Fare Exchange: Cooking pimiento cheese and shrimp (don't laugh), plus gooey pumpkin cake

Jane Henegar

So glad you are sitting down here - or standing up, for that matter - to join this conversation about food.

Last year, I became a subscriber to the New York Times recipe email. In the process, I got instructions for making an impressive loaf of yeast bread in a cast-iron Dutch oven and stirred-up chicken noodle soup in same pot. Next, a batch of morning glory muffins. The Times emails are folksy and have a kind of Fare Exchange vibe but, in the end, I realized that the cooks writing and cooks profiled are still not our people.

You all are my people. The nuances of those New York muffins made them not quite as good as the recipe I first got from Kitty Stone of Signal Mountain. So we continue, despite the usefulness of Google, to choose recipes chosen by people we know and live among.

Today, someone emailed news of The Skillet, a food email from Garden and Gun magazine. This will be Southern food, we are told. Will it be our people's Southern food? Please offer your opinion.

Today's requests: Give us the down-home version of yeast bread in a cast-iron skillet and chicken noodle soup from scratch. Then tell us where we can purchase hearts of palm (a repeat request) and Benton's bacon so popular in local restaurants.

PIMIENTO & SHRIMP

Jane from Hixson sent today's first recipe, describing it as "really good and it used up my leftover large container of Palmetto pimento cheese from the holidays."

My first question of J of H was, "How did you have any leftover Palmetto pimiento cheese?" But I had lunch at my friend Eve's home today, and she pulled the leftover pimiento cheese out of her refrigerator to make some delightfully runny grilled cheese sandwiches.

In Jane's shrimp and grits recipe, the unusual ingredient, sambal oelek, is "a spicy Southeast Asian chile sauce made from hot red chile peppers, salt and sometimes vinegar. Some versions can also contain onion, lemon or lime juice, garlic or sugar." You should be able to find it in local Asian grocery stores; there are several in the area, just Google "Asian markets Chattanooga."

Jane's recipe originally came from Bon Appetit magazine. Note the italicized sentence in the instructions.

Shrimp and Pimiento Cheese Grits

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper

4 3/4 cups water

1 cup medium-grind grits (not instant)

1 cup pimiento cheese spread

4 teaspoons sambal oelek, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 ounces thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise into -inch strips*

1 pound large shrimp (about 20), peeled, deveined, divided

1/3 cup parsley leaves with tender stems, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

* This is the time to buy hardwood-smoked, thick-cut bacon to really impress your friends; if you don't see it stocked with the cold cuts, go to the butcher counter, smile wide and ask nicely if they can slice some slab bacon for you. If bacon isn't your thing, just fry the shrimp in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Bring salt, pepper and water to boil in a medium saucepan. Whisk in grits. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook, whisking occasionally, until grits are thick, tender and creamy, 10-12 minutes.

Increase heat to medium, stir in cheese and 2 teaspoons of the sambal oelek. Cook, stirring until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; cover and remove from heat.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high. Cook bacon, stirring occasionally, until crispy and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels.

Increase heat to high and cook half of shrimp in same skillet until lightly browned and just cooked through, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a medium bowl; repeat with remaining shrimp. Cut shrimp into 1/2-inch pieces; discard tails. Return shrimp to same bowl, then add parsley, lime juice, bacon and remaining 2 teaspoons sambal oelek; toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide grits mixture among bowls and top with shrimp mixture.

GOOEY CAKE

An anonymous reader suggested that the Gooey Pumpkin Pudding Cake sought by Julie Ratliff might be this one, and Ms. Ratliff pronounced it "pretty close to the mark." You will note that it is gluten-free and also that you might be able to adjust some ingredients to fit a more inclusive diet. It originated on www.recipestonourish.com

Gluten-Free Gooey Pumpkin Pudding Cake

1 cup sprouted brown rice flour or organic brown rice flour

3 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour

1/2 cup organic maple sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 cup pasture butter or ghee, melted

1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree

1/4 cup organic whole milk, or substitute buttermilk or full-fat coconut milk

2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic maple sugar

1/2 cup organic mascobado sugar

1 1/2 cups boiling filtered water

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Get your casserole dish ready (do not grease it) and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, maple sugar, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Give it a quick stir to incorporate. Set aside.

Melt the butter or ghee in a small saucepan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine pumpkin puree, milk, melted butter or ghee and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.

Pour pumpkin mixture into the dry mixture and stir just until combined. The batter will be thick. Pour batter into casserole dish.

Using the same pan that you melted the butter in, add filtered water and bring to a boil.

While the water is coming to a boil, combine the maple sugar and mascobado sugar in a small bowl. Evenly sprinkle the sugars over the top of the pumpkin batter.

Pour hot water over the entire topping/batter. Do not stir.

Immediately place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or just until the middle is set and only a few moist crumbs come out when pierced in the center with a toothpick. Do not overbake.

Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Divide into portions and top with ice cream if desired.

I'm sure you can substitute or use a combination of a different dry sweetener like sucanat, coconut sugar or mascobado sugar. I cannot guarantee the results since I have not used them, but I would assume that a dry sweetener would work just fine. I do not recommend using wet/liquid sweeteners like honey or maple syrup because the cake and pudding will not set up the same way. During recipe development and testing, I did try versions with honey and maple syrup and they do not produce the same results.

There is so much nourishing and tasty to learn, and I expect to be your fellow learner all the weeks of 2017. For this, thanks.