Cooking With Paula Deen
What surprises me is the liberal use of ready made ingredients in so many of Paula Deen’s recipes. The Creamy Hash Brown Casserole in last years May/June issue utilises a can of cream of celery soup, pre-shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack and a pack of frozen hash brown potatoes. I don’t recall any celebrity chef in the UK advocating the use of anything but fresh produce…
Other culture differences arise in such recipes as Cherry-Lime Cola Salad, which appears to be a mix of various flavoured jellies, cherries and coca cola topped with marshmallows. Sounds truly hideous and not just because of the marshmallows.
I’m not saying all the recipes are like this - I’m tempted by the Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Cream Sauce and the Raspberry Strudel Muffins, for example, and maybe those that do not excite are more likely to get the densins of Southern America more excited than a middle-class English lad rapidly approaching mid-life crises age.
Oh, and in a recipe magazine I am not interested in Deen’s son’s wedding pictures and I really do not want to see her in a bubble bath, however lovely the antique brass taps are!
The quality of the magazines are not up to the quality we are use to on this side of the Atlantic either - some of the photographs styling seems to emphasize the Fanny Craddockesque quality of some of the recipes - six ways to stuff an egg (March/April 2006 issue) and the Berry Delicious Party (May/June 2006) for example.
Another thing I noticed is the rampant use of butter and mayonnaise in many of the recipes. Is this the true Southern style of cooking? I was hoping for many unique and distinctive Southern recipes but many - apple strudel, for example, have a more international feel.
Deen has a popular show on the Food TV Network, Paula’s Home Cooking, and added another one late last year. Her sons, who appear quite frequently in the pages of the magazines, sometime appear on her show and started their own show last autumn (Road Tasted). Deen also has a new book out, part memoir/part cookbook - Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’ (Amazon.com
I can only conclude that I am clearly not Paula Deen’s target demographic!
“Southern cooking” seems to be a catch-all term these days for whatever strangeness on a plate someone with a TV show and a regional accent serves up. Are there brand names next to the pre-processed “ingredients” listed?
Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’
Talk about truth in labeling.