Dora Charles

The latest culinary tricks of the trade come from chefs who share their special spice blends in their cookbooks or recipes published in magazines and newspaper features. A few are nothing more than salt and pepper whereas others are more complex.  Ultimately it’s the proportions that count, a blending that promises to make your food sing with flavor.

I’ve found six noteworthy chef blends that I use fairly regularly to season roasts, chops and steaks to more specific needs such as a wonderful recipe for glazed pork ribs and another for an awfully good meatloaf.   Here’s the selection.

From top middle, clockwise: dried onion powder, pork rub, Savannah Rub, Perfect Roast Blend, Four Season Blend, Magic Dust

From top middle, clockwise: dried onion powder, pork rub, Savannah Rub, Perfect Roast Blend, Four Season Blend, Magic Dust

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A Real Southern Cook in Her Savannah Kitchen by Dora Charles is a wonderful compendium of recipes from a cook who whose family history and professional background contribute to the quality of her recipes.   Her claim to fame is that she worked with Paula Dean, the TV cooking personality and author, at her original restaurant, The Lady and Sons, in Savannah for 22 years before going out on her own.

dora book

In fact, she helped Dean launch the restaurant and ultimately her career from the very beginning.  Lines formed out the door with diners  there for Charles’s cooking and such hallmark dishes as sweet potato pie, fried ribs, smothered pork chops, collards, corn bread and more done in her inimitable way.

My version of Dora Charles's berry cobbler with blueberries and strawberries

My version of Dora Charles’s berry cobbler with blueberries and strawberries

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