Recipe Talk

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Cheesecake Challenge
Region: New York City

The Story:

There's cheesecake and then there's cheesecake. And real New York cheesecake isn't your typical fluffy, flat, wimpy cheesecake -- the kind you can buy in any supermarket. No, real New York cheesecake is dense, creamy and solid as a rock (and just about as heavy).

The ancient Greeks ate something called cheesecake, but it took Jewish bakers in New York delis to throw in cream cheese and concoct the true super-heavy, super-rich New York cheesecake.

Recipe:

New York Cheesecake

Mario wouldn't divulge his recipe for his New York cheesecake. But a little detective work by Taste of America found an easy recipe that is sure to please.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/4 cups crushed graham crackers

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon sugar

Cheesecake Filling

5 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons lemon peel

1 1/2 teaspoons orange peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs plus 2 egg yolks, room temperature

1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For Crumb Crust

1. Combine ingredients in mixing bowl.

2. Pour crumb mixture into 9-inch springform pan.

3. Press crumb mixture on the bottoms and sides of the pan.

4. Bake crust in oven for 5-8 minutes until golden brown.

5. Cool crust.

6. Mix filling.

Cheesecake Filling

1. Place cream cheese and sugar in large bowl of power mixer. Cream until smooth.

2. Add flour, lemon and orange peel, salt and vanilla, and mix until smooth.

3. Add the eggs two at a time and mix until smooth.

4. Fold in sour cream to cheese mixture.

5. Pour filling into pan with cooled graham cracker crust.

6. Place cheesecake into oven.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

8. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for 45 minutes.

9. After 45 minutes, turn off oven and let cheesecake cool in oven for 1 hour.

10. Chill cheesecake for at least 3 hours.

11. Serve.

*The reason you allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven is so that cake doesn't crack.

------------------
Taste of America with Mark Decarlo

Harvest Days

Region: Lancaster, PA

The Story:

Life's a little bit slower in Lancaster, Pennsylvania except during Harvest Days where Mark stoped by to experience classic Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. There may be broom making, candle dipping and silk spinning, but most people seem to come for the food.

A special treat at the festival is apple butter, and in order to make excellent apple butter, you need schnitz. What's schnitz? That's a Pennsylvania Dutch word meaning an apple that's been cut, peeled, cored and sliced.

Recipe:

Apple Butter

Courtesy of The Landis Valley Cookbook: Pennsylvania German Foods and Traditions

Ingredients:

20 gallons of cider

1 1/2 bushels of apples (applesauce-type apples)

Sugar to taste (about 15 pounds)

Spices to taste, if desired (cinnamon and cloves)

Directions

Apples are peeled, cored and cut into slices the night before apple butter is to be cooked. Early in the morning start a wood fire outside and place a tripod over the fire. Meanwhile, clean a 30-gallon copper kettle. It must be cleaned with vinegar and salt until clean and shiny. Place kettle over the fire and add cider. The cider is boiled to half its volume. It will take a couple of hours.

Gradually add some apples and stir with a long-handled apple-butter stirrer. Keep adding apples until all are in the liquid. It must be stirred constantly. If it burns onto the kettle, the apple butter will be ruined. When it starts to turn brown, add sugar to taste and continue to cook until done. One way to test for doneness is to place a little apple butter on a plate and immediately turn it upside down. If it doesn't fall off, it's done. Another method is to place it on a plate and let it set until cold. If the cider doesn't separate out, it's done.

The recipe should make 10 to 12 gallons of apple butter. It will take about 8 to 10 hours to cook and lots of firewood.

Do you have an apple butter recipe that you're willing to share? Post it in our recipe forum.

------------------------------
Taste of America with Mark Decarlo

The Egg Cream

Region: Brooklyn, NY

The Story:

Back in Brooklyn in the 1950s, you couldn't go into a diner without seeing an egg cream -- a cousin to the still-popular milkshake.

So how much cream and how many eggs go into an egg cream?

Drum roll, please ... the answer is: none!

Legend has it that the egg cream, once upon a time, contained eggs and cream, but during the Great Depression those ingredients were replaced with milk and seltzer water. The original name stuck and during the 1940s and 50s, the egg cream hit its peak in popularity.

Recipe:

Junior's Chocolate Egg Cream

Ingredients:

2-3 ounces Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Flavor Syrup (or other chocolate syrup, if you can't find U-Bet)

4 ounces very cold milk

Cold seltzer (about 6 to 8 ounces)

Directions

Use a tall soda glass, one that holds at least 16 ounces. Pour in about 1 inch of chocolate syrup, then stir in enough milk to fill the glass one-third full. Tilt the glass and squirt in the seltzer, enough to cause a tall white foam to form on top. Enjoy immediately!

Do you have a special egg cream recipe? Share it in our recipe forum.

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo

Gooey Butter Cake
Region: St. Louis, Mo.

The Story
St. Louis is home to a unique treat called "gooey" butter cake. According to local lore, the delicious dessert came into being in the 1930s when a baker put too much sugar in a regular butter cake. Not wanting to waste the cake, he simply mixed in more ingredients. The rest, as they say, is history.
St. Louis bakers all claim their own version of the sweet dessert, but the folks at Clayton's Bakery, just outside the city, say their recipe is the original. First scads of butter, corn syrup, sugar and shortening are mixed together. Next, the concoction is spread over dough-filled tins, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and baked until golden and perfectly gooey.

Foodie Facts

Gooey butter cakes are rarely, if ever found outside St. Louis.
The gooey butter mixture in St. Louis butter cakes can also be found in Danishes and cookies.
In St. Louis gooey butter cake is so well liked, it's even eaten for breakfast.

Recipe:

Bill Clayton's Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients:

Dough 3 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup warm milk

1/4 ounce yeast

Gooey Butter Filling

3 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups shortening

2 tablespoons vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup eggs

1 1/2 cups heavy corn syrup

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup water

1/2 cup powered sugar

Directions
Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Dough:
Grease pans with Crisco. Add all the dry ingredients and mix. Melt butter. Add eggs, butter, warm milk and vanilla. Pour into middle of dry mix. Kneed flour into smooth texture. Set aside and let rise for 20 minutes. Punch the dough until flat. Roll out and cut to line pans. Make sure dough covers the rim of the baking pans.

Filling:
Mix the first five ingredients. All should be room temperature. Mix until smooth, but still gritty. Add eggs and mix until well blended. Add flour and mix for 1 minute. Add water. Donâ€â„¢t overmix. Pour into baking pans. Let sit for 10 minutes. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of cakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Center of cake should be soft and jiggle a little. Makes three 8-x8-inch cakes.

------------

Covered Wagon Cookouts

Region: Jackson, Wyo.

The Story
To get some bona fide frontier cooking, folks can belly up to the Bar T-5 Ranch in Jackson, Wyo., for a covered wagon cookout - a tradition at this century-old ranch for more than 30 years.
A mainstay of covered wagon cooking was the Dutch oven, a cast-iron pot that looks like a 14-inch pan with a lid. Today, the ranch uses them two times a night, six days a week, from May through October, in its cookouts to help prepare chicken, roast beef and baked beans, mainstays of their covered wagon meals.

Foodie Facts

Dutch ovens were originally used to cook all types of food, including stews, pies and even bread.

Recipe:

Grandma Thomas's Beans

Ingredients:

8 No. 10 cans of pork and beans

2 No. 10 cans pinto beans

6 cups molasses

3 cups brown sugar

4 pounds bacon (cooked)

50 shakes of Tabasco

4 cups chopped onions

4 cups chopped green pepper

Directions

Mix all ingredients. Let simmer for 1 hour. Serves 200.

-----------------

Burgoo
Region: Midwest

The Story:
Burgoo is never the same twice. This hearty stew goes way back to the pioneer days when necessity was the mother of invention. Back then, people didn't have a lot to eat, so whatever was left over: squirrel, possum, deer, shoes... went into a giant kettle and boiled for up to 20 hours. The finished dish was called "burgoo."
Today's burgoo is equally inventive. Every recipe has one thing in common: mutton. To you city folks, that's sheep - old, female sheep.

Recipe:

Burgoo Stew

600 pounds lean soup meat (no fat, no bacon, mostly lamb)

Squirrels: 1 dozen to each 100 gallons of stew (skinned, boned and diced)

200 pounds fat hens, plucked

2,000 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced

200 pounds onion, peeled and diced

5 bushels cabbage, chopped

60 pounds tomatoes, skinned and chopped

24 pounds tomato purée

24 pounds corn, cut from cob

1 gallon vegetable oil

Red pepper and salt to taste and Worcestershire by the pint.

1. On a very large table, cut meat into cubes.

2. Heat oil in enormous cauldron.

3. Brown meat.

4. Add diced onions, cabbage and tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes.

5. Add tomato purée.

6. Slowly add water to incorporate the purée. Once the purée is smooth, fill cauldron halfway with water.

7. Add potatoes.

8. Stir constantly and simmer for 18 hours.

9. Add corn, cook for 2 more hours.

10. Serve.

------------------------
Toasted Ravioli
Region: St. Louis, MO

The Story:

Ravioli, the classic pasta pillow stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables has been around for a very long time. Boccaccio (who wrote during the 1300s) mentions ravioli in the Decameron, and every region in Italy has its own special twist on the basic idea.

The word ravioli comes from a verb that means, "to wrap" and vegetable-stuffed pasta was often eaten by those too poor to afford meat. Meat-stuffed ravioli was usually filled with leftovers from Sunday dinner, but these days almost everyone buys ravioli ready-made.

Toasted ravioli, like that made at Charlie Gitto's in St. Louis, is a little different. Once stuffed, the pasta is breaded and fried to a golden brown crispness.

Recipe:

Charlie Gitto's Toasted Ravioli

Ingredients:

Dough:

3 1/2 cups flour

3 eggs

3 tablespoons salad oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Meat filling:

1/2 pound beef, cubed

1/2 pound veal, cubed

1/2 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped carrots

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped spinach

4 eggs

1 cup grated Parmesan

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

4 cups seasoned bread crumbs

Grated Parmesan, for garnish

Tomato sauce, for serving

Directions
For the dough: In a large mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients and mix until they come together to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 to 15 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the meat filling: combine the beef, veal, onion, celery, carrots, salt and pepper in a roasting pan and roast until cooked through, about 1 hour. Let cool.

Add the spinach, then grind ingredients in a meat grinder with a fine grind. Add the eggs and cheese, and mix well, to create a paste-like texture.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface using a rolling pin. Make a large, very thin layer of dough. Spread out a thin layer of filling on half of one side of the dough, using a spatula. Fold the dough end over the filling side of the dough. Mark the filled dough with a ravioli marker (ravioli rolling pin). Cut ravioli out using a ravioli cutter. Freeze until hard.

To bread the ravioli: Make an egg wash by mixing together the eggs and the milk. Add the ravioli to the wash, and then dip in the seasoned bread crumbs. Refreeze until ready to fry.

Preheat a deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Fry the ravioli until golden brown. Serve hot on a plate sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan on top and tomato sauce on the side.

---------------------

Saganaki
Region: Chicago, Ill.

The Story:

A wave of immigration to the windy city in the early 1900's brought with it a whole melting pot of cultures, traditions and cuisines. These days, Chicago is a patchwork of neighborhoods and communities -- each with its own unique flavor.

In Greektown, Saganaki (think flaming cheese) is a signature dish at the Parthenon restaurant. And while it may actually sound Japanese instead of Greek, saganaki is named for the pan it's cooked in. It's a chunk of cheese that's first fried in a batter, then taken to the table and set on fire -- just remember to yell, "Opa!"

Recipe

Saganaki

The Parthenon restaurant wouldn't give their secret recipe, but we found one that will work. To set it on fire, you'll have to find just the right brandy to ignite it.

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

1/8 cup olive oil

1/2 pounds Kefalograviera cheese

Juice of 1 whole lemon

1. Cut cheese into 1/2-inch slices.

2. Beat egg in bowl large enough to hold a slice of cheese.

3. Place flour on a flat plate.

4. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan.

5. Dip each slice of cheese in the egg, then coat with flour.

6. When oil is hot, add coated cheese slice to pan and sear until golden brown.

7. Just before removing cheese from frying pan, pour on lemon juice.

8. If you want to set the cheese on fire, omit step 7.

9. Place seared cheese slices on a flameproof dish.

10. Pour brandy over the slices.

11. Ignite brandy. Please be careful when lighting the cheese.

12. Opa!!

-------------------------

Perch Fest
Region: Fairport Harbor, Ohio

The Story
On Lake Erie in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, yellow perch are plentiful - they're the most commonly caught fish in this part of the lake. For the past three years, the town has honored the abundance of perch in the lake's waters with Perch Fest, an annual event that draws scores of families and fishermen to the town.
During Perch Fest, participants fish for perch, then compete to see who caught the biggest fish. The winner gets a $1,000 prize.

After working up an appetite at the competition, visitors are sated with Ohio's largest fish fry, featuring, what else? Fried perch.

Foodie Facts

Perch feed near the bottom of the lake, but not directly on the bottom, much like catfish.

During Perch Fest, more than 10,000 meals of fried perch are sold.

The perfect perch should taste light and flaky, without a fishy flavor.

Recipe:

Captain Andy's Breaded Perch

Ingredients:

1-2 perch fillets

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup oil

2 cups flour

2 eggs

1 cup water

bread crumbs

salt and pepper

Directions
Season fish with salt and pepper. Beat eggs and water in bowl. Dredge fish in flour, dip into egg mixture, roll in bread crumbs, and fry in butter or oil until golden brown. Serve with coleslaw and french fries.

Kringle
Region: Racine, Wis.

The Story
Folks in Racine, Wis., rise and shine with little trouble in the early morning. Why? Their town is home to the Danish breakfast delicacy, the Kringle, a buttery and flaky pastry.
For a bite of a handmade Kringle, townies head over to O&H Bakery, which has been making the delectable pastry since 1949. Owned by the Olesen family, O&H is known for its Kringles and their variety of fillings, like apple, raspberry and cherry.

Foodie Facts

The Kringle-making process is a three-day endeavor that involves repeatedly folding the dough to obtain the pastry's famous flaky texture and then filling it with preserves.
Pastry made its way to Wisconsin thanks to 19th-century farmers from Denmark.

Recipe:

The O&H Danish Bakery's Kringle

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

1 package dry yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1 egg

Butterscotch filling for two kringles:

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

pinch of salt

pinch of cinnamon

1 to 2 egg whites

Directions
Soften butter with potato masher or something similar. Spread butter on waxed paper to an 8-x16-inch rectangle. Chill. Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add milk, sugar, salt, lemon extract and egg, mixing well. Add flour and mix smooth by hand. Chill.

Roll dough on well-floured board to an 8-x12-inch rectangle. Divide the prepared butter layer in two equal parts. Place one piece of the butter on two-thirds of the dough. Fold uncovered third of dough over the middle third (on top half of the butter layer), then fold the remaining third over the top. Chill. Roll out dough again to an 8-x12-inch rectangle. Place the remaining piece of chilled butter on two-thirds of the dough. Fold in the same method as the first piece of butter.

Gently roll dough to an 8-x16-inch rectangle, being careful not to break the layering of butter. Fold like above in thirds. This makes 24 layers of butter. Chill.

Cut dough in two equal pieces. Lightly and patiently roll one piece at a time, until piece is about 6 by 20 inches.

To prepare filling, mix ingredients until smooth. Spread center third of dough with butterscotch filling, then add fruit, nuts, raisins or jam. Fold one of the long edges to the middle, moisten the other edge with water and fold over top to cover filling. Seal well. Put kringle on lightly greased baking sheet and form into oval shape, pressing ends of kringle together to form a continuous oval. Flatten entire oval with hands. Cover kringle for 1 hour at room temperature. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown color. Cool, then ice with mixture of powdered sugar and water.

Please note that the best-quality kringles require patience. This process is most successful when spread out over three days. Day 1: Roll in first piece of butter. Day 2: Roll in second piece of butter and additional fold. Day 3: Create your kringle.

-------------

World Series of Barbeque
Region: Kansas City, MO

The Story:
For two days in the Fall, more than 100 teams descend on Kansas City to battle for first prize in a mouth-watering invitation-only barbeque cook-off. There are thousands of different recipes from across the country -- each jealously guarded from the competition.

If there's one common world-class barbequeing secret, though, it's this: long cooking times over low heat. We're talking 12-13 hours, at least. But beyond that, it's a delicious mystery that earns the winner a $10,000 prize.

Recipe

Big Bob Gibson Barbecue Beef Brisket

Ingredients

1 beef brisket (approximately 8 to 12 pounds)

3 beef boullion cubes

For the dry rub

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon red pepper

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/8 teaspoon tumeric

Directions
Crush the beef boullion cubes and rub over the entire brisket. Mix the dry-rub ingredients and coat the brisket with the spices. Preheat BBQ cooker or oven to 225 degrees. Place the brisket on cooker using indirect heat (not directly over the fire) with fat side up. If cooking in an oven, place on a broiler pan so juices drain away from the brisket. Cook for 7 to 8 hours until the internal temperature of the brisket reaches 160 to 170 degrees. Double a large piece of aluminum foil and place brisket, fat side down, in the center. Boat the sides of the foil and pour 1 cup of water over the brisket. Wrap aluminum foil tight, covering the entire brisket, and place in the cooker for an additional two hours. The internal temperature of the brisket should reach 190 degrees when removed from the cooker. Let the meat rest for 1 to 2 hours in the foil before removing from the foil and slicing across the grain.

Note: Adjust cooking times for a smaller brisket.

---------------------

World's Best Pumpkins
Region: Circleville, Ohio

The Story:

Every October, crowds gather in Circleville for the annual pumpkin show. The festival began in 1903 when the mayor decided to celebrate the fall harvest by honoring one of America's favorite fruits. These days, it's a four-day extravaganza with lots of pumpkin dishes.

At the center of the festival is a giant pumpkin pie made with 44 pounds of sugar, 16 gallons of milk, 15 dozen eggs, 4 pounds of corn starch, and a few other choice ingredients.

Recipe:

Pumpkin Fest Pumpkin Pie

This is enough to make one 6-foot pie.

96 pounds cooked pumpkin

44 pounds sugar

16 gallons milk

15 dozen eggs

4 pounds cornstarch

24 ounces pumpkin spice

24 ounces salt

36 pounds pie dough

1. Roll out dough and place in 6-foot pie pan. Crimp edges.

2. Mix first 7 ingredients in a very large mixing bowl.

3. Pour filling into pie crust.

4. Gather six very strong friends and place pie in enormous oven.

5. Bake for 6 hours at 325 degrees.

6. Cool for 6 hours.

------------------

Taste of Chicago
Region: Chicago, IL

The Story:

Each year, there's a celebration called Sweet Home Illinois that brings together all kinds of Chicago dishes. Take Italian beef, for instance: seasoned, slow-roasted and slice paper-thin before being bathed in a vat of seasoned gravy -- those in the know call it a "sangwich."

But how do you get real Chicago cuisine (including deep-dish pizza, positively dripping with mozzerella, sausage and tomato sauce) if you live in, say, Burbank, California? Drop in on Taste Chicago, a local restaurant owned by actor Joe Mantegna and his wife. It's a place that caters to those on the West Coast longing for a little piece of Chicago.

Recipe:

Taste of Chicago's Chicago Dog

Ingredients:

Poppy seed bun (steamed)

Vienna beef hot dog (simmered)

1 tomato slice

Garlic dill spear

2 sport peppers

Relish (to taste)

Chopped onion (to taste)

Celery salt (to taste)

Directions
Put hot dog in bun, add mustard, chopped onion, relish, tomato, garlic dill spear, peppers and sprinkle with celery salt. Open mouth wide and enjoy!

----------------------

Brownies
Region: Chicago, IL

The Story:

It seems like brownies have always been with us -- moist, thick, rich and delicious. But every good recipe has an inventor, and brownies are no exception. To find out where they came from, we must visit the Palmer House hotel in Chicago.

It seems that in 1892, Mrs. Palmer required a special dessert for the upcoming Chicago World's Fair and her pastry chefs came up with the brownie. To this day, the hotel uses the same recipe for its signature dessert, so don't go looking for any boxes of brownie mix in the kitchen cupboard.

Recipe:

The Palmer House Hilton Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Ingredients:

1 pound, 2 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 pound butter

1 pound, 8 ounces granulated sugar

8 ounces cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 eggs

1 pound crushed walnuts

For Glaze

1 cup water

1 cup apricot preserves

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

Directions
Melt chocolate with butter in double boiler. Mix dry ingredients, except walnuts, into mixing bowl. Mix chocolate with dry ingredients, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs. Pour into 9-x12-inch baking sheet, sprinkle walnuts on top, press walnuts down slightly with your hand and bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

You will know the brownie is done when the edges start to become a little crispy and the brownie has raised about quarter-inch. Note that even when the brownie is properly baked, it will test “gooeyâ€? with a toothpick in the middle due to the mixtureâ€â„¢s richness.

After removing from oven, allow to cool for about 30 minutes before spreading a thin layer of glaze with a pastry brush. Glaze: Mix together water, preserves and unflavored gelatin in a saucepan. Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Use hot.

Special Tip: Brownies are easier to cut if you place them in the freezer for about 3 to 4 hours after glazing.

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Vidalia Onions

Region: Vidalia, Georgia

The Story:

Vidalia onions are known for being so mild, when you slice 'em up, you won't even cry. But what the world probably doesn't know is that this onion was invented in southern Georgia by a farmer named Mose Coleman.

Back in 1931, Mose planted some onion seeds expecting to come out with a hot and spicy crop, but they actually came up smooth and sweet. And that's how the Vidalia onion was born.

Recipe:

Roasted Vidalia Onions

(6 servings)

6 large Vidalia onions

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/4-pounds cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Slice the tops off each onion.

3. Remove outer skin.

4. Place onions in shallow baking dish.

5. Sprinkle olive oil on the tops of the onions.

6. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Pour a 1/4 inch of water in baking dish.

8. Cover with aluminum foil.

9. Bake covered in the oven for 55 minutes.

10. Remove onions from oven.

11. Remove aluminum foil.

12. Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the onions.

13. Return onions to oven.

14. Bake 5 more minutes in oven uncovered.

15. Enjoy.

You can substitute other cheeses for the cheddar. Some good alternatives are Parmesan, blue cheese or Monterey Jack.

-------------------

Key Lime Pie
Region: Florida Keys

The Story:

Back in the old days, there were no bridges or cars in the Florida Keys. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot of anything except chickens and lime trees. But you can't make pie with a chicken and a tree, so when Gail Borden invented condensed milk around 1858, locals took what they had and got busy.

Recipe:

The Original Key West Key Lime Pie

Ingredients

4 egg yolks

1 can condensed sweetened milk

1/2 cup fresh or bottled lime juice

9-inch-deep regular pie crust (not graham cracker)

For the meringue topping

4 egg whites

2-3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions
Mix egg yolks, milk and lime juice in a bowl. Bake pie crust at 325 degrees until golden brown (10 to 12 minutes). Pour egg-yolk mixture into crust and return to oven. Bake at 325 for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the oven).

To make the meringue topping, beat egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until mixture peaks. Take pie out of oven and place meringue over egg-yolk mixture. Return pie to oven and back at 325 degrees until meringue is golden brown.

------------
Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Hush Puppies
Region: Texas

The Story:

The story of how hush puppies got their name goes something like this: In bygone days, dogs around a country campfire in Texas or Louisiana whined for scraps of food and the old-timers developed a batter of cornmeal and water that they would fry and then give to the dogs to make them quiet down -- or "hush, puppies."

Hush puppies have become an essential part of cooking catfish because, for one thing, they taste great. For another, they help to test and control the temperature of the oil for cooking the fish. If you put the catfish in oil that's too hot, you'll burn it.

Recipe:

Dubby's Puppies - Hushpuppy

Ingredients:

1 package of Big Fattyâ€â„¢s Combustible Cornbread Mix

1 egg

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

1/2 chopped onion

1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs

1 tin of smoked oysters, chopped

Oil for deep frying

1 teaspoon each salt and black pepper

To make cornbread mix from scratch: 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 jalepeños, seeded and chopped

Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Heat oil in a suitable pot to 350 degrees. Drop dough by spoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and eat with fried fish, etc.

--------------

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Alligator Meat
Region: Lafitte, La.

The Story

In the marshy swamplands of Louisiana lurks every foodie's favorite sharp-toothed predator - the alligator. While many "non-foodies" don't think of alligators as being good eats, they've made their way to the dinner tables of Louisianians, who hunted the beasts hundreds of years ago to prevent them from eating deer.

Most of the alligator eaten today comes from the darker meat of the gator's body, neck and legs, or the white tail meat. Alligator meat is usually fried, grilled, broiled or baked and served with a hot-and-spicy sauce piquant - a tomato-based sauce with spices.

Foodie Facts

Adult male gators can weigh up to 500 pounds.

Louisiana cooking has many influences: Creole sauces from the French, piquant sauces from the Spanish, slow-cooking techniques from the Africans, and wild herbs and spices from the Native Americans.

In Louisiana, the "trinity" - onions, celery and green bell peppers - goes into almost every dish cooked in the region.

Recipe:

Alligator Sauce Piquant

Courtesy of New Orleans School of Cooking

Ingredients:

1 cup oil

1 cup flour

4 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped celery

1 cup chopped green pepper

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons butter

3 cups chicken stock or flavored water

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

4 teaspoons Big Kevinâ€â„¢s Seasoning Blend

2 pounds alligator meat, cubed

1 14- to 16-ounce can tomato sauce

Cooked rice

Directions

Add flour to hot oil to make a dark, chocolate-colored roux, stirring constantly. Add half the seasoning blend to roux, along with onions, celery, green pepper and garlic.

Season the gator meat with the remaining seasoning blend. In another pot, sauté the gator meat in butter on high heat for 3 minutes. Add stock and cook until hot. Stir in the roux with the vegetables until completely blended. Add bay leaves and tomato sauce and simmer for 20 minutes on low heat.

If desired, add in more seasoning blend, chopped green onions and parsley 5 minutes before serving. Serve with cooked rice. Makes 8 servings.

----------------

Gumbo
Region: New Orleans, La.

The Story

Gumbo is a lot like a big stew pot filled with Louisiana history. This Cajun-style dish first made its mark some 200 years ago when French settlers came to the region, bringing with them bouillabaisse, a fish stew. Over time, the area's other ethnic groups, namely Native Americans, the Spanish and Africans, added their own culinary twists to the stew, and it became the dish it is today.

In fact, gumbo gets its name from the African word for an ingredient Africans introduced to the stew: okra. The native African word for okra, a kind of pod plant, is gombo.

Though gumbo is usually associated with seafood, any meat can go in it, like chicken or even frog. But what gives gumbo its flavor is the roux, a baked mixture of butter and flour that gives the stew its texture and helps create its one-of-a-kind flavor.

Foodie Facts

The base of a gumbo can be made from chicken stock, fish stock or crab stock.

One of gumbo's unique, flavor-enhancing ingredients is filé powder, which is ground sassafras root.

Recipe:

Hotel Monteleone's Seafood and Fried Okra Gumbo

Ingredients:

Gumbo base:

3 1/2 quarts fish stock

2 cups dark brown roux

2 ounces chopped garlic

5 bay leaves

5 sprigs thyme

1/2 cup fillet powder (dissolved in water)

Roux Preparation:

Melt 1 cup margarine in baking pan and mix with 1 cup flour, evenly. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until dark brown in color.

Garnish:

1 large onion, diced

1/2 bunch celery, diced

2 Creole tomatoes (seeded and diced)

2 green peppers, sliced

2 ounces salad oil

Seafood: 3/4 pound crawfish tails

1 pound medium shrimp

3/4 pound back-fin crabmeat

Fried Okra:

2 cups okra, chopped

1 cup flour (seasoned with salt and pepper)

3 eggs

1 cup water

2 cups Cajun corn flour

Directions
For fried okra: Mix eggs and water in bowl. Dip okra in flour, then eggs, then corn flour. Deep-fry at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.

In 2-gallon saucepot add fish stock with garlic, bay leaf and thyme and bring to a boil. Add roux and allow to thicken. Reduce heat and slow to a simmer. Add dissolved fillet powder and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, skimming frequently.

In a separate saucepot add salad oil. Sauté garnish at medium heat until tender. Add seafood. Cook another 10 minutes. Be cautious not to overcook. Add seafood and garnish to gumbo base. Simmer another 10 minutes.

Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Serve in bowls with three or four pieces of fried okra on top. Serves 12.

---------------------

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Capuchinos
Region: Miami, Fla.

The Story

The popular Cuban dessert "capuchinos" may sound a lot like the coffee drink "cappuccino," but this super-sweet after-dinner treat is a far cry from an espresso beverage. Extremely popular in the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, these Cuban cakes start out as a batter shaped into a cone, baked until it becomes hard and then soaked overnight in a citric syrup made from sugar, water, lemon and orange rinds, cinnamon and the sweet liqueur, anis.

Foodie Facts

For a number of years, Cuba's main export was sugar cane; thus many Cuban desserts are known for incorporating sugar.

The name capuchino refers to the cone-like shape of the capuchino, similar to the hoods worn by Capuchin monks.

Recipe:

Capuchinos

Ingredients:

Batter

24 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

4 ounces sugar

3 ounces all-purpose flour

8 ounces cornstarch

Syrup

12 ounces sugar

6 ounces water

1 anise star

1 lemon

2 orange peel

1 sprig of cinnamon

Directions
In a mixer, mix all the eggs and sugar on medium-high until the mixture rises to about one-third of its original volume (15-20 minutes). Next, reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour and cornstarch until well mixed. Now place the paper cones in stand and fill to the top with batter (about 1 1/2 ounces). Place stand on a baking sheet that can hold a little water underneath to create a bain-marie.. Bake at 290 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the batter is the consistency of a cake and the top is golden tan in color. Remove from heat and let cool. Remove capuchinos from stand and lay them in a tray deep enough to submerge them with hot syrup. Once the cakes are soaked, remove and store them in a container with a little bit of syrup. Refrigerate. Can be served cool or at room temperature.

To make syrup, add all the ingredients to a saucepan and, on medium heat, bring to a boil for 2 minutes. While hot, add syrup to tray with the capuchinos.

---------------

Taste of America with Mark Decarlo
www.travelchannel.com

Matzo Ball Soup
Region: Boca Raton, Fla.

The Story

Matzo ball soup has made its mark in Jewish food culture and beyond for being a comfort food, and many folks even refer to it as the "Jewish Penicillin." But what really makes this soup so soothing?

Basically a chicken soup with dumpling made from matzo, or unleavened bread, matzo ball soup has been a staple in the Jewish diet for centuries. To cook up a soup that would make a Bubbe proud, start with a chicken stock made from chicken, vegetables and spices. While the stock cooks, mix up some matzo balls using eggs, water, vegetable oil, salt and ground matzo meal. The matzo balls can either go directly into the soup, or be baked first and then added.

Foodie Facts

Matzo came to be during biblical times when the Jews left Egypt. Because they had to leave in a hurry, they didn't have time for the bread they were baking to rise; they instead took the unleavened bread, or matzo.

Matzo is a food staple for Jews during Passover.

Though many people prefer to make their matzo balls from scratch, it's often said that the instant matzo ball mix purchased at any market is just as good.

Recipe:

Penne Pearlman's Matzo Ball Soup

Ingredients:

Whole onion

Carrots (to taste)

Celery (to taste)

Parsnip (to taste)

Whole chicken

Fresh dill

Matzo ball mix - follow instructions

Directions
Boil a large pot of water. Add one whole onion (to be removed later), carrots, celery and parsnips. When the water is boiling rapidly, add a whole chicken cut into eighths. After the soup has cooked for a while, add the matzo balls. This must also be done when the soup is rapidly boiling. Cover, let it cook and enjoy the aroma! Add some packaged mix (or you can use seasoning) and some fresh dill. After the soup cools, remove the chicken and throw away.