Martha Stewart Makes Southern Favorites | 8-Recipe Special | Martha Stewart

[Music] foreign [Music] Fried Chicken should be crisp on the outside and moist on the inside and it can be made easily at home if you have the right tools cast iron skillet a frying thermometer a pair of tongs a thermometer instant read very very essential and some buttermilk flour cornmeal and some spices I'll show you how to make the best fried chicken right in your own kitchen once a year I have a fried chicken dinner at my house and I do the chicken in batches all the chicken and these are small chickens cold fryers two and a half to three pounds each are cut up into eight or ten pieces each and I soak them in ice water overnight in the refrigerator and then I make the buttermilk marinade and the chickens have to stay in the buttermilk for four hours minimum in the refrigerator buttermilk lends a subtle tanginess to the chicken because it contains lactic acid and it also has a nice tenderizing effect on proteins it also helps the chicken remain moist and juicy so this is one chicken cut up it's been soaked in salted ice water and add to that four cups of Buttermilk you can also take good organic whole milk and add to one quart you can add about three tablespoons of cider vinegar wait for a little oil and you have something resembling buttermilk two tablespoons of salt one teaspoon of black pepper and one and a half tablespoons of dry mustard as a good sharpness to the mix and one teaspoon of cayenne Kind of Wonderful ingredient and just mix this all up the chicken is going to stay in here as I said four hours or up to overnight cover with a bit of plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator so now one hour in advance of frying remove the chicken from the marinade onto a rack let the chicken dry on the rack for one hour now this has been dried you can see it's still tacky but much drier than this chicken and now for the dry coating one and a half cups of all-purpose flour and I'm just using a bag this is so easy and two or three tablespoons of yellow cornmeal cayenne pepper oh like half a teaspoon and one teaspoon of black pepper this is very similar to what my friends down in Amarillo Texas coated their chicken with and one teaspoon of salt shake this up and now drop the chicken in so put three or four pieces of chicken in the bag and shape [Applause] nicely coated and when I was making fried chicken for great big crowds I would do lots and lots of chickens and you see how nicely the flower is adhering putting the pieces into the flour is called dredging so even though the flour is sticking the chicken's not wet [Applause] now there's plenty of flour in here that can be used to coat that other chicken but it has to dry for one hour set that aside and we're ready to fry if the oil is the right temperature don't fry if a cube of bread doesn't turn golden brown in a minute or less but my thermometer is telling me at 330 degrees that it's not quite ready 340 oh we're getting ready so put the dark meat in first Square covered shoes and an apron now just take your thermometer out of the foil and cover this for four minutes on each side and really pay attention to the timing this method of frying is called shallow frying the best pan is this cast iron skillet with the cover I love this pan and it really does conduct the heat very very nicely and it holds the heat more effectively than other types of Skillets at tag sales you can find these pans with the covers and that's the best cast iron because it is already aged and has a beautiful patina foreign looks so good [Music] looking good now here's some things to keep in mind when frying if the oil is not hot enough the food will absorb too much of the fat but if the oil is too hot the surface of the food will burn before it Cooks on the inside so keep the temperature pretty constant keep extra vegetable oil at room temperature nearby and if the oil in the pot gets too hot you can cool it down by adding some of this room temperature oil not cold oil but room temperature and the chicken pieces in the pan should not be touching thighs and legs should register 165 degrees and wait beneath the breast needs I should register 160 in the thickest part well the first chicken's all done and now I've started frying the second it certainly looks delicious Fried Chicken now we're going to make a cross between a cake-like cobbler and a traditional fruit crumble it's called a buckle and it's a perfect way to showcase the juiciest of Summer's Stone fruits in this recipe I'm using Juicy sweet luscious peaches and for this recipe we're using three peaches cut into thin slices say a quarter of an inch the late summer fruits for the nectarines and the peaches and a lot of the plums come Freestone which is very nice so that you can easily cut meat slices away from the pits we're baking this in a 10 inch enameled cast iron skillet you can use a stainless steel Skillet if you don't have a cast iron skillet and I'm melting a half a cup of butter one stick of unsalted butter that's going to go into the Buckle batter so just finish this Peach beautiful and really fragrant sweet peaches I'll sprinkle two tablespoons of sugar over the fruit toss this a little bit and now to make the batter it's all done in a bowl so it'll need one cup of all-purpose flour into your bowl two teaspoons of baking powder there are many different summer desserts crisps buckles pandaowdies crumbles one cup of sugar a pinch of salt Betty's grunts stonkers all of those funny names are all similar kinds of crumble desserts with fruit so we've whisked all the dry ingredients add one cup of milk teaspoon of good vanilla vanilla extract and the melted stick of butter then we're going to put this right back in here so that is our buttered pan stir this it's a thin batter and you can pour this mixture right back into the hot pan and top with your cut peaches so this goes right in so no eggs simple simple and put your fruit in a even layer as possible right into the batter this is a delicious dessert I would scrape out any excess sugar because this is all the sugar you get except for a little sanding sugar on top and sprinkle with this sparkling sanding sugar gives a little bit of glisten make sure your oven is preheated to 350 degrees bake until the top is golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean 50 or 55 minutes foreign so you can see why it's called a buckle the crust has buckled in several places it's crispy glistening because of the addition of that wonderful sanding sugar I love sanding sugar I use it on the tops of things like this but also on the tops of the crusts of a two crust apple pie peach pie and take a wedge of this you can see how it's Laden with fruit and serve this for the dollop of creme fresh you can whip this with a little bit of sugar if you like or just plain I like it plain and I like a lot of it looking at this I think that Buckle may become your favorite simple stone fruit dessert enjoy I cook with corn all summer I love it steamed with butter and salt I love to prepare it like they do in Mexico with chili and lime and cheese and I also love to make corn fritters so first you need two cups for corn fritters of corn removed from the cob husk the corn take off all the silk as much as you can and then with a very sharp knife on a cloth line tray as I'm doing strip the kernels from the cob now the kernels from one regular ear of corn like this should equal approximately one cup of corn kernels so let's see you need two cups of corn kernels for this particular recipe very close and see how easy it is if you do it on a cloth like this to just sort of pick them up and put them where you want them there certainly is just about one cup so here's our two cups of corn I've already done one ear Reserve this one for the second batch and it's funny thing with fritters and pancakes there's always a second batch now there's no correlation by the way between the Corn's color which is dry from carotene and it's sugar content but I must tell you the fresher it is the faster you cook it the sweeter and better it will be and people's preferences for corn color are largely based on where they come from and what they ate as a child for instance new englanders generally prefer yellow corn or butter and sugar corn which is that nice bi-color variety this is a butter and sugar corn and Californians usually favor white corn uh we're using butter and sugar today so we have egg one egg I'm making the batter now break up the egg and the Egg gets mixed with one tablespoon of sugar two tablespoons of cornmeal cornmeal adds a nice crunchiness to your batter three quarters of a cup of unbleached flour one and a half teaspoons of coarse salt one and a half teaspoons of baking powder a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a half a cup of milk this is a stiff batter you don't want a very wet batter because you're going to be dropping this batter with the corn in it into the hot safflower oil which is heating on the stove right now better adjust the temperature let's see we're up to 330. so adjust the flame so that the oil comes up to about 375. during cooking the oil temperature should be around 360 degrees it does cool off as you add your batter so add your two cups of corn kernels and easiest corn fritters you have a very nice light fluffy batter and this is ready to drop into the hot oil as soon as it reaches temperature and I found that using an ice cream scoop makes nice round fritters you can use if you don't have one this is a small one it's about a tablespoon and a half size if you don't have one of these you can use two spoons and push it off two spoons okay so now our temperature has just reached 375 and I'm going to use this little scoop and you just plop it right in do it in small batches because you don't want to lower the temperature of the oil too much but you see how easy it is to use this instead of two spoons and it really does free up your other hand be careful not to drop it in you don't want to Splatter the oil you want to be very careful have a piece of paper towel on a platter ready to take the fried fritters as soon as they come out of the oil but they're turning a beautiful golden brown in just a matter of a minute or two this kind of Chinese spider is a very very good tool for deep frying like this it does enable you to lift and not take too much oil with it and you can really smell the corn those kernels of corn are cooking right in the pretty fritter so isn't that a pretty sight I'll put one more batch in this is a handy tool I don't know if you know what this is but that's a splatter guard just to keep the oil from splattering all over you little nubbins of corn so if you start with oil that's 375 degrees I would try to keep it at around 370 throughout the cooking process for good golden brown fritters that are cooked through and through in just a couple of minutes so these cute little fritters can be served as a snack as a side dish and they can also be served as a first course so we're getting about 26 that's pretty good arrange the drained fritters on a platter heated platter and serve these piping hot they don't get better as they sit out they don't taste as good as when they are pretty hot Golden Balls of delicious seasonal corn serve them with honey and a little bit of sea salt really delicious I'm sure many of you think of creamed corn it brings back memories of something that can easily come from a can but this popular side dish was common in the American Midwest long before it became an American canned staple made with fresh corn kernels and cream this homemade creamed corn is nothing like the canned version and it's very easy to make so I'm just finishing cutting off the kernels from eight years of corn and as soon as I'm done with this take the pulp from the cob with the edge of a spoon what comes out from each and every one of these little indentations is what's known as corn milk and just scrape it like this [Music] see that's what corn milk is put that right in with the kernels it's very flavorful very tasty it's sweet and adds a great great flavor that the kernels alone just can't match so this is an essential part of the traditional American creamed corn all this gets added to the Bowl and in a big skillet saute and some butter four tablespoons of butter one onion finely chopped so just start the onions cooking a little bit then add your corn kernels and corn milk and one cup of water let this cook for approximately 20 minutes now add one cup of water bring that water to a boil and it'll come to a boil rather quickly reduce it to a simmer and cover and cook until the corn is very tender 25 to 30 minutes and don't discard those cobs turn that into your wonderful corn stalk very very easy as I showed you onion corn cobs and water it's boiling reduce it to a simmer cover and cook now this has been cooking for 20 minutes it looks very pretty add one and a half cups of heavy cream this is not diet food but it is good food bring this to a boil and cook until the mixture thickens while that's happening you can add one teaspoon of sugar oh about a half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter of a teaspoon of black pepper so no Bechamel no flour nothing but corn to thicken corn and I think this with a pork roast with a nice big pork chop remember most of the corn in the United States is grown in Iowa where there's also a lot of pork and that's where they make a water creamed corn very very delicious serve it piping hot and it really is best just served immediately after making it takes about four to six minutes for this to thicken up you can use some of this creamed corn poured into the center of a cornbread before you bake it it adds an extraordinary texture and you can also probably turn this creamed corn into a very nice corn pudding with the addition of egg and grated cheese adjust the seasoning to your liking there this is nice and thick and it looks really really different than the version that comes from the can so there I think that's cooked enough Ladle that into your serving dish and serve creamed corn and American classic layer cakes took the South by storm shortly after the Civil War when they first published recipes began appearing in books and newspapers this caramel cake with its irresistible combination of tender vanilla cake layers and Rich frosting soon became a southern favorite in the bowl of a stand mixer put two sticks of unsalted butter room temperature butter look how easily it beats add one cup of granulated sugar this is a sweet cake as you will see and two cups of dark brown sugar pack the sugar get that going and a second cup and let that get nice and creamy and we're going to add six eggs one at a time and there goes the sixth add to this mixture one tablespoon of the best vanilla you can find well this beets three cups cake flour not the self-rising kind we're adding our own leavening agents a half a teaspoon of baking soda and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt turn the mixer on low and we have a cup of sour cream already measured alternate the addition of flour and cream so add every little bit of your sour cream and then finish up with your flour so this makes two eight inch layers the pans have been buttered lined with parchment in the bottom and then buttered again and floured try to divide as evenly as possible quickly press the batter with an offset spatula like this and now we can put these right into a 325 degree oven preheated until a toothpick comes out clean that'll take 50 minutes and I'm baking right in the middle of the oven and now for the filling that makes this caramel cake a caramel cake and a small saucepan I've put a half a cup of sugar and I am heating it over a low flame so that it just starts to get a little bit of an amber color and in this saucepan two cups of granular sugar and one cup of heavy cream and two tablespoons of unsalted butter and you can add the butter here too and turn your heat on to kind of medium oh look how this sugar is melting ah and what I'm going to do is add this cream mixture to our simple sugar mixture stirring all the time just add this to this and that is going to be our beautiful caramel mixture stir all together see that lovely caramel color get this on medium high heat watching so that it does not over boil the mixture is now at softball stage 238 degrees remove your candy thermometer this thermometer is going to go down the side of the bowl and this mixture is going to be poured right into the bowl what we really want to do is cool this mixture to 200 degrees that's going to take approximately 20 minutes at 200 degrees and use the flat eater and wall beading add one teaspoon of the very best vanilla it's going to take about six minutes to get thickened and so this looks exactly right turn it off and just leave it in this bowl until it really cools so now for the caramel whipped cream frosting and a saucepan add a half a cup of sugar and two tablespoons of water add a pinch of salt now over medium-high heat melt the sugar in that little bit of water and cook until a beautiful amber color is achieved that'll take a few minutes ah beautiful what a lovely Amber I'm going to turn the heat off while I add my heavy cream and just add the cream very slowly that has a tendency to Bubble Up you can see it bubbling up and once it cools the caramel stir so now we have a lovely caramel colored cream turn the heat back on and cook until all the caramel is melted into the cream and now the cream has to be chilled very cold before you can whip it and what I like to do is just cool it right in a ice bath like this let it sit just stirring it occasionally now our filling is cool and we have to cut this into thirds and once you've apportioned your filling you can just roll it into each piece into an eight inch circle these are actually getting very soft you could put this in the refrigerator just for a moment to firm up a little bit but there's one eight inch and proceed to get all three done and now the cake itself as it baked it kind of went over the edge a little bit cut these edges off they're too crispy don't throw them away eat the scraps so that's one layer and trim the second layer and you take off this rough top layer which is almost like a cookie so Dole it out now cut this layer into two rounds and it's really best to turn the cake and make sure your knife that's cutting is halfway through the layer very nice and then you can lift this layer to the wrap and now repeat and do the same thing and now we're ready to apply our caramel filling take this over and lay it on and release the parchment paper and I would just fold under the edge and then your next layer and the last layer of caramel and the caramel whipped cream is whipped and staying chilled in the refrigerator top this with the last layer ready to frost so that's the color of the whipped cream I love the texture I love the taste we want to make sure the sides get covered shake the cream down the sides this spreads beautifully and when this is put into the refrigerator don't fret because it does get a little darker in color the caramel looks more like caramel I think that's beautiful now just release the papers and all the messes on the paper would have been on the cake stand and there you have the caramel cake must refrigerate it at least 30 minutes before serving or you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to two days once you chase this amazing cake you'll know why it has stood the test of time you don't have to be as Southerner I found out to enjoy grits now becoming more popular around the country and in top restaurants this Southern staple is enjoyed in numerous forms today we have a very simple recipe that features smooth creamy grits topped with broiled tomatoes and bubbling cheddar cheese and if you'd like some crispy bacon and I'm just slicing two Tomatoes I'm making six ramekins with this recipe six individual servings and these Tomatoes I'm going to just put under the broiler to get cooked I love Royal tomatoes and make them even tastier by putting a little bit of pepper on top a little bit of salt and a drizzle of olive oil just a teeny teeny bit of olive oil and these will cook slowly under a hot broiler now in this skillet two thick slices of bacon just cut into a little half inch squares they'll cook and get crispy cooking grits is really easy grits are simply dried corn or hominy a type of corn treated with an Alkali and coarsely ground this actually is a rather fine coarseness and this is white corn white corn and yellow corn have negligible differences in sweetness and nutritional content but white is generally favored in the South when cooking grits make sure your water is really boiling and use a whisk pour the grits in slowly gradually and keep stirring so that you don't have any lumps so one cup of grits to four cups of boiling water and keep an eye on the heat if the pot gets too hot the Grits will burn and that is not what we want I've just sprinkle this in and stir I have watched lots of people make grits and it's very easy to do grits like this will take about five minutes gradually thickens now you can use crumbled bacon and crumbled bacon is thin slices of bacon cooked and then you can crumble those but if the bacon is thickly sliced like this bacon it's a little hard to crumble it and don't buy pre-cooked bacon bits there is no reason to do that fresh grits will last several months in your pantry if you keep them in the freezer in a tightly sealed bag I keep them actually in quart plastic containers to the Grits you're going to add two tablespoons of butter two generous tablespoons and then to make these cheesy grits add one and a half cups of grated cheddar now as you add the cheddar use a wooden spoon not the Whisk because the Whisk will get all stuck and stir this it'll melt right into those grits making them very very cheesy now I had added no salt no pepper so right now I'm going to add a goodly sprinkling of salt and a smaller sprinkling of pepper there's the tomatoes they've just gotten a little bit of color around the edge those are going to go on top of the grits and the grits with the cheese and the butter can sit for a little while if you want to keep it longer than oh half an hour or so I would put that in a bain marie of hot water so that they will stay warm so here is our bacon just drain it on a piece of paper towel a brown paper bag and now it's time to fill buttered ramekins butter because you don't want the Grits to stick and you also add a little bit more flavor to the grits okay I think those are nicely buttered and Spoon in your grits they look good now grits like this can be served for breakfast you could put a little pile of grits on a plate and put a fried egg on top and a piece of country ham that'd be good or you can make it a little fancier as I'm doing in a Ramekin and this can be served not only for breakfast but also for lunch I really got to know a little bit more about grits when I visited my friend Sally down in Tennessee and she took me to several wonderful Stone Mills that ground their own grits it was just amazing to see corn being transformed from the kernel into a grain like this so just clean up the edges a little bit and put your sliced tomatoes right on top one has to be vegetarian actually I'll make two vegetarian and the rest can have a sprinkling of this delicious Smoky bacon these look really good then grate a little bit more cheese this is the white cheddar and sprinkle on top of the tomatoes just a half a cup or so and these will go back under the broiler for approximately two minutes watch them carefully this is oven proof where the dishes themselves but you don't want anything to happen to them under a hot broiler I think these look good and just a little bit of pepper I love pepper Cheddar's salty enough so you don't have to add any more salt so under the broiler for two minutes I hope you'll try this recipe they're ready bubbling very hot oh my gosh these look great Spectacular Now let them cool a little bit before you try to move them but these are ready to eat in the next five minutes shrimp oils are very popular in southern cooking and make for a delicious one pot meal shrimp boils are really indigenous to the low country of South Carolina whereas crayfish or crawfish are a Louisiana specialty but we're going to do a shrimp boil today since that's the subject of our show and we have to make a fragrant kind of broth first some lemons and squeeze in two lemons into five quarts of boiling water and just add the peels too want the flavorful flavorful boiling liquid if you can possibly get it oh four cloves of garlic peeled and smashed two medium or large onions peeled and put right into the water and just bring it to a simmer so the key to this authentic and delicious shrimp oil is to create a spicy Brew in which to cook the shrimp you can buy some really great combinations of spices and just dump them in here but if you want to make your own here is a good way to start we're going to start with a tablespoon of red pepper I'm making a cheesecloth bundle and we have a tablespoon of mustard seeds a couple bay leaves crushed they'll uh they'll equal about a tablespoon and six whole allspice berries three tablespoons of coriander seeds and one tablespoon of Dill seed now that'll give you a nice fragrant mix and if you like you can sort of crush all this a little bit with a big fat rolling pin okay I think that will be a fragrant mix tie this like this to seal in all those spices and then secure it with a piece of twine and drop it into the water so now we're ready to start cooking three pounds of small potatoes little potatoes all those spices and the onions and the lemon will Infuse the water now bring this to a boil reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes so I am shucking some corn about eight or ten years were good and we're going to put it right into a very fragrant potato boil they've been cooking for 10 minutes take a peek of very nice yum and get as much of the silk off the corn as you can and just break it in half and the corn has to go in now for five minutes and I'll bring that up to a boil again and boil partially covered for five minutes I'm melting some butter and just mixing it simply with my favorite hot sauce look at the great color that corn is becoming butter and sugar corn and now add your shrimp three pounds tails on shells on and make sure they get submerged in the broth very important cover again partially and I think our butter is melted yes and I'll make two ramekins of the spicy butter that smells really good so now our shrimp boil is done and I am straining some of this broth through a fine sieve and it's nice to serve that too in ramekins around the shrimp boil itself so a shrimp oil like this is perfectly suited for casual outdoor entertaining spread your table with newspaper find some paper napkins and some bibs and feed that crowd shrimp America's most popular seafood is so versatile and you can serve it as you can see with as a shrimp cocktail as scampi as grilled shrimp or boiled shrimp and these recipes will certainly Delight now this is okra it's known as a southern favorite but the rest of America is beginning to catch on to this delicious vegetable today I'm going to show you one of the most common and best ways to cook it if you've never tried okra before this is a great recipe now it's essential that you get okra that is tender very nicely colored no brown spots it shouldn't be shriveled and it shouldn't be dry and it should also be able to be cut easily with a knife if the knife is offered in any resistance whatsoever by the okra that is way too old to cook so just discard that now remember after you wash it dry it very very well Pat it dry okra in the farmer's market or I get it right out of my garden it's a beautiful plant it's related to the Hibiscus family and the flowers are very hibiscus-like they are also edible now to prepare for frying just cut off the tops the stem end like this and cut the okra into half inch pieces you see how easily this is cut these little tips well they're not right for frying so I just kind of discard those or add them to the stock pot I like okra stewed I like it in gumbo but this is something that you'll all enjoy fried okra coated in a cornmeal and served with a remoulade sauce so here we have our okra already cut up I have three egg whites in this dish and I'm going to thin those with three tablespoons of cold water whisk this up just break up the egg whites and the oil is a vegetable oil uh you could use olive oil if you like the taste of olive oil you could use canola or just a good quality vegetable oil so get this a little frothy and I suggest well you have to use your fingers so I suggest using one hand for the wet and one hand for the dry in the cornmeal this is one cup of beautiful cornmeal a quarter cup of flour is added to that use an unbleached flour half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper ground that has a little zip and black pepper a quarter of a teaspoon and two teaspoons of salt I think this kind of fried food needs salt and this is not greasy fried food this is like a little snack so that's ready for dipping okay so we're working with a small amount of okra first just push this around in the egg white mixture a white in water and then just place it in the cornmeal and the oil should be heated to 375 degrees so this looks good now you can just put all your coated okra onto a piece of parchment paper and drop these into the hot oil now these are Browning very nicely very quickly these are done such a beautiful golden color just remove them to a paper towel covered baking sheet and start frying the next batch I'll show you how easy it is to make a very flavorful remoulade to one cup of mayo you can use low-fat Mayo if you want or homemade Mayo add one tablespoon of finely chopped parsley a tablespoon of finely chopped basil leaves two tablespoons of milk which thins out the mayonnaise a little bit a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper foreign two teaspoons of finely chopped shallot some salt two tablespoons of champagne vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice Also Serve these if you will with some wedges of lemon people like lemon and okra stir this all up this you can make the day before and get all the flavors melded together it's a very delicious remoulade so we have right here a platter and some remoulade sauce you can just put the first batch of okra here don't forget to sprinkle it with salt while it's still hot and then dip it in your remoulade and taste really really good [Music] I think that batches for me you can make all the rest for you [Music] foreign

Channel: Martha Stewart

Views: 132,211

Keywords: martha, stewart, Martha Stewart's classic Southern recipes, timeless culinary traditions, nostalgic creamed corn preparation, caramel cake baking, fried Southern-style chicken, authentic shrimp boil recipe, Southern comfort and flavors, Martha Stewart's Southern cooking, traditional Southern favorites, Southern cuisine with a twist, culinary dishes of the South, iconic Southern dishes, shrimp boil, fried chicken, grits, creamed corn, fried okra, corn fritters

Id: BzMNu5fNXLc

Length: 48min 30sec (2910 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023