Adventures with Edward Lee
Oh!! Here’s another guest post from my sister and a recipe for Yellow Squash Soup with Cured Strawberries Recipe! Enjoy!
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"Taste it. Is is good?"
-Edward Lee
I've wanted to attend the annual Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s Verse and Vino fundraiser ever since I first heard about it many years ago. I finally got a chance to go. The featured speaker was none other than Edward Lee, a chef who had just released a new book.
As someone who loves food and cooking as much as I do, I was shocked I hadn't heard of him before. Supper club's most dedicated guest was with me at the event and was kind enough to buy me one of Lee's cookbooks, Smoke & Pickles. Of course, it came with the expectation that I would use his recipes for supper club.
Front left: Supper Club’s most dedicated guest, Amy. Front right: Stella, official Supper Club Mascot.
I tore into the book only to realize (with horror) that Lee might be the only chef out there who can make a Vivian Howard recipe look easy. I was intimidated. And definitely not ready to dive in.
If you've read about Nicole's supper club experience, you know I never plan in advance. The menu is a last minute inspiration decided night before or morning of the event, based on what's in my fridge and what I can find at the farmers market. One Friday night last spring I found myself sitting at home, wondering what to cook, with Smoke and Pickle staring me down from the coffee table. I had a pork butt in the freezer and decided that if Edward had a pork butt recipe, I would bite the bullet and give his recipes a shot.
Though I was secretly hoping he wouldn’t have a pork butt recipe, he of course did. Not one to back down from a (self-imposed) challenge, I dove all the way in. He suggested serving the pork with caraway pickles. So I made caraway pickles. And pineapple-pickled jicama. And bourbon-pickled jalapenos. Obviously we needed them all. I decided to add grits on the side (he's got a recipe for that, too) and his chilled yellow squash soup to start.
Pineapple Pickled Jicama, isn’t that a beauty!
Here's what I learned. His recipes aren't easy. I chose some of the easiest ones. They still involved a lot of ingredients and a lot of chopping. I cleaned a whole pineapple just to turn it into juice for pickling jicama matchsticks. But his recipes are also forgiving. His style of cooking lends itself to adjusting for what you have available and for what you like to eat. Many of his recipes are "components" rather than standalone dishes. You can mix and match as you see fit. It’s fun for someone experienced in the kitchen or a free-wheeler like Nicole. It might send anyone else to an early grave.
So how was the food?
The black BBQ sauce for the pork was next level. Had I not gotten heavy handed with the red pepper, I'd have been tempted to eat it like soup. Lee’s recommended caraway pickles went best with the pork (listen to the expert!). The jalapenos are great in egg salad and taco bowls. Eat the jicama with a fork straight from the jar. The squash soup was simple, but delicious, and unexpectedly topped with cured strawberries. It’s a good one for a beginner to try. The meal ended with passionfruit bars. They’re not a Lee special, but I needed something easy after everything else. And who doesn't love passionfruit?
His recipes were also great for an event like supper club, where you want to do as much as you can in advance so you can enjoy the event itself. Pickling takes time - and Lee pickles everything. Do that in advance. I made the sauce, and even the soup, early in the day. A low, slow protein like pork butt is perfect for feeding the masses. And because everything else is already ready to go, you've got time for a nap while it's in the oven.
Yellow Squash Soup with Cured Strawberries Recipe
From Smoke & Pickles by Edward Lee
