Carla Hall's intentions were clear when she started working on her third cookbook: She wanted to focus on the food of her native South. But it wasn't until a "pivotal point" with okra and tomatoes that the D.C.-based chef and TV personality figured out how to put her vision on the page.

"There is a stewed okra dish that everybody in the South knows," said Hall, who was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. "I'm not a huge fan of okra, but I respect it as part of the ingredients and the culture." She tried making a broth with canned tomatoes, onions, garlic and bay leaf, and roasting the okra separately, so the pods got crunchy, before dropping the vegetable into the aromatic liquid. "Immediately, the broth just permeated with this beautiful okra taste," Hall marveled, triumphant that there was no trace of the vegetable's signature sliminess.

At that moment, Hall remembers, she said: "This is it. This is what I want to do. I want to take a classic dish and think about the way that we live now and have those same tastes, and food memories, but in a dish from today."

But "Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration" (Harper Wave), which was just released, is much more than a cookbook that updates traditional recipes. It also seeks to educate home cooks across the country about, as the introduction states, "the true food of African-Americans."

The impetus was a DNA test that revealed Hall's ancestors were the Yoruba people from Nigeria and the Bubi from Bioko Island off the west coast of Africa. She wondered what they might eat today if they lived in the United States. At the same time, she noticed that many grains — millet and sorghum among them — that were brought from Africa as part of the transatlantic slave trade and eventually incorporated into Southern foodways were available here again. Her soul food, she decided, would be that of her culture's heritage, and of her family, childhood and adulthood.

She and co-author Genevieve Ko did copious research, relying on the work of such culinary scholars as Tonya Hopkins and Jessica B. Harris and such literary powerhouses as Maya Angelou — for her poetry, fiction and cookbooks — and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose novel "Americanah" juxtaposes African and African American cultures with notable depictions of food. They also traveled extensively through the South with Italian photographer Gabriele Stabile, whose documentary-like images, candid portraits and intimate shots are a departure from the carefully styled pictures of standard cookbooks.

Collectively, these choices allowed Hall to convey the multivalent nature of her subject, which, as Harris said, is "difficult to define because people tend to view African Americans and African American life in the United States as monolithic, and it's not. People therefore are at a loss when it comes to seeing the varieties, and the range of lives and lifestyles that are involved in something like soul food."

While the term "soul food" didn't come around until the mid-20th century, Hall writes, it "refers to the dishes of the Cotton Belt of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama that traveled out to the rest of the country during the Great Migration," when millions of African Americans left the rural South.

Michael Twitty, whose book "The Cooking Gene" (Harper Collins, 2017) won top honors this year from the James Beard Foundation, has three definitions for it. The first is "the product of the Great Migration," except, for him, "The Great Migration is an idea: the idea that we will use momentum to leave our past." It is also "the memory cuisine of the great, great grandchildren of enslaved people," an answer to the question "Who are we?" Finally, soul food is "the African American vernacular cuisine." It is the culinary counterpart to African American vernacular English, "in other words, black English, Ebonics," he explained. "Because it's not slang, and it's not a poor adaptation. It's not a pathology."

The tendency to disparage soul food as "poor people's food" is one that Hall and many African American food writers and chefs continue to challenge. "It's a melding of West Africa, Western Europe and the Americas," said Adrian Miller, author of "Soul Food" (The University of North Carolina Press, 2013). "Like many other cuisines, it's a mix of the high and the low. There are elements of soul food which started as European royalty food, but soul food is consistently cast as a poverty cuisine." That association dovetails with another myth Hall wants to dispel: that soul food is unhealthy. "When you hear nutritionists telling us what we need to eat," Miller said, "they keep saying dark, leafy greens; sweet potatoes; more legumes; okra is now a super food. You know, more fish and chicken, less red meat — these are all the building blocks of soul food."

Hall battles this misconception by offering two categories of recipe: Everyday and Celebration. Remembering the vegetables her grandmother picked from her garden and cooked for the daily meals of Hall's childhood, it struck her that portrayals of soul food tend to focus exclusively on large festive gatherings and holidays instead of reflecting how people eat on a regular basis. Some dishes are present on both daily and celebratory tables, and she identifies those accordingly. But the cookbook emphasizes vegetable-centric items you could eat any day of the week, and is mindful of reducing fat and sodium.

Readers will find such dishes as a three-bean skillet stew that lives up to the "speedy" in its recipe's name and draws its flavor from bacon (about one slice per serving); a Caribbean-inspired smothered chicken made with light coconut milk, lime and habanero, in lieu of pork, which was introduced to the United States by Europeans; and, for special occasions, a sweet vanilla cake doused in a glossy, amber caramel sauce.

This is another way, as Hall writes in the book, to "redefine soul food, to reclaim it," and to do that on behalf of her community. "It's really getting back to being proud of this food ... to reintroduce it to other African Americans," she said. She was met with skepticism from her literary agent, who, when Hall announced her next cookbook would focus on soul food, advised against it out of concern that her client would ostracize the rest of the country. "Nobody would say that about other cultures," she replied.

Hall, 56, who splits her time between Washington and New York, was an accountant and model before she moved into food, catering and later parlaying her breakout appearances on Bravo's "Top Chef" into a gig co-hosting the daily talk show "The Chew." After it was canceled in May, she landed a regular cooking segment on its replacement, the third hour of "Good Morning America." With the book, to some extent, Hall is trying to achieve what a crossover artist in the music industry might. But, as she clarified, "The crossover that was in my head wasn't like a hit that would cross over into a different culture; it was the crossover in terms of interest. The same way that we would all pick up an Italian book if we didn't know about Italian food, or a Korean book, or Japanese, or Indian food - it's to honor the culture in that way. ... I'm just asking that you will honor our food."

Caribbean Smothered Chicken With Lime and Chiles

4 servings

What "smothering" means in soul-food terms is coating a slow-cooked meat with a blanket of saucy aromatics that end up as gravy, according to chef Carla Hall.

Adapted from "Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration" (Harper Wave, 2018).

Ingredients

4 large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1-1/2 pounds total)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

6 large sprigs thyme, plus fresh thyme leaves for serving

2 large onions, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1 habanero chile, partially slit open

1 cup low-fat coconut milk

1/4 cup water

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 large lime, plus wedges for serving

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Season the chicken generously all over with salt and pepper.

Directions

Heat the oil in a large, shallow Dutch oven or deep saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan, skin sides down. Sear for about 5 minutes, turning them over once, until browned on both sides and some of their fat has rendered. (They will not be cooked through.)

Push the thighs to one side of the pan, turning them skin sides up; add the thyme and onions to the other side of the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until they pick up some color.

Add the garlic, chile pepper and [1/2] teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then pour in the coconut milk and water. The browned skin on the thighs should remain above the level of liquid. Increase the heat to medium; once the liquid begins to boil, move the onion mixture around the chicken pieces, as needed. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, or. until the chicken is cooked through. Discard the thyme sprigs.

Uncover and stir in the lime juice. Cook for about 5 minutes, then stir in the curry powder and lime zest. Scatter some thyme leaves on top.

Serve right away (with or without the chile pepper), with lime wedges.

Speedy Bacon and Three-Bean Skillet Stew

6 servings

The bacon gives this quick dish a long-simmered flavor, says chef Carla Hall, but she doesn't crisp it: When it's cooked just to a golden soft consistency its salty goodness will soak into the creamy beans.

Serve it plain with corn bread; the photo shows it with a gremolata-type accompaniment.

MAKE AHEAD: The stew can be refrigerated for up to 1 week; reheat with a bit of water to loosen it up.

Adapted from "Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration" (Harper Wave, 2018).

Ingredients

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 medium onion, cut into small dice

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 ounces thick-cut bacon, each slice cut into 1/4-inch batons (like lardons)

1 clove garlic, cut into thin slices

1 Scotch bonnet or habanero chile, seeded and minced

Three 15-ounce cans butter beans, small kidney beans or pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Generous 1-3/4 cups (15 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth

Directons

Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, stir in the onion and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until softened, then push the onion to one side of the pan.

Scatter the bacon pieces on the other side; cook for about 5 minutes, until golden but not crisped. On the bacon side, stir in the garlic, chile pepper and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the beans and broth. Once the mixture begins to bubble at the edges, reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, so everything's heated through.

Serve hot.

Poured Caramel Cakes

This yellow sheet cake is the kind typically brought to Southern gatherings and flavorful enough to serve plain. The caramel is something chef Carla Hall has worked to perfect over the years - silky soft and sticky, and pourable without being too runny.

MAKE AHEAD: The plain cake can be covered and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) room-temperature unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, plus more for the pan

2 cups flour, plus more for the pan

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large eggs, at room temperature

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

1-3/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 ounces evaporated milk

Directions

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use some butter and then flour to coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or dish (Pyrex).

Combine the buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup.

Combine the 2 cups of flour, the sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer. Beat on low speed until well blended. Add the oil (low speed); once that is evenly distributed, add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until fully incorporated. The mixture will have the consistency of coarse sand.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stop to scrape down the bowl. On medium speed, gradually add the buttermilk mixture, beating to form a smooth batter.

Pour into the pan; bake (middle rack) for about 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let the cake cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the caramel: Place the butter in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is half melted, add the sugar and salt. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is dark golden brown. It will look grainy and the fat will separate from the sugar, then come back together. Remove from the heat.

Carefully, gradually whisk in the evaporated milk; the caramel will initially bubble up. Use the spoon to dislodge any bits of sugar stuck to the bottom of the pan; keep whisking until all the sugar has dissolved.

Return to the stove top, over low heat. Cook for about 1 hour, whisking often, to create a smooth and creamy, richly colored caramel. Let cool, stirring occasionally.

Pour the barely warm caramel over the cooled cake (in its pan). Let the caramel set before serving.