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Here's my review of Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard, which I highly recommend.

Vivian says her book is as much a storybook as a cookbook and I've very much enjoyed both reading and cooking from it. If you find essays and background information in a cookbook to be unnecessary fluff or filler, then steer clear as they are much of the appeal of this book.

It's organized into chapters by ingredient, beginning with an informative essay, a collection of advice or tips that Vivian calls, "Wisdom", then some classic, Eastern North Carolina recipes before moving into recipes where Vivian has added a more modern twist, as she does in her restaurant.

For example, the first chapter,  Ground Corn, starts with recipes for Mom's Cornpone, Grandma Hill's Hoecakes, Lillie's Fried Cornbread and Foolproof Grits before moving into Charred Spring Vegetables with Creamy Scallion Dressing and Hushpuppy Croutons, Grits & Greens with Hot Sauce and Pork Rinds, Pimento Cheese Grits with Salsa and Chips, Cheesy Grit Fritters and Spoonbread with Sausage Ragout.

While the chapters are organized by ingredient, some recipes appear in unexpected places.  Fried Green Tomatoes are not in the Tomato chapter but in the Peach section, in a recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes with Curried Peach Preserves and Whipped Feta.  This makes the chapters more interesting to read but less useful if you are looking for, say, salad ideas.  Happily, there is a "Recipe Guide" at the front of the book to address that issue with a listing of recipes by type and the index in the back seems to be useful for finding things.

The chapter essays, header notes and recipes are all written in a consistent,  authentic voice, the same voice that Vivian uses in the PBS series "A Chef's Life."    It's clearly her book and not a celebrity chef-ghost-written product.  There are recipes that were featured in the show and many new recipes.  I’ve cooked quite a bit from the book and haven’t hit a dud yet.  I highly recommend it.

I wish this book was indexed so I could attach my comments to the individual recipes but I’ll put them here for now. 

Pork and Red Curry Braised Watermelon – an amazing amount of flavor from such a simple recipe.  I used country-style pork ribs as all the pork steaks available locally were very thin. 

Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich – I don’t have a grill or smoker so I rigged up a stove-top smoker http://www.saveur.com/ar...o-Make-a-Stovetop-Smoker to smoke the corn for the smoked corn mayo.  Great smoky flavor – it’s worth making on its own. I used the leftover mayo to make chicken salad, on other sandwiches, as a dipping sauce for shrimp fritters and raw veggies.  Don’t leave the pickled onions out of the sandwich, they add a great punch!

Roasted and Fresh Tomato Pie – Killer flavor.  I made a half recipe in a 6-inch pie pan and it was perfect. 

Watermelon rind pickles, - great flavor combination in the brine.  Make sure to remove all the tough outer rind.

Jalapeño Peach Chicken – I liked that the recipe yielded 5 jars of the Jalapeño Peach Glaze.  It’s tolerant of flavorful, but less than perfect peaches.  It’s worth the time to cut the tendon to “lollipop” the wings.  This was not mentioned in the recipe but seems to be shown in the photo.

Pecan, Pepper Jelly and Stinky Cheese Panini – great use of the jalapeño-peach glaze!

Party Magnet cheese ball – as suggested in the recipe, this freezes beautifully.  Next time, I will use a bit more blue cheese and a little less butter as the ball was very soft at room temp.

Should have waited until after a meal to read such a mouth-watering review!  Now I'm craving the hushpuppies and lacy Lucys that were such a treat on childhood vacations to the Outer Banks. And crabs...

Thanks for this, Sheila. I'm hoping our library will get Deep Run Roots, which sounds perfect for some winter reading (and cooking, though the eastern NC foods I know best are summer ones).  You may spur enough requests to index for the book to be indexed soon -- or inspire a member indexer.

Good luck with your library, ellabee.  The book in indeed good reading and while many of the ingredients are at their peak in the summer, there are chapters on cooler weather items like turnips, collards, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, apples, and beets and things available year-round like ground corn, eggs, rice, pecans, sausage and oysters.  That said, I certainly jumped at the opportunity to use late season peaches, watermelon, corn and tomatoes when my book arrived!

I've been told that EYB is just waiting for the publisher to send a copy of the book to be indexed and I very much look forward to that.

SheilaS, that is absolutely correct. Deep Run Roots is already on our new books indexing radar, so we hope to have it indexed soon. 

So delighted to get an email this AM with news that Deep Run Roots has been indexed - I've been checking almost daily for a few months so this is welcome news.

OK, now I should be off to enter my comments on the recipes I've tried!

Sheila S I appreciated your review of the book and the recipe notes. I have also been waiting for the book to be indexed. I got it a while ago and have yet to cook from it. Sure is a beautiful book!

Thanks, vickster!  It's a fun book to cook from.  When I first got it, I dove right into some of the recipes that used tomatoes, watermelon and peaches so I could try them before the end of their seasons.  I need to go back through and try some different things.  I haven't hit a dud yet!

My wife and I have been fans of Vivian Howard's show, A Chef's Life, for a few years now, and had pre-ordered her cookbook.  While we've only done a few recipes so far (we had twins arrive around the same time as the book), they've all been solid and we plan to incorporate them into our normal routine.  In particular we really love her "bog" (stewed chicken & rice) as well as her collard greens recipe that leaves you with delcious "pot liquor" for future meals.  We had previously done some of her other recipes (pickled beets, etc.) from the show and all have been solid.  It's worth noting for those not familiar, the cuisine is very vegetable focused (think Ottolenghi - not vegetarian, but meat isn't the spotlight), and if I had to describe it, it would be like the North Carolina equivalent of California cuisine.  Anyways, I'd definitely recommend this book if you're looking for something different; the recipes work and you can tell a lot of care was put into this book.