The JXN Food and Wine Festival 2024 is Saturday, March 2, at the Mississippi Museum of Art. The VIP tickets have already sold out and regular tickets are going fast for this amazing evening. Anyone who likes good food and good drink, good music and a good time, or even just a good cause, should check out the details at JXNfoodandwine.com.
With over 20 featured chefs, several of which are bona fide celebrity chefs having competed on cooking shows and competitions across the globe, this is quickly proving to be a top attraction for our area. I have said many times, “In Mississippi, we know great food.” Now, let’s celebrate it and support the culinary community. A portion of the proceeds from the festival will help fund the Mississippi Restaurant Association Education Foundation. This organization provides scholarships to students seeking a post-secondary degree in restaurant management or culinary arts. The JXN Food and Wine Festival is committed to promoting the unique and diverse flavors of southern cooking and investing in the future workforce of the food industry.
The festival lineup is quite impressive. The headliners include: Cat Cora, Food Network Iron Chef and Mississippi native; Nick Wallace, local chef with a food resume as impressive as Cora; Buddha Lo, Australian chef and two-time winner of Top Chef; Hunter Evans, chef and owner of Elvie’s and a two time James Beard nominee; Ashleigh Shanti, Top Chef and James Beard finalist for “Rising Star Chef of the Year;” and Vishwesh Bhatt, well-known Oxford chef, author, and winner of the 2019 Best Chef of the South award from the James Beard Foundation.
And that is just a sample of the many participants. There will be numerous additional professional chefs and cooks scheduled to attend, each one offering festival goers decades of experience in the culinary arts and all having made huge impacts in the food world. This is going to be quite a party.
The culture and history of our state can be found in our food. I sometimes marvel at the options we enjoy in our hometown. We have award-winning cuisine around every corner. We have a variety of delicious regional ingredients and a patchwork of ethnic diversity in our food. From African to Greek, Middle Eastern to Indian, soul food to vegan, seafood to barbecue, we have some of the most creative cuisine on the planet. Southern people know good food and don’t you dare try to pass off anything that lacks flavor or creativity in our area. It just simply will not do. It does not have to be fancy, but it has to be good. We are spoiled like that in Mississippi, and I would not have it any other way.
Many thanks to The Local Palate for the recipes and photos below from some of the featured chefs. I am not sure what the chefs are making for the festival, but I am certain it will be delicious. These folks got to the top of their fields with an enormous amount of hard work and attention to detail to achieve great tasting food. See you at the festival.
Hunter Evans’ Creamy Artichoke, Bacon, and Parmesan Dip
This recipe makes a large batch and serves 8-10 people. Feel free to adjust amounts to make a smaller serving.
1 cup chopped bacon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (5 pound) can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
3 cups heavy cream
4 cups Parmesan cheese
1 cup cream cheese
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce plus more to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Juice of 2 lemons
In a large skillet or Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium-high heat. Once crispy, add butter, green onions, and garlic to pan and sauté two to three minutes. Add white wine and reduce until liquid has evaporated. Add chopped artichoke hearts cook for two to three more minutes. Add cream and reduce until thickened. Add Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Stir until cheeses are melted and well-incorporated, then add salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne to taste. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Serve as a warm dip, or over oysters before broiling.
Vishwesh Bhatt’s Black-Eyed Pea Griddle Cakes
4 cups dry black-eyed peas
10-12 cups warm water
1 small sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves
1-2 serrano peppers, chopped
1 (2 inch) piece ginger, chopped
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds, toasted
1/4 cup cane syrup or sorghum, divided
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/3 cup olive oil or cooking fat of choice
Soak black-eyed field peas in 10 to 12 cups warm water for two hours. Then, drain peas, reserving one cup of soaking liquid.
In a large bowl, combine soaked peas with onion, garlic, peppers, ginger, cilantro, and cumin. In a blender or food processor, blend mixture in two or three batches, adding soaking liquid a little at a time as needed until it’s the consistency of cornbread batter. (If using a blender, be careful not to blend peas too fine or add too much liquid to speed up the process.) Fold in salt, pepper, and two tablespoons cane syrup.
In a nonstick skillet or a griddle over medium heat, heat two tablespoons olive oil until it shimmers. Add dollops of about one ounce of batter to create silver dollar-sized griddle cakes and fry until crispy and golden brown on one side. Flip and finish cooking through, adding a few drops of oil as necessary. Repeat with remaining batter, heating additional oil between each batch. Drizzle hot griddle cakes with remaining cane syrup.
Notes: These are also delicious with chopped bacon or smoked sausage folded into the batter. For a tangier flavor, cover and set batter aside in a warm place for four to six hours (or refrigerate overnight) before cooking.
Ashleigh Shanti’s Dukes Salmon Croquettes
4 tablespoons salt, divided
1 pound of salmon filets
4 bay leaves
1 medium onion, finely minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Duke’s Mayonnaise, divided, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 cups crushed Ritz crackers, divided
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Your favorite hot sauce
Over medium heat, bring a medium pot of water to a hard simmer. Add two tablespoons of salt and place salmon filets in pot. Poach until cooked through, about seven to eight minutes. Remove salmon and let cool.
Using your hands or two forks, flake salmon into a large bowl. Mix in onion, garlic, 1/4 cup of Duke’s, fish sauce, and seasonings, stirring until completely combined. Gently fold in one and a half cups of Ritz crackers to help bind the salmon mixture. Form the mixture into 12 patties and refrigerate for one hour.
Place remaining Ritz crackers on a plate. Brush both sides of each patty with a hefty portion of remaining Duke’s Mayonnaise (you’ll have a little leftover) then place croquette onto plate and coat each side with cracker crumbs.
In a cast-iron skillet, heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once hot, sear patties in batches, taking care not to crowd the skillet, for four minutes per side, and transfer to wire rack or paper towels to drain.
In a small bowl, combine Duke’s with hot sauce, adjusting seasoning to your liking. Serve as a dipping sauce with croquettes.
Chaz Lindsay’s Calabrian Braised Collard Greens
2 bunches collard greens
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup cured pork, diced (prosciutto, salami ends, pancetta are preferred)
1 large white onion, sliced
2 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/3 cup Calabrian chili, diced with its oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup pork stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Wash the collard greens to remove any dirt or insects. Separate the leaves and the stems. Chop the leaves and slice the stems into quarter inch pieces.
Heat a large pot or braising pan on medium high heat with the olive oil. Add the diced cured pork and render out the fat until the pork is slightly crisp. Turn the heat to medium and add the onion. Sweat the onion until it begins to caramelize. Add the garlic and chili and cook for a minute or so, just until the garlic is translucent but has not achieved any color. Add the sugar and stir. Deglaze with the Worcestershire sauce. Add the collard greens and stems. Add the pork stock. Place a lid on the pan and stir every 10 minutes for the next two hours over low heat.
Season with salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
Michael Carr’s Pulled Pork Sliders and
Smoked Corn
2 5 pound Boston butts
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups Worcestershire sauce
1 cup mustard
1 cup creole seasoning
4 packs Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (36 total) for serving
For the Cajun smoked corn on the cob:
24 ears sweet corn
Olive oil spray
1/2 cup creole seasoning
1/2 cup lemon pepper
1/2 cup garlic parmesan seasoning
2 cups butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup sweet basil, chiffonade
Make the sliders: In a large pan, soak Boston butts in vinegar for onoe hour (flipping halfway through). Use a syringe to inject pork with Worcestershire sauce and rub mustard over entire outside. Season top and sides of meat with creole seasoning.
In a grill or smoker heated to 250 degrees, smoke meat for four hours. Wrap in foil and smoke for an additional four hours more. Remove meat from smoker and rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Use forks or cleavers to pull apart pork. Serve on Hawaiian Sweet Rolls or buns.
Make smoked corn: Shuck corn ears and arrange in a large pan; spray with olive oil and season with creole seasoning, lemon pepper, and garlic parmesan. Flip cobs and season the opposite side. Evenly divide butter pieces over corn and top with basil.
These recipes are just a sampling of the specialties created by these chefs. More recipes from these special chefs can be found at www.thelocalpalate.com.
