Mess of Greens

full bellies | warm welcomes

fall

‘Simmon Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream

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Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

and bring it right now!

Now that I’ve discovered the incredible flavor that is wild persimmons,

That’s how I imagine that this Christmas carol would go if it had been written in the south. img_4562

My mama and I made some plum (figgy) pudding a couple of years ago and it was such a fun, nostagic project that had plans to make it every Christmas from then on, but honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of how it tasted. But this, y’all. Oh this. It turns out that European American settlers made this pudding all winter with the tiny squishy persimmons that grew wild (and that Native Americans had been gathering and eating all along) and, in my opinion, it’s SO MUCH more divine than the one they make across the pond. I tampered a teeny bit with a Saveur recipe and added some bourbon whipped cream, and well… I’d say it’s a holiday dessert MUST MAKE. Plus, although it takes a little time to cook, it is EEEEAAASSSY.

Note: If you don’t relish the job of foraging and then scooping out 2 cups worth of wild persimmon pulp, you can cheat and use store bought persimmons. I won’t tell.

Oh bring us some 'simmon pudding
 
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Serves: 1 9"x13" pan
What You Need
  • FOR THE PUDDING:
  • Pulp from enough ripe persimmons to make 2 cups (about 5 hachiyas or Fuyu, OR about 3 pounds of wild very smushy ripe persimmons)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 1⁄2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 1⁄2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
  • 1⁄4 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tbsp. butter, melted
  • FOR THE BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM
  • 1 Cup whipping cream
  • 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon bourbon
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350°. Place a large roasting pan filled with water ½ way or other way to create a water bath into the oven to warm. (Using a water bath will keep the center of the pudding moist. You can also use a traditional plum pudding mold that is then steamed...google that if you want to know more!)
  2. After you've gotten the fleshy pulp from the persimmons (if you're using wild, you'll need to skin them and also strain the pulp for the large seeds) add it and sugar into a large bowl.
  3. Beat in the eggs.
  4. Add in the buttermilk and baking soda into a separate medium bowl, and stir. Add to pulp, and mix well.
  5. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into the medium bowl (i like to reuse bowls when I can). Slowly add the flour mixture to the pulp, stirring until it's totally and thoroughly combined.
  6. Add heavy cream, and mix.
  7. Grease a 9'' X 13'' baking dish with a small amount of the melted butter
  8. Stir remaining butter into batter.
  9. Pour batter into dish.
  10. Place the baking dish into the water bath that's been warming in the oven, bake until dark brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 20 minutes. OR bake according to your traditional plum pudding mold directions.
  11. Set aside to cool. Serve with bourbon whipped cream. (recipe below)
  12. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
  13. In a COLD bowl and with a COLD whisk implement on your mixer (or your hand held emulsion blender) mix the cream, extract, bourbon, and sugar until frothy and until it has peaks. If you over mix it will turn into butter.

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Wild Persimmon & Bourbon Breakfast Bread

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Wild Persimmons: Bourbon Breakfast Bread
 
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The most time consuming part of this process is getting the persimmon pulp, but I assure you, the flavor is like NOTHING else and it's even more exciting because it grows wild and is connected to native peoples and early european settlers.
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast or Dessert
Serves: 4 loaves
What You Need
  • FOR THE BREAD:
  • 2 cups sifted cake flour
  • ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon Bourbon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups persimmon puree (about 3 cups of wild persimmons)
  • FOR THE FROSTING:
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 18 oz package cream cheese
  • 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp bourbon
  • 4 to 5 cups confectioners’ sugar
What to Do
  1. FOR THE BREAD:
  2. First things first: you have to get the persimmon puree'. A note about wild persimmons... you know they're ripe if they've fallen off the tree or are SUPER wrinkly and soft... like a deflated helium balloon. Once they're at that stage, and you've got a food mill, the you can use it to separate the skin and the seeds from the pulp. If not, then peel the skin away from the pulp and squeeze it into a wire strainer over a bowl. Using the back of a spoon, push the pulp through the strainer and into the bowl, leaving the large seeds. The pulp can be frozen for use later.
  3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  4. Prepare your bread or cake pans by coating the insides with butter and lightly flouring the inside.
  5. Mix all of the dry ingredients/spices except the sugar (flour, baking powder, soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon) together in a separate medium sized bowl. You may wish to sift this so they are combined consistently.
  6. Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the puree', the butter or oil, and the sugar until it is entirely incorporated.
  7. Mix in the eggs, the vanilla, and the bourbon.
  8. Cup by cup, mix in the dry ingredients into the puree' mixture. Fold in until just mixed together.
  9. Pour the batter into 2-8" round cake pans, or 2- 9" bread pans, or 4-5" bread pans and bake until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean. (somewhere about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your pan).
  10. FOR THE FROSTING:
  11. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until its all creamy.
  12. Add cream cheese and vanilla and bourbon, and beat until it's totally incorporated.
  13. Gradually increase the speed and beat until the cheese and butter mixture fluffy, scraping down the sides of bowl if you need to.
  14. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down if you need to until everything is fully incorporated.
  15. PUTTING IT TOGETHER:
  16. Once the cake has cooled, frost it, slice it and serve it with a cup of coffee. it is even good at room temperature or straight from the fridge.

How perfect are persimmons? The gorgeous, peachy-oranged fleshed fruit that ripen into wrinkly, sweet pulp are not only the most lovely subjects for still life paintings ever, but also have been used in foods from puddings to beer for generations (read more about its history at American Food Roots). Until my friend Joseph brought me some that he’d found in the woods I’d never tried one and didn’t know that they’d played a large role in the diets of native people in our part of the world AND my southern ancestors. But now I know why.

When I saw the perfect little rosy “sugar plums” I couldn’t resist biting into one….but boy did I regret it. The skin of wild persimmons, dispyros virginiania (small, peachy fruit with smooth skin that’s a bit smaller than a golf ball and has several large, hard seeds) is VERY, VERY bitter and made my mouth feel like I’d covered it in a dry, awful tasting powder. But the inside flesh was soft, very sweet, and super fragrant.

In fact, when I just got a taste of the flesh I was in love. It was divine! And so different! Eventually I’d like to make a beer or vinegar using this lovely little fruit, but to start, I made something I felt pretty comfortable with… persimmon bread loosely based on James Beard’s version but with the added ah-mazingness that is cream cheese buttercream. I also made another batch and shaped it into a cake, which was brown like pumpernickle bread but was something like carrot cake. It really was PERFECT for breakfast, and super easy. If you’ve got folks staying over for Thanksgiving, then this is a nice change from the ubiquitous holiday sweet rolls for breakfast, especially since it makes use of local wild fruit you can find in the woods AND harkens back to the earliest settler’s food.

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Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie

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So, when the weather turns cooler, we break out the cool weather food. chicken & dumplins, pot roast, and of course, pot pies. I have a pretty excellent and easy pot pie recipe that I made on the reg, but since we had some leftover quail meat AND my mama had been teaching me about the ease that is bechamel sauce, I decided to spice things up a little. Enter this baby.

Not only was I able to pull it together in about 30 minutes (minus baking time) my mama lent her artistic talents to supper and covered the top in tiny, pretty leaves of crust.

If you don’t have quail, sub in a little extra chicken, and make SURE to serve it with sweet potatoes and butter beans. Happy fall, y’all!

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Cool Nights call for Pot Pie: Quail & Chicken Pot Pie
 
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Serves: 6
What You Need
  • FOR THE FILLING
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • Wings and Legs from 10 quail
  • 4½ Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
  • 1½ Cups Milk
  • ⅛ teaspoon dried Oregano
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (onions, peas, carrots, celery), Thawed
  • 6 button mushrooms, sliced
  • FOR THE PIE
  • 1 package of premade pie crusts (2 crusts total)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tablespoons Milk
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Boil the chicken and quail until cooked all the way through
  3. Shred the chicken and pull the quail meat from the bone. Discard the bones.
  4. In a sauce pan, heat 4 Tablespoons of the butter until simmering, and whisk in the flour quickly
  5. Stir and let it bubble for about 1 minute while it thickens. Add in the milk a little at a time, stirring.
  6. Cook for about 2 more minutes to let the sauce thicken, then season with salt, pepper, and oregano.
  7. In a separate pan, heat ½ tablespoon of butter
  8. Add in the thawed vegetables and fresh mushrooms and sautee until softer but still slightly firm. Season with salt and pepper.
  9. Place one of the two pie crusts in a pie plate or deep, round casserole dish.
  10. In a mixing bowl, combine the chicken and quail meat and the vegetables, then pour the mixture into the casserole dish.
  11. Pour the Sauce over the top and allow to seep down.
  12. Cover with the second pie crust.
  13. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and the 2 tablespoons of milk to make a thin egg wash.
  14. Using a pastry brush, paint the top of your crust for a golden brown color.
  15. Bake the pie for at least 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and bubbling. If you find the top is turning TOO brown, cover with a piece of foil while it continues to bake.

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Fried Quail with Country Style Gravy and Grits

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Back when Jill & Ruffin got married, they sent us home with possibly the best party favors on the planet… 2 jars of honey from their beekeeping efforts and 22 frozen, cleaned quail that Ruffin had hunted earlier in the spring. Talk about hospitality! The first time I remember eating quail was around the holidays around my mother’s mother’s large, fancy, beautifully set dining table with all my aunts and uncles, so I mostly associate quail with feast days. It doesn’t HAVE to be that way. Quail are a very lean source of protein and have a lovely, mild, chicken-like flavor. Plus you can get them EASILY down south (For starters, you can get expensive ones in the grocery store, but then if you want to get more local, all over Texas, Alabama, & Louisiana people have set up quail hunting farms, and locally in Laurel, MS are some good folks raising, cleaning, and selling them straight to customers.)

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Foraged Beauties: Beautyberry Jelly

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Y’all, we got our first Free State Feasts virtual cookbook published and then things got really crazy really fast in life. I started a job that I just couldn’t turn down, our house started coming along really quickly and decisions had to be made about finishes and paint and light fixtures and stuff,  my little one got a cold and started school, AND I got an opportunity to start writing a food essay each month for a magazine. Cooking ended up taking a bit of a backseat for the past two weeks or so, but I’m back and I’ve got some awesome things to share! My friend, Joseph brought me a sack of wild persimmons, beautyberries, and chestnuts, and a sweet friend’s mama has been REALLY good to her basil plant this fall and she brought me a huge bouquet of it. All that is to say I’ve had some pretty incredible local ingredients to work with this weekend. Stay tuned for some stuff you’ll want to make yourself!

img_4364First up, beauty berry jelly. …

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G-Nut and Special Sauce… Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, and Cultural Appropriation

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this amazing modified Ugandan recipe over the past nine years. I used to have a roommate whose boyfriend (now husband), Jared, would cook with us three nights a week. We’d trade off and make sure there was a hot, homecooked meal on the table. It was a genius plan, and since the BF was vegetarian and we lived in a village (popluation 500) in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, it was also kind of necesary if he was going to eat anything other than french fries or mushroom quesadillas.
Anyway, this recipe came out of his Best of Vegetarian Times cookbook, and it was AMAZING. Super filling, pretty healthy, and gorgeous. I can’t believe it took me so long to share it with you since the basis of the recipe is sweet potatoes and the magic comes from a special peanut-sauce.
And this brings me to something else…something we haven’t discussed in a little while on the blog (though a lot in real life). Thanks to some articles (#1,#2, #3) floating around FB, I’ve been thinking about cultural appropriation a lot this week. Food Historian Michael Twitty has some pretty important things to say about it, and if you haven’t read or heard his thoughts on the importance of giving respect and credit (and more importantly, actual compensation) to those women (and men) who played HUGE ENORMOUS roles in the creation of the rich, diverse, amalgam that is southern food today, then  you should.

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Genius plan: Sweet potato & Spinach mac & cheese

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As the mom of a toddler who hates (HATES! DESPISES! DETESTS!) all green vegetables that aren’t either roasted, pureed, or fried, I’ve had to get creative about how to serve them to my little guy. What he doesn’t hate, though, is cheese. and what does he LOVE? well, mac ‘n cheese, of course. like everyone in all the land. My plan? combine what he hates with what he loves…. *diabolical laugh*

I’ve had some die-hard mac-n-cheese fans turn up their noses when I’ve mentioned adding vegetables to their most favorite food, but (and I can say this from actual experience and from the perspective of someone who REALLY loves Mac’n cheese,) it’s deeeeee-licious. Want to test it out on your own picky eater? (…or yourself. No judgement. I eat this off my little guy’s high chair tray BEFORE he can. it’s that good. I’m not ashamed about it. 😉 Here’s the recipe!

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The real deal…Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

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My mother in law, Shirley is an INCREDIBLE baker. A serious sweets maker. A sugar-craving away-taker.
So when she asked me to chip into the Thanksgiving preparations by making a pecan pie I felt more than a little nervous… thankfully, she was making an apple AND a pumpkin pie just in case. 😉

She also made enough crust so I could just use the flaky pastry she’s perfected over the years…which meant that I was really just in charge of the filling. I wanted to jazz up the standard pecan pie recipe she had just a bit, so I combined a couple of recipes that looked good and ended up with a Chocolate. Bourbon. Pecan. Pie. that was the real deal for people who need a little something (or a lot of something) sweet after ALL the thanksgiving gorging.

 
I wanted to share the recipe here since it was really tasty AND I was able to get Shirley’s fantastic pie crust recipe with tips and notes straight from the horse’s mouth.  Read on because it’s hard to find a foolproof pie crust recipe AND because I promise this pie isn’t only good in November.
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
 Serves 8-ish
 
What you need: 
For the Pie Crust…
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon of Crisco or other shortening
2 Tablespoons of cool water
 For the filling…
2 cups pecan halves or pieces
3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 Cup butter, melted
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons good-quality bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
What you Do:
Preheat your oven to 325.
Once that’s done we’ll get started with the crust… Shirley’s favorite recipe comes from a super Classic Betty Crocker cookbook. It’s clear that this book has been used and loved and cooked from for decades, and her pies are always SO good there’s no need to fix something that isn’t broken.

To make the crust, mix your salt into the flour in a medium mixing bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour/salt mixture using a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture is the size of peas. Shirley uses a fork, and works just right, so if you don’t have a pastry cutter, don’t fret or run out and buy one. (this is Shirley, hard at work.)

Add in the water, one Tablespoon at a time, sprinkling it around the flour/shortening mixture and stirring/working it into the flour with the fork until it’s moistened. At this point, you’ll need to get your hands in it (or WANT to… we’re making pie crust here!) Gather the dough together with your hands until it releases from the sides of the bowl. 
Press it into a ball. Whatever you do, don’t overwork the dough… this means, just press the dough enough in your hands to make it a ball.. anything more than that, you’re overworking it.
 

Now, lightly flour your work surface and turn the ball of dough out onto it. Lightly flour the rolling pin and/or the top of the ball of dough so it won’t stick. No really… lightly flour this so you don’t work too much flour into the dough otherwise it’ll be too tough.

 Flatten your dough ball just a little by hand, and then roll it out. If your dough cracks at the edges, you can work it back together with your hands.

Tip from Shirley: Roll the dough from the center of the ball OUTWARD so that your pie ends up a more uniform thickness.

You’ll need to roll the dough into a circle about 1/8″ thick. It’ll also need to be a 1″-2″ inches greater than the diameter of the pan. (so if your pan is 9″ in diameter, then you’ll want to have 10″ or 11″ circle of pie crust”

THIS IS TRICKY for the beginner, but you can do it! Make sure the top of the crust is lightly floured and fold the the dough circle in half to make a half-moon. Carefully (eeks!) lift the dough into your pie pan with the fold in the center and then unfold it to cover the entire pan. Lightly press the dough down onto the edges of the pan, and along the sides.
The dough will hang over the edge of the pan a little bit. It’s almost time to crimp the crust and make it pretty, but first  you’ll want to roll the dough along the edges back under so that you have a little extra ridge of dough to work with. Then, you can take your thumbs and make an imprint with a little raised ridge between each. Continue around the pan using both thumbs. You can technically also use a fork for this if you want a different kind of edge, but Shirley crinkles her nose and shakes her head at this tactic.”Use your thumbs,” she says.

 
At this point you can set the pie crust aside and start on your filling. Pull all your ingredients together, since this is a dump and stir kind of deal.
Start by combining your eggs and sugar and mix well. Add in your corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon and stir into the eggs, then add in your melted butter.


I added the pecans BEFORE the butter the first time, but I recommend adding the pecans and chocolate chips in last so that all of the liquid ingredients are able to mix and incorporate super well.

Pour the mixture into your pie crust and and bake at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the filling sets. Let sit to firm up and cool for a about 10 minutes, then cut and serve (ideally with vanilla ice cream!)
Hope you like Shirley and my first cooking collaboration (the first of many!)

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

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Folks in the Delta really love a potluck. Friendsgiving is next weekend in our little town, and I’m traveling an hour or so on Wednesday to get together with some teachers in another county… and on Saturday night, our friends Jess and Boyce (those of bourbon pecan ice cream fame) hosted a fun pumpkin-themed potluck party. They figure that canned pumpkin is sold seasonally, PLUS all the recipes for pumpkin are pretty delish, so why not just throw out all the stops and eat ALL of said recipes one fun, semi-chilly weekend in November? It doesn’t hurt they live on a huge beautiful farm in an old farmhouse with horses and lots of space for a bonfire. Last year I tried my hand at pumpkin gooey butter cake (huge, big time, epic fail), so this year I thought I’d go with something more in my wheelhouse AND something that would go with the signature main dish, spicy pumpkin chili:  pumpkin corn muffins. If I may say so, they were a pretty solid addition to the fare of cheesecakes, dips, and pumpkin eggnog. What’s your favorite pumpkin recipe?
 
Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
Makes 24
  
What you need:
2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cup cornmeal

1 1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 can canned pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs 

What to do:
Sift or mix the dry ingredients together well (sugar, flour, cornmeal, spices, baking powder) and then stir the wet ingredients (pumpkin, milk, melted butter, and eggs) lightly using a spoon or fork… I made a huge (HUGE) mess because my bowl wasn’t very deep and I thought the pumpkin and milk would blend easily… turns out pumpkin is THICK. anyway, tread lightly.

 

Mix it all together, spoon into about 24 muffin tins, and bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. They won’t be golden brown, but a toothpick will come out clean when they’re ready.

 

they were a big hit with the spicy pumpkin chili. Be warned, this makes for one filling meal as the pumpkin makes the muffins a little more dense than your typical cornbread. 🙂

THE tailgate cocktail: bourbon and ginger

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before we get started, a little confession: i’m really, truly, honestly not into college football. at all. not even a little bit.
now, i love a tailgate, and i love high school football (LOVE IT. there’s just something about cold weather, local pride, and a marching band that just tugs at my heartstrings) but i went to D3 schools for undergrad and grad school, and my folks just never were that crazy about it, so I just don’t really get the obsessive, soul-consuming passion so many southerners have about the college version. sorry, y’all.
really, i’ve tried to love it. boone is crazy about his alma mater’s team (the Demon Deacons) and my best friend katie sat next to me at an Ole Miss game a few years ago and talked me through every single play by play, thinking that if I knew what was going on, i’d enjoy it a little more…but nope. Now, I can sit still for 3 hours and cheer when I’m supposed to, but really I only want to watch games that I go to in person, and really only want to go to a game once or twice a year. oops. i hope this doesn’t ruin our relationship, y’all. even if I’m not crazy about the game, my love of social gatherings and reasons to cook and share food means i really, really love a tailgate. and who doesn’t have a delicious drink or two at a tailgate, am i right? it turns out that my favorite autumn and winter cocktail is a balance of warm bourbon and sweet, fizzy, spicy ginger ale. i’d been looking for a way to “fancy” it up a little bit this tailgate season (mostly for when i try to be supportive and watch wake forest on ESPN or the computer) when i found this garden & gun recipe for a homemade version of ginger ale and edited it a bit for my tastes. see if it hits your spot this football season.
Ginger Syrup for Bourbon and Homemade Ginger Soda
Makes approximately 15 drinks worth.
What you need for the syrup:
 2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 lb ginger root about 1/2 of one big piece you get from the store, peeled
1 tsp green or black peppercorns
For the cocktail
ice
bourbon
club soda
lemon
 
What to do:
after you’ve peeled the ginger, grate it using a cheese grater or microplaner. bring the sugar, water, and ginger to a boil in a small sauce pot. once it comes to a boil, and let it cook down until it is a little thicker (you’ll know if when you put a spoon into the pot if the liquid slides off slowly and leaves a residue, but you’re not looking for the consistency of glue or anything) this takes somewhere 5-10 minutes. remove the pot from the heat, add the peppercorns, and let the ginger steep and cool for about 30 minutes to an hour (if you’re in a rush, throw it into the fridge for a little bit.) strain the syrup and throw away the ginger, and store the syrup in an airtight container up to 4 weeks.
once you’re ready to enjoy your creation, fill a glass with ice and pour 2-3 tablespoons of the syrup with 1-2 oz bourbon. top with the club soda and a lemon or lime wedge and enjoy. you’ll find that this is significantly less sweet than a regular bourbon & ginger, and that the spiciness and flavor of the ginger comes through pretty clearly. it can also be served over ice cream or with pears, peaches, or apples. yeaaaah.