Edible Austin Spring 2011 Issue

edible

No. 17 Spring 2011

Austin

®

Celebrating Central Texas food culture, season by season

JAPAN’S GIFT Exploring the ethos of Japanese cuisine Member of Ed ib le Commu n ities

UPCOMING EVENTS at Texas Performing Arts

Tanya

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

va

Dosko

March 8, 2011 | 8:00 pM Bass concert hall

Nathan Gunn, baritone March 9, 2011 | 8:00 pM Bates recital hall

eighth blackbird: Slide

with rinde eckert and steve Mackey

SFJAZZ Collective: The Music of Stevie Wonder March 24, 2011 | 8:00 pM Bass concert hall

The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma March 28, 2011 | 8:00 pM Bass concert hall

olt

Jake H

Tickets at texasperformingarts.org, 800.982.BEVO (2386), and all Texas Box Office Outlets. Groups: 512.471.0648 $ 10 STUDENT TICKETS

learn more about the stories behind the photos by visiting art alliance austin on facebook.

red by

onso cafe sp

edible

austin

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Nearly two dozen unique food and wine events in the heart of Austin, Texas Nationally acclaimed rising star chefs from Texas, New York, L.A., Portland, and Australia Exceptional wines, craft brews & spirits Featuring a Galaxy of Texas Star Chefs, Premium Wine & Spirits at the Stars Across Texas Classic Don’t miss the downtown party Sunday Fair, an eclectic urban celebration of food, wine and spirits

BUY TICKETS

TEXASWINEANDFOOD.ORG

Photos: Luke Ratray, Eleonora Alberto, Bill Phelps, Mark Seliger, Anna Finke, John Abbott

March 23, 2011 | 8:00 pM Mccullough theatre

olt

Jake H

SUSTAINABLE FOOD CENTER FARMERS’ MARKET AT

S U N S E T VA L L E Y

Healthy Wealthy & Wise Fair 1st weekend monthly!

Arts & Music Events 2nd weekend monthly!

Natural Family Fun Fair 3rd weekend monthly!

Makers & Bakers Bazaar

FRESHNESS

never tasted (or looked ) so good!

4th weekend monthly!

Antiques • Collectibles • Local Art & Food Organic Dog Treats • Indoor Farmers Market All Natural Apothecary • Inflatable Playscape Eco Family Products and much more!

Open Wednesday—Sunday 6800 West Gate Blvd, Austin, TX 78745 512. 522. 61 6 1 o r 5 1 2 . 8 2 7 . 8 8 4 7 www.CommunityRenaissanceMarket.com

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Come see us Saturdays, Year-Round 9 a.m. to 1 p.m 3200 Jones Road at Toney Burger Center Hwy 290 / Brodie Lane Visit us Saturdays Downtown & Wednesdays at the Triangle too!

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Publisher’s note

9 Newsworthy

Edible Texas Wine and Food Pairing Competition.

11 notable Mentions 14 notable Edibles Local Baby, Whole Foods Market Motivational Meal, East Side Pies.

19 Marketplace The Bountiful Sprout.

22 Cooks at Home

Terry Wilson.

29 Edible Corrections Yard labor.

43 Edible AGRONOMICS

Exploring diversity in the marketplace.

51 Vegetable Literacy

Deborah Madison on sorrel and rhubarb.

58 Edible Gardens An interview with John Dromgoole.

65 What I eat and Why

Sunday pizza supper with Paula and Paul.

70 People

Ferra Coffee’s Susan Jaime.

74 tipsy Texan

Absinthe.

76 La Casita de buen sabor

Danish smørrebrød.

78 Behind the vines

Perissos Vineyard and Winery.

80 Department of Organic Youth

Confessions of a wannabe locavore.

82 Back of the House

Uchiko.

84 Root Causes

Reaching great heights.

85 Seasonal Muse

Of tomatoes and time.

86 Eat Wild

Preserving the harvest—jams and jellies.

88 Directory 90 art de terroir

New Art in Austin: 15 to Watch.

Contents Spring 2011

24 Farmers diary

Fredericksburg Grassfed Beef

One family works hard to sustain their Hill

Country ranching tradition.

35 Edible Destination

Montesino Farm

Experience the pleasures of farm life without the toil.

39 Edible Brew

Black Star Rising How free beer led to buiding a

cooperative community.

47 Edible Cuisines

J apan’s Gift Exploring the ethos and clarity of intent in

Japanese cuisine.

54 Cooking Fresh

Spring Fling Enjoy the bountiful spring harvest with a

menu conceived to celebrate the season.

62 Edible Endeavors

Lone Star Foodservice

Focus on natural meats and custom dry aging sets this family-owned meat seller apart.

Cover: Madai (Japanese sea bream) makes the cut (see Back of the House: Uchiko, on pages 82-83). Photograph by Marshall Wright.

Publisher’s Note: “BEE” LOCAL

I

Marla Camp

t came across my desk yesterday in an email that I was copied on.

“Rick, I ordered one package of bees with marked & clipped queen ($125). Laura Weaver says to expect them to be ready for pickup by May 1. She also said Dave’s order may be delayed a week because of the current cold weather that’s affecting the queen’s arrival (my interpretation). In any case, arrival date isn’t important to me. I’ll be ready with my hive.—Jeff”

Jeff is my husband, Rick Low is our neighbor and Dave Coufal is another neighbor. And this was the first I'd heard of us becoming backyard beekeepers. I hope I’m not outing anyone here and that both Rick and Dave have let their families in on this venture in community beekeeping springing up literally in our own backyard. Making my way to my husband’s home office down the hall from my home office, I ask, “Are you serious? Are we going to have bees in our backyard?” I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.

Jeff reminds me that I had already given my blessing to raise chickens. “This will be much easier than taking care of a flock,” he says, also reminding me of my call-to-action to our readers to take up beekeeping as a way to repopulate the disappearing bee populations and save our food system. “It will be good for our garden and we have the perfect eastern exposure for the hives,” he continues. “There’s no downside to this. I assumed that you of all people would be on board.”

I think this started with our friend Mark Edwards working in Jeff’s woodshop last spring to build wooden hives for his new bees. And then we tasted the honey.

Now’s the time to order your bees, especially if you have fruit trees that will be blooming soon, like Dave does. Hives can be hosted in school gardens, church gardens, community gardens and, of course, in your own backyard (or your neighbor’s). Local urban farmers are already hip to this. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that it’s the new food trend in Austin. Honey with your home-grown vegetables and eggs?

After a few more minutes of contemplating what could possibly be problematic about this scenario, I realize that I’m getting excited. And May 1 seems like an awfully long time away for getting started, but first there are hives to be built.

P.S. Here are some helpful references: Learning Beekeeping (learningbeekeeping.com) Laura Weaver BeeWeaver Apiaries (beeweaver.com ) Videos (beeweaver.com/Videos.html) How To Guide for BeeWeaver Queens & Bees 866-547-3376 (M-Th, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.)

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Publisher

SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

Associate PUBLISHER Jenna Noel

EDITOR Kim Lane

Staff Writer Mark Bonus

Copy Editor Christine Whalen

Editorial Assistants Dena Garcia, Cari Marshall, Michelle Moore, Ian Sarver

Advertising Sales Curah Beard, Lindsay Wilson

Distribution Manager Jude Diallo

Contributors Full listing, bios and contact information online at edibleaustin.com

Advisory Group Terry Thompson-Anderson Dorsey Barger Cathryn Dorsey Michael Guerra Jim Hightower Toni Tipton-Martin Mary Sanger Suzanne Santos Carol Ann Sayle

CONTACT US Edible Austin 1415 Newning Avenue Austin, TX 78704-2532 512-441-3971 info@edibleaustin.com edibleaustin.com Edible Austin is published quarterly by Edible Austin L.L.C. All rights reserved. Subscription rate is $35 annually. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. © 2010. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions.

If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

edible austin 2010

eat local week 2010 raises $40K for Urban Roots

E

EA

Eat Local Week

EK

CAL W LO very week is “eat local week” in our book, E T CELEBRATE but Edible Austin’s Eat Local Week, our annual winter fundraising event, is an invitation LOCAL FOOD to Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food and to raise money for Urban Roots, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture as a means to transform the lives of young people and to increase access to healthy food in Austin.

2010 marked our fourth year, raising more than $40,000 for Urban Roots from generous donations from our participating restaurants and markets, sponsors and from the many special events hosted around town. To put this in perspective, in 2007, our first year for the event, we raised $8,000. A significant gain! And that’s thanks to community support for raising awareness for local and sustainable food.

In addition to our 2010 Sponsors listed on this page, we'd like to thank the following for their support: Leslie Luciano, Nik Ciccone (FOX 7 News), Addie Broyles (Austin American Statesman), Jack Gilmore, Central Market Cooking School, Hotel Havana, Austin Urban Gardens, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Perissos Winery, East End Wines, Springdale Farm, HausBar Farms, Rain Lily Farm, Boggy Creek Farm, Green Gate Farm, Rebecca Scofield, Christen’s Gourmet Pralines, Pie Fixes Everything, Bel Cuore Quartet, La Strada, Jason and Travis of Austin Pig Roast, Mr. Natural, Paula Simpson, Paula Angerstein, Reel Popcorn, The Steeping Room, Dai Due, Live Oak Brewing Company, Real Ale Brewing Company, Independence Brewing Company, 512 Brewing Company, Buddha’s Brew Kombucha, Rahr & Sons, Jester King, Thirsty Planet, Balcones Distillery, Dripping Springs Vodka, Graham’s Texas Tea, Paula’s Texas Spirits, Railean Rum, Savvy Vodka, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Treaty Oak Rum, Lorenzo Perkins, Austin Roasting Company, Casa Brazil, Cuvée Coffee, Dominican Joe, Farra Cafe, Kohana, Texas Coffee Traders, Third Coast Coffee, Chiapas Farms, Hotel San Jose, Hail Merry and all our volunteers!

The awards for our challenge to individual restaurants and markets to raise the most money this year go to Kerbey Lane Cafe and Greenling Organic Delivery.

And special thanks to Urban Roots for inspiring us all.

Plans are already underway for an exciting Eat Local Week 2011, December 3–10. If you would like to host an event or become an Eat Local Week sponsor, please contact us at info@ edibleaustin.com. A summary of our 2010 events, participants and sponsors can be found at edibleaustin.com.

Urban Roots still has memberships available for their 17-week CSA program that begins in March, 2011. For more information and to sign up, please go to urbanrootscsa.kintera.org.

DONATING RESTAURANTS AND MARKETS 360 Uno Trattoria & Wine Bar ASTI Trattoria Beets Living Food Café Bleu River Grille Blue Dahlia Bistro Buenos Aires Café Cafe Caffeine The Carillon Chez Nous Chez Zee Cipollina Cool Mint Cafe Counter Culture East Side Showroom Eastside Cafe Ecstatic Cuisine El Arbol Fabi + Rosi FINO Restaurant Patio & Bar Food 4 Fitness Cafe Frank & Angie's Pizzeria Guero’s Taco Bar Halcyon Home Slice Pizza Hut's Hamburgers Jack Allen's Kitchen Judges Hill Restaurant Kerbey Lane Cafe (all locations) La Boîte Café La Condesa

The Leaning Pear Magnolia Cafe Manuel's Restaurant Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill Mulberry NXNW Odd Duck Farm to Trailer Olivia Peoples RX (S. Lamar location) Red's Porch Rio’s Brazilian Cafe Snack Bar Somnio’s Cafe Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop Tacodeli TNT / Tacos and Tequila Thai Fresh Uchi Uchiko Ventana Zed’s Antonelli’s Cheese Shop Cedar Park Farms to Market Con’ Olio Oils & Vinegars Farmhouse Delivery Greenling Salt & Time SFC Farmers’ Market

THANKS TO OUR 2010 SPONSORS Platinum Sponsors:

Gold Sponsors: Silver Sponsors:

Les Dames d’Escoffier Austin

EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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

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1204 West Lynn 512.477.5584 jeffreysofaustin.com

American fare infused with Austin flair. Zed’s is your new oasis in the city.

1213 West Lynn 512.477.5211 cipollina-austin.com

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512 West Sixth Street, Austin, Texas 78701 (an easy right turn between San Antonio and Nueces streets).

Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM until 6:30 PM.

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SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

(512) 499-0512

Newsworthy

Setting the Stage

W

e’ve asked two noted Texas wine enthusiasts, Dr. Russell Kane, creator of the very popular wine blog, Vintage Texas, and Terry Thompson-Anderson, chef, cookbook author and creator of The Texas Food and Wine Gourmet, to whet our appetites with a few words of wine wisdom for the upcoming Edible Texas Wine and Food Pairing Competition.

Edible Austin: Why is wine and food pairing important?

Terry Thompson-Anderson: In any great meal, there’s a harmony of perfectly matched flavors—whatever the gourmet level of the meal. Think of some of your favorite comfort food dishes: perhaps brisket, a great burger with fries or a grilled, well-marbled rib-eye. Now, mentally taste those dishes if the beverages they were served with were warm jasmine tea, sweet plum wine and Nehi orange soda, respectively. Not pleasant matches on the mind’s tongue. The same reaction occurs when a wine is poorly matched to the meal with which it is served. Both the wine and the food may be of excellent quality on their own, but paired incorrectly, the flavor harmony of the dining experience is fractured.

Russell Kane: My feelings are that wines are made to be enjoyed, but are rarely consumed in isolation, and are accompaniments to food. For an optimal experience, I look for a wine that pairs with the dominant food element whatever it is—meat, sauce or spice. It’s where things start, but as they say on television, “wait there’s more.” The pairing of wine with food can also take into account the fruit, floral and herbal qualities that arise from both food and wine with pleasing, alluring and even unexpected results.

EA: Any tips on how wine and food pairing can be easily done?

RK: I usually start with the basics by matching the apparent weight or body of the wine to the food, then working to harmonize the intensity of aromas and flavors. A good example is the union of sauvignon blanc with a goat cheese appetizer or with a lighter white-meat fish. However, contrasting elements sometimes work wonders: crisp white wines or tannic red wines with dishes that are rich with oil, butter, cream or fat are an example. It can also be fun to take ethnic matches that simply evolved over time, usually for good reasons.

TTA: One of my favorite approaches to pairing is one that challenges me to explore new wines and foods. Starting with the wine, consider the varietal’s country of origin. The foods that are eaten in that country will give you a great insight into pairing that wine with food. The most often-used approach to pairing is to dissect the flavor and structural components of the wine in respect to the food. If the wine has a dominant fruit or berry taste on the palate, then a dish in which those flavors are used will be a good pairing.

If it’s a big, tannic red, or a white with lively acid, then it’s a great match for fatty foods, or butter- and cream-based sauces. If it’s earthy, smoky, with notes of tobacco or leather, think game meats and birds. A light white with herbaceous notes and little acid (like sauvignon blanc) pairs well with delicate fish and shellfish. If the dish is spicy, sweeter wines like Riesling will stand up to the heat.

EA: In Texas, what have been your most memorable wine and food pairings?

TTA: I love Texas tempranillo and have fond memories of noteworthy pairings with both grilled venison and lamb. The earthy, tobacco-like notes of the wine were a perfect match to the slightly musky flavors of the meats. For a simple finger food to serve with tempranillo, I go with iconic flavors from Spain: Spanish chorizo with sheep’s milk cheeses like Manchego and idiazabal. The deep, earthy, blackberry notes and slight smokiness of Texas syrah were a magnificent match to a pan-seared (medium rare) duck breast with a sort of blackberry demi-glace—the memory of which makes me salivate.

RK: In the late 1900s, I worked with a chef on a pairing. He proposed grilled red snapper with a lively zing of Texas flavors from a mayhaw jelly, lime and jalapeño glaze. I knew that the dish would easily overmatch conventional white wines. Luckily, Becker Vineyards had just released its first Texas viognier. It was a big, bold wine that matched the magnitude of the flavor explosion created by the chef. It offered rich floral, citrus and apricot notes that produced a level of interplay and palate excitement with the food that still makes me smile.

Call for Entries!

Deadline for entry: March 15 Competition Event: June 3 Event will be hosted at the AT&T Center’s Carillion Restaurant–Tejas Room during the 2011 International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference. Proceeds will benefit the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association.

For more information, Entry Forms, Rules and Guidelines as well as Sponsor Opportunities, go to edibleaustin.com/ediblewandf or call 512-441-3971.

EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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IT’S SPRING. RIDE YOUR BIKE.

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SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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2/1/11 9:54 AM

notable Mentions Edible Communities 2011 Local Hero Awards Congratulations to Austin’s winners picked by your online voting!

Farm/Farmer: Boggy Creek Farm, Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler Chef/Restaurant: Chef Sonya Coté, East Side Showroom Food Artisan: Stephanie McClenny, Confituras Beverage Artisan: Bill Norris, Haddingtons Nonprofit Organization: Sustainable Food Center

Edible Austin wins 2011 Eddy Awards

Olives Olé

Botanical Gardens San Antonio

International Olive Festival of Texas

enjoy gourmet foods • Texas wines • olive oil tastings • the region’s largest olive bar & more! olivesole.com

March 26 10 am – 4 pm $15 at the gate Free parking

And we’re proud to have been recognized for excellence in publishing from this year’s 2011 Edible Communities Annual Publishers Conference: Best Website (Winner for the second year) Best Editorial—Special Issue for Edible Austin COOKS! (Winner) Best Editorial Spread or Layout for “Setting the Season,” Edible Austin COOKS! (Finalist) Best Electronic Feature for our e-newsletter (Finalist)

Books, bites and banter Join us as we celebrate the release of Uchi: The Cookbook on Thursday, March 10 at Book People. Enjoy a sampling of bites prepared straight from the book’s recipes from 6:30–7 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with Chefs Tyson Cole and Paul Qui and Uchi: The Cookbook coauthor Jessica Dupuy. The event will be moderated by food writer MM Pack and Marla Camp. Buy a book, enjoy a bite and discuss all the ingredients it takes to make a cookbook!

Plan ahead to attend two key foodie events this spring and save money!

The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival has early bird rates for the first 500 tickets sold to Sunday Fair, the culminating grand tasting event of the festival which will be held at the Mexican American Cultural Center on Sunday, April 3, 1–5 p.m. Sunday Fair will include chef demonstrations, wine and food tastings, craft beer sampling, artisan producer showcases, vendor tents, a spirits pavilion and live music. Check out the more than two dozen events happening during the Festival March 31– April 3, including Cured: A Charcuterie and Wine Tasting on Friday, April 1, 3:30 p.m. at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, moderated by Marla Camp and featuring Austin’s top charcuterie talents Ben Runkle, Jesse Griffiths and Lawrence Kocurek, with tastings of salami, pâtés, terrines and cured delicacies paired with fortified and fine wines. More information and tickets at texaswineandfood.org.

Farm to Plate, Sustainable Food Center’s annual gala fundraiser event is also offering early bird ticket pricing until March 15 for general admission, as well as tables for 10. Farm to Plate brings local farmers, food artisans, chefs and craft beverage artisans together for an evening celebrating the flavors of Central Texas and will feature chefs David Bull of Congress, Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due and James Holmes of Olivia in addition to over 20 other Central Texas chefs. Farm to Plate will be held on Thursday, May 12 at the newly rebuilt Barr Mansion Artisan Ballroom and grounds. This event sells out early, so don’t miss this opportunity to attend and lend your support. More at sustainablefoodcenter.org.

logo art by Victory Garden of Tomorrow

Early bird Ticket pricing for two stellar Spring food events

10 am–4 pm FREE! rain or shine in partnership with SFC

Thanks to our Tour Sponsors—join them today!

Buck Moore Feed and Supply • Callahan’s General Store Edible Austin • Funny Farm Industries • H and H Poultry Mobile Chicken Coops • The Randall Burkey Company Victory Garden of Tomorrow • Wheatsville Food Coop For more information: fccooptour.blogspot.com EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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notable Mentions

0 11

Digestible Beats: A FUSEBOX special event

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SUSTAINABLE FOOD CENTER

M

ay

Benefit for: 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm at Barr Mansion 10463 Sprinkle Road Benefiting the programs of Sustainable Food Center, the fourth annual Farm to Plate fundraiser will bring local farmers, food artisans, chefs, winemakers and breweries together for an evening celebrating the flavors of Central Texas. Farm to Plate will raise awareness about local food systems and the need for increased access to healthy, fresh food for Central Texans.

Tickets and tables of 10 available at www.sustainablefoodcenter.org

Featuring Chef David Bull of Congress, Chef Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due & Chef James Holmes of Olivia in addition to over 20 other Central Texas Chefs

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Join Austin Museum of Art, Edible Austin and Fusebox Festival for an event celebrating music and food. Foley artist Buzz Moran and composer and musician Ben Webster, aka Butcher Bear, will transform the sounds of a meal prepared by East Side Showroom’s Chef Sonya Coté into a feast for the senses. Experience cooking and dining at an urban farm as a live sound mosaic. Tuesday, April 26 at 7 p.m. at Springdale Farm. For details and tickets see amoa.org/musicandfood.

Olives OLé festival moves to San Antonio botanical gardens Olives Olé, The International Olive Festival of Texas is presented by and benefits Les Dames d’Escoffier San Antonio and will be held this year at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens on March 26 from 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Learn all about olives, Mediterranean herbs and foods and sample limited edition boutique oils and olive products as well as meet internationally recognized names in the olive oil and gourmet olive industry. $15 at the gate. Children 10 and under free. Ample free parking. Food for free tastings and for purchase. More details at ldeisanantonio.org or olivesole.com.

East Austin Urban Farm Tour to benefit Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance This popular annual farm tour will be Sunday, April 17, from 1–5 p.m.

Visit these participating farms: Boggy Creek Farm, Rain Lily Farm, Springdale Farm and HausBar Farms and enjoy farmer-guided tours as well as chef-prepared tastings with food from the farms. For more information and how to buy tickets, contact Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at farmandranchfreedom.org.

Be a Backyard Chicken farmer!

Join us for the third annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour! Have you been thinking about keeping urban chickens? Do you need coop design ideas?

Then this is the tour for you! This self-guided and free tour will be Saturday, April 23, 10 a.m.–4 p.m and will go on rain or shine. And now is the time to join Edible Austin as a sponsor of this year’s tour, which is presented in partnership with the Sustainable Food Center. Go to fccooptour.blogspot.com for updates and upcoming announcement of an end-of-tour special evening event. And we’ll see you on the tour!

CIty Passes sustainable urban agriculture ordinances After more than 2 years of advocacy work by the Coalition of Austin Community Gardens and Sustainable Food Center, along with support from the City of Austin’s and Travis County’s Sustainable Food Policy Board, the City of Austin has passed a series of ordinances to make it easier to start community gardens on public land that includes hiring a program coordinator and making it more affordable to provide access to water. We applaud the vision, efforts and collaboration between city departments on these ordinances and look forward to reaping their benefits of strengthening our local food system.

First-Ever Wine and Food Pairing Competition announces top Food and wine judges Edible Austin and The Texas Food and Wine Gourmet are pleased to announce the Preliminary Judges Panel for the 2011 Edible Texas Wine and Food Pairing Competition. These top Texas food and wine professionals will have the responsibility of selecting the five finalists for the final competition event on Friday, June 3 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin.

Representing a diverse cross section of the wine and food industries in Texas from wholesale and retail wine sales, to food and wine writers, educators, critics, restaurateurs, sommeliers, wine buyers and media representatives, the panel is: Brenda Audino, Twin Liquors Fine Wine & Spirits; Devon Broglie, Advanced Sommelier and Whole Foods Market Southwest Regional Specialty Team; Doug Clark, CSW, Representative for On Premise Wine Division, Republic National Distributing Company; Alison Cook, food writer and critic, Houston Chronicle; Bear Dalton, Spec’s fine wine buyer and My Table wine and spirits editor; John Griffin, editor, cofounder SavorSA; Mary Martini, director, Central Market Cooking School; Jane Nickles, WineSpeak101; Tanji Patton, Good Taste with Tanji; Monica Pope, chef/owner, t'afia restaurant; John Roenigk, The Austin Wine Merchant; Pat Sharpe, food editor, Texas Monthly; Ron Smith, food writer and host for FM 106.7 Talk Radio in San Antonio; Renie Steves, Cuisine Concepts; Bonnie Walker, food writer and cofounder SavorSA; and Barbara Werley, Master Sommelier, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse.

The deadline to enter the competition is March 15. Fnalists will be announced on April 1. Find more information, rules and entry forms at edibleaustin.com/ediblewandf or call 512-441-3971.

This is the first time to our knowledge that an all-regional food and wine pairing competition that has been undertaken in any of the wine-producing states in the U.S. Its mission is to encourage the use of regional wine and food products, promote Texas chefs and restaurants, raise the bar for excellence in Texas winemaking and provide a platform for Texas wine and winemakers to reach a broader audience.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association. This first regional competition is open to chefs in Central Texas to design a three-course menu featuring regional Texas food paired with appellation Texas wines (wine made with grapes grown in Texas) from around the state.

The five finalists will be announced April 1. The finalists will prepare their three-course tasting menu at the June 3 competition event for 150 ticketed guests including culinary professionals from around the world and national media representatives. The competition is a featured optional event on the program during the 2011 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Annual Conference, June 1–4.

Tickets for the event will be available for sale to the public on March 1.

The final, on-site judging will be by a panel of national celebrities from the food and wine industries, including world-renowned chef, TV personality and culinary author Jacques Pépin; founder and director of L’Academie de Cuisine Francois Dionot and executive food and wine editor and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle Michael Bauer.

Stay tuned for the full Final Judges Panel and finalists announcement!

IMAGINE

Lavender

FARM

Creating from the genius of nature Culinary • Bath & Body products

Visit our ever-evolving farm!

April 15–July 3, Fri–Sun

17582 FM 337 E • Vanderpool

(8 miles from Lost Maples State Natural Area)

Visit us at SFC FM Downtown • Pearl Brewery FM-SA imaginelavender.com • 830-966-5101

Weaving, Knitting, Spinning, Alpacas & Sculpture Garden

April 9th—Spring Ranch Festival Alpaca Shearing Demo’s 11, 1 & 3 pm Register Now for Kids Summer Camps

www.TheOldOaksRanch.com Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 5 pm 601 Old Oaks Ranch Rd, Wimberley (512) 847-8784

Want your dog to be all he can be?

Small group classes Day training boot camps European-style puppy classes

Call Kim Roche!

Austin’s Independent Professional Dog Trainer

“With your guidance, Carver is a much happier dog. He has come a long, long way. Thank you so much, Kim.”—Jill S.

512-796-5783

kimthedogtrainer.com

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“Best place to cure what ails you”

Know what ails you—need guidance?

Our knowledgeable staff can help!

Let us help you explore our “Oasis of Earthly Delights,” featuring our comprehensive collections of herbs and body products.

theherbbar.com 200 West Mary 512.444.6251

Barton Creek FARMERS MARKET

grassfed meats • organic unhomogenized milk fresh cheeses & produce • local artisans specialty prepared food • live music!

Located on the back side of the Barton Creek Square mall parking lot overlooking the city held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Know your farmer, know your food at BartonCreekFarmersMarket.org

Navidad Farms

Texas Pecans, Candies & Gourmet Foods

9914 HWY. 290 West 512-288-1196 Mon-Sat 10 am-5 pm

www.navidadfarms.com 14

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notable Edibles A New Whirled View

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aby food. Saying the words conjures up thoughts and feelings that can, at best, be described as zzzzzzzz. The mush is typically bland, boring and only so-so for successfully piloting kamikaze spoon missions. But there’s a newborn on the babyfood block that’s whirling locally and sustainably farmed ingredients into surprisingly vibrant yummies for wee foodies.

Gather the family and pass out the cigars; Local Baby has arrived.

Tabatha Stephens and Yasmine Anderson are the proud founders of Local Baby. But before diving headfirst into the pint-size puree biz, the two became fast friends while attending Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in 2004. Since then, they’ve compiled an impressive collective resumé that includes Austin all-stars like ASTI, Lambert’s, Dai Due Supper Club and Cibo. Now back in the kitchen together, Stephens and Anderson are busy focusing their friendship and talents on making delicious baby food for freezers all over Austin.

Packaged in 16 half-ounce portions per container, Local Baby’s freezable meals range from creative toddler fodder like gluten-free chicken meatballs with butternut squash and applesauce, to Simply Beet, a puree of local beets with distilled water and Texas Olive Ranch olive oil—not only a bright visual treat, but also big on the palate.

“It’s about really tasting the vegetables and developing the palate in your child,” says Stephens. “We're both passionate about childhood nutrition—if you start children off on the right foot, then hopefully that will lead to positive eating habits for the rest of their lives.”

Local Baby seems to be helping to develop good eating habits for those beyond the diaper days, as well. As more and more parents head to the SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown specifically seeking Local Baby fare, they end up hanging around and doing more of their own shopping. Parents are even encouraged to get creative with Local Baby’s fruit and veggie purees by adding them to sauces, soups—even cocktails.

“Get a little veg impact in there!” Stephens says with a wry smile as Anderson nods along enthusiastically. ind Local Baby’s freezable meals every Saturday at the SFC Farmers’ F Market Downtown. For more information, visit localbabyaustin.com.

the motivational meal

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ouldn’t it be nice to have your boss working for you for a change? Better yet, to have him working for you in your kitchen? How great would that be?

Your boss slaving away over a hot stove for you. But why waste all of that culinary talent on just you? You’re not the selfish type. You should invite your coworkers. All of you could kick back with some wine and take your sweet time enjoying, say, savory mushroom crepes with Madeira and cream. Sure, they have to be painstakingly made, one by one, but your boss doesn’t mind. Just look at him back there, wide-eyed and covered in flour—loving it. Even better still, let’s do all of this dirtying-of-pans, feet-up-on-the-coffee-table business at HIS house. And for kicks, let’s throw his wife into the kitchen with him and let them handle all of the waiting and bussing, too. You wouldn’t want to break that wonderful sitting-and-eating streak, would you? No way. You should enjoy yourself!

The people of Whole Foods Market’s electronic-invoicing team certainly enjoyed every bit of it. And believe or not, so did their boss, Tobin McGill. In fact, it was all his idea. As a skilled team leader, McGill is wise to the traditional paths used to inspire and motivate a group of people.

But as a devout foodie, he also knows that a shared meal, and the rituals and community that often accompany great, handmade food, are enormously powerful bonding elements. What if the two were combined?

It all started when McGill challenged his team with the highly optimistic goal of bringing on board 20 new vendors in a year. He gath-

ered the troops and presented this carrot: “For every four new vendors acquired,” he said, “I will cook you one course of a meal.” It sounded so enticing that everyone got to work. When the team picked up vendor number four, they came a-knockin’. Soup was promised.

Then a few weeks later, the team dropped vendor number eight in McGill’s in-box. Gnocchi? Check. And before anyone could say “no takebacks!” the team had all 20 vendors wrapped up. McGill was ready to make good on his five-course promise, so he and wife, Eve Chenu, hit the local farms. The cauliflower from Johnson’s Backyard Garden would be perfect for the saffron-infused cauliflower soup, while the second course would showcase Boggy Creek Farm’s tomatoes and potatoes in gnocchi with herb roasted tomatoes, caramelized cipollini onions, goat cheese and thyme-infused balsamic vinegar.

McGill and Chenu opened their door and presented the team with a well-earned reward: a brilliant five-course meal paired with three types of wine and port. A successful motivational concept was set into motion—one that’s repeated with each new work challenge. “Although the meals may be motivational,” McGill notes, “they also allow me to express my appreciation for their hard work in a more sincere and personal way.” During this, and each subsequent dinner, McGill’s dining room is filled with the kind of camaraderie, laughter and connection that only the sharing of a good meal can bring. Afterward, the team leaves, stuffed to the brim with goodness, appreciation and renewed inspiration.

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Taste the Difference.

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Boggy Creek Farm

From Plow to Pie

Market Days: Wednesday and Saturday 9 AM to 1 PM www.boggycreekfarm.com

Fresh Organic Strawberries

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47 flavors including:

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Wasabi Ranch - Coconut Curry - Smores Jalapeno Cheddar - Caramel Pecan Southpark Meadows Shopping Center (next to amy’s)

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A

fter you’ve wrapped up a weekend tour of farmers markets, and both your afternoon and your stomach are feeling empty, do yourself a favor and head east.

Nestled next to a posterbombed record store, just out of sight from the prying eyes of the skyline, the pizza-making mothership of East Side Pies (ESP) has set down its anchor. Hop in the line and pray that at least one slice of their farm-to-table pizza is still available.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning, ESP co-owners Michael Freid and Noah Polk hit the farmers markets with a sense of creative culinary enthusiasm. The latest of the local harvest—the very same you’ve just been perusing—fights for their attention with high hopes of being included in this week’s special. Last week, it was the Brussels sprouts and the ever-geometrically gorgeous, purple fractal cauliflower that had the honor. Last summer, it was the peaches and ricotta.

“I made this spicy chimichurri that made your ears ring!” Freid exclaims with ballooned Dizzy Gillespie cheeks and antler hands mimicking steam from his ears. “But with the peaches, it was really good!” So good, in fact, that the whole lot had sold out by day’s end Monday.

Available just by the slice and only at the Rosewood location, ESP’s farm-to-table treasures never hang around long enough to make it to the menu, but there’s still an amazing lineup of regular hitters to please that primed pizza palate of yours. All of the pies share ESP’s Austin-style crust—a Roman-influenced base that’s more like a thin, crisp cracker than a pie crust—and stand ready to cradle ingredients like artichokes, red potatoes, sauerkraut, roasted eggplant, homemade Italian sausage and homemade meatballs. The menu is absolute heaven for those who love to meander through a million options, but to others, it might evoke a feeling of overwhelming panic similar to that of a last minute deadline. Om shanti, amigo. Take a deep breath and simply order a slice with the spinach curry sauce—a stroke of culinary genius inspired by the kids’ Indian takeout order.

“You know, the kids…the kids who work here,” explains Freid. “Every Monday, they come in here with this spinach slop. So, one day we tried it on the pizza. It worked out.” The explanation doesn’t do it justice; it works wonders.

East Side Pies 1401 Rosewood Ave. 512-524-0933 5312 Airport Blvd. Suite G 512-454-7437 eastsidepies.com

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Broken Arrow Ranch An artisanal purveyor of high quality, free-range venison, antelope and wild boar meat from truly wild animals.

Enjoy meat as Mother Nature makes it!

• Free-ranging animals humanely field-harvested on local ranches • Extremely low in fat; hormone- and antibiotics-free • The finest, most natural game meat available • Acclaimed nationally, available locally • Order online or visit our store in Ingram 3296 Junction Hwy., Ingram, TX 78025

800-962-4263 • brokenarrowranch.com

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Chi apas farms O r g a n i c Fa i r t r a d e c O F F e e Find Chiapas Farms at these local retailers

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Let Food Be Your Medicine.

North 219-9499 • South 444-8866 • Central 459-9090 • Westlake 327-8877

PeoplesRx.com

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Blue Dahlia Bistro

Expose

yourself

to good food.

1115 E. 11th St. 512.542.9542 bluedahliabistro.com 18

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hyde park, austin 4220 Duval Street (512) 531-9610

Tues-Sat:11-7; Sun:12-5

AntonellisCheese.com

Marketplace

Trip to Bountiful b y J e r em y Wa lt h e r

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any of us in the Central Texas community seek out and utilize local food outlets because we value the work of organic farmers, we refuse to trade health for cheap food and we understand the importance of sustainability. At the same time, we don’t feign immunity to the seemingly endless choices offered by the convenience of mainstream markets and outlets. We want the best of both worlds.

The Bountiful Sprout (TBS) gets it. Conceived in 2007 by a small group of people who are passionate about healthy food and locally sustainable economies and communities, TBS’s innovative model combines the positive components of community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, wholesale markets, farmers markets and local food delivery services, and weeds out the not-so-great parts.

“When I was managing the Wimberley Farmers’ Market, I often heard the frustrations from both sides,” explains TBS founder Heather Carter. “It was a pain for farmers, and customers would stop coming when selection went down seasonally. I love going to farmers markets, and still regularly shop them, but wanted to create a model that could draw in new people who aren’t interested in going to four or five different places to get their groceries every week. Out of that, The Bountiful Sprout was born.”

Carter and her husband, Marc Gitterle, along with a group of local folks with similar goals, organized a board of directors and got to work. Gitterle discovered an open-source software program developed by a food co-op in Oklahoma, adapted it and with input from the TBS board, created a web-based market of all locally produced goods.

“[TBS’s] online system is extremely easy to use for both producers and consumers,” says Joan Chisholm of Chisholm Cattle Company, a TBS producer who raises natural Angus and Wagyu beef in Wimberley. “They offer simple, one-stop shopping for a wide variety of natural and organic products, and help small local producers get started and thrive.”

TBS’s software automates many accounting and labeling functions for producers, allows them to set their own prices and helps them share details of their sustainability, husbandry and production methods. But here’s the best part from a producer’s perspective: because of the low overhead, zero waste and maximum efficiency of the TBS model, producers keep 92 percent of their sales.

“I think TBS’s method of charging a percentage can be a very appropriate model for certain producers,” says member Lance Clark of Richardson Farms, who raises grassfed beef, pastured pork and poultry and specialty grains. “It really benefits those smaller farmers who don’t sell very much, and allows them to keep more money in their pockets.”

But offering a unique avenue for smaller local producers to sell their goods isn’t the only goal of TBS. They also make efforts to support existing markets.

“There are some farmers who actually list their CSA boxes on TBS’s website,” says Carter. “For those folks, TBS is another way to market their already-established CSA programs to customers who might not otherwise know about them. This way, a customer can get all their veggies from a CSA box, plus local honey from another producer, meat from another, bread from another, dog food, corn meal, EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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savor

New Braunfels/Gruene

“Central Texas has a rich, vibrant community of people who grow and make high-quality products....

The Bountiful Sprout model offers a way to connect local producers with consumers in a truly sustainable way.”—Heather Carter jewelry, eggs . . . all at the same time and with the click of a mouse.”

Adding another dimension to the existing local food market doesn’t just benefit producers; it also attracts customers who don’t regularly shop at existing farmers markets, use local food delivery services or subscribe to a CSA program.

“TBS keeps me off the streets,” says Terri Burney-Bisett of Wimberley, one of TBS’s first customers. “Occasionally I shop in San Marcos, and a few times a year will go to Austin. With TBS, I have the convenience of shopping right from home, anytime, at my convenience.”

Carter is quick to note that TBS seeks to enhance—not compete with—the existing local food market. “We aren’t trying to compete with established markets; we’re trying to help them!” she says. “Central Texas has a rich, vibrant community of people who grow and make high-quality products, and a large proportion of consumers here are eager to support them. The TBS model offers a way to connect local producers with consumers in a truly sustainable way.”

The Bountiful Sprout currently has pick-up locations in Wimberley and Fredericksburg, and a third site in Austin is planned soon. o learn more about The Bountiful Sprout, and to get a peek at the T inventory for the current ordering cycle, visit bountifulsprout.com.

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All in One Bake Shop Make it sweet!

Locally sourced Mexico City-style cuisine 2010 James Beard Award Nominee Best New Restaurant

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Terry Wilson with husband Terry and kids Lena and Matt

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COOKS at home

Terry Wilson

by Shannon Oelrich • photography by Marc Brown

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quarelle co-owner and chef Terry Wilson has eaten at some of the finest restaurants in France, but there’s a special place in her heart for her mom’s cooking. “I remember going to bed as a kid and dreaming about the leftover mashed potatoes and gravy,” she says wistfully.

Lupita Foreman, Wilson’s mom, often has the whole family over for a big dinner on Sunday evenings. The crew usually includes Wilson and her husband (also named Terry) and kids Lena (age 9) and Matt (age 7). Wilson’s adult daughters, Diana and Rachel, also attend when they’re in town. “My mom might make roast and mashed potatoes…or her special macaroni,” says Wilson, who makes the same dish—a Mexican-style version of macaroni and cheese—for her kids. She loved this dish growing up because it filled the house with a familiar, comforting, savory aroma, and she enjoys filling her own house with the same smell.

Wilson is committed to family and to food, and though Aquarelle is known for its elaborate French preparations, at home with the kids, things are kept simple. “I don’t make a lot of sauces for the kids,” she says. “They love lamb and steak, which they call ‘wiggly meat’ because I cook it medium rare. I cook veggies very lightly, almost raw, and just serve with a little salt so the flavor comes through.

They don’t like fresh tomato, though, which is devastating to me. It’s one of my favorite foods.”

Ironically for a chef focused on French cuisine, one of Wilson’s least favorite foods is snails—though it hasn’t always been that way.

“My dad was in the military, and we lived in Okinawa for a while when I was little,” she says. “The humidity there was so high that snails would climb up the inner walls of the house. My brothers tell the story that my mom would find me after a nap with shells all around my mouth because I would grab the snails off the wall and eat them. I don’t remember it.”

These days there’s little time for napping, as Wilson’s schedule is pretty hectic. Along with work at the restaurant, she stays involved with her children’s school and activities—but food is never far from the focus. She coaches her daughter’s basketball team at the Y— sometimes picking up the entire team from school and taking them to the restaurant to eat before practice. Last year, when her son’s kindergarten class studied the sea, Wilson did a cooking demonstration for them. “Smelt, octopus, calamari, mussels and clams, softshell crab and lobster,” she says. “I brought the whole animal so they could see it, then I prepared it. I asked them to just let themselves try one bite. About 85 percent of the kids tried things and liked them.

Overall, they liked octopus best, surprisingly.”

Wilson is also active in the community. As a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a philanthropic society of women in food and

hospitality, she helps distribute food to Caritas and outreach ministries at University United Methodist Church. She takes the kids along sometimes, and it’s become a family tradition to serve food at the church on Thanksgiving and Christmas. She wants her children to learn about giving to others who don’t have as much, and food as an elemental need is a great place to start. “One year, Matt was serving broccoli and this big, lumbering guy comes through the line.

Matt says, ‘Broccoli, sir?’ The guy doesn’t look at him, mumbles, ‘No.’ Then he looks up and sees this little kid and says, ‘For you, man…sure.’”

LUPITA’S MACARONI “This is my mom’s version of macaroni and cheese with a Mexican twist. It’s great for using up leftover meat and using only one pot!”

Serves 6 to 8 Olive oil to cover bottom of pan 1 12-oz. package macaroni 3 heaping T. minced garlic 3 heaping T. minced shallots 1½ T. cumin seed 3 T. chili powder 1½ qt. chicken stock, plus extra as needed 2 T. tomato paste Leftover steak, pork or chicken, cut into cubes Salt and pepper, to taste 1 c. cooked peas 2 c. grated Cheddar cheese 1 c. diced tomatoes ½ c. chopped cilantro Hot sauce or crushed chile piquins (optional)

Heat a large pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Cook the macaroni in the oil until light brown, but not more than 1 minute.

Add the garlic, shallots, cumin and chili powder and cook for 1 minute, being careful not to burn them. Add the chicken stock, then add the tomato paste and stir. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let the pasta cook through—stirring occasionally (don’t be hasty with this step, or all the starch will cook out of the pasta). If it starts to dry out, add a little more stock—you want to end up with a sauce.

When the noodles are almost cooked, add the meat and season with salt and pepper. Add the peas and stir. Finish with Cheddar cheese—gradually stirring it into the broth until it melts. Reserve a little cheese to melt over the top. Garnish with the chopped tomato, cilantro and reserved cheese, or spice it up with hot sauce or crushed chile piquins if desired.

EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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Farmers diary

Fredericksburg Grassfed Beef b y h e l e n c o r d e s • p h o t o g r a p h y b y A n d y s a ms

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W

hen Chuck Schmidt hollers for his young charges on a recent afternoon, the placid Angus and Herefords moo back and start ambling toward him in a languid procession. The line of contented cattle brings a satisfied smile to Chuck’s sunburned profile—each animal carries the lineage of cows that for over 50 years have grazed these same hills surrounding the 1888 Schmidt family home nestled on the Pedernales River.

“What’s special about us is that we have a closed herd,” says Chuck, who owns Fredericksburg Grassfed Beef along with his wife, Teppi, and Trish and Lonnie

Marquardt, Chuck’s sister and brother-in-law. “That means we don’t buy outside cattle to stock our herd, except for the occasional bull. And that means we know everything about where the meat comes from.”

This focus on quality control is paramount to the owners and a happy reward for customers who make a beeline for the beef every Saturday morning at the SFC Farmers’ Market–Downtown.

The four owners would love to subsist on their business—one of the first ranches in the area to offer grassfed beef—but the current sad economic state for a small agricultural operation keeps that notion a future goal.

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Fredericksburg Grassfed Beef co-owners Lonnie and Trish Marquardt and Chuck and Teppi Schmidt with children Charles and Caitlin (Schmidt’s other daughter Sarah not shown)

“What’s special about us is that we have a closed herd…

And that means we know everything about where the meat comes from.”

—Chuck Schmidt 26

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To supplement, Chuck is a distribution manager for a power tool company, and Teppi teaches at Fredericksburg Christian School. Lonnie does real estate sales and appraisal, and Trish is a nursing manager at the VA hospital. But when it comes to the beef business, it’s all-hands-ondeck for the family—the Schmidts’ teen daughters, Caitlin and Sarah, aptly handle farmers market setup and sales with the help of younger brother Charles. “They’ve been coming to the market with me since they were little,” says Teppi, “and they barely need me except for the driving.”

Ranching and farming run thick in the Schmidts’ blood, so when Chuck and Trish’s father was ready to retire from the ranch, the opportunity for them to take over was a no-brainer—as was the decision to adhere to the long-standing business ethos of raising healthy animals on a palette of nutritious, flavor-boosting grasses, avoiding the use of antibiotics and hormones and keeping the focus on the well-being of the animal. “We believe that happy animals make better beef,” says Teppi.

Though the demands of working a ranch after coming home from a

“It’s a real treat to meet our customers face-to-face. They know we’re all in this together.”

—Teppi Schmidt

photo by Jody Horton

day job could certainly test the mettle of many, it’s not even at the top of the challenge list for the Schmidts and Marquardts. “The drought that started in 2006 isn’t over,” says Lonnie. “We only got 10 percent of the rain we usually get in the fall.” When the grasses languish, alfalfa must be bought for the cattle. Expenses continue to climb with the inflation rate— including the beef processing that eats up a third of the income. “We have the beef finished at a USDA-inspected facility near here, and they have a lot of expensive regulation that’s part of their cost,” says Chuck.

Rising before the sun to pack the trailer for the long farmers market haul is no picnic either, and divining the buyer’s mind is sometimes Teppi Schmidt trying. “A while back, we had a lot of roasts cut for the winter market, thinking that people would want them,” Chuck recalls. “But they didn’t, so we had to turn those into different cuts.”

Plus, “everybody wants steaks!” Lonnie says with a rueful grin. But there are only around seven pounds of tenderloin—the most sought-after cut—per animal, and it’s sometimes a task to educate the customers to the grassfed wonders of the cuts beyond. At the market, Teppi shares simple cooking tips with customers hesitant to try tenderloin alternatives.

Teppi notes that some customers are getting more adventurous, though, and she hopes it’s a trend that’ll help them sell more of the entire animal. “One guy told me he intended to cook every cut from tail to tongue,” Teppi says, “so we’re bringing everything he wants to try.” Another health-conscious customer requests all of their marrow bones to make a supercharged stock, and a college student buys up every package of meaty soup bones they bring to market. “It’s a terrific buy, because we leave on a lot of meat,” says Chuck. “One lady called me and said, ‘I think you gave me the wrong cut because of all the meat that’s on the soup bones.’”

Another revenue-raising tactic ahead is selling sausage-stick snacks, with added pork from wild boar. “We’ll offer them with and without cheese,” Teppi says. She’s busy with the labeling and approval process and hot on the trail for the right local, hormone-free cheese. And the bounty from the pecan grove on the home site may soon be headed for the market, as well.

As the business slowly builds, the four owners feel they’re making a difference with food that’s healthier for people and the planet. “We’re trying to be good stewards of the land by careful grazing rotation,” Lonnie notes. “And it’s a real treat to meet our customers face-to-face,” adds Teppi.

“They know we’re all in this together.”

Twin County Lamb 830-864-4717

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Uchi: The cookbook

By Tyson Cole and JessiCa dupuy

For chef Tyson Cole, sushi has always been more than just food; it’s an expression of his love and respect for Japanese culture.

Cole’s sole purpose is simple: to create the perfect bite. This new cookbook from Chef Cole and writer Jessica Dupuy bring these delicious bites to your table from Cole’s acclaimed Austin restaurant, Uchi.

• Bookstore • Giftshop • Coffeehouse 9 am - 11 pm everyday shop online at: www.bookpeople.com

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603 N. Lamar 472-5050

Casual French Bistro Since 1982 510 Neches St. 473-2413 LUNCH Tues.–Fri. DINNER Tues.–Sun.

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Edible corrections

YARD LABOR b y E l l en S w eets

Photography by Andy Sams

“We wanted to give inmates the opportunity to give back. And it’s therapeutic. It gives them a chance to think about why they’re here, to dig hands in dirt and see something grow from their labor.”

—Sheriff Greg Hamilton

I

t’s a mild, blue-sky weekday that finds seven men in identical turquoise-and-gray-striped shirts and pants working on nicely banked rows of newly started plants. Their color-coded apparel identifies them as residents of the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle, yet they are unceremoniously doing what hundreds of home gardeners throughout Travis County would be doing by week’s end: preparing a garden—an organic garden at that.

There’s a big difference, of course—these gardeners labor within the confines of a 10-foot chain-link fence topped with coiled razor wire that’s two and a half feet in diameter. As the men rake, shovel and hoe, Pete Trotman surveys what remains of the season’s garden. Trotman supervises the Marketable Skills Program for Travis County—a project designed to provide prisoners opportunities to make a positive change in their lives.

Tall and wiry, Trotman walks through a garden launched in May 2010. By midsummer, it had produced one and a half tons of fruit and vegetables; by September’s end, a bumper crop of jalapeños, serranos and Tabasco peppers left staff scratching their heads trying to figure out how best to use them. And by late October, two and a half acres of new rows had been added that would eventually yield pumpkins, radishes, beets, broccoli, peas, spinach, carrots, winter peas, mustard and collard greens. An acre of now-weary tomato, okra, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, cantaloupe and watermelon plants have already been incorporated into meals for the correctional facility’s inmate population. The produce thrives in the dark soil that’s enriched with compost created on the premises, and natural repellents like orange oil and the strategic planting of peppers ward off pests. Seeds are saved and started for new plantings.

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find it at

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“At one point, we had so much okra we asked a cook who was from Louisiana to make gumbo using vegetables from the garden,” Trotman says with a smile. “The prisoners were talking about that meal for weeks.”

And that’s OK with Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton, who’d been searching for a way to launch a garden. He’d sought early guidance at the SFC Farmers’ Market–Sunset Valley Farmers Market, where he found Hairston Creek Farms’ Gary Rowland, a certified organic farmer in Burnet County. They struck up a conversation.

“I got involved because Sheriff Hamilton asked me to help, and he’s a hard man to say no to,” Rowland says. “He wanted to know how to get started, so I worked with him and Pete for about six months. Then [I] went out every six weeks or so and talked to the guys about how things were going. It helped that it was old farmland anyway, so it was pretty good soil. We brought in some composted manure to get them started, and they went from there.”

Rowland expressed support for Hamilton’s efforts. “I think [the garden] is a good opportunity to give people with trouble in their lives something positive to do,” he says. It’s a perfect echo of Hamilton’s goal, and then some.

“We wanted to give inmates the opportunity to give back,” Hamilton says. “And it’s therapeutic. It gives them a chance to think about why they’re here, to dig hands in dirt and see something grow from their labor. These men and women need to be working instead of watching people on Jerry Springer throw chairs at one another. I believe that, over time, we’re going to have incarcerated individuals who will get out and start their own gardens and do something constructive with their lives.

It can be a win-win situation.”

Hamilton, who has held his current post since 2005, is the first to dismiss those who would accuse him of being soft on criminals. “I tell people that I know I’m not your normal sheriff, but I believe that any sheriff who doesn’t try to help people to be productive is derelict in their duties. Only 7 percent of the people in our facility actually go on to the penitentiary. That means roughly 93 percent are going back into the community. It doesn’t accomplish anything to keep people like caged animals. That old way of thinking that we can keep doing the same thing over and over and get a different result really is insanity. People want to build more prisons…I say let’s come up with some meaningful programs that keep [inmates] from coming back.”

Hamilton hangs his hopes on inmates like Hunter Leadford. Before the infraction that landed him inside the aforementioned fence, he had a garden of his own—only his focused on flowers. “I had a rose garden, including white roses, but this is good too,” he says. “I’m getting to pick jalapeños and play with tomato vines, which I enjoy, and do some planting, which I enjoy not so much. But it’s a lot nicer than being inside all day.”

Since the garden’s inception, an incarcerated population of 2,200 has been fed from its bounty. On any given day, two to twelve inmates might work the field. That number is augmented by work-release participants who report to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on weekends. Prisoners are primarily in for misdemeanor crimes.

Drawn from a pool of inmate volunteers, potential participants are assessed by a classifications department using a point scale based on several factors, including the nature of their offenses, past behavior and recommendations—the lower the number, the more likely an individual will be accepted into the gardening project. The passing men and women are qualified to become trustees (both men and women work in the gardens, separately), and corrections officer Richard Constancio says, to date, the chosen few have worked out well.

“People get out into the sun and do something positive,” he says. “I think

“People want to build more prisons…I say let’s come up with some meaningful programs that keep [inmates] from coming back.”—Sheriff Greg Hamilton it makes a difference, too, when they know the food they’ve grown and harvested turns up on their plates. It gives them pride in knowing they did it.”

Near the garden plots, a platform holds 16 trays filled with plastic cups, each marked according to the seeds being started. A stone’s throw away sits the skeletal frame for a greenhouse, and across from it stands a shed housing a mound of deteriorating summer garden remnants en route to becoming compost. This does, indeed, mean something to the inmates. A prisoner who chose not to give his name is already looking forward to returning to his home garden where he grew tomatoes, carrots and cabbage.

“I grew up with my grandmother, who grew vegetables, and she never used any chemicals,” he says. “It’s soothing to be outside on a nice day like this and know we’re going to eat what we grow.” His companions nod in agreement.

Food service sergeant Dianne Bratchett sees to it that what the inmates grow becomes a flavorful component of daily meals—no small task when feeding more than 2,000 people three times a day. “When Pete’s crew delivers [the harvest], we look at what’s been delivered from the outside and figure out ways to see where their food fits,” she says. “We put cantaloupe and watermelon on trays at breakfast. Instead of frozen broccoli, we’ll use squash, bell peppers and onions. We might have turkey tetrazzini with broccoli or chicken with an okra, tomato and squash casserole.”

Bratchett, who not only loves fresh vegetables, but likes to cook, says good food makes a difference in morale—which comes back full circle to Sheriff Hamilton and his food philosophy.

“When I was campaigning for this job,” says Hamilton, “I went to a meeting where one man said I was soft on crime. He got up and said, ‘you want to get in a room with all these criminals, hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.”’ And I said that if an inmate comes in here, stays and learns the skills to be a plumber or a carpenter or an accomplished gardener, then yes—I’ll hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’ right along with him—especially if he never comes back.”

Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt is a big supporter of Hamilton’s efforts. “All credit belongs to Sheriff Hamilton, the fine folks at the Travis County Sheriff’s Office and the inmates who volunteered to help make this a reality,” she says. “My role in the project was only to be encouraging as they laid out and executed this inspired plan.”

What’s next for the program? Chickens in a movable coop so inmates can have fresh eggs and the garden will have on-site fertilizer. “What the heck,” Hamilton says. “One of these days we might even have our own cows so inmates can learn butchering skills…if PETA doesn’t pitch a fit.”

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Montesino Farm b y E l i z a b e t h W i n s l o w • p h o t o g r a p h y b y J o d y HO rt o n

T

he sun comes up much earlier on a farm— at least it sure feels that way. With the first crow of the rooster on Sunday morning, my children tumble out of bed and run out into the misty morning light to the fields in pj’s and rubber boots to help with the lettuce harvest. We’re staying at Montesino Farm in Wimberley, in the just-completed farm studios that

owner Scott Mitchell built to weave agritourism into the farm’s operational model. The studios are more than just a way to bolster the bottom line, though.

“We are always working to educate our community about the reality and the beauty of a small organic farm,” explains farm manager Melody McClary. “As this part of the farm

Previous page: Montesino Farm’s “hidden meadow,” cleared from a stand of cedar by owner Scott Mitchell.

Clockwise from left: David Burk washes just-harvested carrots in Montesino’s washing shed. Melody McClary harvests radishes. Farm breakfast (made by guest) of buttermilk pancakes, Richardson Farm breakfast sausage and blackberry compote. Farm studio bedroom.

Opposite page: Scott Mitchell.

36

SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

grows, we hope to offer educational classes that range from harvesting in the garden [to] culinary classes, from meal prep to canning and even harvesting meats.”

Staying overnight on the farm gives guests an opportunity to experience the farm up close and year-round. McClary’s life partner and fellow farm manager, David Burk, has no problem listing a few of his favorite seasonal farm treasures: “In the summer I love the river; in the rainy season, exploring the grottos that form from waterfalls in the canyon; in early spring the peach orchard blossoms; and in the winter I love the warmth of the greenhouses,” he says. “We’re hoping people come again and again to see the farm in all its different phases.”

McClary had given me a brief tour of the unfinished studios several months prior to this visit. The idea of experiencing a true immersion in the rhythms of life on a farm was intriguing, so as soon as the cabins were ready, my family and I shed our city clothes in favor of jeans and boots, packed up the car with wine, coffee and a few provisions and drove the 45 minutes from Austin to a slower way of life.

The drive out to Montesino makes for a beautiful excursion in itself. Curving roads weave through classic Texas Hill Country vistas, past vineyards and pasture, through the charming, sleepy little town of Wimberley with its artsy shops and homey cafes and over the Blanco River, which cuts through the Montesino Farm property bordered on both sides by stair-stepped limestone ledges and juniper, oak, mesquite, cypress and cedar trees. Looking down the length of the river as we drive through the gates of the farm, one imagines how refreshingly cool these waters would feel in the summer after a long hike in the canyon.

When we arrive, the door to our cabin is open, with fresh breezes blowing in and sunlight streaming through the windows. We find that our hosts have harvested carrots, tender lettuces, sharp, spicy green garlic, onions and duck eggs for our breakfast. While we unpack and get settled, the children go outside and push each other on the swing that’s tethered to the branches of a pecan tree that must be over 100 years old.

Looking out from the studios, one sees the orderly farm fields stretch down to the road, bordered by the greenhouses where seeds are started, a peach and blackberry orchard and a barn built by Mitchell, a visionary designer and builder originally from Houston.

Mitchell bought the property in 1998 as an occasional Hill Country escape from city life in Austin—a place to inspire creativity. The property that was to become Montesino captured him with its stunning beauty—rolling pastures bordered by the river on one side and a half circle of hills on the other, crowned by montesino, the little mountain.

Over the years, the property has transformed into a beautiful farm with rich soil and abundant crops carefully tended by McClary and Burk, and exquisite farm buildings crafted by Mitchell.

In addition to the studios and a magnificent 28-foot pole barn, the property is home to a reclaimed 1940s Quonset hut (a prefabricated semicircular structure built of corrugated galvanized steel) and McClary and Burk’s home—an old pine cottage moved onto the farm from East Austin and lovingly restored. The studios are impeccably built—modern but comfortable—and inside, evidence of Mitchell’s eye for detail and high standards for construction is abundant. The two duplex studios each offer a queen bed and pull-out sofa bed, a modest, efficient kitchen and a roomy bathroom with a large shower.

Outside, there’s a small yard with a fire pit for gathering and cook-

ing—all shaded by the sprawling branches of ancient pecans.

As the afternoon sun begins to mellow, McClary and Burk offer to lead us on a property tour. The densely planted fields are fascinating—even the children stop their explorations long enough to hear about the work that goes into growing food. McClary explains that the regular Friday afternoon farm tours will be a way for people to leave the farm not only rested and rejuvenated, but edified as well.

“We really want people to see, firsthand, what it takes to grow a carrot or raise a chicken” she says. “Our guests will see our everyday lives—we’ll be prepping for markets, harvesting produce and taking care of animals.”

Before heading back to start dinner, we hike to the top of the little mountain to enjoy what is perhaps the most stunning view on the property. Facing west, we see the sun slip down across a sky stained orange. Swallows dip and dive, and in the silence we can hear the sweet song of the canyon wren. In the distance, someone has started a fire in the fire pit, and a thin wisp of smoke drifts up, calling us back. Someone’s got to pour the wine, marinate the meat, chop the just-harvested produce for dinner and prep the marshmallows for roasting. It’s a tough life here, visiting the farm, and the sun is threatening to rise even earlier tomorrow. or more information on Montesino Farm and booking a studio, visit the F farm’s website at montesinoranch.com.

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Black Star Rising

By Andrea Bearce • Photography by Aimee Wenske

Black Star business team member Dana Curtis and cofounder Steven Yarak

H

ow does an idealistic gang of mathematicians, physicists and chemists develop a loyal following of hardcore beer nerds?

They offer them free beer, of course. Or they did, starting in 2006, when Steven Yarak dreamed up a plan to open the world’s first community-owned, member-managed brewpub—a dream now realized in Austin’s Black Star Co-op.

Yarak began campaigning for the grassroots project by holding beer socials in his backyard. The informal gatherings, replete with an array of free beer samples, helped create a sense of community, and people slowly warmed to the idea of a one-time membership fee. Within a few years, Yarak and his team were hosting socials for more than 1,000 people and had raised more than $500,000 to begin construction on the Black Star brewpub.

“The beer socials were key,” says board president Mark Wochner.

Beer enthusiasts such as himself were easily lured by the opportunities to taste innovative, garage-brewed craft beers. “There aren’t many events happening outside of South by Southwest where people are just giving away free beer, so people started to pay attention to us when we had a beer social,” Wochner says.

Also key was the development of a functioning cooperative struc-

ture. Wochner explains that Black Star works somewhat like a corporation, in that people buy shares to gain a piece of the company. But in a co-op environment, each member can only purchase one share.

“A lot of people go to a brewpub three or four times a week and they know everyone and feel like they own the place—but they don’t,” Wochner says. “At Black Star, you actually do own the place, with a really minimal investment.”

Memberships are available for $150, and include equal voting rights to all business decisions, access to members-only events and eventual benefits from profit sharing once earnings are made. Members also elect a group of nine volunteers who act as the board of directors to oversee policy governance, as well as the self-managed workers’ assembly—the group of employees who run the day-to-day restaurant and brewery duties. By allowing the employees an elevated level of autonomy, the board of directors hopes to encourage personal accountability.

“They all have a say in things that have a direct bearing on their livelihood,” Wochner says. “The idea is that when you are given that much power, there’s a sense of ownership and a sense of pride— people stick around longer and do better work.”

EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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Black Star chef Johnny Livesay notes that self-management has made the kitchen team more collaborative. “There’s a lot of democratic control, and that’s something that you don’t get in most restaurants,” Livesay says. “We know what we need to do, and when we don’t agree on things we talk about it and come to a solution, hopefully by consensus.”

Livesay insists that this new level of commitment and continuity allows for better service, food, and beer, and the opportunity to pay all employees a living wage— alleviating the need for customers to tip.

“Every day the majority of our customers are going to be members. They already own the business; they are already paying our wages,” he says. “We can set the wages higher because of that, and because of that, we don’t have to take a tip from them.”

Kevin Jolly, a Black Star member and frequent patron, says participation offers him the opportunity to influence how the business is run, and to ensure that all decisions are made with ethical intentions.

“I’m proud that I’m a member of an organization that pays a living wage and provides health insurance for employees,” says Jolly. “Not many bars serve the self-satisfied feeling that you’re doing the right thing along with your pale rye ale.”

Jolly also says he enjoys the wide selection of craft beers rotating in and out of Black Star’s 20 taps, some of which come from Black Star’s new brewery. “They turn around the guest beers so quickly, so there is always something new to try.”

A mathematician at heart, brewer Jeff Young divides Black Star’s house-brewed beer menu into two distinct categories: rational and irrational. The rational beers stick to traditional methods and flavorings, while the irrational beers play with things like wild fermentation and 40

SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

local ingredients such as wildflower honey and Texas peaches.

Great emphasis is also placed on other small breweries—especially Austin crafters like Jester King and Thirsty Planet.

“One of the values of being a co-op is to support local interests, so we are going to support as many local businesses as we can,” Wochner says.

Livesay, formerly the produce manager at Wheatsville Food Co-op, extends the local philosophy to the Texas pub grub he serves to hungry patrons. Using meat from Richardson Farms, chickens from Gonzales and redfish from Lonestar Aquafarms, he ensures that the proteins used at Black Star are from humane and environmentally responsible sources.

“We are just trying to keep it as local and sustainable as possible,” he says.

Of course, membership in the co-op isn’t required to patronize Black Star; members and nonmembers alike are welcome to enjoy a pint, kick back in the spacious, loft-like setting and nibble a bite on the sun-bathed patio. By remaining dedicated to quality and consciousness in every aspect of the business, the Black Star team is gaining more followers and more members each week.

“It’s become my wife’s favorite place for a quick dinner, and she’s not even a beer nerd,” Jolly says. “It really has that pub feel—local, friendly, comfortable.”

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Edible Agronomics

Diversity in the marketplace b y K r isti Wi l l is

E

ureka! You’ve unearthed something at the farm stand that you haven’t seen before—maybe it’s sweet potato greens, kohlrabi, opo squash or an exotic melon. You’re excited and bewildered as you start peppering the farmer with questions.

What is this?

What does it taste like?

How do you cook it?

While that market treasure is thrilling for you, it actually helps farmers keep a leg up on the competition by diversifying their crop portfolio and attracting new customers. Farming is a science dictated by climate, soil and elevation, but it’s also a business that requires significant planning and a keen eye for unmet demand in the market.

The crop-selection process begins when the seed catalogs arrive.

Farmers pore over the pages packed with alluring descriptions of exotic varieties. “Seed catalogs are written like a vacation magazine,” says Erin Flynn of Green Gate Farms. “I read them and just want to try everything.”

To narrow their choices, many farmers start with personal taste.

Farmers eat what they produce, and adding diversity to their own plates is an important factor in their planting decisions. As David

Burk, co-manager of Montesino Farm, puts it, “we eat food three times a day; we should be excited about it.”

Disease and drought resistance are also key in the selection. Flynn grows Hill Country red okra not only for its unusual burgundy color, but because it can survive Austin’s arid summers. And Jim Richardson of Richardson Farms weighs the marketing factors when choosing crops, evaluating each variety or breed on several criteria: Is there a need? Is it something customers use regularly? Does it fit a niche in the marketplace? Would we be one of a few farms offering it? Will it fit in our crop rotation? If the answer to enough of these questions is yes, then he’ll move forward—it’s no accident that shoppers can find sorghum syrup, a variety of grains and flours and even popcorn only at the Richardson Farms market booth.

Once they’ve narrowed their options, farmers turn to their customers to gauge demand. Richardson visits with regular customers about prospective crops. “If I bring something up and customers seem lukewarm, I drop it,” he says. Burk asks his CSA program customers to complete a survey about new items they’re considering.

Diversification can also be as simple as using the same plant in different ways to stretch the yield. Burk grew confection squash this EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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season, but the plants only yielded one or two fruit each. The vines, HOMEGROWN however, were full of blossoms that could be sold at market as well.

1 9 the new shoots, T And Flynn sells garlic three ways: green garlic from 83 AUS scapes in flower arrangements and dried bulbs.

Jo and John Dwyer of Angel Valley Organic Farm grow several different Asian mustard greens that they sell as a bulk mix. One year the crop got away from them, and the leaves grew too large to put into the mix. So they innovated by bunching the leaves in bundles with one or two leaves of each variety, and the bouquets of greens were a big hit.

The secret to experimenting is to start small. Flynn grew roselle, an edible hibiscus variety given to her by a Burmese volunteer. She had high hopes for the plants, as the farm could use the flowers in bouquets, the pods in tea and the edible leaves in salads. Unfortunately, customers were hesitant to buy the greens, and Flynn had almost given up on the plants until she discovered a nearby Indian temple whose worshippers eat roselle as a regular part of their diet.

Sometimes farm-stand visitors just need that little extra push to get excited about experimenting with something new. The Dwyers decided to grow tomatillos after receiving several requests from customers. When they brought the tomatillos to their stand the next summer, though, there were no takers. They realized then they had to teach people how to cook them in order to sell them, so Jo began handing out recipes that included tomatillos at their farm stands. In fact, many farmers now take on the role of cooking coach to encourage customers to step out of their comfort zones by providing recipes, writing blogs, hosting potlucks and teaching cooking classes to entice people to try new things.

Burk had a hard time selling cone-shaped cabbage, even though it has the same flavor and is cooked similarly to more common cabbage varieties. Still, shoppers were dubious until he offered a visual clue. “I had to cut one open at every market so customers could see what it looked like on the inside,” he says. “Every time we go to the market, we sell more if we help people. I ask them to come back and tell me what they thought about it or how they cooked it.”

There will be plenty of new, exotic things to taste this year—whether it’s edible loofah from Green Gate Farms or partridge, rabbit or gluten-free millet from Richardson Farms, these farmers have some big ideas percolating. As Flynn aptly notes, “experimenting is the fun part of farming.”

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Edible Cuisines

Japan’s Gift

Blue Noodles, Japanese woodblock print, by Kylie Budge

b y M M Pac k

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easonal. Local. Healthful. Sustainable. Mindful. We’ve learned to embrace these concepts when sourcing, cooking, eating and thinking about food. However, there’s a cuisine that’s embodied this culinary approach for centuries. With a tradition of microseasonality and a profound respect for local ingredients, Japan’s food culture actively engages all five senses and focuses on the subtleties of food’s inherent flavors and textures. Its adherents have enjoyed some of the longest, healthiest lives in the world.

Cuisine within Culture, Culture in Cuisine If you ask most Americans what they know about Japanese food, odds are they’d answer “sushi.” But sushi is only one facet of Japanese cuisine; although, as in sushi, the primary ingredients in most traditional preparations are simply rice, vegetables and fish. Using the five principal methods of Japanese cooking (steaming, grilling, sauté-

ing, simmering and deep-frying), dining styles can range from exquisite multicourse kaiseki dinners to quick bowls of ramen from a street cart; from serial snacks in a rollicking izakaya bar to the simplest family meal of soup, rice and pickled vegetables.

Of course, Japanese cuisine is more complex than ingredients and cooking methods. Virtually all aspects of Japanese culture are integrated into food preparation, presentation and consumption, the cornerstone being affinity with nature. Shizuo Tsuji, founder of Osaka’s Tsuji Culinary Institute, wrote in his book, Japanese Cooking, that, “like Japanese painting and poetry, our cooking, too, is simply the result of an acute awareness of the seasons.” There are 24 culinary seasons in Japan—each with optimal foods—and parallel to this seasonality is an intense localism. Japanese cooks and diners are knowledgeable about of an ingredient’s provenance and qualities.

Presentation is essential, as well. “Each item is an artistic composiEDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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Building-Block Ingredients of Japanese Cooking Dashi In the Japanese kitchen, cooks can’t accomplish much without dashi, a mild, flavorful stock of dried fish flakes (katsuobushi, from bonito in the mackerel family) and kombu (dried giant kelp). Katsuobushi is rich in vitamins, minerals and protein, while kombu provides vitamins, protein, dietary fiber and minerals including iodine. Kombu also contains the natural glutamic acid known as umami that tastes good and enhances the flavors of other ingredients. Vegetarian stock (shojin dashi) is made from kombu and water only. Hon dashi is dried dashi granules, a packaged instant substitute for homemade dashi.

Rice Gohan ni shiyo, said as an invitation to share a meal, literally means, “let’s eat cooked rice.” A bowl of plain cooked rice is the central component of any Japanese meal. Short-grain table rice comes in three forms: hatsuga genmai (unpolished brown rice), haiga-mai (partially polished rice that contains rice germ) and hakumai (polished white rice). Additionally, mochigome (glutinous or sweet rice) is used in sticky rice dishes, in sweets and to make sake.

Miso Miso, a fermented soybean paste (also made with rice and barley), has a deep, rich flavor and exceptional nutritional value. It’s used in soups, glazes, dips and dressings and with sautéed, simmered, grilled and deepfried dishes. There are myriad varieties (three main types but as many as 1,300 regional recipes) of miso, ranging from white to brown to red—the lighter colored versions are sweeter, the darker ones saltier. One of the most representative Japanese dishes, misoshiru (miso soup), is made from miso and dashi, to which other ingredients like tofu, tempura, green onions, mushrooms and vegetables can be added.

Shoyu Japanese soy sauce (shoyu) is composed of soybeans, wheat, spring water, koji (starter mold) and sea salt and aged in a complex fermentation process that takes 12 to 24 months. Fermentation increases nutritional benefits as well as flavor and aroma, and the final product is 17 to 18 percent salt. Tamari is made almost entirely of soybeans and is thicker and darker than shoyu.

Daikon Daikon, which means big, important or root, is a large white radish contains calcium and vitamin C (as well as vitamin A in the leaves), and is a signature vegetable in Japanese cooking. Served both raw and cooked, its crisp texture and spicy bite enhance many preparations and aids digestion.

Pickles Along with rice and soup, pickled vegetables (tsukemono) are fundamental to a Japanese meal. Pickling vegetables like cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant and daikon in rice bran or salt was the traditional method for preserving produce for winter consumption.

Soba Buckwheat (soba) was introduced to Japan from China in the 8th century, and soba noodles became fashionable fast-food dishes sold from street stalls in Tokyo by the 17th century. Hot or cold, soba is still a preferred quick dish. Buckwheat contains high-quality protein, is rich in B vitamins, iron and calcium and, because it does not contain gluten, is mixed with wheat, yam or rice flour to make noodles.

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tion in which the receptacle, the food and its arrangement are all carefully brought together to complement one another,” Tsuji wrote. “The whole meal is a composition, too—a symphony of carefully orchestrated flavor, color, texture and seasonal appropriateness.”

In teaching Japanese cooking, author Elizabeth Andoh explains washoku—traditional food culture that balances color, flavor and preparation method for optimal nutrition and aesthetic satisfaction. Integral to washoku is kansha (appreciation), which encourages avoiding waste, conserving energy and sustaining natural resources. “A Japanese meal begins and ends with formal expressions of appreciation and respect,” says author and teacher Hiroko Shimbo. “Before eating, every diner says, ‘itadakimasu’ [we are going to receive the meal]. Itadakimasu implies great respect for everyone from the farmer to the truck driver to the shopkeeper and the cook who helped to make the meal happen.”

Diet and Health, Japanese Style If for no other reason, the Japanese diet attracts our attention because Japanese people have some of the longest life spans and lowest obesity, cancer and heart disease rates on the planet. The Japanese government’s food guide, The Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top, includes water, tea and exercise components along with proportions of recommended daily foods (see edibleaustin.com).

Dr. Lawrence Kushi, a cancer epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente, recently addressed this topic at the Culinary Institute of America’s 2010 “Worlds of Flavor: Japan.” Kushi summarized the health-promoting components of Japanese cuisine as “high consumption of whole soy foods, fish and seafood, tea, sea vegetables and mushrooms, and low consumption of meats.” Dr. Donald Abrams, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, chief of hematology and oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and a follower of Japanese diet guidelines himself, calls miso (fermented soybean paste) “a gift from the gods—it’s helpful for weak digestion, cancer, low libido, intestinal infections and even hangover.”

Hiroko Shimbo explains that Japanese portions are smaller than those in the U.S., and that cooks there tend to cook more with water and less with oil—helping to preserve natural flavors and textures. She describes traditional dining guidelines taught to Japanese children: eat until eight parts full (it takes 20 minutes to feel sated, so “eat slowly and talk a lot”); chew food well; eat 30 food varieties a day (think about this one!); use and stimulate all five senses and appreciate nature.

Japanese and American health experts agree that the Japanese diet isn’t entirely perfect—typically, it includes too much sodium and not enough whole grains. It’s well documented that the popularity of Western foods has been detrimental to Japanese health, too. And the Japanese taste for certain endangered fish varieties hasn’t been so helpful to the health of the planet.

Umami, the Fifth Taste It’s impossible to discuss Japanese cuisine without covering umami, the fifth taste (after sweet, sour, salty and bitter) ubiquitous in Japanese foods. Meaning “deliciousness,” umami is the rich, mouth-filling, lingering flavor found in miso, soy sauce and dashi, the stock made with kombu kelp. In Western foods, umami is discerned in roasted and cured meats, mushrooms, aged cheeses and tomatoes.

In 1908, chemist Kikunae Ikeda isolated the amino acid glutamate from kombu; he named it umami because it made everything it seasoned taste better. Not until 2001 did biologists confirm that human tongues

Guidelines taught to Japanese children: eat until eight parts full; chew food well; eat 30 food varieties a day; use and stimulate all five senses and appreciate nature. indeed have a fifth taste receptor for glutamate, or umami, that signifies both protein and satiety—umami contributes to feeling full and satisfied. Human milk is loaded with glutamate, indicating a developed taste for umami at an early age. And Japanese babies graduate from nursing not to cow’s milk, but to umami-rich dashi.

Eat Local, Cook Japanese In Japan, it’s typical for restaurants to focus on one aspect of cuisine (ramen, soba, tempura, shabu-shabu). With exceptions on the West Coast, Japanese restaurants in the U.S. often serve a selection of cooking styles with an emphasis on sushi. Austin is graced with many good sushi restaurants, most of which prepare additional types of Japanese fare.

Any discussion of Japanese dining in Austin must include Uchi and Uchiko, the award-winning sister restaurants that have elevated standards and raised local awareness of the delicacy, beauty, creativity and downright deliciousness of Japanese cooking. Chefs Tyson Cole and Paul Qui espouse reverence for washoku and kansha; their beautifully composed dishes feature fresh local ingredients as much as possible and respectfully minimize waste. One winter week, Qui showcased broccoli—featuring dishes made with leaves, stems and florets.

“There is so much respect for food in Japan,” Qui says. “Working under Tyson, I’ve learned to show respect for a product [and] to bring out its best flavor.” Uchi: The Cookbook by Tyson Cole and Jessica Dupuy was recently published by University of Texas Press.

And what about cooking Japanese food at home? Fortunately, Austinites have access to the fundamental building blocks for flavor and structure, and we certainly have abundant and lovely local produce. In 1980, Shizuo Tsuji wrote that “as long as you know the rules, and know what authentic Japanese food is, there is almost no limit to the variations you can make with local ingredients.” Fresh gulf fish prepared simply with local vegetables and Texmati rice? Tsuji-san would approve—beautiful, delicious and mindful eating, Japanese style.

Resources for Japanese Cooking Books and websites with recipes and cooking techniques Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions by Elizabeth Andoh, kanshacooking.com Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen by Elizabeth Andoh, washokucooking.com Uchi: The Cookbook by Tyson Cole and Jessica Dupuy The Japanese Kitchen: 250 Recipes in a Traditional Spirit by Hiroko Shimbo, hirokoskitchen.com Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji The Gohan Society Fosters the understanding and appreciation of Japan’s culinary heritage in the United States and serves as a resource center for knowledge of traditional Japanese ingredients, techniques and food-related products. gohansociety.org

Finding Japanese ingredients in Austin Several growers at various Austin farmers markets and farm stands offer vegetables used in Japanese cooking, such as daikon, cabbage, squash, melon and eggplant—available depending on the season. All manner of local produce is suitable for cooking Japanese style.

San Miguel Seafood Specializes in bringing fresh shrimp and deepwater fish directly from the Gulf Coast to Austin. Available at the SFC Farmers’ Market–Downtown on Saturdays. sanmiguelseafood.com Austin Sea Veggies Grows ogonori in a closed aquaculture system in Austin. Ogonori, a delicate sea vegetable typically eaten cold in a salad or as a garnish, is available at the SFC Farmers’ Market–Sunset Valley on Saturdays. austinseaveggies.com Many Asian grocery stores in Austin stock Japanese condiments, noodles, rice, sea vegetables and other ingredients. Two good options are: Asahi Imports 6105 Burnet Rd. 512-453-1850 Specializes in Japanese groceries, including sushi-grade fish, vegetables such as burdock and long onions, teas, condiments and spices, rice, noodles, misos, sea vegetables and Japanese snacks.

See recipes on following page and additional recipes at edibleaustin.com

New Oriental Market 6929 Airport Blvd. 512-467-9828 Provides a large selection of Japanese products, including snacks, teas, noodles, rice, frozen foods and sea vegetables such as kombu, wakame and nori, as well as a variety of Japanese kitchen implements. Some hard-to-find vegetables, including Japanese yams and lotus roots, are also available.

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Dashi Adapted from The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo Makes 2 quarts Dashi is the foundation of many Japanese recipes, including soups, simmered dishes, salad dressings and marinades. Dashi provides subtle but delicious flavor as well as valuable nutrients.

2 qt. water 5 6-in. squares kombu, wiped with damp cloth or paper towel 1 c. tightly packed katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

In a large pot over medium heat, bring the water and kombu almost to a boil (about 10 minutes). Remove the kombu (you can save it for a second dashi). Use the liquid (kombu dashi) as a vegetarian stock, or follow the next steps to make ichiban dashi (first fish stock).

Immediately after removing the kombu, add the katsuobushi. Bring the liquid to a boil, then turn off the heat. Skim off any foam, and let the mixture stand for 2 minutes.

Strain the stock through a cloth-lined sieve. Discard the katsuobushi or save it with the kombu for a second stock. Refrigerate the dashi in a tightly covered container for up to 4 days, or freeze into cubes in an ice-cube tray.

Quick-Fix Pickles: Fruity, Sweet-andSour Daikon Adapted from Kansha, by Elizabeth Andoh Serves 4 to 6 Unlike many pickles that take extended time to mature, this method takes only 45 minutes to develop. This style of pickling is especially well suited to using up the stubby ends, peels and trimmings of fruit and vegetables that remain from making other dishes. In this recipe, lemon peel infuses slices of daikon and apple with a delicate fruitiness.

Use produce that has not been waxed or sprayed with chemicals.

3 T. rice vinegar (komezu) ¼ c. vegetarian dashi or water Drop of shoyu 3 T. sugar 2–3 strips of lemon peel or ¼ t. finely grated lemon zest 1-in. square kombu 1 small tart apple, quartered, cored and thinly sliced 1 t. kosher salt 8 oz. daikon, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced into half-moons 1 T. white sesame seeds, freshly dry toasted

Adapted from The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo Makes ½ cup

Combine the vinegar, dashi, shoyu, sugar, lemon peel and kombu in a small saucepan over low heat and heat slowly, stirring, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and pour into a glass jar and let cool. Marinade can be made up to a week in advance and refrigerated.

Bring to room temperature before using.

Ponzu is made from the juice of yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit. Its aroma and flavor might best be described as a combination of lemon, lime and grapefruit. If yuzu is not available, substitute these fruit juices. It won’t be the same, but will still taste good. Ponzu is used as a dressing or sauce for grilled, sautéed or deep-fried fish, meat and vegetables.

Place the apple slices in a small bowl, add ½ teaspoon of the salt and toss to coat. Place the daikon slices in another small bowl and toss with the remaining salt. Let both sit for 10 minutes. As moisture forms, lightly press and squeeze to encourage wilting. Drain the apple and daikon slices, and press out any excess liquid.

Ponzu (Rice Vinegar and Yuzu) Dressing

3 T. rice vinegar (komezu) 2½ T. mirin 2 T. yuzu juice

5 T. shoyu 6 T. dashi

In a small saucepan, combine all of the ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat and let cool. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator up to a week.

Transfer the apple and daikon to the marinade. Place the kombu on top to keep the pieces submerged. Cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or for 4 to 24 hours refrigerated.

To serve, remove the fruit pieces from the marinade, discard (compost) the kombu, press out the excess liquid, mound on a plate and garnish with sesame seeds.

Ocha Zuke Broth Courtesy of Uchi: The Cookbook, University of Texas Press 4–6 oz. water ¼ oz. green tea ½ oz. hon dashi 8 oz. cooked rice Kosher salt to taste

Pinch of radish sprouts Pinch of bonito flakes 1 scallion, julienned ¼ sheet of nori, sliced into very thin strips

Photography by Rebecca Fondren

Heat water on medium-low. Add tea and dashi and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl with a scoop of rice.

Season to taste with salt. Garnish with radish sprouts, bonito flakes, scallions and nori.

Join us as we celebrate the release of Uchi: The Cookbook on Thursday, March 10 at Book People. Enjoy a sampling of bites prepared from the book’s recipes from 6:30–7 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with Chefs Tyson Cole and Paul Qui, and Uchi: The Cookbook coauthor Jessica Dupuy. The event will be moderated by food writer MM Pack and Edible Austin publisher Marla Camp.

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Vegetable Literacy

Sorrel and Rhubarb b y De b o r a h M a d is o n

Photography of rhubarb by Carole Topalian

f r o m h e r f o r t h c o m i n g b o o k , Ve g e t a b l e L i t e r a c y

S

orrel and rhubarb are among the first edibles to appear in the spring, though what month that might be depends on where you live and your own particular climate. Their timing is one reason to consider them together, but another is that they are related as members of the family Polygonaceae, a word that means having many (poly) knees or joints (goni). The more common name is knotweed because of nodes, or joints, that reside on the stems of many family members. There are indeed some vicious weeds in this family and not a lot of edibles aside from rhubarb and sorrel (buckwheat is the third edible). Although residing in different genera, both sorrel and rhubarb are exceedingly tart and, come springtime, have historically functioned as diuretics, cleansing the system of a stodgy winter diet.

It’s not until late May that there’s a luxurious quantity of leaves on my sorrel plant, which is an ordinary culinary varietal bought from a nursery. Each leaf comes to a point at the top, broadens towards the center, then dips down at the tip—more or less arrow shaped. A stem runs up the center and the delicate side veins are visible. As the leaves get larger and coarser with the season’s increasing heat, it’s common to fold them back and rip out the stems, as they can be stringy. But early on, when the leaves are super-tender, this isn’t necessary. Sorrel leaves are so thin that they feel almost like paper. They don’t fare well in plastic containers for they release their moisture, then spoil. Plus you’ll want to use

a lot of sorrel when you do use it, which is why having your own plant or two makes sense. You might recently have seen a very small sorrel leaf with red veins in your salad mix. It’s very effective as far as looks go, but seems to lack the tartness of more ordinary-looking sorrel.

One use, especially for very small and tender leaves, is to add them to green salads. Sorrel is very good at brightening foods and surprising the tongue with its sharp little bite, and that’s exactly what it does in a salad.

Imagine what it can do with more prosaic foods like potatoes, lentils and eggs. Cream and sorrel are divine when brought together in a savory custard, a soup or a sauce. Think of salmon with sorrel sauce and lentils.

And you couldn’t go wrong by tossing a few handfuls of chopped sorrel into a potato soup. No matter how much you use, it cooks down to a shadow of its volume, however the visuals aren’t great—once cooked, sorrel turns an ultra-drab shade of green—not that that should matter.

Despite its color, cooked sorrel offers a refreshing tartness with lemonlike acidity that awakens the palate.

If you have a generous supply of sorrel and don’t know what to do with it, you can make a puree to freeze for later use by dropping stemmed leaves into a skillet with a little butter, then cooking for a few minutes until they dissolve into a rough puree. This can become a great asset in your kitchen during the winter when you can break off chunks to stir into lentil soups, mushroom sauces or ragouts, omelets or cream.

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Photography of green rhubarb by Carol Ann Sayle

A dab of cooked sorrel adds a certain spirit to the quiet flavors of winter foods. Keep this in mind for when you have an excess of leaves.

Unlike the delicate sorrel of spring, rhubarb is a somewhat coarserlooking plant—or it can be, as the heat of summer rises. From out of the ground, a fist-like ball gradually emerges in spring, which, against all odds, slowly unfolds into yellow-green leaves that quickly darken.

It then sends up a large flower stalk consisting of masses of either tiny cream-colored or rose-colored flowers that look like mist and attract the first bees. These flower stalks are impressive, but you’ll want to cut them down so that the plant can turn to growing leaf stalks for your table.

These edible stalks grow taller and longer until one day you find you can cut a few to eat. Be sure to use stalks only and NOT the leaves, which are toxic.

For millennia, rhubarb, which is extremely sour in its natural state, was used as a spring tonic for cleansing the blood, especially in Northern Europe and China, where it thrives, but also in Iran. It was eaten raw (a punishing kind of cleanser I would think), but also cooked into savory soups and stews. Rhubarb didn’t get its nickname of “pie plant” until sugar was available to turn these sour stalks into pies and other sweets, which is mostly how we know rhubarb today: as dessert. And yet, I can imagine that an unsweetened, or lightly sweetened and seasoned, rhubarb compote would work well with fatty meats like duck and pork, and it might still be eaten raw, albeit very finely sliced, and included in a salad where, like sorrel, it would provide a tart surprise for the tastebuds. Truly savory recipes for rhubarb are very hard to find, however.

Even most rhubarb soups are of the sweetened, fruit soup variety. An irresistible treatment of rhubarb without sugar however, is the recipe for Rhubarb Khoresh, a chicken stew with Persian spice, found in Najmieh Batmanglij’s beautiful book, A Taste of Persia.

The first slender (and often expensive) deep-red stalks that appear in the supermarket are greenhouse-grown. The field-grown rhubarb that comes on its heels is larger and not so perfectly red or so deeply colored.

Some rhubarb varieties, such as the heirloom Victoria, yield stalks that are entirely green, except for a blush of pink at the bases. For some reason this is the rhubarb that’s prevalent in the Santa Fe Farmers Market, where I’ve often heard shoppers ask the farmers, as if it were a peach, “Is that rhubarb ripe?” Once cooked into a puree, the green varieties turn, like sorrel does, into a delicate but subdued shade of green—again, somewhat on the dull side, like spring on a cloudy day. I tend to keep the flavor as unsullied as its appearance, adding only sugar and grapefruit zest and not darkening it further with cinnamon, brown sugar and spice. A green rhubarb puree makes a beautiful tart that you might garnish with Johnny jump-ups, violets or other spring flowers.

Even though both sorrel and rhubarb emerge before other herbs and vegetables, their seasons persist through summers that are not extremely hot (both my sorrel and rhubarb plants survive days that soar to the mid-90s). You can harvest your sorrel and rhubarb plants until the first hard freeze, when they collapse. One farmer I work with feels they’re best then, just before they freeze, which is true of many plants. Despite its long season, rhubarb is hard to find in a supermarket past June, where it’s treated as if it were a fruit to combine with strawberries. Once the cherries and apricots appear, rhubarb is often relegated to the past for the remainder of the year. The farmers market, which is sensitive to true seasonality, is a more likely place to find rhubarb throughout its long season. Then you can pair it with blackberries and raspberries as they come along, and eventually apples, not just strawberries. Or experiment with taking the savory route.

GREEN RHUBARB PUREE WITH GRAPEFRUIT Makes 2 ½ to 3 cups 2 ½ lbs. green rhubarb (about 10 c. chopped) 1 c. organic cane sugar plus more, to taste 2 t. Meyer lemon or grapefruit zest ¹/³ c. juice from the zested citrus, above Pinch of salt

Trim the ragged ends of the rhubarb. If the large stalks look tough or fibrous, peel and chop them into chunks about an inch long, then put them in a 3-quart saucepan with the sugar, zest, juice and salt. Cook over medium heat until the rhubarb has broken down into a rough puree, about 20 minutes. Don’t use the food processor—the look of the textured threads of rhubarb is appealing just as it is. Chill well. Serve cold with cream poured over, turn into a rhubarb fool by folding into whipped cream or use it to fill a prebaked tart shell.

SORREL OMELET WITH WARM CREAM Serves 1 to 2 Here the sorrel is cooked into a puree for an omelet, then finished with a little cream, which is a perfect match for this tart herb.

3 t. butter, divided 15 medium-size sorrel leaves, stems removed, cut into strips 2 farm eggs 2 T. water Sea salt and freshly ground pepper 1–2 T. heavy cream

Melt half the butter in a small skillet, add the sorrel and cook for just a few minutes until the leaves have wilted and are grayish green.

Whisk the eggs with the water, a few pinches salt and some pepper.

Stir in the sorrel.

Add the remaining butter to an omelet pan and, once it’s hot and foamy, add the eggs. As the edges cook, pull them into the middle of the pan with a fork, tilting the pan as you do, so that the uncooked eggs flow onto the bare pan. When the eggs are cooked, fold the omelet into thirds and turn it out onto a warm plate. Return the pan to the heat, add the cream and bring it to a boil. Make a slice down the center of the omelet, pour in the cream, then serve with an additional shower of freshly ground pepper.

eat well.

SORREL LENTIL SOUP

11th & lamar

Makes about 1 quart Inspired by a recipe of Elizabeth David’s, which called only for lentils, sorrel and cream, I have never been able to resist adding red onion, a bay leaf and sometimes a mirepoix. But even with these additions, this is the simplest of soups with no browning of onions or sautéing of vegetables. Use fresh sorrel if you have it, or a chunk of frozen sorrel puree. This plain-looking soup is best served right away. It’s fairly thin, too, which makes it an ideal soup for the first course of a heavier meal.

512-482-8868

winkrestaurant.com

¾ c. dry lentils (preferably Puy or black beluga) ½ small red onion, finely diced 1 bay leaf Sea salt 6 c. water or chicken stock 3 handfuls sorrel leaves, stems removed if large, shredded Freshly ground pepper Crème fraîche

Rinse the lentils and put them in a soup pot with the onion, bay leaf, ¾ teaspoon of salt and water or stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft.

Photography of rhubarb plants by Carol Ann Sayle

Puree half the cooked lentils until smooth, then return them to the pot. Add the sorrel and cook for 10 minutes more. Taste for salt, season with pepper and serve. Stir a spoonful or two of whisked crème fraîche into each bowl.

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COOKING FRESH b y T e r ry T h o m p s o n - A n d e r s o n • i l l u s t r at i o n b y B a m b i E d l u n d

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A

t long last, spring has arrived. There’s a special shade of green that Mother Nature reserves for use only in the springtime; budding trees flaunt new foliage with this neon-like hue against cerulean-blue skies, while grass that’s been long dormant and brown sends up brightly colored stalks to herald the season of reawakening.

Likewise, the first crops of spring have flavors that taste alive, vibrant and new. Fresh herbs sprout and endow us

with a treasure trove of flavors to season spring’s bountiful offerings. A new clutch of berries ripens, bringing a remembered taste of sweet freshness. Spring lamb brings the delicately rich flavors that mark a time of new birth, while backyard chickens rest once again in the warmth of the sun and share a renewed wealth of eggs.

Here’s a little feast created especially to celebrate the unique flavors of spring—my favorite season. Enjoy!

GARDEN FRESH GREEN PEA SOUP Green peas, shelled fresh from the garden, provide one of the most distinctively green flavors of spring. Combined in a soup with the bold tastes of fresh Mexican mint marigold—also known as Texas tarragon—and the fresh mint going wild in the warm garden, the simple peas are transformed into a bowl brimming with flavors that make you feel good all over.

Serves 4 2 T. Texas Olive Ranch extra-virgin olive oil 3 large fresh green onions, chopped, including green tops 2 t. minced fresh Mexican mint marigold 1 heaping t. minced fresh mint ¹/8 t. cayenne pepper ¼ t. freshly ground black pepper 3 c. shelled fresh green peas, or one thawed 10-oz. bag frozen green peas 1 qt. rich chicken stock, preferably homemade ¼ t. kosher salt, plus more to taste 1 c. heavy cream 4 T. sour cream 4 T. cucumber, peeled, seeded and very finely chopped

Heat the olive oil in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the green onions, Mexican mint marigold, mint, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Sauté, stirring often, until the onions are wilted—about 3 minutes. Stir in the peas, add the chicken stock and bring the soup to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat, add kosher salt to taste and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the peas are very tender.

Puree the soup in batches in a food processor or blender. Return the soup to a clean pot and cook for 30 minutes, or until the soup is slightly thickened. Stir in the heavy cream and cook just to heat through.

Serve hot, in rimmed soup bowls, with a tablespoon of sour cream in the center of each bowl. Toss the finely chopped cucumber with the ¼ teaspoon of salt, blending well. Scatter a portion over the sour cream and serve.

For Goat Cheese and Cilantro Mashed Potatoes recipe please visit edibleaustin.com.

Spring cilantro has a vivid, fresh flavor that adds a note of brightness to any dish.

Blended with Wateroak Farms delicate goat cheese in mashed potatoes, it provides a delicious variation on ordinary mashed potatoes. Even folks who dislike goat cheese love this flavor-packed addition to the meal.

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GREEN SALAD WITH BOSQUE BLUE CHEESE AND BUTTERMILK DRESSING

GRILLED SPRING LAMB CHOPS WITH GARLIC, CILANTRO AND JALAPEÑO PESTO

For blue cheese lovers, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a crisp, green salad with a decadent blue-cheese dressing. I like to use a combination of crisp romaine and delicate butter lettuces in this salad—a nice blend of crunch and tenderness. If at all possible, use cheese from Veldhuizen Family Farm, near Dublin, TX. The combination of fresh herbs blended with the Veldhuizen Bosque Blue creates a bold, yet very pleasing, flavor combination. The dressing will keep for about two weeks in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.

I love baby spring lamb chops—especially grilled ones—and grilling, of course, is an official rite of spring. When cooked to a perfect medium rare, their flavor is just irresistible—slightly earthy and subtly rich—so I don’t like to mask that marvelous taste with heavy sauces. I created this pesto, with its burst of green flavors, especially to pair with the grilled chops. It’s the perfect complement to their flavor—adding a bit of zest without overwhelming the flavor of the lamb. French-boned chops have all of the meat removed from the slender top portion of the bone, leaving the bone bare.

Serves 4 to 6

Serves 4

½ c. homemade aioli (recipe below) 3 T. whole (not low fat) buttermilk ¼ c. crème fraîche (see note) 2 small spring onions, roughly chopped, including green tops 1 medium garlic clove, minced ¾ t. Meyer lemon juice, or other lemon juice if not available ¾ t. minced fresh Mexican mint marigold ¾ t. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 t. minced fresh mint ¹/8 t. freshly ground black pepper Kosher salt to taste 1 c. (4 oz.) crumbled Veldhuizen Bosque Blue cheese 8 c. mixed sliced hearts of romaine tossed and torn butter lettuce leaves Homemade garlic croutons, chopped Kocurek Family Artisanal Charcuterie duck bacon and spiced pecans, such as Bandera Foods’ Killer Pecans, to garnish.

2 bunches fresh cilantrol 1 bunch fresh mint 3 T. minced garlic 2 heaping T. skin-on sliced almonds, toasted ¼ c. minced seeded jalapeño ½ c. red wine vinegar ¼ t. kosher salt, plus more to taste ½ t. cayenne pepper ¼ c. or more Texas Olive Ranch extra-virgin olive oil, and more for coating lamb 2 8-bone Twin County Dorpers baby lamb rib racks Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the first 10 ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until the mixture is very smooth. Season to taste with the salt and pulse to blend. Add the blue cheese and pulse to blend—there should still be visible chunks of cheese.

Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until ready to serve. The flavor develops nicely if the dressing is allowed a 24-hour rest in the refrigerator before serving.

To serve the salad, pile equal portions of the mixed greens onto chilled salad plates, mounding them up into little hills. Spoon some of the dressing down the center of the greens. Scatter the garnishes on and around the greens and serve while the plates are still nice and cold.

Note: Crème fraîche can be found in the dairy department of specialty food markets, but it’s easy to make your own. Simply whisk a tablespoon of sour cream into a cup of heavy cream and blend well. Cover with plastic wrap and leave out in a warm (80°) spot for 24 hours. Chill well before using.

HOMEMADE AIOLI Makes about 1¼ cups 3 medium garlic cloves, peeled 2 egg yolks ½ t. salt 1 c. Texas Olive Ranch extra-virgin olive oil 1 T. fresh lemon juice

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade running, drop the garlic cloves through the feeding tube to mince. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg yolks and salt and process until the yolks are thickened and light lemon yellow in color—about 2 to 3 minutes. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the machine running, pour half of the olive oil in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube. With the machine still running, add the lemon juice, processing until blended, and then add the remaining olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Taste for salt and adjust as needed. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.

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Make the pesto first. Combine the first 9 ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until smooth. The mixture should be fairly stiff and spreadable. If you prefer a looser consistency, add additional olive oil. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature.

Build a hardwood charcoal fire (I like oak) and allow the fire to burn down to the point where the coals are glowing red and covered with a layer of white ash. Or heat a gas grill to medium-high heat. Cut the lamb racks into two-bone portions—you should have a total of 8 double chops.

Brush both sides of each chop with some of the olive oil, season each side with salt and freshly ground black pepper and grill the chops on the first side for about 4 minutes. Flip the chops and grill for 4 to 5 minutes longer for medium-rare chops, or 6 minutes for medium. The internal temperature should be 128° to 130° for medium-rare doneness. Serve 2 double chops per person, sauced with some of the pesto.

For Pan-Seared Spinach with Red Onion, Golden Raisins and Garlic recipe please visit edibleaustin.com. This is one of my favorite side dishes, borrowed from Catalonia, where it’s often served in tapas bars. I especially like to serve it with pork or lamb—the hint of sweetness from the raisins harmonizes well with the earthiness of the meat.

ROSEMARY AND OLIVE OIL CAKE WITH FRESH BLACKBERRIES, CARAMEL DRIZZLE AND CHANTILLY CREAM The origin of this delightfully different cake isn’t clear. I first tasted, and loved it, at the first Olives Olé Festival hosted by the San Antonio Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International in 2009. The festival was one of the chapter’s fund-raising events, and chapter members prepared many of the cakes sold at the concessions tent. This cake was a huge hit. Chapter member June Hayes told me that she’d adapted the recipe from one that was featured on the Food Network. I investigated several recipes for olive oil cakes—each was a bit different— tested several and came up with this version served with blackberries, caramel sauce and Chantilly cream. June uses strawberries, which are also quite good, but I really like the earthy flavor of spring blackberries against the bold, resinous nuances of the fresh rosemary. The Caramel Drizzle and Chantilly Cream make eating it one of life’s more memorable moments—and we all need more of those.

Serves 8 to 10 1 pt. fresh blackberries or strawberries 1 c. plus 3 T. sugar, divided ½ c. freshly squeezed orange juice 1 c. all-purpose flour ¼ t. baking powder ¼ t. baking soda ½ t. kosher salt 3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature ¾ c. Texas Olive Ranch extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling the pan ¾ c. whole milk 1½ t. lemon zest 1½ t. orange zest 1½ t. minced fresh rosemary leaves Good quality orange marmalade, at room temperature Caramel Drizzle for serving Chantilly Cream for serving Rosemary sprigs and reserved blackberries, to garnish

The day before you will serve the cake, place the blackberries in a bowl.

Pick out 20 perfect berries for garnishing the cake servings and refrigerate them. If you are using strawberries, remove the leafy tops and slice the berries. Scatter 3 T. of sugar over the berries and smash them to release some of their juices, but don’t completely puree them. Cover them, and refrigerate overnight. Make the Caramel Drizzle in advance, as well, but don’t make the Chantilly Cream until just before serving the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly oil the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan.

Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment paper circle, then oil the parchment paper and sides of the pan with olive oil and set aside.

Place the orange juice in a small saucepan over medium heat and reduce the juice to ¼ cup (see note).

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl, blend well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the egg yolks and ¾ c. of the sugar. Beat until the mixture is fluffy and light lemon yellow in color—about 5 minutes—stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the olive oil and reduced orange juice to the egg mixture and beat to blend well.

Combine the milk, citrus zests and rosemary. Add the milk mixture and flour mixture to the egg mixture in 3 alternating additions each—beginning with the milk mixture and ending with the flour mixture—beating just to blend and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

In a separate, clean, electric mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to froth. Then, with mixer running, add the remaining ¼ c. of sugar to the bowl. Beat until medium peaks form.

Add about one third of the beaten whites to the batter, and fold in gently but thoroughly. Fold in the remaining whites gently, blending well. Be

sure that there are no striations or blobs of unblended egg white in the batter. Better to slightly over-blend than under-blend in this case—those unblended whites would puff up like little patches of white soufflé in your cake!

Turn the batter out into the prepared cake pan and gently rap the pan on the work surface a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. While the cake is baking, make the Chantilly Cream.

Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a thin, sharp knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake, then invert it onto a serving platter. Gently peel off the parchment paper round. Using a pastry brush, glaze the top of the cake liberally with the orange marmalade. Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.

To serve, cut the cake into wedges. Drizzle each slice with Caramel Drizzle, allowing some to run onto the plate. Top each slice with a portion of the berries and syrup, and plop a large dollop of the Chantilly Cream over the berries. Garnish each serving with a couple of the reserved whole berries and a rosemary sprig. Enjoy!

Note: An easy way to gauge when you’ve reduced a liquid to the specified amount is to use water and a wooden spoon as a guide. Fill a pan with water equal to the amount of liquid needed after reduction. Place the handle of a clean wooden spoon on the bottom of the pan. At the top of the watermark, make a notch in the handle with a sharp paring knife and discard the water.

Place the spoon handle in the reducing liquid periodically. When the liquid is level with the notch, you’ve got the specified amount!

CHANTILLY CREAM 2 c. chilled heavy cream 2 heaping T. chilled sour cream 2 heaping T. powdered sugar 1 T. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with wire whisk.

Beat until the cream is slightly stiff. It should be soft enough to invitingly drape down the sides of the cake slices onto the plate.

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Edible Gardens

The Dirt on John Dromgoole I nte rv ie w B y La u r a M c K i ss a c k • PH o t o g r a p h y b y M a r c B r o w n

J

ohn Dromgoole has been Austin’s iconic organicgardening guru and radio personality for the last 30-odd years. His business, The Natural Gardener—located in Oak Hill on Old Bee Caves Road— continues to grow steadily, and people from all over Texas and points beyond frequently seek him out for advice on everything from growing a healthy tomato to choosing quality gardening tools. We sat down with him recently to find out a little more about the man behind the mission.

Edible Austin: How did you get your start in organics?

Have you always been in this business?

John Dromgoole: When I moved to Austin, a friend of mine gave me a job at her garden center, The Jungle Store, while she took maternity leave. There, I learned about plants, soil mixing and the gardening industry. It was very different from the boutique business that I owned before, selling clothes.

EA: What kind of clothes?

JD: Oh…bell-bottoms, big-collared shirts, tasseled vests, hippie beads…that sort of thing. I was in Laredo…I broke my back in a car wreck and was out of commission for a year. As a result, I lost my business. That’s when I came to Austin. All my friends had moved up here, and they never came home. So I came up to see what was going on, and I never went home either.

EA: You’ve been involved in organic gardening for about 30 years. Is that right?

JD: Yes, easily. I’m not a born-again organic gardener. I learned organics right off the bat. Once I decided to work in the gardening industry, I worked for a few traditional growers, growing everything from trees to mums. Professional growers use a very scientific, chemical approach to gardening. I went

to work for these growers to learn about propagation, disease identification, commercial production, fertilization and more.

Then I worked in San Antonio for a very prestigious landscape company called Los Patios and learned the landscaping industry. All the while, I was reading and applying the organic alternatives to everything I was learning. All of this experience, including my work here in Austin, has been my education in horticulture. That’s what allowed me to do radio, too.

EA: Had you done any radio before you got into the organics business?

JD: Yes, I studied radio, television and film in college— not horticulture. I was on the air for many years in Laredo. I started in high school and continued in college. I’ve done a lot more radio than people think. I’ve been on about twenty-eight years here at KLBJ, about two on WOAI in San Antonio, and I spent about four years on the radio in Laredo doing music and news reporting. I even broadcast in Mexico.

EA: What is the one driving philosophy that keeps you interested in organics?

JD: I tried working in the herb business for a while. I think they are important plants because they heal. After a while, I discovered that wasn’t my path. I decided that organic gardening is more important because it covers everything. Rather than just healing people, organic gardening heals the environment; it’s a much bigger scope.

EA: So what is the basis of a good, healthy, organic garden?

JD: Soil. A good, healthy soil. Organic Gardening and Farming magazine was my textbook. That’s how I found Malcolm Beck—a farmer in San Antonio. The old Rodale Press magazines were small—not the big, slick magazines you see today. More often than not, the articles focused on soil. They wrote about companion planting and tomatoes, too, but ultimately came back to the soil. Eventually, I worked for the magazine as a consultant and a contributor to their garden calendar for the Southwest.

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I have never heard of an outbreak of salmonella at the farmers market. Never.

EA: I’ve heard you say “Grow food, not lawns.” What do you mean by that, and why should people do it?

JD: People are concerned these days about the quality of their food—salmonella in eggs, E. coli in spinach…it has people worried. So the homeowner decides that if they are going to spend money, water and time mowing the lawn, why not grow food instead and get something in return? The average salad travels 1,400 miles, but you can cut down on that by growing it yourself and buying local.

EA: Let’s say I’m a city girl. I live in a condo and don’t know a thing about gardening. Can I still grow my own food?

JD: I would try a bunch of things. You can put a raised container on your balcony. You may or may not be able to grow tomatoes, but could certainly grow leafy greens and herbs. Or you could put hanging containers on the rail of your balcony.

You will still have the pleasure of growing your own basil and peppers. Peppers are more shade tolerant than most plants. I think we will continue to see more rooftop gardens on homes, condos and high-rises as developers and builders realize that these components make them more marketable. You could always join a community garden, too.

EA: How do you think the organics movement is affected by the Slow Food or foodie movement?

JD: It’s a gourmet idea. These groups cook together and enjoy eating in season. It’s a very pleasant communal experience. It’s creating a community beyond the farmers market.

They buy local, and there are some very good cooks, very good butchers, bread makers, artisans…all working together. When people get into this new movement, they are buying local, supporting the local farmer who grew the grain or raised the pig… it’s a great big picture. As this grows, everybody benefits. The big difference is that your food didn’t travel 1,400 miles.

EA: What can Texans do to help their local farmers, and why should they do it?

JD: Buy local. As I said, it’s a chain effect and everyone benefits at the local level. I have never heard of an outbreak of salmonella at the farmers market. Never. You can depend on getting clean, fresh, healthy, organically grown food from the farmers market. They’re diversified. When insects or disease get into their beets, they might lose the beets, but they won’t lose everything. A corporate farm might have 5,000 acres of 60

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spinach, and if the crop gets sick, they have no choice but to spray and spray. That’s their whole crop for this year. It might be a million dollars. Small farmers know they can lose a little bit and still be in business.

EA: Though international in scope, it seems the Slow Food movement represents a way to fight for sustainable living on a local level.

JD: Well, that’s what’s happening with the family farms and the gardens. We’re fighting for sustainability. We’re trying to build the soil. We need to leave healthy soil for generations to come. Sustainability is coming back. We want to leave the Earth better than we found it—that’s critical. That’s what we do at The Natural Gardener. We invest in our community by teaching people about soil building, fruit-tree maintenance, organic gardening and more. We want people to be more independent.

EA: Where do you see organics ten years from now?

JD: I think that in ten years, if you walk into any nursery or garden store, including the big-box ones, and you ask for a product, they will hand you an organic one. Organics will dominate. They’re going to take over and become mainstream.

You’ll have to ask for the chemical stuff. Chemicals will be old school. Organics will continue to grow, and chemicals will be phased out, as organics prove to do the job safely and more effectively.

EA: Many consider you a local icon and hero. Who would you say is your hero? Is there any one person who inspires you?

JD: Arden Anderson is one of the great ones. He’s a fantastic speaker and writer. I consider him to be top in the country.

EA: Finally, if you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would they be?

JD: Rachel Carson would be a good one to talk to…John Jeavons, for sure…also Jim Hightower. If one of them couldn’t make it, then I would like John Lennon.

For 28 years, John Dromgoole has hosted Gardening Naturally, which airs every Saturday and Sunday morning on KLBJ. He also hosts KLRU’s Backyard Basics and KXAN’s The Weekend Gardener. The Natural Gardener offers free classes every Saturday. Visit naturalgardeneraustin.com for class details. Dromgoole lives in Oak Hill with his wife, Jane, and dogs, Daisy and Onyx.

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Edible endeavors

Lone star power

by Elizabeth Winslow • photography by dustin meyer

U

mami, the enigmatic fifth flavor, is often described as savory, meaty, rounded or rich. It’s an elusive flavor—hard to pin down—but magical in its ability to both excite and deeply satisfy the palate. Franklin Hall, CEO of Lone Star Foodservice, knows his umami—he’s been in the family-owned wholesale meat business since 1952 and runs the only dry-aging room in Central Texas where prime beef is custom aged to intensify the umami levels.

At the doorway of the historic Victorian home in East Austin that houses the administrative offices of the business, Hall presents a trim silhouette bristling with energy and goodwill. He introduces his daughter 62

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Margie, who handles PR for the family business, then steps into a large, comfortable conference room where he describes the business’s evolution from a small, retail butcher operation to the large, complex, thriving wholesale foodservice company it is today.

What sets Lone Star apart is a decision made four years ago to take the business in a new direction towards meat suppliers using sustainable, responsible practices. A search for sustainably raised, natural pork led Hall to Niman Ranch—a network of over 650 ranchers using sustainable grazing and humane husbandry methods. After careful vetting of the company’s policies, Hall hosted a staff tasting of Niman pork, beef and lamb—pan-

Opposite: Lone Star Foodservice’s CEO Franklin Hall with a custom-aged rack of ribs. Clockwise from above: a conveyer belt moves product to be individually wrapped; Lone Star’s dry-aging room, where prime beef is custom aged; Ramiro Vasquez displays a trademark “tomahawk” chop.

searing the meats right in the office kitchen. All agreed that these products were ones the company would be proud to carry. And soon after, Hall discovered Windy Bar Ranch in Stonewall, where Michael Klein raises 100% pure-bred Angus beef to exacting standards. Klein’s family has been raising beef in Gillespie County under the same “Half-Moon K” brand since 1858. Klein cites “patient observation and meticulous record keeping” for his success in creating beef with such excellent marbling and tenderness.

In keeping with this change, Hall committed to building a dry-aging room where he could age the meats to his customers’ specifications— anywhere from 21 to 40 days—and push the envelope on the elusive

What sets Lone Star apart is a decision…to take the business in a new direction towards meat suppliers using sustainable, responsible practices. umami. Dry aging is an expensive process requiring strict monitoring of the environment in the aging room, but the results are an intense concentration of flavors and an enzyme-induced tenderization that raises the taste of the meat to the point of succulence.

Back in the dry-aging room, Hall removes a rack of ribs and carries it to the cutting floor where Ramiro Vasquez, one of Lone Star’s 50 meat cutters, expertly scores and exposes part of the bone until the ribs are frenched, or cleaned of all meat, sinew and cartilage. Vasquez’s hands, encased in steel-mesh gloves, move impossibly quickly, with a confidence born of his five years at Lone Star, impeccable training and his EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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“If I take care of the people who work here, they’ll take care of the customer, and the customer will take care of both of us.”

—Franklin Hall

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own desire to be a true craftsman. Once the rib bones emerge, Vasquez separates the whole rib into thick chops, each one at least two inches thick. Hall tells me this is known as a tomahawk cut—an old-fashioned steak-house cut that imparts more flavor to the meat because it’s cooked on the bone, and is surely a dramatic presentation on the plate.

This attention to detail and high-quality standards informs everything that happens at Lone Star. The plant manager, Tony Sousa, has been with the company for 15 years and runs a tight ship. In fact, it’s the orderliness that’s most notable upon entering the cutting room. The environment quietly hums with activity and movement—both machine and human. Conveyer belts move product around while machines and people efficiently cut, grind, weigh, grade, sort and package the meat as it moves from one place to the next. Every surface gleams, there’s not a speck on the floor, the air is cold and has no scent.

Sousa is serious about standards, but both he and Hall are kind and deeply committed to their employees’ quality of life. Sousa and Hall have had a relationship for years with Caritas (a Catholic nonprofit that provides the homeless, working poor and refugees with housing, food, education and employment services); over the years, employees have come from countries as diverse as Bosnia, Nigeria and Cuba. Sousa himself is from Brazil and knows what it’s like to work your way up from the bottom.

“I’ve done every job you can think of [at Lone Star],” Sousa says with a smile. “And probably several you can’t think of. Lots of positions I’ve filled here don’t even exist anymore.” Turnover is extremely low, and Sousa and Hall are even reluctant to use the term employee. “They’re really like family,” says Hall. “This is the way we run this business: if I take care of the people who work here, they’ll take care of the customer, and the customer will take care of both of us.”

Lone Star customers include steak houses, chefs, white-tablecloth restaurants, resorts, private clubs and select retailers. “When we opened the restaurant, we really wanted to showcase high-quality, allnatural beef,” says Todd Duplechan, chef de cuisine at TRIO at the Four Seasons. “Lone Star brought us some product to try—it truly has outstanding depth of flavor.”

“When we looked into both Niman Ranch and Windy Bar Ranch, we were delighted that everything checked out,” says Hall. “Both are committed to protocols that we can believe in. In addition to the taste, natural meats make a very compelling story.” It’s a story that discerning diners in Central Texas are glad to share. one Star’s dry-aged meats can be purchased at The Meat House, L 3267 Bee Cave Rd. Contact Lone Star Foodservice at 512-478-3161 or lonestarfood.com.

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What we eat and why

Sunday Pizza SUPper b y Pa u l a A n g e r s t e i n • p h o t o g r a p h y b y a n d y s a ms

G

rowing up in Central Texas, my family, like many others, had the tradition of a hearty midday Sunday dinner (which translates to “Sunday lunch” for most others). This usually included a roast beef in the oven while we went to church, and vegetables and salads made up upon our return.

After a lazy afternoon and a filling dinner-lunch, our “supper” later that evening would be something easy like bacon and eggs gobbled up in front of The Wonderful World of Disney, or maybe a handmade hamburger down at the domino club as a special treat. These days, a vestige of that routine remains for me and my husband, Paul, after we’ve vis-

ited relatives in my hometown, had a feast of a lunch then returned to Austin later in the day. We’ve discovered that a homemade pizza fits the Sunday-evening bill perfectly for a quick and easy supper.

Paul’s Italian heritage has given him a discriminating eye for pizza.

As a child on Long Island, he remembers New York pizza that came by the slice and was eaten folded so that the juice would drip down to your elbow. He recalls that the only toppings available were anchovies and extra oregano, but maybe that’s all his dad told him about. To this day, his idea of a “real” pizza is a plain cheese version, cooked to brown, sizzling perfection. On the other hand, my introduction to pizza was in EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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my teens via Mr. Gatti’s, a locally based chain (I’ve been enamored with their vegetable-laden specialty ever since).

As different as our pizza initiations were, Paul and I longed to create a pizza at home that we both could adore. After many attempts, we eventually reached personal pizza nirvana and promptly handed off the recipes and techniques to family and friends—many of whom have adopted and individualized the Sunday pizza ritual.

Making pizza is easier than you’d expect, but having a few tools helps.

Paul uses a food processor for both the dough and the sauce. For cooking, a pizza stone is best, though a heavy-duty cookie sheet or the flip side of a cast-iron pan can work. Wooden and metal pizza peels help move the pizza in and out of the oven, and you can serve right off the wooden peel. A pizza wheel makes slicing a snap.

These recipes make enough for four pizzas, each of which we cut into six slices. Paul bakes all of the shells with sauce; those that are not eaten are frozen (if baked without sauce, the shell will separate and form a pillow). Shells can be quickly defrosted, topped and baked for a quick meal.

I’m always prepared for unexpected visitors with a couple of these gems in the freezer.

Pizza dough 3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour 1 package yeast 1 t. salt 1 c. lukewarm water ¼ c. olive oil

If you don’t have a food processor, mix all the ingredients by hand and knead for about 5 minutes. Otherwise, fit a food processor with a dough blade and briefly combine the flour, yeast and salt. While the processor is running, add the water and olive oil through the chute.

The dough should come together in a ball within a few seconds. Let the processor run for about 1 minute to knead the dough, then remove the dough, work it into a disk and place it in a large oiled bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

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Pizza sauce 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, drained 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce 1 6 oz. can tomato paste ¼ c. chopped onion ½ t. dried oregano ½ t. dried basil 1 t. garlic powder Dash of red pepper flakes to taste

In food processor, combine all the ingredients and puree.

Makes enough for 8 pizzas. Remaining sauce can be frozen.

Creating the pizza shells

Place a pizza stone in the oven, on the bottom rack, and heat the oven to 500°.

Punch down the dough in the bowl and form it into a ball. Cut the ball into 4 pieces, then form each piece into a disk. Place one disk on a floured surface, flatten by hand, then roll out with a floured rolling pin into about a 10-inch diameter shell. If the dough is very springy, let it rest periodically as you roll it out.

Place the shell on a wooden peel, making sure the shell is free to slide off onto the hot stone. Spoon 2 large spoonfuls of sauce (about ⅓ cup) onto the shell and spread thinly out to the edges. Don’t overdo the sauce; some dough may still show through.

When the oven is at 500°, carefully slide the pizza off of the peel and onto the stone. Bake for 2½ minutes. Slide the pizza onto a metal peel and remove it from the oven. If using the shell immediately, set it aside for toppings. If storing, place it on a cookie sheet and immediately place it in the freezer. After the shell is cool, place it in a plastic bag and return it to the freezer.

Pizza toppings

We use whole-milk mozzarella cheese, but you can create mixtures of any soft, melting cheeses like Monterey Jack or Cheddar. Parmesan does not melt, but can be grated very finely and sprinkled judiciously on the base for flavor.

In homage to Mr. Gatti’s Vegetarian Sampler, I put on sliced green olives, sliced onion, sliced red bell pepper and diced jalapeño. The real thing also has sliced black olives, sliced mushrooms and diced tomato.

We take sausage out of the casing and fry it up, and it is nice paired with sautéed, sliced mushrooms.

Another favorite is thinly sliced ham or prosciutto, sliced canned artichoke hearts and capers.

A summer favorite is the classic Margherita: thinly sliced tomatoes (dejuice as much as possible) and fresh basil, with optional thinly sliced fresh mozzarella.

Use what’s available! We have been known to put leftover pesto, tapenade, taco meat and meatballs on our pizzas.

Creating the pizza

If using a frozen shell, set it out until it warms to room temperature, or defrost it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Place it on a pizza peel.

Place the pizza stone on the top rack to heat. Heat the oven to 500°.

Place the toppings on the shell. Don’t overload it, or the pizza can become soggy. Half-and-half works great for two people, though you may need to experiment with cooking time to get both sides cooked properly. Top with grated cheese—just enough to cover the toppings. Carefully slide the pizza onto the heated stone and bake for 3 to 4 minutes, watching to see that the cheese is browned, but the dough edges do not burn. Remove the pizza to the wooden peel, rest it for 1 minute and slice into 6 pieces.

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green corn project

LOCAL PRODUCTS

DELI & GOURMET

GROCERY STAPLES

PREPARED FOODS

WEEKLY LUNCH SPECIALS

Kids That Grow b y h e l en c o r d es

BEER & WINE TASTINGS

CATERING & DELIVERY

Downtown Austin, Texas 3rd & Lavaca • 4th & Nueces 6th & Congress

W

hat does it take to plant the seeds of healthier living for kids?

Not much! Hundreds of Austin-area volunteers help create food gardens so that children can see firsthand how delicious and fun it is to grow their own food. Brooke Elementary is just one school where Green Corn Project volunteers and students worked side by side to install their own bounteous food garden in the sunny courtyard of the East Side neighborhood school.

It’s easy to see the “why” of food gardens in schools and childcare centers—children who grow their own fresh veggies at school are much more likely to find their harvest tasty. And the ripple effect can be dramatic, as kids take home the how-tos of food gardening and show the adults in their lives one simple way to be healthier.

Just one stint as a volunteer can make it easy to see the “why not?” of food-garden volunteering. “Can I take some seeds home, PLEASE?” asks an enchanting second grader. I’ve never seen kids this enthusiastic to plant a garden, and it’s thrilling that they want to garden at home, too. One simple way to start kids growing their own food is to help them garden in a pot or even a bucket with some drainage holes (a bucket with some quality soil can grow an amazing amount of produce, and it’s portable).

“I just love that arugula!” another Brooke student tells teacher Anna Moreno, who reports that while the kids loved eating the more predictable tomatoes, green beans and carrots, they also deemed delicious some veggies they’d never tasted before, simply because they’d grown them.

“Look at what I grew!” The students beam with pride; everyone wants to show off their splendid gardening results. From experience, we volunteers know that enthusiastically affirming these new gardening talents and successes can help turn new skills into a lifelong passion. If you’d like to spend a few hours having fun and creating healthy change, check out the Austin School Garden Network at austinsgn.org. You’ll find links to several organizations such as Green Corn Project, Sustainable Food Center and other groups who help kids eat and grow better.

Come visit us on the weekends for a slice of our Farm to Table pizza, with seasonal toppings from our local farms!

M-Th 11am to 10pm Friday 11am to 11pm Saturday 12pm to 11pm Sunday 12pm to 10pm

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EastSide

1401 B Rosewood Ave. 512.524.0933 (slices all hours)

North Loop

5312 Airport Blvd., Ste G 512.454.PIES (7437) (take out & delivery only)

SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

Photography of Brooke Elementary schoolchildren gardening by Helen Cordes

Find out more about the Green Corn Project at greencornproject.org.

Yes, this is the face of hunger in Central Texas.

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And so is this.

No doubt about it, a good washer and dryer can save you money, energy and water. Plus, when you purchase a front-loading, high-efficiency washing machine and a qualified natural gas dryer, you may receive $100 in rebates* from the Texas Gas Service Conservation Program.

For details and more money-saving rebates for your home or business, visit www.TexasGasService.com, e-mail Conservation@TexasGasService.com or call us at (512) 370-8243.

* Qualified customers within the Austin, Sunset Valley, Rollingwood, West Lake Hills, Kyle and Cedar Park city limits can receive this incentive for both new installations and replacements in either new or existing homes.

EFFECTIVE ODORLESS LONG-LASTING "the natural choice"

You might not immediately recognize some of the most innocent faces as hungry. The fact is that 1 in 3 people nourished by our Capital Area Food Bank is a child. And the need for food assistance among our neighbors has increased more than 60% in the past four years. Hunger is unacceptable. Especially in our own backyard. But we can solve hunger. With your help.

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Advocate. Donate. Volunteer. hungerisUNacceptable.com

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People

Susan Jaime b y J a r d ine Li b ai r e

T

he coffee industry is sprawling and international—coffee being a top-ranking commodity worldwide—and it provides a livelihood for millions of people. This huge structure, however, lacks a common technical language, which results in chaos and even corruption.

Universal certifications for those who grade, buy, sell, import and export coffee bolster fair negotiations, and devoted coffee businesspeople and artisans have been going to great lengths to organize this system.

Susan Jaime, master roaster of Texas-based Ferra Coffee, has been pursuing those opportunities as they become available. She is a licensed Quality Grader (known as a Q Grader), which is a professional accreditation from the Coffee Quality Institute—the nonprofit education arm of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Q Graders must pass a strenuous test that involves grading raw beans, blindly identifying the origins of different coffees and distinguishing notes in the brews, among many other challenges. With the accreditation, Jaime says that she can be trusted to accurately evaluate coffees through standardized testing, and also analyze potential defects that coffee samples have in green and roasted forms. This gives her license to score coffees for their value in the market.

The term “master roaster” is more nebulous, though, and is often conferred on someone like Jaime by the general coffee community out of respect for the roaster’s experience and prowess, and his or her dedication to passing on knowledge and skills. Jaime takes the leadership component of this title very seriously. She believes in concurrent learning and teaching as a way of life, and says that when you’re in the coffee business, you never stop learning. Even though the coffee industry is, by all accounts, a heavily male-dominated one, Jaime says she never encountered any sort of ostracism or rebuff, but instead was helpfully mentored by many men when she first stepped into the business. And now she’s happy to pay it forward.

Jaime patiently takes curious newcomers through her craft of grading, roasting and cupping, the industry’s complex and strict ritual for tasting and evaluating coffee processes. She first spills the beans onto a sheet of black paper and inspects the milky-green and mottled orbs for fungus, holes made by the borer beetle or the undesirably straight plane on a bean made by bad cleaning machinery.

She then roasts and grinds the beans according to the exact standards required by the industry. She pours the dry grounds into a cup—stirring them and inhaling the aroma. Using a cupper’s rainbow wheel as a reference, she identifies notes like caramel and currant in the aroma and documents them. Afterward, the grounds are soaked in 190-degree water for four minutes, and the surface of the brew—known as the crust—is broken three times with a heated spoon. The fragrance—different from the aroma—of the wet coffee is noted and documented.

As in wine tasting, the liquid is slurped (the taste should be aerated in the mouth) and spit out (to avoid anything in the beverage that could

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Above: Susan Jaime, center, Q grading in Chiapas, Mexico. Opposite page: Jaime teaching in the Chiapas coffee community

alter the taster’s sensitivity). The notes may have changed; perhaps a hint of clove has appeared, or cedar. This is how an expert grades the beans of a particular grower, registers the flavor profile of the beans to determine how the bean is blended or sold and decides on the roasting technique. The cupping process is performed multiple times for an accurate evaluation.

Jaime cares deeply about the esoteric side of this business—hunting down jasmine or smoke notes in fresh-ground Mexican beans, or roasting a Brazilian batch to the perfect finish. She has a visceral sense of terroir and notes that coffee, like dirt, “simulates the culture”—referring to the “cinnamons and cloves of Mexico, the dark cherry of Africa.” But she feels her role has urgent political dimensions, too. The widespread poverty of coffee-farming families is notable, considering that a cup of the brew can cost up to $5 in the U.S. After 13 years in the industry, Jaime, along with business partner Sylvia Vasquez, is determined to help close the gap between grower and consumer by educating both, and everyone in between.

“The reason Sylvia and I started in this business is because the first time we actually met with growers, they were just starving,” Jaime says.

“When we told them that we pay as much as four dollars for a cup of coffee, they were astounded. But they don’t know their grade; they don’t know what they really have.”

Inside the vine-covered co-op building in quiet Flatonia, Jaime and Vasquez spend days receiving hand-bundled samples of green beans from African growers to grade, roasting larger shipments of beans from

HANDMADE COMFORT FOOD FROM THE FARMERS’ MARKET TO YOUR TABLE

delivering prepared meals inspired by seasonal ingredients every week

Mexico and packaging the roasted beans for their own lines: Ferra Coffee and Green Country Roasters. Ferra is Jaime’s thoroughbred—her specialtygrade coffee using beans and growers with accreditations like Fair Trade, Organic and Rainforest Alliance. Green Country Roasters is a conduit for growers in developing nations who can’t get organic certification but are using green methods and producing high-quality beans.

Being a rare woman in the industry has made Jaime especially aware of the single-mother coffee farmers out there who need help. “We met a mother who was feeding her kids newspaper soup to fill their stomachs,” she says. “In an industry dealing with the second biggest commodity in the world, it’s really a crime.”

To help those mothers and other small-scale growers get leverage, Jaime is creating Quest Coffee Kobeh Yah, an international bank of coffee profiles. With it, she hopes to help bring some intelligibility to the buying, selling and trading of a commodity whose value many claim is second only to oil. Jaime is beginning her program with 1,300 growers in Chiapas. The data collected from those growers will then be available to importers who want to work directly with the growers.

At the opposite end of the transaction are the restaurant and coffee shop owners, vendors and chefs. By teaching tastemakers the nuances in coffee that they’re used to discovering in wine, Jaime is establishing higher standards here at home. She’s amazed at how even devout foodies go to a great restaurant and order nameless coffee. Besides learning which coffee is good for espresso, which is best for Thai food versus Italian food, which does well in a French press and which begs for milk or cream, a chef can also learn from Jaime how to make ethical purchases.

Fair Trade, as a phrase, is sometimes obscured by rhetoric and policy, but it’s crucial for modern consumers to be responsible for what happens along a bean’s path to our kitchens.

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T ips y T e x an

Absinthe Minded B y D av i d A l a n • p h o t o g r a p h y b y J e n n a N o e l

T

here is no spirit veiled in more mystery and misinformation than absinthe. Known as the “green fairy,” this potable is famously alleged, and widely believed, to be hallucinogenic and has been accused of making men go mad—driven to commit unthinkable acts. Vincent Van Gogh was supposedly in an absinthe-induced stupor when he cut off his ear, and absinthe was deemed the culprit in the notorious 1905 Absinthe Murders (even though the murderer had ingested large amounts of several other types of alcohol prior to, and after, the absinthe). Absinthe’s antagonists cautioned that consumption of the spirit would cause the disease absinthism, with such unpleasant symptoms as hallucinations, convulsions and tremors. These are harsh accusations for an elixir that emerged from the early European pharmaceutical tradition of concocting herbal tonics for purported medicinal benefits.

Absinthe dates to the latter half of the 18th century and finds its spiritual homeland in the village of Couvet, in the Val-de-Travers region of Switzerland. Across the French border, in the town of Pontarlier, the legendary Pernod Fils company began commercially manufacturing absinthe in 1805. Though absinthe was initially compounded as a medicinal elixir, there is evidence that from this early time it was also used as a recreational beverage—and a very popular one, at that. The Pernod distillery alone produced upwards of 20,000 liters a day by the middle of the 18th century.

The method for making absinthe is similar to the one for making gin—a number of botanicals are macerated in a neutral spirit and then redistilled. Likely taking its name from the Latin name for wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, absinthe was originally made from grape spirits and the holy trinity of botanicals: grand wormwood, fennel and green anise.

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Numerous other botanicals are used to create distinction amongst absinthes, including star anise, coriander, lemon balm and hyssop.

Traditional verte absinthe attained its color from the naturally occurring chlorophyll in the botanicals, though many modern absinthes use artificial agents to intensify or stabilize the green color. Blanche absinthe is clear in appearance.

In addition to being the spirit’s namesake, wormwood is also one of its defining ingredients. Wormwood contains the essential oil thujone, which is one of the ingredients that gets absinthe into trouble. Taken in very high doses, thujone is said to have hallucinogenic properties, and can even be toxic or fatal in extremely high doses. Though thujone also appears in other common herbs such as sage and oregano—and though the amount of thujone present in absinthe is not enough to cause the supposed hallucinations—this reality was not enough to stop the crusade of absinthe’s detractors.

This isn’t to say that absinthe isn’t extremely intoxicating—many absinthes clock in at 120-plus proof, making absinthe as much as 50 percent more alcoholic than most of the tequilas, whiskeys or vodkas we drink today. In addition, the spirit wasn’t regulated as tightly as other French wines and spirits of the day, so an unscrupulous manufacturer could have tainted his product with any number of adulterants—including poisonous ones—adding to absinthe’s rap sheet.

The reasons for absinthe’s demise are complicated and numerous. One contributing factor was that the temperance movement leading the march towards prohibition in the U.S. was also active in Europe. The movement was looking for a scapegoat for the societal ills of industrialization, and the relative newcomer absinthe, with its bohemian clientele, was an easy target—unlike wine, which had long-established cultural roots.

The wine industry was in no hurry to come to absinthe’s defense.

In the mid- to late 1800s, Europe’s vineyards were devastated by a pest

known as phylloxera. As the producers made their way back from the damage, they realized that some of the consumers who previously drank wine or brandy were now hooked on absinthe. It was not in their best financial interest to allow the absinthe distilleries to gain the regulatory legitimacy sought by reputable firms such as Pernod. The absinthe prohibitionists made great use of negative PR from incidents such as the Absinthe Murders, and there was a world war under way (alcohol production typically suffers during such times). By 1915, absinthe was banned in the U.S. and much of Europe.

The good news is that absinthe has crawled out from the shadows. Traditional, artisanal European absinthe became available in the U.S. in 2007 with the introduction of the French-made Lucid, and dozens more brands have followed. There are also several craft distilleries such as St. George and Germain-Robin making modern American absinthes of exceptionally high quality. Whether you take your absinthe in the traditional way, with ice water and a sugar cube, or as a component in a classic or modern cocktail, there are now more quality absinthes on the market than there have been in almost a century.

ABSINTHE SOUR 1 oz. absinthe ¾ oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice ½ oz. sugar 1 egg white

Shake the ingredients vigorously with ice to chill and ensure proper emulsion. Strain into a chilled old-fashioned glass.

CORPSE REVIVER 2011

WINES · S PIRITS

F I N E R FO O DS

¾ oz. Tenneyson absinthe ¾ oz. St–Germain ¾ oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice ¾ oz. Paula’s Texas Orange

Shake the ingredients with ice to chill.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

SNIFFERS, SWIRLERS And

chewers welcome.

Stimulate your appetite and your senses at Spec’s. Begin your adventure with a sampling from our selection of over 200 cheeses. Complete your experience with a fine wine — we offer more than 10,000 to choose from. Everything you need to entertain with confidence, close to home.

CHEERS TO SAVINGS 8 Austin AreA LocAtions s p e c s o n L i n e.co m Rare Fine Foods • 100’s of Cheeses Organic Wine and Spirits • Full Deli Fair Trade/Organic Coffees • Bulk Teas EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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La Casita de buen sabor

I

think I gained 15 pounds the summer I lived in the lovely seaside town of Hornbæk, about 30 miles north of Copenhagen, Denmark. I’d just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and was a governess for three young American boys whose parents had chosen the white sandy beaches of the Danish Riviera for their summer holiday.

While Mom and Dad made jaunts to the city, the beaches and the outer islands, I was left with three rambunctious kids and, fortunately, a refrigerator packed with Scandinavian

SMØRREBRØD FIXIN’S

Find local and seasonal, sustainably produced ingredients at area farmers markets and ask for them at local groceries.

BREAD

• Thin squares of firm rye, pumpernickel or wholegrain breads (cut into shapes, if desired) or toast • Wasa flatbread or other thick whole-grain crackers

BUTTER

• Best-quality creamery butter, softened (flavor with freshly snipped herbs, shallots, dried spices and a splash of white wine or lemon juice)

EGGS

• Slices of hard-boiled eggs (or separately minced yolks and whites for garnish) • Pickled quail eggs • Danish Deviled Eggs (see edibleaustin.com)

CHEESES

• Havarti (buttery flavor, often including fresh dill) • Danbo (easy to slice, often flavored with caraway seeds) • Double-cream Saga blue cheese (brie-like) • Danablu (salty, creamy blue) • Locally made Full Quiver cream cheese • Your favorite local artisanal cheese Note: Add a splash of brandy and walnuts or pecans to soft cheeses before spreading, and use chopped tart apples or pears for garnish.

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delights: thick, velvety yogurt with homemade red currant jelly to top with ripe raspberries, double-cream Saga blue and buttery Havarti cheeses and rich creamery butter to spread (or slather) on whole-grain breads. Jars of pickled herring and packets of cured salmon and roasted meats from the corner store awaited me, too, as did the Danish pastries from the bakery up the street.

Denmark left many lasting impressions on me. I had never seen a chimney sweep before, and it was the summer of Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. When a

SPRING 2011 EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

SEAFOOD

• Salmon gravlax, smoked salmon or trout • Tiny boiled shrimp (Gulf shrimp where available) • Pickled herring • Pickled anchovies (whole)

MEATS

• Roasted pork, lamb or beef slices • Thin slices of ham • Cold-cut meats • Crumbled bacon or sausages • Quail • Your favorite pâté

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

• Cold steamed or roasted new potato or beet slices • Heirloom tomato slices • Blanched and chilled asparagus • Thinly sliced pickling cucumbers • Chopped or thinly sliced green apple or pear • Microgreens and sprouts • Thin lemon slices or zest • Grated carrots • Garden-fresh baby lettuce and greens

CONDIMENTS

• Capers • Finely chopped red onions or scallions • Crispy fried or caramelized shallots • Minced anchovies • Finely chopped gherkins (or cut into a fan) • Freshly grated horseradish (or mixed with freshly whipped cream) • Thin slices of radishes • Marinated cucumbers • Pickled beets or red cabbage (great with roasted meats and prunes) • Sour cream • Homemade mayonnaise • Homemade tartar sauce • Mustard

HERBS AND EDIBLE FLOWERS

• Fresh dill, mint, tarragon, chives, lemon or caraway thyme • Mustard, caraway or fennel seeds • Nasturtium leaves and flowers • Spicy watercress • Sprigs of salad burnet • Johnny-jump-ups • Borage (lovely blue star-shaped spring flowers) • Rose or calendula petals • Chive or society garlic flowers

Photography by John Pozdro

B y l u cin d a h u ts o n

soot-faced man appeared at the door, I refused to let him in and hid with the children in the closet. We didn’t stay in there too long, though, because that refrigerator beckoned us with promises of eased nerves.

I also discovered the Danish custom of smørrebrød: a selection of open-faced sandwiches served as a light meal, passed on trays as hors d’oeuvres or savored as a midnight snack. Those tasty tidbits of thinly sliced firm rye or whole-grain bread lavishly spread with butter were served with a variety of toppings: folded slices of cheese, seafood or meats, sliced fresh vegetables and colorful garnishes. Sometimes they were small enough to just pop right into your mouth; other times they were more substantial.

My favorite sandwich was made with karrysild—herring in curry sauce—topped with finely chopped green apples and sweet gherkins.

Yet the dill-cured salmon with chopped red onions and capers, the Danish anchovies atop thin slices of cold marinated red potatoes sprinkled with chopped chives and the piles of baby shrimp on tomato slices with crunchy asparagus spears also continually called my name.

Most Danes walk into town to street markets and farmers markets

daily, bringing home just what they need for the day. Little bunches of fresh herbs like peppery cress, aromatic dill, mint and tarragon— either from the gardens or purchased in small bouquets—give the finishing touches to meals. Candlelight and nosegays on the table mark the gracious and elegant way of living there.

We can peruse springtime delicacies in our own farmers markets for a Texas-style smørrebrød. Celebrate spring in the garden by passing around trays of beautifully garnished creations, or let guests make their own. Fill assorted bowls with colorful condiments and garnishes, and provide baskets of thinly sliced breads and crackers and crocks of butter. Arrange sliced meats, cheeses and vegetables on platters scattered with fresh herbs and flowers.

In the Danish tradition, ice-cold shots of akvavit—a distillate better known in Denmark as snaps (chill the bottle in the freezer)— or Danish Carlsberg Elephant Beer (a Euro-strong lager) accompany smørrebrøds. Both pack a potent punch, so imbibe judiciously!

Another lovely Danish custom worth sharing is that of the host honoring each guest individually by raising a glass to them, locking eyes and expressing welcome with a compliment, a personal remark or a hearty “skål!”—“here’s to you!”

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Behind the vines

Perissos Vineyard and Winery

Photography courtesy of Perissos Vineyard and Winery

b y T e r ry T h o mps o n - A n d e r s o n

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he general consensus among fans of Texas wines is that the quality has increased dramatically in the past five years. There are many factors that have contributed to the upping of the quality ante, but probably the most important is that winemakers—from both well-established and new wineries alike—have had the luxury of being able to study the 35-plus-year history of the Texas wine industry for a crash course in dos and don’ts. During those years, the industry pioneers, who learned the craft with a seatof-the-pants approach, made many costly mistakes.

The initial industry model was to plant the varietals that had been successful in California. But Texas’s dirt, weather and topography aren’t anything like California’s, so the early winemakers did the homework of weeding out the varietals that didn’t thrive. Along the way, countless trips have been made to wine-producing regions outside the U.S. that have conditions more in common with those in Texas— France’s Rhône Valley, Italy in general, Argentina’s Mendoza region and Spain’s Rioja. The verdict now is that the Mediterranean and Argentine grape varietals will pave the way for the Texas wine industry’s future.

Two of the newer wine producers who’ve become successful and benefited from the path paved before them are Seth and Laura Martin, founders of Perissos Vineyards and Winery. Seth was a homebuilder and contractor in Austin when he and Laura started growing grapes next to their home in 1999. The pair had long loved wine, but knew little about

growing grapes or producing wine. Nevertheless, they began making small batches in their garage as a hobby.

Around this time, Seth was hired to build a grand home for a man who happened to be a serious wine collector. As work progressed, a friendship between the two men blossomed, and the collector became an inspiration to the couple, as well as a valued font of wine knowledge. The Martins began to experiment with various varietals in their little vineyard—noting those that thrived and produced the best wines. Now hooked on their hobby, they decided to one day plant a large vineyard and open a winery, but they wanted to do some homework first. So they planted two other experimental vineyards—one in East Austin and one on Seth’s brother’s property in the Colorado River Basin near the Burnet area. The Burnet vines thrived, producing excellent-quality fruit.

Seth studied the hottest grape-growing regions in the world and compared their heat indices with those in Texas. In the growing regions of California, for example, the heat index factor is around 4,300; in Portugal’s Douro Valley, it’s 4,500. In the Texas Hill Country, it’s 5,500, and the nights don’t cool down as they do in other hot-weather growing regions.

The Martins knew they needed to grow varietals from the hottest growing regions, and for their canvas, they selected a piece of property in the Hoover’s Valley region near Burnet known for its mineral-rich, decomposed granite soil blended with clay for their vineyard and winery. Tons of

Perissos tasting room (above top) and three-year old Jillian Martin (center) helping with the harvest.

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organic compost were brought in to prepare the soil for planting.

In 2005, the couple planted their first test block of 13 different Rhône, Mediterranean and Argentine varietals. From these varietals, they weeded out those that didn’t thrive or produce decent fruit. They took note of those that had a good secondary bloom after moderate freezes, which often occur after initial bud break in the Hill Country. Once they determined the best varietals for their terroir, they added an additional 5,000 vines on 11 acres. Seth studied irrigation systems and eventually settled on a system designed in Israel, where water is a precious commodity. One of the Martins’ goals in the production of the wines was to never use grapes that weren’t grown in Texas. Ninety percent of their wines are produced from grapes grown on their estate, with the remainder sourced from vineyards in the Texas High Plains. Perissos’s 2010 production was 2,500 cases.

The Martins view their winery as a completely hands-on operation— personally tending and overseeing the vineyards each day. As the most important part of the winemaking process, the grapes are monitored and tasted as they mature—eventually ending up at the state-of-the-art winery and barrel-storage facility. The tasting room is an inviting, Hill Country– rustic spot nestled among the fermenting tanks overlooking the vineyards.

Perissos Vineyard and Winery 512-820-2950 perissosvineyards.com

Noteworthy Vintages 2009 Roussanne Blend: A stunning white Mediterranean blend of roussanne, viognier and muscat canelli grapes, the wine exhibits a vibrant nose of fruits and citrus like Meyer lemon blossoms. On the palate, it offers a multidimensional experience of peach and citrus blended seamlessly with notes of herbs, flowers and almonds. A slight nuance of musk lurks in the mouth and adds to the complexity and lush, rich taste. The finish is vibrant and dry, and leaves a pleasant ting of minerality. Perissos 2009 Roussanne Blend won Texas Class Champion at the 2011 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition and was selected as one of the 2010 Ten Best Texas Wines by Dr. Russell Kane in his prestigious VintageTexas.com wine blog.

2009 Tempranillo Blend: The tempranillo grape, which originated in Spain’s Rioja region, is a vivacious grape that’s proving to be a winner in the Texas terroir. Many say it will figure largely in the future of Texas wines. The Perissos 2009 blend of 85 percent tempranillo and 15 percent touriga nacional is an excellent wine—very characteristic of the tempranillos produced in Spain’s northern and central regions. It’s a medium-bodied wine because of the young age of the vines from which it was produced, though it exhibits the classic notes of smoke and herbs with a hint of sweet tobacco. There’s a touch of vanilla from the American oak barrels and a nice finish redolent of cranberries. Tempranillo is a low-acid grape, so the heavy tannins of the touriga in this blend add a bright, acidic backbone. This balanced wine pairs well with foods—think Spanish chorizo and Manchego cheese.

2009 Petite Sirah: Petite sirah is a much-loved red that hasn’t received a great deal of attention in Texas to date. It’s great to see this shining example of the varietal being produced at Perissos. This inky-red wine with an intense body exhibits the unmistakable bouquet of earthiness, dark cocoa and rich espresso. On the palate, the flavor of wild blackberries blends with smooth coffee and rich vanilla. The experience from nose to palate to lingering finish is one of elegance—this is a wine you won’t soon forget. Although there was no discernable immaturity in the wine, a vertical tasting of the 2010 vintage from the barrel shows that this wine will continue to develop richness as the vines mature. Production of the petite sirah is very limited, so if you’re a fan of the varietal, make a trip to the winery soon to nab a few bottles before it’s gone. Perhaps Seth should offer “futures” of the 2010 vintage!

A locally owned wine retail shop offering a unique selection of wines at an affordable price.

Hours Monday - Wednesday 10am - 7pm Thursday - Saturday 10am - 8pm Sunday closed

East End Wines Welcomes Raymond Tatum’s Three Little Pigs food trailer parked right outside the shop! Raymond has been cooking in Austin for over 30 years and his menu highlights all that is good in the world of pork.

Contact East End Wines for more information.

1209 Rosewood Avenue, Austin, TX 78702 512-904-9056 | www.eastendwinesatx.com EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

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department of organic YOUTH

Guilty Pleasure b y Katie F u l l e r t o n

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used to eat sugar snap peas by the pound, and truckloads of celery—stalk after stalk after stalk— any time of the year. These were healthy choices, but not really globally minded ones. Now I get almost all of my produce from the farmers markets, and I’ve adapted to eating okra and cucumbers in the summer and red cabbage during the winter. I am learning to change with the seasons, to make wiser choices about everything—except avocados.

Avocados are my weakness, and they alone have been granted the esteem of being a decadent yearrounder. They don’t grow here in Austin—or anywhere in Texas as far as I know—and they wreak havoc on my attempts to go local. Each time I slice into one, I justify my indulgence by telling myself that they’re from Mexico, and Mexico isn’t that far away, right? But I refuse to buy green beans or corn or tomatoes from Mexico, so what gives with the hypocrisy?

I could say that it’s the avocado’s creamy texture and versatile nature that entice my love, or their ability to fit in almost anywhere and enhance whatever dish they’re placed in or on. Slices fanned on a salad add an elegant sophistication, but the avocado is equally ready and willing to sacrifice itself as a humble dip or a traditional topping for tacos. I could say that it’s the avocado’s ability to straddle the traditional fruit and vegetable labels or its hefty nutritional benefits that keep me coming back. All of the above certainly contribute, but That’s not what makes these green delicacies the trucked-in food I can’t give up. It’s the surprise inside that infatuates me.

On the outside, avocados are a homely, wrinkly, bumpy mix of brown and black. But once the skin is broken, their inner emerald beauty bursts out as if it had been itching to do so for years. The contrast between the alien-landscape exterior and the stunning interior shocks my system into awe every time. Even the pit is gorgeous—a flawless sphere. That explosion of green radiance clustered around the perfect pit is completely oblivious to its ugly stepsister of an outer shell. The coy avocado doesn’t need to worry about its appearance, though—its time will come when its flesh is exposed to the world.

Every time I walk into a grocery store, my eyes are drawn to the haphazard pile of avocados sitting on the shelf. Their tough skin does

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its best to ward me off, and each one boasts a “Grown in Mexico” sticker, making its origin undeniable. Despite this, though, I can’t help but pick out my favorite two or three and dream of the fabulous ways I’ll use them. It may be a small chink in my locavore armor, but I love my avocados anyway. After all, nobody’s perfect. ditor’s note: Dear Katie, there ARE avocados being grown in Texas!

E Family-owned G&S Groves in McAllen, known primarily as a grower of certified organic citrus, grows conventional avocados which are seasonally available from December through February. Find them through Farmhouse Delivery, in the local box from Greenling and order from Farm to Table (wholesale).

Katie Fullerton is a junior at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. A locavore wannabe, she attends the SFC Farmers’ Market–Sunset Valley and Barton Creek Farmers Market weekly. She enjoys bonding with the farmers over their products, and with family and friends over meals they share.

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Back of the House

Uchiko b y M a r s h a l l w r ig h t

Opposite page—clockwise from top: Executive Chef Paul Qui goes over the nightly special with his team; chef sketches of Skin and Bones special; dipping the egg: director of culinary operations Chef Phillip Speer dips frozen carrot soup in a cocoa butter mixture to create the eggshell coating of the dessert special; server Lyndzee Brandys updates the 86 board.

This page: Sushi Chef Justin Huffman has a busy night at the sushi bar; cracking open the egg; adding the final touches to the Ninjin Bacon entrĂŠe (pork belly, carrot, pecan soil ); Sushi Chef Masa Saio fillets the daily catch of fish, madai (Japanese sea bream).

Sustainable FOod Center

Sustaining SFC B y S u san Lei b r o c k

I

n a city boasting more than 6,000 nonprofit organizations, local retailers and restaurants have a broad selection of beneficiaries from which to choose. The causes business owners support make a statement not only about their personal values, but about the types of social change they wish to see in their community and the vision of Central Texas they are working to cultivate.

Among the Sustainable Food Center’s (SFC) most enthusiastic supporters are our vibrant local restaurants. La Condesa will host its fourth biannual SFC Chef Series on April 10th, benefiting our programs Grow Local, The Happy Kitchen/La Cocina Alegre and Farm Direct—which features SFC Farmers’ Market Downtown as well as its Triangle and Sunset Valley markets—in addition to Farm to Work, Farm to Cafeteria and SFC’s farm-to-school project, Sprouting Healthy Kids.

“The impetus for the SFC Chef Series was to foster a closer chef community in Austin and to produce an event focusing on locally available and seasonal product,” says Jesse Herman, co-owner of La Condesa.

“The next logical step was to have a charitable component, and SFC was the first organization that came to mind as a perfect match for us to work with.” La Condesa chefs Rene Ortiz and Laura Sawicki have likewise enjoyed the camaraderie of other culinary talents—it isn’t often that the heft of Olivia, TRIO, Parkside, Uchiko, Dai Due and Haddingtons works shoulder to shoulder in one kitchen!

Austin is home to countless food fetes; whether for fun, philanthropy or both, our town is enamored of epicurean happenings. Farm to Plate, SFC’s annual fundraiser, will be held May 12th at Barr Mansion for the third consecutive year. “I feel honored that Farm to Plate is returning to Barr Mansion,” says owner Melanie McAfee, a member of the City of Austin’s and Travis County’s Sustainable Food Policy Board.

“The sustainable mission we share with SFC has informed the way we are rebuilding the ballroom destroyed last year by fire. We have worked very hard to utilize local builders and materials at every stage, from sewing our own organic linens, to Central Texas craftsmen installing our steel curtain system—the local community is very involved.”

This same commitment to honoring the place we live and its people, plants and animals sets Farm to Plate apart from other food-based fundraisers. The chefs whom SFC invites to participate have a demonstrated practice of sourcing from local farmers, growers and food artisans. Not only do we get to know them by dining in their restaurants, but we see many of the chefs each week shopping at the three farmers markets SFC runs. Over 25 of our community’s top chefs with the greatest passion for locally sourced food will again be delighting fans with the tastes of late spring and early summer.

Having grown the event at a steady pace since its inception in 2007, we’re pleased to be able to accommodate 600 guests this year for the first time. Sponsorships and tables of 10 are available, but because the fundraiser has historically sold out early, we encourage our supporters to secure their seats soon!

Find out more about our upcoming events at sustainablefoodcenter.org 84

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seasonal muse

Of Tomatoes and Time b y ca r o l ann say l e

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t’s spring—our 21st as Creek and began to devegetable farmers. A lot velop our second certified of seasons have passed, organic farm. It was nice and many tons of vegetables to be able to live where we have come off of our two farmed and to be close to farms. our “market”—which was, In 1991, as “commercial at that time, Whole Foods growers” near the tiny town Market—and to our “farm of Gause in Milam County, stand” in front of Wiggy’s we set into the sandy soil liquor store on West Sixth.

Tomatoes at Boggy Creek Farm farm stand our first serious quantity of In the early ’90s, there were spring transplants. Homestead and Better Boy were our tomato varietno producers-only farmers markets. ies. At that time, we’d barely heard of Pennsylvania’s heirloom tomaTomatoes have always been our number-one crop, and there have toes, as we’d both grown up familiar only with the little Homestead, been challenges. For instance, in late May 1994, our spring tomatoes raised to a uniformly sized, artificially ripened green hardness marketgrew to picking size and were ruined by a thunderstorm with high ed with paste-board and cellophane packaging. My family bought the winds and a deluge of rain. Twelve rows of tomato plants (grown in tomatoes at the H.E. Butt grocery store on Fred Road in San Antonio; the popular stake-and-weave style) fell over each other like dominoes.

Larry’s family grew them on 40 sandy acres for the “tomato shed” The next morning, the sun faked an apology—promptly scalding one alongside the railroad tracks in Gause. They carried them there green, side of every red tomato. durably hard, to withstand shipping. At home, Larry’s father, an excelSo, looking for the proverbial lemonade, Larry constructed a small lent gardener like his son, cultivated some to the eating stage: red and smokehouse in the woods behind the henhouse. He built slatted juicy. A garden was necessary, as there were no nearby grocery stores wooden trays, upon which we laid the tomatoes, minus their blemishback then, nor today. The tomato shed is long, long gone, vanished es. He maintained an indirect fire as the smoke entered the structure like the tomato farmers, many of whom likely nurture the soil now. and in five days, the tomatoes dried to bacon-like perfection.

Our first crop was a success, as we’d been practicing for 10 years At our on-site farm stand—which was in its first year—the smoke(ha, after more than 20 years, we still feel like amateurs). But we had dried tomatoes were a huge hit (especially since we had no fresh ones!). the gumption to offer those tomatoes, in paper shopping bags, to One fellow bought a jar of them, ate them all on the way home and Whole Foods Market’s distribution warehouse in East Austin. I drove returned within 20 minutes for more saying, “my wife will kill me if I up in my old Cutlass convertible, the buyer came out to the parking don’t bring her some of these!” lot, I flipped up the trunk lid and he reached in and ate a tomato right The next year, Larry moved the operation to the farm in Gause, out of the bag. I was a bit shocked; I hadn’t washed them (not that they planted Roma tomatoes (meatier, less moisture) and built a larger were overtly dirty, though, and if there was some sand still clinging, smokehouse. Even though there was a lot of barbecuing going on in well, it was certified organic sand and would likely be nourishing)! He East Austin, we didn’t want to win any smoke wars! smiled and said he’d buy all of our tomatoes, but asked, “could you Every spring, we still set out thousands of tomato transplants: heirbring them in boxes?” Apparently bags are hard to stack in a warelooms, cherries and at least one “regular” home-grown tomato. The house. Anxiously, I blurted out, “boxes are so expensive!” Kindly, he Homestead has been replaced by Early Girl, which continues to please went into the building and came out with a stack of used California for fresh eating, and the Roma, well, it’s our official smoke-dried toorganic vegetable boxes and we loaded the tomatoes into those. Our mato—through good years and not so good, through floods, blossomfarm was in business! end rot, seed errors, bounty—whatever.

In 1992, we bought the land on Lyons Road across from Boggy Once more, it’s time to plant them!

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eat wild

Preserving the Wild Harvest Jams and Jellies

W

hen I first began searching for ways to preserve my wild harvests, I found a lot of jelly recipes. At first, I couldn’t imagine adding anything to dewberries or mulberries to make them taste better, and since most jelly recipes call for tons of sugar, I chose to freeze most of my harvests instead. Then I started collecting loads of agaritas, prickly pear tunas, elderberries, green mustang grapes and many other perfectly edible—though less tasty—wild fruits. At that point, I gave in to making some jams and jellies and learned that sugar is a fabulous preservative that complements the flavors and textures of wild fruits.

I asked Stephanie McClenny of Confituras—a local company that makes small batches of locally sourced jams, jellies and preserves—to share some of her creativity and wisdom, and was pleased to find out that she has concocted several jellies out of wild fruits.

“Many foraged fruits can be kind of, well, rustic,” says McClenny.

“They often include indigestible or unpalatable seeds, or are somewhat bitter on the palate on their own. This is why I believe they are very well suited for jellies rather than jams or preserves.”

To make her jellies, McClenny cooks down and mashes the wild fruits to extract their natural juices, then strains them to remove any impurities. Sweeteners, such as sugar and honey, are added, as is lemon (or some other type of acid), and often some type of pectin to preserve and provide a gelling agent. She adds as little water as possible so the flavor of the fruit doesn’t get diluted.

Many of the recipes I found were actually from the olden days, before freezing was feasible. “Back in the day,” McClenny notes, “folks would make jellies out of just about anything that wasn’t poisonous. Not only would it help to put up fruit to stretch the seasons, but would also assist in elevating the gamy meats and heavy biscuits that were part of country life.”

Since those early days when I thought fruit should be eaten only in its original form, I’ve experimented with honey, agave nectar and sugar when making jelly and other fruit spreads out of prickly pear tunas, agaritas, green mustang grapes, mesquite beans, Texas persimmons, elderberries, mulberries, dewberries, Mexican plums, farkleberries and hackberries. Most of these fruits can be found in the spring or summer in Central Texas, and are all good candidates for 86

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your jam or jelly experiments!

Find out more at confituras.net.

Amy’s note: The most common agarita in Central Texas (Berberis trifoliolata) is a low-growing evergreen shrub with prickly leaves that resemble holly leaves.

When walking through the Greenbelt or along fence lines in the Hill Country in April, you might be lucky enough to smell the incredibly fragrant flowers.

Watch for the tiny yellow blooms to turn into ripe, red fruit that is ready to harvest in late April or early May.

Agarita Jelly Courtesy of Stephanie McClenny, Confituras Makes about 4 to 5 half pints There are more than a few methods of getting agarita berries off the bush, but most include a scraped-up arm or two. I’ve heard of folks putting an upturned umbrella at the base of the bush and, well, shaking the heck out of it. Handpicking works too, but you need some dexterity—so rubber gloves over clumsy leather or cloth ones would work best.

It’s worth it, but you have to be willing to get in there!

3 lbs. agarita berries, picked through, sorted and rinsed Enough water to cover the berries (about 3 c.) ¼ c. lemon juice 4 t. calcium water (for information about this, visit the FAQ section of pomonapectin.com) 4 t. Pomona’s Pectin powder 1 c. granulated sugar 1 c. local honey

Put the berries and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir and mash the berries (I use a potato masher) and cook 5 minutes more. Pour into a jelly bag or over dampened cheesecloth set inside a fine-mesh strainer placed over a bowl to catch the juice. Allow to drain for at least 2 hours. There should be about 4 cups of juice—add a little water if it’s short.

Pour the measured juice into a saucepan. Add the lemon juice and calcium water and slowly bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, thoroughly mix the pectin powder with the granulated sugar. Add sugar mixture to the boiling juice, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the honey, then pour the mixture into prepared jars and process for 10 minutes in a water bath.

Note: This is a lower-sugar version; sweeten to taste. The fact that you can control the sugar is the good word about using Pomona’s Pectin.

Photography courtesy of Stephanie McClenny

b y am y c r o w e l l

Texas Grown, Estate-Bottled Extra Virgin Varietal Olive Oil Texas Flavor-Infused Olive Oil: Roasted Garlic, Mesquite, Basil, Orange, Lemon, Rattlesnake Pepper Texas Infused Balsamic Vinegars: Blackberry, Orange, Fig, Pomegranate AUSTIN AREA LOCATIONS

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512-366-0537 (Trailer Park) 512-444-0300 (South) 512-514-0767 (William Cannon) 512-494-8226 (Campus) 512-291-7277 (North) 512-382-0823 (Burnet) torchystacos.com 325-646-8200 theturtlerestaurant.com

512-436-8226 tntgrill.com

512-370-8243 texasgasservice.com

512-656-4348 pinkavocadocatering.com

Thai Fresh

512-479-9800 thomsmarket.com

Savvy Vodka

Organic Valley

512-636-6389 paulastexasspirits.com

thetexasfoodandwinegourmet.com

Thom's Market

512-451-1436 (Central) 512-445-4451 (South) 512-258-7757 (Northwest) 512-477-5717 (UT) 512-899-1500 (Southwest) kerbeylanecafe.com

organicvalley.coop

Texas Food & Wine Gourmet

512-494-6436 thai-fresh.com

Savory Spice Shop

Onion Creek Kitchens 830-833-0910 juniperhillsfarm.com

800-982-2386 texasperformingarts.org

Wink Restaurant

512-482-8868 winkrestaurant.com

Zed's

512-339-9337 zeds.bz

shearerpub.com

EDIBLE AUSTIN.COM EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM

SPRING 2011

89

Debra Broz, Feeding; found ceramic objects, epoxy compounds, paint and sealer on painted wooden stand, 2010; 7 x 6 x 6 inches; courtesy of the artist

art de terroir

New Art in Austin: 15 to Watch On view at the Austin Museum of Art 823 Congress Avenue February 26 – May 22, 2011

Digestible Beats Tuesday, April 26 | 7 pm | Springdale Farm Foley artist Buzz Moran and composer/musician Ben Webster, aka Butcher Bear, transform the sounds of a meal prepared by East Side Showroom’s Chef Sonya Coté into a feast for the senses. Experience cooking and dining at an urban farm as a live sound mosaic. Tickets at www.amoa.org/musicandfood Co-presented by AMOA, Edible Austin and Fusebox Festival

Don’t Let Another Summer Go By!

Build Your Dream Home Now!

TexasCasualCottages.com

Call Today! 979.278.3015 Building your dream home is much easier than you think.

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