Love Fruit? Then Try These Great Recipes From New Cookbook By Nancie McDermott

Celebrate Summer with FRUIT: A Savor the South Cookbook by Nancie McDermott

Summer brings out a bounty of fresh fruits perfect for backyard parties, picnics and everyday eating.  Fruits of the American South provide a unique and tasty bounty due to the region’s hot, humid weather and fertile soil. This summer, celebrate these unique and delicious gifts from nature with FRUIT: A SAVOR THE SOUTH COOKBOOK by Nancie McDermott, a collection celebrating a dozen signature Southern fruits in a cook's basket of fifty-four luscious recipes, both savory and sweet.

Demand for these edible jewels is growing among those keen to feast on the South's natural pleasures, whether gathered in the wild or cultivated with care. McDermott features indigenous fruits in the book including blackberries, mayhaws, muscadine and scuppernong grapes, pawpaws, persimmons, and strawberries. Non-native fruits, eagerly adopted long ago by Southern gardeners and cooks, grace this intriguing volume as well, including cantaloupes, damson plums, figs, peaches, quince, and watermelons.

“Southern fruits matter, both as mementos of the gardening and gathering of culinary seasons past and as worthy edible treasures for the present and future South,” explains McDermott. “With the 21st century enthusiasm for do-it-yourself pursuits in the kitchen, and with chefs employing professional foragers to gather good things from the natural world, these southern treasures are on home and restaurant menus once again.”

From old-school to the new and unique, Nancie’s recipes offer home cooks and chefs delicious ways to use this sweet Southern bounty. Recipes in FRUIT include:

Blackberry Roly Poly
Cantaloupe Agua Fresca
Lamb Shanks with Damson Plum Sauce
Okracoke Island Fig Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork with Mayhaw Jelly Barbecue Sauce
Savory Spiced Muscadine Grapes
Scuppernong Grape Hull Pie
Pawpaw Ice Cream
Peach Custard Pie with a Secret
Old-Time Persimmon Pudding
Quince Ratafia
Debbie Gooch’s Fresh Strawberry Bread
Thai-Inspired Watermelon-Pineapple Salad

From bluegrass to sea grass, from red clay fields to bayous, and from the Carolina Lowcountry to the Great Smoky Mountains, take a culinary journey with Nancie McDermott and taste the sweet and savory fruits of the bountiful South.

Nancie McDermott is a cookbook author and cooking teacher fascinated by the people, stories, and places behind the food. A North Carolina native and graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, she loves exploring the history, culture, and distinctions within the regional cuisines of the American South. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, she also focuses on the cooking of Thailand and the culinary traditions of Southeast Asia. A contributing editor for Saveur and Edible Piedmont, Nancie writes for Southern Living, Fine Cooking, Cooks Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and Every Day with Rachael Ray. She also teaches cooking classes around the country. Nancie’s extensive television cooking experience includes leading the host of an Epicurious show around a Los Angeles Thai market for the Discovery Channel, and playing the Cake Detective on the Coconut Cake episode of Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” on the Food Network. Her online video cooking classes are featured on Craftsy.com Nancie’s cookbooks include Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations; Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan, and Southern Soups and Stews: From Gumbo and Burgoo to Etouffee and Fricasee. Nancie is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Les Dames d’Escoffier, the Association of Food Journalists, and the Southern Foodways Alliance. She lives with her family in Chapel Hill NC.

Blog and Website:  www.nanciemcdermott.com

Try these delectable recipes from FRUIT: A Savor the South Cookbook

Fresh Peach Chutney
I love the sunny color and piquant flavors of this British-style chutney. It pairs wonderfully with roast chicken, spicy shrimp curry, rice pilaf, or anything sizzling-hot off the grill.

Makes 3 cups

3 cups coarsely chopped ripe peaches
1 cup coarsely chopped apple
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper, any color
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a 3-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, combine the peaches, apples, onions, and bell peppers. Stir with a large spoon to mix them well. Add the raisins, candied ginger, if using, sugar, vinegar, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, and salt and stir well. Bring to a lively boil over medium-high heat. Stir to coat all the ingredients evenly.

Adjust the heat to maintain a gentle but active simmer. Cook, stirring now and then, until the chutney has thickened a little, formed a pleasing syrup, and developed its flavor, 30–40 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Serve at room temperature.

Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 2–3 weeks.

Blackberry Slump
What a forlorn little name for a simply delightful and homey dessert! Also known as a grunt, this simple treat begins with ripe blackberries simmered with sugar and a little flour to make a thick, jammy berry compote. Next you stir together a very soft biscuit dough and scoop it into walnut-sized dumplings, which you drop onto the sweet, bubbling berries and their luscious juice. Simmered briefly, the dumplings puff up nicely into pleasing pillows of berry-kissed dough. Serve your blackberry slump warm, and consider adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream, or a generous pour of cream, half-and-half, or evaporated milk.

 Makes 4–6 servings

For the blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup water

For the dumplings
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup whole milk

To make the berry compote, combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan or a small Dutch oven. Stir with a fork to mix them well. Add the berries and water and stir gently. Place over medium-high heat and bring the berries to a gentle boil. Adjust the heat to maintain a lively simmer and stir well. Cook, stirring often, until the berries are surrounded by a thickened, shiny sauce, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.

To make the dumplings, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix them well. Toss the butter into the flour mixture. Using your hands, press and squeeze the butter to incorporate it into the flour mixture, working it until you have a dry mixture with pea-sized lumps. Add the milk and stir well to make a very soft dough, like biscuit dough only more moist.

Return the berry compote to the stove and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Adjust the heat to maintain the boil. Using two teaspoons or a tablespoon, scoop up the dough and drop it onto the bubbling surface of the berry compote, making walnut-sized dumplings. When all the dumplings are in, reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer and cover. Cook undisturbed for 15 minutes, or until the dumplings are dry and firm and cooked through. If you aren’t sure they are done, remove and pull apart a large dumpling. Remove from the heat and serve hot or warm.

Note: While a slump is best served as soon as it is ready, you can cool it and keep refrigerated for one day. To serve, reheat gently, adding a few tablespoons of water to the sauce, which will have thickened.

All recipes from - From FRUIT: A Savor the South® cookbook
Copyright © 2017 by the University of North Carolina Press.
Used by permission of the publisher
www.uncpress.unc.edu