Restaurateur and television personality Alex Hitz brings a blending of Southern cooking with fine dining French tastes in "My Beverly Hills Kitchen."
The recipe sizes vary from meals for 2 to a crowd of 20, with classic "reimagined" dishes that gives comfort food a facelift.
The book is broken into Hors d' Oeuvres; Soups; Salads; Eggs, and Cheese, and Grits, and Quiche; Sauces; Vegetables and Side Dishes; Seafood; Chicken, Turkey, and, of all Things Pheasant; Beef, Veal, Lamb and Pork; Biscuits, Rolls, Breads, Pastry and Crepes; Desserts and Entertaining and Menus.
Hors d'Oeuvres are fare like Dorthoy's Cheese Straws and Mushrooms Stuffed with Blue Cheese.
Soups offer a variety like Lobster Bisque and Mushroom Soup.
Salads are dishes like Broccoli Slaw and Avocado, Grapefruit and Macadamia Nut Salad with Manchego Cheese and Poppyseed Vinaigrette.
Eggs and Cheese and Grits and Quiche recipes are a classic Four Cheese Souffle and his take on Charleston Shrimp and Grits.
Sauces are recipes for the Perfect Hollandaise Sauce and even Cucumber Sauce.
Vegetables and Side Dishes are Gratin Dauphinois or even Red Pepper Flan.
Seafood recipes offer Lobster Thermidor or Pecan-Crusted Salmon.
Chicken, Turkey and of all things Pheasant is dishes like Chicken Shiitake Chili, Robert's Favorite Turkey Hash and Roulade of Pheasant Breast Stuffed with Spinach and Mushroom Duxelles.
Beef, Veal, Lamb and Pork recipes are such dishes as Perfect Roast Tenderloin of Beef with Horseradish Sauce, Seven-Hour Lamb and Pulled Pork with Carolina Barbecue Sauce.
Biscuits, Rolls, Breads, Pastry and Crepes offer comfort foods like Crisp Yet Creamy Corn Muffins and a basic Crepe recipe.
Desserts are sweets like Almond Raspberry White Chocolate Bars, New Orleans Bread Pudding with Vanilla Bourbon Sauce and more.
One day I decided to take some deli pulled pork in a package and add it to the light and fluffy Sour Cream Corn Cakes for a quick meal with the girls. These delicious griddle cakes were a delicate mix of corn muffin and pancake. The sour cream really helped the texture, and both girls enjoyed the flavor, although were confused at first as to why Mommy was putting pork on pancakes. But we all enjoyed the dish, so I would definitely make these again and they are very easy to make.
"My Beverly Hills Kitchen" is published by Alfred A. Knopf. It is $35.
Contact Amy Phelps at aphelps@newsandsentinel.com
