The Pat Conroy Cookbook (30 page)
Read The Pat Conroy Cookbook Online
Authors: Pat Conroy
1½ cups elbow macaroni
4 onions, chopped
Two 16-ounce cans whole tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, mashed, without their juice
¾ pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cook the macaroni. Drain and set aside.
3. Cook the onions in 3 cups boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain. Add the tomatoes and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, until liquid has evaporated. Add the cooked macaroni, cheese, butter, salt and pepper. Mix together and pour into a large greased casserole dish.
4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve hot.
COUNTRY HAM WITH BOURBON GLAZE
Now that I am older, I have eaten far too many slices of good country ham on biscuits in my lifetime at funerals too numerous to count. But this is the best recipe I know for anyone nervous around hams. Down here, when Southerners die, the pigs grow nervous.
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SERVES A CROWD (AT LEAST 12 TO 14) WITH LEFTOVERS
One 12- to 14-pound bone-in cured ham
½ cup apple juice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
FOR THE GLAZE
½ cup best-quality maple syrup
¼ cup bourbon
½ cup plus ¼ cup apple juice
1. Unwrap the ham and let it come to room temperature, at least 2 hours. This helps the ham absorb the liquid used in cooking, making the meat more flavorful.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
3. Pull away most of the rind (in many cases, this has already been done) of the ham and trim the excess fat to an even ¼ or ½inch. Using a sharp knife, score the fat lightly in diagonal lines to create a diamond pattern. Put the prepared ham, fat side up, in a sturdy, shallow baking pan and place in the oven. Mix the apple juice and ground cloves with 1 cup water and pour into the pan. Bake for 1½hours.
4. To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, combine the maple syrup, bourbon, and ¼ cup apple juice.
5. Without removing the pan from the oven (just pull out the rack, provided it is sturdy enough), pour the glaze over the top of the ham. Add the remaining ½ cup apple juice to the pan and continue cooking for another 45 minutes, basting frequently. (You are looking for about 140°F on an instant-read meat thermometer.) Remove the pan from the oven and allow the ham to cool on a rack before carving and serving.
BISCUITS
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MAKES 12
2 cups self-rising flour (preferably White Lily)
½ teaspoon salt
3. teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces
1 scant cup buttermilk
1. Preheat the oven to 450° F. Place rack in middle of oven.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the cold butter pieces to the flour and cut in with two knives (or rub butter into flour with your fingers). When the mixture resembles coarse crumbs the size of peas, pour almost all of the buttermilk in and stir with a wooden spoon just until dough forms one piece. If the dough doesn’t come together, add the remaining buttermilk.
3. Turn the dough out onto a dry, lightly floured work surface. Using a wooden rolling pin, roll into a rectangle about ½inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or the open end of a glass to cut rounds of dough.
4. Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet. The scraps of dough can be gathered and rolled again one more time. If not baking the biscuits immediately, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
5. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Serve hot.
GRITS CASSEROLE
This is the best grits casserole I have ever eaten. Grits provide an empty canvas for all kinds of experimentation. I have cooked the casserole using different kinds of cheese, thrown in a nugget of garlic or a ragout of wild mushrooms. Grits is a food that for gives almost any kind of messing around or tomfoolery by a cook. The best grits I have ever tasted come from Anson Mills out of Columbia, South Carolina. Of course, they are stone-ground.
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SERVES 6
½ teaspoon coarse or kosher salt
1 cup slow-cooking stone-ground grits
½ pound andouille sausage, chopped
2½ cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup heavy cream
Tabasco sauce
Coarse or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. In a large saucepan over high heat, bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add the salt and slowly pour in the grits. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until grits are done, about 40 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
3. In a small saucepan, sauté the sausage until it is slightly crispy, 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside.
4. Remove grits from the stove and add the cheese, stirring until smooth. Beat in the eggs and cream. Add the sausage and season to taste with Tabasco and salt and pepper.
5. Pour the grits into a 2-quart soufflé dish and bake until they are set and lightly browned on top, about 40 minutes. Serve hot.
CURRIED POACHED FRUIT
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SERVES 8 TO 12
1 lemon
One 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
½ cup granulated sugar
4 pears, peeled, cored, and thickly sliced
4 peaches or apples (depending on the season)
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1 cup pineapple, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cup cherries, pitted, or ½ cup dried cherries
4 apricots, pitted and quartered, or ½ cup dried apricots
1 cup seedless green grapes
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1.
Using a vegetable peeler, cut strips of zest from the lemon (not including the white pith). Squeeze juice for the poaching liquid.
2. Make the poaching liquid by combining the lemon peel and juice, ginger, 4 cups water, and the sugar in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. Place the fruit in poaching liquid. If the liquid does not cover the fruit, gently push the fruit down to submerge it. Return the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the tip of a sharp knife can easily pierce the fruit, 5 to 10 minutes. (Since cooking time varies with the ripeness of the fruit, test frequently.)
4. Drain the fruit in a colander. Discard poaching liquid.
5. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
6. In a large skillet, melt the butter. Stir in the brown sugar and curry powder. Carefully fold in the fruit (so as not to mash it) with a plastic spatula. Transfer to a glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S PUNCH
This recipe came to us from the Reverend William Ralston. It was actually the Mount Vernon Christmas punch he got from Martha Washington Jackson, which she had from her aunt, Mrs. George A. Washington (Quennie Woods, who lived at Sewanee). They were both part of the collateral Washington family.
Father Ralston told us that he feels that the special thing about this punch is the way all those alcohols mix and blend. “It is as smooth as velvet,” he said. “It also does not leave you feeling ‘punchy’ the next day,
although you certainly can drink too much of it. It also makes the base for the world’s best old-fashioned—add soda water and an orange slice. Divine!
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SERVES A CROWD
1 quart strong brewed English Breakfast tea, sweetened
1 gallon good-quality bourbon
1 gallon sherry
1 quart sweet vermouth
1 pint best-quality Jamaican rum
1 pint yellow or green Chartreuse (I prefer green)
4 bottles champagne, or more to taste
12 lemons, each cut into 4 wedges
1 quart maraschino cherries, without stems but with their juice
Combine the first six ingredients. When it is time to serve the punch, add champagne—as much as you wish. Add lemon wedges and cherries to the punch and serve. (The punch is much improved if allowed to stand for at least 1 week before serving.)
An ice ring (made in a Bundt pan filled halfway with water and the cherries) looks good and helps keep the punch cold when serving
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Dried fruit also can be substituted for fresh. If using fresh peaches, blanch the peaches in boiling water for 15 seconds. Peel and halve the peaches, remove the pits, and thickly slice. If using fresh apples, peel, core, and thickly slice
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