Bits and Bites

Mostly reposts from my Twittering, but bits and bites to pass along. Will try to make this a weekly segment!

-- P Terry's has opened a new location at South Congress and Ben White/290. I believe it's at the northwest corner, by the Shell gas station. Eater Austin has more, here. Hopefully they've designed it so the overflow of cars waiting in line are along the side street, and not actually blocking traffic on SoCo, or the 290 access road. Cross your fingers!

-- Although they moved from just off Lake Austin Blvd to way out on Bee Caves two years ago, Zoot is closing. The owners will transform it into BC Tavern, says Forklore/Mike Sutter. I hadn't eaten there since the move, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.

-- The Cooking Channel's show Eat St. is currently in town filming various food trailers. Show them some love! The camera will love the very charismatic Iba, owner of Cazamance, where they'll be tomorrow evening. He's a good guy too. :)

-- Looks like the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival has now become the Austin Food and Wine Festival, targeted for March 30 - April 1, 2012. Read more from Sutter.

-- Congrats to Barley Swine, named best new restaurant in all of Texas, by Texas Monthly magazine!

-- And while this isn't local news, the National Pork Board is giving away a year's supply of PORK to a lucky winner! Enter here by May 31st, and if YOU win, you must share with me!

Beet Slaw

Here's the beet slaw that I made for today's Austin Food Blogger Alliance pot luck gathering. (It was great to see everyone!) I realized as I was making it, this recipe can also be an idea for our project with the Capital Area Food Bank Hunger Awareness blogger challenge -- creating nutritious meals/dishes on very limited income.

The recipe originally ran in the Austin American-Statesman sometime earlier this spring; you can view the recipe here, though I can't locate the original article it ran with, in what seems like back in March. I've made it a couple times, and tweaked it a bit each time. This is my latest rendition. If you follow the original that's in the Statesman, I think it makes WAY too much dressing for the quantity of beets given; this is an easy recipe to approximate quantities though -- it doesn't have to be precise.

Beet Slaw

2 - 3 carrots, peeled (thicker carrots are easier to grate)

1 bulb fennel, outer layer removed

4 medium to large (tennis ball sized) raw beets, peeled

1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced & blanched* (blanching optional, but it removes the bite of the onion) or 2 shallots

2 Tbls. Dijon mustard

1 lemon, zested** & juiced

3 Tbls. apple cider vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

honey, agave nectar or sugar to taste (I used about a tablespoon of agave)

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

* To blanch, boil a saucepan of water; add sliced onions for 30 seconds; drain & run cold water over them. Shake excess water off (or squeeze them to get rid of the water).

** The zest is the colored part of the citrus peel -- where all the oils are. Zesting tools will strip the colored part off, while leaving the bitter, white pith. A carrot peeler will work for this too; make strips of the zest, and then chop very finely with a knife.

-- Grate the carrots, fennel, & beets; easiest done in food processor, but a box grater will work fine too. Place in a large bowl & add blanched onions.

-- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the mustard, lemon zest and juice, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and honey. Whisk well to combine and to dissolve the salt and granulated sugar, if using in place of honey/agave (salt and sugar won't dissolve once oil has been added).

-- Add the oil (canola, vegetable, grapeseed oil are fine too) and whisk really well to combine; pour over beets and toss well.

-- Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, so the flavors can meld.

This slaw is also gluten free, vegan, and except for the blanched onions, a raw foods dish. It keeps in the fridge for several days, and is great for picnics or outdoor gatherings because there is no mayonnaise to go bad in the Texas heat. The agave/honey/sugar is optional, but I have found that just a tablespoon helps sweeten the beets. And remember what they say about eating the rainbow? Before it's all combined together, and the beets dye everything magenta, it's a gorgeous looking shredded concoction!

Mmmpanadas

I met up with a friend last weekend to go walking; she lives in the Delwood neighborhood, between IH-35 and the Mueller development. She walks her dog daily, so she knew the route to get from Delwood to Mueller. It's been a long time since I've been up in that area, and it was neat to see how far Mueller has come along. A couple years ago, I went driving through there with some other friends, when houses were still just being started. They've got a beautiful green space, trails for walking, etc. Not sure that I'd want to live there, but still pretty, and it seems well-planned. And they even have their own little trailer food court!

We found the Mmmpanadas truck, along with Elixir coffee, and the Short Bus sub sandwiches. Tried the Argentinean empanada, that had ground beef, green olives, and some hard-boiled egg with chipotle mayo; my friend had the spinach mushroom with lemon aioli. Have to say, I was impressed. Mine had good flavor and texture. My friend said in hers, she didn't really get mushrooms, unless they were really chopped up. Both dipping sauces were good too.

What I probably appreciated most was their crust -- it's light and somewhat flaky, but doesn't crumble to pieces when you bite into it. Many other empanadas use a soft, doughy crust, which just doesn't cut it for me. After finishing, I asked the guy working the trailer what the dough was made of; he said he didn't know (you should ALWAYS know your ingredients, even if you are just the hired help!), but I am guessing it's shortening.

This Argentine empanada most closely resembles the empanadas of my youth, purchased from Wagshal's Deli in Washington, DC, generally my gold standard for empanadas. Add a few golden raisins or currants and maybe some dried thyme, and the Mmmpanadas one would be right there.

Tell the Government -- Don't Cut SNAP Benefits!

I recently wrote a post on hunger awareness and the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, i.e. food stamps) program. Now the federal government is considering deep budget cuts to these, putting thousands of children (and adults) at risk for poor nutrition. The local Fox news affiliate, KTBC, ran a story yesterday on the proposed cuts.

Please contact your state senators and tell them NOT to cut the budget. Click on each of their names, and it will take you to their website. Here's a sample (or, just cut and paste it) letter asking them not to cut SNAP; in Texas, contact Senator John Cornyn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson

Please do not cut SNAP benefits.

The House Agriculture Committee recently promoted a proposal to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program instead of farm subsidies.

With Texas having the second highest rate of children in serious danger of hunger, this is not the time to make it more difficult for struggling families to feed their kids. Cutting SNAP will have only have a marginal impact on the deficit, yet send millions back into poverty, further delaying the economic recovery.

I believe that no child in America should go hungry, and I urge you to continue funding SNAP at its current levels and do all you can to protect programs that fight childhood poverty and hunger in the budget proposals for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011.

Uchiko

Yes, I wrote about Uchiko last September, but this is certainly a place that warrants more raves! Tuesday, late afternoon, one of my best girlfriends texted me and asked if I was free for dinner that night. Yes, I was free after 7pm. She was feeling fishy and fancy, how did I feel about either Uchi or Uchiko. I said I felt great about either one. She looked online for a reservation, and Uchiko could take us at 8pm. We both got there about 7:30, hung at the bar for a few, and the hostess seated us at the sushi bar. We were introduced to our sushi chef, Angela, who told us just to call out whenever we were ready to order. 

We studied the menu (and started with a very drinkable bottle of the Loosen Bros. Dr. L Riesling,) debating over personal favorites and the new, daily selections; picking five items to at least start with, we told Angela what we wanted. We got through the list, and she shook her head, and suggested we should do the omakase menu (chef's choice tasting menu) for the evening, because three of our five were on there. We easily agreed, and figured we could still add on some items as needed.

Our waitress started us off with the amuse bouche of the evening: sweet potato chips on what I believe was a pumpkin (or squash?) puree, that was silky smooth, but not strong in flavor.

Golden beets with Icelandic yogurt, honey and  greens was next; the beets came both roasted and in chip form.

Next the Uchi salad (not part of the omakase) -- baby romaine leaves served upright; it's a fun little thing to eat with your fingers! Followed by the hama chili -- yellowtail sashimi, thai chile peppers, and orange segments. The combo of all components together is amazing. The yellowtail is so mild and smooth, it will make a believer out of those who don't care that much for raw fish, namely, me. Though after also having yellowtail at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, I am now diggin' it!

Then there was yokai berry -- Atlantic salmon with dinosaur kale chips, Asian pear, yuzu, and candied quinoa. Loved the crunch and light sweetness the quinoa provided; I must figure out how to make it!

Needing a little extra protein (!), we asked for the tiger cry roll -- wagyu beef with yuzu koshu (citrus wine), with toasted rice. The beef gets a great grilled flavor, but is still medium rare, and it's a wonderful combo of texture and flavor. 

We added the tempura nasu, or Japanese eggplant, which has no typical eggplant bitterness or sliminess. Rather delightful little rounds, battered and fried, with sweet chile dipping sauce.

The ninjin bacon was up next; this was the dish I was anxiously awaiting. The pork belly I had previously at Uchiko is some of the best I have ever had. This one was prepared differently, but equally as fine. The pork is grilled, sliced and served with roast baby carrots and "pecan dirt"; the pork is so perfectly cooked, and not overly fatty. It has a great taste -- somewhat bacon-y, some just succulent goodness, the streaky meat that's seared getting a bit crispy, and the layers of fat melting with flavor. If you like pork belly, do not pass up whatever version they are serving.

Finally, the omakase dessert, sweet corn milk ice cream with polenta and corn crispies. I have to admit, I just didn't get this one, neither of us did. I didn't get enough sweetness or corniness in the ice cream, and the molded block of polenta had the texture of undercooked dough; there were dots of a gelee around the plate, which were lemony, but too astringent in a household cleaner sort of way. Angela asked what we thought of it, and I said honestly, it wasn't my favorite, but everything else was truly fantastic.

She offered to get us the ginger ice cream dessert of the day, and we declined, but when she offered to make us a half-portion, how could we say no? She described it as like an Arnold Palmer -- the half ice tea, half lemonade drink. This was a ginger sorbet, with an ice tea mousse, with a lemon ribbon, presumably made with agar agar, a gelatin made from seaweed. This was much more to our liking, though the texture of the mousse was a bit different.

Sitting at the sushi bar is a lot of fun, even if you are in semi-close contact with your neighbors, and you hear them asking questions to the sushi chef like "what's the nutritional content of the uni (sea urchin)?"  Really?? Anyway, the bar gives you a great view of the orderly chaos (only because there were so many bodies moving through there) that is the main kitchen, and of course a front row seat in watching the sushi chefs do their thing. I have to commend Angela, because apart from being the only female on the line, she was chatty, efficient, and appeared to be multitasking really well.

Uchiko is probably not a destination for those who aren't willing to be a bit adventurous in their eating habits. Great, more for the rest of us! But if you can appreciate some creativity in both ingredient combination and presentation, save your pennies, make a reservation, and head on over for a meal you won't forget for a long time.