A big bowl of Southern comfort
in this wonderful seafood stew

Without a doubt, one of my favorite foods from the Roadhouse—and I get to eat a lot of good food—is the Creole Potlikker Fish Stew. We’ve been serving it for nearly a decade now, and with each passing week, I think it accumulates even more loyal fans. In the spirit of Natural Law #10, since no one else (to my knowledge) makes this dish anywhere in the country, Potlikker Fish Stew is wholly unfamiliar to most new customers. Its strength? It’s well on its way to becoming a signature dish, worthy, I believe, of national attention.

While hardly any of us up here in the north have ever heard of it, down South, potlikker is pretty much an iconic culinary staple. For those who are just now learning of it, potlikker is the broth from the long-cooked, loaded up with bacon, and collard greens we make every day at the Roadhouse. It’s basically a bacon-spiked, slightly spicy, vegetable broth. In the South, potlikker is powerful stuff—the Southern equivalent of chicken soup, the way I see it.

Aside from its socio-culinary context, potlikker has an important role to play in American history. Culinary historian, accomplished author, and friend, John T. Edge explains its significance in American political history:

The Potlikker and Cornpone Debate of 1931 began when Julian Harris, an editor of the Atlanta Constitution, verbally assailed Huey Long, governor of Louisiana and United States senator-elect, over the question of whether cornbread should be dunked or crumbled into potlikker. The debate quickly escalated, and, for approximately twenty-three days, between February 13 and March 8 of 1931, engaged most of the South and much of the nation. Extensive newspaper accounts and correspondence from the time illuminate the primary themes of gender, race, class, and regional chauvinism that inform this debate.

To make this special Creole Fish Stew, we use the potlikker to poach some seafood—selections vary daily, and you’re welcome to ask. Usually, it’s three or four fish, and often some of those amazing day boat scallops we get in from the East Coast. The whole dish comes together beautifully, all poured and bubbling hot over the amazing traditionally-grown and stone-ground grits we get from Anson Mills. Dishes like this have West African roots—a fish stew served over a starch; lots of fish, lots of leafy greens. Swing by the Roadhouse, order a bowl, breathe in the restorative aromas, and enjoy a moment of quiet, comfort, and calm while you eat.

P.S. If you come late afternoon, the Roadhouse Happy Hour runs from 2 to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. A host of drink deals, special Texas tacos, fried pickles, and more!

P.P.S. Here’s a longer piece I wrote about potlikker about 15 years ago.

I learned this dish probably two dozen years ago from Laura di Collibiano, the woman who’s helped to revive the production of the terrific olive oil Tenuta di Valgiano estate in the western part of Tuscany. She makes it, she said, whenever she has “leftover champagne.” You can of course also let some sparkling wine go flat overnight just to make the risotto—the flatness is important—if the sparkling wine is still freshly opened the heat of the alcohol will dominate the dish.

Risotto, I should say, has long been one of my favorite cold-weather dishes to make. In northern Italy, people eat risotto as often as folks in the rest of the country eat pasta. And, although it can understandably feel intimidating to make risotto if you didn’t grow up with it, it’s actually not very hard to do. If you have a copy on hand, the chapter on Italian rice in Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating will walk you through the whole process in a great deal of easy-to-understand detail. We have Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses and Carnaroli rice at Deli and on Mail Order’s website that would be ideal for the dish!

INGREDIENTS

4 cups chicken broth (you may not end up using it all)—we sell great housemade bone broth at the Deli. You can also use vegetable broth to make the dish vegetarian.

2 1/2 cups flat champagne or flat sparkling wine

Rind pieces from Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (optional)

2 tablespoons butter, plus more to taste

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)

1 cup Italian rice, preferably Carnaroli or Arborio

4 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano broken into 1/4-inch chunks

2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley—rinsed and squeezed dry

Sea salt

Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, for serving

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine the chicken broth with 2 cups of the champagne. If working with an unsalted broth, add sea salt to taste. If you have some Parmigiano Reggiano rind on hand, put a piece into the liquid. Bring broth and champagne mixture to a boil, reduce heat only slightly, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Reduce heat slightly again.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion in the butter until soft and golden (don’t brown or the onion will become bitter).

3. Add the rice and stir well. Sauté for a couple of minutes until the rice is very hot and shiny. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of champagne. Stir until it’s been absorbed by the rice. Add 1/2 cup of the broth-champagne mixture. Stir until absorbed. Repeat the process over and over again until the rice is tender but still firm.

4. The risotto is done when the rice is al dente, about 18 minutes from when it first went into the pan. Add a touch more butter and one last 1/2 cup of the broth-champagne mixture. (If you’ve used up all the broth you can use hot water at this stage.) Stir, yet again, then remove from the heat.

5. Add the parsley and Parmigiano pieces and mix well. The cheese should still be in chunks—don’t let it melt into the dish. Let stand for a minute. Add salt to taste.

6. Serve in warm bowls. Top with the additional Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and a generous dose of black pepper atop each bowl. Serves two generous main courses or four appetizers.

The whole dish can be made in under half an hour and you can probably play with your kids or read your emails while you’re stirring! The result is a great dinner! Because the two featured ingredients here—Parmigiano Reggiano and bubbly—are already so special, it’s a great way to impress company or convey the importance of any event (such as New Year’s Eve!), or in truth, just to make another otherwise remarkable mid-winter evening into some special. I like to celebrate every day as if it were a holiday—cooking this dish for two on a Tuesday evening is a wonderful way to enhance the quality of any relationship! Cheers!

An annual holiday classic
handcrafted across the ZCoB 

I can’t remember when we first started making spiced pecans a holiday treat. What I do know for sure though is that over the years, they’ve become a Zingerman’s classic—people start asking me in August when they’ll be available.

In our never-ending effort to always improve what we do in small but meaningful ways, I’m happy to say that spiced pecans are literally tasting better than ever! About 10 years ago now, we took the pecans themselves up a notch too, when we started buying them from the South Georgia Pecan Company in the town of Valdosta. The firm today is owned and run by the Work family who bought it a year after we opened the Deli (i.e., 1983), but for historical context, the company was started in 1913 by one of the first Jewish families in town, the Pearlmans.

The pecans are pretty darned delicious—fresher tasting, and a small, but meaningfully, bit more flavorful than what we’d been getting. (We sell the pecans at the Deli in their un-spiced, natural form. Pick up a bag next time you’re in!) After being toasted with butter, the pecans get tossed—while still warm—with lots of freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper, Jamaican allspice, ginger, Indian cloves, and other enticing spices.

The spiced pecans are delicious, just as they are. Bring a bag in the car or on the plane if you’re traveling. If you put a bowl of them out at most any gathering, they’re pretty sure to be gone before you know it. They’re also excellent in the kitchen—try them chopped, then tossed onto gelato, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, or green salads. They pair particularly well with blue cheese—I love them with the Roquefort—and also with fresh slices of pear or apple. Coarsely chop some and toss them on top of rice pudding or noodle kugel. Or try sprinkling some atop your holiday stuffing.

They make a great little nibble when you’re partaking in a bit of bourbon, too. In the spirit of how we have long defined “full flavor” here at Zingerman’s (see “A Taste of Zingerman’s Food Philosophy” for more on this), the Spiced Pecans have a wonderful complexity. They are nicely balanced so that the flavor of all the spices, butter, and nuts come together as you eat. And they have a lovely long finish that you can savor long after you’ve stopped eating.

Available at the Deli, the Candy Store, and Mail Order.

The week before last I wrote about some wonderful sardines we have from the folks at Fishwife (you can find them at the Deli and at the Roadhouse). This week, it’s Sardinia, the island, since I’ve got the Zingerman’s Food Tour on my mind that’s coming up the first 10 days of May 2024. If you’re looking for a life-changing gift to give to someone you love, consider scoring them a spot on this tour. It’s a remarkable week in a remarkable place. In fact, Sardinia is so special you may end up wanting to move there. That’s what happened to the great mid-20th century Italian folksinger, Fabrizio de André.

De André, also an introvert, was known in his homeland as “the poet of Italy.” Think Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, or Willie Dunn. De André was active in mid-20th century protest movements and his fame rose when his songs were adopted as anthems of the protests that swept Italy in 1968. Although De André grew up in the lovely environs of Liguria, the remarkably beautiful Italian Riviera, as soon as he spent time on Sardinia he was smitten:

This land is magic, it gives joy to the spirit, even when you go back home exhausted. It nourishes and doesn’t leave space for bad thoughts. To live in this dimension is the most simple but also the most profound way to live on earth. … [Sardinians] are people looking at the future with respect of the past.

Joe Capuano, long-time purchasing manager at Zingerman’s Mail Order, is also the tour leader for this special trip to Sardinia. He loves it too! Here’s what Joe wanted to share:

Lobster, octopus, mussels, and sea urchin can all be found at the markets and restaurants. One unique specialty of Sardinia is the Bottarga di Muggine, the roe of Mediterranean mullet. The mullet “caviar” is cleaned, cured in sea salt, pressed, then dried. The result is a delicacy with a salty flavor and a dense, silky texture. And one of the stops on the tour is a restaurant where every dish highlights the bottarga. There are also specially selected vineyards, one of which uses Vermentino grapes grown in the hard Sardinian soil with abundant sun, a windy climate, and temperature changes through the day and night that give birth each year to Vermentino di Gallura.

And that’s only the beginning. There’s pasta making, amazing cheese, the traditional island flatbread, Pane Carasau; cooking lessons, walking tours, and a whole lot more! In the spirit of what we will learn from Gareth Higgins next week, great stories are sure to be started—stories you will be telling for many years to come. Still not sure? Fabrizio de André said:

Life in Sardinia is probably the best a man can wish: twenty-four thousand kilometers of forests, countryside, shores immersed in a miraculous sea, this corresponds to what I would suggest God to give us as Paradise.

Tasty treats to take your day to more delicious places

Party Time Pumpkin Pie from the Bakehouse

A classic coming together of Native American and European and Asian culinary influences—features a creamy filling of pumpkin (native to the Americas), spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves from Southeast Asia, enhanced by heavy cream in an all-butter crust (both of which arrived in North America with Europeans). The Bakehouse’s Party Time Pumpkin Pies are only lightly sweetened with local honey—part of what appeals to me about them is that they aren’t, to my taste, overly sweet. I like to take mine up a notch with a drizzle of sorghum syrup, a sprinkling of toasted walnuts, or cinnamon-scented whipped cream (or all three!).

Harvest Pumpkin Gelato from the Creamery 

Smooth pumpkin purée spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, blended with a bit of the Creamery’s classic Burnt Sugar syrup. Super tasty! It’d be great with a bit of ground espresso or shaved chocolate sprinkled over top. Or turn it into a great fall sundae—a Bakehouse Ginger Jump-Up cookie for a base, a scoop of this great Harvest Pumpkin Gelato, a little whipped cream, and a ribbon of dark sorghum syrup poured over top!

Pumpkin Spice Latte from the Roadhouse 

A slowly simmered blend of Muscovado brown sugar, pumpkin purée, real vanilla bean, and Épices de Cru’s compelling Pumpkin Pie Spice—Indonesian cassia, Jamaican nutmeg and ginger, Sri Lankan cinnamon, and Jamaican allspice. All then blended with whole milk from Calder Dairy and a couple shots of the Coffee Company’s Espresso Blend #1 from the Daterra Estate in Brazil. Customers have been raving about this all month.

Pumpkin Cheesecake from the Bakehouse

I wrote a bunch about how terrific the Pumpkin Cheesecake is a few weeks back. To my taste, it really is one of the best things we make in the entire ZCoB. That ginger cookie crust is just fantastic! Terrific, too, sprinkled with a bit of freshly ground (not brewed) espresso?!

P.S. We also have the Épices de Cru Pumpkin Pie Spices at the Deli for you to cook with at home too!

P.P.S. On the savory side of things, here’s a reminder that Bakehouse will be doing a Special Bake of one of my favorites, the Walnut Sage Bread, this Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17.

Want more from Ari?

Sign up for Ari’s Top 5 e-newsletter and look forward to his weekly curated email—a roundup of 5 Zing things Ari is excited about this week—stuff you might not have heard of!

Follow us on social media:  Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, @zingermanscommunity.