The Lee Bros. Southern Cook Book by Matt and Ted Lee

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook

Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners

You don't have to be southern to cook southern. From the book jacket: In 1995, recent college graduates Matt Lee and Ted Lee found themselves sharing a cramped tenement walkup on New York City's Lower East Side. Homesick and facing the grim realities of employment, they did what any good Southern boys would do: they boiled peanuts. Recognizing the universal appeal and frustrating unavailability of the delectables of their youth, they founded The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue, shipping boiled peanuts, fig preserves, and watermelon rind pickles to grateful Southern expatriates.

Their business, built from a hand-stitched catalogue, quickly commanded a loyal following. Soon they were asked to embark on a second career as reporters, bringing Southern food to life for a mass audience. Their writing similarly attracted legions of devoted fans, including chefs from some of New York's most elite kitchens, and more than a few Southern homemakers.

This, the Lee Bros.' long-anticipated first cookbook, is a culinary coming-of-age tale, narrated in recipes and amusing anecdotes, of how two boys learned to cook Southern without a Southern grandmother. Before becoming Southern food zealots, they were a pair of nervous preteen transplants from Manhattan's Upper West Side to Charleston, South Carolina. Soon the Lees, curious by nature, were tossing shrimp nets with abandon alongside the neighborhood boys, and using chicken necks to lure blue crabs. In the Lowcountry, as they discovered, food was life. Left to their own devices by busy parents, the brothers' adventurous spirit served them well, and they cultivated a "whatever works" attitude toward cooking and life that permeates their recipes to this day. In the Lees' South, nothing is sacred except flavor and good times. The respect they have earned from home cooks, foodies, top chefs, and food writers attests to both their extensive knowledge of regional cuisine and the excitement that their approach to the kitchen creates.

• Inside, you'll find exceptional recipes for Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, and Red Velvet Cake, the Southern classics that have become restaurant hits around the country. But you'll also find lesser-known preparations such as St. Cecilia's Punch, Frogmore Stew, and Shrimp Burgers - dishes that seem fresh and original against the backdrop of iconic American comfort food.


• Also here are recipes that bear the hallmark of the Lee Bros.' style: simple yet sophisticated dishes such as Saigon Hoppin' John, Scuppernong Grape and Hot-Pepper Roasted Duck, and Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie that usher Southern cooking into the twenty-first century while never losing sight of its deep roots.


• With helpful sourcing tips and flexible ingredient solutions, as well as notations of "QKOs" - quick knockout recipes such as Creamed Corn and Tuesday Collards that are easy trophy dishes for busy weeknights - The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook is a practical, fun, and enthralling guide to Southern food for Southerners and Southerners-at-heart.
  No one brings the same belnd of witty intelligence, reverence, and sincere passion to Southern food culture. Quite simply, the Lee Bros. are one of a kind. Well, two of a kind.


• wine and beer pairings
• 32 pages of full-color photographs of the recipes
• 50 black-and-white photographs from the Lee Bros.' travels through the South

Special offer: Special Offer: We’re offering discounts on 5 books; double discount and free shipping on 10 books! To order, visit www.boiledpeanuts.com/orderform5.html