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06/15/13Urban Farms Market on Broad Avenue Reopens for Summer SeasonUrban Farms Market, located at the intersection of Sam Cooper and Tillman, has reopened for the summer with a new manager but the same mission: to provide fresh and healthy food to the residents of Binghampton. Store manager Alicia Fahrner moved to Memphis from Brooklyn, where she worked for several farmers markets in the New York City boroughs. For now, she is focusing on increasing the number of vendors at the market in time for the busy summer months. “We can buy produce wholesale from vendors to sell, or they can set up their own stands,” Fahrner said. Fahrner also encourages artisan startups to stop by, because she hopes to grow the market’s selection of baked goods and locally made products. For now, the market is carrying produce and flowers from... |
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06/14/13Evelyn & Olive Restaurant: A Jamaican Vacation in Midtown MemphisNo wonder sorrel is a traditional holiday drink in Jamaica. Brewed overnight and infused with ginger, hibiscus flowers and sweetened cane sugar, the memory of the ice cold drink lingers like a favorite Christmas present. One of five thirst-quenchers on the menu at Evelyn & Olive, the city’s only Jamaican restaurant, sorrel competes impressively with a simple bottle of grapefruit Ting, Jamaica’s favorite carbonated beverage. House cocktails such as signature rum punch or Dark & Stormy, a mix of Myer’s dark rum and Jamaican ginger beer, offer more fortified companions to the restaurant’s flavorful menu that joins Jamaican dishes with Southern sass. Opened since February of last year on a lonely block of Madison Avenue,... |
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06/07/13Confused About When to Stir a Cocktail and When to Shake It? Michael Hughes Explains.While judging summer cocktails for the Memphis Flyer’s cover story this week, I asked fellow judge Michael Hughes to explain why some cocktails are shaken, and others are stirred. Hughes is the general manager of Joe’s Wines & Liquors and a cocktail expert, so I figured he could clear up my confusion. His explanation follows, but here’s a hint: I’ve been bruising my martinis all along. I’ve always been confused about when to shake a drink and when to stir it. Can you explain? Hughes: For me it's simple. If the drink in question is entirely alcohol (Manhattan, Negroni, etc.), I always stir. Stirred drinks are ones that are for sipping not gulping, and so you want to preserve the texture. Stirring cools down a cocktail in a... |
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06/03/13Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence Share Recipes and Stories from Their Cookbook, "The Southern Vegetarian"Although I’ve made greens for years, I’ve never fooled with the initial “blanch and squeeze” instructions in most recipes. Happily, the greens recipe in “The Southern Vegetarian” cookbook calls for a quick blanch without the squeeze, so I complied. In fact, I followed the recipe for “Collard Greens with Honey, Shallots, and Mushrooms” exactly as it was written by the book’s authors, Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence. I was rewarded with what my husband said were the best greens I’ve ever made. Along with the blanching, the recipe’s success comes from shallots (I normally use onions) and a drizzle of honey added at the end. The couple has been adding honey to greens for the last decade or... |
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06/01/13Lunchbox Eats: An A Plus Sandwich Shop Near the FedEx Forum that Aces Every TestOn a Wednesday afternoon last month, Chef Kaia Brewer was worn out. The owner of Lunchbox Eats on South Fourth Street had catered breakfast and lunch for 260 Memphis police officers and school coaches. She fed them for two days with such hearty fare as beef and mushroom lasagna, mac and cheese, and chess pie, a family recipe tweaked by her mother. “These are big guys,” Brewer said, laughing. “They eat a lot.” So will you when an assortment like this arrives to your table on a red school lunch tray: fried chicken, Muenster cheese, honey mustard and green tomato relish sandwiched between two cheddar waffles; avocado wedges, deep fried and happy inside a brown paper bag; fluted cucumber slices pickled in house with ginger and cloves;... |
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05/30/13Food Truck Fridays at the Dixon Gallery: Here's the Delicious Lineup for JuneA picnic in the shade at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens prepared by a food truck chef: Sounds pretty fabulous doesn’t it? Co-workers Connie Thielecke, Justin Suiter, and Parrish Oglesby (pictured to the left) certainly thought so when they stopped by the Dixon for Food Truck Fridays, a weekly event through June featuring different trucks for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Last week’s menu offered snow cones from Kona Ice and quarter-pound Nathan hotdogs from Memphis Dawgs, a cart operated by Todd Bourne with a choice of 14 toppings. Oglesby opted for kraut and mustard. “Is there any other way?” he asked, laughing. Well, yes, and here were a few of the cart’s additional toppings: jalapenos, ketchup, coleslaw,... |
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05/28/13Breakfast at The Booksellers Bistro (With a Little Help From Paula Deen)Leave it to calorie queen Paula Deen to ratchet up hash browns into a decadent and delicious start to any morning. I fell for Deen’s hash brown casserole at a recent breakfast at The Booksellers Bistro in East Memphis, where the casserole was a side dish to my breakfast plate. A bowl of fresh fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple and red grapes) also sat nearby, but did little to divert my attention from the crispy potatoes topped with French fried onion rings and held together with butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and a cup of Monterey Jack. The Bistro's Debbie Durso was nice enough to hunt through Deen's casseroles online (there are many!) to find the recipe her restaurant uses. Although I’ve eaten at Booksellers Bistro for... Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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05/26/13Need Help With Your Memorial Day Menu? Try Clint Cantwell's Stuffed Venison BurgersOn the Sunday before Memorial Day, I woke up thinking about burgers, which led me to remember grill maestro Clint Cantwell and his recipe for Roquefort-stuffed venison burgers. Admittedly, it’s a little tough to find venison this time of year unless it’s already in your freezer. (Friendly tip: Southern Meat Market does have about 10 pounds left over from deer season.) But Cantwell’s recipe offers more than meat, because he incorporates sophisticated elements that are easily applied to any burger concoction. First, he stuffs the venison patties with Roquefort cheese crumbles. Next he dresses the burgers with balsamic-flavored ketchup and grilled Portobello mushrooms infused with truffle oil. And for the finale, he pulls the burger... |
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05/22/13Barbecue Champ Melissa Cookston Joins "BBQ Pitmasters" as Permanent JudgeWorld barbecue champ Melissa Cookston has another job on her plate: She is the new permanent judge on “BBQ Pitmasters,” a popular series on the television channel Destination America. Cookston, who is the co-owner of Memphis BBQ Co. in Horn Lake, Mississippi, joins the show for the season four premiere June 2 at 8 p.m. Part of a three-judge panel with Myron Mixon and Tuffy Stone, Cookston will appear in six episodes, including the semi-final and final competitions. In a press release, Cookston had this to say about the show and the judges’ expertise: “Together we bring a wealth of competition and professional cooking experience to the judging table, providing featured teams the ability to gauge how their skills fare against their... |
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05/21/13Party with the Pigs Sunday at Newman Farm's Sixth Annual Pork, Fork, Cork and LambPart of the fun of the annual farm-to-table party at Newman Farm is to see what pot luck dishes show up. Most of the guests to the Memorial Day weekend event are pork-loving foodies, and many are experienced local chefs. At last year’s Pork, Fork, Cork and Lamb, the Peabody’s executive pastry chef Konrad Spitzbart gave new meaning to the words sheet cake. Rita Newman, who operates the farm in Myrtle, Missouri, with her husband, Mark, recalls the cake like this: “It was a jaw dropper; like no sheet cake I’d ever seen,” she said, laughing. “It must have been three feet long and five feet high, and by the end of the day there wasn’t anything left.” While not obligatory, many guests contribute... |
Memphis Stew is a food blog that celebrates our city’s community table and the people who grow, cook, and eat Memphis food. It is written by Pamela Denney, food editor of Memphis magazine, who sees food as a delicious way to build families, friendships, and a more healthy and sustainable future.
