Heartlandia: Heritage Recipes from Portland's The Country Cat

by Adam Sappington, Jackie Sappington, Ashley Gartland

Overview

Soulful, heartland-inspired food from Portland’s popular The Country Cat

Heartlandia is based on husband-and-wife team Adam and Jackie Sappington’s acclaimed Portland restaurant, The Country Cat Dinner House & Bar. Adam, Executive Chef and a self-taught expert in whole animal butchery, and Jackie, the Executive Pastry Chef, make food that is the definition of soulful, heartwarming comfort food. Some of the mouthwatering dishes include Autumn Squash Soup with Apple Cider and Brown Butter, Red Wine-Braised Beef with Wild Mushroom Steak Sauce, and Crispy Fried Oysters with Smoky Bacon and Green Apple Ragout. And don’t forget about their legendary Skillet-Fried Chicken. The sweets are just as enticing, such as the Challah French Toast with Maker’s Mark Custard and Clabber Cream, Butterscotch Pudding, and Bourbon Peach Crumble Pie. Additional chapters include one for drinks and another for pickles and preserves. The cookbook also has beautiful photographs that capture not only the amazing food but also the spirit of the restaurant and the heartland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544363779
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,066,214
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Always comforted by food’s ability to incite conversation and generate close-knit bonds, ADAM SAPPINGTON is the Executive Chef at The Country Cat, the premier made-from-scratch, farm-to-table restaurant located in Southeast Portland. Beginning in a cutting-edge trattoria in his hometown, Adam attended the Western Culinary Institute in Portland and soon landed at Wildwood Restaurant, where he worked his way up to Executive Chef over the course of 11 years. 

A self-described “pie geek,” JACKIE SAPPINGTON started experimenting with food at an early age, tackling her first recipe at just 10 years old. In 1995 she moved to Portland, where she worked her way through Wildwood and Paley’s Place. She switched gears to pastry at Café Azul and Lauro Kitchen. With a sole focus on pastries for more than 10 years now, Jackie’s approach is warm and patient, but meticulous and infused with love. 

Table of Contents

Foreword 8

Acknowledgments 12

Introduction 14

Stocking the Cupboards and Gathering the Tools 29

An American Breakfast 41

The Garden 69

The Kettle 91

Finger Food 113

Fins and Shells 133

The Birds 155

The Butcher's Block 179

Somethin' for the Side 209

A Sweet Finish 235

Muddled, Shaken, and Stirred 265

Pickled and Preserved 279

Index 292

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2015
Missouri heritage cooking meets the clean flavors of the Pacific Northwest in this improbably delicious mash-up. The Sappingtons, chef owners of the Country Cat in Portland, Ore., open their collection with a classic perfected—buttermilk biscuits—and then the homestyle hits keep coming: challah French toast with Maker’s Mark custard and clabber cream, the restaurant’s signature skillet-fried chicken, rhubarb cobbler with ruby caramel. Woven into each chapter are plenty of charming anecdotes from Adam Sappington’s Midwest childhood, with respect for the culinary wisdom of past generations in his ode to “glorified Gramma cuisine.” Hints of a more refined Portland palate make their way in too, with dishes such as the chanterelle, green bean, and freekeh salad with huckleberry vinaigrette, and crispy fried oysters with smoky bacon and green apple ragout. However, the recipes that shine the brightest are the ones written from the heart: a passionate homage to ranch dressing, a remembrance of the Friday night fish fry, and a potted cheese dip simply known as “Judy.” With generosity and a warm sense of humor, the Sappingtons invite everyone to pull up a chair at their family table—and with recipes like theirs, readers will be more than happy to dig in. Agent: Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Missouri heritage cooking meets the clean flavors of the Pacific Northwest in this improbably delicious mash-up...With generosity and a warm sense of humor, the Sappingtons invite everyone to pull up a chair at their family table—and with recipes like theirs, readers will be more than happy to dig in." —Publishers Weekly "Portland's beloved Country Cat Dinner House and Bar unveils the secrets to their fried chicken, pimento cheese and other comforting dishes in a book geared toward the home cook. Come for the ranch dressing, stay for the guide to whole-animal butchery." —EATER.com “Amid the culinary distractions of Portland—the uni ice cream, the grasshopper sushi—The Country Cat has been focused on the comforting, wholesome dishes of America’s Heartland for nearly a decade. Heartlandia will have you cooking Sappington signatures such as suet-fried chicken, crispy turkey tails, and a morel and spring vegetable hash that transport you to the covered-dish suppers and Friday lake-fish frys of Adam’s rural Missouri upbringing. It’s a wonderful—and delicious—place to be!” —Matt Lee and Ted Lee,authors of The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen   “Heartlandia is as inspiring as it is nostalgic . . . fresh, local ingredients and perfectly executed dishes. Adam and Jackie have opened up their hearts and souls to us with the Country Cat, and now with this book everyone’s inner Gramma can become a very slick lady!” —Aaron Franklin, owner of Franklin Barbecue and author of Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto   “Grab this book and wrap it around you like a warm blanket!!!! Adam is the mouthwatering fried chicken and Jackie is the sweet butterscotch pudding in their meal of life! Adam’s respect of the land and its product and his intuitive, comforting cooking is what makes him one of my favorite chefs. I have had the great fortune of cooking in the kitchen with Adam and eating his delicious food and listening to his infectious laugh. I am thrilled to have this book in my kitchen so that I can crack open a page and put a smile on my face —on the cloudiest of days. This book is 3-D deliciousness: I wanted to reach through the pages and grab a crispy end of lamb or a slice of birthday cake! Dive in and start cooking and get those pages dirty!” —Amanda Freitag, chef and Food Network personality   “This book will teach you to bake the fluffiest biscuits and fry a chicken to perfection. You will learn the provenance of seasonal ingredients and may even become an expert at butchering whole hogs. But the real joy of Heartlandia is knowing that Adam and Jackie not only put their souls into cooking at The Country Cat, but now also their hearts into writing Heartlandia.” —Vitaly Paley, chef and owner of Paley’s Place, Imperial, and Portland Penny Diner, and co-author of Paley’s Place Cookbook —

From the Publisher

10/15/2015
Husband-and-wife chefs Adam and Jackie Sappington own the Country Cat, a farm-to-table restaurant in Portland, OR. Though located in the Pacific Northwest, the restaurant's signature recipes—including skillet-fried chicken and challah french toast with Maker's Mark® custard and clabber cream—are rooted in America's heartland. This book will teach readers to make what the authors call "glorified Gramma cuisine," which includes tender biscuits, rustic steaks, and sweet and smoky condiments. Dishes are quick and easy, but some, such as hickory-smoked pork shoulder, involve hours of preparation and cooking. VERDICT A beautiful restaurant cookbook to have on hand in colder months, when you'll crave comforting meals.

Library Journal