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

In 2010, Restaurant Jezebel – one of Austin’s most popular upscale restaurants – unexpectedly caught fire. The timing couldn’t have been worse for the beloved restaurant. Along with a small handful of other Austin eateries, Jezebel had been gaining tremendous media attention for its elegantly creative cuisine.

The fire forced Jezebel to close, and while other restaurants in Austin continued to grow in popularity through time, Jezebel had to sit on the sidelines waiting for its opportunity to rejoin the game. In the two years since Jezebel’s closing, restaurants like Uchiko, Barley Swine, La Condesa, and Foreign & Domestic have basked in the glory that Restaurant Jezebel most certainly would have been a part of.

In a few months, Parind Vora, chef and owner of Restaurant Jezebel and Braise, will reopen Restaurant Jezebel at a new downtown location with a number of changes and additions. Vora has not only revamped the Jezebel menu, he has also added a new restaurant/bar into the mix. Bar Mirabeau will feature breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a space alongside Jezebel. Vora talked with TEXAS MONTHLY about what we can expect from the new Jezebel, creating a thorough prix fixe menu, and what it was like to have Jezebel out of commission for two years. 

Bar Mirabeau’s Logo.

Tell me a little bit about the new Jezebel space. 

The space is pretty massive. The whole thing, including the bathroom, dining room, kitchen, bar, and patio is 10,000 square feet. Three-fourths of it is the bar and grill, and 2,400 square feet of it is the patio. Bar Mirabeau is 4,000 square feet.

What made you decide to take on so much space?

It worked out that way. I needed to do Jezebel and I knew I wanted a central downtown location. I was on the lookout, but still hadn’t found anything. The CEO of Cirrus Logic, [Jason Rhode], used to come into Jezebel all the time, and one day we chatted formally at Braise. He said, “Look, I don’t want junk food being served to my employees. We want something in the building where our employees can get good made-to-order food. Why don’t we work out a deal where you rent this space from us?” It just went from there.

A rendering of the new Restaurant Jezebel space.

How will the new Jezebel be different from old Jezebel?

At the beginning of 2009, we came up with the prix fixe menu at Jezebel in addition to the à la carte menu. By the time the fire happened, we were having one of the best years we had ever had. We were doing so awesome, so I was like, “Wow, this had to happen now?” The new Jezebel will just feature the prix fixe menu without the à la carte menu. Our prix fixe menu is actually very unique. We have full liquor at Jezebel now, where as before we only had beer and wine. When you order a cocktail, somebody will come out with a cart and make it table side, so it’s going to be a lot of old-school touches with a cheese cart, dessert cart, and bar cart. The prix fixe courses are set in that you can do three courses for $75, four courses for $85, or seven courses for $125. If you want to do a four-course vegetarian or vegan meal, that’ll be $75. The interesting thing about the menu is that the waiter will tell you what’s available on menu and ask if there is anything you don’t like, don’t want on your plate, or if there is something you really want to try. They’re going to go through and fill out this little questionnaire I’ve put together, figuring out if you are allergic to anything, how you like your meat or fish cooked, what kind of spice level you enjoy, etcetera. They’ll fill out the sheet telling me what each diner likes and doesn’t like, and using that questionnaire, i’ll make up dishes on the fly. It’s going to be very avant-garde. What i’m known for is doing really interesting combinations, big-flavored food, and nothing overly subtle.

In the time that Jezebel hasn’t been open the Austin culinary scene has expanded and grown tremendously. What was it like for Jezebel not to be a part of that?

Yeah, I have to admit I was kind of jealous not to have Jezebel in that, but I’m still really happy for Austin. The restaurants that have opened up here have been very stellar and world class.

What will the design of the space be like at Jezebel?

We are picturing something tropical and modern. We’ll have some plants and I’ll bring some paintings from the same artist over at Braise. Jezebel will be very opulent and elegant. We wanted clean lines and hints of opulence in little things all around the space. We planned to create an old-school feeling, but with a lot of modern touches.

When are you projected to open?

We are looking at right after Labor Day Weekend. If everything works out, that’s when it’ll be. So far, we seem to be headed in the right direction.

Tagged: austin, Bar Mirabeau, Layne Lynch, Parind Vora, Restaurant Jezebel