Tupelo Honey Night!

Tonight I went for a full Tupelo Honey Cafe Cookbook meal. 

In short: I love this cookbook. 

LOVE IT. 

Let's start with dessert. My favorite southern dessert is Banana Pudding. This is followed closely by Red Velvet Cake. When I was young and northern, I thought Banana Pudding was banana-flavored pudding and, therefore, had absolutely no interest in it. Zero. No, no, no. Banana Pudding is nothing short of the best thing with the name "pudding" in it. My first banana pudding experience brought me to another place. Nothing like I expected: homemade vanilla pudding poured over sliced ripe bananas and topped with Nilla Wafers and (also homemade) whipped cream. Sounds good? It is! So how do you make it?

We'll start with the pudding. It's not as difficult as it sounds. All you need is 3 cups of whole milk (must be whole - otherwise: not enough fat); 2 egg yolks, 3/4 cup sugar, 4 Tablespoons of cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. (And 2 tablespoons of butter set aside.)

Put the 3 cups of milk in a saucepan (a saucier if you have one) and get ready to heat it up!

In the meantime, mix the other ingredients until well incorporated and creamy - it should get lighter in color. I used the KitchenAid here and pity the person who has to do this by hand (note: when using a stand mixer it might not appear creamy when it's ready. Once it looks incorporated stir it a little bit with a spoon and you'll see it's ready.)

Now heat the milk to a high simmer. Once it is boiling turn the heat down to med/med low. Ever so slowly, add a teaspoon/tablespoon at a time of the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture, stirring until blended in (this avoids your yolk mixture from turning into scrambled eggs.) 

Tempering egg yolk mixture with hot milk.

We have pudding! (A.K.A. Crack.)

Once the yolk mixture is ready, stir it into the milk. Over the low heat stirring almost constantly (I usually use a whisk to keep it moving), until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon (see above). The pudding is ready. (I highly recommend frequent taste tests.) You'll never make instant pudding again!

Remember the 2 tablespoons of butter? Stir it in now.

Now get a casserole dish and slice three ripe bananas to cover the bottom. The bananas I used were about perfect - and now I wish I took a photo. They were just a little bit spotted. Still edible but on the edge of not. :) Note: don't pre-slice the bananas or they will turn brown. Keep them "in the skin" until you are ready to pour the pudding over them.

Pour the pudding over the bananas. Then have some fun with the Nilla Wafers (I've been told that generic brand on Nilla Wafers is not nearly as good. So go to Big Lots or Costco and stock up! It's worth it!)

You're supposed to wait overnight before eating the pudding....gives the cookies time to soak up the pudding and flavors to meld. Confession: I took a little taste...twice.

We usually make homemade whipped cream and cover the pudding. Perfect. Tastes almost exactly like the Banana Pudding from Smokejacks here in Alpharetta. (The reason I wanted to try to make it at home.) This is also good for breakfast. If you're into that sort of thing.

Note: I've made this several times since, sometimes not even bothering with the bananas. It has quickly become a favorite here.

Ok now - the meal. I decided to make Tupelo Honey Hot Wings. Oh. My.

Here is the recipe. I changed a few things. First - I baked the wings. Bake on foiled cookie sheet at 450 for 25 minutes flipping once, coating the wings in some of the sauce and doing a brief marinade in beer, salt and pepper. Broiled them for a few minutes to crisp them up. Then toss them in the sauce. (It should be noted that I wasn't as successful as I'd like with the "crisp them up" part...totally achievable if you're patient!)

For the sauce - I did everything the recipe link recommends only I used a canned chipotle pepper (cookbook said I could do this!) and clover honey...I mean, who has access to actual Tupelo Honey? I also added some beer. Because...why not? (I added some Smuttynose IPA just to get some New England goodness in here!)

Make a salad or, in our case, some green beans or do the traditional celery and carrots. Serve with blue cheese dip.

 

I loved these wings! The sauce is an absolutely delicious blend of sweet and heat. In fact I'd add more chipotle next time since it wasn't nearly as hot as I thought it would be.

In all...a delicious meal. Both will be made again. 

And I will be having banana pudding for breakfast tomorrow! Because I'm into that sort of thing.