutes in a 350° F. oven)

Cream Cheese Layer

Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

5 large eggs, lightly whisked

2 tablespoons banana liqueur

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Praline Topping

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1½ tablespoons water

1½ cups very lightly toasted pecans (5 to 8 minutes in a 350° F. oven)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 10-inch springform pan well, then waterproof it by wrapping the outside with a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil; set aside.
  
• 2.
  For the crust: Place the graham crackers and sugar in a food processor or electric blender, then grind to fine crumbs. With the motor running, drizzle in the melted butter. Press the crumb mixture firmly over the bottom of the springform pan, then stand the ladyfingers, rounded ends up and “shoulder to shoulder,” around the side of the pan; press lightly into the crumbs to anchor.
  
• 3.
  For the banana filling: Place the butter and brown sugar in a large nonstick skillet, set over moderate heat, and cook, stirring often, for 5 to 8 minutes or until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Mix in the banana liqueur, rum, vanilla, and cinnamon and cook, whisking often, for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves completely.
  
• 4.
  Add the bananas, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 30 seconds. Turn the bananas gently and cook about 30 seconds longer or until slightly softened. Set off the heat and sprinkle in the almonds.
  
• 5.
  For the cream cheese layer: Beat the cream cheese and sugar in a large electric mixer bowl at high speed for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and beat in half of the eggs. Scrape the bowl well, then beat in the remaining eggs, the banana liqueur, and vanilla.
  
• 6.
  Scoop half of the cream cheese mixture into the graham cracker crust, smoothing to the edge, then bake uncovered on the middle oven shelf for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
  
• 7.
  Carefully spoon the banana filling over the baked layer, rearranging the bananas, if necessary, so that they do not overlap. Top with the remaining cream cheese mixture, again spreading to the edge.
  
• 8.
  Set the springform pan in a large shallow roasting pan and ease onto the middle oven shelf. Pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake the cheesecake uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden on top and set in the center.
  
• 9.
  Transfer the cheesecake to a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cover loosely and refrigerate for 24 hours.
  
• 10.
  Next day, prepare the praline topping: Place the butter and sugar in a large, heavy saucepan, set over moderate heat, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 to 8 minutes or until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Add the water and stir to incorporate. Fold in the pecans and cool the topping to room temperature.
  
• 11.
  To serve, release the springform clamp and lift off the sides of the pan. Leave the cheesecake on the pan bottom, then cut into slim wedges and ladle some of the topping over each portion.