August/September 2024

Cook's Country

Foolproof recipes of American home cooking and easy, weeknight meals.

Cook's Country2 min read
Cook’s Country
Editor in Chief Toni Tipton-Martin Editorial Director Bryan Roof Executive Editor Scott Kathan Executive Editor, Creative Content Morgan Bolling Deputy Food Editor Nicole Konstantinakos Deputy Editor Megan Ginsberg Senior Editors Matthew Fairman, Jes
Cook's Country2 min read
Letter From The Editor
WHEN I FIRST met Lois Ellen Frank in October of 2017, we bonded over food, history, tradition, and cultural roots. For years, I had written about my grandmother, Nannie, an excellent cook and a woman of Choctaw ancestry. But in all those words about
Cook's Country7 min read
Tacos Apson
AS I ARRIVE at the 12th Avenue location of Tacos Apson in South Tucson, Arizona, I’m immediately hit with the aromas of charred beef and mesquite smoke hanging thick in the air. After placing my order at the small takeout window, I do my best to pee
Cook's Country2 min read
Atk Reviews
WE USE FOOD PROCESSORS to grate cheese, grind bread crumbs, chop nuts, prep vegetables, and mix dough. While we consider standard food processors indispensable, they tend to be big and pricey. Smaller processors are a good choice for budget- or space
Cook's Country2 min read
Tomatillo Salad
A FRESH TOMATILLO, light-emerald green and cocooned in its papery husk, is a beauty to behold. Despite its name, which translates to “little tomato” in Spanish, a tomatillo is not actually a green or underripe tomato. In fact, tomatillos are most clo
Cook's Country2 min read
Skillet Hominy
HOMINY, WHICH IS also known as posole, is a large-kernel dried field corn (not to be confused with sweet corn) that has been treated with an alkaline solution of water and calcium hydroxide (also called lye or lime) to remove the germ and hull. This
Cook's Country3 min read
Flour Tortillas
FLOUR TORTILLAS ARE a staple ingredient in parts of Latin America and the United States, and you can buy them in almost every supermarket in America. But when you make your own, you get better-tasting tortillas with a supple, almost fluffy texture—no
Cook's Country5 min read
Chicken Fried Chicken
TO UNDERSTAND chickenfried chicken, you should first understand chicken-fried steak. The iconic American dish has especially deep roots in Texas and Oklahoma and consists of a tough cut of beef pounded thin (to tenderize it), battered, deep- or shal
Cook's Country5 min read
Potato And Green Chile Casserole
CHILESARE AMONG the most important ingredients in Southwestern cuisine. They are one of what I call the “magic eight” ingredients that Native peoples shared with the world: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, and cacao. Whether
Cook's Country3 min read
Fresh Chiles
Popular in cuisines around the world, fresh chiles are prized for their vibrant colors, their fresh flavors, and—perhaps most of all—their heat. No matter where they are grown, all varieties of chiles can trace their origins to the Americas; botanist
Cook's Country5 min read
Horchata
HORCHATA—AS MANY Americans know it, at least—is an iced, milky drink made from rice and flavored with cinnamon and vanilla. Horchata is a popular flavor for anything from ice cream and ice pops to lattes and cocktails. Indeed, Starbucks has featured
Cook's Country2 min read
Prickly Pear Jelly
THE PRICKLY PEAR cactus, which was named the official plant of Texas in 1995, grows throughout the American Southwest and produces large clusters of succulent edible leaves, or pads, also known as nopales. The plant’s gorgeous, juicy fruits emerge fr
Cook's Country7 min read
Dinner Tonight
We prefer cavatappi here for its shape and texture, but you can use any medium pasta, such as penne, farfalle, rotini, or gemelli. Look for jarred olive salad that is sold for muffulettas; it should contain coarsely chopped olives and pickled vegetab
Cook's Country3 min read
Coconut Creamed Corn
CORN AND COCONUT belong together. The combination has long been celebrated in dishes around the world, from makai paka (corn-coconut curry from East Africa) to makai shorba (spiced corn soup from India) to Trinidadian boiled corn (whole cobs poached
Cook's Country3 min read
Zephyr Wright–Inspired Shrimp Curry
ZEPHYR WRIGHT (1915–1988) was a Black woman who cooked for Lyndon B. Johnson and family from 1942 (when LBJ was serving in the House of Representatives) through the end of his presidency in 1969. Her relationship with Johnson influenced his policies
Cook's Country1 min read
The American Table
According to Kate Andersen Brower in her book The Residence (2015), President Johnson often leaned on the experiences of Zephyr Wright and other Black members of his staff to help inform his political decisions. President Johnson told a story about h
Cook's Country5 min read
Surry Ground Steak
NORTH CAROLINA’S Surry County, which sits along the state’s northern border with Virginia, is made up of the towns Pilot Mountain, Elkin, Mount Airy, and Dobson. It is the proud home of the ground steak sandwich: This no-nonsense regional specialty c
Cook's Country4 min read
Grilled Watermelon Salad
FRESH WATERMELON IS a quintessential summer treat, juicy and refreshing and vibrant. It’s also remarkably versatile, a clever component in countless sweet and savory dishes. I wanted to create a complex grilled salad filled with flavors that run the
Cook's Country5 min read
Homemade MoonPies
WHAT IS YOUR favorite sandwich cookie? Is it an Oreo? A Nutter Butter? An oatmeal creme pie? For a passionate fan group in the South, the answer is a MoonPie. Just describing the iconic cookie makes it pretty easy to understand the appeal: two cinnam
Cook's Country4 min read
Skillet Fig Cake
FRESH FIGS, LIKE peaches and tomatoes, are one of those summer blessings that are perfect on their own. A ripe fig is fat and juicy, bursting with syrupy nectar and tiny seeds that crunch with a satisfying pop. But once you’ve had your fill of eating
Cook's Country5 min read
Banana Pudding
CLASSIC SOUTHERN banana pudding is not just pudding. A much-beloved staple at barbecues and potlucks, the dish is typically a combination of vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, and sliced bananas all layered in a casserole (or trifle dish) and chilled u
Cook's Country3 min read
Vanilla Wafers
IF YOU’RE SETTING out to make a copycat recipe for a classic store-bought treat (in this case, Nabisco Nilla Wafers), the first question you have to ask yourself is: Why bother? If you can buy what some consider to be the Platonic ideal of a vanilla
Cook's Country3 min read
Chicken Caesar Salad
CAESAR SALAD IS an iconic dish of crisp romaine lettuce with crunchy croutons, all tossed in a dressing that packs a punch of umami from boldly flavored ingredients such as Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and anchovies. It’s so
Cook's Country3 min read
Pork Tenderloin with Eggplant and Tomatoes
THE SUMMERY EGGPLANT dishes of southern Europe (see “Some Mediterranean Eggplant Dishes”) are the inspiration behind this weeknight dinner, which features quick-cooking pork tenderloin. To make the dish, cut and salt the eggplant before cooking the p
Cook's Country3 min read
The Best Supermarket Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
PICKING UP OLIVE oil at the supermarket should be simpler. Most stores have half an aisle dedicated to a dizzying number of products. What’s the best choice? If you care about flavor, we can help. We tasted 10 top-selling, widely available national b
Cook's Country2 min read
The Best Ice Cream Makers
A GOOD ELECTRIC ice cream machine makes it easy to produce ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet at home. All ice cream makers work similarly. First, you pour a loose base into the machine. Then, through a combination of cooling and constant churning,
Cook's Country1 min read
Whipped Yogurt Topping
Serves 6 to 8 Total Time: 5 minutes Serve with Skillet Ricotta Cake with Figs (page 35) or your favorite fruit dessert; it’s also delicious over cut fresh fruit. 1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt½ cup heavy cream3 tablespoons honey Using stand mixe
Cook's Country1 min read
Portraits Of The People Who Feed Us
Read our collection of On the Road articles at CooksCountry.com/ontheroad.■
Cook's Country3 min read
Quick Bites: test Kitchen Tips, Recs, And Other Tidbits To Chew On
DOES IT MATTER WHAT KIND OF DRIED OREGANO YOU COOK WITH? Dried oregano is sold in two general categories: Mediterranean and Mexican. (Mediterranean oregano is also labeled “Turkish” or “Greek.”) The two varieties come from different families of plant

Cook's Country

More Issues From Cook's Country