My grandparents were farmers in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and raised a whole bounty of crops -- cotton, lettuce, onions, green chiles (before they were trendy!), and pecans being the primary ones. I grew up in Washington, DC, and every year after the fall harvest, my grandparents would ship a box of whole, shell-on pecans to us. We would have "quality family time" by sitting around, cracking the pecans, and prying the nut-meat out of the shells. It's literally a dirty and laborious job -- pecan dust, jagged shells poking your fingers, nuts that don't come out whole....but the end result is worth it. Meaty, fresh pecans, ready for eating!
Thanksgiving at our house always, ALWAYS meant it was pecan pie time! We usually shared our Thanksgiving with some close family friends, alternating each year who's house it was held at. Between the stuffing (dressing) and pecan pie, that's what I came to look forward to the most, and that still holds true today!
This is the pecan pie recipe that my mother typed up (yes, on a typewriter!) for me in the late 1990s, when I was starting my own Thanksgiving traditions. It comes from the 1975 Williamsburg Cookbook (as in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia), and is fairly fool-proof. In recent years, I have exchanged the light corn syrup for brown rice syrup or Lyle's Golden Syrup, both of which work fine, and gives it a bit of a deeper flavor, and I have reduced the white sugar to about 1/2 cup; I have left the original recipe intact here though. I am also a stickler for making my own pie crusts, which I love doing! A crust makes the pie!
Pecan Pie
unbaked crust, fitted into a 9" pie pan (recipe below)
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt (I use Redmond Real Salt for baking)
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
1 tablespoon melted, cooled butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecan halves or pieces (I add a 1/4 - 1/2 cup additional, just because)
-- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-- Beat eggs lightly in a medium bowl, and add sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter and vanilla.
-- Stir until mixed well.
-- Spread pecans on the bottom of the pie crust, evenly distributing; pour filling over.
-- Place on a cookie sheet or baking pan (to catch any spills from the filling) in oven and immediately reduce temperature to 350 degrees.
-- Bake 45 - 55 minutes, or until mixture is firm in center; give the pie pan a little shake -- if it's still pretty jiggly in the center, bake a few minutes longer until set.
-- Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving; real whipped cream is my ideal accompaniment to this pie. Also good for breakfast the next morning if there are leftovers.
* You might not need all of the filling; if you've got tartlet shells, through some extra pecans into them and use the leftover filling. They'll bake in about 25 minutes.
* For Thanksgiving, I try to bake this the night before or first thing in the morning on T-day so it has plenty of time to cool if we don't eat until at least late afternoon.
Pie Crust -- good for any pie!
* Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Basic Flaky Pie Crust recipe in the Pie and Pastry Bible. It's not quick, but it's GOOD!
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon table salt (again, I use Redmond Real Salt)
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (frozen is fine too)
4 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening (like Earth's Balance sticks) OR good lard, like from Austin's Dai Due
3 - 4 tablespoons icy cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
-- In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt; set aside.
-- Working quickly with your fats, cut the sticks into individual tablespoon-sized pats; then cut each pat into 9 smaller, pea-sized pieces. You may want to dip your knife into the flour to help prevent the butter/shortening/lard from sticking to the knife. Once you have the smaller pieces, add to the flour, and toss to coat.
-- For this next step, I prefer to use my hands, but some people prefer a pastry blender tool or a large metal fork. I have more control with my hands, and I like the feel of it. Try to move the fats to one side of the bowl, again, working quickly, rub the pieces between your fingers and thumb to flatten them out; try to place the flattened pieces on the other side of the bowl. It's a quick motion; the pieces don't need much handling, and the object is NOT to make them flat like a piece of paper, just thinner than what they were. Think light and airy, not heavy and clumpy.
-- Have a piece of wax paper or a silicone pad handy.
-- Once the fats are flattened and dispersed evenly through the flour, sprinkle the ice water and cider vinegar over the flour (don't just dump it all in the middle); start with the minimum amount of water, and add more as needed. I don't think I've ever used less than 3 1/2 tablespoons, and sometimes as much as 5+. Will depend on your climate that day.
-- With a large fork, gently toss the flour so it incorporates the water; I usually then move to my hands, and start pressing the dough together. If it does not readily stick, add a little more water. Bring dough together into a shaggy ball, and turn out onto wax paper. Keep pressing all the little scraps and pieces of dough together. You're not KNEADING the dough (which activates the glutens and can make it tough), but pressing it all together into a ball or disc.
-- Form into a disc, about 5 inches in diameter and an inch thick. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. This allows the glutens to relax and the fats to re-chill.
-- When ready to roll out, remove from fridge and let sit on the counter for another 10 minutes.
-- Have your pie pan ready, a couple table spoons of extra flour for dusting, along with a rolling pin and a bench/pastry scraper (or large, flat turner). You can roll the dough out on wax paper, silicone pad, or a clean counter top.
-- Roll your dough out, using a few strokes with the rolling pin, and then using the bench scraper to help loosen the dough, and give it a quarter turn and dusting with flour as needed; as your "circle" (I can never make a perfect circle!) gets larger, you can give it a half turn or no turn at all, but use the scraper to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling surface. You will need to roll it out to about a 12" diameter circle for a 9" pie pan.
-- Carefully roll your dough onto your pin and unroll it over the pie pan; reposition as needed, pat down the center, and up the sides; if there's a huge amount of overhanging crust, you may want to trim it back a bit before crimping or making a decorative edge. I usually like about a 3/4" overhang from the lip of the pie plate; I will fold it under, leaving about a 1/4 - 1/3" overhang, and then crimp. Crusts will shrink when baked.
-- This next step is optional, but I find it helps -- place the pie pan back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes so the fats can rechill. This is what helps to make a flaky crust -- when the cold fats hit the hot oven, the water content of those fats turns to steam, thus making a little flaky pocket in your crust. The butter you laboriously flattened earlier got nicely distributed through the flour and is making nice steam pockets throughout your dough.
-- Pull your crust back out of the fridge and either blind bake if that's what your recipe calls for, or assemble your pie fillings and bake to directions.
* You can make this crust a day or two in advance, and place the unbaked, fitted pie crust into a large resealable bag and refrigerate until ready to use.
* You can use all of one type of fat... butter gives flavor, whereas shortening/lard give flakiness, hence I like a mix.
I've made myself hungry, and now I want pie!
How did it get to be November already?
-- Beni di Batasiolo Barolo Wine Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Monday, November 5th, $100/person.
-- Looking for a fun happy hour? Try the new Warehouse Wednesdays! From the press release: "Every Wednesday beginning November
7, the Warehouse District welcomes guests to enjoy a mid-week night on
the town with discounted drinks, reduced cover charges, live music, and
parking and valet specials. Participating establishments include TenOak, Speakeasy, Imperia, Six, Hangar, Lavaca St. Bar, Fado Irish Pub & Restaurant, Truluck’s, Lucky Lounge, Haven, Avenue on Congress (opening soon) and Peche."
-- One of my favorite spots in town, Travaasa Spa, is hosting a farm to table harvest dinner with four local chefs and ingredients provided by farms associated with the Sustainable Food Center. November 11th, $95/person; great looking line up!
-- Thanksgiving comes early this year -- November 22nd! I've received a few emails from places that will be open on Thanksgiving Day, which so far include: Lakeway Resort and Spa ($50/person, 11am - 3pm) and Bar Mirabeau ($30/person, 1 - 9pm).
Q: Where the heck am I???
A: Someplace completely foreign!
I don't think anyone would say the Oasis is known for the food, as it's always been a "drinks and watch the sunset" kind of place, earning the name The Sunset Capital of Texas as it overlooks Lake Travis. A fire, caused by a lightning strike, engulfed the restaurant and their iconic cliffside multi-storied decks in 2005, closing it down. I probably hadn't been out there since the late 1990s, as it's just an area of town I don't get to. And in their defense, I have heard that since the fires, they have been working to elevate the caliber of their food.
So imagine my incredible surprise when I drove down Comanche Trail to the rebuilt Oasis compound. It truly is an oasis in the middle of practically nowhere, a phoenix that has risen from the ashes to use another cliche. The road dead ends into a huge Tuscan villa, that encompasses a number of entities -- the Oasis, Soleil, Uncle Billy's Brew and Cue, Austin Java, and some retail shops and galleries. From the part I could see, it's a beautiful looking compound, and I was beyond shocked to see how it's been rebuilt -- it looks fantastic.
I attended a media tasting recently at Soleil, the very polished younger sibling of the Oasis, serving "new American" cuisine. Chef Daniel Burton Sanchez is in the process of revising the menu, and he wanted so share some of the new items. I arrived about 7 pm on an overcast day and it had been raining off and on. Coupled with the fact that the sun was going down, I wasn't able to get any great views of the lake or sunset, but I am certain they are there!
We began with appetizers in their bar area, called the Azure Lounge. My favorite of what we tasted was the seared foie gras with Sauterne-mulled apple sauce on toasted brioche.
Once seated in the dining room, our meal began with an amuse bouche' of veal sweetbreads, chantrelle mushrooms, haricot vert, and a mignonette beet dressing. A nice combo of flavors, the beans were perfectly crisp, and the sweetbreads nicely cooked.
The first course was a large seared scallop on a bed of sweet corn risotto, bacon, and an arbol chile oil. The sweetness of the scallop and corn played perfectly with the savory notes of the bacon and the little bit of heat from the chile oil. Probably my favorite dish of the evening!
The next course was a pan roasted duck breast, butternut squash and edamame stuffed ravioli, and a pumpkin seed pesto. This was some of the most perfectly cooked duck I have ever had! Moist, tender, and lightly pink inside. It was also well-salted, which for me is usually rare.
The third course was braised pork belly on a cilantro parsnip puree. I liked the pork, but I don't think it was as good as the previous proteins! I liked the idea of the puree, but I think it needed a little more acid to brighten the flavors, as it was very earthy.
Dessert was called a "reverse fondue" -- a piece of Camembert cheese, hazelnut brittle, and spheres of green apple adorned the plate. There was a little pitcher of warm caramel sauce to pour over, and the combination of all the flavors together was quite tasty. (If you try this, just note that the rind on a Camembert, while perfectly edible, can be very strong tasting; in this case, by removing the rind so you just have the paste of the cheese, it was perfect with the other elements on the plate.)
Each course was expertly paired with a different wine by sommelier Melissa Hale, who along with Chef Burton, made themselves available for questions and comments. My dining companion Christy of Epicuriosities put it best when she said "This is now a dining destination!" Soleil has absolutely elevated the stature of restaurants near Lake Travis, and I look forward to going back in the near future.
-- Matt Odam, the food critic for the Austin American-Statesman has unveiled his list of Austin's Top 50 restaurants. Great list, some old warhorses that you expect to see, some newer spots, and some I had never heard of! I think I have been to 37 out of 50 -- so many places, so little time! And money! ;)
-- Tickets are on sale for next Sunday's Wine and Swine event! Looks like an amazing line up, and I will be there volunteering with some other food blogger friends!
A friend was in from out of town and staying near Guadalupe and MLK, so we had lunch at Lavaca Teppan, a Japanese spot next to the Women and their Work gallery. The interior decor is your typical minimalist Japanese style with clean lines, though for some reason to me, this place almost had an unfinished look to it and they've been open over a year. There seemed to be a mix of clientele, young professionals, couples, a family with kids, and the guy at the table next to us, who quickly ate and was in and out in about 15 minutes.
I'll be honest, it wasn't memorable food. I was there two weeks ago, and am just now remembering to write about it! We shared some steamed edamame, and I had the beef udon noodle bowl with some veggies in it, and my friend the chicken udon. The noodles were a bit chewy (or shall I say chewier than normal for udon), and the beef was okay, marinated a bit in a soy or teriyaki sauce to give it a bit of flavor. They do serve the udon bowls with a side of pickled ginger, which did add a really nice flavor -- if you like ginger, and I do -- to the dish.
Maybe
it's just what I ordered... some of the other menu items, like the
donburi rice bowl sounds good, as are some of the offerings on their
menu that begins after 2 pm. Would I go back? Maybe? There's just other
Japanese places at similar price points that I know are really good.
