Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen

Photographs by Rinne Allen

Clarkson Potter/Publishers
New York

soups and salads

113

1 teaspoon salt
1 pound baby carrots, peeled, inch of
green top left on
1 pound baby beets, cleaned but not
peeled
pound feta
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
cup Cumin Vinaigrette (recipe
follows)
1 cup pulled fresh flat-leaf parsley
leaves

The beautiful beets and carrots harvested at the same

time in the early fall by our local farm supplier inspired this
recipe.
Feta is a brined sheeps-milk or cows-milk cheese
made in many places, but the European Union recently
mandated that only feta from Greece can be called feta
so well start to see a bunch of Greek-Style Salad
Cheeses in grocery stores. My favorite feta, Valbreso, is
from France, is 100 percent sheeps milk, and is for sale at
Kroger in Athens, Georgia. If I can get it in Athens, chances
are good your neighborhood grocer has it. If you live in a
very isolated place, then order your feta from Amazon.com.
Vinaigrettes need balance and should be made with
the other salad components in mind. If you are dressing
salty feta, scale back on the salt content in the dressing.

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil, add
teaspoon of the salt, then add the carrots. Blanch for 1 minute
and remove to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Once
cool, remove and set aside.
Place the beets in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil,
add the remaining teaspoon of salt, and simmer until the
beets are tender. Strain the beets and peel them using paper
towels to rub off the skin. This is easier when they are still
warm.
Crumble the feta and set aside.
Toss the carrots with tablespoon of the olive oil and
place them on half of a rimmed baking sheet. Toss the beets
with the remaining olive oil and place on the other half of the
baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes.
Remove the beets and carrots from the oven and place in
separate bowls. Add 1 tablespoon of the vinaigrette and
cup of the parsley to the beets and toss. Add 1 tablespoon
of the vinaigrette, the remaining parsley, and the feta to the
carrots and toss. Divide the carrots evenly among 6 plates.
Then divide the beets evenly among the plates and gently mix
with the carrots. Drizzle with a touch more of the vinaigrette.
Serves 6

112 a new turn in the south

There is a fig tree in the yard of our former house. It has

been a very fruitful tree, so every year I have to make
some jams and tarts and a number of savory fig recipes
just to keep up with the fruit production. This is a recipe
inspired by my short tenure at a very highfalutin restaurant
in San Francisco where they made an awesome fig tart
paired with a black licorice ice cream.
You will need six 4-inch tartlet molds.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Roll out the tart dough and fill six 4-inch tartlet molds.
Place the dough-filled molds in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Line the shells with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights
or dried beans.
Place the shells on a rimmed baking sheet and bake on
the middle rack for 10 minutes, or until the outer crust is
medium brown and the bottoms are completely dried out.
Remove the shells from the oven and allow to cool.
Remove the weights and foil and pop the shells out of the
molds.
Grease a baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter and
fill the dish with the figs. Pour the orange juice, the 2 tablespoons of honey, and the sugar on top and dot the figs with
the remaining tablespoon of butter. Cover the baking dish with
foil and roast in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the figs are
softened but still have structure.
Remove the figs from the baking dish and set aside.
Fill the tart shells with a thin layer of apricot preserves. Fill
with the whipped cream to no higher than the top of the shell.
Arrange the fig slices in a decorative manner on top of the
whipped cream. Drizzle each tart with 1 teaspoon of honey
and tablespoon of candied nuts.

Tart Dough (recipe follows)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 fresh figs, quartered
Juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons plus 6 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
6 tablespoons apricot preserves
2 cups Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
(recipe follows)
2 to 3 tablespoons Candied Nuts
(page 298)

Makes 6 small tarts

whipped cream and other delights

291