Home > Relish Austin
Special edition Gourmet on newsstands Sept. 7, but I’m not buying it
Earlier this summer, Conde Nast announced an iPad application called, ironically, Gourmet Live, and on Monday, Folio reported that three special edition recipe booklets will be sold on newsstands in coming months.
The miniature cookbooks will sell for $10.99, and the first is called Gourmet Quick Kitchen.
This idea of repurposing recipes and other food content for stand-alone issues isn’t new. Recipe-centric magazines like Fine Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated have found a great deal of success with their specialty issues, but with Gourmet, this just seems like a quick way for Conde Nast to make money on a beloved brand that hasn’t yet been replaced.
I, for one, never read Gourmet for the recipes. (Insert joke about reading Playboy for the articles here.) I could (and still can) get just about any Gourmet recipe on Epicurious.com or its iPhone app, but without the thoughtful, beautifully written articles about food and food culture, any Gourmet-branded product is just a haphazard spin-off of a product whose void I still haven’t filled.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Food in the news
New farmers market to open in Salado
Salado, the small town just north of Austin off Interstate 35, is getting a farmers market.
Starting this Saturday, farmers, ranchers and artisan food purveyors will be selling their products at the Adela’s Farmers Market at 302 N. Main St. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Market managers Jennifer and Kelly Angell, who also own Adelea’s On Main Bistro, say that to help kick off the fall season of the market, there will be live music, oven-fired pizza and wine by the glass available for sale. Kelly Angell says that the market will accept Women, Infant and Children vouchers as well as SNAP, formerly known as food stamp, benefits.
“As chefs we really care about where our food comes from and it’s frustrating to think we have to drive all the way to Austin where you can find the widest variety of local products in one place,” Jennifer Angell says. “We, like most people, don’t have the time to hunt down local farmers and go to each individual place in order to get the freshest ingredients.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Eating locally
‘First Kitchen’ blogger Natalie San Luis: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Natalie writes about the successes and failures as she cooks in her very first kitchen. She had a great post this week with a checklist for incoming students (or just about anyone setting up a kitchen) on what basic food and equipment you need for a kitchen.
“I started the blog because I love writing and I wanted to document my experience learning how to cook,” she writes. “I stuck with it because feeding people makes them happy, which makes me happy!”
Good luck to Natalie this school year and the rest of you lucky enough to be in the classroom.
(Yes, I said lucky. Some of us secretly wish we could be students forever.)
What three things are always in your fridge? Eggs (we go through them like crazy), romaine lettuce for quick salads on the run, and red curry paste.
What’s your favorite condiment? Definitely sriracha sauce! The kind that comes in the big bottle with a rooster on it and a green lid. It tastes good with everything.
What’s your go-to late-night study snack? Homemade roasted garlic hummus. I make big batches at a time because my roommates and I eat it on wraps, vegetables, crackers, chips, and pretzels.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: What's in Your Fridge Friday
The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers
Roger Ebert has made the best out of a really terrible situation.
Four years ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic lost the ability to speak and eat due to thyroid cancer. It’s an unthinkable scenario that would probably put most of us into a downward spiral from which we might not recover.
Ebert, on the other hand, has become as prolific as ever, continuing to write movies reviews and a hugely successful blog and Twitter account (220,000 followers and counting).
If you haven’t read the Esquire article on him from March, you really should. It’s an incredible story, much more in depth and meaningful than the rice cooker article I wrote for yesterday’s paper inspired by the fact that Ebert, who is fed through a tube in his stomach, has a cookbook coming out next month.
Even though I really liked reading his cookbook (Ebert such a witty writer that the book doesn’t even have any pictures), I’m not quite convinced that a rice cooker is as helpful a piece of kitchen equipment as, say, a slow cooker.
The one redeeming dish I made while researching the story, however, was this infinitely adaptable garlic chicken on fragrant rice, which I’m not kidding you, was just about the best rice-based meal I’ve ever had. You could swap pork, shrimp or even tofu for the chicken and add any number of vegetables or other seasonings. This dish is truly a one-pot wonder.
Garlic Chicken on Fragrant Rice
1 cube chicken bouillon
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 cups jasmine or basmati rice
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 green onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, minced
1 chicken thigh, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
a handful of vegetables such as bell pepper, broccoli, squash, asparagus, cut into pieces
Dissolve the bouillon cube in the water. Place all the ingredients except the chicken and vegetables in the rice cooker. Stir, then place the chicken and vegetables on top. Turn on the rice cooker. When the rice is done, mix the rice so that the oil will be evenly mixed with the rice.
— Adapted from a recipe by John in Calgary in ‘The Pot and How to Use it’
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment Categories: Cooking
Locally grown seaweed? In Austin? You read that right.
In a landlocked city like Austin, “local” and “seaweed” aren’t two words you’re likely to read in the same sentence, but Lewis Weil is changing that with his new company, Austin Sea Veggies.
After reading an article about how many of the world’s commercial seaweed beds are being contaminated with pollution, he started researching how to grow seaweed in aquaculture beds. He found a few varieties that grow well and taste good and is now selling them at the Sustainable Food Center’s Farmers’ Market at Sunset Valley on Saturdays.
“There’s a lot more interest than I thought there would be,” Weil says. He knows there’s a certain novelty to his product, but he thinks Austinites are just open to finding interesting ways to use new products. “It works well as a green or an herb in a salad, miso soup or sandwiches,” he says. “Or you can use it as a filling in sushi or served with rice.”
He sells two varieties of seaweed (the coarse, moss-like ogonori and a large, thin-leafed sea lettuce) together in a mixed packed ($5).
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Eating locally
East Austin food trailer park adds drive-in movie theater
This week, Frank is opening a miniature drive-in movie theater in the back of the space at 2326 E Cesar Chavez St., which currently boasts three food carts (Old School BBQ, Along Came a Slider and Iggi’s Texicarian), a retail trailer (Wondercraft) and a two-level gallery space. The drive-in officially opens with a showing of “Grease” on Thursday night at dusk, “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure” on Friday and “American Graffiti” on Saturday.
For $10, you can park your car in one of six spaces that has its own old school audio box that you can hang on the window. If you’d rather sit on a blanket, in a fold-out chair or on one of the benches or tables, the movies are free.
On Tuesday night, we checked out a sneak preview of “American Graffiti” projected on the back wall of the drive-in space. My hometown in Missouri is small and quaint enough to still have a full-sized drive-in theater, and although this drive-in definitely qualifies as “boutique,” I can assure you that it provides a real taste of the nostalgic drive-in experience.
You can grab a bite to eat at one of the trailers or fixins for s’mores from the concession stand set up in an old boat, break open a BYO bottle or six-pack, sit back and enjoy watching a movie outside. Frank says that, starting Friday night with “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure,” one night a week he’ll be screening kids’ movies and that each of the food cart operators will have a day of the week to pick the programming.
You can count on movies being shown Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights around dusk, and the schedule of films will be posted about a month in advance on the Web site. At 8 p.m. on Sept. 3, the Alamo Drafthouse is screening “Der Golem” as part of its rolling roadshow series.
Photos by Josh Frank.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Playing with your food
Meet and greet with ‘Next Food Network Star’ contestant Brad Sorenson
Brad Sorenson didn’t win this season’s “Next Food Network Star,” but he got pretty close to the finals, winning millions of fans along the way.
Make reservations online or by calling 451-1218.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Celebs in the Kitchen, Eating out
Saying ‘thank you’ with veggie-stamped notecards
You might have noticed things slowing down a bit on Relish Austin in the past few weeks.
The heat is easy to blame, but I’ve got another excuse: I’m just a few weeks from delivering baby No. 2.
Over the next two and a half weeks, I’ll try to keep posting interesting and newsy bits of food content, but come the second week of September through mid-November, I’ll only be posting about once a week while I’m on maternity leave.
And before you know it, I’ll be back, high temperatures will be in the 60s, the holiday season will be upon us and, hopefully, Relish Austin will be back up to its multi-posts-a-day glory.
Thanks for your patience and dedicated readership as I make this transition from working mom of a toddler to working mom of a newborn and a soon-to-be-4-year-old.
And speaking of thank yous, I wanted to share some cool notecards I’ve been making in the past few days with Julian. Renee Studebaker’s okra column earlier this summer gave me the idea to use okra as a paint stamp, and I realized that pepper tops and other vegetables would make fine stamps as well.
With some cheap paint from the hobby store and cardstock and envelopes from the big box office store, I’ve been making these colorful cards that I’ll be sending out thank you notes on to the people who’ve gifted us some baby items at several recent showers.
And — spoiler alert, Mom — they are so quick, fun and cheap to make, I’m already thinking ahead to Christmas and making extras that I’ll be giving out as gifts.
Thanks ahead of time to you all for your virtual support. I wish I could drop a handmade thank-you card in the mail to each of you.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Playing with your food
Austin stars in ‘Food Truck Revolution’ on Sunday night
So many food trucks, so little time.
Producers from the Cooking Channel breezed through Austin earlier this summer to shoot a special called “Food Truck Revolution” that will premiere on Sunday night at 9 p.m. The show explores how Austin’s quirky nature contributes to the thriving food trailer scene and how it compare to others cities with a lots of food trucks.
Look for an appearance or two from yours truly during the hourlong special, which reairs Monday at 1 a.m. and again on Aug. 29 at 7 and 11 p.m.
Photo by Mike Sutter for the Austin American-Statesman.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Food in the news
Hatch Madness: Putting famous green chile peppers to a blind taste test
With a little marketing help, Hatch chiles have become the rockstars of the pepper world.
Few produce items, much less peppers, have as many rabid fans as the green chiles that come from the small town of Hatch, N.M., but I’m sure garden blogger Renee Studebaker isn’t the first to wonder what all the fuss is about.
Chuy’s started hosting a green chile festival 22 years ago, but Hatch fever really caught on when Central Market launched its Hatch festival 15 years ago. Austinites suddenly had a ready supply of the peppers, both raw and roasted, that they could freeze and enjoy year-round. Central Market is now the largest buyer of Hatch green chiles, and the company now produces and sells dozens of Hatch products, including sausages, tortillas and even gelato.
But are Hatch peppers really that much better than Anaheims, your garden-variety green chiles that are available year-round? To find out, I asked Jill and Kevin Lewis of Austin Slow Burn to do a blind taste test for a new series I’m starting on Relish Austin called Feed Me Blind. (See footnote for more information on how to participate or send in suggestions.)
When it comes to peppers and all things hot, there are few people in Austin as knowledgeable as Jill and Kevin, who’ve been making some of the best salsas and fiery foods in Austin since the mid 1990s. They are fixtures on the hot sauce scene, and Hatch season is just about the busiest time of year for them.
We shot this video on Tuedsay in the Statesman studio, where I served them two quesadillas: one made with roasted hot Hatch chiles that I bought at Central Market and the other made with roasted Anaheims from H-E-B.
Could they tell a difference? Watch the video to find out:
Think you could taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi? What about farm fresh eggs versus store bought? Ketchup made with high fructose corn syrup versus ketchup made without it? We’ll be putting foods (and the people who swear they can tell the difference) to the test on Feed Me Blind, an occasional series on Relish Austin. Have a favorite food or drink you know you could pick out by taste alone or a suggestion for two items we should test? E-mail me at abroyles@statesman.com, and maybe I’ll ask to put a blindfold on you to find out if you’re right.
Photos by Mike Sutter and video by Jenni Jones for the Austin American-Statesman.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Feed Me Blind
Hatch Madness: Central Market recipe contest, classes and Chuy’s special menu
The only thing hotter than the temperatures outside this time of year are the green chiles being trucked in from the small town of Hatch, N.M., by local grocery stores and restaurants.
The beloved Hatch chiles are hotter this year than most, says Lee Crenshaw, a longtime produce buyer with Central Market who helped create the Hatch mania that now descends on Central Texas every August.
“Hatch peppers are a variety of Anaheim peppers,” but in order to be called Hatch peppers, they have to grow in or near Hatch, N.M., Crenshaw says. “The soil and climate is what gives those peppers distinct characteristics.”
This year marks the 15th year of Central Market’s Hatch festivities, but now you can find both roasted and unroasted Hatch peppers at dozens of stores around Central Texas, including H-E-B and Whole Foods (the peppers cost $1.29 per pound raw and $2.79 per pound roasted at Central Market and H-E-B, $1.99 per pound raw and $6 per pound roasted at Whole Foods.) Both Whole Foods Market stores in Austin will be hosting free Hatch events from noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 28.
Home cooks have until Aug. 19 to submit their recipe online into Central Market’s annual No-Holds-Barred recipe contest. Two winners, one for both the Westgate and North Lamar stores, will go home with 75 pounds of roasted Hatch chile peppers and a $100 gift card. Marianne Roeder was one of the winners last year with her roasted chile and corn pizza (see recipe below).
Chuy’s annual green chile festival, now in its 22nd year, kicks off Aug. 30, runs through Sept. 19 and will feature six new dishes laced with — or in some cases drowning in — Hatch chiles, including chile-spiced grilled tilapia roja, spinach queso blanco with pepper jack cheese and chiles, roasted pork enchiladas with a green chile salsa costeña and Hatch green chile fajita beef tacos. You can also buy the spicy Hatch green chile sauce in the stores ($6.39 for 16 ounces, $11.59 for 32 ounces).
Don’t know a thing about Hatch? Check out some of the Hatch-themed cooking classes at the North Lamar Central Market and the Whole Foods Market downtown.
Central Market classes include: Hatch quick-fire challenge ($50) at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 30 featuring Parkside chef Shawn Cirkiel and Central Market executive chef Larry Guilbeau, Hatch chile fiesta ($50) at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 2 with Aunt Pearl Burras of Greater Tuna fame and Hotter Than Hatch with cooking instructor Scot Loranc at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 ($40).
At Whole Foods Market, Indian culinary expert Chaya Rao will teach a Hatch chiles and vegetarian global cuisine class ($45) at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 26.
Roasted Chile and Corn Pizza
For crust:
2 cups unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. turbinado sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. instant yeast
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
2 roasted Hatch chiles, finely diced
1 cup water
For sauce:
1 7 ounce jar tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tbsp. chile oil
1 tsp. cumin
salt, to taste
Toppings:
About 14 oz. grated part-skim mozzarella cheese
Chopped onion
Chopped green bell pepper
Chopped tomato
2 roasted Hatch chiles, chopped
Roasted corn, cut off of the cob
About 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
For crust, mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add softened butter and mix thoroughly. Add cilantro and chiles; mix well. Slowly add water until dough forms a smooth, non-sticky ball. Cover and let rise in a warm place 1-2 hours until doubled. Gently deflate and split into two equal pieces, let rest 10 minutes then roll into circles and place on greased pizza pans.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together tomato paste, wine, chile oil, cumin and salt. Spread a thin layer of sauce on pizza dough, top with mozzarella and desired amounts of toppings. Sprinkle Parmesan on top and bake 30 minutes or until done. Makes two pizzas.
— Marianne Roeder
Photos by Larry Kolvoord for the Austin American-Statesman.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Grocery goods, Playing with your food
Break world records, cupcake piñata at Cupcake Smackdown 2.0 on Saturday
For the second year, food blogger, baker and social media guru Jennie Chen is hosting a Cupcake Smackdown to celebrate one of our favorite desserts.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, eat cupcakes from local bakeries, take a swing at a cupcake piñata, launch a cupcake from a cupcake cannon and help attempt to break two world records (the most jaffa cakes eaten in one minute and the most people simultaneously frosting a cupcake) at the free event, which is taking place at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and the Westin near the Domain in North Austin.
Donations benefiting Mobile Loaves and Fishes, Keep Austin Dog Friendly and Lights, Camera, Help will be accepted.
Photo by Larry Kolvoord for the Austin American-Statesman.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Playing with your food
Latest comments
That is the correct ratio of water to rice for this particular recipe.
... read the full comment by staff | Comment on The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers Read The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers
Is the rice to water ratio correct? I just wanted to make sure before I made it.
... read the full comment by Amanda | Comment on The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers Read The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers
Oops! Thanks for the heads up, Amanda. I’ve fixed it to say 2 Tbsp. olive oil.
... read the full comment by staff | Comment on The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers Read The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers
What does “2 tbsp cup olive oil” mean?
... read the full comment by Amanda | Comment on The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers Read The magical allure of Roger Ebert and his rice cookers
See more recent comments