Southern Meal

Sunday night I made a Southern meal for Georg's parents, Georg, and me. I didn't make the super-traditional fried chicken, collard greens, etc., but I did make twists on some classic Southern dishes.

For the appetizer I made deviled eggs with radishes, thyme, and chives using a recipe I found online. Instead of mixing the egg yolks with just mayonnaise and mustard, you mix them with diced radishes, thyme, chives, Dijon mustard, and yogurt. They were really good. The radish and extra herbs made the eggs taste fresher and more complex.
To accompany the deviled eggs, I made some cheddar cheese straws. These were delicious and surprisingly easy to make. They're made pretty much the same way as biscuits, except with a lot of added cheese, and they're rolled out thin and cut into strips.
I couldn't have had a Southern meal without cornbread! I made a sweeter cornbread made with honey and rosemary. The recipe originally called for sage, but I couldn't find it in stores. The rosemary was a good substitute. The cornbread turned out well. It wasn't too dry so I didn't have to put any butter on it. Well actually, there was already a ton of butter in the recipe, so it's not like I saved any calories. Not that we were counting calories on this night anyway!
For the main course I made smashed potatoes with root vegetables (turnip, carrot, and horseradish), smothered pork chops, and green beans. I smashed the vegetables and potatoes with butter and buttermilk, so they were really rich. I wasn't too impressed with the pork chops. I bought the thickest ones I could find, but they were still too thin and they ended up too tough. I like American pork chops better. Even in the most average of supermarkets you can find the fattest, juiciest pork chops ever, and here you must have to go to some special butcher or something because the ones I see in the supermarkets suck. The gravy was good, though, I made it with the pork drippings and some buttermilk. Buttermilk makes really good gravy, I've realized. The green beans are just regular old boiled green beans.
For dessert I made a lemon chess pie with a coconut crust. Chess pie is a characteristic Southern dessert, although it is usually made without lemon--just eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla. I think the lemon was meant to make the pie less cloyingly sweet, and the raspberries I put on top helped, too. Here's the recipe if you're interested in making it. Making the coconut crust was a tedious chore which I wasn't entirely sure would be rewarding, but it was worth it. It ended up pretty flaky and good. The consistency of the filling is custardy, but it contains a lot of sugar, so the top gets lightly brown and achieves a slight crispy texture.

Georg's dad shared with us a ten year old bottle of Austrian auslese, a wine made with grapes that are allowed to ripen for longer, so they contain more sugar, and the wine has a higher alcohol content. I don't taste too many ausleses or ten year old bottles of wine, so I was very grateful for the experience.

Good meal--I ate too much, I wasn't even hungry for breakfast the next morning. Of course, I still scarfed down a couple of pieces of the leftover cornbread before work, haha.