Texas Home Cooking
Page 46
Savory Swirls
Tasty and filling, this is a good snack when you've got a lot of linebackers to feed.
¾ pound chorizo or other bulk sausage
1 teaspoon chili powder, preferably homemade ([>]) or Gebhardt's, optional
Salt to taste
1 recipe Buttermilk Biscuit dough ([>])
2 cups (8 ounces) grated mild cheddar cheese
¾ cup chopped roasted green chile, preferably New Mexican or poblano, fresh or frozen
Makes 2 dozen rolls
Position the rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 425° F. Grease a baking sheet.
In a skillet, fry the sausage over medium heat until it is browned. Pour off and discard any accumulated fat. Stir in the chili powder, if you like, and salt, and cook another minute or two. Set the sausage aside to cool.
On a floured board or counter, roll the biscuit dough out into a rectangle ¼ inch thick. Top it evenly with the sausage. Sprinkle the cheese and green chile over the meat.
Starting from one of the long sides of the rectangle, roll up the dough jelly roll-style. Make the roll snug but not overly tight—the dough needs a little room to expand during baking. Put the roll in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove it, and slice it into ½-inch pinwheels. Transfer the pinwheels to the baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet in the oven. After about 5 minutes, turn the baking sheet from front to back. Bake for about 10 minutes total, until the swirls are raised and golden. Serve them hot.
Artichoke Nibbles
This is hardly the most sophisticated way to eat artichokes, but these nibbles have been a long-term winner in Texas kitchens. They are both easy to make and tasty.
2 6-ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 eggs
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Makes about 32 bite-size squares
Preheat the oven to 325° F. Grease an 8-inch-square pan.
Drain the marinade from one of the jars of artichoke hearts into a small skillet. Heat the marinade, and add the onion and garlic. Cook until the vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally.
Drain the second jar of artichoke hearts, saving the marinade for another purpose, if you wish. Chop all the artichoke hearts, and place them in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, bread crumbs, oregano, pepper, Tabasco, and the marinade mixture. Stir in the cheese and the parsley. Spoon the mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the mixture is set.
Let the mixture cool for 15 or 20 minutes before cutting it into bite-size squares. Serve the squares warm or chilled.
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The Cowboys' "Too Tall" Jones may have had a few inches on Texas pioneer Sarah Borginnis, but not much else. When she served as a cook for U.S. troops during the Mexican War, the soldiers nicknamed her "Great Western" for being the tallest, toughest fighter in camp.
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Deep-Fried Grits with Jezebel Sauce
This is a great way to use leftover grits, but it's also worth making up special. The frying creates a crunchy exterior, though the inside remains creamy, and the Jezebel sauce adds zing.
1 recipe Garlic-Cheese Grits ([>]), chilled at least 2 hours and up to 2 days
Oil, preferably canola, for deep frying
Jezebel sauce, preferably homemade ([>])
Makes about 4 to 5 dozen squares
Cut the grits into bite-size tidbits about 1½ inches square. Transfer the squares to several thicknesses of paper toweling to absorb any surface moisture.
Pour enough oil into a heavy saucepan to measure at least 3 inches in depth. Heat the oil to 350° F. If the oil smokes before reaching the correct temperature, it cannot be used for deep frying. Use only fresh oil.
Fry the squares in batches for about 1 minute, until they crisp up and brown slightly. Drain them.
Serve the squares hot with Jezebel Sauce on the side.
Texas Trash
El Paso Chile Company has now trademarked the name "Texas Trash"—and has kindly allowed us to use it—but this Lone Star take on Chex cereal party mixes goes back further than the firm.
6 cups mixed Chex cereals
2 cups pretzel sticks
2 cups Fritos corn chips
2 cups pecan halves
½ cup olive oil
4 garlic cloves, halved
2½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon ground dried red chile, preferably New Mexican or ancho
1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
Makes 12 cups party mix
Preheat the oven to 250° F.
In a large bowl, stir together the cereal, pretzels, Fritos, and pecans. In a small skillet, warm the oil over medium heat, and add the garlic. Cook the garlic until it is well softened, remove it with a slotted spoon, and discard it. Stir the remaining seasonings into the skillet, and then pour the seasoned oil over the cereal mixture. Stir well to coat the mixture evenly.
Transfer the mixture to a large baking pan (we use our turkey roaster), and bake it for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
Spoon the Trash onto brown-paper bags to cool.
Eat the Trash while it is still a bit warm, or serve it at room temperature by the generous bowlful. Texas Trash can be kept, tightly covered, for up to 3 days, but it's best served the day you make it.
Variation: To make your own distinctive Trash, add Corn Nuts, Chee-tos, Cheerios, Goldfish cheese crackers, or anything crunchy that sounds good to you. If you don't want to do any of the work, call El Paso Chile Company (see "Mail-Order Sources," [>]) to get a batch of their superb version delivered to your door.
Little Devils
These chile peanuts are as naturally matched with beer as Baylor University is with Waco.
2 tablespoons peanut oil, preferably roasted
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 teaspoons chili powder, preferably homemade ([>]) or Gebhardt's
2
to
3 teaspoons ground dried red chile, preferably New Mexican or ancho
1 teaspoon salt, or more, to taste
1 pound (about 3 cups) raw peanuts
Makes 3 cups spiced peanuts
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a heavy skillet, warm the oil over low heat. Add the garlic, and sauté it briefly until it is softened. Stir in the chili powder, chile, and salt, and mix well. Sprinkle in the peanuts, and stir to coat them.
Transfer the peanuts to a baking sheet. Bake them 10 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Transfer them to absorbent paper. Let them cool before serving.
Stored in a closed jar, the peanuts will keep several weeks.
Candied Pecans
Keeping a full bowl of these around will make you a two-touchdown favorite with the fans.
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
½ cup unsulphured dark molasses
2 teaspoons ground dried red chile, preferably New Mexican or ancho
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups pecan halves
Makes about 2½ cups candied pecans
Preheat the oven to 250° F. Grease a 9-by- 12-inch baking dish.
In a heavy saucepan, bring all the ingredients except the pecans to a boil over high heat. Add the pecans, stir well, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the pecans for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the syrup has been well reduced.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the pecans to the baking dish. Bake the nuts for about 1¼ hours, stirring them about halfway through the cooking time. When ready, the pecans will be dark brown and crunchy. Stir them a few more times, and transf
er them to waxed paper to cool.
Tightly covered, the pecans will keep at least a week.
Beverages to Boast About
Right there in the saintly town of Dallas, the Vatican City, as you might call it, of the Baptist church, the cow-made millionaires pay an exorbitant price for, and get drunk on, a grade of rot-gut at which the aforementioned goatherders of Sierra County, New Mexico, would turn up their noses in disgust. In fact, and I state this on the very highest authority, the drinking industry of the State of Texas, under its present Baptist management, has now sunk to such a low level that many men who were once known to hundreds of bartenders as qualified judges of good whiskey are today known to as many bootleggers as inveterate guzzlers of chock beer.
Owen P. White, an El Paso writer, during Prohibition
Nothing has ever aroused passion in Texas like booze. For a hundred years, from the 1870s to the 1970s, the prohibition issue dominated politics, sermons, and social mores. The epic struggle, a battle for the soul of Texas, pitted a hard-drinking, hell-raising frontier tradition against the sober and self-righteous values of the strongest church in the state. Everyone chose sides, and the sinners relished their deviltry as much as the saints savored their virtue. Over the years, the conflict produced more bravado, pious posturing, humor, and foolishness than all the sessions of the state legislature combined.
The winner was iced tea. It was the only drink everyone loved, something the most dedicated tipplers and teetotalers could swig together, the sure way not to offend anyone at the table. A couple of Waco soft drinks, Dr Pepper and Big Red, won a following, too, and eventually beer and wine rose up the social ranks into a different and more acceptable class than demon rum. In the meantime, hard spirits just got hardier, and their fans developed a number of cocktails featuring high-octane local flavors.
The result today is a wide range of Texas beverages to mix and match for different occasions. You aren't likely to be attacked anymore for what you do or don't serve, but there's no reason to take chances. Just in case, it's worth knowing about Texas convictions and conventions.
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In their 1891 cookbook, Our Home Cook Book, Mrs. Paul Thornton and Mrs. I. V. Davis of Austin wrote, "Iced tea is a necessary beverage in southern summers." The popular drink originated in the nineteenth century as a warm weather alternative to coffee, the favorite brew of that period, but these days Texans drink iced tea year-round, without regard to the temperature.
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Traditional Texas Tea
In truth, there are two traditional iced teas in Texas, as different to their partisans as bourbon and milk. The only variation between them—sugar—may seem to outsiders like a matter of personal preference, but in Texas the choice approaches a statement on moral character. The sweetening set usually adds sugar—a lot of it—before serving the tea, leaving you little option about how you want it, and the nonsweeteners will avert their eyes if you reach for sugar, as though you might pick your nose next.
6 teaspoons loose black tea or 6 tea bags
1 quart cold water
Ice
Sugar, optional
Lemon wedge, for garnish
Serves 1 Texan
Place the loose tea or tea bags in a large teapot.
Pour the water into a tea kettle or saucepan (always use fresh cold water for best results). Bring the water to a vigorous boil, and, at once, pour it over the tea. Don't allow the water to boil more than a minute or two, or the tea could become clouded by mineral deposits in the water. Top the teapot with the lid, and allow the tea to steep about 5 minutes. The tea should get good and dark since it will be diluted by the ice. Discard the tea bags, or, if you are working with loose tea, plan to strain it through a small strainer before serving.
Let the tea stand at room temperature until it is needed. When you pour it, use a good number of ice cubes, but don't overdo it the way fast-food franchises always seem to do. Serve the tea in a barrel-size plastic glass or 1-quart Mason jar for an authentic touch. Add sugar, if you like, and a hefty wedge of lemon. Always offer refills. Iced tea tastes best the day it's made.
Variation: On hot summer days, make "sun tea" outside. Put the tea and cold water in ajar, and set it out to soak up some rays. You'll have tea in a couple of hours, but give it twice that long for full flavor.
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Hot tea has always been rare in Texas, except for a variety made from sassafras root. Sassafras tea was a traditional beverage in East Texas, used in the spring to "thin the blood," and it's still as good a way to fight a cold as any we know.
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Minted Iced Tea
Morton Gill Clark had to revise the first draft of his 1970 cookbook, The Wide, Wide, World of Texas Cooking, to add an iced tea recipe. He got so many complaints from Texas reviewers about the absence of the beloved drink that he made it the lead-off recipe in the book. Clark suggested serving a mint syrup on the side for a sweetener, similar to what we do here.
MINT SYRUP
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
½ cup mint leaves
Traditional Texas Tea ([>])
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish
Serves 1 Texan
Boil the syrup ingredients together in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the liquid is clear. Set it aside; it will steep as it cools. When it has cooled to room temperature, strain the syrup into a creamer or other small pitcher.
Offer a gargantuan glass of Traditional Texas Tea over ice, accompanied by the mint syrup. Garnish with the mint sprigs. The tea is best the day it's made, but the syrup, refrigerated, keeps for weeks.
Variation: For a stouter version of Minted Iced Tea, lace the tea with a healthy splash of bourbon.
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Old-style iced teas didn't use mint flavoring, but it's a popular addition today, and, in the opinion of Jim Mattox, a Texas politico, it is an essential ingredient. When we had dinner with Mattox a few years ago at an upscale Dallas restaurant, we all ordered iced tea, but the drink arrived at the table without the garnish. The waiter explained that they hadn't been able to get any from their suppliers. Mattox was so confounded that he went into the kitchen, escorted the chef and staff out the back door, and showed them where they should be growing mint in the alley.
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Hot Dr Pepper
The Dr Pepper company developed the idea for this hot beverage decades ago as a way of boosting sales of its product during the winter. Some of the original advertisements for the heated drink are displaged in the wonderfully wacky Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas, located in the firm's first bottling plant.
12 ounces Dr Pepper
2 lemon slices
Serves 2
Pour the Dr Pepper into a saucepan. Heat until the liquid is hot and bubbly, precisely 170° F, according to serious "Peppers." Place a lemon slice in the bottom of each of two mugs. Pour the Dr Pepper into the mugs, and serve immediately.
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Charles Alderton, a Waco pharmacist, concocted Dr Pepper in 1885, making it the oldest of all the major soft drinks in the United States. Alderton, who worked at Morrison's Old Corner Drug, named his invention for the father of his boss's flame, hoping without success to win favor for Mr. Morrison. The real Dr Pepper never suspected he would be immortalized on the label of the country's third-best-selling soda.
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Central Texas Barbecue Sauce
Most of the old-time barbecue joints of central Texas don't serve a regular sauce for their meat, but that doesn't mean you can't get something red on the side. The drink of choice is Big Red, another Waco contribution to the world of soda pop.
1 plate of barbecue, preferably brisket and links
1 Big Red
Serves 2
Trade bites of barbecue and sips of Big Red, mixing the flavors in the mouth.
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Griver C. Thompson and Robert H. Roark invented Big Red in 1937 as a way to beat the summer heat in Waco, a go
al reflected in their name for the beverage, Sun Tang Soda. While playing golf in the early 1960s, the owner of the San Antonio bottling plant asked the caddy to get him a couple of Sun Tangs. The caddy yelled out for two "big reds," inspiring a new name.
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Mexican Hot Chocolate
Frothier than most versions, and cinnamon-scented, Mexican hot chocolate is just the ticket when a "blue norther" strikes.
1½ ounces Mexican chocolate, such as Ibarra
1¼ cups milk
¼ cup whipping cream
Whipped cream, optional
Canela (Mexican cinnamon) sticks, for garnish
Serves 2
Chop the chocolate, and place it in a blender. In a small, heavy pan, bring the milk and whipping cream just to a boil. Add them immediately to the blender, and whip until the chocolate is thoroughly blended and the mixture is frothy. Pour the hot chocolate into cups, top with whipped cream, if you like, and garnish with canela sticks.