A Streetcar Named Desire

Season chicken with salt and pepper; dust lightly with cornstarch and shake off excess. Heat oil in a soup pot and then sauté the chicken for 1 minute and remove.

Add the vegetables, except for the Chinese canned mix and the green onions. Sauté the vegetables until the onion is translucent. Add the stock, soy sauce, 5-spice powder, ginger, and garlic. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes.

Return the chicken to the pot and cook for 1 minute, or until the thin strips of chicken are cooked. Add the canned vegetables. Deep fry cooked noodles in the peanut oil, drain, and drizzle with hoisin and salt.

Place the soup in bowls and top with fried noodles and the green onion tops.

“Red Hots” Tamales

Serves 6 to 8

Masa (dough)

1 pound (approximately 4 cups) masa harina (tortilla flour)

8-1/2 cups water

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons shortening

Filling

1 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/2 teaspoons dry red pepper flakes

1 small poblano pepper, finely chopped

1/2 cup minced red bell pepper

Salt and pepper

Corn husks for wrapping tamales

Masa (dough) Combine all the ingredients for the dough in a large pot. Cook over low heat for approximately 35–40 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.

Filling In a large skillet, brown beef and pork slightly then add the onion, garlic, tomatoes, cocoa powder, dry red pepper flakes, poblano pepper, and red pepper and cook for about 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Assembly Using a corn husk, place masa in the center. Spread it out over the husk, then add 4–5 tablespoons filling down the center of the masa. Wrap to cover filling. Tie with a string or simply wrap in aluminum foil sheets. Repeat until masa and filling are all used up. Place tamales in a steamer and steam for 1-1/2 hours. Serve.

Chef to Cook

The tamales Tennessee references in A Streetcar Named Desire were cooked and wrapped in corn husks. Husks are available at Latin grocery stores. Banana leaves may be substituted.

Grilled Watermelon, Pickled Carrots, Grapes, and Romaine Salad with Watermelon Cracklin’s

Serves 6

Pickling Ingredients Combine all of the pickling ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Watermelon Cracklin’s Slice the carrots into shoestring size with a mandolin. Peel the melon and cut the flesh into 2 x 3-inch rectangles; reserve for grilling and also reserve rinds. Place the carrots in a heatproof bowl with a lid and ladle liquid of the pickling mixture into the bowl to cover the carrots. Place all of the garlic, peppers, and spices into the container with the carrots as well.

Add an equal part water to the pot with the remaining pickling liquid. Add soy sauce and salt. Add the melon rinds and cook over low heat for 1–2 hours, or until rinds are soft and tender, but not mushy. Drain and dry the rinds.

Mix the egg with the milk in a mixing bowl. Toss the dry rinds into the egg mixture and then dredge in the semolina. Fry in peanut oil at 375 degrees F until golden brown. Drain on a kitchen towel.

Salad Coat the watermelon chunks with olive oil, and salt and pepper and grill both sides briefly. Chiffonade the Romaine leaves; season with salt and pepper and olive oil. Wash and slice the grapes.

Assembly Place the lettuce on the bottom of the plate and then add the carrots. Drizzle a little of the pickling juice. Place the watermelon on top. Sprinkle the salad with the grapes and garlic cloves, and top with the watermelon rind cracklin’s.

Chef to Cook

It is best to do the pickling a couple of days ahead. The longer the items can marinate, the better.

Oyster Fritters with Asparagus Tips and Minted Green Peas with Cream

Serves 6 to 10

Fritters

4 tablespoons chopped onion

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 pound bacon, cooked

18 fresh Louisiana oysters

3 teaspoons chopped garlic

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Peanut oil for frying

Batter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Liquid from fritters mixture plus enough milk to equal 2/3 cup

Peas and Asparagus

18 asparagus spears

4 cups fresh English Peas (frozen may be substituted)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon chopped mint

Salt and pepper

Fritters Sauté the onion in the olive oil with the bacon until onion is tender. Add the oysters, Worcestershire, and garlic; sauté for 1 minute and remove.

Batter Mix all of the batter ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Use some of the juice from the oyster batter first and then finish with the milk.

Peas and Asparagus Blanch the asparagus spears in salted water until almost tender. Cook the peas in butter and cream until tender. Add the mint and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Add the asparagus and keep warm.

Finish and Assembly Over moderate heat, heat approximately enough peanut oil to cover one-fourth of a cast-iron skillet. Combine the fritter mixture with the batter. Form dough into fritters, approximately 1 tablespoon per fritter (3 oysters each). Cook the first side of the fritter in the hot oil until almost done in the center. Carefully flip the fritter to finish the other side. You can fry more than one fritter at a time, but don’t crowd the pan. Serve on plate with the peas and asparagus cream sauce.

Chef to Cook

This is Blanche’s dinner.

That Spaghetti Dish “Dirty Rice” Pasta

Serves 6 to 8

1 pound lean ground beef

Salt and pepper

4 whole duck livers, diced

1 jumbo onion, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped

2 ribs celery, finely chopped

6 green onions, chopped with whites separated from the green

1 (8-ounce) can beef stock

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 cup veal demi-glace

1 tablespoon tamarind paste (optional)

1–1-1/2 pounds fettuccine

Brown the beef for 2–3 minutes and season lightly with salt and pepper. Remove beef from the pan and add the duck livers; sauté for 1 minute and remove to plate with the beef.

Add and sauté the vegetables except for the green onions. Deglaze with beef stock. Add garlic, Worcestershire, demi-glace, and white tops of the green onions. Add tamarind paste if using. Simmer until vegetables are al dente. Add beef and livers to finish cooking, approximately 2 minutes.

Cook fettuccine in a large pot with salted water, then drain and place in large heatproof bowl. Add meat sauce and toss. Garnish with green parts of green onions and serve.

Mississippi Boiled Custard or Crème Anglaise

Serves 10 to 12

3 cups whole milk

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3–4 tablespoons good bourbon or brandy

Scald the milk in a pot and then allow to cool a bit.

Blend the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl; beat eggs and then whisk into the dry ingredients. Add the scalded milk and heavy cream. (In a pinch, evaporated milk may be substituted.)

Cook in a double boiler over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remember that it will thicken as it cools.

To be sure that the custard is smooth, beat it with an electric mixture. Allow to cool more and then mix in the vanilla and the Bourbon or brandy. When the mixture is cooled sufficiently, refrigerate, covered.

The French called it “Crème Anglaise.” The French’s even deigning to notice an English food item without a sneer, much less giving it a title, is amazing. The Anglo-Saxons and Celtic immigrants who settled the American South brought the dish with them as a staple dessert, and so it has remained, for the most part, through the more than three centuries since.

When I was growing up, it was always served with the winter holiday meals—Thanksgiving and Christmas—but it was also made whenever it was needed, throughout the year, as a “comfort food,” a salve to the soul of an ill child or adult, and thus it brought on a kind of mystical aura that remains to this day.

When I was grown and my mother was lost to me, taking with her in her sadly hasty exit from this earth many of the recipes for dishes that I had loved and always assumed would be with me throughout my life, I finally turned to the task of learning how to make that Crème Anglaise, or, “Boiled Custard.” It proved not to be difficult to make but only to require close attention and, I suppose, a love inspired by abiding memories.

—Recipe courtesy of Kenneth Holditch

Grilled Peach, Cherry, and Pecan Bread Pudding with Goat Cheese Caramel and Southern Comfort

Serves 12

Bread Pudding

1 cup sun-dried cherries

1-1/2 cups Southern Comfort liqueur

8 ripe peaches

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

2 cups sugar, divided

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/4 tablespoon nutmeg

1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

1–2 loaves French bread, torn in pieces

4 cups half-and-half

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup shredded coconut

Caramel

1 pound sugar

1/2 cup Southern Comfort liqueur

3 tablespoons water

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 cups heavy cream

3–4 ounces goat cheese

Sauce

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1 (6-ounce) can peach nectar

2/3 cup Southern Comfort liqueur

Bread Pudding Soak the cherries in the liquor for 1 hour. Peel peaches, quarter, and lightly grill on all sides. Dice 4 of the peaches for the pudding and slice 4 for the sauce. Set aside peaches for sauce.

Melt butter, add 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pecans. Toss together and sauté mixture over medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove the nuts.

Add cherries with liqueur, peaches, and butter in a pan and sauté for 2 minutes; let cool slightly.

Combine the bread, half-and-half, remaining sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl and let soak for 30 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Mush together until achieving a smooth consistency. Fold in coconut and cooked fruit mixture with juices. Place in a greased high-sided 9-inch loaf pan and compress. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees F, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before removing from the pan and slicing.

Caramel Combine the sugar, liquor, water, and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan. The mixture should resemble coarse sand. Place pan over medium heat and let ingredients melt. Do not stir, but lightly shake to mix. In 2–5 minutes, mixture should be a light caramel color. Remove from heat and add the cream. Whip until smooth and cream is incorporated. Add the goat cheese, stir in until smooth, and cool.

Sauce Combine the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, peach nectar, and liqueur in a saucepan. Cook until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes over high heat. Add the sliced peaches and warm through, then add remaining liqueur and carefully flame.

Assembly Place a slice of the bread pudding on a plate, top with the flamed peach sauce, and drizzle with caramel. Optionally, place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of pudding before drizzling the sauce.