RECIPE: SAUSAGE, WHITE BEAN AND ESCAROLE SOUP

Martie Duncan September 19, 2014

I love soup. There’s hardly anything I like more than a warm bowl of something hearty when it is cold outside. This time of the year, a big pot of soup is the perfect way to feed a big crowd and this recipe for Sausage, White Bean and Escarole soup is not only fast, it is also very affordable. For game day or snow day parties, you can serve this with a salad and some toasty garlic bread and you’re all set. If you can't find Escarole in the veggie aisle, arugula, kale, or other leafy green can substitute.

SAUSAGE, WHITE BEAN AND ESCAROLE SOUP

Serves 6-8

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds of spicy or mild Italian sausage, removed from casing

1 medium yellow onion, diced

5 carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

5-6 whole canned tomatoes plus 1/2 cup of juice from Italian canned tomatoes

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

splash white wine (or any) vinegar

1 cup white wine (optional)

5-6 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

2 cans cannellini beans (white pinto beans, Great Northern beans)

2 cups escarole, chopped

Parmesan for garnish

Tabasco-optional

DIRECTIONS:

In a large Dutch oven, over medium high heat, brown the sausage, removed from the casing. Once the sausage is nice and brown, use a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan; drain on paper towels. Reserve. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pan. Let the oil get hot and add the onion, carrots and celery. Cook 3 minutes or until softened. Let the vegetables get nice and soft, stirring occasionally, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic. Cook one minute more. Add the sausage back to the pot. Add salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the tomatoes by crushing them with your hands into little pieces. Add the juice from the tomatoes, vinegar, Worcestershire, and the white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook and stir for about 1-2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth, beans and escarole. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and cook 10 minutes more. The soup is ready to serve when the escarole is wilted. Serve with toasty garlic bread and garnish with grated Parmesan.

LIBRARY BOOKS, BIRMINGHAM'S BEST BITES, AND IT IS CHOCOLATE ROULAGE, NOT ROULADE

Martie Duncan September 15, 2014

I have got quite the week in front of me. Some of it is exciting and some is like jail.

The jail part is self imposed. I put myself on lockdown. No phone. No Facebook. I'd say no computer but I have to write. Suddenly, I'm having a flashback to Food Network Star.... ugh. Here's why I'm in self-imposed hiatus.... I'm trying to finish editing the collection of recipes I have gathered for an upcoming cookbook called Birmingham's Best Bites: A Collection of Recipes from Your Favorite Restaurants which will benefit the Birmingham Public Library. I loved the library as a kid and would ride my bike there almost daily in the summer to get new books to read. I bet I read every sports, horse, or Nancy Drew book they had in the place. Here's me... I always fell asleep with a library book on my head.

I'm writing the book with my good friend Chanda Temple, who is the Public Relations Director at the library. Our deadline is this week so I'm on lockdown until I finish. The book will be a great way for the library to raise funds for events and special programs and it will also help the restaurants with their visibility, too. The book launch party happens as the conclusion of this year's Eat, Drink, Read, Write Festival on October 10,2014. I'm helping throw the party. Here's a link to tickets if you want to come. They are only $10. Purchase EDRW Birmingham's Best Bites & Instagrammy's Tickets.

You have to be there to buy the cookbook and there are only a limited number of copies available. Besides, it is going to be a great party with lots of wonderful best bites! There are recipes from Birmingham's James Beard Award winners and nominees: Chef Frank Stitt and Highlands Bar and Grill, Chef Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club, Chef James Lewis, Bettola at Pepper Place, Jim 'n Nicks, Ollie Irene, and the iconic The Bright Star in Bessemer. There are recipes from favorite food trucks like Shindigs and Dreamcakes to new-comers like Avondale's Hotbox, Bottle & Bone at Uptown, and the highly anticipated Galley & Garden from Chef James Boyce, Little Savannah, Satterfield's, DoDiYo's, Jinsei, Maki Fresh, Eagles Restaurant, and Ashley Mac and so many, many more have stepped up to participate.

Chanda Temple and I preview our cookbook, Birmingham's Best Bites: Recipes from Birmingham's Restaurants, Bars and Food Trucks

We've even included a "days gone by" section with a history of Birmingham restaurants and recipes from some favorites that have closed. That section includes the recipe for my Chocolate Roulage recipe, inspired by a landmark Birmingham restaurant called Cobb Lane which closed long ago. We used to go there back in the day for special occasions like bridesmaids luncheons and baby showers and the primary reason was for the Roulage. Yes, rou-lage. Not roulade. Yes. I know the French pronounce the rolled up thingie a "rou-lade" but here in Birmingham Alabama, it is and always will be pronounced rou-lage.

This book will be the perfect present for your foodie friends so get a few and keep them for special occasions. The images are by local photographers Arden Ward Upton and Mo Davis of Arden Photography. The photos are stunning and will make the book all the more special. Here is a sneak peek:

Please buy a copy of the hardback version of our Birmingham's Best Bites cookbook, now in its third printing!

FAVORITE FALL RECIPES: CARAMEL APPLE CAKE

Martie Duncan September 12, 2014

When I was a kid, my mom would make us a cake or pie everyday... usually it was pie but on occasion, she would make Apple Dapple Cake... a recipe she got from someone along the way. It was one of the few recipes she actually used and I have a copy of it in her handwriting... a treasured possession. I took that basic recipe and made it into one of my favorite fall desserts by adding the hot caramel because what is more fall than caramel apples? I like to serve it slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I served this cake to over 300 guests at the after-party following the Hangout's Oyster Cookoff in November to rave reviews. My mom would be so proud.

Caramel Apple Cake is a wonderfully easy cake to make for fall tailgates, festivals, or Saturday morning coffee.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour plus 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped fine

3 apples, peeled and chopped fine

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (like Wesson)

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

HOT CARAMEL SAUCE

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

DIRECTIONS:

Spray a tube pan with Baker’s Joy or grease and flour it. Preheat oven to 350.

For the cake: Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add apples and pecans. Stir to coat the fruit. Mix together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add to the fruit mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Remove from the oven and sit on a wire rack to cool. While the cake is still hot, pour the caramel sauce over it and then let it cool completely before removing from the pan.

For the hot caramel sauce: Put the sugar in a saucepan over low heat until it starts to melt. Add the butter. Swirl the pan until the butter melts. Add the milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly so it does not burn. Pour the hot caramel directly over the hot cake while it is still in the pan. Be careful- the hot sugar will burn!

NOTE: It is important to pour the caramel over the cake in the pan because it creates this great coating on the bottom, side and top of the cake. As much as you want to eat it, you have to allow it to cool completely before you remove it from the pan. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to help release it.