Getting Back to the Garden

Sheri Castle wants us Southerners "to get ourselves back to the garden."

Castle, a Chapel Hill cooking instructor and food writer, borrowed that line from "Woodstock," an old Joni Mitchell song. But the sentiment for Castle is both old and new.

It's old in that garden produce once was the heart of the traditional Southern table.

It's new in that a slew of younger folks have discovered the joys of eating local, seasonal food.

Castle, a born-and-bred Tarheel, purposely inserted "new" into the title of her book, "The New Southern Garden Cookbook" (University of North Carolina Press, $35). The garden, she said, can be the one in your backyard, your patio or even at your neighbor's. It also can refer to local produce from the nearest farmers market or a CSA — community-supported agriculture in which people sign up to get weekly boxes of produce from a farm.

Castle said her book arose partly from many of the questions she gets from people, and partly because of the way she likes to cook.

"People had been coming to me about farmers markets a lot," Castle said. "They'll ask, 'What's this? What do I do with it?' And I realized that's the way I cook. When I look at this stuff (at the farmers market), my brain goes into gear — thinking you can do this, and this and this."

The "new" in the book's title can also be applied to the contemporary feel of many of the recipes. Castle is no stranger to fried okra, long-simmered collard greens, squash casserole and other traditional Southern vegetable dishes. But unless she thought she had something new to say about them, she mainly eschewed classic recipes in favor of more modern uses for fruits and vegetables.

"Overall, I have a very Mediterranean approach to cooking," she said. "I became a better Southern cook from spending a lot of time in Italy. It's Mediterranean in that it's brightly flavored, it's relatively simple and it starts with what's available in my community."

Many of these recipes show Castle's personal approach. She often combines two ideas to come up with something new.

For instance, she takes fried corn, an old-fashioned Southern favorite that she more accurately calls "stirred corn," and combines it with seared scallops in a lime sauce.

She takes butterbeans and tomatoes and uses them in a sandwich between pieces of cornbread.

She takes the mixed summer beans often used in three-bean salad and gives them a Caesarlike creamy dressing.

Early on, she decided to organize the book alphabetically by ingredient instead of by type of dish. "That's the first decision I made, because I think that's how fresh food comes into our lives," she said. "I've never seen anyone go to the farmers market with a recipe. They start with what looks good."

Castle also looked not only at fruits and vegetables generally considered Southern, but also at those now grown in the South. Her list of 43 fruits and vegetables includes tomatillos that many Hispanics and others now grow as well as squash, field peas, figs and other longtime garden favorites in the South.

Other chapters cover beets, blueberries, greens, chili peppers, corn, figs, melons, radishes, ramps, sweet potatoes and summer squash.

Recipes include a fair number of salads, such as grilled corn and potato salad, and salmon and roasted beet salad with creamy herb dressing. Vegetables also star in a lot of side dishes, such as beans with pecans, lemon and parsley; okra fritters; grilled vegetable ratatouille.

The book has such soups as chilled cucumber soup and smoked tomato soup with herbed beans. Appetizers include Vidalia soufflé dip, chunky tomatillo guacamole and easy, cheesy zucchini squares.

Castle also uses garden produce in a number of main dishes, such as grilled eggplant Parmesan, chicken and sweet-potato stew, fish tacos with radish slaw and pork chops with a rhubarb pan dressing.

And, of course, desserts aren't in short supply. Castle makes blueberry parfaits, cream cheese pound cake with cherry compote, plum cake and muscadine streusel pie. Sometimes dessert is even made with vegetables, as in dark chocolate zucchini cake with ganache glaze.

All in all, the book has about 350 recipes — culled from more than 1,200. "I left a lot of good recipes on the cutting-room floor," she said.

Castle remembers a childhood in Boone when fruits and vegetables, not meat, formed the heart of many meals. That's a South that has kind of disappeared, but one that Castle would like to preserve.

"Some cooks never lost their feel for the produce-driven cooking that forms the core of Southern cooking. Others are feeling around for it," she wrote in the book.

She hopes that "The New Southern Garden Cookbook" helps those who are feeling around for it.

"If you are going to build a meal in the traditional Southern manner, it's going to be vegetable-intensive," she said.

To do that, let the garden be your guide.

"When you start with what's abundant and fresh, it's easy to cook from it."

Cornmeal Pound Cake

Makes 8 servings.

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup stone-ground cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted

butter, at room temperature

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

½ cup sour cream (regular or low-fat)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a deep, 9-inch cake pan, tapping out the excess flour. (For best results, use a light metal pan for this cake. A dark metal or nonstick pan makes the crust thick and dark.)

2. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. Beat the butter and lemon zest until fluffy in a large bowl with an electric mixer set to high speed. With the mixer running, slowly add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. With the mixer set to low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, beating each time only until it disappears into the batter.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert onto another rack or a large plate and then back onto the rack so that the top side is up. Cool to room temperature.

Recipe adapted from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” (University of North Carolina Press).

Creamy Caesar-ish Dressing

Makes about 1½ cups.

½ cup mayonnaise

2/3 cup coarsely grated Asiago, Parmesan, Grana Padano or other hard grating cheese

1 garlic clove

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

6 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon walnut mustard or grainy Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Put mayonnaise, cheese, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and sugar in a blender and mix until combined.

2. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Season with salt and pepper. If not using soon, cover and refrigerate before serving. Serve at room temperature. Stir well and check the seasoning before serving.

Recipe adapted from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” (University of North Carolina Press).

Stirred Corn and Seared Sea Scallops with Lime Sauce

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Castle notes that dry-pack scallops, those not soaked in preservatives or other liquids, are needed to get a really good sear.

Stirred Corn:

8 ears freshly shucked, sweet corn, silks wiped away with a damp towel

2 tablespoons butter, divided use

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 to 4 tablespoons half-and-half or whole milk, if needed

Seared Sea Scallops with Lime Sauce:

16 large dry-pack sea scallops, cleaned

1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste

½ teaspoon ground black pepper or to taste

¼ cup instant or all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into cubes, at room temperature

1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

¼ cup fresh lime juice

1. For the corn, cut the top half of the kernels off the cobs into a large bowl. Use the back of the knife or spoon to scrape the remaining kernels and the milky corn liquid into the bowl. Run your hands down the cobs to squeeze out any remaining liquid.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-hight. Add the corn and its liquid. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, stirring to keep the corn from sticking. Reduce the heat and cook at a bare simmer, stirring continuously until the corn is very tender and thick, about 10 minutes. If the corn gets dry before it thickens, stir in a little half-and-half.

3. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Season with salt and pepper. Keep hot while preparing the scallops.

4. For the scallops, first pat them dry with paper towels. Season both sides with salt and pepper and lightly dust with the flour. Set aside in a single layer to dry a little while the oil gets hot.

5. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over medium-high. Add scallops. Work in batches to avoid overcrowding; scallops should be spaced about 1 inch apart so they will brown instead of steam. Cook scallops undisturbed until the edges are well-browned, about 2 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, spoon the hot, stirred corn onto serving plates.

7. Turn the scallops over with tongs and cook until just browned on the bottom and opaque in the center, about 2 minutes more. Place them on top of the corn. The scallops will continue to cook and firm up as they rest.

8. Melt the butter in the skillet, scraping up any brown glaze from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the lime zest and juice. Pour over the scallops and serve immediately. Scallops will not wait.

Recipe adapted from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” (University of North Carolina Press).

Blackberries and Peaches in Sweet Basil Syrup with Cornmeal Pound Cake

Makes 8 servings.

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

½ cup off-dry white wine (such as Riesling)

½ vanilla bean

1 cup lightly packed basil leaves

Juice of 1 lemon (about ¼ cup)

1 cup fresh blackberries

4 cups peeled, pitted and sliced peaches (about 2 pounds)

Cornmeal Pound Cake (recipe at right)

1. Combine sugar, water and wine in a medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Use the tip of the knife to scrape out the seeds; add them to the pan along with the vanilla-bean pod. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil and lemon juice. Cool to room temperature. Strain into a large bowl.

2. Add blackberries and peaches to syrup. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. The basil flavor gets stronger each day.

3. To serve, place slices of cake in shallow serving bowls or soup plates. Spoon the fruit and a little of the syrup over the cake and serve soon before the cake gets too soggy.

Recipe adapted from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” (University of North Carolina Press).

Mixed Summer Beans with Creamy Caesar-ish Dressing

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Castle sometimes likes to vary the beans in this dish, using edamame, scarlet runners and even field peas.

1 cup shelled green butter beans

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided use

1 pound yellow wax beans, green beans or a combination, ends trimmed

¼ cup finely chopped shallot or scallions (white and tender green parts)

½ cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted

½ cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley

Creamy Ceasar-ish Dressing (recipe below)

Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Place butter beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Add ½ teaspoon kosher salt for each cup of water. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, reduce the heat and simmer until just tender, about 25 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well and place in large bowl. Toss with a little bit of the olive oil to keep the beans moist.

2. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add ½ teaspoon kosher salt for each cup of water. Add the wax beans and cook until tender, about 12 minutes. Use slotted spoon or strainer to transfer into a colander and rinse under cold running water until cool. Drain well, pat dry and add to bowl of butter beans, adding a bit more oil to keep them moist.

3. Stir in the shallot, walnuts and parsley. Pour enough dressing over the mixture to moisten and stir gently to coat. Season with salt and pepper and let set at room temperature for 15 minutes. Just before serving, stir well and check the seasoning. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe adapted from “The New Southern Garden Cookbook” (University of North Carolina Press).

“New Southern Garden Cookbook”