Tomato

Trust a riverboat captain to throw some fish on the grill. Mama’s husband, Michael Groover, makes his po’boy sandwiches with sweet, mild tilapia fillets and tartar sauce so tasty some of us have been known to eat it on its own. These po’boys are a big, messy, and delicious meal—a real Low Country favorite. Don’t forget to put a bottle of Tabasco on the table for extra punch!

We’re always looking for new ways to cook shrimp. Here, the lip-smacking shrimp and veggies cook on skewers at the same time, making the meal fast and easy enough for a weeknight meal, even if shrimp seem like Saturday-night kind of food. Kids can even help out with threading the food onto the skewers. Serve this spicy recipe over Coconut-Orange Cashew Rice (page 66) and you’ve got a complete and extra special meal.

We never get tired of the sweet, mild flavor of tilapia, but some nights we like to pair it with a nice bold sauce like this Italian combo, which offers salty capers and tangy tomatoes. Serve it with a side of rice to soak up all that delicious sauce.

If you’ve ever had Frito pie down South, then you know where we’re coming from here. This creamy turkey casserole, topped with a crispy layer of melted cheese and crushed corn chips, is the kind of thing that can make grown men cry on Super Bowl Sunday. Bobby loves to serve this with a side of crunchy, garlicky broccoli.

In his late twenties, Jamie spent a lot of time eating at his favorite pizza place in Savannah, called Cousin Vinny’s. He became obsessed with their pesto pizza, which uses savory basil sauce in place of the usual tomato. We don’t eat quite as much pizza these days, but we do keep pesto in our freezers for whenever we want fresh garlic and basil flavor. Try tossing pesto with cherry tomatoes and leftover grilled chicken and serve it on top of greens for a main-course salad, or make this easy, healthy recipe, which takes about fifteen minutes and looks as good as it tastes. For a little decadence, try serving it with Cheesy Garlic Bread (page 102).

We always have a red rice dish on the buffet table at The Lady & Sons. Here we added beef to the skillet to turn our Cajun-influenced red rice dish into an easy crowd-pleaser. Since we’re on the Georgia coast, we’ll also do red rice with sausage and shrimp, so you can use that instead if you like: Just brown crumbled sausage in place of the beef and stir in a half pound of shelled shrimp for the last five minutes of simmering (or until they’re pink).

When I make this stew, an extremely old-fashioned and indigenous example of the “poor people” food that the South was built on, I feel like I’m cooking a piece of my own history. The origins of this piquant, thin stew, which is loaded with meat and vegetables, are hotly disputed between Brunswick, Georgia, and Brunswick County, Virginia (I’m a Georgia product myself, so you know which side I’m on). I always make this for a crowd. A big crowd. Like those at my cooking school, which typically draws more than fifty students. I have my own professional-size meat grinder, and what I often do is grind the onions and potatoes together with the pork and brisket. You don’t need to do that at home; you can just mix them together. And feel free to cut this recipe in half (or quarters, whatever you need), but I suggest you make it for your next snow day, and bake up some cornbread to go with it—feed the whole block and you’ll have friends for life, trust me.

Coleslaw is an extremely time-honored side dish that is served with all sorts of things in the South. Cole is actually an old English word for “cabbage,” which is of course what coleslaw is always made out of. This is my very favorite coleslaw recipe. In the South, creamy slaws like this one are traditional with fish dinners, and this is the slaw we always serve at our fish fries. It is served cold and smooth and is just perfect with fried fish and hushpuppies. Vinegar-based slaw is the classic to go with barbecue, but this one happens to taste great with barbecued meats, too.

There’s nothing like knowing you have stashed away in your freezer good tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano canned tomatoes. It comes in handy in so many ways. I usually make 3 cups of thick sauce, to freeze in 1-cup containers. You can easily double or triple that amount if you’re feeling ambitious and have enough freezer space.

This nourishing bulgur-wheat salad provides a satisfying way of using up some of the huge bunch of parsley that the supermarket foisted on you. If it’s wintertime and you don’t have access to fresh mint, use 1/2 teaspoon dried mint and stir it into the still-warm bulgur after you’ve drained it, so the mint will have a chance to expand and release its flavor.

Here’s another way of giving leftover lamb new life. I’d always thought that this sumptuous Middle Eastern dish that envelops lamb in eggplant was quite a production, but done this way it takes less than half an hour to put together and is worth every minute of effort.

Recently this hard-to-pronounce French dish became a household word in America overnight, when the delightful movie Ratatouille swept the country and won our hearts. Not many Americans would begin to know how to make a ratatouille, but that such a dish had the power to evoke an overwhelming taste memory was something we could relate to. I fell in love with ratatouille when I was a jeune fille living in Paris, and I have been partial to it ever since. There is a classic way to make it—cooking each of the ingredients separately, then putting them all together—but that is time-consuming, and I’m not really sure that it produces such a superior dish. I feel that rules are made to be bent in cooking, and that there’s no harm in simplifying and putting your own imprint on a dish. So here is my version, subject to variations according to the season. I always make triple the amount I’m going to eat immediately, because I put it to so many good uses.

Eggplant is a particularly good receptacle for leftovers, such as cooked rice or grains and the remains of a roast. When I’m using eggplant, I usually roast it in the morning, or the night before I’m going to stuff it. Then it takes only about 40 minutes to be ready to enjoy. This stuffed eggplant is good hot, warm, or at room temperature, so you can to take it on a picnic, or to the park for lunch.

Bluefish and mackerel are both rather fatty fish, and they take well to broiling, particularly when the fillet sits on a bed of flavorful vegetables and they exchange flavors. I also like this preparation because it requires only one pan. If it’s a handsome fireproof baking dish, it can come right to the table. Otherwise, scoop everything up with a spatula and serve on a warm plate.

Scott Peacock, the gifted young chef from Alabama who worked with and cared for the legendary Virginia cook Edna Lewis during her final years, once told me that one of the great lessons he learned from Edna was “the way she slowly coaxed the essence of flavor” from ingredients, be they meat, poultry, vegetables, or a combination. This slow braising of shoulder lamb chops is a good example of the technique that Scott worked out by observing her. Very little liquid is used, and by smothering the meat in a covering of parchment, then foil, and a tight-fitting lid, you make sure the juices that are “leached out” don’t evaporate but fall back into the pan, penetrating the meat and vegetables. As a result, you get an intensity of flavor that is breathtaking. I have adapted their recipe here to make two servings, not only because such chops are invariably vacuum-wrapped two to a package, but because the dish is so good that I always want to use it for a second round. Every time I make it, I want to give thanks to Edna and Scott, who seemed destined to cook together to bring new life to Southern cooking.

Fuggedaboutit! Marinara sauce is a great thing to have on hand at all times to make a fast and flavorful meal. Double or triple this recipe and freeze the sauce in pint-sized containers. Just pull out of your freezer and make a quick and delicious dinner by tossing it with cooked pasta. Or for a quick snack, spoon on some toasted Italian bread and sprinkle with your favorite cheese (Parmesan and mozzarella work nicely).

Salsa is Sandy’s condiment of choice. (Well, that and pickled jalapeños!) This recipe is one of her absolute favorites and provides her with a little taste of home. She typically adds this salsa to her morning eggs (she’s spicy that way) or serves it as a flavorful dip to sit alongside a big pile of tortilla chips. If you like a really hot salsa, leave in some of the jalapeño seeds.

If you have ever had breakfast in Texas, then odds are you’ve experienced a plate of delicious migas, a mixture of fluffy eggs, spices, cheese, and fried tortillas. For Sandy, migas present somewhat of a love-hate relationship. You see, Michael (her main squeeze for over twelve years) loves migas so much she sometimes feels he loves them more than her. He’s tried them in every restaurant in Austin, always noting the subtle differences and what would make the perfect combination of flavors. She took note and developed this recipe in attempts of satisfying her “migas man.” And let’s just say there is no longer any doubt who Michael loves more. Serve these with a side of refried beans and your choice of corn, flour, or whole wheat tortillas to enfold all of the ingredients into tasty tacos. And if you’re feeling spicy, try making your own pickled jalapeños (see below).