Sweet biscuits and gravy sounds like a gimmick, right? Well, there’s documentation of this dish being made as far back as the 1700s. It’s a fascinating example of how migration along the Appalachian trading route helped establish Indigenous Mexican influence on Southern cuisine.
Thickened in the traditional French way, warm, spicy, and faintly bitter Mexican chocolate ganache forms the “gravy” for raw-sugar-crusted biscuits. It’s great with any biscuit recipe really, though. The relationship of sugared biscuits to plain ones is very similar to that of pâte sucrée (sweet pastry crust) to pâte brisée (savory pie dough).
I call the woods around the farm Where the Wild Things Are, because great-grandmother Florine’s mimosa trees and great-grandfather Horace’s blackberries and muscadines have all volunteered and gone a little crazy back in there, where they are free to flourish. As a kid, we had wild blackberries growing along the edges of the ditch when Galilee Road beside our farm was a dirt road. When they were ready for picking, my cousins and I would fill our buckets with more blackberries than Nana could possibly use because we knew if we did, she would say, “Now, y’all done picked enough for to make a doobie.” A doobie is kind of like a cobbler, but it’s more akin to sweet dumplings. Serve warm with fresh whipped cream, vanilla bean ice cream, or a scoop of one of the gelatos. Once you take a bite, you’ll taste summer for real.
Brushed with butter and sprinkled with sea salt, this slightly sweet old-fashioned pull-apart bread resembles Parker House rolls in texture. They are festive on a holiday table but easy enough to make any night of the week. The pans filled with unbaked rolls can be stored overnight in the fridge, too.
Cornbread is a sacred thing in the South, almost a way of life.
Instead of only iceberg lettuce, try wedging other nutritious salad greens, such as romaine and radicchio.
These are true breakfast muffins, to be enjoyed with a morning coffee.
Keralan Fried Chicken, Lowcountry Cardamom Waffles, and Spicy Maple Syrup
Fennel and Apple Slaw:
These are fail-proof oatmeal cookies, chewy and wholesome, with just enough spice and plenty of oatmeal. I like them with dried cranberries and walnuts, but you could add any dried fruit or nut. Try them with dried blueberries and pecans for a change, or currants and chopped almonds, or they're always good with the traditional addition of raisins. This is a terrific lunch box cookie, or great with tea in the afternoon.
The simplest.