In the October issue of EveryDay with Rachael Ray – on stands now – the El Naranjo food trailer is mentioned in ”From Wheels to Walls,” a feature article that showcases a handful of food trucks that have added a brick-and-mortar space to their concepts. In case you don’t rememeber, El Naranjo was the only food trailer to make Texas Monthly’s December 2010 list of the 50 best Mexican restaurants in Texas. Austin’s El Naranjo is one of three trailers mentioned in the October issue, along with New York City’s Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and Los Angeles’ Kogi BBQ. To find out more, pick up the October issue of EveryDay with Rachael Ray.

Tagged: austin, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, El Naranjo, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, Kogi BBQ, Layne Lynch, Mexican food, October, texas monthly

Image Courtesy of Austin Food & Wine Alliance

Tickets are now on sale for the Austin Food & Wine Alliance’s 2nd Annual Wine & Swine. The hog-centric event will take place on Sunday, November 4 at Pioneer Farms in Austin.

A dozen chefs including The Noble Pig’s John Bates and Barley Swine’s Bryce Gilmore will roast whole Berkshire pigs and provide other swine-centric delicacies for attendees to savor and sample. A selection of Texas wines will be served along with the eclectic pork dishes as well. Proceeds from this event will go to benefit the Austin Food & Wine Alliance, a non-profit organization that fosters awareness and innovation in the Central Texas culinary community. To purchase tickets to this culinary event, see this link.

Tagged: Austin Food & Wine Alliance, Austin Food and Wine Festival, Bryce Gilmore, John Bates, Layne Lynch, Nobel Pig, Pig, Pig Roast, Pioneer Farms, Swine, wine, Wine & Swine

On Sunday, Texas Monthly threw its third annual BBQ Festival, in Austin, on the open air terrace of the Long Center. Twenty-one barbecue joints handed our samples to an estimated crowd of 3000, who listened to live music, swigged beer and other adult beverages, bought T-shirts,  got tips from the “barbecue genius” booth manned by Texas A&M, and ate till they were bug-eyed.  The participating pits had been featured in our 2008 story on the fifty best barbecue joints in Texas, plus there were two newcomers of the year representing places that opened after 2008. The heat, in the nineties, drove many fans inside the Long Center for some air-conditioning, which is where we found most of these folks below.

Daniel Delaney, Brooklyn, mastermind of the Brisketlab project, a series of brisket-by-the-pound pop-up restaurants in New York. “We missed all the meat! We came up here to the VIP Lounge and started talking, then the floodgates opened for the general admission crowd, and that was that.” [Delaney, below right]

Daniel Vaughn, the “Barbecue Snob,” and Texas Monthly barbecue blogger, Dallas. “The biggest surprise of the day was Stanley’s brisket. Nick [Pencis, owner] said he was going to do a salt-and-pepper-seasoned brisket and it is really great. I could gush about Pecan Lodge, too. And the line to get Franklin’s was longer here than at the restaurant.” [Vaughn, above left]

Max and Andrea Castillo, Houston. Max: “We ran from place to place getting samples without stopping to eat them. When we sat down, we couldn’t remember which was which! I saw one guy with a Sharpie and Ziploc bags, labeling them. Smart.” Andrea: “We should sell bibs!”

Matt Diffee, cartoonist for the New Yorker and Texas Monthly’s “critter page.” “I tried to talk Jake [Silverstein, editor of Texas Monthly] into letting me do portraits of the pitmasters on butcher paper using a piece of fatty brisket instead of a pencil, but he just said, ‘How’s that critter page coming?’”

Doug Wallace, defense contractor, Fort Worth. “I got to all 21 booths—the first 12 I ate the whole sample. After that I just tasted it. I use the Texas Monthly barbecue app, and today I rose from number 13 to 8 on the leaderboard rankings of who’s visited the most barbecue joints. Back in 1997, my dad had a heart attack [and we knew his time was limited]. He and I started visiting barbecue joints every Saturday. We’d leave at 8 and get back at 5 or so. It was all about the drive and the visit.”

Jo Ann, Chris, and Isabella Bjornson. JoAnn: “Chris made all 21 tents at the festival today—he is a connoisseur. Brisket was one of the first meats our daughter Isabella ever ate. She’s been tasting it all today. I’m from Virginia so I was only familiar with pork. After I tried barbecued beef, I told Chris it was a religious experience.” Chris: “I’ll be in a meat coma by the end of the festival.” [JoAnn and Isabella pictured]

Esaul Ramos and Kristen Toscano, San Antonio. “This is our first TM BBQ Festival. We saved up all our money to spend on food and then we found out the samples were free! We love it. We’ve had everything.”

Ginger, Jason, and Addison Bolen, just moved to Austin from Texas City. “We kept the hand fan from the Texas Monthly festival last year and our four-year-old daughter Addison uses it as a menu in her play kitchen now. She calls it her ‘barbysauce.’ Actually, that means both a menu and sauce.”

Cole Newman, 15 years old, Austin. “The festival is pretty good, but there aren’t enough people. I expected it to be in a park, with grass and trees, like on Town Lake. So far Big Daddy’s ribs are my favorite, but I haven’t gotten into the brisket yet.”

The White Family: Inman White, community behavioral health administrator, Longview, with Banks White, son and chef in Berkeley, Breia White, daughter and film editor in Los Angeles, Kathy White, sister and schoolteacher in Nashville, and Frances White, mother and retired school teacher in Palestine. Inman: “We are a barbecue family. I was born in Luling and I guess I’m just steeped in it. We know that at Thanksgiving we will be scattered all around the country, so we decided to get together here. This is our second barbecue Thanksgiving at the festival, and you can count on us next year.”

Davey Griffin, Professor of Meat Science, Texas A&M University, College Station. “We had a guy from New York last year who asked us, ‘Can I do barbecue up there where it’s so cold?’ He was using a small home smoker. We told him sure, it was a matter of keeping the temperature consistent, no big swings. He came and found us this year and said it worked! The most common error in cooking brisket is inconsistent temperature, followed by having the temperature too hot—lack of patience.”

Adrienne Newman, aka “Madame Cocoa,” craft chocolate maven, Austin. Question: Barbecue or chocolate? Answer: [long pause] Chocolate.

Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue, Austin, and Harold E. “Buzzie” Hughes, Buzzie’s, Kerrville. Franklin: If Texas Monthly throws a dinner to honor the pitmasters, we want a salad bar.
Hughes: With some shrimp. Or maybe have a fish fry. Franklin: Just don’t make us have barbecue.”

Diane and Justin Fourton, with son Henry, owners of Pecan Lodge barbecue, Newcomer of the Year for the 2012 Texas Monthly BBQ Festival. Diane: “It’s a little surreal that we’re here at all. At one point, we were within two days of closing. We had had to stop cooking barbecue at Pecan Lodge [until they satisfied a city of Dallas regulation] and our business had dried up. We took all the money we had in the bank and bought meat and our customers came back. Then the Food Network called, and Southern Living called. When you guys called and asked us to be the Newcomer at this year’s festival, we just about freaked out.” Justin: “We used to wait for the Texas Monthly barbecue issue to come out. The pitmasters who were in the top fifty had been around for years. To be part of that group—we never imagined it could happen.”

Tagged: Barbecue Snob, Daniel Vaughn, Franklin Barbecue, Matt Diffee, Pecan Lodge, Third Annual Texas Monthly BBQ Festival

Yesterday, we featured a few pumpkin dishes from Dallas, Houston, and Austin; today, we bring you part two of the pumpkin feature. Check out these fall-inspired dishes below.

Olivia’s Pumpkin Ravioli
8 oz roasted cubed pumpkin (you can also use a can if you’re lazy)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp goat butter
½ cup cream
½ cup whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
¼ cup grated parmesan
3 scratches of nutmeg
1 tsp fresh sage
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 fresh laurel or bay leaf
Homemade pasta or ½ pound store-bought fresh pasta sheets (Olivia makes their own pasta)

Olivia’s Pumpkin Ravioli

Throw butters in pan. Sauté pumpkin for 3 minutes. Add cream and milk. Add bay leaf, thyme, and sage. Cook for 10 minutes on low to medium heat until pumpkin is tender. Puree the mixture until it’s smooth. While the pureed mixture is still warm, fold in the egg, parmesan, and nutmeg. Let it cool down. Fill the ravioli sheets and boil for 7 minutes. Brown 4 tablespoons of goat butter to make your sauce and top with goat cheese and candied walnuts. Plate. Eat. Swoon.

Bar Mirabeau‘s Pumpkin Pie Pancakes (Courtesy Parind Vora)
2 ½ cups cake flour
3 cups roasted, pureed seasonal pumpkin or acorn squash, passed through a tamis
½ tbsp aluminum-free baking powder
4-8 tbsp sugar, depending on the sweetness of the pumpkin
4 egg whites, whipped to medium-stiff peaks
2 yolks
½ cup – 1 cup milk (as needed)
1/6 cup brown butter
pinch salt
pistachios, chopped
mascarpone
fresh berries

Bar Mirabeau’s Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

Sift the dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, egg yolks, most of the milk, and the brown butter together until smooth. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the mixed wet ingredients all at once. Stir until just combined. (Over-mixing will make for a tough pancake.) Beat the egg whites until medium-stifft peaks appear as for meringue. Add the sugar toward the end of the beating. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a spatula. Add milk as necessary to get the right consistency. Cook as you would other pancakes. Top with mascarpone, chopped pistachio, and fresh berries.

Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop‘s Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (yields 18 whoopie pies)
Whoopies
½ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
1 ½ tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups milk
2 cups pureed pumpkin

Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop’s Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add in eggs and vegetable oil. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Alternate adding dry ingredients into the butter-oil mixture with milk. Stir until just combined. Stir in pumpkin, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl until no more streaks remain and pumpkin is fully incorporated. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop 36 whoopie halves onto greased baking sheet – this will yield 18 complete whoopie pies. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating halfway.

Filling
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup vegetable shortening
8 oz cream cheese
5 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tsp Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract

Glaze
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2-4 tbsp milk
½ tsp pure maple extract

Beat butter and shortening until combined. Add in cream cheese and beat until combined. Slowly add in powdered sugar, then vanilla. Beat for two minutes or until light and fluffy. Fill cooled whoopie pies. Glaze. Enjoy!

Prego‘s Jumbo Texas Gulf shrimp with caramelized pumpkin and housemade pancetta risotto
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup pumpkin, caramelized and cubed
16 jumbo gulf shrimp
1 cup pancetta, diced
2 green onions
1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
4 tbsp butter
½ cup grana padano or parmesan cheese
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp garlic, minced

Prego’s Jumbo Texas Gulf shrimp with caramelized pumpkin and housemade pancetta risotto

To prepare rice, brown 2 lb of Arborio rice in ½ cup of olive oil. Once it’s browned, add vegetable stock two cups at a time and stir until all the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding stock and stirring until rice is fully cooked. To prepare the pumpkin, slice pumpkin in half, remove the seeds, and separate the soft interior from the hard exterior. Discard the exterior and cube the soft interior into one-inch cubes. Drizzle with olive oil and liberally salt and pepper on a sheet pan. Roast the cubes in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Sauté diced pancetta until most of the fat has been rendered and the pancetta is turning brown. Add jumbo shrimp, green onion, and minced garlic and continue cooking until the shrimp are pink. Add the butter, cream, and cheese. Stir until integrated. Add the cup of caramelized pumpkin and 2 cups of risotto. Add chopped parsley, cracked black pepper, and coarse sea salt to taste.

ASTI Trattoria‘s Bunch Kale & Pumpkin Salad
small pumpkin
kale
goat cheese
pan gritata (fried torn bread in garlic oil)
rendered bacon
olive oil
salt & pepper
sherry vinegar

ASTI Trattoria’s Kale & Pumpkin Salad

Dress kale with a little olive oil and grill; if you don’t have a grill, heat up an iron skillet or large sauté pan until it’s smoking, carefully add dressed kale, and toss until bright green and crispy. If you’re grilling, make sure to get charred edges. Set aside kale to cool. Tear up old crusty bread – focaccia, ciabatta, french (something chewy) – into slightly larger than bite-size pieces. Heat up garlic oil in a small pot for about 5 minutes, don’t let it smoke or it will burn. Carefully fry torn bread in oil until golden brown and remove from oil to drain on paper towel. Discard remaining oil. Cut bacon into small chunks and render off in a sauté pan until golden brown. Drain fat. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Quarter small pumpkin and drizzle olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on sheet tray in oven for about 15-20 minutes. Once removed from oven, let cool for about 5 minutes and scoop out flesh carefully. Rough chop into medium-dice pieces. In a large bowl combine kale, goat cheese, fried bread, roasted pumpkin chunks, and bacon. Season with salt and pepper (to taste) and dress lightly with olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Sweet Paris Creparie & Café’s Pumpkin Cinnamon Crème Brûlée Crêpe

 

Sweet Paris Creparie & Café‘s Pumpkin Cinnamon Crème Brûlée Crêpe
Made-to-order crepe with caramelized sugar and caramelized slice of pumpkin on top. It’s the creparie’s monthly special served in October.

 

Sonya Coté‘s Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Hash
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups sweet potatoes, julienned
2 cup french pumpkin,  julienned
2 tsp red pepper flake
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
fresh sage, chiffonade
white pepper
4 oz vegetable stock

Sonya Cote with a Pumpkin

In a heated sauté pan add olive oil, sweet potato, pumpkin, peppers, and onions. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften and brown. Add the garlic, sage, salt, and pepper. Continue to sauté for one more minute. Do not burn the garlic. Add the vegetable stock and place in a preheated 350-degree oven until all vegetables are completely cooked but still maintain most of their shape and texture. The finished dish has should have some moisture to it. A little stock may be added.

Uchi‘s Pumpkin Dessert

Uchi’s Pumpkin Dessert

Uchi’s desserts aren’t simple enough to make at home, but I figured I’d at least give you the components of this delicious pumpkin dessert: White Pumpkin puree, Goma croquant, lemon vinegar gelee, Kuro Goma Sorbet, five-spice powder, white pumpkin cake, and ginger thread.

Philippe Restaurant + Lounge‘s Pumpkin Gnocchi and Lobster

Gnocchi
7 oz flour
17 oz pumpkin puree
18 oz baked potatoes – peel and pass through a tamis while still hot
4 eggs
salt & pepper

Mix the hot potatoes with the flour, eggs, pumpkin puree, and seasoning. Roll each gnocchi [12.5 gr = 1/2 oz] in the palm of your hand, using a little bit of flour, and blanch them in salted water until they come to the surface, then chock them in ice. Drain in a towel. Pan sear on each side for a few seconds in a Teflon pan with hot butter and then bake for 4 minutes (turning once) at 300 degrees.

Philippe Restaurant + Lounge‘s Pumpkin Gnocchi and Lobster

Lobster (optional for an appetizer or as hors d’oeuvres)
1 whole – 1 lb and a quarter lobster
4 qt vegetable stock

When the vegetable stock simmers, cook the lobster tail [4 min] and the claws [6 min]. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before taking the shell off. Thinly slice. Save lobster body.

Lobster Beurre Blanc
Lobster shells
2 tbsp olive oil
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 cup vegetable mirepoix
1 shot cognac
1 cup white wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 roma tomatoes, each chopped
6 oz butter
½ bulb shallots, thinly sliced
2 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp cream
2 tbsp lobster reduction

Clean the lobster body and make a stock out of it by sweating the shells and mirepoix vegetable in olive oil until light in color. Add the cognac, white wine, and water or vegetable stock. Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cook 30 minutes then pass through the strainer and reduce until a syrup-like consistency is achieved. Boil the vinegar with shallots, add the cream and whisk the butter [previously at room temperature] that you will incorporate slowly at a low heat. Salt and pepper and add the lobster reduction. Warm the lobster slices in the beurre blanc, at a low heat, Place the lobster on each puffy, warm gnocchi and use a bamboo fancy skewer to hold it together before serving. Drizzle a little bit of beurre blanc on top of the lobster at the last second.

Tagged: asti trattoria, austin, Bar Mirabeau, James Holmes, Layne Lynch, Olivia, Parind Vora, Philippe Restaurant + Lounge, Prego, Pumpkin, Sonya Cote, Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, Sweet Paris Creparie & Café', uchi, uchiko

Flat Creek Estate Super Texan 2010 (photo courtesy Flat Creek Estate)

Any time you put the word “Super” in front of a name, it has to be good, right? At least that’s the approach the Italians took in the 1980s when they branded a new version of red wine that took the average Chianti, made primarily with the Sangiovese grape, to a blend of Sangiovese with other Bordeaux varietals such as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon for a bigger wine with a little more backbone. (Really it was a way to re-market Chianti, which was suffering in sales at the time.) These new blends quickly became branded as “Super Tuscans” and Americans went wild for them. Today, the wines still capture a fair share of both the Italian domestic and foreign markets with names like Piero Antinori’s “Tignanello” serving as one of the original kings of the red blend.

This month we celebrate the king of a Texas take on this blend, and the winery that shrewdly nabbed the rights to market this big Texas red wine. This month’s Texas Wine of the Month is the Flat Creek Estate “Super Texan,” 2010.

It’s a top pick by Jason Harrelson, chef and general manager at the Double Horn Brewing Company  in Marble Falls who loves pairing this wine with of the bold Texas-style dishes that come from his kitchen. “This wine is perfect for classic Italian dishes, wild game and steaks,” says Harrelson who helped to open the restaurant in 2011 with owner Dusty Knight and head brewer Eric Casey. “It’s full-bodied and rich with a light spice on the end and vanilla notes tickle the nose. It’s a great stepping stone for Texas

Unlike many new restaurants throughout the state, the Double Horn originally opened with a Texas-only wine list in an effort to stay authentic to its primarily locally-sourced menu. Today, you’ll find a more diverse selection with wines from around the world, but you’ll still find picks from wineries near Marble Falls including Perissos Vineyards and, of course, the Super Texan from Flat Creek Estate.

The Super Texan first made its debut with the 2003 vintage, which soared to national attention when it won a Double Gold from the heralded San Francisco International Wine Competition in 2005. The blend has been the winery’s flagship wine every since.

Jason Harrelson of Double Horn Brewing Company

Each year, the specific blend changes for this wine. In 2003, it was a blend Sangiovese and Primitivo (another term for Zinfandel). This 2010 vintage is about 75 percent Sangiovese, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Tempranillo, and Petite Syrah.

“It’s always Sangiovese-based,” says winemaker Tim Drake. “But the rest of the blend is variable from vintage to vintage. The goal is to always have a food-friendly ‘Super Tuscan’ style of wine.”

Just like the Double Horn, Drake is a newcomer to the Hill Country. Originally from Washington with winemaking experience at Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest, his first vintage with Flat Creek Estate was 2011. Among one of the top priorities for Drake when taking on the wine program was to make wine that was from Texas grapes. About 50 percent of the grapes Flat Creek uses comes from the Hill Country. The remainder primarily comes from the High Plains from growers including the Bingham Family Vineyards and Newsom Vineyards.

Drake’s first blend was the 2010 Super Texan. “I want this wine to have some subtlety and earthiness; something that evolves as you drink through the bottle and will give you something new with every taste you have. It shouldn’t be over-the-top with jammy fruit like a lot of ‘new world’ wines, but I also don’t want it to taste like barnyard like you get with some ‘old world’ wines. The 2010 has a nice smokey flavor to it with a few herbal components. You can pick up a little sage, maybe green peppercorn. It has strawberry and cherry but also some of the darker fruits like plumb and blueberry.”

The great news is, you can find this wine for about $20 at Whole Foods Market, Central Market, and Spec’s among other specialty wine stores.

Winery: Flat Creek Estate

Price: ~$20

Availability: Whole Foods Market, Central Market, Spec’s

Tagged: Double Horn Brewing Company, Flat Creek Estate, Jason Harrelson, Jessica Dupuy, Super Texan 2010, Tim Drake

Fall is upon us and you know what that means: pumpkins! Yes, these orange gourds are already making their way into local farmers markets and Texas restaurants. I’m pretty crazy about pumpkins and the eclectic culinary creations they inspire, so I decided to reach out to a number of Texas chefs and see what pumpkin dishes they’re planning to put on their fall menus. There were some many gourmet creations hailing from Dallas, Austin, and Houston that I had no choice but to divide this story into two parts. Check back tomorrow for more pumpkin dishes you can make at home.

TRACE‘s Pumpkin Beignets
Brioche
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 ½ cups pumpkin flour
1 ½ tsp salt
⅓ cup sugar
1 ⅓ tsp instant yeast
9 tbsp cold butter, cut into chunks
3 eggs
½ cup milk
⅓ cup water

TRACE’s Pumpkin Beignets

Combine yeast, warm water, and a pinch of the weighed out sugar in a bowl and let sit while you weigh out the rest of ingredients. Combine the rest of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, gradually adding the eggs and yeast mixture. Add the butter and let it incorporate for about 15 minutes until the mixture is smooth and forming a ball shape. Put into greased bowl and let double in size. Refrigerate for 2 hours and cut into desired shape. Fry at 375 degrees for about two minutes. Serve warm.

Pumpkin Filling
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 egg
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1 cup whipped cream

Combine the first 6 ingredients and lightly fold in whipped cream. Pipe into doughnuts after fried but while still warm.

W Hotel‘s Pumpkin Spice Martini
1 ½ oz vanilla vodka
½ oz Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka
½ oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
½ oz pumpkin spice liqueur
1 tsp vodka whipped cream

W Hotel’s Pumpkin Spice Martini

Combine the liquid ingredients into a shaker glass with big ice cubes. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a teaspoon of vodka whipped cream sprinkled with a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Serve with a small number of roasted pumpkin seeds to balance the experience.

bolsa‘s Spiced Pumpkin Panna Cotta
1 ¼ cup milk
3 ½ sheets gelatin
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

bolsa’s Spiced Pumpkin Panna Cotta

Set the gelatin sheet in an ice water bath. Blend together the milk, pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, and spices until they reach a smooth consistency. Pour pumpkin mixture into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Once the mixture is up to heat, take the gelatin sheets out of the ice bath, squeeze out the liquid, and set into the pumpkin puree mixture. Stir until all of the gelatin has dissolved. Pour in the heavy cream to finish. Ladle liquid into six 5-ounce ramekins. (The ramekins should be sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Chill the panna cotta until set – about 6-8 hours – and serve with cranberry sauce or top with whipped cream.

Farmhouse Delivery‘s Sausage and Risotto Soup Baked in a Pumpkin

Sausage and Risotto Soup Baked in a Pumpkin. Photo taken by Marshall Wright.

1 small pumpkin
olive oil
salt & pepper
1-2 cups cooked risotto (just about any flavor works)
4-6 smoked or sundried tomatoes
¼ – ½ cup cooked meat (sausage or chicken is best)
2 cups chicken stock
4 tbsp cream

Preheat oven to 350. Cut top off pumpkin and reserve. Scoop out seeds and filaments, leaving flesh in place. Rinse seeds and toast if desired, or discard. Rub pumpkin inside and out with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Soak dried tomatoes in warm water until softened and dice. Add to pumpkin cavity along with remaining ingredients, and check for seasoning. Replace pumpkin lid, place in small casserole dish and bake uncovered until cooked. To serve, place in a large bowl and ladle out soup along with scoops of cooked pumpkin.

MAX’S Wine Dive‘s Pumpkin Hummus

MAX’S Wine Dive’s Pumpkin Hummus

La Condesa’s Habanero Pumpkin Puree

Carnitas
2 pork shoulders (brined in salt water for 12-18 hours)
4 quarts of pork fat or duck fat

Cut the shoulder into 2-inch pieces and place in salt water solution and hold in refrigerator. After the brine has reached time, rinse the meat and pat it dry. Place in a deep pan or large pot, cover with fat, cover with foil and place in a 300 degree oven for 3 ½ hours.

Pumpkin Escabeche, pickled vegetables
diced pumpkin
cauliflower
Spanish onion
habanero

Once the carnitas are tender and ready, let them cool to room temperature. For pick-up and plating, sear the carnitas to crispy. Once the carnitas are crispy and seasoned, place a spoonful of the puree on your plate, place the carnitas on top, and garnish with escabeche and toasted pumpkin seeds (or pepitas). Optional: use some pumpkin seed oil as well for a more rich flavor. Serve hot with a side of corn tortillas, cilantro, and lime wedges.

The Carillon‘s Pumpkin Soup with Chorizo, Spiced Crema, and Herb Oil
2 large pumpkins, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
½ large yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp maple syrup
¼ lb Mexican-style chorizo
½ cup heavy whipping cream
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp confectioners sugar
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
¼ cup chives, chopped

Soup: In a large pot, sauté onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt until they have just a bit of color. Add pumpkins and just enough water to cover. Cook at a low boil until soft. Add molasses, maple syrup, and ¼ cup heavy cream. Puree and salt to taste.

Chorizo: If chorizo is in a sausage casing, remove and discard it. In a smallsauce pan, render chorizo until fully cooked. Strain fat and set aside.

Crema: In a medium mixing bowl, combine remaining cream with cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Mix rapidly with a wire whip until cream is firm enough to create stiff peaks. Salt to taste.

Herb Oil: In small saucepot, heat oil over low until approximately 150 degrees. (Just too hot to the touch. Combine oil and herbs in a blender and puree. Drain through a fine strainer. (Do not push through). Salt to taste.

 Backstreet Café‘s Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa 

Backstreet Café’s Spiced Pumpkin Hot Cocoa

5 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 ½ tsp vanilla bean or 1 whole vanilla bean
3 heaping tbsp cocoa mix (we make our own, but you can substitute Jacques Torres or Ghirardelli Double Chocolate)
1 ½ cups pumpkin puree (substitute Libby’s if you don’t want to make your own)
2 oz maple syrup
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
1 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon bark
½ tsp whole cloves
8 cardamom pods, crushed and opened, shells and seeds

In a large heavy-bottom pot, roast cinnamon bark, cloves, and cardamom over high heat. Cook until they begin to smoke and smell. Approximately 5 minutes. Pour in milk and cream. Add vanilla, salt, and pepper. Whisk in with pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Once warm and steaming, stir in maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice. Let infuse for 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the cocoa mix. (If you want a more intense chocolate cocoa, you can also add in 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate at this point). Stir for 2 minutes until all the ingredients are dissolved and finely mixed. Reduce heat to medium and let cook for an additional 10 minutes. Run through a fine sieve to remove pumpkin pulp and spice pieces. Mix will keep up to four days after cooked if properly refrigerated.

Drink: Garnish with toasted marshmallows. You can toast marshmallows with a crème brûlée torch if you don’t have a fireplace. Put a dash of cinnamon over the top of the marshmallows and serve.

Tagged: austin, Backstreet Café, bolsa, dallas, Houston, la condesa, Layne Lynch, MAX's Wine Dive, Pumpkin, the Carillon, TRACE, W Hotel

Revival Market co-owners Ryan Pera and Morgan Weber. (photo courtesy of Reality Photography)

Those who live in The Heights area of Houston know Revival Market. It’s a warm and friendly place at the corner of 6th Street and Heights Boulevard offering fresh foods sourced from local farmers, ranchers, cheese makers, and food artisans as well as a wide array of seasonally-inspired prepared foods, charcuterie, and house-made staples like vinegar, pickles and jams. It’s all in the name of being a modern version of the kind of market your parents or grandparents would visit on a daily basis. The kind where you knew the butcher by name. In this case, it’s co-owner Morgan Weber, a butcher and pig farmer by trade. And the man behind all of delectable prepared foods throughout the market is celebrated chef and co-owner Ryan Pera. This dynamic duo have just announced their next neighborhood endeavor, an authentic Italian restaurant, Coltivare, with an expansive urban garden alongside. Texas Monthly caught up with Pera and Weber for a few more details.

Texas Monthly: Revival Market has been open for a little over a year. What has the response been and how have y’all grown throughout the past year?

Ryan Pera: It’s been amazing to see Revival Market grow since day one. We’ve really gotten better at our own jobs and growing the market not only in the types of products we provide but in clientele as well. I’m a trained chef. Morgan is a trained [butcher] and farmer and neither of us had retail experience. We knew we had a steep learning curve going in. But it’s been really fun to learn along the way.

Morgan Weber: We didn’t quite know how it was going to go with the community. Were people going to come and shop here everyday or were they just going to come in on a Sunday and buy a bunch of groceries? We’re a whole-animal butchery. One day we may have a lot of rib-eyes, the other day you may not and we weren’t sure how that was going to go over, but it’s all been very well received. People love coming in and finding things that are newly available for that day that weren’t available before.

TM: Do you feel like you’ve gotten to know your regular base of customers? 

Pera: I think we have a great core of regulars which was part of the impetus to move to a restaurant as well, to extend that client base to Cultivare, our new restaurant concept.

TM: So was the idea for Coltivare Chef Pera’s way to get back into a restaurant kitchen atmosphere? 

Pera: Absolutely not. Morgan had to twist my arm to do this. I love the pace of working at Revival and having hours during the day. I didn’t miss the restaurant world, but I’m excited to get back into it. It sprouted from the idea of doing special dinners throughout the year that were so much fun for us and our customers. That eventually evolved into the idea of doing a restaurant. When we saw this space open up just three blocks away, we realized we wanted to make it happen.

Weber: The space has 3,000 square-foot open area next to it that we want to develop into a garden that could function to supply both Revival Market and the restaurant with produce. As of now, it looks like it’s going to work with the City of Houston for us to be able to do that.

TM: Having an urban garden of this size, is that something unique for Houston?

Pera: Having a garden like this is rare. Not unusual. When I worked at The Grove downtown, we had a rooftop garden, but not to this extent. Something we want to do with this space is make it very utilitarian to truly function as a farm for restaurant. We’re really excited to talk to different horticulturists who are willing to help us out with it.

TM: How will Chef Pera divide time between Revival Market and Coltivare? 

Pera: Well, I’ll be executive chef and will oversee everything, but we have two extremely talented young gentlemen who will be at each of the locations. It will be my first time as a dual executive chef, but that’s just part of they way it is in this day in age. It’s just a natural progression. But I put a lot faith in Vincent Huynh who will be at Coltivare and then Adam Dorris has been working at Revival Market for a year and is just great.

TM: What will Weber’s role be with the new restaurant? 

Weber: I’ll be a big part of the front of the house. I hate going into stuffy restaurants. So it’s my job to make sure that the personality of this restaurant is very laid back, very family-friendly and warm. That’s something we’ve really worked on at the shop and we want that same feeling to be at the restaurant. We are all into what we’re doing and sharing that with our customers and we want them to feel that in a restaurant setting. We want it to be like it’s an extension of having dinner at our houses.

TM: What are you plans for your beverage program at Coltivare?

Weber: We will have a pretty aggressive cocktail and wine program that I’ll be spearheading. We have a sommelier who will be joining us down the road and with my former experience with Anvil, cocktails are really dear to my heart. So I want to work on crafting a cocktail menu that has the same principles that Ryan is going for in the food menu. We want it to be about simplicity and great products and letting the technique and ingredients do their thing.

TM: What is behind the name Coltivare? 

Pera: It means to cultivate and grow. My grandfather is from Genoa, Italy and I studied abroad in Italy when I was younger. I feel like that culture is just in my blood. So we wanted to bring that back to this part of Houston. There are some great Italian restaurants in Houston, but this will have its own niche and style for this kind of neighborhood. We want this place to be about a week night type of restaurant, not just for special occasions. That just adds to the neighborhood part of it.

It’s also very important to us to use the seasonal ingredients that are around us. There will be no fine dining about it. It will be as rustic and earthy and friendly as we can get and really letting the food and ingredients speak for itself. We definitely envision walking out into the garden before a shift and that could go on the menu right then and there.

Weber: And we also want to use the products at Revival as well, like our cured meats. That’s the beauty of having Revival and this restaurant, the cross utilization of these kitchens so that we can share these things between places.

Coltivare is scheduled to open sometime in Spring 2013 but you can keep tabs on the restaurant’s development with Weber and Pera by visiting Revival Market, open daily. 

- Jessica Dupuy

Barely over a month ago, Monica Pope unveiled her newest restaurant creation – Sparrow Bar + Cookshop – in Houston’s Fourth Ward. Through her years of cooking in professional kitchens, Monica has built a remarkable reputation as a pioneer in the local food movement as well as one of the most talented chefs in the state of Texas. In a recent interview with TEXAS MONTHLY, Monica talked in detail about the concept behind Sparrow Bar + Cookshop and where she is at in the second act of her culinary career. Throughout my conversation with Monica, I was surprised by how remarkably candid she was about her decision to start all over again with a fresh, new restaurant concept that was unlike any she had ever done before. In a conversation that last over an hour, Monica admitted she felt disconnected from her culinary roots while running her former restaurant t’afia over the past few years. This year, however, Monica made a myriad of bold changes in order to reconnect with her lifelong mission of “changing the way Houston eats.”

Sparrow Bar + Cookshop is without a doubt Monica’s most authentic creation thus far – a true reflection of how far she has come as a Houston chef. The restaurant’s food is non-fussy, affordable, and, oh yeah, delicious – exactly what you would expect from a chef who is remarkably gifted but doesn’t take herself or her fame too seriously. Housed in the same location as its predecessor, t’afia, Sparrow Bar + Cookshop is a restaurant that will certainly be one of the best new Houston restaurants of 2012. Here, Monica discusses the inspiration behind Sparrow Bar + Cookshop, the Houston culinary scene, and the brand new Monica – or Monica 2.0, as she likes to call it.

Monica Pope. Photo taken by Debora Smail.

What planted the seed for the new restaurant concept?

In a lot of ways, it’s an ongoing evolution of myself. Coming from a teenager saying that I was going to change the way Houston eats and me trying to understand what that’s meant to me personally. Five or six years ago when Hurricane Ike hit, it was a wakeup call for me. I started thinking about my daughter and what her life will be like, and that turned into me thinking about my own life and my own purpose. I said to myself, “If the world were to end tomorrow, would I want to continue to live my life the way I am right now?” And I wasn’t sure I could answer that affirmatively… A couple of years ago, a chef friend of mine was crashing with us at my house. He and I would be talking in the kitchen, and my daughter would run in and try to interrupt us. She’d be dying to say something, and one day she randomly shouted out, “It’s like you guys are having a campfire.” It’s weird, but what she said really got me thinking. I thought about our primal beginnings as caveman going out, creating fire, and gathering around the campfire. It made me realize that that’s what I’ve been trying to do for twenty years: create a campfire discussion with different restaurants and different foods. I started thinking about my place in all this and what I meant when I said I wanted to change the way people eat, how they eat, what they eat, where they eat, where they get their food from, etc. For me, it’s so tied into slow food, eating locally, and practicing Alice Waters’ tenants of good cooking.

Let’s move on to t’afia. Why did you decide to do away with the restaurant? Did it not work anymore? 

I wouldn’t say that. The restaurant business has changed. I’ve changed. There were challenges and questions I had that I needed to answer for myself. I’ve talked to food writers, photographers, and other chefs, and we all notice a change. The world now has Twitter, Facebook, and social media, and I feel like I’m being thrust into dealing with all that. Twenty years ago, I’d open a restaurant and people just came. Nowadays, you have to be in the kitchen, but also connecting with diners and the media in order to stay relevant. It’s a completely different thing, and I’m not sure how to keep up. When you’re life is changing dramatically around you, it can be frightening to know what’s your role in all of it. In some ways, I felt like I was stuck in a box that wasn’t me anymore. It didn’t work for me, and it didn’t work for Houston. I took the opportunity to say, “I need to create a space that I want to be in.” I wanted to start over and show where I’m at in my life and where I think Houston is at in 2012.

Sparrow Bar + Cookshop. Photo taken by Debora Smail.

How is the food different at Sparrow Bar + Cookshop than it was at t’afia?

I’m pushing myself more. I understand that a restaurant and a chef have to reinvent themselves in order to keep up with what’s going on. I knew what the impression was with t’afia through the years, like ‘Oh that’s that weird, healthy place.’ or ‘Oh yeah, that place is really preachy about local food.’ Nowadays, farm-to-table is no big deal; it’s not weird to people anymore. I’m at a place in my life where I feel like the local-food community has finally been created. A lot of restaurants and chefs are now committed to using local food, like I did twenty years ago when everyone thought it was crazy. I’m finally putting what I believe in on the plate.

Do you think Houston is where it should be at in terms of respecting and utilizing local ingredients?

They say it takes nine years to grow a farmers market. It has taken us nine, ten years to grow ours, so I think that’s definitely accurate. It’s amazing where we’ve come to. When I started talking about local food twenty years ago, people thought I belonged to a cult or something and needed to be saved. Ten years ago, things started to shift. Five years ago, it was like ‘”Okay, this is really coming together.” Once the chefs got more involved, that’s when things really started to change. Customers started paying attention to what chefs were doing, and I think Houston chefs are pushing Houston forward, despite the fact that not that not many years ago we were dead last in a lot of sustainable issues.

I want to talk about that. How do you think Houston ranks compared to places like Austin and Dallas in terms of working with farmers and utilizing local ingredients?

I’ve always said – and I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings – but we’re never going to be like Austin. It’s a whole different culture there. The chef-farmer connection there is much stronger. The whole agenda of “Keep Austin Weird” is what makes it work there. That’s the hip thing to do there, and that’s great, but the depth of Houston’s ethnic communities, culinary communities, and overall culture is so deep and textured. We’re trying to take credit for that, and people keep pushing us aside. I mean, you can’t do Top Chef Texas and not put Houston in there. Seriously, who did we tick off? Houston has more of a secede mentality than any other city in Texas, and Texas already has a reputation for wanting to secede from the rest of the nation. Houston is like, “Whatever, we’re better than Dallas, we’re better than Austin, we’re better than San Antonio, and we know that.” We’re just a more interesting town across the board.

Are you entering the most creative period of your life?

I’m in a period of my life where I know what makes me feel good. I’m comfortable with who I am and what I am. There was a rocky moment at the restaurant when I didn’t know if I could handle it all. It’s been challenging for twenty years. All of my restaurant team has been with me through these years, and we’ve become a family. I’m taking charge, and I have to be okay with that. I’m unbelievably grateful to my staff for allowing me figure out what it is I want to express. When I first talked about this project, everybody got behind me and said, “Great, let’s do this.” To see that enthusiasm and faith is breathtaking. I’m finally trusting myself and what I want to do. I’m not questioning things like I used to.

There seem to be a lot more celebrity chefs in Texas nowadays. You personally appeared on Top Chef Masters. Is being a celebrity chef something you have wanted to shy away from in recent years?

I don’t want to have twenty restaurants all over the country. I don’t even want two restaurants in the same city. That’s not me. I love my food family, my home, my restaurant, my city. I’m not interested in more money or more fame. What I’m interested in doing is changing the way Houston eats and continuing to share my story.

Sparrow Bar & Cookshop – 3701 Travis Street in Houston.  Lunch: Tuesday – Friday 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Dinner: Tuesday – Saturday 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. Brunch: Saturday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Bar menu: Tuesday – Thursday 10 a.m. – 11 p.m., Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. – midnight. 713-524-6922, www.sparrowhouston.com, Facebook, Twitter. 

Tagged: Houston, Layne Lynch, Monica Pope, Sparrow Bar + Cookshop, t'afia, Top Chef Masters

Austin’s Franklin Barbecue is making a few changes in the coming months, according to an interview owner Aaron Franklin did with Eater National this week. In the detailed interview, Franklin touched on changing up the space at Franklin Barbecue and wanting to add beef ribs, whole pork chops, and ribeyes to the limited menu as well.

“I’m thinking [the restaurant changes will] happen in about a month. We’re going to build an actual smokehouse in the back part of the kitchen. We’re going to add a walk-in cooler so we can order a lot, a lot more food. We’re going to be able to cook a lot more food. There’s also a window near the kitchen which I hope will shorten the line a little. The goal is to have two lines at some point,” Franklin said.

As to whether or not an expansion will change the quality of his highly regarded barbecue, Franklin said no way: “Right now, the problem is that we have to get the briskets off the smokers so we can cook a ton of ribs. The smokers are so crowded that it affects the food and the process. They don’t cook the same way when there’s so much meat on them. Now, we’re going to have a lot more cookers and a lot more convection. I think everything will get better.”

Tagged: Aaron Franklin, austin, barbecue, bbq, Franklin Barbecue, Layne Lynch

Last week, we talked to Jesse Griffiths about his new book Afield, which hits bookshelves tomorrow. During his interview, Jesse mentioned a recipe he felt would be a favorite amongst seasoned deer hunters. For those of you who are gearing up for deer hunting season, check out the Stuffed Vension Flank recipe from Afield below.

Stuffed Venison Flank 

The flank—a misunderstood throwaway cut— can be transformed through long, slow cooking. Stuffing this sinewy, tough cut with fatty sausage keeps it moist, while the bread crumbs and egg set the stuffing and make it sliceable. Try this recipe with different sausages in the stuffing—we’ve had success with wild boar chorizo, kielbasa, and a simple garlic sausage. The acid from the tomatoes and wine tenderizes the braise, creating a rich sauce that calls for mashed potatoes, polenta, or pasta. Try making this a day ahead and reheating it slowly.

1 boneless venison flank, about 2 to 3 pounds, (page 164)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground pork or sausage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage or parsley
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cups carrots, thickly sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup red or white wine Venison stock (page 173), chicken stock, or water, as needed 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Serves 8

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Season the flank with salt and pepper.
2. In a small bowl, mix the ground pork, sage, bread crumbs, and eggs. Season with salt and pepper; omit the seasoning if using bulk sausage.
3. Lay the flank in front of you with the grain running across, from side to side. Spread the pork mixture across the center of the flank, roll the flank around the stuffing, then tie with kitchen twine every 2 inches.
4. In a large Dutch oven or braising pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and brown the stuffed flank on all sides, about 15 minutes total. Transfer the flank to a plate.
5. Add the onions, carrots, and garlic to the pan and cook over medium-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and wine and cook until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Return the flank to the pot, spoon some sauce over it, and add enough stock or water to cover the meat halfway.
6. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then place the pot in the oven. Braise, turning the flank every 30 minutes, until tender, 4 to 5 hours, adding more stock, if necessary, to keep the flank half covered.
7. Taste the finished sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Let the flank rest for 5 minutes, cut away the twine, and slice thickly against the grain. Garnish with the chopped parsley.

To see more recipes like the Stuffed Venison Flank, purchase Griffiths’ book here.

Tagged: Afield, austin, Deer, Hunting, Jesse Griffiths, Jody Horton, Layne Lynch, Venison