The photo is missing, and Carla Hall is experiencing a meltdown that can best be described as Carla Hall-esque: She has pitched her voice to an exaggerated wail. She raises her well-toned arms in the air, as if they're a pair of question marks matching her puzzlement, while she searches the kitchen for the framed picture of her late grandmother, the woman Hall simply calls "Granny."
"Where are you, Granny?" Hall cries in semi-exasperation as she searches the countertop in her D.C. home. "She was always right here. Who moved her? Arghhhh! Granny?!"
Underneath this comical facade lies genuine angst. Granny's picture, after all, serves a purpose in Hall's elegant, tan-colored kitchen with its faux-birch cupboards and drawers: It's a reminder to the cookbook author, chef and co-host of The Chew that no matter how famous she gets, her love of food remains firmly rooted in Granny's kitchen back in Lebanon, Tenn.
As Hall will tell you, one of her goals as a recipe developer is to help cooks evoke feelings similar to the ones she experienced in Granny's home, where as a child she gobbled down cornbread, smothered pork chops, candied sweet potatoes and mac 'n' cheese. Her mission, though, is not tied solely to Southern cooking. To Hall's way of thinking, almost any dish can provide comfort, if the cook pours herself fully into the preparation.
Hall's philosophy is well known among her followers: The two-time Top Chef contestant calls it "cooking with love," and to Hall, 49, it's not some slick slogan cooked up by an image consultant to help her to connect with the common people. It's the credo by which she lives her life -- and honors Freddie Mae Glover, the maternal grandmother who made Hall feel so nurtured as a girl.
That philosophy takes a new turn in Hall's second cookbook, Carla's Comfort Foods: Favorite Dishes From Around the World (Atria Books), in which she simultaneously attempts to preserve the uniqueness of various international dishes while demonstrating that food often underscores the similarities -- not the differences -- between cultures. The book is pure Carla Hall. Its affections know no boundaries: It celebrates the village and the planet, the me and the we.
I've arrived at Hall's tasteful turn-of-the-20th-century home to better understand the newest chapter in her (cook)book of love. She's preparing Chicken With Sour Cream and Paprika from Carla's Comfort Foods. It's a semi-Hungarian dish designed to trace a clean line from the Deep South to central Europe.
"Basically, I'm doing chicken and gravy," Hall says. "We think of milk gravy as comfort food, but really if you change a few ingredients, everybody has their version of smothered chicken. This is a Hungarian smothered chicken."
As Hall browns the skin-on thighs in a thin slick of rice bran oil -- a variation from the olive oil in her printed recipe -- she talks about some of the motivations behind Carla's Comfort Foods. Her desire, for instance, to seek commonality through food is one outgrowth of an unfortunate side effect of fame: the haters and their easy access to social media through which they can vent their tiny thoughts.
Hall refuses to let the small-minded among us change her behavior. She remains a relentless user of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, interacting with all who come, whether fan or bully. Her tactic is to kill the critics with kindness, or at least with wit and/or directness, even when their barbs pierce the skin. Like the time someone tweeted at Hall that she has the "ugliest nose ever." (Her response: "I am grateful for a nose at all. Are you grateful Eric?")
By singling out the commonalities among the countless cuisines of the world, Hall says, she hopes to bridge the divides among disparate cultures. In her hands, then, food becomes an analogy for the human genetics that bind us all together.
Back in her own kitchen, Hall looks perfectly at ease as she balances cooking with fielding interview questions. She's wearing a beige-and-white polka-dotted shift, with pinpoint bursts of color around the neckline. Hall has accessorized with a pair of dangly earrings and a Chan Luu leather bracelet wrapped several times around her left wrist. She may cook with love, but the former model does so with style.
She also cooks with no music in the kitchen. She wants all of her senses attuned to the task at hand. She wants to hear the sizzle of the oil, so she knows when it's ready. She wants to watch the chicken thighs brown, so she knows when to pull them from the pan. "Unless you're really involved in your food in cooking it, it's not going to be that great," Hall says, "especially when you're trying to re-create the recipes from your grandmother."
And there's the connection to Granny again. Hall frequently refers to her grandmother. She has published a number of Granny's recipes, too, including her smothered pork chops (which appeared in Hall's first cookbook, Cooking With Love: Comfort Food That Hugs You). Despite the many words offered in praise of Granny and her home-cooked dishes, though, I still wanted to know the feeling that bubbled up in Hall whenever she recalled her grandmother. That feeling, it seemed to me, was the source of all things Hall. Or most things.
So the chef paints a picture: Because Hall's own mom didn't cook much, Granny would host the post-church Sunday supper. It was served buffet-style on a kitchen island, which would be covered with deviled eggs, meatloaf, biscuits, "cooked-to-death green beans," strawberry shortcake and other specialties of the house. Hall would load up her plate and head straight to the dining room. Granny would never sit down and eat with the family. Instead, after preparing the meal, she mixed herself a drink -- often bourbon and soda -- and fired up a cigarette, "which she never learned to inhale," so there was always a generous cloud of smoke in the air, Hall remembers.
"I would eat around [my plate] like a clock. Every bite would have a little bit of everything," she says. "I would look over at my sister, who would be eating one thing at a time: That space would be gone, then that space would be gone."
But the feeling, what was the feeling?
"It was just the feeling that she cared," she says, and suddenly the tumblers seem to click in place, and the secret of Carla Hall has been revealed. That concept of caring helps explain many things: her desire to answer virtually all emails and tweets, her decision to work mostly as a caterer and not as a chef (chefs cook what they want, caterers prepare what you want) and her rationale for employing all of her senses in meal preparation. She's not promoting coolness or pure creativity. She's banking on something more primordial: that no matter how old we are, we still desire to feel cared for.
That was Granny's specialty, and now it is Hall's.
This chutney is spicy, punchy and powerful. Serve it with grilled shrimp or chicken, or with warm naan.
Chile Pepper, Pea and Coconut Chutney
1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seed
2 cups cooked fresh or frozen/defrosted peas
2 serrano chile peppers, stemmed, seeded and sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Before the oil starts to shimmer, stir in the mustard seed. Cook for about 30 seconds or until golden brown; the seeds will pop up, so partly covering the pan is a good idea. Remove from the heat.
Combine the peas, chile peppers, garlic, coconut, lime juice and salt in a blender or food processor. Pulse just until coarsely ground, then add the toasted mustard seed with its oil. Pulse just until blended.
Serve immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
Makes 11/3 to 11/2 cups.
Eat these as soon as they come off the waffle iron, to get the benefit of their crisp crust and airy interiors.
Blueberry Corn Waffles
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fine stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 cup fresh corn kernels, chopped
1/2 cup fresh or frozen/defrosted blueberries
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
Heat a waffle iron.
Sift the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
Whisk together the milk and egg yolks, then stir in the corn and blueberries. Pour into the flour mixture, stirring gently with a spatula just until combined. Stir in the melted butter; the batter will be lumpy.
Beat the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer on low, then medium-high speed to form soft peaks. Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the batter until barely blended, then fold in the remaining egg whites; use a gentle hand to keep the batter light.
Grease the hot waffle iron with cooking oil spray if needed.
Ladle batter onto the iron, scooping in deep to get at the blueberries and corn at the bottom of the bowl. Close the iron and cook according to the manufacturer's directions. The waffles should be golden brown and crisp.
Repeat with the remaining batter (no need to use more cooking oil spray). Serve immediately.
Makes 6 to 10 waffles.
Chicken With Sour Cream and Paprika
Olive oil, for frying
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds total), excess fat and skin removed
Kosher salt
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 serrano chile peppers, stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
Pinch ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup sour cream (regular or low-fat; do not use nonfat)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
Pour just enough oil to coat the bottom of a large skillet; heat over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering.
Meanwhile, season the chicken generously with salt -- about 2 teaspoons. Carefully place the chicken in the oil, skin side down. Reduce the heat to medium; cook for 20 minutes, until dark golden brown, then turn the chicken over and cook until dark golden brown, about 15 minutes. Use tongs to transfer the chicken to a plate.
Add the onion, chile peppers, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 7 minutes; the onion should be soft.
Stir in the paprika and cayenne pepper; cook for 1 minute, then stir in the broth to form a sauce. Once the mixture starts to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low.
Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet, skin side up, nestling the pieces into the sauce and turning them over and back for even coating. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Place 2 chicken thighs on each plate.
Reduce the heat to low; once the sauce is no longer bubbling, whisk in the sour cream to form a velvety sauce until just heated through.
Spoon some of the sauce on top of each serving of chicken. Garnish with the parsley. Serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
Recipes adapted from Carla's Comfort Foods: Favorite Dishes from Around the World by Carla Hall with Genevieve Ko (Atria Books, 2014).
Food on 05/21/2014