Tennessee Treasures by Ruth Paget
Tennessee is world famous for its music (mountain music from East Tennessee, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, and Memphis for Beale Street Blues), its barbecue, and its Tennessee whisky, but after reading Tennessee Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker, you can see that Tennessee’s rich cuisine deserves better recognition as well.
The following appetizers and sides make resourceful use of Tennessee’s produce:
-cowpea caviar – made with green, yellow, and red peppers; onions; tomatoes; and parsley
-ham and cheese ball made with mushrooms and green onions
-lime and cilantro creamy coleslaw
-fried green tomatoes with onions and honey Dijon sauce
A calorie-rich lunch for snowed-in mountain days follows:
-sweet beer bread
-smoked sausage lentil soup
Tennessee whisky is the star of the following dishes:
-George Dinkel Tennessee whisky pork chops
-Jack Black barbecued ribs
-Jack Daniels country-style beef ribs
-Jack Daniels salmon
Wine lovers might like the following cake:
-muscadine wine coffee cake
Tennessee Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker wraps up with a monthly listing of music and food festivals, which have oral storytellers, beauty pageants, carnivals, food contests, and children’s games. The cookbook packs a lot of information into 256 pages, making it a good purchase for a home cookbook collection.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
