http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm Food journalism out of Austin, Texas. en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 20:24:07 -0700 Mon, 20 May 2013 13:26:00 -0700 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss russell@scrumptiouschef.com russell@scrumptiouschef.com russell@scrumptiouschef.com no http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/20/Recipe-The-Worlds-Best-Banana-Pistachio-Tea-Bread I've spent the last 15 years lining up secret cooking weapons across the USA. Bourbon barrel aged vanilla is my latest treasure. At the dawn of my cooking career, I pulled down my grits and greens money via working as an overnight baker in Birmingham, Alabama. Recipes Dessert Mon, 20 May 2013 13:26:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/20/Recipe-The-Worlds-Best-Banana-Pistachio-Tea-Bread http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/14/Recipe-Vietnamese-Bison-Meatloaf We've been on a Vietnamese jag of late. This used to mean multiple trips to Tam Deli and Baguette House, but nowadays we content ourselves with hitting the test kitchen to develop formulae for our recipe binder. After the runaway success of our Vietnamese Collard Greens article, we realized that we needed to be cooking and writing about more southeast Asia cuisine. Enter the Vietnamese Bison meatloaf: Recipes Tue, 14 May 2013 13:36:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/14/Recipe-Vietnamese-Bison-Meatloaf http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/2/Recipe-Texas-White-Chili We waded into battle with 120 lbs of Peeler Farm's chicken recently at our big, East Austin food party. 36 young hens received a variety of treatments, but our personal favorite was a riff on Texas Red Chili where we substituted chicken for beef, and ended up with a competition-caliber kettle of some of the finest Texas chili we ever had the pleasure of eating. It's not everyday you get to enter a recipe into the culinary canon of the Great State. Texas White Chili (recipe number 100 in the archive) Recipes Thu, 02 May 2013 12:27:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/5/2/Recipe-Texas-White-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/29/Recipe-Funky-Hot-Vietnamese-Collard-Greens-With-Fried-Green-Onions Growing up on a farm in the Cumberland Highlands means you have easy access to fresh vegetables year-round. What vegetables our family didn't eat at-the-moment-of-ripeness were canned or vacuum-sealed via a magical apparatus known as the seal-a-meal. Collard greens are one of the South's epic brassicae. Most southern, soul food chefs put them on the stove-top early in the morning with a ham hock, and a cup of bacon fat, and let them cook for 3-4 hours before they're finally served as a glorious "mess of greens." Recipes Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:20:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/29/Recipe-Funky-Hot-Vietnamese-Collard-Greens-With-Fried-Green-Onions http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/23/Recipe-Sweet-Potato-Mash-With-Texas-Sorghum-Molasses When your eaters come in giant waves you have to be locked and loaded in the kitchen. At our most recent pop up restaurant event we prepared a mammoth batch of Johnson's Backyard Garden organic sweet potatoes in hopes of being able to feed the crowd. Mission accomplished. This was the recipe that was the most requested as the event wore on. Folks repeatedly walked up to the counter proclaiming that they "normally don't like sweet potatoes" then begged for the formula. Recipes Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:13:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/23/Recipe-Sweet-Potato-Mash-With-Texas-Sorghum-Molasses http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/19/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-7-How-To-Make-Fred-K-Schmidts-Hot-Brown Kentucky Derby season is in full swing as natives of the Commonwealth lay in big supplies of bourbon for mint juleps; cured meats for biscuit-stuffing; sacks of walnuts for Derby Pie-making, and critters from the hardwood forests to construct mammoth kettles of Burgoo. There are plenty iconic dishes in Kentucky but perhaps none more so than the Hot Brown. Putatively, a simple sandwich consisting of only a handful of ingredients, the dish has taken on a mythos over the near century since its invention, and now food pilgrims travel from all over the globe to sample this delicacy. Southern Cooking Recipes Kentucky Recipes Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:03:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/4/19/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-7-How-To-Make-Fred-K-Schmidts-Hot-Brown http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/31/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Sour-Dough-Bread We frenzied on this fresh loaf of bread that we scored at a Scrumptious Chef cook's meeting this past weekend. Hope to have the recipe, and possibly a back story, up later today. Ok, it's later today and we can post this formula from our buddy Paul, the newest member of our cook team: Recipes Austin Daily Photo Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:11:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/31/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Sour-Dough-Bread http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/26/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Kellogs-Cocoa-Krispies-Logs-Courtesy-Of-Yogi-Bear We were always in the plain Rice Krispies camp. Versatility rules when you're a young, cold breakfast cereal gourmand, and once you commit to the cocoa there's no going back. The "chocolate" suffuses the flavor profile of the whole bowl, and add-ons are next to impossible to integrate into the dish. Recipes Dessert Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:24:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/26/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Kellogs-Cocoa-Krispies-Logs-Courtesy-Of-Yogi-Bear http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/1/Introducing-A-Brand-New-Category-On-Scrumptious-Chef-The-Art-And-Science-Of-Chili Time to pay the devil his due. The gods of Chili making must be appeased so we've given Chili its own category. We're introducing our latest addition with an omnibus of all our Chili articles gleaned from our nearly 2,000 article-strong archive. Submitted for your cooking and eating pleasure: The Art and Science of Chili The Art And Science Of Chili Recipes Tue, 01 Jan 2013 13:34:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2013/1/1/Introducing-A-Brand-New-Category-On-Scrumptious-Chef-The-Art-And-Science-Of-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/30/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Nineteen-How-To-Make-Green-Mexican-Chili We make chili year round in Texas. It's what sustains us. 110 degrees in the dead of summer? Time to make chili. Leaves a falling in East Austin? Time to make chili. There is simply no food that nourishes the soul and feeds the spirit like a kettle of chili. We make all kinds: Texas Red, Kentucky White, Mexican brown...you name it. If it involves chile peppers and few hours on the stovetop we'll tackle it and wrestle it around til it turns into food. It's alchemy. Texas style. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sun, 30 Dec 2012 13:12:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/30/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Nineteen-How-To-Make-Green-Mexican-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/27/2012-Year-End-Review-The-5-Hottest-Recipes-Of-The-Year This site began its life as a recipe database. Friends and family encouraged me to start Scrumptious Chef so they could rifle through an online resource from time to time when it came time to marshal their reserves and hit the kitchen. Little did they (or I) realize that Scrumptious Chef would take on a life of its own and turn into the media empire that it is today. Five of the ten most popular articles in the history of the site are all recipes. These are the five most popular recipes we posted in 2012: Recipes Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:10:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/27/2012-Year-End-Review-The-5-Hottest-Recipes-Of-The-Year http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/23/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-York-Peppermint-Patty-Stuffed-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies I no longer earn my living as a baker but I still absolutely love the process of baking. You can't freestyle if you want to achieve consistency in your baked goods. There are rules and precepts that must be adhered to if you're going to be successful. I find it oddly liberating to have to rigidly follow a recipe. It's the opposite of how I normally cook where I just fling myself all over the kitchen wildly chopping and sauteing everything in sight. This is one of my favorite holiday baking recipes. These cookies stand about 2" tall and are stuffed with one of the great commercial candy bars: York Peppermint Patties. Obviously you may substitute any number of other bars if you're some kind of commie who doesn't like peppermint patties. Zero bars work really well as do Clark and Zagnut. I wish I could lay my hands on some Goldenberg Peanut Chews. Now that was a candy bar. Recipes Dessert Austin Daily Photo Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:09:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/12/23/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-York-Peppermint-Patty-Stuffed-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/11/23/Recipe-Spaghetti-With-Sweet-Onion-Brisket-Ragu When in the presence of a superior cook, I like to focus, laser-like, on the subject at hand, take notes and give proper deference to the higher authority. Such was the case on many trips to Agata's kitchen in Alabaster, Alabama. There is an enormous Italian diaspora in central Alabama. For decades, immigrants from the Boot have traveled to Dixie to settle into the fertile blacklands, and begin their new lives among the country folk of Chilton, Shelby and Jefferson counties. Recipes Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:57:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/11/23/Recipe-Spaghetti-With-Sweet-Onion-Brisket-Ragu http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/11/19/Recipe-Bulleit-Bourbon-Bundt-Cake-With-Buttermilk-Praline-Sauce Rifling through my albums, comic books and old hot rod magazines, I stumbled upon some vintage index cards filled with a curious scrawl. I'm not sure of their provenance-I'd like to think they're my grandmother's, she was a professional cook-but their origin is a mystery. They're recipe cards, yellowed with age, and feature all sorts of delicious, old timey dishes like flitter cakes, friendship fruit, shoo-fly pie, hummingbird cake-that sort of thing. But the one dish that really intrigued me was bourbon cake. Recipes Dessert Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:14:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/11/19/Recipe-Bulleit-Bourbon-Bundt-Cake-With-Buttermilk-Praline-Sauce http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/29/Recipe-Tres-Leche-Pumpkin-Bread-Pudding-With-Salted-Pecan-Praline-Sauce I run as close to a zero waste kitchen as is possible. It's been ingrained in me from years of working in places where rubber spatulas are referred to as million dollar tools due to their ability to deglaze every last ounce of useable goods from the crannies of cans, vessels and bottles. At the end of a busy year it's untelling how much much money a busy kitchen can save with one of these tools. Enter bread pudding. I became a slave to this dessert as a child when my family vacationed in New Orleans. Thousands of baguettes make their way from busy bakeries like Leidenheimer's through the Creole kitchens of the Crescent City, and if they get stale before they make the bread service part of the meal? They get chopped up, submerged in a variety of sugars and milks then baked ,sauced and served. Recipes Dessert Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:04:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/29/Recipe-Tres-Leche-Pumpkin-Bread-Pudding-With-Salted-Pecan-Praline-Sauce http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/26/Recipe-How-To-Make-Porridge Lo those many years ago. Before we entered the pop up restaurant business we got famous via a backyard cooking series we called "Explore The Classic Cuisine..." We tackled a host of countries {Mexico, Vietnam, Korea, Argentina, Cuba et al} before rolling back into our wheelhouse and giving Texas the treatment. We scheduled a Texas Roadhouse party and started smoking the briskets, frying the chicken fried steaks and simmering a giant kettle of Texas Red chili-then the shit hit the fan. December, normally one of Austin's prettiest months, turned surly when a north'r blew in and we had to figure out how to lodge a few dozen people in our old wood frame house in French Place. Recipes Dessert Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:48:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/26/Recipe-How-To-Make-Porridge http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/21/A-Guide-To-Making-The-Best-Boudin-You-Will-Ever-Put-In-Your-Mouth Any time spent on the grinder/extruder is time well spent. We've been working on our handmade sausage recipes and techniques for almost a year now. We've made Texas hot guts, pure pork, Sweet Italian, Polish and a few experimental-style sausages during this time. The subject of boudin has come up periodically when we've been wool gathering and/or bragging amongst ourselves about how good a job we're doing, but we'd never tackled the legend. Til now. Southern Cooking Recipes Sun, 21 Oct 2012 01:23:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/21/A-Guide-To-Making-The-Best-Boudin-You-Will-Ever-Put-In-Your-Mouth http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/11/Happy-Southern-Food-Heritage-Day-Austin-Texas Texas food vs Southern Food. What's the difference? Out here in the great state we've got chicken fried steak. Over in Alabama they've got country fried steak. Out here in Texas we've got chile con queso. Over in Kentucky they've got beer cheese spread. Out here in Texas we've got smoked pork ribs. Over in Mississippi they've got baked ribs simmered in barbecue sauce. Out here in Texas we've got Texas Red Chili. Over in Dixie there are dozens of variations on the form with nobody ready to whup your ass if you throw a bean in the kettle. Southern Cooking Recipes Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:43:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/11/Happy-Southern-Food-Heritage-Day-Austin-Texas http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/6/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-6-How-To-Make-Chocolate-Gravy Kentucky is gravy country. Alabama is gravy country. Texas is gravy country. As you traverse the upper end of the South, make your way down into Dixie and then head out West to the Great State, you'll find dozens of regional variations on this simple, humble sauce. We pour it over our chicken fried steak, we fry up Jimmy Dean sausage and make a gravy that's perfect for our biscuits; and a bowl of mashed potatoes served without gravy? That might just find the cook on the business end of a rusty shank. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:38:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/6/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-6-How-To-Make-Chocolate-Gravy http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/5/Austin-Daily-Photo-Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Bars There are certainly better ways to use Bulleit Bourbon {it makes a very fine Old Fashioned} but the added gusto it gives to a pan of dessert bars takes a good dessert and shoots it straight to the moon. Earlier this week I rifled through my Maida Heatter cookbooks seeking inspiration for a sojourn in the kitchen. I found it. As usual. The doyenne of sweets is pushing a hundred years old but is still able to give guidance through her printed work which will be pored over for the next millenia. How to make Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Bars http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/3/Recipe-How-To-Make-Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Bars Recipes Austin Daily Photo Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:09:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/5/Austin-Daily-Photo-Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Bars http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/3/Recipe-How-To-Make-Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Bars I still fondly reflect back on one of my first jobs in a professional kitchen. I worked the graveyard shift as a baker/pastry chef making cakes, pies, tarts, tortes, cookies and tea breads. I'd roll into the kitchen around midnight, often after tying one on at a nearby bar, crank up some Beasts of Bourbon and set about my tasks. An ancient Black man came in around 3am to knock out the baguettes and he'd regale me with stories of what it was like when he was a young man growing up in rural Alabama. It wasn't pretty but it was certainly compelling. He kept an old harp in the glovebox of his car and sometimes when he needed a break, he'd go out back and roll up a cigarette and start blowing lonesome from the front seat of his old Buick. He got a kick out it when I'd discover a "new" musician like Big Boy Crudup or Slim Harpo. Recipes Dessert Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:30:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/10/3/Recipe-How-To-Make-Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan-Bars http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/26/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Eighteen-How-To-Make-Carne-Molida I was raised on chili. My mom regularly made a batch using red kidneys and ground beef. My grandma had an oddly wonderful take that featured white beans and green tomatoes. My aunts and uncles all knocked out kettles of the stuff and my dad? He made a version at the house for the wife and kids, but he saved the evil for his buddies at the volunteer fire department where he concocted a fierce, witches brew that would singe the brass stays off your Wranglers. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:05:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/26/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Eighteen-How-To-Make-Carne-Molida http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/19/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-5-Brains-And-Eggs Growing up in the Cumberland Highlands region of Eastern Kentucky our family practiced nose to tail cooking before Fergus Henderson had unlatched his mouth from his mother's breast, and long before it became chic for line cooks to blow a week's pay on pig tattoos for their forearms. We didn't like letting good meat go to waste. Durog hogs were the breed of choice on our family's farm. The big beasts are gorgeous creatures, notoriously hardy and grow to unfathomable sizes ranging upwards of a half a ton on the hoof. They are also delicious. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:36:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/19/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-5-Brains-And-Eggs http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/9/Austin-Daily-Photo-Sweet-Corn-And-Hatch-Chiles Sweet corn fried in a skillet with cow's butter and finished with a dose of heavy cream is country food filled with nuance. Up in the Cumberland Mountains of Eastern Kentucky the topsoil is almost 2 feet deep with the black loam giving rise to corn stalks twice as high as a tall man's head. The corn that issues from the land is the finest in all of the Americas. It's God's country up in those parts. Recipe after the jump Recipes Austin Daily Photo Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:21:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/9/Austin-Daily-Photo-Sweet-Corn-And-Hatch-Chiles http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/3/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Seventeen-Smoked-Alligator-Enchiladas-With-Roasted-Hatch-Chiles We eat a lot of alligator. The state of Louisiana is our source and with a gator population north of 1.5 million there's plenty to be had in the meat markets that dot the western prairies of the Pelican State. Louisiana has had a controlled wild harvest in place since 1972. Back when the harvest got started, it was limited to the southwestern part of the state and only twelve hundred creatures were taken. Nowadays the hunt is statewide and skilled woodsmen take over thirty two thousand of the ornery beasts per annum. Pole hunting is prohibited and the majority of the animals are taken via the time-honored line catching technique. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:07:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/9/3/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Seventeen-Smoked-Alligator-Enchiladas-With-Roasted-Hatch-Chiles http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/24/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-White-Bean-Soup-with-Roasted-Hatch-Chiles-and-Andouille-Sausage One of the highlights of Austin living comes each year when the Hatch chile peppers make their way to town on the dusty backroads from the Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico. Veteran food writers at the Austin Chronicle used to record this passage when the form of transit was burro or donkey but that's a discussion left for another time. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:20:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/24/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-White-Bean-Soup-with-Roasted-Hatch-Chiles-and-Andouille-Sausage http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/16/Elvis-Presleys-Favorite-Sandwich-And-The-History-Of-Knoxville-Tennessees-JFG-Company My mother, June Sullivan, was a voracious collector of vinyl record albums. Her focus was Elvis Presley but she also honed in on Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard and Boots Randolph. We'd hit flea markets and yard sales in the Cumberland Highlands region of Appalachia and often have a foot race to see who'd get to the always-present box of lps. My collection, sixty linear feet strong, can be attributed to this remarkable woman. Recipes Can't Be Categorized Coffee Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:38:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/16/Elvis-Presleys-Favorite-Sandwich-And-The-History-Of-Knoxville-Tennessees-JFG-Company http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/4/Heaven-Smiles-On-New-Orleans-Leon-Galatoire-Pens-Recipe-Utilizing-Hubigs-Pies By now we're all aware that Hubig's Pies burned to the ground last week in New Orleans. Multiple fundraisers are underway to ensure that the pie factory will be rebuilt and the legend can continue putting out the finest pastry in Lousiana. From Hubig's Facebook page. This recipe is by Leon Galatoire of the famous restaurant Hubig Pie Lemon Bread Pudding Southern Cooking Recipes Sat, 04 Aug 2012 13:53:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/8/4/Heaven-Smiles-On-New-Orleans-Leon-Galatoire-Pens-Recipe-Utilizing-Hubigs-Pies http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/7/23/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Sixteen-Smoked-Brisket-And-Hatch-Chile-Stew I had no intention of posting this recipe but it came out so good it would be a crime to not share it. Confession. I'm a Hatch Chile pepper hoarder. Every August, when the Hatch Chiles come in season, I eat them every single day til near the end of availability. Then, right when they're about to vanish, I buy fifteen to twenty pounds and roast them to store in the freezer. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:25:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/7/23/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Sixteen-Smoked-Brisket-And-Hatch-Chile-Stew http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/7/7/Austin-Daily-Photo-Fresh-Salmon-On-The-Smoker Browsing the archives today I stumbled upon this photo of a big slab of salmon I purchased at Fiesta Mart. I can even remember that it smelled like fresh watermelon when I purchased it. I always ask for a sniff. The salmon was cooked for a friend's birthday celebration and the remainder was utilized for one of the most viewed recipes in the history of this site: Smoked Salmon Enchiladas In Chile Verde Sauce. Here's the recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/5/1/Smoked-Salmon-Enchiladas-in-Chile-Verde-Sauce previous Austin Daily Photos http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/Austin-Daily-Photo real deal Austin food news and reviews: https://twitter.com/RLReevesJr Recipes Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:23:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/7/7/Austin-Daily-Photo-Fresh-Salmon-On-The-Smoker http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/6/16/Austin-Daily-Photo-Blackened-Catfish-With-Creamy-Grits I'll never forget the first time I had a piece of blackened fish. It was in New Orleans and my old-school chowhound daddy had decided we needed to investigate this K-Paul's restaurant everybody was talking about. I've never been the same. K-Paul's wasn't terribly fancy but it had created a buzz in the city that was palpable when you {tried} to walk in. Even in the hot of summer, when New Orleans is typically not all that crowded, the room was packed and on a wait. So wait we did. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:42:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/6/16/Austin-Daily-Photo-Blackened-Catfish-With-Creamy-Grits http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/5/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-Consider-The-Rutabaga-A-Recipe-For-A-Nourishing-Root-Vegetable-Mash When we see rutabaga in the local {or far-flung} markets, we pounce on them. They are absolutely delicious and just rare enough to give them added, mystery vegetable appeal. Why is the rutabaga not on every American's plates, each night of the week? We'll never know. Probably just poor marketing, as many people blanch when you reply "rutabaga" when they ask "what's for supper?" Perhaps, one day, rutabaga will have its moment in the sun just like beets. Beets used to be either reviled or ignored til a few years ago when they entered the spotlight. Once they got there we wondered if they would ever leave, as even modestly talented kitchens were all of a sudden, touting them. Recipes Vegetarian Austin Daily Photo Wed, 30 May 2012 23:29:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/5/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-Consider-The-Rutabaga-A-Recipe-For-A-Nourishing-Root-Vegetable-Mash http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/30/How-To-Make-A-Dutch-Baby-Eating-Pancakes-In-Amsterdam-Netherlands Part of me came of age in the Netherlands. I vividly remember a late 90s New Years Eve party in Amsterdam at Magic Minds, an ancient warehouse that had been converted into a sort of one-off, pleasure dome. The party was thrown by X-Porn Stars, a collective of freaks who were famous in Amsterdam for putting on the wildest, most debauched throw-downs the city had ever seen. There were fire dancers, naked women riding unicycles, the best djs from all over Europe and Recipes Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:32:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/30/How-To-Make-A-Dutch-Baby-Eating-Pancakes-In-Amsterdam-Netherlands http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/24/Austin-Daily-Photo-A-Weeks-Worth-Of-Smoked-Chicken-Drumsticks I purchased 11 pounds of chicken drumsticks yesterday at Fiesta Mart to bring a few recipes into being as the week progresses. But first I had to build a fire. I keep a stack of hickory in the backyard for just such an occasion. It's the most common smoking wood on my parent's farm back in Kentucky, so it's the fuel for barbecue fires I've used the most frequently over the years. After smoking the meat for about three hours recipe number one was ready to implement. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:20:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/24/Austin-Daily-Photo-A-Weeks-Worth-Of-Smoked-Chicken-Drumsticks http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/14/Reflecting-On-Burgoo-And-The-Primacy-Of-Stock-In-Serious-Cooking It's the backbone of every high level kitchen in Austin, Texas. It's what makes the difference in ordinary food and the sort that makes you feverish, tossing and turning at night, hoping and wondering when you'll get your next bite. It's scratch stock made from roasted bones and it's the backbone of my kitchen. Recipes Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:39:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/4/14/Reflecting-On-Burgoo-And-The-Primacy-Of-Stock-In-Serious-Cooking http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-How-To-Make-Hoppin-John With a fridge full of country ham scraps from the legendary Benton's Country Hams out of Madisonville, Tennessee I had to think fast for a dish to implement them or they would be consigned to the freezer. A freezer already filled with dozens of packets of meats from the four corners of USA. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:15:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-How-To-Make-Hoppin-John http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/16/Austin-Daily-Photo-Hatch-Chiles-On-A-Red-Hot-Grill We eat a lot of Hatch chiles at the scrumptious house. When Hatch season hits in August, many nights are spent hovering over a hot grill in the backyard, carefully roasting pound after pound of these treasured peppers. Into the freezer they go to be pulled out at leisure and incorporated into numerous recipes. We're down to our last few pounds. A fact that became obvious on a recent freezer cleaning brought on by a 40lb purchase of sausage from Johnson's Boucaniere in Lafayette Louisiana. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:25:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/16/Austin-Daily-Photo-Hatch-Chiles-On-A-Red-Hot-Grill http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/15/Recipe-How-To-Make-Texas-Wild-Boar-Hog-Stew The old boar is worried. He didn't get up to three hundred pounds by being naive or careless and something ain't sitting right with what's going on in the big house on the hill. The couple in the home are ex-Austinites. They're fed up with big city life and looking to settle down out in the country away from the relentless thrum that's carrying Travis county along in this new century. The man was born to hunt and is looking forward to cleaning out the woods of the wild boars that have carved paths out of the underbrush beneath the towering oaks and hickory trees on his ten acre lot near Gilmer, Texas. soul food Recipes Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:48:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/15/Recipe-How-To-Make-Texas-Wild-Boar-Hog-Stew http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/10/Recipe-Roasted-Turkish-Chicken-With-Schmaltz-Fried-Rice-And-Green-Onions I never had any intention of publishing this recipe but it would be a crime to not share it. Blown away. I cook 7 days a week. Lots of simple stews and soups or 20 minute meals involving a meat cooked in a red hot cast iron and a green vegetable as a side. I hardly ever take the time to post a recipe up for any of these dishes due to the fact that they're so simple. soul food Recipes Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:08:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/3/10/Recipe-Roasted-Turkish-Chicken-With-Schmaltz-Fried-Rice-And-Green-Onions http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Red-Beans-And-Rice-With-Smoked-Sausage A farewell can be be bittersweet. Our friends were relocating to New Zealand for a couple years so we decided to send them out in style by throwing a big food party in the backyard. Pictured is the mise en place for one of my favorite dishes of all time: Red Beans and Rice. Since I was in heavy recovery mode after a Saturday night that featured some very poor decision making as to alcohol consumption, I had to break out the pressure cooker instead of slowly simmering the beans all day long. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:36:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/30/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-Red-Beans-And-Rice-With-Smoked-Sausage http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/20/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-How-To-Make-Kentucky-Style-Northern-Beans-With-Ham-Bone Smoked a giant, bone in ham recently and after feeding everybody we could get stopped for about a week we were still left with a giant ham hock bone with a couple pounds of meat clinging to it. Time to get out the bean kettle. While there are few things we enjoy more than slow, difficult recipes that challenge relentlessly and only offer a meal after a solid day of cooking and prep, sometimes simplicity is the order of the day in the scrumptious kitchen. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:49:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/20/Austin-Daily-Photo-Recipe-How-To-Make-Kentucky-Style-Northern-Beans-With-Ham-Bone http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/19/Happy-National-Popcorn-Day-Austin-Its-January-19th-2012-Recipe-Best-Popcorn-Ever--Handmade-Soda Looking back across the vast archive on this site we realized we covered the topic of popcorn quite ably with our "A Guide To Making The Best Popcorn You Will Ever Put In Your Mouth" article wherein we reminisced about growing up in Appalachia and learning the art of growing popcorn as a crop and eating popcorn as an art. We stand by the piece. Recipes Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:11:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/19/Happy-National-Popcorn-Day-Austin-Its-January-19th-2012-Recipe-Best-Popcorn-Ever--Handmade-Soda http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/9/Austin-Daily-Photo-Chickens-And-Pigs-On-The-Smoker Sunday being what it is we generally fire up the range, the smoker and the stockpot to get some good work done as we point towards a busy work week. Yesterday we smoked a] 10lbs of pig feet for homemade pork stock for a variety of purposes. b] 5lbs of Cajun chicken wings for eating on for a couple days. c] A 2lb pork chop from Longhorn Meats for supper last night. Recipes Austin Daily Photo Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:25:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/9/Austin-Daily-Photo-Chickens-And-Pigs-On-The-Smoker http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/9/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Fifteen-Mexican-Pinto-Bean-Chili-With-Smoked-Pork-And-Green-Onions With night time temperatures dipping down into the 50's it's looking like the brutal Austin winter is now upon us. Which means it's time to make a kettle of chili. We actually make it year round as it is one of our favorite foods of all time. With an extensive repertoire of chilis in our arsenal we often have to take the sofa for a spin while we meditate on which chili needs to be implemented on which particular day. Today, as we put pad to pen, we have a big kettle of pinto beans simmering on the stove top and they are aromatizing the house to good effect. Yesterday at Fiesta Mart we gathered up some chile seca [arbol and guajillo] a pork shoulder, some giant green onions, a big can of ripe plum tomatoes and some pig feet for stock. Yesterday we smoked our shoulder and pig feet and let the stock simmer all night long. Woke up starving as the house was perfumed with the smell of smoky pig meat. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:05:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/9/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Fifteen-Mexican-Pinto-Bean-Chili-With-Smoked-Pork-And-Green-Onions http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/8/Terlingua-Texas-Chili-Festival-Winner-Reveals-All-In-Recipe-Stunner-Mexene-Took-Him-To-The-Top Leafing through a neglected inbox after 3 days of intense barbecue research in Lubbock Texas we stumbled upon the following press release from Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI). This year's winner, Larry Walton, who defeated 305 of the USA's top chili cooks has revealed his championship recipe as well as his 5 signature tips for would be chili cook off entrants. Recipes Can't Be Categorized Sun, 08 Jan 2012 02:51:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2012/1/8/Terlingua-Texas-Chili-Festival-Winner-Reveals-All-In-Recipe-Stunner-Mexene-Took-Him-To-The-Top http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/21/Recipe-Red-Beans-And-Rice-With-Smoked-Alligator-Sausage We have a life long love of gators. Perhaps this was brought on by old actioners like Alligator [screenplay by John Sayles!], the incredible 80s film wherein a beastly, 36 foot long gator attacks a stretch limo and occasionally erupts out of the Chicago sewer system to devour unwary residents of the Windy City. Southern Cooking Recipes Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:45:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/21/Recipe-Red-Beans-And-Rice-With-Smoked-Alligator-Sausage http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/14/How-To-Make-Spinach-Lasagna-With-Brie-And-Fried-Garlic-Ragu When that first cold spell recently blew into Austin for a few hours we hit the kitchen like a freight train so we could utilize our oven that had lain dormant for lo these many months. We wrestled our giant Dutch oven out from the cabinet and went into a flurry of motion so we could get our ragu started before another heatwave settled in that would render our efforts naught. We have a good history of Italian cooking though it does not stem from genetics. Back when we lived in Alabama we had full access to the kitchen of Agata, a Sicilian granny woman who regularly put out feasts that could make a grown man weep with pleasure. Recipes Vegetarian Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:48:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/14/How-To-Make-Spinach-Lasagna-With-Brie-And-Fried-Garlic-Ragu http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/3/Show-And-Prove-RL-Reeves-Jr-Tackles-Pork-Belly-2-In-Home-Curing-Turkish-Bacon-Project There's a lot of upstart pork curing outfits in Austin Texas these days and we've tried just about all of them. Results ranged from very good [ Peach Creek ] to pitiful [ the guy is so nice and so widely acclaimed we just can't break the news to him in public ]. So we decided to get in on the action last month, buy a big, fat pork belly and enter the fray with all these young bucks. Recipes How To Make Your Own Bacon Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:16:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/3/Show-And-Prove-RL-Reeves-Jr-Tackles-Pork-Belly-2-In-Home-Curing-Turkish-Bacon-Project http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/2/The-Life-And-Times-Of-A-Two-Year-Old-Tennessee-Country-Ham In January of this year we traveled through Madisonville, Tennessee, home of one of the iconic cured meat purveyors in the United States; Alan Benton's Country Hams. We get by there at least once a year to lay in provisions for our life in Austin, Texas. A life that does not include artisanal, country-style pork meats of this caliber very often. Alan Benton has been lionized in the media for the last few years as he quietly tends to his craft of salting down raw hog meat, building fires and turning the animals into delicious food for a select group of in-the-know pork hounds. Recipes Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:41:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/11/2/The-Life-And-Times-Of-A-Two-Year-Old-Tennessee-Country-Ham http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/26/Today-Is-The-Day-Real-Ale-Coffee-Porter-Goes-Live-In-Austin-Texas One of our favorite seasonal brews just released in Austin today. Real Ale Coffee Porter is all roasted malts, chocolate notes and plentiful coffee flavor. We absolutely love this beer. We do wish it had a little more of a bread thing going on but we're not going to let that dissuade us from pounding a few gallons of it while it's available. Austin Craft Beer Recipes Dessert Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:52:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/26/Today-Is-The-Day-Real-Ale-Coffee-Porter-Goes-Live-In-Austin-Texas http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/19/That-Cold-Norther-Last-Night-Set-Us-To-Thinking-About-Chili Like most Texans we eat chili year round. 112 degrees in the dead of summer never stopped us from knocking out a stock for our base work. We just got the pressure cooker out so we didn't heat the kitchen up so much. But last night when that old cold wind blew in from somewhere near Goldthwaite we ran up to Fiesta Mart and laid in some supplies for our first chili of the Fall season. Recipes Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:37:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/19/That-Cold-Norther-Last-Night-Set-Us-To-Thinking-About-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/9/Hatch-Chile-Hickory-Smoked-Bacon-Project-Part-Three-Recipe-Technique-Smoking-Slicing-And-Eating We take our inspiration where we find it. After being served lousy bacon at Cochon in New Orleans we wondered how a restaurant that made its reputation on the pig could serve such lousy pork? We didn't wonder long. We decided to procure a pork belly and submit it to the cure for a week or so then throw it on the smoker in the back yard and see what came out of the process. Solid country gold. Recipes Kentucky Recipes How To Make Your Own Bacon Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:53:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/9/Hatch-Chile-Hickory-Smoked-Bacon-Project-Part-Three-Recipe-Technique-Smoking-Slicing-And-Eating http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/7/Reinventing-The-Don-Juan-Breakfast-Taco-At-Juan-In-A-Million-Scrumptiouschef-Tackles-The-Classic The Don Juan is on precarious ground. The once stately taco has been reduced to a wreck of recklessly scrambled eggs with unseasoned boiled potatoes and low grade bacon. To make matters worse it's all served on factory tortillas. Below, we've re-written their recipe and provided the formula for you to create this dish at your house as the one that's currently being served is not tenable. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:56:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/10/7/Reinventing-The-Don-Juan-Breakfast-Taco-At-Juan-In-A-Million-Scrumptiouschef-Tackles-The-Classic http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/25/Hatch-Chile-Hickory-Smoked-Bacon-Project-Part-One-History-Plus-Procuring-The-Pork-Belly It's been awhile since we tackled a big pork belly and converted it into bacon. But with all these new outfits putting out cured meats in Austin these days we figured it was time to wade back into the fray and show and prove. Pork is in our blood. Recipes How To Make Your Own Bacon Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:30:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/25/Hatch-Chile-Hickory-Smoked-Bacon-Project-Part-One-History-Plus-Procuring-The-Pork-Belly http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/23/Eat-A-Biscuit-Today-September-Is-National-Biscuit-Month--Recipe-Follows- Is there a greater pleasure than a finely wrought biscuit from the pan of an old granny woman? Not from where we sit. Cornbread has its acolytes and it is a fine southern quick bread but it pales in comparison to the biscuit. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:49:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/23/Eat-A-Biscuit-Today-September-Is-National-Biscuit-Month--Recipe-Follows- http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/11/Roasted-Hatch-Chiles-And-Sweet-Corn-Soup This time of year in Austin, Texas everything we cook has Hatch chiles in it. Breakfast tacos? Hatch chiles. Pot Roast? Hatch Chiles. Tuna Sandwich? Hatch chiles. Yesterday I was knocking out a batch of banana bread and I damn near put some Hatch chiles in it. The harvest only comes once a year and we have to eat as many peppers as we can for a couple weeks, then roast 15lbs to put up in the freezer to get us through the Winter. Recipes Vegetarian Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:44:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/9/11/Roasted-Hatch-Chiles-And-Sweet-Corn-Soup http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/8/27/Stone-Ground-Grits-With-Hatch-Chiles-White-Cheddar-And-Country-Ham It's Hatch Chile season in Austin Texas which means one thing. Eat as many as you can right now and as the season winds down build a big fire in the backyard and roast 15 pounds to put up in the freezer. Earlier this year I was passing through Madisonville, Tennessee the home of Benton's Country Hams. Owner Alan Benton doesn't just sell cured hog meat though. He also sells some very fine stone ground grits from Falls Mill in Belvidere Tennessee. Southern Cooking Recipes Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:39:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/8/27/Stone-Ground-Grits-With-Hatch-Chiles-White-Cheddar-And-Country-Ham http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/8/19/Happy-National-Potato-Day-Austin-Texas We love potatoes. We used to love to get an order of fried ones to go with our hamburgers but when the vast majority of Austin restaurants started serving frozen, phony french fries with their burgers we went on protest. Recipes Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:57:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/8/19/Happy-National-Potato-Day-Austin-Texas http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/6/2/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Ten-The-Ultimate-Frito-Pie-Recipe During the research period for my piece on Charles Elmer Doolin, the man who brought the Frito into popular culture, I developed a powerful craving for a Frito Pie. I can't think of a single restaurant in Austin where you can walk in and order one so I began crafting a recipe that would be worthy of the sobriquet "Ultimate Frito Pie Recipe." The very concept of Frito Pie has a thousand mothers, each claiming primacy. For every acolyte of Daisy Dean Doolin and her San Antonio creation someone else will firmly maintain the true mother of the pie to be Teresa Hernandez of Woolworth's in Santa Fe New Mexico. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:20:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/6/2/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-Ten-The-Ultimate-Frito-Pie-Recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/22/Roasted-Sri-Lanka-Fish-w-Green-Chile-Coconut-Chutney My initiation into Sri Lanka cookery came via Aralia, a tiny cafe in Loveland Ohio, a faltering suburb of Cincinnati. The chef owner Triset de Fonseka blew me away with dish after dish of Sri Lanka soul food. I was only fortunate enough to sample this chef's cuisine on two occasions before she closed her small cafe and went on to other ventures. To honor Chef Fonseka we threw a Sri Lanka food party one night in Loveland. I utilized some basic techniques I learned when I cooked for a time in a Thai restaurant in Birmingham to carry me through the process. Recipes Sun, 22 May 2011 21:53:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/22/Roasted-Sri-Lanka-Fish-w-Green-Chile-Coconut-Chutney http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/8/Barbecue-Pork-Stuffed-Hush-Puppies In the fish camps of west Alabama the good citizens eat like country kings with endless platters of corn meal crusted catfish being trotted out in little rough hewn buildings that dot the forests surrounding the Tombigbee River as it makes it's way to the Port of Mobile. As you move eastward in the great state, the focus of eating shifts from catfish to barbecue. Particularly, the eating of the pig. Southern Cooking Recipes Barbecue Sun, 08 May 2011 14:34:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/8/Barbecue-Pork-Stuffed-Hush-Puppies http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/5/512-Brewing-Company-Pecan-Porter-Chocolate-Brownies Standing in a dark, smoky Lovejoys Taproom a couple years ago I spot a tap handle from a new brewery here in Austin: Pecan Porter from local brewhouse 512. Any time a new brew arrives it's always a good idea to knock back a beer shot with the staff which is of course what we do, which in turn sets me to thinking. This is undoubtedly a good drinking beer but what would it be like as a baking agent? That's when it really comes to life. The complexities of this porter are intensified through the baking process. The inherent pecan flavors marry nicely with the chocolate and the espresso making a very fine brownie. After a few test runs this is the recipe I developed. Austin Craft Beer Recipes Dessert Thu, 05 May 2011 18:31:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/5/5/512-Brewing-Company-Pecan-Porter-Chocolate-Brownies http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/4/25/Handmade-Soda-Pop-A-Stevia-Recipe-For-A-Cooling-Summer-Elixir A few years ago I realized I had to make a change. If I was going to be able to keep on eating all the cake, pie and donuts I wanted, I was going to have to figure out how to get a chunk of sugar out of my diet or I'd be dead from the diabetes by the time I was 40. Since I drink upwards of ten cups of coffee or tea per day-every day I reckoned the 30 or so teaspoons of sugar I was consuming via beverage.could be dialed down a notch or two with an alternate sweetener. Recipes Vegetarian Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:39:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/4/25/Handmade-Soda-Pop-A-Stevia-Recipe-For-A-Cooling-Summer-Elixir http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/30/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-3-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-White-Chili With that utterly brutal Austin Winter finally behind us we can now turn our hearts and bellies away from the hearty chilis and stews that were the only things that allowed us to maintain life on those frigid evenings when it dipped down into the 50s. As Texans though we still have to eat chili, it just needs to be a somewhat lighter chili. Like a white chili that features smoked chicken, Great Northern beans and cooling, refreshing crema Salvadorena. In other words, we have to turn our bellies toward the great state of Kentucky for guidance. White chili is one of the quintessential Kentucky dishes. In the Bluegrass State we eat it year round at church socials, family gatherings or anytime we have a few quarts of chicken stock and a pantry holding a couple pounds of Great Northern beans. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:39:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/30/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-3-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-White-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/15/The-Art-And-Science-Of-Soul-Food-Part-6-How-To-Make-Blackened-Cajun-Pot-Roast-with-The-Trinity I began following my grandma around in the kitchen when I was just a little country sprout not even old enough to be in grammar school. At around age 7 I decided I was going to be a chef [although the allure of being a pro wrestler like the Mongolian Stomper was quite strong to my young psyche]. At that tender age the foods of Kentucky received all my focus but as I grew up and began visiting Louisiana I gained a new perspective. soul food Recipes Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:08:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/15/The-Art-And-Science-Of-Soul-Food-Part-6-How-To-Make-Blackened-Cajun-Pot-Roast-with-The-Trinity http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/5/The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-5-How-to-Make-a-Fried-Catfish-Po-Boy I have a long and storied relationship with fried catfish. Growing up in the Cumberland Highlands region of Kentucky affords one the opportunity to eat lots of fried catfish. While the honor of being the official state fish belongs to the spotted bass, it's far more common to find catfish on menus across the state. One of the great meals of my life came at the early age of ten years. A restaurant opened in Williamsburg, Kentucky called The Brass Pot and on Friday nights they offered a catfish buffet. soul food Recipes Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:17:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/3/5/The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-5-How-to-Make-a-Fried-Catfish-Po-Boy http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/27/A-Guide-To-Making-The-Best-Popcorn-You-Will-Ever-Put-In-Your-Mouth There is an arc of popcorn in my life that began when I was a just a farm kid growing up near Redbrush Kentucky. My parents gave my sister and I some popcorn seeds and we grew a few popcorn plants to test our green thumbs. Being sequestered on a farm in the Appalachians meant this activity was pretty exciting [there wasn't anything else going on]plus we got to eat what we grew, setting in motion a lifelong addiction to the stuff. I loved sitting in my bedroom when I was a kid eating popcorn hot out of a Joe Namath popcorn machine and listening to the Kentucky Wildcats on my Sharp am/fm radio set. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Vegetarian Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:32:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/27/A-Guide-To-Making-The-Best-Popcorn-You-Will-Ever-Put-In-Your-Mouth http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/23/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-9-How-To-Make-Mexican-Mashed-Potatoes A friend of mine likes to play a game when we're all sitting around drinking and playing records called "What's your million dollar idea?" On one particularly festive evening someone postulated that they'd like to open a Mexican restaurant that had side dishes that weren't rice and beans. We volleyed that one around for awhile with folks talking about how good enchiladas would go with green beans, fried corn, mashed potatoes and myriad other non-Mexican options. I'm always writing recipes so I really took this evening to heart once I got home and sobered up a bit. Here's my recipe for Mexican Mashed Potatoes Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:30:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/23/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-9-How-To-Make-Mexican-Mashed-Potatoes http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/19/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-5-How-To-Make-Guacamole Getting a great bowl of guacamole in Austin Texas is not easy. With over two hundred Mexican restaurants in town, all of them serving a "version", you would be forgiven for thinking our city is rife with perfectly made, delicious guacamole. You would be wrong. The main problem most places in town suffer from is that they make a giant bowl of the stuff in the morning and just dip down in it over the course of the day. Some less than savory restaurateurs actually introduce sour cream or mayonnaise into the guacamole as an extender. I dearly love both of these products but I don't want them profaning my avocados. There's only one restaurant that I know of in Austin that makes it per order. El Zunzal over on Calle Street in East Austin. When you place your order an avocado is skinned, transformed and brought to table whereupon it is set upon by the ravenous eaters. Although I love nothing more than a slow, difficult recipe it's simply not necessary in this instance. Here's my simple, easy formula for making a delicious batch of scratch guacamole Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:30:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011/1/19/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-5-How-To-Make-Guacamole http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/12/30/The-Art-And-Science-Of-Soul-Food-Part-4-Buttermilk-Mashed-Potatoes Any good cook has a handful of mashed potato recipes in their repertoire. I like Cheddar/Jalapeno mashers, Garlicky Red Bliss Mashers and Bacon Gouda Mashers but my all time favorite is Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes. Once again, this recipe takes me back to my time spent in the Greek and Soul Food kitchens of Birmingham Alabama as I was making my initial foray into the world of professional cooking and eating. soul food Recipes Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:12:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/12/30/The-Art-And-Science-Of-Soul-Food-Part-4-Buttermilk-Mashed-Potatoes http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/11/14/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-7-How-To-Make-Carnitas Real carnitas are abundant in Austin Texas. They're not fancy, no frippery is needed to construct the dish. All you need is pork, salt and maybe pepper if you're feeling particularly ambitious. I used to use Chef Miguel Ravago's recipe from his cookbook "Cocina de la Familia" that uses Dr. Pepper in the roasting process. His method makes some very fine carnitas but it is unnecessarily fancy. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:47:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/11/14/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-7-How-To-Make-Carnitas http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/11/8/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-6-Stacked-Smoked-Brisket-Enchiladas There are a few different stages in the life of a dry aged, smoked brisket. 1] The brisket must be allowed to rest for a bit when it's first pulled off the smoker. This is one of the hardest parts. I often go for a walk so I can remove myself from the vicinity of the brisket so I don't just tear into it like a jackal. 2] Feeding your friends. Since I can't [ or more properly worded, shouldn't ] eat a 15 lb brisket by myself, I like to deliver brisket packets to my hardworking friends about town. 3] Deciding what to do with the remaining couple pounds of beef. That's when it's enchilada time. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:26:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/11/8/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-6-Stacked-Smoked-Brisket-Enchiladas http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/10/18/How-To-Dry-Age-and-Smoke-a-32-Ounce-Ribeye-Steak Austin Texas is blessed to have an old school country meat market like Longhorn Meats. They have anything a body could want or need but I really like the fact you can call them up and specify exactly whatever it is that you're in the mood for. They will then package it up for you so you can dash in and get out with minimal waiting. My days of eating fat, juicy steaks 4 or 5 times a week are long gone but I do enjoy a nice fatty ribeye once a month or so and since Longhorn is 5 minutes from my house they typically get my red meat business. I picked up a 32 ounce ribeye from them awhile back and this is the treatment I gave it to maximize the flavor Southern Cooking Recipes Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:08:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/10/18/How-To-Dry-Age-and-Smoke-a-32-Ounce-Ribeye-Steak http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/10/5/The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-3-Etowah-County-Alabama-Green-Beans-with-Tons-of-Bacon Green bean eating is writ into my families genetic code. We're all farmers, gardeners, chefs and mountain folk. With an absolute abundance of vegetables grown the right way [with cow manure] you soon grow accustomed to having a big pot of green beans plucked from a nearby garden or field at every single meal. While I love Kentucky style green beans they're not the over the top version you get down in Alabama where their cuisine is more of a hybridized version of white folks country food and black folks soul cooking. The key to successful green bean making is ratio. There must be an equal amount of bacon as relative to the bean. The dish is further powered by sweet onions and potatoes. Kenebec is the best potato I've ever tasted but might be hard to come by depending on where you live. soul food Recipes Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:23:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/10/5/The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-3-Etowah-County-Alabama-Green-Beans-with-Tons-of-Bacon http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/30/The-Secret-Ingredient-for-the-Best-Stuffed-Bell-Peppers Is to start with a chile Poblano or perhaps a chile Chilaca. By upgrading your chile you're now standing on a base of deliciousness far superior to the lowly Bell. More later... Ok, it took a couple days but I finally managed to hit the kitchen. Stuffed Chile Poblano Peppers This is the revised version of a recipe I devised for one of our Txoko dinner parties. The trial run was merely good. Which is nowhere near good enough. I want each recipe I publish to be the best version of that dish that any person ever tasted. I'm confident that the recipe below will make the best stuffed pepper you ever put in your mouth Casserole soul food Recipes Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:18:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/30/The-Secret-Ingredient-for-the-Best-Stuffed-Bell-Peppers http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/20/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-5-Alligator-Breakfast-Tacos-with-Roasted-Chiles While the lads in our gastronomic society are all hale hearty good fellows with big appetites I did manage to bring home some fresh alligator leftovers from our most recent food party. I've been daydreaming about this gator meat in my fridge for the last couple days so when it came time to make my morning tacos inspiration came hard and fast. We eat a lot of tacos in Austin Texas so when you're dealt a hand of gator you might just end up turning it into gator tacos. Here's my recipe for Alligator breakfast tacos. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:06:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/20/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-5-Alligator-Breakfast-Tacos-with-Roasted-Chiles http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/6/How-to-Properly-Cook-a-Ribeye-Steak-in-a-Cast-Iron-Pan It was a long time coming but I finally scored the major cast irons of the women folks of my mom's side of the family. Serious cooks with names like Nellie, Hazel, Wilma and Mariah's cast iron finally came home to roost in my cupboard out here in Austin Texas. A pretty far piece from where these pans originated in Virginia and Kentucky by way of the old country. I don't always have time to build a big fire in the backyard to cook my ribeye so I've devised a way to cook a respectable one indoors in the comfort of my tiny kitchen on my old gas cook stove. Southern Cooking Recipes Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:37:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/6/How-to-Properly-Cook-a-Ribeye-Steak-in-a-Cast-Iron-Pan http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/2/How-to-Make-The-Best-French-Toast-You-Will-Ever-Put-in-Your-Mouth When my buddy Cowboy Dave rolled back into Texas from a recent sojourn in Wisconsin he had a major score for me: A jug of maple syrup from a small concern in his home state, the dairy and maple capitol of America. I immediately set about perfecting a French Toast recipe so I could do this woodsy nectar justice. The result follows Recipes Vegetarian Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:06:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/9/2/How-to-Make-The-Best-French-Toast-You-Will-Ever-Put-in-Your-Mouth http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-4-How-to-Make-Chicken-Tortilla-Soup Out here in Austin Texas we eat a lot of Tortilla Soup. It's a menu staple at restaurants around town with some joints doing a pretty fair job and others failing miserably. If you want the really good stuff I hope you're friends with a chef because, while I can name twenty places off the top of my head that serve it, I can't think of one that does a superlative job. The formula below is superb. It's a melange of a few different recipes but the backbone comes from my [former] giant Mexican sous chef Angel Castillo, the pride of Monterrey Mexico. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:55:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/31/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-4-How-to-Make-Chicken-Tortilla-Soup http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/28/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-3-How-to-Make-Salsa-Fresca-For-A-Crowd Once a week or so in my duties as a chef at the restaurant where I work I make a big batch of tomato based salsa. How big? Well I start with 12 pounds of tomatoes so it's a pretty big batch. Depending on how busy we are it might last a week but typically it lasts about 5 days. Here's the recipe Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:57:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/28/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-3-How-to-Make-Salsa-Fresca-For-A-Crowd http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/28/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-2-How-to-Make-Smoked-Rattlesnake-Queso The other day a buddy of mine bagged a rattler at his ranch-ette out in Burnet Texas. It was his first one at his new house and he was right proud. "How'd it taste" was my first question. "Well, I don't know. I haven't eaten any of it yet, I got some out in my jeep if you want it". Turns out I would like some fresh killed rattler. I'd like it for a batch of queso I've been thinking about making. Here's my recipe for Smoked Rattlesnake Queso Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:14:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/8/28/Authentic-Tex-Mex-Part-2-How-to-Make-Smoked-Rattlesnake-Queso http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/18/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-2-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-Soup-Beans The backbone of a good country kitchen in the great state of Kentucky is the pinto bean. It's transformed into Eastern Kentucky's household staple dish: Soup Beans, on a nightly basis in thousands of rural households across the Highlands. A few restaurants in the state carry Soup Beans but typically this is something you get only if you're fortunate enough to eat Kentucky homecooking, not restaurant food. I've eaten hundreds of gallons of soup beans since I was a kid. Most native Kentuckians have. They're cheap, delicious and easy to make. My dad Russell Reeves' recipe is the gold standard as he's one of the great country cooks in the state. He can effortlessly knock out a kettle and also put out the best pone of cornbread you ever put down your gullet. Russell Reeves Soup Bean Recipe in his own words. "Well you get you a big kettle and you fill it up about 3/4 of the way with water from the tap. Throw a couple pounds of pinto beans in there along with a big, ol hamhock and bring your kettle to a boil. Let 'er boil for a couple hours then lower it down to a simmer for a couple more hours. Once your beans are soft they're done" It's been awhile since I made Soup Beans this way. I fancify my recipe a bit because I love an excuse to make homemade stock, pork stock to be precise. So here's the way I make the very same dish. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:43:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/18/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-2-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-Soup-Beans http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/17/A-Guide-to-Making-the-Best-Scrambled-Eggs-You-Will-Ever-Put-in-Your-Mouth It seems so simple. Crack a couple eggs, throw them in a pan, scramble 'em around for a few minutes and a meal is at the ready. But like most things in life; attention to the small details often gains one big rewards. Scrambled eggs are a prime example. They can be transcendent when treated properly by a skilled cook. In my life as a chef I've cooked thousands of eggs.I've worked for two very busy breakfast houses where it was not uncommon to go through several hundred per shift. Yet I still love cooking eggs. Here's my recipe for the best scrambled eggs you will ever put in your mouth. Recipes Vegetarian Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:59:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/17/A-Guide-to-Making-the-Best-Scrambled-Eggs-You-Will-Ever-Put-in-Your-Mouth http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/13/The-Reluctant-Vegetarian-Part-I-Linguine-Tomato-Green-Onion-Dill One of my first restaurant jobs was as a pastry chef at a bakery in Birmingham. I worked the graveyard creating cakes, pies, tarts, tortes and what have you for the morning service. My favorite co-worker, Stephanie, was a talented chef who loved to show up for work carrying her latest creation. My favorite dish of hers' was an incredible linguine dish with ripe tomatoes, good cheese, lots of olive oil and plentiful shrimp. I've modified the recipe a little in case a vegetarian may occasionally look about this site in search of sustenance. I've appended the shrimp part at the end for the gourmands. Recipes Vegetarian Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:39:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/13/The-Reluctant-Vegetarian-Part-I-Linguine-Tomato-Green-Onion-Dill http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/5/Chorizo-and-Potato-Breakfast-Tacos-Recipe Chorizo and Potato Breakfast Tacos Recipe In Austin, Texas we eat a lot of breakfast tacos. If local bad guy Tom Ramsey [http://www.statesman.com/news/local/new-mobile-food-rules-ensnare-man-who-pushed-1246761.html?viewAsSinglePage=true] has his way this may become a thing of the past, but til then we'll revel in this Tex Mex delight til the gendarmes come and drag us away from our favorite taco truck kicking and hollering. Even though good breakfast tacos can be had for under a dollar hereabouts, sometimes it's still fun to make them at home. You only need a handful of ingredients and perhaps 10 minutes of time and you can be sitting down to a delicious Austin, Texas style first meal of the day. Recipes Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:03:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/7/5/Chorizo-and-Potato-Breakfast-Tacos-Recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/21/New-Mexico-Tortilla-Pie It hardly seems like ten years ago but the dawn of the aughts found me in Sunshine, New Mexico in the kitchen of New Mexico native, Maria. This tia was resplendent in a patio dress as she hustled about her kitchen making a homey casserole for the assembled throng ready to celebrate New Years eve on the playa. Women like Maria are getting scarce, good ones who can knock out a batch of blue corn tortillas while the posole simmers in a kettle near the fire. Last weekend found me racing around my kitchen [not in a patio dress] trying to come up with a dish that could feed a crowd of hungry soccer fans. That's when I thought of Maria. The result follows: Casserole Recipes Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:04:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/21/New-Mexico-Tortilla-Pie http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/16/Nellie-Sullivan-Knew-How-to-Cook-Northern-Beans My grandmothers Sunday dinner feasts are a thing of legend. I suspect they're still a regular topic of discussion in Southeastern Kentucky to this day, over 20 years since her passing. . Sunday morning is a busy time in the big 5 bedroom farm house my mamaw calls home. Breakfast must be prepared for 6 or so hungry eaters, dinner dishes must be started so they can simmer all morning long and then of course a nice dress must be donned in time to make morning service at Keck Baptist Church a few miles down the road. After a good 2-3 hours of worship [depending on how loquacious the good reverend Damon Helton is feeling] mamaw comes home to put the finishing touches on the feast. While country hams, pot roasts, chicken and dumpling and a half dozen or so vegetables from the nearby garden are coveted by most of the family, I'm happy to have a big bowl of her amazing Northern Beans. I reckon I must have gotten her bean gene as I love them in all their configurations but the Northern is still my favorite. I use it as the base for my Kentucky classic dish White Chili but my typical preparation is much simpler.It's a mimic of Nellie Sullivan's version and it couldn't be simpler. A handful of ingredients, love of the people you're cooking for and patience are all you need. Here's my homage to cooked down Northern Beans a ala Nellie Sullivan Recipes Kentucky Recipes Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:10:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/16/Nellie-Sullivan-Knew-How-to-Cook-Northern-Beans http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/14/Black-Folks-Food-The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-1-How-to-Smoke-Country-Style-Pork-Ribs The best thing that ever happened to me was moving from lily white Kentucky when I was a teenager to Birmingham, Alabama. It was like taking a magic carpet ride to a land a million miles away both culturally and psychically. Alabama is the land of plenty with white country folks, Greek immigrants a couple generations away from their homeland, African Americans, Italians and Lebanese all stirring the pots in kitchens both humble and grand. As a serious eater I took to my new home with aplomb. Plumbing out all the local restaurants for their delicacies became my hobby which I quickly turned into a paycheck from the local rag. While I loved all the exotic foods I'd never been exposed to it was the soul food that powered me on a daily basis: Oxtails, Collard Greens, Smothered Chicken, Fried Pork chops, Whiting Fish Sandwiches, Skins and Pieces [ Chicken Wings simmered with skin on potatoes] the list was endless and I was determined to winnow the finest from a city whose offering were seemingly endless. At culinary school the foods I was so enthusiastically eating every day were looked down on by the administration. I'd lobby to have a class centered on soul food and be summarily shot down in favor of the cooking of a French man who'd been dead for a couple hundred years. Though I never won any of those battles I did manage to become a respectable soul food cook. Here's one of my favorite recipes: soul food Recipes Barbecue Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:41:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/14/Black-Folks-Food-The-Art-and-Science-of-Soul-Food-Part-1-How-to-Smoke-Country-Style-Pork-Ribs http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/7/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-I-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-The-Fried-Baloney-Sandwich Eastern Kentucky cuisine has a few iconic dishes {Soup Beans, Chili Buns, Corn Bread, Fried Catfish, Hot Brown, Burgoo et al} but perhaps none approaches the importance of the fried baloney sandwich. I use it as a barometer when I'm traveling through the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky, hitting the roadside diners and gas stations in search of sustenance. If the joint offers this dish then you know there are are some dyed-in-the-wool, old-school Kentucky cooks working thereabouts. A good fried baloney sandwich must incorporate several elements in its construction. They are as follows: White bread: Sure there are some fancy lads out there who crow at dawn for whole wheat bread but they are far removed from the sensible country folk who know that white bread {Kerns bakery?} is THE foundation of a good fried baloney sandwich. Mayonnaise: My family split into two camps on this important issue. The maternal side {good people one and all except for this} championed Miracle Whip a vile substance that serves as a material comrade in arms with equally disgusting ketchup. The paternal side loved the wholesome goodness of a well-made mayonnaise. Eggs, oil, perhaps a little salt. None of the weirdness I've come to associate with the factory of horrors issue; miracle whip. Sweet onion: A yellow onion, raised on southern soil, sliced just right is an essential component of the fried baloney sandwich. That's it. Yes, you may put cheese on a fried baloney sandwich but it turns into a different beast altogether. More on that later. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:41:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/6/7/The-Kentucky-Kitchen-Part-I-Classic-Kentucky-Recipes-The-Fried-Baloney-Sandwich http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/5/1/Smoked-Salmon-Enchiladas-in-Chile-Verde-Sauce Out here in Austin, Texas the iterations of enchiladas are endless in all their glory. We've had crab enchiladas in golden tomato butter reduction, carne molida enchiladas in chile seca sauce, roasted chicken enchiladas in sour cream sauce...and about 100 other variations on the enchilada format. Whenever we need inspiration in the kitchen We just drive up the street to Fiesta Mart [our neighborhood mega super market] and walk through the seafood and produce section sussing out what looks the most appetizing. The bright pink salmon beckons so we ask the seafood lady for a sniff. She obliges and the wonderful aroma of freshly sliced watermelon has us immediately reaching for our money. We walk over to the nearby produce section and pluck some fresh goods for a quick sauce and head back to the house. Here's what transpired back in the kitchen Casserole Recipes Sat, 01 May 2010 19:27:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/5/1/Smoked-Salmon-Enchiladas-in-Chile-Verde-Sauce http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/4/19/Slow-Difficult-Recipes-Part-2-Authentic-Kentucky-Burgoo-Recipe Growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky meant a steady diet of lots of creatures of the woods: Rabbit, Deer, Quail, Grouse maybe the occasional Groundhog...all fair game and often, depending on the preparation, delicious. One of the hallmarks of Kentucky cooking is Burgoo, a rich hunter's stew chock full of game and whatever vegetables happen to be on hand at the time of the cookdown. I only make Burgoo once a year. What our Kentucky forbears intended as a huntsman's dish to accommodate the plenitude of game roaming the meadows and forests has, for me, a city dweller, devolved into a once a year dish involving driving all over town to procure a rough simulacrum of what a skilled hunter might accumulate in his game bag in a couple sessions in the woods. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:36:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/4/19/Slow-Difficult-Recipes-Part-2-Authentic-Kentucky-Burgoo-Recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/4/3/Coax-Your-Fussy-Toddler-Into-Becoming-a-Ravenous-Eater Now that 90 or so percent of my friends have bred I've found myself tasked with taking a childs' needs into account when I make my weekly food delivery rounds. As a former picky eater myself I've discovered some potent weapons in the kitchen that children find irresistible. Namely fat and salt. I routinely resisted my families' cooking as a child but my parents made me follow one simple rule: You have to taste what's on the table. You don't have to eat it but you must taste it. If you don't like it you're allowed to make yourself some food [ahh, time for a delicious fried baloney sandwich]. My friend Stephanie's child Isabelle is as picky as they come. Over conversation recently Steph confessed that the little one gobbles up everything I bring over but resists her mom's cooking mightily. "What's your secret?" she inquires. "A million or so years ago when I was in culinary school as we worked our way through French technique and methodology a few things became clear: French food is delicious and their use of butter, cream and good salt are a few of the building blocks of their cuisine". I always have a pound of good butter, a quart of heavy cream and a dozen or so varieties of the good salts of the world on hand when I go to cooking. I employ all of these weapons as a matter of course when I'm on the range. Here's a delicious sauce recipe you can drizzle over any steamed vegetable that your toddler will power down with the aplomb of a young Joey Chestnut Recipes Vegetarian Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:25:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/4/3/Coax-Your-Fussy-Toddler-Into-Becoming-a-Ravenous-Eater http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/27/Cloudy-With-a-Chance-of-Queso-Simple-Cheese-Dip-Recipe Out here in Austin,Texas the prevalence of queso in all its' glory often has me wondering if it might just start coming out the faucet when I go to wash my hands at one of our two hundred plus Mexican restaurants in the city. It's everywhere. To the point where you really don't even have to look at the menu when you walk into a new joint. If you want queso you just ask the waitress when you sit down much in the same way other people around the country might ask for a glass of water or tea. The queso will be brought out forthwith and it will be good. I have a lot of queso recipes floating around in my head but one is so simple and easy that I'm actually loath to share it. Generally speaking, quick and simple is not something I do. I enjoy spending vast amounts of time in the kitchen but occasionally the other [non food related] parts of life rear their ugly head and you have to go off food to tend to the lesser parts of existence. Recipes Authentic Tex Mex Recipes Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:54:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/27/Cloudy-With-a-Chance-of-Queso-Simple-Cheese-Dip-Recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/10/How-To-Make-Bleu-Cheese-Dressing The simple pleasures are often the best. A hunk of Iceberg lettuce, a few sliced tomatoes, a handful of crispy, smoky, chopped bacon and a drizzle of homemade bleu cheese dressing is on my mind right now because that's my most recent creation. I make all my salad dressings from scratch and my favorite [narrowly beating Ranch-which is the official dressing of the great state of Texas] is Bleu cheese. It's not a laborious recipe but you can't hold that against it. Every now and again a simple, quick formula can be used to great effect in the kitchen. This is one of those instances. Here's how to make a delicious, from scratch Bleu cheese dressing Recipes Vegetarian Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:24:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/10/How-To-Make-Bleu-Cheese-Dressing http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/4/How-To-Make-Pork-Stock The backbone of my kitchen is homemade stock. It's what makes the difference between a decent enough cook and a deadly serious one. If you're willing to take the time to make homemade stock you can seriously up your game in the kitchen. I make two basic stocks: Chicken and Pork. Beef stock is another beast entirely. Easy enough to make in a professional kitchen but quite a difficult road to walk down in a normal home kitchen. This formula relates to pork stock. Recipes A Primer On Stocks Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:11:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/3/4/How-To-Make-Pork-Stock http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/2/23/Cut-and-Shoot-Texas-King-Ranch-Casserole-Recipe When I first came to Texas almost 20 years ago I kept hearing people speak in reverential tones of something called King Ranch. "It's the king of casseroles" "It will change the way you think of casseroles" "I couldn't make a King Ranch and my man left me for a woman who could"- that sort of thing. It's not a dish you'll find on many menus in restaurants but it's importance in Texas households is not to be underestimated. Many housewives will bang out a batch in a few minutes using cans of creamed soup and whatever's on hand in the fridge but I've been fortunate enough to sup at the tables of some ladies who take their preparation very, very seriously. Here is the fruit of those meals: Casserole Recipes Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:03:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/2/23/Cut-and-Shoot-Texas-King-Ranch-Casserole-Recipe http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/2/10/The-Rules-of-King-Ranch-Casserole How disheartening to read the Serious Eats article http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/eat-for-eight-bucks-king-ranch-leftovers-pork-recipe.html wherein a writer in San Francisco posits a recipe for the iconic Texas casserole; King Ranch including rice, beans (or ANY diced cooked vegetable!), shredded pork or beef or chicken, and just when it couldn't get any worse she allows how a vegetarian version would work just fine with ROASTED WINTER ROOTS! While the rules of Texas Red chili have long been established I can find no rules (other than the common law of good Texas kitchens) regarding King Ranch casserole. So here they are: Casserole Recipes Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:23:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/2/10/The-Rules-of-King-Ranch-Casserole http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/1/21/SlowDifficult-Recipes-Part-I-Agatas-Lasagna Back when I lived in Alabama I became friends with a girl whose grandmother, Agata was from Sicily. We'd ride out to the sleepy little town of Alabaster on Sunday afternoons where the granny would be busying herself in the kitchen-dealing out culinary trump cards of pure deliciousness. My all time favorite dish she made was an intensely garlicky red sauced lasagna that boasts 3 pounds of cheeses.This recipe needs no meat. Meat would just get in the way of this profoundly Italian tasting casserole. Casserole Recipes Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:16:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2010/1/21/SlowDifficult-Recipes-Part-I-Agatas-Lasagna http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/12/14/Doll-Reeves-Made-Ice-Cream-From-Snow My grandma Doll is a cipher to this day. Her dying before I was born doesn't help matters any.Whereas I have a big collection of my mom's mom's recipes I have nary a one of my dad's mother. I've been meaning to rectify that and this is the start. Back in the 60's when my dad was a young buck the winters in Kentucky were quite a bit different than they are today. It snowed. A lot. Up in the Billy holler that meant one thing;time to make some snow cream. I grew up eating it myself and as it was snowing in Austin last week it set me to thinking.How many people have eaten or even heard of snow cream? The ingredients are simple.So simple any kid can make it.Good milk,sugar,vanilla and a giant bowl of freshly fallen snow are all you really need. Unless you're Grandma Doll. She made a stovetop custard for her snow cream and incorporated chocolate into it for a sort of rural Neiman Marcus-esque luxury version. I've been plumbing the cobwebs out of my dad's recollections recently and have now assembled a recipe for snow cream Grandma Doll style.While it's not truly her recipe since we have the same blood flowing I reckon it'll serve just fine. Recipes Kentucky Recipes Dessert Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:49:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/12/14/Doll-Reeves-Made-Ice-Cream-From-Snow http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/26/The-Art-and-Science-of-Fried-Chicken Colonel Sanders was one of my Granddad's cronies. As a lover of country ham, he sought out the best in Knox County, Kentucky, and since my mom's father was known for his ability to raise high-quality eating hogs, the Colonel was known to come around every once in awhile for victuals. Our family would return the favor by visiting the original Kentucky Fried Chicken on Hwy 25 on the way into town; town being Corbin, Kentucky. "Hey kids, wanna go visit the Colonel"? This was how my mom would ask us if we wanted to go eat fried chicken. Our answer was invariably yes, and before you knew it, we would be barreling out of the holler in the Country Squire on our way to fried chicken bliss. I decided early on that with this kind of pedigree I was going to need to become a serious fried chicken cook.I took to the task earnestly and experimented for years before coming up with a right respectable recipe. Here it is: Recipes Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:33:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/26/The-Art-and-Science-of-Fried-Chicken http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/18/How-To-Make-Authentic-Texas-Red-Chili When I was the head chef for a catering company out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana I was tasked with creating lots of recipes for big fancy parties. The well-connected owners sold catering like it was going out of style and they were kind enough to bonus me for recipes I created that they could enter into their Master Cook database. We were doing a big party for a quarter horse association and the revelers requested a big kettle of genuine Texas Chili.Texas Red to be exact. I knew my dad's recipe wasn't going to cut it.Back in Kentucky ground beef,tomatoes and kidney beans are essential ingredients in chili.Out here in Texas that style can get the boots put to you quick. I had to make sure the recipe was authentic so I did my research [old newspaper clippings, many cookbooks and of course, the internet]. After a few test runs in a cafe the company owned I finally hit one out of the park. Here's my recipe for Texas Red. Since the original was designed to feed about 40 people I've scaled it down to accommodate the home cook. Bon Appetit y'all Recipes Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:06:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/18/How-To-Make-Authentic-Texas-Red-Chili http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/11/The-Rules-of-Texas-Red Out here in Austin, Texas it's getting hard to find a good bowl of chili. How can that be? Well I can tell you, your prospects of sitting down to a big bowl of pho are decidedly more rosy than finding a competent bowl of Texas-style chili. What are the rules of Texas Red and what makes them so hard to follow that restaurants have about given up on trying? Recipes Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:32:00 -0700 http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2009/11/11/The-Rules-of-Texas-Red