Side

Every Christmas, Crystal’s family (the Cook side) gets together for a holiday party at her Aunt Mary Ann’s. Since the family is so large, it’s the one time of year that everyone makes the effort to be there to visit with one another. Everyone brings a dish for the buffet, and we all eat like kings and queens. Crystal’s Aunt Sonja is known as one of the family’s best cooks. Always aiming to impress her guests, she relies on this side dish to do just that. And if you ever thought asparagus was boring, you’ll change your mind once you taste it all dolled up with shallots, artichokes, and baby portobella mushrooms. It’s a real showstopper.

Helping kids everywhere learn to love broccoli! This classic broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole will quickly become a favorite in your family. (Maybe they’ll forget to complain about eating something green.)

Say that three times fast! It’ll cook up even faster. This dish is easy to whip up, amazingly creamy and rich, and versatile. We particularly love it with our Damn Skinny Yankee Pot Roast (page 104) and our Tuna Noodle Casserole (page 53).

You betcha it ’s a hot dish! The history of the “hotdish” goes back to when budget-conscious farm wives needed to feed their own families as well as congregations of the first Minnesota churches. This filling side resembles a quiche and is packed full of flavor. Evaporated milk, which is thicker and richer than regular milk, helps give this dish its creamy texture. Perfect for cold winters, when you just need something warm and tasty in your belly.

One day, when thumbing through her mom’s recipe box, Sandy found this recipe from her Aunt Estelle. On the recipe card, Aunt Estelle had simply written the comment: “This is really good.” Knowing the caliber of cook that Estelle is, Sandy and her mom decided to try it, even though an onion casserole didn’t really sound like much. To their surprise, this is an absolutely amazing side dish. This recipe features the delicious 1015 onion. Created in Weslaco (just down the road from where Sandy grew up) by Leonard Pike, at the Texas A&M University Extension Service, Texas 1015 onions are known for their mild, juicy, and sweet characteristics, as well as the fact that they contain very little pyruvate (the chemical that causes strong flavor and leads to tears). So, no more crying in the kitchen—cooking is supposed to be fun!

This dish is so simply prepared, yet yields amazingly complex flavors. Sandy was inspired to make these tasty stacks from ingredients that seemed always to be on hand in her and Michael’s home. Because there are so few ingredients in this dish, it is imperative that your ingredients are quality. We also recommend that you take the time to make your bread crumbs from scratch, as it adds that extra something to the dish. And don’t worry about any extra bread crumbs getting stale; just store them in the freezer and they will stay fresh for months. If you find yourself with extra basil, don’t waste it! Use it to make some tasty pesto (see opposite).

Sandy doesn’t even like cornbread, and yet this is one of her favorite dishes. If you weren’t one before, we’ll make a cornbread lover out of you, too. This dish is extremely easy to make and works great when paired with our CQ’s Royal Cottage Pie (page 38) or our Shrimply Delicious Shrimp and Grits (page 54). It also can stand proud all on its own, making a great appetizer or a replacement for the rolls in your bread basket!

Who said macaroni and cheese is just for kids? It may have been during our adolescent days in the lunchroom where we fell in love with this all-American comfort dish, but this is not the macaroni and cheese of your childhood! Our version includes savory veggies, a rich medley of grown-up cheeses, and just enough cayenne to take this simple comfort food to a new gourmet delight. Makes a complete meal on its own or is a great side for just about anything, but we suggest serving it with some creamy tomato soup. Delish!

Crystal loves crab. So much, in fact, that she is willing to risk physical harm to get it. You see, Crystal has recently developed an allergic reaction to crab meat. She feels as though the universe is playing some cruel joke on her—and she’s just not ready to accept it. Allergy or not, this is one of her favorite casseroles. There is just something so irresistible about the sweetness of the crab and how it interacts with the earthy taste of the asparagus. Serve this creamy casserole over toasted French bread (much like an open-faced sandwich) and pour yourself a glass of a crisp white wine—you’ll be very thankful that you are not allergic.

We save time in this recipe (see page 76) by using ready-made crêpes. But if you have the extra time to make your own, you will only enhance your results. If working with crêpes is something you’ve never done, double the batter and give yourself plenty of time for a practice run!

Some simply don’t have the patience to wait the weeks necessary for sauerkraut to ferment, but we prefer this old-school way of preparing it. The wait was actually a big part of the fun when Crystal was a kid (apparently there wasn’t much to do in the North Georgia mountains).

I love me a mashed potato. Add a few cloves of garlic into the mix and you have lovely garlic mashers! Or for something really special, I substitute celery root for some of the potatoes. Celery root is my mother’s favorite vegetable, but in our little town in upstate New York it’s not always easy to find. One year for Christmas I got a huge bag of celery root and put it under the tree for her. She says it was the best Christmas present she ever got! If you haven’t tried celery root before, you’re missing out—it’s a big, craggy, knobby thing, it smells like celery, is slightly sweet, and has a wonderfully starchy texture kind of like a potato.

This is where you want to break out that lovely duck fat—the liquid gold saved from making Duck Breast with Dried Fruit and Vin Santo (page 152) or Cheater’s Duck Confit and Bitter Greens (page 154). If you didn’t remember to save the duck fat or don’t have any, you can certainly buy it. And in a pinch you can use olive oil. Duck fat is fabulous for frying because it has a relatively high smoking point (it can get really hot before it begins to break down), so it will make your potatoes golden brown and crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, and REALLY tasty. Save your duck fat; it’s worth it.

Roasted potatoes can be snore city. But when you do them well, they’re simple, totally rustic, and super-delicious. Fingerlings are perfect for roasting because they’re small and creamy, but a mix of red bliss and white new potatoes cut into bite-size pieces works well too. Don’t be afraid to use lots of olive oil, salt, and herbs here—and roast these lovelies until they’re brown, brown, brown. Remember, brown food tastes GOOD!

I’m a fan of anything called hash. When I was a kid my parents would make fried eggs for breakfast and bust out a can of corned beef hash—it was a huge treat. Now I jump at anything that reminds me of hash. In this recipe I mix together sweet potatoes, apple, onion, and, of course, a bit of bacon for my own take on hash—a bit sweeter and certainly healthier than anything from a can!

This is my interpretation of the French classic, pommes Anna. It’s just as elegant as the traditional version, but I’ve added Parm for a cheesy little twist. What’s beautiful about this dish is how the outside gets a delicious crispy crust while the inside has a wonderfully delicate texture, thanks to the layers of thinly sliced potatoes. I also love that you can make one cake and then just cut it into individual portions—super-cinchy!

I’m a huge fan of potatoes! Which is why I love this dish. It’s the perfect base for poached eggs at brunch, to sop up the juices of a big rib eye steak (page 156), to complement my fabulous brined pork chops (page 170), or just for lunch. When this was on the menu at my restaurant and I was craving something porky, cheesy, and delicious, I’d have one of the line cooks fry up one of these lovelies for me to eat while I worked. Yum!

Some people think of lentils only in terms of soup, but you can do a lot with the lowly lentil. Here I go for a classic flavor combo and add some beautiful bacon into the mix . . . as I always say, everything tastes better with bacon!

Any recipe that includes cauliflower makes me a happy girl. In this dish I roast cauliflower (which is one of the easiest ways to cook it) together with Jerusalem arties (a.k.a. sunchokes), and the payoff is huge: You get great flavor and a really sexy texture. Then I add some spices. The end result is a super-special, slightly exotic side dish—with a minimum amount of effort. This is the way I like to roll!

Historically, I have not been a huge fan of Brussels sprouts, but now I LOOOOOVE them—and I especially love them cooked this way. I’ll admit this approach takes some time—you start by peeling all the leaves off the sprouts—but it’s so worth it for the fluttery, frizzled fabulousness that happens once you cook them. Also, I find separating the leaves helps get rid of that cabbagey flavor that people who think they don’t like Brussels sprouts complain about. Listen: If you think you don’t like Brussels sprouts, try these; I’ve made a lot of converts this way. The salty deliciousness of pancetta, the crunchy nuttiness of walnuts, and the delicate little leaves make this something special—not like any Brussels sprouts you’ve ever had.