Root Vegetable

When it comes to side dishes, Big Bob felt keeping it simple was the way to go. Consequently you won’t find a long list of accompaniments to choose from on our menu, just potato salad, slaw, baked beans, and potato chips. His original vinegar-based coleslaw (see page 176), made from only four ingredients, was the only slaw that was ever used in the restaurant. In 2003, Martha Stewart wanted to feature some of our favorite Southern-style sides on her television show and requested both baked bean and slaw recipes. We happily sent her recipes for half the side dishes on our menu. The next day we learned the show preferred we give them a “customary” mustard-based slaw typical of the Memphis Barbecue Region. I’d never heard of such a slaw, but who can argue with Martha Stewart? Thus was Crisp Spicy Southern Mustard Coleslaw born. The recipe has since been served to raves at the James Beard Foundation in New York City and at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival.

Memphis in May is a barbecue competition that takes place the third weekend of May at Tom Lee Park on the Mississippi River. It is the largest pork cookoff in the world and is often called “The Super Bowl of Swine.” The Big Bob Gibson Competition Cooking Team has attended this contest since 1997 and to date we have never finished out of the top ten. We’ve won the pork shoulder category six times, won first place in sauce three times, and won the Grand Championship twice. But it is not our success in the competition that stirs the fondest memories of this event; it is the time spent with friends and family while enjoying the relaxing atmosphere. It is a tradition for us to put on a big feed the Friday night before the most serious part of the competition begins. Our menu changes year to year but almost always includes pork tenderloin, bean salad, homemade pies, and this stacked cornbread vegetable salsa salad. I am not sure where this recipe originally came from, but my mother-in-law, Carolyn McLemore, and her friend Joyce Terry always treat us to a big batch at this annual event. It’s good and it goes really well with smoked pork tenderloin.

Mild and mellow garlic flavor.

This nutty bean purée is inspired by lobio, a marinated bean salad from the Georgian Republic.

This beautiful sunset-red sauce with flecks of green herbs turns pasta, vegetables, potatoes, or fish into a work of art. Leftover sauce keeps in the refrigerator for a week or two.

Flavored butter can make plain food instantly interesting by enlivening it with the flavors of fresh herbs, ginger, citrus, chiles, or roasted garlic. Keep some in the freezer to use in cooking or at the table. Give an instant flavor boost to plain steamed vegetables, broiled or grilled fish, eggs, grains, pasta, corn on the cob, or mashed potatoes. Slather it on fresh bread, rolls, or biscuits.

Roasting mellows and sweetens the pungent flavor of raw garlic. Roasted garlic is useful for enhancing salad dressings, sauces, soups, and stews, and it can be used as a spread on bread all by itself.

We rely on this little carrot salad over and over to add color, sweetness, and crunch to many meals. It’s even prettier topped with fresh raspberries. (See photo)

Here’s a potato salad with a spicy twist. It’s perfect for a picnic on a hot day or for supper on a chilly evening.

We call this Pan-Asian Slaw because the hot oil technique is used all over Asia. The hot oil intensifies and yet mellows the flavor of the scallions.

This simple salad goes with many dishes. Or add some or all of the extras we suggest and make a meal of it.

Raw beets give this salad a definite earthiness. For a mellower flavor, use cooked beets. Either way, it’s a beautiful salad that adds color to your supper.

This salad goes with almost any dish. Make it when tomatoes are at their peak.

Roasting intensifies the natural sugars in sweet potatoes. These sweeter sweet potatoes come out of the oven soft in the center and crisp around the edges.

Made ahead and warmed up just before serving, these glazed carrots retain their color and flavor beautifully. A splash of lemon juice cuts the sweetness just a bit.

After you taste these perfectly seasoned potatoes, you’ll never go back to butter-drenched ones.