International Favorite Nancie McDermott Captivates Us with “FRUIT: A SAVOR THE SOUTH cookbook”

Irrepressible, outgoing southerner, Nancie McDermott has rightfully been described as a world-traveling, culinary-history-exploring, recipe-wrangling, mystery-unraveling and dot-connecting author of 14 books.  Her newest slim volume, “Fruit: A Savor the South Cookbook”, packed with historic, nostalgic and esoteric information, is not unsurprisingly  published by the University of North Carolina Press as part of a series.  Hearing Nancie talk about anything to do with her home region makes you want to jump on a plane to North Carolina. If Nancie is there to lead the way around  her home state, all the better.

Nancie’s shrubs, fruit preserved in vinegar and used to make beverages, caught everyone’s attention, including our’s, because they are so refreshing, easy to prepare and above all, the name is so whimsical. Horchata de Melon Cantaloupe-Seed Drink  is very practically prepared from the seeds of the cantaloupe.  The other is a Strawberry Shrub beverage made with vinegar.  We used it in cocktails and as a couli for sorbetto.

Nancie shares a wealth of information about fruits of the South, from those she loved growing up to those she researched for the book. Her lively, colorful dishes are meant to entice cooks with a variety of fruit tastes that are unusual outside of the south.  For example, Mayhaws are used as jelly to flavor her Mayhaw Jelly-Glazed Shrimp with Zucchini with onion, garlic and soy sauce.  dish, for example.  While Nancie regaled us with nostalgic stories about sitting in the back seat of mer mom’s station wagon when the family was driving to pick berries, the products are now available online. 

Nancie also introduces a dessert with a whimsical enough name to make anyone want to try it: Blackberry Roly Poly. This Blackberry Roly Poly is made with biscuit dough and served with blackberry sauce and with whipped cream.  Nancie suggested using sorghum syrup for her Whipped Cream sweetened with molasses.  The whipped cream was divine, so good it could be eaten along or to sweeten coffee.  We are reminded that Chef Sammy Monsour at Preux & Proper uses it to make his corn bread so outstanding.

Many dishes represent the classics, such as Nancie’s Arugula Salad with Persimmon with shaved Parmesan. Others are more international, including the Thai-Inspired Watermelon-Pineapple Salad with honey, lemon juice and mint and the Jasmine Rice with Fresh Herbs.   Thai cooking greatly influences Nancie since she was in the Peace Corps there, returning in later years. (Since she was first there, the Thai government lost out on the right to call “Jasmine” rice by that name because Texas did a copyright on their state-grown same rice.

Nancie enthusiastically report,  “Researching Fruit, I sorted and sifted, choosing 12 iconic fruits which matter in Southern cuisine. Persimmons and pawpaws, blackberries and melons, mayhaws and damsons — it’s clues and culture, traditions and creativity, flames and bowls, skillets, spoons, and celebrations. Fruit is seasons, symbols and stories. These fruit stories and recipes illuminate the world of Southern cooking.”  To write Fruit: A Savor the South Cookbook, best-selling author Nancie McDermott got to switch back and forth among the four careers she recalls pursuing as a day-dreaming North Carolina eight-year-old: Missionary. Detective.  Actor. Spy.

Even at the the start of her career, Nancie’s passion for traveling the world, asking questions, solving mysteries, and getting the real story set her squarely on her international culinary adventures. From her Southern childhood through her Peace Corps days in rural Thailand, and successive seasons in New York City, Southern California, Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan, she’s been asking, observing, comparing, and making connections for years.

It’s clear she  loves her job, cooking, researching, writing and exploring, every single day.Read more about Nancie McDermott’s award-winning books and career at nanciemcdermott.com.