COMFORT FOOD FOR CONTENTIOUS TIMES

Recipes that celebrate Kentucky’s common culinary wealth

The constant inundation of opinions and commentary from the right, left and center has many of us scrambling for respite from soapboxes and sound bites. Rather than clasp our hands over our ears screaming “la, la, la, la, la” like a five-year-old when the rancor gets to be too much, we reached out to the University of Kentucky Press to share recipes culled from their catalog of Kentucky-themed cookbooks. The benefit of spending time in the kitchen and then gathering around the table to take solace in a good meal–or at the very least a stiff drink¬–is something we can certainly all agree on!

Kentucky Gimlet

From Uptown Café (1624 Bardstown Rd. in Louisville; uptownlouisville.com)

There’s a wonderful tartness to this cocktail, which is especially refreshing in warm weather. Thanks to Uptown Café owner Kelley Ledford for the recipe, which was created by bartender Evan Blanford.

Ingredients:

5 ounces Evan Williams Single Barrel

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce simple syrup

4–5 fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Directions: Chill a 9-ounce cocktail glass with ice and water, and set aside. Add the lime juice, syrup, and basil leaves to a shaker and muddle. Then add the bourbon and some ice and shake well. Discard the ice and water from the cocktail glass and strain the mixture into it. Garnish with a lime slice.

Recipes from "More Kentucky Bourbon Cocktails" by Joy Perrine and Susan Reigler.

Burgoo

Margaret M. Bridwell’s book "Kentucky Fare: A Recipe Book of Some of Kentucky’s Mouth Watering Specialties," is small but hits all of the classic Kentucky dishes. Written in 1953, it begins, “Kentuckians are proud of being famous for inherent hospitality...” Bridwell suggests that burgoo be served with “corn pones, a green salad, and fruit pie” for a “completely satisfying meal.” This recipe is based on her burgoo.

Ingredients for 15–20 servings:

2 pounds lean beef, with bone

1 medium hen

1 pound veal

4 quarts water

6 ears young corn, cut from cob

2 cups rock potatoes, diced

2 cups onion, diced

1 pint fresh or frozen butter beans

3 carrots, diced

2 cups okra, diced

2 green peppers, diced

1 button garlic

1 small pod red pepper

1 cup parsley, minced

1 quart tomatoes

1 stalk celery, diced

bacon fat

In a heavy aluminum or iron kettle with a tight lid, boil the beef, veal, and chicken in the water until they are very tender. Remove meat and separate from bones. Replace meat in pot. Fry onions in bacon fat until yellow. Add to meat and stock. Add potatoes, carrots, and celery. Cook about 15 minutes. Add butter beans and cook about 2 hours, simmering slowly. The mixture should be very thick. If too thick, add a small amount of water from time to time to prevent sticking. Add okra, tomatoes, garlic, and red pepper pod. Let simmer another hour. Add corn and cook 30 minutes. Stir in parsley when ready to take from stove. Salt to taste.

Cornbread

A former Louisville Courier-Journal reporter, Sarah Fritschner is one of the guardians of Kentucky cuisine and the writer of "Sarah Fritschner’s Holidays: Menus and Recipes for the Fall Holiday Season". Fritschner suggests serving cornbread hot or saving it at room temperature for several days to make cornbread dressing. The following is based on her recipe:

Ingredients for 4–6 servings:

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2¼ cups white cornmeal

¼ cup flour

1¼ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 egg

1½ cups milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put the butter in a 9-inch castiron skillet or other heavy pan, then place the pan in the oven to melt the butter and heat the pan. Mix the cornmeal with the flour, salt, baking powder, egg, and milk. When the butter is beginning to brown, remove the skillet from the oven and tip it to coat the sides of the pan. Pour the rest of the butter into the batter and stir to mix. Pour batter back into the hot pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown around the edges.

Forester 75 From Dish on Market (434 West Market St. in Louisville; dishonmarket.com)

Dish proprietor Anderson Grissom explained that this is a Kentucky version of the classic French 75, which uses gin. It’s a very quick and easy cocktail to make.

Ingredients:

1 ounce Old Forester

½ ounce simple syrup

Lemon wedge

Korbel Brut Rose

Add the bourbon and syrup to the champagne glass and ream the lip of the glass with the lemon wedge. Fill with the sparkling wine, add a squeeze of lemon, and serve.

Always-in-the-Pantry Bourbon Pound Cake

Makes two 8 x 4-inch loaves

Deceptively simple, pound cake features very few ingredients, and the techniques involved are basic to baking. What this means is that every little detail counts. In order to get a light, moist, buttery cake, you have to be a little fussy.

The eggs need to be at room temperature, the butter should be of the highest quality, all-purpose flour steps aside in reverence to cake flour, and beaten eggs should be whisked full of air. Butter that’s too warm or batter that’s overbeaten will yield a flat, dense cake.

It goes without saying that if you’re putting this kind of love and attention into a cake batter, you don’t want to throw in cheap rotgut. Use top-shelf bourbon. The loveliest thing about pound cake, though, is that it’s rootsy; it’s made from ingredients any farm wife has on hand. I recommend learning the basics of baking by making this cake again and again. I’m pretty sure your family won’t complain.

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 sticks) butter, cold (but not hard), plus more for greasing pan

2½ cups granulated sugar

7 large eggs, at room temperature

4 cups cake flour, sifted before measuring

1 tablespoon bourbon

Butter the two pans and set them aside. Do not preheat the oven.In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat the butter 1 to 2 minutes, until it lightens in color. Add the sugar to the butter a little at a time, until it’s all combined, then beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

In a separate small bowl, whisk the eggs until foamy, and set aside. With the mixer set on low speed, alternately add the eggs and flour, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the bourbon and beat on low speed until just blended.

Divide the batter between the buttered pans, smoothing the tops with a spatula dipped in water. Put the pans, evenly spaced, in the cold oven, and set the temperature at 275 degrees F. After 30 minutes, increase the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes; then rotate the pans. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until a wooden cake tester or metal skewer inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. If the tops are browning too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of foil.

Cool the cakes on a wire rack in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert them onto the rack and cool for another hour before serving.

Store in an airtight plastic cake safe or tin for up to 1 week.

Recipe from Bourbon Desserts by Lynn Marie Hulsman.