Side Dish Recipes
What to eat with your barbecue? Here are the classic accompaniements and then some.
Beans
Bourbon BBQ Baked Beans. Three ways to make this classic soooo much better than the stuff from the can.
Hoppin John. Hoppin' John (shown at right) is a bean, rice, and pork dish popular in coastal South Carolina and Georgia. It probably originated with black slaves from the Caribbean brought in through Charleston around which there were large rice plantations. It is still very popular among the Gullah on the Carolina coastal islands.
Grannies Texas Beans. During hard times, beans have kept many Texans alive. For more than a few, the bean pot contained simply beans, salt, pepper, and maybe a little pork fat or bacon. You can go crazy with additions, but this is the classic, simple, home style recipe. When you visit classic Texas pitstops, beans are almost always on the menu, and outsiders, particularly Yankees, are often surprised to discover that they are simple and not sweet.
French Green Beans. Quick and easy, crunchy and flavorful, even my Dad ate these and he hated veggies.
Slaws and salads
The Zen of Slaw. Slaw is slaw, right? Wrong! Cole slaw is the world's best salad. Crunchy, juicy, refreshing with bright sweet/sour/salty/savory flavors, it kicks the butissimo of any wimpy limpy lettuce leaf salad. But more important, slaw is the perfect accompaniment for barbecue. There are scores of great slaw recipes with a wide variety of ingredients, and each recipe can be prepared with a wide variety of techniques. They are easy to make, but like anything else, there are secrets that separate everyday from holiday slaw. Here are some tips on technique to make your salad slawsome.
Creamy Cole Slaw with Mayonnaise. Not too sweet, this slaw is perfect for piling on top of a pulled pork sandwich Carolina style.
Wonderful Waldorf Slaw. Here's a great slaw recipe with a twist: Inspiration from the famous Waldorf salad.
Thai Cucumbers. One of the simple pleasures of dining in a Thai restaurant is the lovely delicate cucumber salad they serve as an appetizer. The delicate piquance of the mild rice vinegar is a great counter-point to the sweetness of a classic Kansas City sauce. And the best part is that, unlike so many other cucumber salads, there is no oil in this recipe!
Caprese Tomato Salad. This classic rustic salad from the Isle of Capri off the west coast of Italy (Caprese means "of Capri"). It is pure August on a plate.
LT Italian Vinaigrette Salad Dressing. A first rate all-purpose oil and vinegar dressing loaded with herb flavors that can also double as a marinade.
Potatoes
The Zen of Potatoes. So versatile, and such a perfect accompaniment to meat. Such comfortable food. Here's what you need to know about the different kinds of potatoes and which ones to bake, fry, and boil.
Mom's Potato Salad. Only better.
Potato Pancakes (Latkes). The most perfect use of potatoes, better even than French fries and hash browns, are potato pancakes because they have the best of both and then some: Mahogany crunchy edges, crispy golden across the midsection, and tender, rich, meaty interiors.
Great Greek Potatoes. Picquant from lemon juice and aromatic from garlic and oregano, this is such a simple recipe you will be cooking it every night.
English Blue Cheese Potatoes. So simple. So quick. So tasty. Why haven't you done this before?
Ultimate American Garlic Mashed. None of that raw garlic harshness, we can teach you a trick to make it sweet and mellow.
Italian Pesto Potatoes. You'll wonder why you've ever made any other potato recipe.
Warm French Potato Salad. Less is more says the old saw, and this recipe featuring olive oil proves it.
Oktoberfest German Potato Salad. Warm German Potato Salad is perfect for tailgaters and fall/winter dining.
Other side dishes
Roasted Garlic Garlic Bread. Raw garlic is harsh and sulfury, strong enough to ward off vampires. But it gets mellow, nutty, and sweet when cooked. But not too mellow. It still retains its unique character. One of the best ways to mellow garlic is to roast garlic. It makes a great spread on bread, toast, or crackers. I also use it in mashed potatoes, salad dressings, soups, and sauces. It's easy.
Ultimate Corn on the Cob. This corn is so good, it should be illegal. If you ask me, the best way to cook corn is on the grill, and I have a few tricks that you can use to make the Ultimate Corn on the Cob.
Grilled Asparagus Spears to the Heart. Grilled asparagus develops rich flavors you just can't get by boiling or steaming. Seasoned, grilled, drizzled with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and topped with curls of Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese, this is by far my favorite prep.
Bron's Great Cheesy Grits. In the south, where corn is king, grits are it. A grainy corn porridge they are served with breakfast, lunch, and supper. And they make an excellent accompaniment for ribs. Especially cheese grits.
Drunken Cranberries. You'll never go back to the canned stuff.
Soused Apple Sauce. Apple sauce with crunch? And a kick? Sign me up!
Caramelized Onions. Mahogany colored caramelized onions are a wonderful sweet savory topping for ribs, chops, steaks, burgers, hotdogs, baked potatoes, your lover. My favorite substrate is pizza.
Snacks and Munchies
Caramelized Onion Pizza. Grilled pizza comes closer to brick oven pizza like you get in Rome or Naples than anything you can do indoors and it beats the snot out of the stuff that arrives steamed and soggy in the cardboard box. This simple recipe works great with caramelized onions.
Frico Cheese Crisps. If you love the crispy bits of cheese that stick to the griddle when you make grilled cheese sandwiches even better than the sandwiches, frico will become your favorite munchie.
Grilled jalapeño Poppers. One-Eyed jalapeño Poppers are great appetizers. While standard restaurant jalapeño poppers are usually breaded and fried, my outdoor version is grilled and much more flavorful.
Piquant Pimento Cheese Spread. When I was in college in the '60s, our favorite late nite stoner munchie was Ritz Crackers with pimento cheese spread. Well I've forgotten much of what happened in those years, but I've never forgotten the cheese spread. So I remade it, only better.
Home-made Boursin Cheese Spread. Boursin was created in 1957 by Francois Boursin, a cheesemaker in Normandy, France. It is a spreadable cow's milk cream cheese that comes in five flavors. My fave is flavored with garlic and herbs. You can buy Boursin in many groceries, but it is fairly easy to make something similar at home for a fraction of the cost.
How to Boil an Egg. I always thought that all I had to do to hard cook eggs was toss them in boiling water, but according to the American Egg Board, this is wrong! Here's how they say we should hard cook eggs.
...more to come (to be notified when new recipes and other articles come online, be sure to subscribe to my free, spam free, email newsletter).
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