A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [191]
After failing to grab the New Orleans lunch crowd with his Chicken on the Run, Al Copeland rethinks his fast-food restaurant, spices up his fried chicken, and reopens as Popeyes. It is the first restaurant in a huge chain of Popeyes.
Newly acquired by the Federal Company, the Knoxville mill built by J. Allen Smith is renamed White Lily Foods after its bestselling White Lily Flour.
Sandy Beall and four University of Tennessee fraternity brothers open the first Ruby Tuesday restaurant next door to the Knoxville campus. Their aim of serving quality food at a fair price in a casual atmosphere catches on; today there are hundreds of Ruby Tuesdays scattered across the country.
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SWEET POTATO MERINGUE PIE
MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS
Tabor City, North Carolina, is “The Yam Capital of the World,” so it’s not surprising that the state stages its annual Yam Festival there the fourth weekend in October. “Yam” is a misnomer, for what Tabor City celebrates with parades and “yam royalty” coronations is the sweet potato harvest. North Carolina produces 40 percent of America’s sweet potatoes, more than any other state, so is it any wonder that this little town and outlying areas are blessed with imaginative cooks who prepare sweet potatoes every which way? This unique sweet potato pie is one of them. What makes it unique? For starters, the filling, made altogether with granulated sugar (no brown sugar) and spiced only with nutmeg (no cinnamon, no ginger), isn’t the usual custardy pumpkin-pie type; it has the silken texture of whipped sweet potatoes. And then there’s that cloud of meringue on top.
2 cups firmly packed unseasoned mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (you’ll need about 2 pounds of sweet potatoes)
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large pasteurized egg yolks (see About Pasteurized Eggs, frontmatter)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
One 9-inch unbaked pie shell (see About Pie Crusts, frontmatter)
3 large pasteurized egg whites, beaten to soft peaks with ¼ cup sugar (meringue)
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Beat the sweet potatoes, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in a small electric mixer bowl at moderately low speed for about 1 minute or until well blended.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the egg yolks one by one. With the mixer still at low speed, add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour the filling into the pie shell, smoothing to the edge.
3. Slide the pie onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.
4. Remove the pie from the oven and immediately spread the meringue over the hot filling, swirling into peaks and valleys and making sure that it touches the crust all around. Return the pie to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the meringue is tipped with brown.
5. Set the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature before cutting.
TAR HEEL GREEN TOMATO PIE
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
More than a hundred years old, this unusual pie was a dessert favorite at end-of-summer picnics back when I was an assistant home demonstration agent in Iredell County, North Carolina. Always held in August (green tomato time), these feasts were—and still are—the surest way to taste southern country cooking at its best. I soon learned that if I wanted any green tomato pie, I’d better grab a slice at the outset and save it for dessert; it disappeared that fast. Tip: If I’m in a rush, I’ll use the commercial unroll-and-use pastry circles now sold at many supermarkets (look for them near the refrigerated biscuits) instead of making the crust from scratch. The elderly farm woman who gave me this recipe so many years ago would have loved these handy time-savers.