[Sca-cooks] OOP - Cooking at Alton's House

[grizly]

-----Original Message-----
I'll probably be tasting on the fly ;)

Busy making a list of native Georgia produce and agricultural
products....

cabbage, green beans, peanuts, pecans, corn, Vidalia onions, tomatoes,
okra, wheat
blueberries, blackberries, watermelon, muscadine grapes, figs, fig
preserves, mayhaw, peaches, cane syrup,

chicken, eggs, beef, dairy, pork, pork bbq,
bass, bream, trout, perch, crappie, catfish
crabs, oysters, shrimp, clams and shad (coastal)
alligator, deer, wild turkey, wood duck, quail,
Water Lithia Springs or Cave Springs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
First off . . . you suck.  Now, to the business of suggestions.



mini muffin tins . . . . Vidalias caramelized with marsala (ibnsert
indigenous GA wine here) . . . . phyllo dough little cups . . . mini onion
tarlets.  Top with a savory saffron sabayon.  Lots of good techniques in
there.

I also use the same muffin dealies to make "Shrewsbury Truffles".  Make
Shrewsbury cake cups using appropriate sized press/plunger in the mini
muffin pans.  Dock and bake to done.  Fill with favorite Truffle mixture and
chill.  They ain't flashy, but woth a little Chambord (sp) in the truffle,
they rock.

Figs . . . small cross cut in stem end to open small hole . . . fill hole
with chocolate shavings and a dab of whipping cream . . . gently poach
covered in oven with port or appropriate substitute . . . serve hot.  Simple
elegance they can do at home.

Pork tenderloin medalions (or pounded to scallops) with a sauce using
toasted pecan halves, a little cane syrup and flamed whiskey (add stock to
consistency).  Toss in some halved muscadines for garnish and balance.  Man,
for a meal, I'd serve this with some sauteed spinach or mustard greens with
lemon zest and a mound of mashed sweet potatoes . . . . Gotta put that one
on the idea list.

Croquettes (Crocetti) done well with any of the minsed fishes could be fun
and easily portionable.  It would make a mundane salmon cake, for instance,
a "Sunday Dinner" item.

Roast up something in the Apician Honey/Salt style :o)

Alternate Bruscetta might be another "strech the box" idea using boiled
peanuts and some wilted indigenous green with a pesto sauce.  You could use
little fried corn mush (no P word here) disks as you base instead of bread.
Or even a sweet bruscetta idea using fresh berries (or fig preserves) and a
sweetened ricotta like Angel's Food on the same cornmeal diskette.

If you had time for a terrine, the duck, vidalias, and even a coarse batonet
of sweet potatoes could look pretty spiff.

Grilled pizza is always flashy on TV.  Cold Peach/brandy soup.

Egurdouce using diced pork!  Lombard tarlets using diced chicken and a light
veloute.


My cuisine is more directed, obviously, toward using supposedly mundane
ingredients in classicla preparations and surpising configurations.  I'm not
so up on alligator, wood duck and 'fancier' foodstuff.  I hope these could
be useful.


TOTAL ASIDE:  I met a guy named Tony Gambino in Baltimore last week who got
us really inspired to push for a dining establishment a step or two above a
pizza joint (but still selling pizzas as part of it).   We're getting past
the Gambino name nicely, and emailing him to get the advice he offered along
with starting recipes.  I hope to get his Alfredo mother sauce . . . it was
absolutely drop-dead the best I've ever had.  Bolognese was spectacular as
well with it's splash of vodka.