Beans and cornbread: take me home, country roads

West Virginia is well-known for its athletics, most recently the West Virginia Mountaineers making it to the Final Four. It's also known for beautiful scenery, coal mining, the John Denver song mentioned in the title, and . . . its cooking? Not so much. I don't know jack sh*t about the West Virginia culinary scene. Nobody does. I didn't even know anyone from West Virginia until meeting Corey Meadows, a wide-eyed, excitable friend of mine. He loves his Mountaineers, Miller High Life, and food from back home.

But, what the f*@k is West Virginia food? Is it all about fried possum and roadkill? I hope not because I don't even own a car. Actually, it has some similarities to Southern cuisine but is also a part of the Appalachian cooking tradition, where people eat what they can grow, raise, or hunt. Think venison, berries, corn, and ramps (which foodies gush over). Inspired by this NPR article and my buddy Corey, I made some traditional WV comfort food: brown beans and cornbread. These dishes are all about starting with humble ingredients and making them delicious with time, love, and pork fat.

West Virginia Brown Beans (serves 8)
16 oz. dried pinto beans
1 large piece fatback, ~4"x2", 4-5 oz. (or 1 smoked ham hock)
1 medium white or yellow onion, diced (reserve about 1/4 as a garnish for later)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs. unsalted butter (optional)
salt and pepper

• Cover beans with plenty of water and soak overnight. The next day, drain.
  
• Put beans and 1.5 quarts fresh water in a large pot or dutch oven on medium heat. Add some salt (~1-2 tsp), fatback, onion, and garlic.
• Once beans reach a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook over low heat, covered, for about 2-2.5 hrs until beans are tender but not falling apart and broth is dark and starting to thicken.
  
• About every half hour, gently stir the beans to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. If liquid level gets low, add some more water.
  
• Once beans are tender, season liberally with salt and lightly with freshly ground black pepper.
• Serve with diced onion and butter (optional).

This dish is a great example of using meat to flavor a dish rather than as a central component. The fatback's role is vital but not central to the dish, as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would say. This recipe might seem quite plain compared to others featuring bay leaf, chili powder, and cumin. I actually like how the simplicity allows the flavor of the beans to stand out. On another note, the beans ended up quite soupy, which Corey and I like. If you want your beans to be less soupy, try starting with 1 quart of water and adding more during cooking as necessary.

Regarding seasoning, don't add too much black pepper. I'm normally a bit of a pepper monkey but found that lots of black pepper didn't merry well with the flavor of the beans. Do add salt with a heavy hand. Otherwise, the beans have zero flavor. Also, I highly recommend the raw onion garnish, which provides bite and crunch to complement the mellow, soft beans. Texture contrast alert! Lastly, dipping some cornbread in the broth is delicious.

Country Grit Bread (serves 8)

1 cup plain white stone-ground cornmeal (not instant)

3/4 cup yellow self-rising cornbread mix

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 tsp. baking soda

3 tbs. bacon drippings (or butter as a substitute)

1/4 cup plain white stone-ground grits

3/4 cup water

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

• Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
• Sift white cornmeal, cornbread mix, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.
• Add bacon drippings to a cast iron pan and warm it over low heat. When drippings are melted, tilt pan so the sides and bottom are well greased. Then, pour off and save two tbs. of drippings.
• Mix grits and water in a bowl and microwave on high for 3 min. Stir and then microwave for another 3 min.
• Whisk egg in a bowl. Mix in buttermilk and add to the dry ingredients.
• Stir until batter is well mixed but still a bit on the firm and dry side. Add the reserved pan drippings and grits. Mix all the ingredients with a spatula or large spoon. Reheat grit and water mixture before adding if it has cooled too much.
• Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 20-25 min. The bread is done when a nice, golden crust has formed.

I'm not an expert on cornbread and had never made it before. In fact, I'm a bigger fan of biscuits. Nonetheless, I do like cornbread and have some thoughts on this recipe. First, the cornbread was very tasty, no arguments there. But, I'm not sure whether including the grits, which you can definitely taste in the final product, is a good thing. I might skip it next time. Also, the bread could have been a bit denser. So, perhaps a bit more cornmeal is needed? Or maybe it's that I didn't use stone-ground cornmeal, which I couldn't find. I'm also a little confused about why you need the instant mix. I might a post another cornbread recipe in the future now that I know how ridiculously easy it is to make.

Acknowledgments to: Kendra Bailey Morris, NPR's "Kitchen Window" for recipes for beans (modified) and grit bread (as written)

Deep fried steak aka pitchfork fondue

This is not a recipe for stir fried beef or chicken fried steak. I'm talking about deep frying an entire cut of steak. Never heard of such madness? I hadn't either until seeing it on Jamie's American Road Trip, a British miniseries that features Jamie Oliver exploring lesser-known corners of America's culinary landscape. One episode begins with a group of cowboys in Wyoming putting huge pieces of steak onto pitchforks and deep frying them in a cauldron of bubbling lard. Absolutely spectacular. This old school cooking technique dates back to the 1800s and is known as pitchfork fondue. This ain't no dainty French fondue bourguignonne, though, with tiny cubes of beef. I'm talking about "half a cow on a stick in a big ol' cauldron of fat!"


Ingredients (serves 2)
2 8-10 oz. sirloin steaks, ~1 in. thick (strip steak or ribeye would also work)
64 oz. canola oil (if you can get beef tallow, more power to you)

• Fill a dutch oven about half full with canola oil. Heat over medium high to 375°F.
  
• Pierce steak with large barbecue fork (the poor man's pitchfork) and place the whole piece of meat in the oil.
• Fry steak for about 2-3 min for medium rare. Once the outside develops a dark brown crust, test for doneness by taking the meat out of the oil and (carefully) feeling how firm it is. Fry a bit longer if it feels too soft.
  
• Remove steak and place on paper towel-lined plate to drain. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.

The meat came out brown and crispy on the outside and perfectly pink on the inside. It was juicy and flavorful, not greasy or heavy. Deep frying also cooks the steak perfectly evenly on all sides. On Jamie's show, he says the meat tastes amazing even without any seasoning. I found that adding salt and pepper after frying added a lot of flavor. I even added a bit more salt after slicing the meat up. Maybe the animal fat they fried the meat in imparted more flavor than my canola oil. Regardless, those cowboys are onto something because deep fried steak kicks ass. I served it with a baked potato topped with butter, s+p, sour cream, and green onion, and a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Baked beans would be another great accompaniment and in keeping with this dish's cowboy cooking heritage.

Seared scallops with bacon, mixed greens, lime vinaigrette

Finally, a real recipe on this blog. This is a simple, tasty one I got from my good friend, Brian Green. The sweetness of the scallops, the saltiness of the bacon, and the brightness of the lime come together like a Voltron of flavor.

Try to find dry scallops, which kick the sh*t out of wet scallops. Wet scallops are soaked in a solution of sodium triphosphate, a preservative that makes them absorb water. They won't sear as well and aren't as fresh. If you can't find the dry variety, which can be hard to track down, just use the freshest scallops available.

Ingredients (serves 2, but easy to scale up)

4 sea scallops

2 slices of bacon (~2 oz.), pancetta also works

2 large handfuls mixed salad greens (~3 oz.)

1 lime

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

butter (if necessary)

• Dice bacon and cook over low heat in heavy bottom pan.
• While the bacon is rendering, zest and juice the lime. Whisk in olive oil, ~3 parts oil to lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.
• Once the bacon is almost finished, lightly dress the greens with vinaigrette and split among two plates. Reserve some vinaigrette for later.
  
• When the bacon is crispy, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Pat the scallops very dry. Remove the tough adductor muscle if present. Score the scallops in a diamond pattern using a sharp knife, with cuts about a cm apart and about a half cm deep. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
• If there's not enough bacon fat to cover the pan, add some butter. Then, crank up the heat to high until the fat is smoking.
• Add scallops to pan, leaving plenty of room between each one. Allow to brown for ~2 min. Resist the urge to flip or move them before a nice crust develops. Turn scallops and brown the second side, again for about 2 min.
• When done, the scallops should be about as firm as medium rare steak, meaning not very firm. They'll be nice and crusty on the outside and pink in the middle.
  
• Plate two scallops on top of each bed of dressed salad. Add crispy bacon pieces and drizzle some vinaigrette on top.

The basics: cutlery

I'm not going to preach about how important it is to cook with top notch (i.e. pricey) equipment. It's more than possible to make great food using mediocre cookware. My parents, for example, use mostly s**t hardware to make delicious food. I will implore you, however, to buy a good chef's knife. A good, sharp chef's knife will make cooking more fun - a lot more fun. It'll be the most important tool in your kitchen and if you're like me, your favorite. I love my Shun knife so much I want to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.

Besides Shun, Global and MAC are other easy to find, good Japanese brands. The big name German brands are Wüsthof and Henckels. Beware that both companies makes cheaper lines (Signature & International for Henckels; Gourmet & Emeril for Wüsthof) that are poor imitations of their nicer stuff (Twin Cuisine & Four Star; Classic & Ikon). If you see a Henckels chef's knife for $35, that's not the one you want. If you want something in that price range, get yourself a Victorinox knife, the darling of America's Test Kitchen. Oh, and pass on the 12-piece knife set. Don't be that guy (or girl, er young woman). Besides a chef's knife, you really only need a paring knife and a serrated knife.

The basics: seasoning

If there's one thing I've learned from the Food Network (back when it had real chefs cooking real food rather than such culinary luminaries as Sandra Lee), it's that you need to season your food. Also, how often do contestants on Top Chef get blasted by Tom Colicchio for not seasoning their food properly?

Salt and Pepper

While lots of people use basic iodized salt, it tastes like s**t. One of the easiest things you can do to make your food taste better is to use kosher salt or sea salt instead. I use kosher salt (Morton coarse Kosher salt, specifically) because its coarse size allows you to sprinkle it from about a foot above your food and feel like a celebrity chef. Actually, the size does make it easier to distribute over food. And, it's not that much pricier than plain iodized salt and tastes much better.

Next, use fresh cracked black pepper instead of pre-ground. Pre-ground pepper is flavorless and sad. The pungent, biting taste of freshly cracked pepper is what you want for your food. Starting with whole peppercorns, use a pepper mill or crush them manually by putting them in a ziplock and pounding them with a rolling pin or heavy pan for a coarser texture. A mortar and pestle also works. I use a Unicorn Magnum Pepper Mill (an unfortunate name) that churns out a ridiculous amount of ground pepper with every twist.

In summary, amaze your friends and loved ones by using nicer s+p (I heart you, Rachel Ray).

P.S. I definitely do not heart Rachel Ray.

Let the deliciousness begin

This blog is going to be a series of culinary musings and ruminations designed to enlighten, entertain, and aid you in your own culinary adventures. I hope you like it!

JK! (last time I will use that acronym, don't worry) Actually, that is the sort of haughty, "I take myself way too seriously" language I will avoid in future posts. I don't think that this food blog is the best thing to hit the culinary scene since Momofuku or to splash down on (in?) the blogosphere since The Sartorialist. It will, however, be irreverent, possibly informative, probably sprinkled with profanity, and never boring. That is a promise. I guaransheed it.