Cookbooks

Back in the mid ‘80s I worked a semester as a cook for 38 college girls at a sorority at Syracuse University. A great gig if there ever was one. The Japanese housemother, Mrs. M., opened my mind to the freshness of ginger and other Asian flavors. You can find five-spice powder and hot chili sauce in the Asian section of your supermarket.

Porterhouse is a great cut of beef. You get a piece of the rib eye, a piece of the tenderloin, and (my personal favorite) a piece of the fatty tail. Grilled and soused with Molasses-Bourbon Steak Sauce, it’s a beautiful thing.

This is my version of a recipe that’s been bouncing around my family for years. It’s more Italian than barbecue, but who cares? It’s definitely a crowd pleaser. We get our fresh bread dough from the Columbus Bakery, a legendary family-run bakery in Syracuse.

Don’t get me wrong from the title—I treat these tender babies right. First you blacken ‘em in a smoking skillet and then finish ‘em off with a blue cheese-studded BBQ sauce. If that’s not respect, I don’t know what is.

Because we’re a barbecue joint, we’ve always got pulled pork on hand, so it was just natural for us to turn it into a delicious appetizer. Don’t let our habits limit you. Make these quesadillas with some cooked turkey or chicken thigh meat or any chopped or shredded leftover meat you have lurkin’ in the fridge.

We give catfish a good soaking in seasoned buttermilk before we coat and fry it. It tenderizes and sweetens up the fish, which we serve with our favorite spicy tartar sauce. You’ll find it on our appetizer menu every day and in a sandwich on Fridays.

Personally, I don’t know why this is considered a southern dish. With our short growing season in Central New York, there’s never a shortage of green tomatoes. It seems like the North should have thought of this dish first.

When we make guacamole, we make it to order. It’s one of those dishes that doesn’t improve with age. The avocados have to be perfectly ripe, giving gently when pressed, and then mixed with just the right balance of other ingredients. We serve our guacamole with warm, crisp tostones, a Cuban specialty made from fried plantains. You can make the tostones ahead of time and then refry them right before serving.

If you’re looking for an appetizer with a summertime attitude, here’s a simple, refreshin’ recipe. The scallops grill up in minutes, and the tangy citrus marinade gets transformed into a delicious sauce.

Come into the Dinosaur any night after work and eat this salsa at the bar with freshly fried tortilla chips. Back home, make it with the best tomatoes you can get your hands on.

Folks might laugh, but I could eat deviled eggs all day. My mother made them for me when I was a kid, and I’ve loved them ever since. When we serve our spiced-up version on a catering job or make them for a Custom-Que appetizer, everyone just goes nuts. To buy Zatarain’s mustard, see the Resources section (page 175).

This is the Dinosaur take on a New Orleans classic dish. Serve with a hunk of crusty bread for moppin’ up the tonsil-tingling sauce. Whether you eat it as an appetizer or serve it as a main course spooned over some Perfect Rice, you’ve got a winner on your hands.

Garth’s mom was famous for her fudge, and I feel honored to include her recipe in this cookbook. I think that one of her secrets was the old, deep cast-iron skillet she used to make it in. I know the peanut butter makes it really smooth!

Central and Western New York is “wing country,” so you’ve gotta have some good wings on your menu. Most places fry their wings according to the original Buffalo recipe, but we smoke ours. You can make them hot or mild on your grill just by changing the rub and the sauce you slather on at the end. We serve them with the traditional fixin’s—Blue Cheese Dressing and celery sticks.

I first came across these tasty Colombian fried corn cakes stuffed with oozin’, stringy cheese at a Miami street festival. Back home, I messed around with the recipe and added whole corn kernels to the dough to make ‘em more interesting. In the restaurant we serve arepas with a pile of pulled pork in the center for a real Memphis-meets-Miami dish. But if you don’t have the pork on hand, they’re just as good served with some Fire-Roasted Garlic Salsa.

These delectable shrimp boiled in beer and rolled in lots of spice and garlic are our most popular appetizer. Their “a-peel” has always been in the roll-up-your-sleeves sloppy nature of eating ‘em. There’s nothin’ polite about ‘em, and that’s the way we like it.

Georgia produces more peanuts than peaches—maybe it should be called the peanut state! This is one great way to use them. Daddy loved peanut brittle, and he made this all the time when I was growing up.

This candy is a Christmas memory for me. Beth and I can hardly wait for it to cool every year so we can slice it up and wrap it. We always eat as much as we wrap (or more), so truthfully, I don’t really know how much the recipe makes!

Boiled custard is a southern tradition that has been used for centuries in recipes like banana pudding, pies, and homemade ice cream. It adds the richness and flavor of a pastry cream to every recipe it’s used in, but it’s not as thick.

I’m including this recipe from my sister’s mother-in-law, Blanche (Whew! That’s a mouthful!), because it is so easy, skips the time-consuming custard-making process of the previous recipe, and tastes awesome! Try both recipes and see which one you like best.