Saveur November 2014

52The Glories of GarlicFollowing her passion for the pungent flavor of garlic, saveur senior editor Karen Shimizu examines the allium in its many forms. In the process, she cooks up a storm, turning out dishes that span the globe, from Georgian-style Cornish game hen with garlic sauce to Filipino beef short ribs adobo to a knockout triple garlic linguine. 64Holiday for the HeroesAt Napa Valley's Bouchon Bistro, chef Thomas Keller and his staff help recovering military veterans feel right at home with a traditional Thanksgiving feast that includes roast turkey, honey-glazed ham, sausage stuffing, apple pie, and more. 76Taste of UmbriaIn the Italian town of Montefalco, saveur acting editor-in-chief Betsy Andrews discovers food as bold as the local wine. Sagrantino, a powerful red varietal, pairs beautifully with goose ragù, pork with juniper…

I spent last Thanksgiving at Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant Bouchon Bistro. My tablemates were residents of The Pathway Home, a program for veterans recovering from the psychological effects of war. These soldiers were used to being brave and stoic. But at this celebration, all of us—the vets and their families, the Pathway Home staff, and I—were as giddy as kids. With our plates piled high with delectable dishes—roast turkey, glazed ham, sausage stuffing—of course we were ebullient. Keller's team throws this annual feast as a thank-you to these guys for their service (see “Holiday for the Heroes,” page 64). We were all much obliged in return for the meal. I was grateful in part for the lessons to be learned from such magnificent cooking: the way the turkey thighs were transformed…

Eight years ago, when Imani Muhammad needed to raise funds for her nonprofit childcare on the southwest side of Chicago, she baked bean pies. Made from sweetened navy bean purée, they boasted a silky, custardlike base spiced with nutmeg. They proved so popular that they became the program's main fund-raising tool, which isn't surprising if you know bean pie's history. The dessert's roots are in dietary guidelines set forth by religious leader Elijah Muhammad, who, in the 1967 treatise How to Eat to Live, wrote that beans were a blessed food—but that sweet potatoes weren't fit for man to eat. His daughter developed a sweet potato pie—like recipe using navy beans that was so delicious, it became the most popular way to raise money for the Nation of Islam. Its members…

serves 8 For this autumnal pie (pictured on this page), navy beans are puréed with sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to yield a custardy filling that caramelizes deliciously in the oven. For the crust: 1 1/2 cups flour, plus more 7 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled 1 tsp. kosher salt 1/4 cup ice-cold water For the filling: 1 cup evaporated milk 1 cup canned navy beans, rinsed and drained 1 cup sugar 4 tbsp. unsalted butter 1 1/2 tbsp. flour 1 tbsp. vanilla extract 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg 3 eggs Make the crust: Pulse flour, butter, and salt in a food processor into pea-size crumbles. Add water; pulse until dough forms. Flatten dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; chill 1 hour. Make the filling: Heat oven to 350°. Purée evaporated milk, beans, sugar, butter, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and eggs…

My love affair with the West African spice known as dawadawa began at a community potluck at the Malian Cultural Center in the Bronx, where I live. There, I was drawn to a cauldron of braised chicken in a tar-hued sauce that smelled like cocoa and something else—something punchy and mysterious. The dish, I learned, was fakoye, a specialty of the Tuareg people. One of its ingredients, dawadawa, made from the fermented seed of the locust bean tree, was the source of the musky aroma. I soon became obsessed with the spice. In the open-air markets of Mali, Nigeria, and Ghana, the seeds are sold pressed into golfball-size portions that can be dropped into soups or braises. At African markets in the U.S., I prefer to buy the split seeds,…

My grandma's kitchen cabinets were full of ceramic knickknacks that included everything from a frog to a man sitting on an outhouse toilet. I used to think the sculptures, which she bought at antiques stores and on eBay, were just decorative, but one day she set me straight. They were pie birds, she explained—hollow sculptures used for making two-crust pies. When you planted one at the center of a pie with its head poking through the top crust, it vented steam, preventing the filling from bubbling over. It also kept the upper crust crisp by raising it up and away from the filling. Pie birds evolved from funnel-shaped piecrust lifters, invented in 19th-century England. In the 1930s, when an Australian potter patented one in the shape of a blackbird, these…