Cookbooks for the Kitchen, or the Coffee Table

Located in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains about a half-hour from Knoxville, Tenn., is the renowned, 2,400-acre luxury resort of Blackberry Farm, featuring cottages and estate rooms, gardens, and the award-winning restaurant The Barn.

The resort describes its farm-to-table bounty as “Foothills Cuisine,” which, according to Marketing Coordinator Mallorie Mendence, is “a term derived from our location, where one ridgeline separates the country mountain cooking to our south from the haute cuisine of the city to our north. Our Foothills Cuisine is a perfect amalgam of these two culinary worlds—a blend of old and new, rural and urban, rustic and refined.”  

The resort has published two cookbooks—The Blackberry Farm Cookbook and The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm—each beautifully illustrated with full-color photographs. Everything from the sophisticated presentation of the dishes themselves to the stunning surrounds of the mountain farm is artfully depicted—and oh, there are recipes, too. In Foothills Cuisine, the recipes are organized by eight natural times or seasons of the farm. In “Come Grass Time,” when the first fragile green shoots appear, the farm explains, “you’ll find a menu of Skillet Corn Bread, Beans and Greens with Pepper Vinegar, and Peanut Butter Pie.” Other seasons are Plantin’ Time, Lay-by Time, Harvest Time, Puttin’-Up Time, Hog-Killin’ Time, Huntin’ Time, and Restin’ Time.

While these Appalachian-inspired recipes are meant to be used in the kitchen, these fashionable books are equally at home on the living room coffee table. 

Truly Southern Waffles

• 1 c gluten-free oat flour 

• 1/3 c brown rice flour

• 1/3 c stone-ground corn flour

• 1/3 c buckwheat flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

• 2 ½ c buttermilk, at room temperature

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• ¼ c sorghum, maple syrup, or honey moonshine cherries, for serving 

Makes about 12 waffles

1. Preheat a waffle iron.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add the buttermilk, butter, and sorghum and whisk to combine.

4. Place the egg whites in another medium mixing bowl and whisk or beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

5. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Pour in the egg yolk mixture and mix only until combined.

6. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour a spoonful of batter into the center of the waffle iron and cook until golden brown. (If the first one or two waffles are softer than you’d like, use less batter and cook a little longer, until nicely browned, for a crisper result.)

7.   Place a waffle on a warm plate. Top with a spoonful of moonshine cherries and drizzle with sorghum. Serve warm.

From The Foothills Cuisine of Blackberry Farm