The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern_ Knockout Dishes With Down-Home Flavor - Matt Lee [35]
garnish it smoky
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With high-quality slab bacon. After the okra has finished toasting in the skillet and been transferred to the small bowl, scatter 2 ounces diced slab bacon (or 2 slices thick-cut bacon, diced) in the skillet, and cook over medium-high heat until it is firm and barely browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on a plate lined with a paper towel, and garnish each finished salad plate with the bacon.
GREEN GODDESS POTATO SALAD
serves 4 • TIME: 25 minutes preparation, 15 minutes resting
Like red velvet cake, green goddess dressing is a recipe that was dreamed up in a fancy hotel kitchen far from the South, but appears so frequently in southern cookbooks published in the mid-twentieth century that we’ve adopted it as our own. And really, what southerner wouldn’t? The name alone conjures images of herby, summer-garden bliss.
Green goddess is a mayonnaise-and-sour-cream dressing colored green with as many herbs as you’d like to add, and spiked with lemon juice and vinegar. The original recipe, invented in the kitchen of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel in the 1920s, calls for scallions and parsley (though the current chef there, Jesse Llapitan, favors chervil and tarragon). Ours adds a powerful dose of fresh tarragon, and we’re not shy with our black pepper either. Green goddess dressing is brilliant on everything from fried oysters to raw endive leaves. Here we adapt our recipe to a warm potato salad that’s a hero side dish to almost any protein.
Unlike red velvet cake, green goddess dressing recipes never call for food coloring!
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
2½ pounds small red potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
½ cup high-quality store-bought mayonnaise, such as Hellmann’s or Duke’s
½ cup sour cream
½ cup finely chopped scallions (white and green parts)
½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
2 anchovy fillets, minced, or ½ teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 Fill a 4-quart stockpot half full with water, add 2 tablespoons of the salt and the potatoes, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until just fork-tender but cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes.
2 While the potatoes cook, mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, scallions, parsley, tarragon, anchovies (if desired), vinegar, lime juice, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and the black pepper together in a large bowl.
3 Drain the potatoes well and add them to the bowl; toss with the dressing. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature (as the salad loses its heat, it will absorb the dressing). Serve at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days before serving.
CABBAGE AND LIME SALAD WITH ROASTED PEANUTS
serves 6 • TIME: 2 hours resting, 15 minutes preparation
Winter salads can be just as vibrant as June’s blowsy, lazy salads, if you use a little creativity. Pretty “red” cabbage—more of a purple if you ask us—and green cabbage can be wilted with salt and combined into a confetti that we bulk up with ribbons of tender baby spinach, and then toss with a simple peanut and cumin dressing. The resulting slaw-salad has a brisk tropical feel from the fresh bits of lime (a perfect winter fruit if ever there was one) and a satisfying crunch. The cabbages can be speedily shredded with a food processor, and can be salted a day ahead of time for quick assembly the day you intend to serve the salad. We recommend pairing it with Mushroom and Okra Purloo and Skirt Steak with Parsley Sauce.
½ small red cabbage, trimmed, cored, and shredded (about 6 cups)
½ small green cabbage, trimmed, cored,