Fare Exchange: How to make Puckett’s Piggy Mac, easy eggplant, creamed cauliflower

Good morning, fellow foodies. Today’s challenges are for a variety of squash recipes, for a “Cook’s Illustrated” cornbread made with toasted cornmeal and for garlic cheese grits that don’t call for a roll of Kraft garlic cheese.

R.K. of Lookout Mountain has long loved squash cooked in onions with a good bit of water, “but now I am looking for other ways to cook the squash we have in abundance. How do I prepare squash without watering it down, or covering it with cheese to give it flavor?”

Mr. and Mrs. Sunday recommended a website, seriouseats.com, about which you will read below. And therein lay a fascinating question: “Has anybody tried the ‘Cook’s Illustrated’ recipe for cornbread that calls for toasting the cornmeal in advance?” Well, have you? If so, we would be most grateful for the details.

Julia Pirtle of Monteagle reported that her family loves garlic cheese grits, “but the Kraft garlic cheese rolls for the recipe are not so easy to find.” So how about a recipe that uses real garlic instead?

PUCKETT’S PIGGY MAC

Rosemary Palmer, who maintains a lively blog at notjustpaperandpaint.blogspot.com, is excited about the recipe she just tested from the newly opened Puckett’s Restaurant downtown. Their signature combination of barbecue and mac and cheese may be found on her blog and in the next few lines.

Chattanooga now has a gracious plenty of good barbecue restaurants and surely a good many excellent home barbecue chefs. Any barbecue might do for this recipe, but Puckett’s takes the credit for the recipe and, of course, their barbecue, now available locally, is the recommended ingredient.

Piggy Mac

6 ounces prepared pulled pork barbecue

1 ounce Puckett’s spicy barbecue sauce

8 ounces macaroni and cheese, prepared (recipe follows)

1/8 cup shredded Gouda cheese

2 tablespoons panko or Italian bread crumbs

Green onion for garnish

Place the prepared pulled pork into a small iron skillet or casserole dish.

Drizzle Puckett’s barbecue sauce over the pulled pork.

Place the prepared mac and cheese on top of the pulled pork.

Sprinkle the shredded Gouda cheese on top of the mac and cheese.

Cover with bread crumb mixture.

Place in a 350-degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes until the top is brown and the macaroni is bubbly. Remove from oven, garnish with green onion and serve.

Mac and Cheese for Piggy Mac

This recipe will make more than you need for the Piggy Mac.

1 pound elbow noodles

3 cups whole milk

4 tablespoons butter

1 pound American cheese, shredded

3/4 tablespoon salt

1/2 tablespoon white pepper

1/4 tablespoon Cajun spice

1/4 tablespoon granulated garlic

1/4 cup Asiago cheese

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook elbow noodles according to package directions and drain.

In a saucepan, bring milk to a simmer. Add butter to the milk, then slowly the American cheese, whisking as you add it, to allow to melt.

Once the cheese is melted, add your dry spices and whisk. You can now pour the mixture over the drained, prepared noodles. Fold in the Asiago cheese and shredded cheddar cheese at this time.

FAMILY FAVE

Linda Leake of LaFayette credited her aunt from Macon, Ga., Gladys Meaders, with this casserole rich in eggplant. Her aunt’s recipe is a family favorite.

Eggplant Casserole

1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed

1 small stalk celery, sliced

1 small onion, sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup thick cream sauce or undiluted mushroom soup

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 small can pimiento, chopped

1 (4-ounce) can mushrooms, drained

2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/2 pound grated cheese

Bread crumbs

Cook eggplant, celery, onion, salt and pepper in small amount of water until vegetables are tender; drain and mash. Stir in remaining ingredients, except bread crumbs. Pour into a greased 1 -quart casserole. Top with bread crumbs. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 20 minutes.

NO SUGAR TONIGHT

Mr. and Mrs. Sunday recommended seriouseats.com, where we got lost in the discussions of such topics as why cornbread should not contain sugar and what to do with a can of coconut milk. There you won’t just read reasons but the history behind them and a discussion thread that raises questions and offers varied answers.

Cornbread with neither flour nor sugar? Does that seem unAmerican? UnSouthern? Unrealistic? The Sundays recommended Robert Moss’ writing there, including this: “Sometimes a truth is so self-evident that you can’t present an impartial case for both sides. So I’m just going to say it: Sugar has no business in cornbread. To know why, you need to dig deep into the history of corn.”

CREAMED CAULIFLOWER

R. K. of Lookout Mountain found a recipe for mashed cauliflower that sounded intriguing. The source: Proline Organics.

Easy and Delicious Mashed Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower

2 cups chicken stock

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

5 cloves fresh garlic

Cut the leaves of the cauliflower and discard (they taste bitter).

Place cauliflower in Dutch oven or crock pot with 5 cloves of smashed garlic and rosemary leaves.

Cover with chicken broth and bring to a boil for 15 minutes (check it halfway through so it doesn’t burn). Depending on your heat setting, cook for as little as 10 minutes or as many as 20 minutes.

Remove the cauliflower from the broth and place the cauliflower into a Vitamix or food processor. The rosemary and garlic will be chopped/ground thoroughly in the blender. Do not add the broth to the mash because it would make the mashed cauliflower too wet.

Mash the cauliflower on low until creamy smooth. Make sure to spoon down the sides so the larger chunks of cauliflower get mashed, too.

You may make the recipe early in the day, put in a baking dish and reheat before dinner. Tastes great reheated. Also can be prepared the night before.

That’s it for today. And what’s on tap for next Wednesday? That’s up to you all, to all of you. Please join us.