A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen

Creative, charming, informative, inviting, and amusing!

This is a wonderful resource cookbook that will inspire any cook, with or without Southern heritage, to get in the kitchen and cook some "Southernist" food. Born in Canada, Chef Acheson pays homage to classic Southern cuisine, but with a twist or two. Accordingly, although I live in the cold north country, I find the recipes and ingredients accessible: I certainly didn't feel left out, and stuck a lot of virtual Post-Its on the recipes. It's a Southern cookbook, so we expect to find some fresh ingredients harder to come by in colder climates. For example, Medjool dates, ramps, fava beans, and, of course, okra. However, the ingredients are mostly accessible, primarily because he so frequently suggests substitutions and sources. For example, if you can't get yours fresh off the boat, frozen shrimp are great, as long as they're American. You can use mozzarella if you can't find burrata, and chicken liver if you can't find duck liver. He gives us tips for finding fresh cardoons, wherever we are. He loves fresh green peanuts, but says canned are okay, and offers a source of good canned ones. He offers sources where helpful: for example, bresaola, cane vinegar, rendered duck fat, and his favorite country ham. He uses fresh oysters shipped from Canada. There are only a couple of ingredients, such as veal sweetbreads, fresh catfish, poussin, quail, and fresh blue crab, that may be a challenge for anyone not in the South and without a world-class butcher/fishmonger. Cooks will be pleased that he names specific favorite ingredients throughout the book: his favorite bacon, sauerkraut, mayo (you knew it would be Duke's, right?), grits, rice, dried beans, and many more. However, his pimiento cheese doesn't use the bottled peppers, and don't even think about using instant grits. There are amusing little drawings sprinkled throughout the book. "Hugh Acheson" is the first name listed under credits for "Illustrations," so I'm guessing that the author drew most of them, which I fi...