Beans, Greens, and Sweet Georgia Peaches: The Southern Way of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables

An abundance of Southern charm and an engaging bouquet of seasonally arranged recipes lend a particular cachet to Fowler's latest (after Classical Southern Cooking). Although the focus is on fruits and vegetables, Fowler's attentions go beyond vegetarian fare. A toothsome Creole Gumbo incorporates chicken and andouille sausage with okra, onions and tomatoes. Seafood Stuffed Eggplant is enriched with crabmeat. Still, vegetable dishes predominate. They are as simple as Camille Glenn's Fiddleheads sauteed briefly in unsalted butter and served with lemon wedges, or Fried Corn, which isn't exactly fried, but stewed in its own milk laced with a dollop of bacon fat. (Fat is a frequent but not overly intrusive ingredient here.) A somewhat unfamiliar vegetable, known elsewhere as chayote or vegetable pear, shines in Mirlitons touffees or Smothered Mirlitons, Creole Style. Fowler includes old favorites such as Fried Green Tomatoes (plus Grilled Green Tomatoes and Green Tomato Pie and My Hoppin' John), while stressing diversity as seen in the African-accented Georgia Peanut Soup and Bailee's Latkes from Savannah, wherein potatoes are uncharacteristically chopped in a blender. Author tour. (Mar.)