Being both Asian-American and a New Englander through and through, I have little familiarity with soul food or Southern food. (Except for sweet potato pie. Hot take, sweet potato pie is the best pie. As much as I like a fruit pie like the ol’ apple pie, sweet potato never lets me down. I have consumed disappointing apple pie in the past; it’s a sad feeling.) “The Twisted Soul Cookbook” by Chef Deborah VanTrece, might very well be one of the best ways for me to explore more food cultures. VanTrece, owner of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours in Atlanta, Georgia, has a “concept of global soul food; the soul food of different cultures around the globe as she has experienced them.”
The book is divided into these chapters:
- Castoffs and throwaways
- Beef, lamb, and pork
- Poultry
- Vegetables, salads, and sides
- Shellfish and fish
- Desserts
- Necessities
Here are the recipes I want to try:
- Slow-Cooked Beef Tongue Pot Roast with Wild Mushroom Gravy
- Bologna Mousse Pork Neck Bones with Dill Potato Gnocchi
- Pork Chops Smothered in Tomato-Sage Gravy Smothered
- Chicken Meatballs over Herb-Truffle Spaetzle
- Collard Green Dumplings with Red Wasabi Vinaigrette
- Cajun Sweet Potato Salad
- Paella Macaroni
- Fried Apple Hand Pies with Milk Jam
- Lemon Blueberry Buckle
- Chocolate Buttermilk Pie
I wanted to make the beef tongue recipe for this post, but my inaugural cooking experiment for that cut of meat was used the week before I got to see this book. (Note to self, buy more beef tongue.)
So I pivoted and decided that, since March 14th was coinciding with this cookbook’s release week, I wanted navy bean pie! Much to my surprise, bean pies are commonly associated with the cuisine of African-American Muslims. Apparently, the navy bean was the only bean approved by the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist and social reform movement founded in 1930, while all other beans were divinely prohibited. The pie itself is a custard based pie like sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie. VanTrece says that she’s never seen it used with any other bean, just navy beans.
So, pandemic food shopping problem #1…
I couldn’t make it with navy beans. I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t hate me. I tried but my market had literally every bean except navy beans in stock. (Is this a side effect of covid affecting production/distribution? Did my market decide not enough people were buying navy beans and therefore stopped ordering them? I may never know.) I had to make do with cannellini beans.
The other ingredients are more familiar in custard pies: evaporated milk, butter, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, vanilla, lemon zest, and all purpose flour. For this pie, I used the all butter crust recipe in the book. (I also must admit that I forgot to pick up a lemon so I subbed in some of my homemade orange zest dust.)
Overall reaction? Very positive. I’m tempted to play around with the spice mix in the future. My biggest criticism was with the crust recipe. For 1 ¼ cup of flour and 1 stick of butter, the book says to use ⅓ cup to ½ cup buttermilk. I second guessed myself and went with the full ½ cup buttermilk. Even in my very dry and cold New England kitchen, this was too much liquid. (True story, pie making is something I only do well about 75% of the time. I need more practice.) After I realized I made it too wet, I compared the crust recipe to the one I’ve used in the past. My go to all butter crust recipe also uses 1 ¼ cup flour and 1 stick of butter, but instructs to start with 3 tablespoons of liquid. That’s a huge difference in liquid! I may have ended up with a fussy and ugly crust, but it tasted fine. I still had a yummy pie at the end of the day, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
Then, since I already had buttermilk in the fridge and I always seem to have cornmeal in my freezer, I decided to make VanTrece’s recipe for avocado hoecakes. The ingredients for the hoecakes are avocado, self-rising cornmeal, buttermilk, red onion, red bell pepper, cilantro, eggs, and jalapeno. I don’t have self-rising cornmeal so, for a halved recipe, I replaced with ¾ cup fine cornmeal, 3 tablespoons all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt. The DIY route worked fine. I’ve never made hoecakes before (they’re basically a pancake but cornmeal based instead of wheat flour based) and my first batch cooked poorly. This was user error. The recipe told me to use enough oil to coat the pan, but I didn’t think I’d need that much since I was using a non-stick pan. I was completely wrong. Luckily, I do learn from my mistakes and subsequent hoecakes looked much better.
I liked these too but I’m not sure I’ll make them again. (To be fair, I’m too lazy to make pancakes as a general rule.) I’m not sure what the purpose of the avocado is for. I love avocados, but I feel like the flavor took a backseat to the cornmeal flavor. I’m tempted to try a version with more buttermilk and top the cooked hoecake with avocado instead. (Or I guess I could just make standard hoecakes and top with some guacamole.) But that’s just me. The hoecakes were still good, and I don’t regret eating them.
All in all, I thought this book was exciting. A lot of the recipes felt fresh and inventive. Other recipes were fancier spinoffs of familiar Southern favorites, like the duck schnitzel and sweet potato waffles, or the foie gras dirty rice. If you’re looking to try something new or just looking for inspiration, I highly recommend adding “The Twisted Soul Cookbook” to your collection. And if I ever find myself in Atlanta (which I would love to visit to be honest), I now know to check out VanTrece’s restaurant.
Disclaimer – I kindly received a digital copy of this book from Rizzoli New York for this review. I’m not getting paid for this post. The views and opinions expressed are purely my own.
Since there’s still a pandemic at the time of writing this, I’m trying to stay home as much as possible. So pardon me if I choose to skip an ingredient or substitute it.
Reference links:
https://www.twistedsoulcookhouseandpours.com/team
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