Blender

One of the things I love most about Southern food is how it is constantly evolving, and these days that change has a lot to do with the culinary traditions of recent immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, and Central and South America. I first learned how to make mole from my friend Saul, after I tried his rendition at one of my favorite Durham restaurants, Nana’s, and persuaded him to teach me how to make it myself. The South’s favorite game bird is smothered in this rich, spicy Mexican sauce infused with dark chocolate and spices, thickened with ground seeds and nuts, and spiked with numerous chiles, exemplifying the old-yet-new trend. The result is incredibly complex and distinctive. You will have extra mole, so give it a try on other dishes, like eggs, grilled chicken, or steak.

Every Thanksgiving, my friend Carl, who is also a pastor, makes his deep-fried turkey for some of the women in his church. Using a turkey fryer frees up the oven to make lots of sides, stuffing, and pies. Carl seasons his turkey with plenty of cayenne pepper, so much that it made me nervous the first time I saw him make it. But I shouldn’t have worried—it came out perfectly browned and crisp, with just a hint of heat. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your fryer and get a turkey that will fit easily in the fryer, no more than fourteen pounds. It is safest to cook this outside.

This easy butter preparation adds an unexpected flavor dimension to any dish and is equally good on steaks, steamed broccoli, roasted fingerling potatoes, or fish and rice.

The contrasting flavors, textures, and colors make this vibrant summertime dish a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. It is tops served with a fried egg for breakfast, and you can turn it into a filling lunch or dinner by scattering the cakes with grilled shrimp or chicken breast.

Every summer when the Carolina shrimp are in season, Nana’s, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Durham, makes a delicious shrimp chowder that is the inspiration for this light and succulent soup. Nana’s version is rich and creamy—closer to a traditional potato chowder—but because I love the sweetness of the corn and shrimp together, I make mine thinner, more like a corn chowder. To give this dish extra oomph, I add the shrimp at the very end, so they are tender and extra sweet, and top with Crispy Fried Oysters Four Ways (page 117).

My friend Phyllis from Mississippi makes this vibrant and creamy squash soup when she comes to visit us in the summer. It’s such a quick and easy way to make use of fast-growing summer squash that it’s bound to become one of your summer staples, too.

No matter how many tomato sandwiches, salads, or platters of thick, salted slices we eat, come August we can never seem to keep up with the overabundance of tender-ripe Beefsteaks, Early Girls, Cherokee Purples, and Arkansas Travelers taking up semi-permanent residence on the kitchen counter. Everyone develops a strategy for the happy problem of too many tomatoes: in some people it inspires bouts of generous and indiscriminate gift giving; in others, a frenzy of canning and freezing. This light and satisfying take on cream of tomato soup is my favorite solution.

A favorite from the land of the Jazz Brunch … Sometimes this is made with half-and-half, cream, or even ice cream to create a richer drink.

My Bayona staff served this dessert at the Taste of the NFL, a huge hunger-relief fund-raiser that we have participated in for over fifteen years. It takes place the night before the Super Bowl in the host city and is attended by more than 2,000 people, dining on food donated and prepared by chefs representing each NFL team. In seventeen years we have raised over $5 million for food banks and relief agencies all over the country. Now that’s a party with a purpose!

While these are definitely a contemporary take on a Mexican classic, vegetable enchiladas are as satisfying and flavorful as any meat version. The preparation takes some time, but they’re a cinch to assemble. My advice is to make the sauce a day in advance or to start this early in the day before you get too hungry. The only difficult part about this recipe is deciding what vegetables to leave out. There are countless choices, but I’ve narrowed it down to a tasty combination that works well with the mildly spicy sauce. Substitute or add your seasonal favorites, including—but not limited to—chayote squash (known as mirliton in New Orleans), corn, yellow squash, pumpkin, eggplant, and so forth. If you want to fire up the grill, that’s another great way to prepare the vegetables. Just keep the veggies in large pieces, brush them with a little olive oil and seasoning, and grill a few minutes on both sides; then cool them and cut into smaller pieces. You also have a number of cheeses to choose from, such as white cheddar, Monterey Jack, and pepper Jack.

I serve this unexpected puree (cauliflower as sauce, who knew?) with seared or grilled scallops, beef, or salmon. Simply place the warm fish or meat atop a pool of the cream.

This pretty, rich-tasting pesto enhances simple grilled fish or meats (try it with grilled chicken thighs). You might also consider serving it on an antipasto platter rolled up in strips of grilled eggplant, or tossed with small balls of fresh mozzarella called bocconcini, or “little mouthfuls.”

This is a good way to make the most of a small amount of peas (or favas). Serve alongside some wild mushrooms sautéed with a little dice of bacon for an easy springtime starter. By the way, if, in a following life, I could come back as any vegetable, I think I would be a fava bean, so I could slumber inside that velvety soft pod. Just a thought.

This incredibly simple, delicious sauce is great with Hibachi Souvlaki (p. 164), Turkish Stuffed Eggplant with Spicy Lamb and Rice (p. 280), and good ol’ falafel sandwiches. Double the batch for parties and backyard barbecues (it’s great on lamb burgers and grilled merguez sausage, too). It keeps well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Green and pungent, this is my favorite version of the famed Argentinean sauce. For a more traditional version, substitute fresh oregano for the cilantro, and red wine vinegar for the lime juice. Serve it with fat, juicy rib eyes, grilled chicken breasts, or tuna steaks.

I remember a time when gazpacho became very trendy and was on every menu. I decided to come up with a different version—even with a different color. It was José Andrés of Jaleo in Washington, D.C., who made the best Spanish gazpacho I ever tasted, so I borrowed his technique of frying the bread in olive oil. The toasted flavor and richness of the fried bread helps mellow the acidity and round out the flavors of the other ingredients. The shellfish garnish is not necessary but makes the dish a little more elegant and sumptuous.

I belong to the growing cult who believe that celery is an underappreciated vegetable. Used raw, it has a juicy, nutty crispness that stands on its own with just a couple of other ingredients. When cooked, the flavor becomes deeper and richer, as it does in this soup. Don’t be fooled by the deceptively simple sound of this soup. This celadon puree is elegant and comforting, and can serve as the basis for more complex variations, such as adding leeks, asparagus, broccoli, or poached shredded chicken. Judicious seasoning is important, as salt will really round out the flavors. Croutons made from multigrain bread are the perfect garnish.

The secret to this soup, a luscious puree of caramelized garlic and onions thickened with French bread, is patience. I originally developed it at Savoir Faire. At the time I had a boyfriend who frequently traveled to Mexico. He would rave about sopa de ajo—a broth flavored with garlic and egg—and it sounded so earthy and scrumptious that I decided to try to make it. My approach to recipe development typically involves looking up several versions of a dish, then taking what I like from each of those recipes. That’s exactly how this soup was created. I trained with French chefs, so a puree leapt to mind. Then I read that in Latin countries soups are often thickened with bread. One version relied on fish stock, but I thought chicken stock would be more universally appealing. So I stirred all my ideas together, my mentor Daniel gave it his enthusiastic blessing, and my first true culinary creation was born. When we initially started making this soup, my dishwashers had to peel 10 pounds of garlic at a time. Thankfully, these days at Bayona, we buy peeled garlic by the gallon. In order to develop the proper deep, rich flavor, it’s essential to take your time cooking the garlic. You need to stir the mixture a lot over low heat and wait until the onions and garlic get very dark and caramelized. I love garnishing this soup with tiny croutons that provide a crunchy contrast to the silky body.