A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [18]
3. Arrange the bacon on the rack, preferably not touching, and sprinkle generously with the remaining sugar mixture.
4. Slide the pan onto the middle oven rack and bake uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes or until the bacon is richly browned and crisp. No need to turn the bacon as it bakes.
5. Cool the candied bacon to room temperature and serve with cocktails.
SAUSAGE-STUFFED MUSHROOM CAPS
MAKES 2 DOZEN
Some years ago I spent ten days driving up and down the James River in Virginia visiting the historic plantation houses located there. Although I marveled at their architecture and museum-caliber antiques, my main mission was to research the recipes—past and present—served in those homes. My good friend Maria Harrison Reuge, descended from an old Virginia family, supplied the entrée I needed, so I came home with a notebook full of plantation recipes. One of my favorites is this appetizer from Meri Major, of Belle Air Plantation, who treated me to lunch one day and proved why she was considered one of the best cooks in Tidewater Virginia. “I just grew up watching every kind of thing being cooked,” Meri told me. “Just about every part of the pig, wild turkey, every type of game, every type of seafood. I always had a natural affinity for cooking and was forever under foot in the kitchen.” For this snappy hors d’oeuvre, which she calls “just so simple,” Meri would use a peppery Virginia sausage. But any spicy bulk sausage will do. If only mild sausage is available, Meri suggests adding “a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper to the beaten eggs.” Tip: To keep the stuffed mushrooms hot while they’re being served, bake them in a 9-or 10-inch quiche dish attractive enough to come to the party. That’s what Meri does. “And put out plenty of pretty forked toothpicks,” she adds.
24 medium-size mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp cloth
½ pound spicy bulk sausage meat
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
1 tablespoon finely minced scallion or finely snipped fresh chives
1 small egg, well beaten
2/3 cup soft white bread crumbs or 1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
½ teaspoon soy sauce
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Stem the mushrooms. Set the caps aside and coarsely chop the stems.
3. Cook the sausage, mushroom stems, garlic, and scallion in a medium-size skillet for 5 to 8 minutes over moderately low heat, breaking up any large sausage lumps, until the meat is lightly browned. Remove from the heat, cool for 15 minutes, then mix in the egg, bread crumbs, and soy sauce.
4. Mound the sausage mixture in the mushroom caps, then arrange in an ungreased 9-or 10-inch quiche dish or ovenproof 9 × 9 × 2-inch baking dish.
5. Bake on the middle oven shelf for 10 to 12 minutes or until bubbling and browned. Serve hot with cocktails.
INDIVIDUAL CORN CUSTARDS WITH CARROT VINAIGRETTE
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
High above Waynesville, North Carolina, with its back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a full frontal view of Cold Mountain, stands the Swag, an elegantly rustic inn owned by Dr. Daniel P. Matthews and his wife, Deener. The massive wooden beams in the two-story living-dining room came from an old country church, altogether appropriate given the fact that for seventeen years Dan Matthews was the rector of Trinity Parish near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Breakfasts at the Swag are bountiful and so, too, the dinners. During my stay there several years ago, these delicate corn custards were served at the start of a superb lamb dinner.
Corn Custards
1 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2/3 cup fresh sweet corn kernels (you’ll need about 1 large ear)
Carrot Vinaigrette
½ cup coarsely chopped carrot (you’ll need about 1 medium carrot)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley
Garnish
1 medium radicchio, trimmed and