Tag: Jennifer Chandler

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

There Will Be Snacks

Super Bowl 50 looms, and we’re determined to clear our schedules and dive into the craziness with just about every other American. We couldn’t tell you we know exactly who’s playing, but we’ll definitely be planning what to bring for the snacks. From our cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian, we’re psyched to make the Hoppin’ John Black-Eyed Pea Butter, and we have some help rounding out the dips and spreads table from two friends and fellow cooks who have recommended a couple of recipes they’ll be using on Super Bowl Sunday.

Cookbook author, food stylist, and restaurant consultant Jennifer Chandler offers up a Tex-Mex Corn Dip, which she deems “cheesy, warm, super flavorful, and delicious with Fritos — my favorite chip!” This one is in regular rotation for game day. “When having guests over, I want to spend time with them — not have them in another room while I’m in the kitchen,” she says. “And when it comes to the Super Bowl, I don’t want to miss any play, so nibbles and dips that can be made in advance are my tried-and-true go-to’s. This can be assembled the night before or in the morning and then popped in the oven just before your guests arrive.”

Jennifer Chandler

Chandler confides, “I actually had this Tex-Mex Corn Dip for the first time at a Super Bowl party hosted by my friend Jenny Vergos. Folks at your next party will be asking you for the recipe just like I asked Jenny.”

Whitney Miller, cookbook author and winner of MasterChef season one, suggests a Southern favorite with an inventive twist: Spicy Pimento Cheese with Crispy Green Tomatoes. She lightens up the dish with yogurt and spices it up with Sriracha, everyone’s favorite Asian hot sauce.

Her recipe came about when she decided to add heat to counteract the sweetness of homemade pimento cheese. “Everyone seems to love pimento cheese, whether it’s their first experience trying it or if they have eaten it all their lives,” Miller says. “It always makes me feel good when people rave over mine. What I love about serving it over the crispy green tomato corncakes is that the cheese is ooey-gooey and melty. This is a one-bite appetizer that will keep your Super Bowl guests coming back for more.”

This weekend, some may say they’re in it for the game, some for the halftime, some for the commercials, but we know the truth: We’re all just here for the food! So head to the store and load up on black-eyed peas, cheese, corn, and pimientos in order to make some amazing appetizers that might just turn out to be more memorable than the game.

Hoppin’ John Bean Butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large garlic cloves (smashed)

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 1/2 cups prepared black-eyed peas (or 1 can drained)

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 teaspoon)

1 tablespoon tahini or peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon hickory-smoked sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

In a medium pan over medium-low heat, add the olive oil, garlic, coriander, and cumin. Cook for about five minutes or until the garlic has softened. Add the contents of the pan to the work bowl of your food processor along with the black-eyed peas, Tabasco, lemon juice, tahini, hickory-smoked sea salt, and cracked black pepper. Blend until smooth. Serve with toasted baguette or pita chips. (Makes 1 1/2 cups.)

From The Southern Vegetarian Cookbook by Amy Lawrence & Justin Fox Burks

Tex-Mex Corn Dip

Tex-Mex Corn Dip

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon garlic powder

3 cups corn kernels, thawed if using frozen

1 jar (4-ounce) diced pimientos, drained

1 can (4-ounce) chopped green chillies

3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sour cream, mayonnaise, and garlic powder. Add the corn, pimientos, green chillies, and cheddar cheese. Stir until well-combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the mixture in a two-quart baking dish. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Serve warm with Fritos Scoops or your favorite tortilla chips. For a spicier dip, add a 1/4 cup diced jalapeños; this dip can be assembled one day in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator until ready to bake. (Serves six.)

From The Southern Pantry Cookbook by Jennifer Chandler

Spicy Pimento Cheese with Crispy Green Tomato Corncakes

Spicy Pimento Cheese

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Sriracha hot chili sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

3/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Fine sea salt

1 tablespoon chopped pimientos

Combine the cream cheese, yogurt, mayonnaise, and chili sauce in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the cheddar cheese, colby jack cheese, and pepper to the bowl. Stir to combine. Season the cheese mixture with salt, to taste. Fold in the pimientos. Use immediately, or store in the refrigerator for up to one week. (Makes two cups.)

Pimento Cheese and Corncakes

Crispy Green Tomato Corncakes

4 medium, firm green tomatoes

1 cup self-rising cornmeal

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1 large egg

2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for greasing

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Dice the green tomatoes, and place in a bowl. In another bowl, mix together the cornmeal, milk, egg, and oil until smooth. Pour about 1⁄ 4 teaspoon of canola oil in the cups of two 12-cup muffin pans. Place the pans in the oven for three minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and immediately spoon 1⁄2 tablespoon of the cornmeal mixture into each cup. Top the cornmeal mixture with 1 tablespoon of diced green tomatoes. Bake for nine minutes. Remove the pans from the oven, and using a butter knife, flip the corncakes over. Return the pans to the oven, and bake an additional four minutes or until the corncakes are browned.

Remove the pans from the oven, and spoon one teaspoon of the Spicy Pimento Cheese on top of each corncake. Set the oven to broil, place the pans on top rack of the oven, and broil the corncakes until the cheese begins to melt. Remove from the oven and transfer the corncakes to a serving platter. Repeat the process with the additional cornmeal batter and diced tomatoes. (Makes about 32 corncakes.)

From Whitney Miller’s New Southern Table

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jennifer Chandler takes the Farmers Market Challenge.

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

It was bound to happen. One of these days, the Farmers Market Challenge was going to get rained on. Fortunately, Jennifer Chandler has a good sense of humor.

“You should have been here earlier,” she quips. “It was like a wet T-shirt contest.”

In 1993, at the tender age of 23, Chandler gave up a career in international finance to attend one of the world’s top culinary schools, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. A whiz with a rolling pin, she graduated at the top of her class.

Since then, she’s written four cookbooks and appeared on Food Network’s Dinner Impossible. She runs a successful food consulting business, writes a recipe column for The Commercial Appeal, and produces a weekly radio segment for WKNO-FM. She’s as busy as anyone in Memphis, but somehow, she still finds time to cook healthy suppers for her family.

“That’s sacred time,” she explains. “It’s the one time every day when we can spend 30 minutes together without distractions.”

When I arrive at Memphis Farmers Market, Chandler is already there. She’s been signing copies of her latest book, The Southern Pantry Cookbook. Outside, the rain is really coming down, and she admits to being a little wet. But that doesn’t dampen her spirits; she makes a beeline for the asparagus at Ly Vu Produce.

“I was snooping around earlier to see who has the best ones,” Chandler explains.

I can see what she means. The spears are bright green and plump, with a slight purplish cast to the tips. The fresh mint looks good too; we pick up a bunch. Moving deeper into the market, Chandler selects goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm, butter lettuce from Bennett-Burks Farm, and strawberries from Jones Orchard.

Of course, it wouldn’t be lunch without a bouquet of fresh flowers, so Chandler rounds out our market basket with a sheaf of poppies, peonies, and Bells of Ireland from Whitton Farms. She does it almost without thinking, and I must admit, I am charmed.

Back at Chandler’s home — red brick, white columns — she takes out the butter lettuce and holds it up to the light. I notice that she is inspecting it very closely.

“A lot of times,” she explains, “when you buy lettuce at the farmers market, you’ll find little creatures in there. Which is good! It means they’re not using pesticides. But still, you don’t wanna eat those guys.”

I’ll say. To get the critters out, Chandler recommends turning organic lettuce heads upside-down in a salad spinner and refrigerating them for four to five hours.

While I blanch the asparagus, Chandler prepares some red fish from Paradise Seafood. We’re thinking salad — but we’ve both got big days ahead of us, so we’ve decided to pair it with a little protein. When the skillet is good and hot, Chandler adds the fish fillets, and they start to sizzle.

“When you’ve got a good sear, the fish will let go of the pan,” observes Chandler. “If you’re trying to flip it, but it’s not coming up — stop! That’s means it’s not ready yet.”

The delicious smells wafting from the pan act like a dinner bell. Before long, they summon Chandler’s husband, Paul, and their two daughters, Sarah and Hannah. I wonder aloud if they always eat this well. I’m thinking, no way. Right?

“Actually,” admits Hannah, “we kinda do.”

Well I’ll be darned. We sit down to lunch and say grace.

John Klyce Minervini

The fish is everything I want it to be — warm and flaky with a well-seasoned crust. But the salad is the real show-stopper. In it, the ingredients play together like an experienced jazz combo. One minute, strawberries step to the front of the stage, while mint and goat cheese keep up a lively dialogue in the background. The next minute, it’s asparagus’ turn.

The whole thing is brought to a crescendo by the vinaigrette, from an original recipe by Chandler. Made with strawberry preserves from Jones Orchard, it echoes the fresh flavors in the salad while sweetening them — just enough, not too much. It’s the perfect lunch, the kind that fills you up without making you feel heavy.

So what’s the trick to a good salad? The answer, says Chandler, is actually quite simple: quality ingredients in the proper proportions. That’s the kind of radical simplicity you learn at Le Cordon Bleu — and a lot else, besides.

“My mother happened to be visiting when we learned to cook Lapin a la Moutarde [rabbit with mustard sauce],” Chandler recalls. “So they walk in carrying the bunny. And before we could learn to cook the bunny, we had to learn how to skin the bunny.”

“Mother was horrified,” she adds, with a wicked grin.

Categories
Food & Drink Food Reviews

Southern Pantry Author Jennifer Chandler on the Beauty of Canned Tomatoes

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence

Jennifer Chandler’s latest cookbook The Southern Pantry Cookbook: 105 Recipes Already Hiding in Your Kitchen is a handy guide for anyone who’s stood before their fully stocked pantry and thought: What’s for dinner? And it’s particularly good for those who don’t know what it means to have a fully stocked pantry. Chandler offers a list of what every kitchen should have on hand in the pantry as well as the fridge and freezer — goods and produce that lead to such dishes as Tamale Pie, Creamy Vidalia Onion Soup, and Mississippi Mud Brownies. There’s nothing exotic in Chandler’s list — all ingredients are available at your neighborhood Kroger.

We asked Chandler to name what she considers her most essential pantry items. “Chicken stock. Salt and pepper — salt and pepper is underrated,” she says. “And butter. And chocolate, but that’s another story.”

Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence

We also asked her to come up with a list of the most versatile pantry items. Among them are frozen vegetables, ground beef, Creole seasoning, frozen shrimp, and pimentos.

And then there’s canned tomatoes. Chandler says she keeps cans of whole tomatoes and diced tomatoes in her pantry at all times.

“There’s nothing worse than a tomato that has no flavor,” Chandler says. “Tomatoes are good really only two or three months of the year. Canned tomatoes are picked at their peak. I would be lost without them.”

Dishes using canned tomatoes from The Southern Pantry, clockwise from top: Shrimp Creole, Chicken Fricasse, Freezer Veggie Soup, Jambalaya Pasta, Creamy Tomato Soup, Tamale Pie, Frogmore Stew, Lucky Black-Eyed Pea and Collard Green Soup, Grillades

Justin Fox Burks

Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Creole

from The Southern Pantry Cookbook

1 1/2 pounds large shrimp

(16/20 count), peeled and

deveined, thawed if using frozen

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion

(1 small onion)

1/2 cup finely diced green bell pepper

(1 small pepper)

1/4 cup thinly sliced celery (1 stalk)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (28-ounce) whole tomatoes

with juice

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 cup chicken stock or water

Kosher salt and freshly ground

black pepper

6 cups cooked white rice, warm

Place the shrimp in a large mixing bowl and toss with cayenne pepper and paprika.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of the oil until a few droplets of water sizzle when carefully sprinkled in the pan. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the cooked shrimp to a plate and reserve.

In the same pan over medium-high heat, warm the remaining oil until a few droplets of water sizzle when carefully sprinkled in the pan. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more. Add the whole tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon or fork. Add the tomato paste and stock. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Return the shrimp to the pan and stir to combine. Cook until the shrimp are warmed through, about 2 to 3 more minutes. Adjust seasonings as needed. Serve warm over white rice. Serves 6.

Cooking Tip: I find that canned whole tomatoes melt into a sauce better than canned diced tomatoes. To break them up, I like to cut them with my kitchen scissors while they are still in the can before adding them to the pot.

Categories
Book Features Books

Mid-South Book Festival Booked For September

This may be the first week of July, but the last weekend of September is on the minds of the folks at Literacy Mid-South. That’s because planning is very much in the works (and has been for months now) for the organization’s first-ever, citywide, and mostly free Mid-South Book Festival September 25th-28th. Dozens of authors, panelists, speakers, and workshop leaders — the majority of them Memphians or Mid-Southerners — are set to appear. Multiple venues have agreed to serve as event sites, and sponsors are in place. So too festival apps, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account.

For a list of participating writers, events, venues, and updates, go to midsouthbookfest.org. Among the invited writers are Memphis Flyer Associate Editor (and cookbook author) Bianca Phillips and Flyer photographer Justin Fox Burks (cookbook co-author along with his wife, Amy Lawrence). Other Memphians slated to be on hand: Steve Bradshaw, Jennifer Chandler, Heather Dobbins, Robert Gordon, Aram Goudsouzian, Mark Greaney, Lisa Hickman, Corey Mesler, Lisa Patton, Courtney Miller Santo, and Barry Wolverton. But there are out-of-towners scheduled to appear too, among them: Julia Reed, Scott Heim, and Michael Lowenthal.

Dean, Heather Nordtvedt (Literacy Mid-South’s community relations manager), and the organization’s staff have been working hard since the idea for a book festival was raised at a board meeting last summer.

“Nobody thought it was going to happen anytime soon,” Dean admitted. “The festival was simply in our five-year plan — a signature event, not just a fund-raiser. Then our fall reading campaign fell through for this year, so we thought we’d try out the book festival idea. It was going to be a small thing. We thought: Let’s try it and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work, we’ll get rid of it.”

And indeed, the festival began small: a one-day event at the Memphis Botanic Garden. It’s now expanded to four days — with programs for children and young adults and live-music components — and the venues so far include, in addition to the Botanic Garden, the Booksellers at Laurelwood, Burke’s Book Store, and the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center.

What prompted the expansion? Immediate and enthusiastic local author interest, for one thing. Public response, for another. According to Dean, when the festival launched its Facebook page, the site received 250 “likes” the first day.

Early in the planning stages, Literacy Mid-South was thinking maybe a couple hundred people would show up for the festival. The organization is now expecting thousands. Which all goes to show, Dean is convinced, that Memphians have been looking for such a festival in their own town. Nashville has its Southern Festival of Books. Little Rock has its Arkansas Literary Festival.

It was at the festival in Little Rock this past April that Dean talked to author Mary Roach, who’s no stranger to the book-festival circuit. Dean told Roach of Literacy Mid-South’s plans. She immediately convinced him that the Mid-South Book Festival needed to expand beyond a single day and single venue — and the better to meet one of the festival’s goals: funding local literacy programs. Proceeds from Literacy Mid-South’s onsite Bookworm store, concessions, and three creative-writing workshops during the festival will go to supporting those programs.

“I’m a big proponent of growing things — starting small, then growing,” Dean said of the festival.

But growing this fast? Dean has just hired someone to manage the festival for the next couple of years. And there’s been talk about doing some publishing at Literacy Mid-South: a collection of writings by festival authors about Memphis.

“This all shows a need that we’re filling, even among people who don’t necessarily know what a book festival is,” Dean said of the Mid-South Book Festival. “And what’s crazy: We have all these best-selling authors in Memphis, and I didn’t even know they live here! Putting the festival together has been educational for me too.”

But as planning the festival reaches its final stages, Dean had this to add: “Everything’s nailed down. Now it just has to happen.”

midsouthbookfest.org; facebook.com/midsouthbookfest; @MSouthBookFest