LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About

by Patti LaBelle

Overview

Patti LaBelle, living legend, beloved musical icon, “Godmother of Soul” (The New York Times), and New York Times bestselling cookbook author, crafts a new collection of her favorite comfort food recipes to help you bring joy and flavor to your family’s table.

For Patti LaBelle, cooking isn’t simply about food—it’s about love. Raised in a family of fantastic Southern cooks, she has kept the lessons she learned in her beloved parents’ and aunts’ kitchens close to her heart but now, she is ready to share these delicious family heirlooms.

Combining mouthwatering and accessible recipes with charming personal reminisces of her remarkable life—from learning to cook by observing her parents to whipping up meals for her band after dazzling shows—LaBelle Cuisine will fill your heart as well as your stomach. With a colorful variety of dishes as appetizing as Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken, Wicked Peach Cobbler, Fierce Fried Corn, and more, this cookbook is something to sing about.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982179090
Publisher:	Gallery/13A
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	282,800
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Patti LaBelle’s illustrious career spans four decades. She is a New York Times bestselling author, a two-time Grammy Award–winning singer, a three-time Emmy nominee, and the star of a hit television series. She is adored around the world by millions of fans of her music and her cooking. She is also a humanitarian who devotes much of her time and talent to charities too numerous to list and is the recipient of several honorary degrees. Ms. LaBelle resides in Philadelphia.

Read an Excerpt

Aunt Hattie's Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread

Like so many of my special recipes, my Aunt Hattie Mae gave me this one. It has only been in recent years that I've gotten into baking and, so much of what I know about it I learned from Aunt Hattie and Aunt Josh.

Aunt Hattie and Aunt Josh are some cooking Sisters themselves. In Georgia, the ancestral home of my father's family, their culinary skill is legendary. For years, Aunt Hattie and Aunt Josh cooked in private homes for wealthy White families. More than a few folks stopped speaking to each other after one family visited another for dinner and an awestruck diner tried to hire Auntie Hattie or Aunt Josh away.

Aunt Josh even cooked President Eisenhower his first soul food meal. He'd spent the night with the family she was working for and, the next morning, Aunt Josh rose with the sun and cooked him a soul food banquet: hogshead bacon, sausage scrapple, grits and redeye gravy, sweet potato waffles, and, of course, Grandmother Tempie's flying biscuits. Aunt Josh says President Eisenhower mopped his plate clean. Can't you just see the look on the face of the White House chef when Ike got back to Washington and asked him to whip up some grits and gravy!!?

Aunt Josh and Aunt Hattie are both fabulous cooks, and as much as I relish their food, the stories they have told me over the years about our family are what I love most. When you put Aunt Hattie's Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread in the oven, invite a very old or very young relative to join you in the kitchen. While it's baking, listen to or pass on your own family's very special legends and lore. You'll be glad you did.

Makes 8servings

2 medium orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon or 1/8 teaspoon lemon extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan, tapping out the excess flour.

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the sweet potatoes and cook until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain, and rinse under cold water until easy to handle. Peel the sweet potatoes, place in a medium bowl, and mash well. Measure 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes, saving the remaining sweet potatoes for another purpose. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer on high speed, beat the butter and sugar until combined, about 1 minute. One at a time, beat in the eggs. Beat in the sweet potatoes, evaporated milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake until the top springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Invert onto the wire rack, turn right side up, and cool completely.

Best-Ever Banana Bread: Substitute 1 cup mashed ripe bananas for the mashed sweet potatoes. Reduce baking time to 1 hour.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 19

Introduction 21

Sensational Salads, Soups, and Sandwiches 41

Sunday Salad with Versatile Vinaigrette 43

Naomi's Creamy Coleslaw 45

Patti's Potato Salad 48

Company's-Coming Chicken Salad 54

Classic Crabmeat Salad in Tomato Cups 56

Geechee Geechee Ya Ya Gumbo 58

Budd's Back-to-Life Soup 63

Smoky Corn and Turkey Chowder 67

Jackie's Fried Egg Sandwich 69

The Great Grilled Cheese Sandwich 75

Simple, Simply Delicious Smoked Turkey Sandwich 77

Magnificent Meat Dishes 81

Child, That's Good Cheap Pot Roast! 83

Pass-It-On Pot Roast 86

Luscious Liver and Onions 92

Salsa Meat Loaf 97

Righteous Roast Pork 99

Polynesian Roast Pork with Fruit Sauce 101

Hellacious Ham with Brown-Sugar Glaze 104

Smothered Pork Chops with Mushrooms 107

Burnin' Babyback Ribs 109

Aunt Verdelle's Savory Red Rice with Sausage 112

Delectable Italian Sausage and Peppers 115

Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary-Lemon Rub 117

Perfect Poultry 121

Best-Ever Barbecue Chicken with Bodacious Barbecue Sauce 123

Sumptuous and Simple Southern Fried Chicken 126

Succulent Roast Chicken 131

Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken and Gravy 135

Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings 139

Chicken Brunswick Stew 145

Zuri's Favorite Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dip 147

Baked Turkey Wings with Onion Sauce 152

Too-Good-to-Be-Turkey Chili 154

Cornish Hens with Shallot Cream Gravy 159

The-Spirit's-in-It Spaghetti with Meaty Tomato Sauce 161

Lasagna LaBelle 164

Omelet Patti Cake 167

Scrumptious Seafood 169

Perfect Pan-Fried Fish Fillets 171

Grilled Caribbean Fish Steaks 174

Quick Linguine with Clam Sauce 177

Make-You-Wanna-Holler Maryland Crab Cakes 179

Have-to-Have-'Em Hard-Shell Crabs 185

Butterflied Lobster Tails with Herbs and Garlic Butter 191

So-o-o Good Salmon Casserole 194

Salmon Croquettes Deluxe 197

Savory Salmon Steaks 200

Sardines Sublime 202

Butterflied Shrimp with Double Dips 207

Clear-Out-Your-Sinuses Super-Spicy Steamed Shrimp 210

Shrimp Étouffée 212

Slammin' Shrimp Creole 214

Jammin' Jambalaya 217

Serious Shrimp Fried Rice 220

Roasted Red Snapper with Oyster and Mushroom Stuffing 222

Simply Spectacular Seafood Pasta 226

Fabulous Fixings 229

Awesome Asparagus 231

Sautéed Broccoli Raab 232

Cabbage, Carrot, and Potato Skillet 234

Fierce Fried Corn 236

Corn Casserole 238

Screamin' Mean Greens 240

Unforgettable Fried Eggplant 242

Mouthwatering Mushrooms 244

Okra, Corn, and Tomato Stew 246

Home-Fried Potatoes 248

Better-Than-Mom's Mashed Potatoes 252

Perfectly Steamed Rice 254

Armstead's Curried Rice and Beans 256

Spectacular Spinach 259

String Beans à La Bella 261

Sumptuous String Beans 266

Sautéed Summer Squash with Basil 267

Chubby's Candied Sweet Potatoes 269

Mashed Sweet Potatoes 271

Quick 'n' Easy Baked Beans 273

Black-Eyed Peas with Smoked Turkey Wings 275

Red Beans and Rice 277

Don't-Block-the-Blessing Dressing 281

Over-the-Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese 284

To-Die-For Desserts and Breads 291

Aunt Mary's Philadelphia Buttercake 293

Heavenly Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 302

Chocolate Cake with Mocha Madness Frosting 305

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake 308

Anna's Irresistible Pound Cake 311

Scandalously Rich Rum Cake 314

Cinnamon and Pecan Coffee Cake 317

Aunt Hattie's Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread 320

Pecan Butterscotch Blondie Bars 325

Peanut Butter Cookies 327

Basic Piecrust 329

Decadent and Delicious Pecan Pie 331

Amazing Apple-Butterscotch Pie 333

Banana and Toasted Almond Cream Pie 336

Citrus Meringue Pie 339

Wicked Peach Cobbler 342

Norma's Black-Bottom Sweet Potato Pie 345

Aunt Joshia Mae's Blackberry Doobie 348

Baby Henry's Bread Pudding 350

Really Good Rice Pudding 353

Grandmother Tempie's Flying Biscuits 355

Sweet Potato 'n' Spice Waffles 357

Beyond-Good Bacon and Buttermilk Corn Bread 360

Sunday Supper Rolls 362

Down-Home Hush Puppies 365

New Recipes 367

Good Life Chicken 369

Patti's Quarantine Lobster-Shrimp Cakes 371

Bangin' Fish Deluxe 373

Editorial Reviews

"From the time I was a little girl," says LaBelle, "I knew there were two things in this world I was born to do: sing and cook." Admirers of LaBelle's Grammy-winning vocal style are sure to find her Southern dishes just as dynamic. Starting with such chapters as Sensational Salads, Soups, and Sandwiches, she cooks and talks her way through Meat, Poultry and Seafood entrees, Fabulous Fixin's and To-Die-For Desserts and Breads. Her famous jalapeno-spiked Potato Salad, Pass-It-On Pot Roast, Screamin' Mean Greens and Wicked Peach Cobbler make colorful appearances, along with practical cooking tips and plenty of exuberant attitude. This is high-style down-home cooking, sophisticated, flavorful, mostly calorie-laden and generally irresistible; the fact that Patti has fixed her Luscious Liver and Onions and Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese for the likes of Mick Jagger, Oprah and Elton John just adds to the fun. LaBelle (author of the bestselling autobiography Don't Block the Blessings) believes in cooking for pleasure and therapy: as she says, "Usually when people are stressed out they want a pill, but honey, give me a pot!" Readers will want one, too, by the end of this book, for LaBelle's enthusiasm is infectious.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

If cooking is an expression of love, then LaBelle Cuisine is a lovely, heartwarming tribute to those who inspired and adored her.

Gourmet Observer

Praise for LaBelle Cuisine:

"She can cook!"
—Bill Cosby

"Voulez-vous mangez avec moi ce soir?  Oui!  Oui!"
—Cyndi Lauper

"Patti is one of those great women:  warm, accessible, and talented.  This book is filled with wonderful anecdotes, making you feel like you're part of the family.  The food is so good it makes you want to say, 'Hey, Patti, how about inviting me over for dinner?'  Maybe Geechee Geechee Ya Ya Gumbo!  YUM!"
—Suzanne Somers

From the Publisher