Thanksgiving Dinner Southern Style – Iced Tea
When it comes to special occasion dinners no Southern table is complete without a pitcher (or two) of iced tea. As I wrote in my 2010 cookbook Third Coast Cuisine, “. . . iced tea is always sweet. If you order iced tea at a restaurant or café you should expect and receive a glass of sweetened tea. There is a drink who’s recipe closely resembles iced tea except for the omission of sweetener. It is called “unsweetened tea,” not iced tea. It is similar to iced tea in the same way that diet cola is similar to cola. But they are not the same thing.” I am no less resolute in that now.
Recently, I took up the subject of tea with a guy who knows a lot about it. Richard Rosenfeld is the owner of Two Leaves and a Bud, a premium tea purveyor out of Aspen, CO. Rosenfeld opened his company in 2005 with the mission of bringing the experience of the gardens back to his customers. He personally visits the farmers in exotic locals like Darjeeling, Assam and Sri Lanka and hand picks (sometimes literally) the tea he decides to sell. It’s safe to say the guy knows his tea.
Why do you think tea has become so popular with Americans?
I believe there are two major movements which have driven the growth in tea. One is health (and the movement away from coffee). And the other is the availability of better tasting tea, better quality tea in the US.
You know you’re drinking a good cup of tea because it doesn’t go bitter.
How does loose tea differ from the tea that comes in bags?
I look at it as wine from a bottle as opposed to wine from a box. You know wine from a box can be very good but generally wine fom a bottle is considered a much better wine. But how they are different specifically, you have two major types of tea – whole leaf tea and dust tea. There are lots of different dust teas out there and just because we don’t do dust doesn’t mean they’re bad. But they tend to be a little more insipid. They have a little less depth of flavor. A good glass of tea should have a top note, it should have middle notes and it should have a finish.
How long should you steep whole leaf tea?
For whole leaf black teas you’re in the four to five minute area. For whole leaf green teas you are in five plus.
So what’s my secret to a perfect pitcher of iced tea? Well I start with Two Leaves and a Bud’s Assam Breakfast Black Tea. I prefer the loose leaf but even the bags are still better than any tea you’ve ever had before. Then another premium ingredient, Demarerra sugar. Demerara is so named because originally it came from sugar cane fields in the colony of Demerara in Guyana. It is an unrefined sugar like the more common Turbinado (popularly known as Sugar in the Raw which is also a great sugar for tea). I like Demarerra because it has the subtle notes of brown sugar and molasses. It usually comes in large caramel colored crystals.
The final ingredient is filtered water. I don’t want any outside flavors disrupting my perfect pitcher of iced tea. That’s also why I never steep more than five minutes. Many people think this will make a stronger brew but that isn’t true at all. It will only allow more outside flavors into the tea, then you have to use more sugar to cover them up. If you want stronger tea, use more tea leaves.
| Perfect Iced Tea |
- 4 tablespoons loose black tea
- 1 cup Demerara sugar
- 3 quarts filtered water
- In a 2 quart saucepan bring 1 quart water to a boil.
- Add tea, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to steep for no more than five minutes.
- Strain the tea through a very fine sieve or coffee filter into a three-quart pitcher.
- Add sugar and stir until all sugar is dissolved.
- Add the remaining 2 quarts of water and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Thanksgiving Dinner Southern Style – Oyster & Andouille Dressing
I love oysters. Perhaps that is why I have always loved Oyster Dressing. Oyster Dressing is easy to make too so that helps. Take your standard cornbread dressing recipe and just stir in a dozen or so raw oysters. Or you can really up the “Wow!” factor by making this amazing Oyster & Andouille Dressing
| Oyster & Andouille Dressing |
- 1/2 pound andouille, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 5 TBL unsalted butter
- 1 cup chopped yellow onions
- 2 TBL minced garlic
- 1/4 cup whole kernal corn (optional)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
- Basic cornbread, dried overnight, enough to fill a 9 X 13 dish
- 3 slices stale white or whole wheat bread, torn into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 to 2 dozen raw Gulf oysters
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 to 3 cups homemade chicken stock, as needed
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub 1 TBL butter in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish and set aside.
- In a large skillet, cook the sausage until brown and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Add remaining butter, onions, garlic, fresh thyme, fresh oregano and corn then cook for 3-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl to cool.
- With your fingers, crumble the corn bread into the bowl, add bread, then sausage mixture, oysters and mix well with your hands. Add enough broth, 1/2 cup at a time, to moisten the dressing, being careful not to make it too mushy.
- Transfer to the buttered dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake until heated through, about 25 minutes. Uncover and bake until golden brown, about 15 – 20 minutes.
If the dressing doesn’t have the right browned crust after 45 minutes place it under the broiler for a few minutes until you get the desired crunchification.
Thanksgiving Dinner Southern Style – White Truffle Butter
Thanksgiving dinner is one of the great unifiers of Americans. With few exceptions we all eat on the same day, enjoy the same dishes and have the same responses (falling asleep). Granted there are subtle regional differences like wild rice in Minnesota or hatch chilies in New Mexico so I intend to look at some things customary to a Turkey Day menu in the South but I’m not doing it alone.
My good friend Gene Fox of Deep South Cooking Outfitters will show us how to deep fry a turkey without deep frying our house (HERE). Chris Lilly of world famous Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, AL will be talking turkey, well actually pies – grilled pies.. Chris is fresh off his appearance on Best in Smoke on the Food Network and winning Grand Champion at the 2011 Memphis in May. Also lending a hand will be Richard Rosenfeld of premium tea company Two Leaves and a Bud because no Southern Thanksgiving table is complete without a pitcher of Alabama Table Wine – iced tea. And I’ll be Going Coastal with dressing made with plenty of cornbread, Andouille sausage and Gulf oysters.
In the coming days I’ll be dropping each of these little nuggets on you but today I’m going to discuss making a great compound butter. A “compound butter” is real butter flavored with herbs or spices. Making a compound butter is easy – just let a stick or two of real unsalted butter come to room temperature, add it to a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer cream the butter like you would for frosting. Then add your flavor additive, a pinch of salt and cream it just long enough to combine. Spread the butter onto some wax paper or plastic wrap and shape into a log. Seal tightly and refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve for topping hot dinner rolls or cornbread.
You can use any fresh or dried herb or spice mixes like Cajun seasoning or Tabasco sauce. In this instance I am making an elegant and luxurious compound butter like you might find at one of those great Southern white tablecloth restaurants in Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans. White Truffle Butter.
| White Truffle Butter |
- 1 pound unsalted butter, softened
- 1 TBL white truffle oil or to taste
- 2 pinches of salt or to taste
- Place room temperature in a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer cream the butter like you would for frosting.
- Add your white truffle oil, a pinch of salt and cream it just long enough to combine.
- Spread the butter onto some wax paper or plastic wrap and shape into a log.
- Seal tightly and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Review: KC Masterpiece Southern-Style BBQ Sauce
So recently I got an e-mail that I had been selected to receive a free sample of KC Masterpiece’s newest BBQ sauce, Southern-Style. I don’t know what the selection process was but I am satisfied with the result, free stuff.
So I know what you may be asking, “Isn’t all barbecue sauce Southern?” The answer, of course, is yes. All barbecue is, at its heart, Southern but other areas have put their unique regional spin on it led of course by the folks in Kansas City. In fact, the Kansas City style of sauce – tomato-based, sweet, smokey with a touch of spice – is what most people think of when they think of BBQ sauce.
There are literally hundreds of brands of BBQ sauce in the US however more than half of what is sold in stores carries the KC Masterpiece label. The newest addition to the KC Masterpiece line is the Southern-Style which is essentially an homage to Memphis BBQ.
This sauce is still, at its roots, a Kansas City sauce but in Memphis the sauce is a little thinner, contains less sugar and more cider vinegar than its Midwestern cousin. From a personal standpoint I have grown to prefer the Memphis version over the years. I like a more acidic, less sweet sauce.
I have to admit that the KC Masterpiece Southern-Style is pretty darned good. It has the tangy notes and bit of fire that I appreciate from the Memphis sauce when eating it on pork ribs or chicken. For beef I still go for the standard KC style as I like the smokey sweetness better with beef.
I do have one complaint with KC Masterpiece Southern-Style BBQ Sauce but it’s the same complaint I have with most commercial sauces – High Fructose Corn Syrup. I know it’s cheaper than sugar but it’s also much worse for you, too. It’s the main reason I tend to make my sauce from scratch. I would gladly pay a little extra for sauce made with cane sugar but I’m sure it is not a big deal to most people. If HFCS isn’t an issue for you then you should have no reservations about trying this tasty new sauce. In fact, even if it is an issue you should try a bottle; sometimes you have to dance with the devil.
