The New Southern Table: Weird, but good.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi inspired by The New Southern Table by Brys Stephens

I am not a child of the South, nor am I a Southerner at heart, but I am a Midwestern transplant to the American South, and I like it here. The winters are mild, the summers are hot, the tea is sweet (and cold), and the food is fried.

Actually, not all the food is fried, but I will admit that my first Meat And Three was fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and sweet potato fries.

However, one trip to the Raleigh Farmers Market was enough to convince me of the natural, un-fried bounty of the Southeastern United States. Summer squash, strawberries, basil,  blackberries, fruits and vegetables of every size, shape and color lines acre after acre of the western Raleigh outcrop. It's a bounty so beautiful that it makes me want to do just two things: cook and eat. It's the way I feel when I pick up a great new cookbook.

It's the very reason that I picked up a copy of Brys Stephens's The New Southern Table: Classic Ingredients Revisited. Stephens takes classic ingredients from the American South (field peas, sweet potatoes, and corn to name a few) and promises to spin them into something exotic yet oddly familiar. The recipes that he delivers are hands down a success, but the journey to get there was a bit awkward.

The New Southern Table: Classic Ingredients Revisited

Summary:

Stephens delivers 100 recipes that showcase *mostly* ingredients indigenous to the American South. However, he liberally draws on traditions from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America as well as elsewhere in the United States to concoct innovative and delicious new dishes. This is not your fried chicken cookbook; Stephens takes us on a Global culinary journey that is merely grounded in Southern ingredients.

The recipes are well-written and accurate, and they rarely call for ingredients that are difficult to track down at your local supermarket. Not only that, they yield delicious results on the first try. The highlights of the book for me were the Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Sweet Potato Corn Bread, Sicilian Watermelon Pudding and Collards with Peppers, Currants and Pine Nuts.

Although not every recipe is photographed, many are, and the photographs are stunning and inspiring. Nothing makes me want to cook more than a beautiful photography and Stephens's photography delivers (except, of course, the recipes that aren't photographed, which is truly our loss). It's the type of book that I am happy to sit down and look at because the food is so beautiful.

If there is one area that I am a bit critical of the book its his writing style. Stephens moves from folksy stories, to recipe or ingredient factoids, to random historical tidbits so fast that its difficult to find an anchor in the storm of words.  I recommend cooking the recipes rather than reading the cookbook since the words unfortunately distract from the real star... the food.

Who is it for?

I certainly recommend this for anyone who is looking to try out new recipes with familiar ingredients. Like I said in the summary, I was initially a bit intimidated by some of the techniques, but Stephens straight forward guidance made them easy to follow. If you live in the South or love Southern foods, you will find The New Southern Table: Classic Ingredients Revisited (currently $15.33) especially fun to use, since you will have a personal connection with each of the star ingredients.

Anybody with at least elementary cooking skills could pick this book up and use it tomorrow, but even master chefs might add a few fun ideas to their arsenal.

Who won't like it?

Anybody who is looking to learn Southern classics needs to look elsewhere. I thought he would for sure throw in a fried chicken recipe, but Stephens is truly committed to using only new techniques.

Like a good Southerner, Stephens heavily weights his cookbook towards "vegetables" (side dishes), so anybody looking to seriously ramp up their main dish production might want to look elsewhere.

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Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

by Adapted from Brys Stephens June-9-2014

This is an adaptation of Sweet Potato Gnocchi from Brys Stephens's The New Southern Table Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 large Sweet Potatoes
• 2 Eggs- Whisked
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2-3 Cups Flour
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 8-10 Leaves Fresh Sage Finely Diced
• 1/2 Lemon's worth of Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

1. Cook Sweet Potatoes in the microwave until soft (about 10 minutes on high, rotating one time)2. In a large bowl, mash the insides of the sweet potatoes until smooth, then add whisked eggs and salt. Mix until well combined.3. Add flour to the sweet potato mixture a half a cup at a time. Fold the dough in until you have added about 2 cups worth. The dough should be quite soft but not sticky.4. Flour a working surface, then divide dough into four balls.5. Use your hands to roll dough into a rope shape. Add extra flour as necessary. Once the dough is about 3/4" thick, cut the rope into 1" pieces and set them aside. Repeat for all 4 dough balls.6. Bring water to a boil and add 1/2 of all gnocchi to the pot. Stir it after 2-3 minutes. The gnocchi will cook for 6-8 minutes and you will know they are done when they float to the top of the water. Repeat in the same water for the remaining gnocchi.7. Meanwhile, heat butter and sage in a small frying pan until the butter takes on a beautiful brown color. Then remove the pan from the heat. Add lemon juice a splash of your cooking water and the Parmesan cheese to make a thin sauce.8. Pour sauce over gnocchi and serve.

Details

Prep time: 40 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 55 mins Yield: 4 Servings