Basic to Brilliant, Y’all
150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company
It was a delight to pick up the newest cookbook from Virginia Willis. A newly appointed Southern Girl myself, Willis’ mix of great messaging about sustainable, realistic eating and cooking is fabulous. She debunks marketing messages about what to shop for, fresh farm eggs, free-range chickens and more. Willis provides interesting anecdotes, such as composting stories from her days as kitchen director for Martha Stewart Living Television.
She writes, “I was responsible for ensuring we composted for the garden, recycled and saved any bits appropriate for chicken feed, resulting in very little trash. (Martha taking a cure from simple country living, has been defining green for decades.) Once a rubber band was found in the feed, and I held my breath for a few days, hoping none of the flock fell to foul, not fowl play.”
Willis’ no nonsense conversational writing makes the cookbook a great bedside read, with the added bonus of having a creative style of approaching recipes. Featuring150 recipes that combine Southern flavors with time-honored French technique, Willis includes a sophisticated variation that kicks each dish up a notch to make it ‘brilliant.’ So the reader ends up with an additional 150 dual recipes: a soul-satisfying basic recipe accompanied by a technique, garnish, additional step, or short recipe that transforms a wonderful dish into a show stopper.
My favorite recipes I tossed up from my own chicken’s supply and arugula from our Georgia New York City
And I am looking forward to testing out her Warm Summer Shrimp Salad next summer with our garden’s heirloom tomato varieties. And speaking of heirloom, I love that Willis just provides simple explanations to readers being bombarded with today’s marketers trying to sway them to make purchases with works like artisan, heirloom, heritage and hormone-free.
You'll love this book. And it will make a great gift this holiday season. Or better yet, see if you can get to one of Virginia's cooking school classes. For Atlanta natives, are several classes this fall at several Cook's Warehouse locations. Check it out.
If you're local to the mountains, we're sure gonna give it a try to get here cooking here at The Farm next year when we've got the cooking school built out!
For more information, please visit www.virginiawillis.com
Here's a recipe for you....made with beautiful fresh Georgia trout that we also serve up at Harvest on Main fresh from our local waters.
Pan-Seared Georgia Trout
Serves 4
1/4 cup canola oil, plus more for the baking sheet
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 cup plain or whole-wheat fresh or panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 (6- to 8-ounce) skin-on trout fillets
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 200°F. Brush a rimmed baking sheet with canola oil and place in the oven to warm. Combine the pecans, breadcrumbs, and parsley in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Season with salt and pepper. Press the flesh side of each fillet into the pecan mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place 2 trout in the pan, crust side down, and cook until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn and cook until fish is opaque in the center and just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the trout to the prepared baking sheet, crust side up. Place the baking sheet in the oven. Repeat the process with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and the remaining
2 trout fillets. Transfer to warmed serving plates and serve immediately, garnished with the lemon.
Brilliant: Short Recipe
Pecan Brown Butter
Basic panfried trout is elevated to Brilliant when dressed with Pecan Brown Butter.
Wipe the skillet clean with paper towels. Add 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter and melt over medium heat. Allow the butter to foam and turn medium brown, swirling the pan occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat, add the finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, and 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley; season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the trout, crust side up, on warmed serving plates. Drizzle with the pecan butter. Serve immediately.
Photo credit: Helene Dujardin © 2011
“Reprinted with permission from Basic to Brilliant, Y’all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company by Virginia Willis, copyright © 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.”
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