Southern Provisions

Southern Provisions used to be Jokers n Thieves, with the lovely and talented Jesse Sandlin in the kitchen. I'm not sure what happened there, why JnT became a different restaurant with the same general theme. We had dinner there once, summer before last, and liked it quite a bit. The soft shell crab waffle sandwich was killer, and I fell in love with the Carolina gold rice porridge served with a slab of smoky brisket. In any case, Jesse is off doing other things and the nice space on the corner of O'Donnell and Potomac Streets is now called Southern Provisions.

We had a book signing down the street at 2910 on the Square (a fab gift shop that we highly recommend) in early December and moseyed over to Southern Provisions for dinner afterward. I had heard that they were offering the trendy Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, and wanted to give them a try.

We ordered a couple of beers and both the Nashville hot chicken sliders and something called "Ol’ Saint Nick Fritters" for appetizers. I did the ordering, and when I added the "Chop Salad," our waitress seemed inordinately confused. Apparently she thought the sliders were my entree. A bit of advice to wait staff: when a fat woman orders a lot of food, just write it down and bring it. Maybe ask if she wants it all at once or some as an app and some as an entree, but don't stare at her like she has three heads. She may be a food writer who just wants to taste everything. There are these things called "doggie bags" if she doesn't finish it all.

Mr Minx ordered the Brisket French Dip. The waitress didn't look at him funny.

Let's start with those sliders, shall we? Real Nashville hot chicken is marinated, fried, and sauced in an ass-kicking cayenne-based paste. It's red and it's hot. As a sandwich, the chicken is typically served on white bread with pickle chips.

Well, they got the pickle chip part right.

The chicken itself was fried, somewhat dry, breast meat. Neither the chicken nor the breading was particularly flavorful. And there was no discernible heat. The menu claims the chicken is dipped in something called Jim Beam Devil's Cut hot sauce, but perhaps, as in the making of a dry martini, a bottle of the sauce was merely waved over the chicken. Disappointing.

I ordered the "Ol’ Saint Nick Fritters" just because they sounded like a disaster. "Fresh mint, sage and ginger fritters served w/peppermint bark butter." Not only is the Oxford comma conspicuously absent, I couldn't get my mind around the peppermint bark butter. The waitress assured me that the dish was tasty. She also said the fritters were like hush puppies, crisp on the outside and soft in the middle--an apt description. Definitely crispy on the outside, the fritters were raw and gooey on the inside. The waitress whisked them away with apologies; a few minutes later, a manager brought us fresh ones that were cooked all the way through.

I slathered a hot ball with some of the pink butter and took a bite. Weird, but not awful. On their own, the fritters tasted a tad like stuffing. The butter was creamy and tasted like melted Hershey's white chocolate kisses, the ones with the bits of candy cane inside. It would have been fab spread on a slice of chocolate cake. Had there been no sage in the fritters, it would have worked with them, too. Otherwise, it was just weird. But far from inedible.

I imagine it was my mistake thinking that a "chop salad" was going to be a "chopped salad." A chopped salad is, well, chopped. That is, everything is cut into small pieces, including the lettuce. A sturdy lettuce like iceberg or romaine works best; their prominent rib actually offers something to chop. Southern Provisions' salad was just a salad. There was a mess of baby greens topped with milky blobs of what was listed as "house made" mozzarella, plus roasted beets and pecans. A shit ton of pecans. An entire pie worth of pecans. I'm not complaining - they were the best part of the salad. What wasn't the best part was the "warm bacon & onion vinaigrette" which was unbalanced, leaning too far toward sour. It was also watery, which may have meant the greens hadn't been dried well after washing. In any case, it was a bad salad and I regretted ordering it.

Neal's brisket French dip was meh. The "sautéed" onions were little more than steamed (and whomever chopped them needs to learn better knife skills). The brisket was tender and had a nice smoky flavor, but it was a little hard to taste with all the bread. The fries were good though, well-cooked and seasoned.

So. Completely meh. Maybe that's being generous. They did take the fritters off the tab, which was nice. I should have complained about the abysmal salad and lack of hot sauce on the chicken, too. We actually should have sent it all back. But what's bitchier - being a picky and complaining customer, and making the wait staff suffer when it's not their fault, or writing about it afterward?

Southern Provisions
3000 O'Donnell St
Baltimore MD 21224
410) 675-4029



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Banana Puddin'

I've never made banana pudding before, and I've probably only eaten it a handful of times in my life. But I like the idea. Bananas, cookies, and pudding - what's not to like? It's a southern thing, and despite being south of the Mason-Dixon line, we don't see a lot of it in Baltimore. One of my co-workers brought it to a work party a few years ago, and despite my lack of experience with the dish, I thought it was the best I've ever eaten. Her secret: she used Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies instead of the usual 'Nilla Wafers.

When I saw that the ShopRite had certain flavors of Pepperidge Farm cookies on sale, one of which was those Chessmen, I grabbed three bags and decided I needed to use them in a banana pudding. I asked my coworker for her recipe. To my great dismay, she said she used one from that racist, southern-fried, capped-tooth, diabetes medicine-huckster, Paula Deen. Regular readers will know that she's not one of my favorite people, so I wasn't going to use her recipe. Co-worker did say she uses cheesecake-flavored Jell-O pudding instead of Deen's French Vanilla, and Cool Whip instead of cream cheese. So really, she doesn't use her recipe at all, except for those cookies.

I wasn't going to use any artificially-flavored pudding mix. I was going to make my own.

There are cornstarch-based puddings and egg-based puddings. Mine is a combination of both, more of a vanilla pastry cream than a pudding, making the resulting dish rather like a banana cream pie with a cookie crust.

I made my pudding a day in advance. The Chessmen cookies are thick, and I wanted them to soften up a bit. If you want crunchy cookies, serve your pudding shortly after assembling.

Banana Pudding

2 2/3 cups whole milk, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies
4 ripe bananas

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of the milk to a boil. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and then gradually whisk in the remaining 2/3 cup of cold milk. Whisk in the eggs. Once milk is boiling, whisk it gradually into the cornstarch mixture.

Pour the mixture into the saucepan used to heat the milk and put over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Cook for an additional few minutes, until the pudding gets thick (it will happen all of a sudden) then remove from heat and add the vanilla. Set aside.

Place a layer of Chessman cookies in the bottom of an 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" square pan. Prop cookies up around the edge of the pan as well, creating a "crust." Slice the bananas and add a layer of them on top of the cookies. Pour over 1/3 of the pudding and spread to cover the bananas. Repeat cookie, banana, and pudding layers. Add another layer of bananas and the final layer of pudding.

Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. There should be 6-8 cookies remaining. Crush these into large crumbs and sprinkle over the pudding before serving. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Serves 6-8

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Herb & Soul

The stretch of Joppa Road between Providence Road and Loch Raven Boulevard has become the area we frequent most often for dinner. There's Noodle Charm, Spice & Dice, Gino's, Mo's, and now, just around the corner on Loch Raven (Yakona Road), there's Herb & Soul. We paid our first visit to the restaurant on one of those days when neither of us felt like making dinner. As I checked out the restaurant's web site, I noticed they had extended their Baltimore County Restaurant Week menu for another week; that seemed like a sign from God.

It started out as a carry-out and catering operation behind a convenience store, but when the store moved out, Herb & Soul snatched up the remaining space and became a full-service restaurant that offers lunch and dinner, with live entertainment most nights that includes comedy, poetry, and music. The space is large and open, and the decor is eclectic. The few tables and chairs range from old church pews to bright green-upholstered seats. It's all very homey, like an impromptu dinner party held in someone's club basement.

The menu is Soul Food with a green twist: Herb & Soul uses sustainable organic produce, grass fed and free range meats, and they even recycle their cooking oil. Oh, and the food is pretty amazing.

After we ordered, our server brought us our glasses of lemonade (the restaurant is BYOB) and a bowl containing two sweet potato biscuits. Hello there, sweet potato biscuit! Where have you been all my life? Sweetened with a touch of blackstrap molasses, these biscuits are prepared by one of the owners, who loads them with butter and love. They are moist, slightly sweet, vaguely cinnamony, and taste like Autumn. They've quickly become my favorite baked good in the world.

The first two biscuits are complementary; extras will cost you $1 each.
But before you open your wallet, there's plenty more food coming.

As it was Restaurant Week, we had appetizers, entrees, and dessert. Mr Minx ordered the chicken and waffles. The chicken was cage-free, with a light and crisp coating. The waffle was Belgian-style, light and fluffy and still crisp, flavored with sweet potato and drizzled with a maple syrup infused with rosemary.

Chicken & Waffle

I ordered the orange-chipotle braised pork belly, and expected a few chunks of pork belly on a plate. What I received were three rather hefty "sliders," each containing a nicely-sized slab of pan-seared, moist, and lightly fatty braised pork belly and a bit of green. The buns were toasted, and there was a dab of chipotle sauce on each one. The heat was at the perfect level for me, but I could have done without the buns, as they muffled the flavor and texture of the meat.

Orange-Chipotle Braised Pork Belly

Mr Minx is a sucker for pasta, and the penne with kale pesto and garlic tofu meatballs sounded too unusual to pass up. The meatballs were very garlicky and tender, and if I had not known they were made of tofu, I might not have guessed. The pesto had a very fresh and green flavor, but could have used a bit more salt. 

Penne Rigate; kale pesto with garlic tofu meatballs

I had the free-range Old bay fried chicken with mac and cheese and sauteed squash and onions. Both entree portions were enormous, and I did the best I could with mine. I managed to finish two of the four piece of chicken (leg, wing, partial breast, partial thigh) about half the very cheesy and somewhat addictive mac, and most of the veg, which still retained a nice crunch. Like Mr Minx's chicken, mine had an almost ethereally-light coating that shattered with crispness. It was perfectly seasoned and piping hot.

Old Bay Fried Chicken (Freebird Farm Chicken)

And then there was dessert.

Mr Minx chose the apple and mango pie eggrolls. Think back to the days when a McDonald's apple pie was a real treat. The filling was always incendiary, and the crust super crisp. These eggrolls (spring rolls, actually) had those same molten/crispy qualities, but of course tasted far better. The fruits inside were cut into a tiny dice and still had a little texture, and the caramel sauce on the side just gilded the lily.

Apple Mango Pie Eggrolls

Remember when I said that sweet potato biscuit was my new favorite baked good in the world? I lied. It's actually the beignets at Herb & Soul. Ok, so they're technically not a baked good, as they're deep fried, but damn are they good. They are light and fluffy, with huge air pockets inside, almost like choux pastry that accidentally ended up in the Fryolater. So good, I barely used the brown sugar caramel dip, although that was pretty tasty, too.

Beignets

Couldn't finish the beignets, so they got to share a doggy bag with my leftover chicken. As I said, the portions and Herb & Soul are large! In addition to the terrific food, the service was attentive - we never had to ask for lemonade refills - and everyone there was extremely friendly. We're definitely adding this restaurant to our regular weeknight dinner rotation.

Herb & Soul Gastro Cafe
1702 Yakona Rd
Parkville, MD 21234
(410) 668-1886



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Fried Green Tomatoes

It's nearly October, and we still have plenty of tomatoes on the vine, but most of them are...green. The weird summer of early rain/lower humidity slowed tomato growth down, so we have been eating more of them green than ripe. That's ok - fried green tomatoes are a delicious treat.

I didn't feel like wrestling with the flour container, which we keep on top of the cabinet we use as a pantry, so I used masa, a bag of which was easily reached. Seasoned with Old Bay, it served the same purpose as flour, coating the tomatoes as the first step in a crunchy crust. I didn't notice the difference, and was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of a corny flavor. Of course, this might have been because I served the tomatoes with cheese grits, which have plenty of corny deliciousness.

To top it all off, I did a riff on the chipotle aioli that the Gypsy Queen food truck puts on so many of their items. It's smoky, spicy, a little sweet, and absolutely delicious on pretty much anything. Well, maybe not chocolate cake, but I've never tried it, so who knows?

Fried Green Tomatoes

3 green, unripe tomatoes, cut into 1/4" slices
1 cup masa
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup panko breadcrumbs, plus more if necessary
vegetable oil, for frying
salt and pepper

Dip tomato slices into masa, then egg, then panko. Fry in a bit of vegetable oil until crisp and browned on both sides. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with smoky mayo.

Smoky Mayo

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle en adobo, de seeded and finely minced
dash garlic powder
pinch sugar
pinch Old Bay seasoning
large pinch smoked paprika
squeeze lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cheesy Grits

1 cup grits
4 1/2 cups water
4 ounces of cheese - I used soft goat cheese and sharp cheddar, about half and half
2 teaspoons butter
salt and pepper to taste

Cook grits according to package directions. Stir in cheese and butter and add salt and pepper to taste.




Posted on Minxeats.com.