garlic o' many uses

garlic confit. what? garlic cloves slowly roasted in oil until tender. the garlic and herbs infuse the oil. the uses are endless, i just tasted the oil on a cherry tomato and it is damn good. you can use the oil to cook, you can puree the garlic & use it to thicken sauces in place of butter, you can spread the garlic cloves on bread, slather on meats before you grill, roast or bake, use it in risotto, use the oil to roast asparagus, do i have to think of everything for you? the garlic loses it’s harsh punch and becomes a bit sweet. this is a secret flavor weapon upscale restaurants use. here’s how:

¾ cup canola oil
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups peeled garlic cloves (bigger cloves will be easier to peel)
2 dried bay leaves
10 springs fresh thyme from your herb pot & kitchen twine
or
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon coarse salt
a few grinds of black pepper

jar(s) with lid(s)

peel garlic. this will take a while. preheat the oven to 300℉.

in a heavy bottom dutch oven with a lid, pour in canola oil & olive oil and add salt & pepper and give a good stir to dissolve the salt a bit. add garlic, bay leaves, thyme tied in a bundle with kitchen twine, if using fresh. place the lid on the dutch oven and put in oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes until the garlic has darkened and is totally tender. let cool for a couple of hours. remove the thyme & bay leaves. using a spoon, ladle the garlic and oil into a clean jar with lid. if you have more oil than jar space do not throw it away, this is liquid gold! find a container and use it to make an omelette! or a vinaigrette! or to sauté! up your cooking game instantly, do it.

no dancing

Lassis Inn. you likey the fried catfish? then, this is the place for you. Lassis Inn is located on East 27th Street. you can see the bright blue building, if you look hard enough, it's on the west side of I-30 near the Roosevelt Road exit. the restaurant is a wood frame house with simple homemade-ish booths and is equipped with a jukebox that is loaded solely with african american artists (is bob marley considered african american? in any case...) there are a couple of NO DANCING signs posted. wonder what line was crossed that there was a need to post 2 of those? The fried fish ($4.75-$14.25) was salty and delicious. for an extra $2.20, you can get a complete dinner; that adds cole slaw & fries to your meal. the cole slaw was mayo based and yummy and the fries were pretty damn good. all three items stood up to and were perhaps even better than some i've eaten at other fried fish places & it’s all served up with a super soft slice of white bread. in addition to the fried catfish steaks and fillets, the menu includes; big boned buffalo ribs. if you visit and order those, let me know the details. & don’t forget or order a sweet tea.

Lassis Inn
518 East 27th St
Little Rock
501-372-8714

vinaigrette sans regret

vinaigrette. i make my salad dressings and that means so should you. it’s freakin’ easy. the flavor profiles are endless. & making your own allows you to incorporate more of what you like and less of what you don’t like. got it? the ratio can be 1 part acid to 3 parts oil. and if you are going, huh? what? that means, ¼ cup of lemon/citrus juice OR vinegar OR white wine OR champagne vinegar and ¾ cup of standard olive oil OR canola oil OR a mixture of the two. for a basic vinaigrette you will need a wide mouth jar or a bowl and a whisk. the trick to getting a thick (emulsified) vinaigrette is a teaspoon of dijon mustard and adding the oil s-l-o-w-l-y while simultaneously whisking like a bitch. if you get behind in whisking, put the oil down, whisk until the mixture in the bowl is combined (emulsified) and then begin again with the s-l-o-w stream of oil and whisking. i am making this all sound way too complicated. i make enough (2 cups) to keep in the fridge so when i need a quick salad for lunch or dinner, the vinaigrette is waiting for me. a vinaigrette can be made with as few ingredients as an acid, oil, salt & pepper & will be delicious. use what you have one hand; got a tube of anchovy paste? now is the time to break it out. use a ¼ inch squeeze. mince a shallot, or press a small clove of garlic, or use garlic powder. use honey, agave nectar or sugar to fend off the puckering taste of citrus or vinegar and use ample salt & pepper, your choice of white or freshly cracked black. the rest is a free for all, got chives? use ‘em. have parsley, great, add it. thyme? my fav. if you only have dried herbs, this will work too. just do it.

chicken dance

chicken salad. homemade & delicious. after a recent bout of copiously consuming large quantities of fried food, i figured i better eat something not fried. chicken salad came to mind. to speed up this process, i purchased a rotisserie chicken, and used 1/2 of it. yes, i put dark meat in my chicken salad. i say “my” chicken salad like i have a standard recipe. i don’t. the secret ingredient in this chicken salad is a hard-boiled egg. that’s right, bitches. i had heard of a grandma doing this to stretch the chicken salad...i don’t know how much 1 egg can stretch something, but i had a hard-boiled egg on-hand so, i put it through the egg slicer, twice, and threw it in. here’s what you’ll need:

1 hard-boiled egg
½ rotisserie chicken
1-2 ribs of celery, finely diced
handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
mayo - enough to get it loose, you can add but can’t take away.
cayenne, a big pinch
garlic powder, a sprinkling
salt & pepper

peel the hard-boiled egg. put in an egg slicer and slice, turn sliced egg 180˚ and slice again. this will give you a dice cut. throw egg into a large mixing bowl. on a cutting board, dice the celery finely and throw into bowl. do the same with the parsley. remove chicken from the bone, gather chicken (sans skin) on the cutting board and dice into small fine cubes. add to bowl. add cayenne, garlic powder, salt & pepper. add mayo in small batches and stir briskly. the chicken salad will look like it was shredded when you stir with muscle. day 1; was a sandwich, day 2; the chicken salad topped a salad. the salad way was über delicious. make your lunch. you can do it.

behold the broccoli

broccoli. i don’t usually go around eating raw broccoli. sure, on a salad, if i have it handy. this has now changed. i bought a pre-measured quart container from Three Buddies Berry & Mushroom Farm booth at the argenta farmers market (cafm) and swear this is the most flavorful broccoli i have tasted. the florets are smaller and more delicate than the grocery store variety. it’s fresh, kinda sweet and simply delicious. it has a tinge of purple color to the florets and stalk which makes it cute and yummy. come on, you know have to have it. buy some saturday.

Argenta Farmers Market (CAFM)
Main & 6th Street
Downtown NLR
 
Saturday 9a-noon

omg! onion dip

omg! onion dip. when is the last time you ate HOME MADE onion dip? right, never. i didn’t think so. here’s an easy recipe that you should probably double for 2 reasons; you won’t want to share & to caramelize the onions properly takes time & patience. transferring the dip from the mixing bowl to the storage bowl, i scraped the mixing bowl clean, i couldn’t bare to waste any of this delicious dip. here’s how:
 
Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced finely
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 container of sour cream, 8 oz
¼ cup mayonnaise
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions
using a heavy bottom pan, heat oil on medium heat. add onions and salt. slowly cook the onions on med-low heat until they are caramelized, about 40 minutes. stirring regularly and adjusting the heat to ensure the onions don’t burn. the onions will cook down to a measly ¼ cup and will be brown. remove from heat and set aside to cool. mix the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the cooled onions. taste. bump up any of the ingredients to make your taste buds sing. refrigerate. serve with potato chips. omg!

grapis gigantis

grapes. take a look at these colossal, seedless grapes. i purchased these at whole foods. no, this isn’t a parlor trick, that is a u.s. mint quarter in the photo. gigantic, tasty and delicious. whole foods is also selling mammoth, red, seedless grapes ➜ those are a bit sweeter. go buy & eat, please, before they over power the city.

Whole Foods Market

10700 N. Rodney Parham
Little Rock

(501) 312-2326

ded roor

red door. a cute sign, in this case, is not a good sign. a cockroach was spotted crawling on the wall behind my booth. i watched it negotiate its way, along the wall, until it was just about to hitch a ride on a suede jacket. as the transfer from the wall to the jacket was about to transpire, the suede jacket saw me watching, so, i just pointed to the roach. that instant, the suede jacket sprang from her seat. nice start. the menu is broad. cheese dip, chicken-fried-prime-rib, pizza, salad topped with deep fried bacon, spaghetti & meatballs. i went with the fish & chips ($16.95) which included a side item of my choice. i ordered the salad with house made blue cheese dressing. it was good. served on a chilled plate with a cold, old, grilled piece of bread OR a limp crouton, you decide. the menu refers to the chips as “frites”. sorry to say, they are more akin to those canned shoestring potato sticks. remember those? well, i had completely forgotten about them until they were served to me, mixed together with the fish, in a paper lined, black metal, spiral cone that could have been purchased at Big Lots. my fish looked more like fish sticks rather than the fat cod fillets i am used to. the fish was greasy and bland. tasteless, unless dunked into tartar sauce. these words actually left my mouth: long john silver is better. ok, so, you get it. my food was not worth my time, the caloric intake or the price. let’s move on to the weird noise level in the back half or the restaurant. i can’t explain the acoustical failure that is happening there, the servers literally had to yell to be heard. at times, the barrage of voices from other tables was overwhelming. here’s my advice; if you go, sit in the front half or outside on one of the two patios, pack a roach motel and steer clear the fish & chips. got it? good.

Red Door
3701 Old Cantrell Road


Little Rock

 
501-666-8482

wing it

chicken wings. thanks to gorillaman for submitting this video link, you will learn a cool technique to eat a chicken wing. watch & learn, baby. use this skill to dazzle your enemies and amaze your friends. now, get up and make some wings...

whaw whaw whaw

Abe’s Bar-B-Q. Clarksdale, MS. a stone’s throw from U.S. 49 & 61 and tourist attraction known as the crossroads. legend has it, at the crossroads, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to become a famous blues player. Abe’s menu goes on to read that Abe surrendered his soul to god. maybe that is the reason the bar-b-q & slaw isn’t as good as Hicks' Variety Foods down the road. a couple years ago, i had the pleasure of eating tamales, bar-b-q and the fixings at Hicks’. since then, i have been enamoured with the thin, sweet, delta bar-b-q sauce. it’s not thick like catsup and vinegar is way down low on the ingredient list. here’s the deal, LRB passed through Clarksdale at sunday lunch and learned there are slim pickins on sunday. we looked for tamale trucks, roadside bar-b-q, turkey leg stands & found nothing. that brought us to Abe’s. since no guide book is gonna include this, i will; Abe’s is where the white folk eat. do yourself a flavor favor and hit Clarksdale on a day when Hicks’ is open. yeah, i said it.

 
Hicks' Variety Foods 
305 S. State Street
Clarksdale, MS 38614

Phone: (662) 624-9887
Fax: (662) 624-5137
Toll Free: (888) 404-4257
hicksshop@bellsouth.net

Hours of Operation:
Monday–Thursday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.
Friday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–12 a.m.

what's your beef?

viking cooking school. lrb enrolled in a steakhouse cooking workshop at the viking cooking school. yes, you guessed it, in greenwood, ms. 12 people shared the class and the large teaching kitchen. i may have learned a couple things, but the best lesson to learn in cooking is; ingredients. you ain’t never gonna have a steakhouse steak buying your steaks at the local grocery store. sorry, & stop your buts now, paying more for ‘em from the separate faux butcher case will leave you equally disappointed. hate to be the one to break it to you; you’ll need to find a good butcher shop or specialty mail order. and a whole other can of worms is “corn fed”, you don’t want that, you want “pasture raised”. steakhouse steaks are a thick cut 2 inches (not 1”, not 1½”) & aged. aged to the point if you saw it, you probably wouldn’t want to eat it (the workshop's steaks were not super aged). you want fat around the meat & marbled fat throughout and preferably on a bone. my favorite part of the workshop was chewing on the steak bone after the meat had been cut off. now you know.

enjoy the photos, then, book a class.

Viking Cooking Schools

Anchorage, AK

Walnut Creek, CA

Atlanta, GA

Glenview, IL

St. Louis, MO

Greenwood, MS

Ridgeland, MS

Fairfield, NJ

New York, NY

Cleveland, OH

Philadelphia, PA

Memphis, TN

Nashville, TN

Dallas, TX

Houston, TX

Salt Lake City, UT

check it out here.

notice the steak is sliced before plating ➚.

Delta Dawn, i mean, Bistro

delta bistro. this cute, art-filled restaurant was as fun to look at; as the food was good. i liked the vibe immediately, but, liked it even more when i saw a posted flyer selling a local dairy farmer’s cow milk. the tables were partitioned from each other (a theme in greenwood) with a piece of hanging glass. an artsy piece decorated with painted ginko leaves - cute. the menu included appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, pastas, steaks, small plates (tapas), desserts and a chef’s table menu for $30 per person. now, that’s cool. the bistro even has a drive-thru window. the comeback sauce on the crab cake & fried green tomato plate ($6) was particularly delicious (guess i missed that photo op). everyone must think so, b/c it is on the take-out item menu for $9 a pint. this was a food-filled weekend, so much prior food intake made us less appreciative of the delta bistro than we should have been. next time you find yourself in the delta, visit the Delta Bistro. at the very least, make your own version of comeback sauce.

Delta Bistro
117 Main Street
Greenwood, Mississippi 38930

662.455.9575

all hail the coffee cup

stainless steel coffee cups. not espresso cups. these are coffee cups of the 1950’s serving size. the portion size that americans have stepped away from in favor of the mug. the alluvian furnished these cups & saucers in guest rooms & they were for sale at the viking store across howard street. the cups are oggi brand and priced at $20. i was told the sales rep that peddled these to the viking store - died. the good news is; they have one box left in their warehouse. so, if you must have ’em, give the viking store a call. cool, huh? yeah, i knew you’d think so.

Viking Cooking School & Retail Store
325 C Howard Street
Greenwood, MS 38930

662.451.6750

please ignore the man behind the curtain --- not

giardina’s. an upscale steak & seafood restaurant inside the alluvian hotel in greenwood, mississippi. this restaurant offers 14 private dining booths. “booth” may be confusing, they are actual rooms with a table & chairs, the rooms are encased with 1 wall and 2, 8ft tall, bead board, cubicle-style walls and a heavy curtain (see photo). this could give one the idea of hanky-panky privacy, but is it? let me dispel this for you now. if you get seated in one of the 14 “booths”, you won’t see other patrons unless you happen to walk in or walk out when other diners are entering or exiting. at times, you mey hear voices from a cubicle over, but, only your imagination can put a face to that voice. each dining “room” is equipped with a light switch that includes a dimmer and a “button” that resembles a door bell. the button is to summon waitstaff. each flinging of the curtain, waitstaff entrance is concluded with this phrase: “if you need something, don’t hesitate to hit the button.” waitstaffers were in & out of our private den of sin. the need to hit the button never arose. the seclusion puts the kibosh on people watching and judging the eating habits or fashions of others. private rooms do offer a unique dining experience, one that invites you to focus on well prepared food and your dining partner. Giardina's (pronounced Gar-deena) has a regular restaurant dining room where you can dine amongst the masses, but why? experience the booth before you die.

Giardina’s Restaurant
314 Howard Street
Greenwood, Mississippi 38930

662-455-4227

read more about Giardina's at the Southern Foodways Alliance. 

salsa mule

salsa mule. yes, since that killer salsa posting, i’ve had a few requests to be a salsa mule. from ottercreek to atlanta the requests came in. a call to Ristorante Cảpeo let me know it was a-ok for me to pop in during the day and buy the coveted salsa and tomolives. this is a dinner only restaurant, i didn’t want to show up during peak hours to buy side-gig items. if you missed this mule-run, here’s how to score your own; call and let ‘em know you’re coming, i was told after 2pm is good. next, go to the side door on 5th street (there are two doors side by side, use the one on the right). it’s hard to open, you gotta give it a good push. once in, you’ll be hit with seriously mouth watering aromas wafting from the kitchen. the commis didn’t even look up as i pushed my way thru the door. after a couple of seconds, brian greeting me & took me back to the office where in boxes, on shelves, sat the canned pints ($6) and quarts ($12) of killer salsa and quarts of tomolives ($10). brian explained they’ve been making the tomolives, which are dill pickled green cherry tomatoes, for years and they use them in their signature martini or tomotini. when i told him i haven’t tried them, i was merely on a mule run for susieQ, he offered up a quart for me to try. right. ok. he absolutely, 100% knew that these tomolives are addictive. in this case, he is a dealer, giving the potential addict a taste, knowing i would be back for more. i brought the quart home and while writing this i popped the sealed lid. dug one out and OMG! i am telling you that this is better than any flaccid pickle or mundane olive that has ever hit your gob. throw one in your mouth, bite down and it pops. with that pop you get a dill explosion. not too tart, deliciously dilly and sumptuously salty with hints of jalapeño and garlic. simply put; addictive. i want to eat a jar, at home, undisturbed & uninterrupted, until i get my fill. forget manners, forget sharing. this quart is all mine. thanks for the taste, dealer, i mean, brian. my next move is to belly up at Cảpeo’s bar for a tomotini. now, go, go & get your own quart jar of tomolives - i've told you how.

Ristorante Cảpeo 
425 Main Street
Argenta/North Little Rock
 
(501) 376-3463