North American Regional Cuisine - Cuisine of the South

Introduction

Our first menu for cuisine of the south was:

• Grilled Quail with spicy eggplant relish
• Tomato aspic on bibb letuce salad
• pecan-encrusted catfish with orange-scented sweet potatoes
• Succotash of corn, hominy, and baby lima beans
• Slow cooked greens
• Hush Puppies
• Peanut Brittle

Our second menu was:

• Watermelon and watercress salad with shallot citrus dressing
• Fried green tomatoes with blue cheese and roasted red pepper sauce
• Southern fried chicken with cream gravy
• Pan roasted butternut squash and turnips
• Peach Cobbler

Observations

Chef commented on the fact that quail is a very delicate bird and would cook very quickly. We were cognicent of this while working on the dish and cooked the quail just right. Along with the eggplant relish, the dish turned out very well. I've had tomato aspic before and it's not my favorite dish - somehow a dish which constitutes what is essencially gelatanized tomato juice doesn't work well for me. The succotash however was a very nice dish that I thought tasted very good. The hush puppies and peanut brittle also turned out very well.

The watermelon and watercress salad was suprisingly tasty and very refreshing. I will definitely be keeping this recipe in mind for a warm summer day. Our fried green tomatoes tasted fine although they were slightly undercooked so were a little tough. The southern fried chicken came out perfectly and chef was very happy with the dish, as well as with our gravy, saying they were exactly how it should taste. The peach cobbler tasted good but the crust was slightly too thick. The other dishes didn't really have anything of note to them.