SOUTHERN COOKING
FROM GEORGIA RESTAURANT CHEF HUGH ACHESON
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
A New Turn in the South - Southern Flavors Reinvented for your Kitchen
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307719553 0307719553
Hugh Acheson, chef at three restaurants in Georgia, modernizes Southern cooking by using local foods and classic culinary techniques.
Besides recipes, the Canadian-born Georgia chef provides information about Southern culture and regional foods. Recreating the Southern dishes in Acheson's cookbook is the next best thing to visiting his Georgia restaurants. Mouthwatering photos enhance the experience.
Southern food
Organized by meal course, this 304-page cookbook provides 120 modern interpretations of Southern recipes, as well as personal insights into the culture.
Hugh Acheson hand-wrote the recipe index for each chapter. He also introduces each recipe with cooking tips, ingredient substitutions and serving suggestions.
For example, in Hugh Acheson's recipe for pickled shrimp, he says he uses shrimp from Port Royal, South Carolina, and Tybee Island, Georgia, at his Five and Ten restaurant in Athens, GA. If you can't buy fresh shrimp, he explains that you can use frozen shrimp.
Tantalizing photos by Rinne Allen portray Southern dishes from A New Turn in the South and the ingredients used to make them. Step-by-step photos show you how to cut a mango.
More than 100 sketches by Chef Hugh Acheson depict recipe ingredients (e.g., Anson Mills grits) and cooking techniques, such as how to cook a globe artichoke.
Georgia restaurant recipes
In A New Turn in the South, Hugh Acheson includes several recipes from his Athens GA restaurants, such as sticky date pudding from Five and Ten.
A big promoter of eating local, he introduces home cooks to producers of local foods that he uses in his Georgia restaurants. E.g., Hugh Acheson recommends Asher Blue cheese in his recipe for spinach salad with spicy pecans, blue cheese and pear, with shallot-thyme dressing. For home cooks unable to buy Asher Blue, he suggests substituting Stilton, Maytag or Bleu d'Auvergne blue cheeses.
Hand-written notes provide information about Southern ingredients, such as the many varieties of carrots grown in Georgia—Nantes, Imperator, Parisians, Cosmic Purples and Chantenays.
Sample Southern recipes
Watermelon limeade. Eggnog with bourbon. Boiled peanut hummus. Duck confit with braised red cabbage and star anise jus. Hugh's lobster pie. Braised quail with leeks, dates and cider. Smothered pork chops with chanterelles. Leek bread pudding. Spicy pickled tomatoes. Gingered pickled carrots. Vidalia onion jam. Tea crème brûlée. Roasted fig tartlets with vanilla bean whipped cream. Oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies.
Contents
- Introduction
- Libations
- Snackies
- Soups & Salads
- Meal Leaders - First Courses
- From Seas & Streams
- Things with Wings
- Prime Cut - The Red Meats
- Sides - Vegetables, Grains & Taters
- Pickles, Put-ups and Pantry Items
- Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Index
Author
Hugh Acheson is the owner and chef at two restaurants in Athens GA, Five and Ten and The National, as well as at the Atlanta restaurant, Empire State South. He also owns Gosford Wine in Athens, Georgia.