Once upon a time, Austin was a place to get Tex-Mex, barbecue, and hippie college student vegetarian food. And not much else. But, as anyone here will tell you, the city has changed. Austin keeps getting bigger, and along with the city’s growth, there’s been a restaurant RENAISSANCE.
Arguably, Austin’s modern restaurant era started with Uchi. Not only did chef Tyson Cole upend expectations of the type of food diners could get in Austin when he opened his sushi restaurant in 2003, he laid the foundation for Austin chefs to move beyond the constraints of Central Texas foodways. Some of the best chefs in Austin have gone through Uchi’s kitchen, including Paul Qui (East Side King, Kuneho), Nicholas Yanes (Juniper), and Takehiro Asazu (Kome)—and none of them is cooking what’s typically thought of as Texan cuisine.
Another factor that had a major impact on Austin’s growing restaurant scene was the post-recession food truck BOOM that began in 2009. Many of the best restaurants in Austin began as food trucks, including East Side King, the massively popular Detroit-style pizzeria Via 313, and Bryce Gilmore’s Odd Duck Farm to Trailer. Gilmore, in fact, got a Food & Wine Best New Chef nod based on the sophisticated food he managed to knock out of his tiny red trailer. A small painting of the original truck hangs in the current space—a building too glassy and bright to be called a brick-and-mortar.
This chapter includes recipes from Lenoir, Chef Todd Duplechan’s nod to hot-weather cuisine and the bounty of Central Texas; Sway, a stylish Thai restaurant from the folks behind La Condesa; Bufalina, amazing Neapolitan-style pizza; Emmer & Rye, an innovative restaurant that explores the wide world of grains; and the Whip-In, a convenience store–turned–brewpub that incorporates Indian flavors. And this is just a sampling of the evolving Austin restaurant landscape—new entries open seemingly every day.
Note: This chapter contains the most fine-dining restaurants of any chapter in this book, which also means it contains the most technically difficult recipes. Feel free to make all or part of the recipes according to your ability—some of the subrecipes are amazing on their own.
This dish is classic Uchi: packed with flavor and bursting with acidity, a perfect showcase for fish. Accordingly, make sure you use the highest quality, freshest fish you can get your hands on.
Serves 4 as an appetizer, but easily doubles to make a great dish for a cocktail party.
¼ teaspoon sugar
½ tablespoon hot water
½ tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
½ teaspoon fresh yuzu juice (or lime juice if you can’t find yuzu)
½ orange bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
4 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
½ Thai chile pepper, sliced extra thin
10 fresh cilantro leaves
2 ounces (55 g) whitefish (striped bass or red snapper), cut into ½-inch (12-mm) cubes
2 ounces (55 g) king salmon, cut into ½-inch (12-mm) cubes
½ garlic clove, grated
Salt and black pepper
1 ounce (28 g/one large handful) arugula
Chill a stainless-steel bowl and a serving plate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine the sugar with hot water to dissolve, then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, white vinegar, and yuzu juice. Set the sauce aside.
In the chilled bowl, mix together the bell pepper, tomatoes, chile, cilantro, whitefish, salmon, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sauce, tossing everything together to combine. Place on the chilled plate and sprinkle the arugula on top.
These are iconic. The original East Side King food truck behind the Liberty bar on East Sixth Street has been serving these since it opened in 2010. They’re symbolic of a scrappy and innovative time in Austin dining, when food trucks were just starting to take over.
They also happen to be very tasty. Lightly dusted with cornstarch, these beets are roasted and then deep-fried. Serve them with Kewpie mayo and a sprinkle of togarashi. And watch out: they’re scaldingly hot straight out of the fryer.
Serves 6.
5 beets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
Soybean oil for frying
1 cup (130 g) cornstarch
1 cup (120 ml) Kewpie mayonnaise (you can use regular mayo if you need to, but the Kewpie makes a big difference)
Shichimi togarashi (Japanese 7-spice blend)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Salt
Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Put the washed but unpeeled beets in a mixing bowl and toss them with the vegetable oil and vinegar. Place a large sheet of foil over a sheet pan and place the beets in the center of it. Place a second sheet of foil on top of the beets and crimp the edges of the two pieces of foil together to form an airtight packet. Roast for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, testing the beets for doneness by poking them with a small paring knife. Let the beets cool.
Peel the beets by rubbing off their skin with a paper towel or disposable gloves. Cut the beets into 1-inch (2.5-cm) cubes and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, at least 1 hour.
Heat the soybean oil to 375°F (190°C) in a deep skillet.
Toss the beets in cornstarch until completely coated, and allow the beets to sit and absorb the cornstarch for a minute or so. The beets will be entirely magenta.
Fry the beets in 2-cup (270-g) batches until crispy, about 4 minutes per batch. Remove and drain on paper towels. Season with salt.
Serve with a squiggle of mayonnaise on top, along with a sprinkling of shichimi togarashi and scallion.
Via 313 started as a pizza truck, serving the Detroit-style pizza cofounders Zane and Brandon Hunt enjoyed while growing up in Michigan. Since then they have expanded both the pizza truck—now multiple trucks and brick-and-mortar restaurants—as well as the styles of pizza. This is a bar pie: a crispy, pan-baked round pie with a cheesy crust, topped with one of Via 313’s most popular flavor combinations, the sweet-and-salty Cadillac.
For this one, you’ll need a pizza stone and a round, 12-inch (30.5-cm) pizza pan (Hunt prefers the darkest pan you can find, nonstick anodized). Once you have those you’ll be a pizza-making machine.
Makes 1 pizza.
1 ball prepared bar pie dough (recipe follows), plus flour for dusting
½ cup (120 ml) balsamic vinegar
1 ounce (28 g) asiago cheese, grated
6 ounces (170 g) whole-milk mozzarella, shredded
⅓ cup (45 g) crumbled gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons fig preserves
6 thin slices prosciutto
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Two hours before you want to make the pizza, remove the dough from the fridge. One hour before you cook, put a pizza stone or baking steel in the middle rack of your oven and heat the oven to 500°F (260°C). Let the stone heat for the full hour.
Heat the vinegar in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Cook until it is reduced by half, to a thick syrup. Let cool.
After the dough has rested for 2 hours at room temperature, sprinkle flour on a flat surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the ball into a 12-inch (30.5-cm) round. Move the dough to a lightly oiled 12-inch (30.5-cm) pizza pan. Sprinkle the asiago around the outside edge of the dough, and then cover the pizza with mozzarella and gorgonzola, spreading cheese to the edge of the pizza.
Put the pan on the pizza stone and bake for 12 minutes. The cheese should start to brown on the edges. Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer from the pizza pan to a cutting board.
Spread a thin layer of fig preserves over the pizza. Cut the pizza into 6 slices, and place a slice of prosciutto on top of each slice. Drizzle with about 1 tablespoon of the balsamic glaze and finish with a sprinkle of Parmesan.
Zane Hunt told me, “This is a lean-and-mean pizza dough, meant for home users to make delicious, no-frills pizza.” It is, by far, the easiest pizza dough I have ever worked with. Hunt prefers weighing ingredients for the dough, but I’ve included cup measurements in case you don’t have a scale.
Makes enough dough for 4 (12-inch/30.5-cm) pizzas.
6¼ cups (800 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (3 g) yeast
4 teaspoons (24 g) salt
1½ teaspoons (6 g) sugar
1⅓ cups (400 g) warm water
¼ cup (48 g) olive oil
Combine the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer.
In a separate bowl, dissolve the salt and sugar in the warm water. Add the oil.
With the mixer on low speed and the dough hook attached, slowly pour the liquid ingredients into the flour. Mix for 3 to 5 minutes, until the dough balls up on the hook.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls. Each ball should weigh about 200 grams, which will roll out perfectly in a 12-inch (30.5-cm) pan. Coat each ball lightly in oil and store covered in individual containers in the refrigerator overnight. (If you’re using them the same day, leave them out at room temperature for at least 2 hours.) You can also freeze the dough at this point instead of refrigerating overnight. When ready to use, remove the dough from the freezer and let thaw, in the refrigerator, then rise at room temperature as instructed on the previous page.
Proceed as instructed for the Cadillac Bar Pie, or experiment with your own choice of toppings.
For years, Austinites bemoaned the lack of decent Italian food in town. Luckily there’s been a wave of bright new pizza and pasta joints opening in recent years, among which Uchi alum Nicholas Yanes’s Juniper is a standout.
This sophisticated, layered dish is more complicated than your standard, at-home ragu, but believe me, every step is worth it. In fact, you may as well double the ragu recipe—the leftovers will freeze very nicely.
Serves 6.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small rutabaga, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
Salt
1 cup (240 ml) oxtail ragu (recipe follows)
½ cup (120 ml) ricotta
1 pound (455 g) good-quality pappardelle pasta
Black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (parsley, basil, and/or chives)
Heat the vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat, then sauté the rutabaga until lightly browned. Add rosemary and salt to taste; set aside.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. While the water heats up, put the ragu and ricotta in a sauté pan and stir to combine. Cook the pasta according to the package’s instructions, then add it to the sauce.
Sauté the sauce and pasta over medium heat until the pasta is well coated, then add the rutabaga and combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with chopped herbs on top.
Makes about 3 quarts (2.8 L).
3 pounds (1.4 kg) oxtail, cut into thick slices
Salt
2 cups (285 g) diced carrots
2 cups (220 g) diced onions
1¼ cups (300 ml) red wine
6 garlic cloves
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon juniper berries
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 cans (28 ounces/794 g each) whole San Marzano tomatoes
Black pepper
Season the pieces of oxtail liberally with salt and place them on a roasting pan. Refrigerate overnight.
Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Roast the oxtails until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Add the carrots and onions to the pan around the oxtails and roast until the onions are browned, another 30 to 40 minutes. Be careful not to let the vegetables burn.
Put the browned meat and vegetables in a large pot. Use the wine to deglaze the roasting pan, scraping up any brown bits stuck to the pan. Add the wine to the pot.
Tie the garlic, rosemary, juniper berries, bay leaves, and pepper-corns in a piece of cheesecloth and add this to the pot along with the tomatoes. Add water to cover by 1 inch (2.5 cm) or so. Cover and simmer for about 8 hours. Check the braise periodically to make sure the meat is still covered with liquid; if not, add water. When the meat is meltingly tender, let cool, remove the cheesecloth sachet, and remove the meat from the liquid.
Strain the braising liquid into another pot, making sure to press the vegetables to get as much liquid from them as you can. Bring to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced by about one-third, skimming the fat and impurities off the top as it reduces. Pick the oxtail meat from the bones, removing any gristle-y bits as you go. Add the picked meat to the reduced liquid and season with salt and ground pepper.
Justine’s is an energetic French bistro, a vintage house tucked away in the middle of an East Austin warehouse district. Not the most likely spot for a hip restaurant, but the place oozes with charm and draws diners from all over the city. It doesn’t hurt that the wine list is fun and varied, the patio is large and pleasant, and the food is probably the best classic French in town.
Serve the following three elements together or separately for a taste of Paris by way of East Austin.
Serves 4.
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
4 duck legs
2 quarts (2 L) duck fat (if duck fat is not available, peanut, canola, or grapeseed oil will work)
Lemon vinaigrette frisée (recipe follows)
Duck fat–roasted potatoes (recipe next)
Combine the salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place the duck legs in a shallow dish and thickly coat them with the salt and pepper mixture. Allow the meat to cure, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Heat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Brush most of the seasoning off the duck legs and place them in a deep, oven-safe cooking vessel that holds them snugly, like a medium Dutch oven. Cover the meat with duck fat—the legs must be completely submerged. Cook for 3 hours, then let the legs cool in the fat.
To serve, heat a cast-iron pan over medium heat. Add a bit of the duck fat and heat the duck legs skin side down until the skin is very crispy, about 8 minutes. Serve with the frisée and potatoes.
¼ cup (60 ml) Dijon mustard
¼ cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup (240 ml) vegetable oil
Salt
3 cups (170 g) frisée
Put the mustard, lemon juice, pepper, and thyme in a food processor or blender and process until combined. With the processor running, slowly stream in the oil followed by ¼ cup (60 ml) water, processing until nice and creamy. Season with salt.
To serve, toss the frisée in a small amount of the dressing to lightly coat.
Duck Fat–Roasted Potatoes
6 red potatoes, quartered
¼ cup (60 ml) duck fat from the duck confit (recipe previous)
Salt and black pepper
Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Put the potatoes and duck fat in a large bowl and stir to coat the potatoes in fat. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Roast on a sheet pan until tender for about 1 hour, shuffling and flipping the potatoes often so they brown evenly.
This pizza, served at Steven Dilley’s pizzeria Bufalina, is a bit more Texan than Neapolitan. Dilley told me, “This was inspired by one of my favorite breakfast tacos: chorizo, potato, and cheese. It’s something I pick up from Veracruz All-Natural regularly.” Breakfast taco pizza? Yes, please. (Check out the recipe for Veracruz’s breakfast tacos on this page.)
Makes 1 (12-inch/30.5-cm) pizza.
¼ cup (60 ml) red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (30 g) thinly sliced red onion
½ cup (100 g) chorizo
1 small russet potato, peeled and cut into ¼-inch (6-mm) dice (about ½ cup)
Salt
1 ball Neapolitan pizza dough (recipe follows), plus flour for dusting
3½ ounces (100 g) fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into short, thin strips
¼ cup (35 g) sliced pickled jalapeños (this page or store-bought)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano or parsley leaves
1 tablespoon crema
Place an oven rack in the top third of your oven, and put a pizza stone on it. Heat the oven as high as it will go (500 to 550°F/260 to 285°C) for 45 to 60 minutes. (If your oven has a convection roast cycle, use that.)
Whisk together the vinegar, ¼ cup (60 ml) water, the sugar, and salt, and pour the liquid over the onion. Refrigerate the onion mixture while you prepare the other ingredients.
Cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium-high heat, using a wooden spoon to break up the clumps of meat, until browned, about 4 minutes. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the rendered fat in the pan.
Turn the heat to low and add the diced potato. Cook until the potato starts to soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and cook until the potato is crisp and brown, 2 minutes. Season with salt. Set aside.
Assemble the pizza: Lightly flour a work surface. Gently stretch out the ball of pizza dough: first use your fingertips to press it out to about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter, then use the backs of your hands to stretch it to 12 inches (30.5 cm) in diameter. Carefully place the dough on a lightly floured pizza peel; it will be pretty sticky.
Once it’s on the peel, top it with the cheese, cooked chorizo, and crispy potatoes, spreading everything evenly over the dough.
Carefully slide the pizza from the peel onto the pizza stone. Bake for about 8 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven and add the pickled red onion, the pickled jalapeño, and oregano. Dress with crema and let the pizza sit for a couple minutes before cutting it into slices.
Neapolitan Pizza Dough
This dough is more delicate than the bar pizza dough (this page) and takes longer to rise. Plan ahead: if you start it at breakfast, you’ll have pizza for dinner.
Makes enough dough for 2 (12-inch/30.5-cm) pizzas.
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (250 g) warm water
2¼ teaspoons (13 g) salt
1 teaspoon (4 g) fresh cake yeast (or ¼ teaspoon dried yeast, but cake is preferred)
2¼ cups (450 g) 00 flour, such as Caputo or San Felice brand
In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir the warm water and salt together until the salt dissolves. Add the yeast and stir to dissolve. Add half of the flour and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes using the paddle attachment. Swap the paddle for the dough hook attachment and add the remaining flour. Mix on the lowest speed for 8 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer and let rise, covered with a damp cloth, for 2 hours. Note: at this stage it won’t rise very much.
Divide the dough into two 250- to 260-gram portions. (You’ll have a little dough left over, probably.) Form each portion into a ball. Place the balls in a container covered loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise slowly at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. Proceed with the instructions for the Potato Chorizo Pizza.
Kome is located in a nondescript building on a busy stretch of Airport Boulevard. It would be easy to miss, if not for the throngs of people waiting outside for dinner every day. Their sushi is incredibly popular, not just in the neighborhood, but throughout the city. According to the restaurant, this is one of their most popular rolls, and it’s as bright and lovely as the name implies.
Makes about 8 rolls.
For the sushi rice
2 cups (410 g) sushi rice
¼ cup (60 ml) rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
In a mesh strainer, rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a saucepan with 2 cups (280 ml) water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for another 10 minutes. (Alternatively, you could cook the rice in a rice cooker.)
Combine the vinegar, sugar, and salt. Put the warm cooked rice in a bowl—they use a dampened wooden bowl at Kome to prevent sticking—and pour the vinegar mixture over the top. Incorporate the seasoning into the rice with a spatula, cutting through and flipping sections of the rice until every grain is coated. Let cool for an additional 15 minutes, then flip the rice with a spatula a few more times. Let rest for another 10 minutes and the rice is ready to go.
For the rolls
4 sheets nori (seaweed paper)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
½ mango, cut into strips ½ inch (12 mm) wide
½ avocado, cut into diagonal slices ¼ inch (6 mm) thick
6 ounces fresh, high-quality salmon, cut into strips ½ inch (12 mm) wide
Have the rice and all the ingredients ready. Place the nori on a sushi rolling mat and spread about ½ cup (105 g) of the rice over it, making sure every corner is covered. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the rice and flip everything over, so the nori side is facing up.
In a strip down the center of the nori, lay down a row of avocado first, then mango, and then salmon, making sure everything reaches all the way end to end. Use the sushi mat to roll and shape the sushi—the rice will be on the outside—then cut the roll into 6 pieces and serve.
In the heat of Texas summer, sometimes only food from another scaldingly hot part of the world will do. Yes, even soup. This flavorful version of the popular soup from the elegant modern Thai restaurant Sway will more than do the trick. Note: if you’re in a hurry, you could use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store instead of roasting it yourself.
Serves 8.
1 whole chicken
Salt and black pepper
¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil, plus more for frying shallots
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and chopped
¼ cup (30 g) peeled and chopped galangal
4 stalks lemongrass, outer layers removed, chopped
6 to 8 Thai chiles, depending on how spicy you like it, thinly sliced
2½ quarts (2.5 L) chicken stock
1 cup (240 ml) fresh lime juice
2½ cups (600 g) palm sugar
1¼ cups (300 ml) fish sauce
2 cans (13½ ounces/398 ml each) coconut milk
1 cup (115 g) thinly sliced shallots
8 ounces (225 g) snow peas, trimmed
8 ounces (225 g) shimeji (beech) mushrooms, cut off the base so the stems separate
1 can (15 ounces/425 g) baby corn, drained
1 can (8 ounces/227 g) bamboo shoots, drained
¼ cup (60 ml) chile oil
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).
Season the chicken all over with salt and black pepper. Put in a roasting pan and roast for about 1 hour 30 minutes, or until its juices run clear. Let cool completely, then pull the meat into bite-size pieces and set aside. (Discard the bones and skin and gristle-y bits.)
While the chicken is roasting, heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the garlic, galangal, lemongrass, and chiles. Sauté until the vegetables are soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the stock, lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce, coconut milk, and 2 tablespoons salt, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour through a strainer into another large pot and set aside.
Heat about ½ inch (12 mm) of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-low heat and add the shallots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are lightly golden, about 12 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel–lined plate. (The shallots will get darker after they’re pulled from the oil, so pull them before they’re as dark as you’d like.)
The previous steps can be done in advance. The stock will hold in the refrigerator for up to a week, and for several months frozen, while the shallots can be stored in an airtight container in the pantry for a couple weeks. The next few steps should only be completed right before serving.
Bring the soup broth to a simmer and add the snow peas, mushrooms, baby corn, bamboo shoots, and chile oil. Cook until the vegetables soften, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the pulled chicken and season the soup with salt to taste. Serve with crispy shallots on top.
Texas is prime quail country, and these tiny birds are hunted throughout the state. Quail is good fried, but, as Todd Duplechan of Lenoir says, “Cooking little birds over wood or charcoal is just the best.” I’m not going to argue with that. Typically quail come either bone-in or “semi-deboned,” meaning all of the bones except the wings and legs have been removed for easier eating.
Serves 4.
8 semi-deboned quails
¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
Salt and black pepper
For the sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
3 green tomatoes, cut in half
3 serrano chiles, stems removed
1 onion, cut in half and peeled
Salt
¾ cup (22 g) fresh basil leaves
¾ cup (22 g) fresh cilantro
¾ cup (22 g) fresh garlic chives
½ cup (65 g) pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
½ cup (75 g) sesame seeds
1½ teaspoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1½ teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
¾ cup (180 ml) canola oil
Rub the quails with the oil and season them lightly with salt and pepper. Set them aside to come to room temperature while you make the sauce.
Make the sauce: Heat the broiler to high.
Put the garlic, tomatoes, serranos, and onion on a sheet pan and broil until roasted and nearly burned, checking periodically.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, and prepare a bowl of ice water next to it. When the water is boiling vigorously, add the basil, cilantro, and chives and blanch briefly—less than 10 seconds—until they turn a vibrant green, then use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove them from the boiling water. Immediately plunge them in the ice bath. This process locks in their color and gives the mole its vibrancy. Drain the herbs well.
Toast the pepitas and sesame seeds in a dry skillet and set aside. Separately, toast the peppercorns, coriander, cumin, and fenugreek; let cool, then grind them in a spice grinder.
Add the roasted vegetables, blanched herbs, seeds, and spices to a blender or food processor along with ½ cup (120 ml) water. Process to a thick paste (you can add a bit more water if things aren’t moving), then slowly drizzle in the oil while the motor is on. You’ll end up with a lush, thick, bright green sauce. Season with salt.
Heat a grill to high. Grill the quails until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Serve two quails per person, with the sauce on the side.
This dish brings together two key components of chef Kevin Fink’s Emmer & Rye: a focus on heritage grains, and the restaurant’s in-house fermentation program. It’s fairly simple to make, although it does benefit greatly from high-quality corn flour, sauerkraut, pancetta, and cheddar. Use this as a base for sautéed vegetables for a simple, elegant dinner.
Makes about 16 (4-inch/10-cm) pancakes.
1¼ cups (300 ml) whole milk
⅓ cup (75 ml) hot water
1 packet (3/4 ounce/21 g) active dry yeast
1½ cups (190 g) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (135 g) corn flour
1½ teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons (115 g) unsalted butter, melted
⅓ cup (80 g) finely diced pancetta
½ cup (75 g) sauerkraut
¾ cup (85 g) finely diced white cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Crème frâiche
Combine the milk and hot water; the liquid should be warm but not hot. Add the yeast and let stand for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the all- purpose flour, corn flour, and salt.
Fold the yeast mixture and the melted butter into the flour mixture with a spatula, taking care not to overwork the batter. Let rise for 30 minutes.
While the batter is rising, put the pancetta in a skillet and add ½ cup (120 ml) water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the water is gone and the pork just starts to sear, about 10 minutes—the idea is to cook the pancetta without crisping it up too much. Add the sauerkraut and a little bit of its brine to the skillet with the pancetta and stir, scraping up any bits of pancetta stuck to the pan. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.
Fold the pancetta and sauerkraut mixture and the cheese into the batter.
Heat the oil in a skillet. Drop 2 to 3 tablespoons of the batter into the hot pan for each pancake and cook, flipping as each side browns, 1 to 2 minutes per side. The center should be cooked through, not doughy, and the pancakes should be about 4 inches (10 cm) across. Serve with a dollop of crème frâiche.
The Whip-In’s evolution from gas station to South Austin landmark began in 1986 when it was purchased by the Topiwala family. Since then, the space has morphed into a bar and restaurant known for a great beer selection and their signature blend of Indian and Texan food, like migas with cilantro chutney and this burger, made with spiced ground goat meat and a homemade chile aioli.
Makes 8 burgers.
For the burgers
3 pounds (1.4 kg) ground goat meat
⅔ cup (150 g) minced yellow onion
1½ tablespoons minced garlic
1½ tablespoons minced ginger
½ cup (20 g) finely chopped fresh cilantro
6 jalapeños, roasted (see this page), seeds and stems removed, and finely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
For serving
Squishy white hamburger buns, toasted
Goat milk feta cheese
Mixed greens
Sliced cherry tomatoes
Indian long chile aioli (recipe follows)
Make the burgers: Combine the goat meat, onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro, jalapeños, salt, and black pepper in a large mixing bowl using very clean hands. Shape the mixture into 8 equal-size burger patties. Cook the patties in a hot cast-iron skillet or on a grill until cooked through but not dry, 5 to 6 minutes on each side. Let the burgers rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
Serve on toasted buns topped with cheese, greens, tomatoes, and aioli.
Indian Long Chile Aioli
1 egg yolk
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
⅓ cup (75 ml) canola oil
⅓ cup (75 ml) olive oil
2 Indian long chiles, seeds and stem removed, finely diced (Thai chiles will work if you can’t find long chiles)
Put the egg yolk, garlic, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and process for about 30 seconds, until thoroughly mixed. With the processor on, slowly drizzle the oils into the yolk mixture. When finished, fold in the chiles and serve. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.
This dish has been on the menu at Bryce Gilmore’s flagship restaurant ever since they moved it from the original space to its current dreamy location on Burnet Road. The restaurant preserves chiles all summer so they can keep this dish on the menu year round. “I like having a few interesting items that stick around for a long time,” says Gilmore, “for people to enjoy and rely on.”
Don’t be afraid of the pig skin: this is one of Barley Swine’s most popular dishes for a reason. Long, noodle-like strands of pig skin are simmered until tender, then tossed with a house-made hot sauce, shrimp dumplings, and almonds for a combination that’s reminiscent of a rice noodle bowl.
Serves 6.
½ cup (120 g) plus 1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (480 ml) hot water
2 pounds (910 g) pork skin
1 pound (450 g) peeled and deveined shrimp, tails removed
2 eggs
1 garlic clove, grated or pressed
1 Thai chile, seeded and coarsely chopped
½ cup (120 ml) Hot Sauce (this page)
½ cup (55 g) slivered almonds, toasted
Brine the pork skin: Dissolve ½ cup (120 g) salt in the hot water and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Put the pork skin in a gallon-size (3.8-L-size) resealable bag and add the brine; refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Drain the pork skin and pat it lightly with paper towels to dry. Roll it into a tight cylinder; wrap the cylinder tightly with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer until firm but not frozen, about 1 hour.
While you’re waiting on the pork skin, make the dumplings: Put the shrimp, eggs, garlic, chile, and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor and process until smooth. Form the shrimp mixture into small, round dumplings, about 1 tablespoon each.
Bring two pots of water to a simmer. Remove the pork skin from the freezer and slice it into thin, long noodles. Simmer the noodles in one of the pots until tender, about 30 minutes. (The noodles should be about the consistency of a rice noodle when finished.) Set about ½ cup (120 ml) of the cooking liquid aside, then drain the pork skin noodles.
In the other pot, when the noodles are almost finished, simmer the shrimp dumplings until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain.
To finish the dish, combine the noodles and the dumplings in a sauté pan. Add the hot sauce and a bit of the noodle cooking liquid to make a sauce and heat, stirring, for about 2 minutes to combine. Serve in bowls, sprinkled with the almonds.
Odd Duck is Bryce Gilmore’s second restaurant, although it evolved from a prior effort: the Odd Duck Farm to Trailer food truck. In one of my favorite bits of Austin restaurant trivia, the current Odd Duck brick-and-mortar restaurant is built on the land where the trailer once stood. How’s that for coming full circle?
This dish gets its name from the nacho spice blend that flavors the sweet potatoes, which are then dotted with green chile mayo, escabeche, and corn nuts. It’s a bit of work, but this would make a killer dinner party dish served alongside a simple roast chicken.
Serves 6 to 8 as a side.
4 large sweet potatoes
½ cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
Salt
2 teaspoons nacho spice (recipe follows)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup (60 ml) green chile mayo (recipe follows)
½ cup (75 g) escabeche (recipe follows)
½ cup (80 g) corn nuts (recipe follows; optional)
¼ cup (30 g) thinly sliced radish
¼ cup (10 g) chopped fresh cilantro
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).
Bake the sweet potatoes whole on a foil-lined sheet pan until tender, about 1 hour. Let cool completely.
Peel the sweet potatoes (you can probably do it with your fingers) and set the peels aside. Cut the potatoes into large chunks, about 2-inch (5-cm) pieces.
Heat the oil in a small sauté pan. Fry the peels until crispy, taking care not to burn them. Remove from the oil and set on paper towels to drain. When cool, sprinkle the peels with a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon nacho spice. (Up through this step, everything can be made the day before.)
Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat; add the butter and cook until it has browned slightly. Add the sweet potatoes and cook to heat through, about 3 minutes, then season with salt.
Place the hot sweet potatoes in a serving dish that holds them snugly and smash them partially with a fork. In the following order, dot the potatoes with the green chile mayo, then sprinkle with escabeche, corn nuts (if using), fried peels, radish, cilantro, and a light sprinkle of nacho spice. Serve immediately.
Makes about ½ cup (48 g).
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons ground bay leaves
Combine all the ingredients and store in an airtight container.
Green Chile Mayo
1 cup (240 ml) grapeseed oil
1 poblano, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
Salt
Heat the oil in a small sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the poblano and cook for 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it to make sure nothing burns. Remove from the heat and add the chile flakes. Let cool completely, then pour the oil through a strainer set over a bowl; discard the solids.
In a food processor or blender, combine the egg yolk, mustard, and vinegar. Slowly—drop by drop at first, and then in increasing amounts—add the chile oil. You should have a thick, pale green sauce when you’re done. Season with salt. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Escabeche
½ bay leaf
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 whole dried chipotle pepper
½ cup (120 ml) apple cider vinegar
¼ cup (60 ml) distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1½ tablespoons salt
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
2 sprigs fresh oregano
In a dry skillet, toast the bay leaf, coriander, cumin, and chipotle until fragrant. Tie the spices in a piece of cheesecloth.
In a sauté pan over medium heat, bring the vinegars, 2 tablespoons water, the brown sugar, and the spice packet to a boil. Add the oil, salt, onion, and carrot and stir until the salt dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the oregano, and let cool completely. Remove the spice packet after cooling. Refrigerate until chilled before serving.
The corn here is important: it is not popcorn, it is not dehydrated corn, it is not freeze-dried corn, it’s dried corn. It is easier to find in the fall at seasonal markets and the like, but you can order it online year round. Pickling lime can be found wherever you buy canning supplies, or ordered online as well.
Since these are a bit of work, it’s worth it to make a bunch. They’ll keep in an airtight container in the pantry for a couple weeks and make for great snacking if you’re not using them to garnish the Sweet Potato Nachos.
1 cup (200 g) dried corn
1 tablespoon pickling lime
Vegetable oil for frying
Salt
1 teaspoon nacho spice (recipe here)
Put the dried corn and lime in a nonreactive pot. Add water to cover by about 2 inches (5 cm).
Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. At this point, remove a kernel and cut it in half cross-wise to check if it’s done—you want it to be about three-quarters gel and one-quarter starch in the very center. If it’s not there yet, cook it for another 10 minutes and check again. When the kernels are three-quarters gel, remove from the heat and let the corn sit at room temperature in the lime solution for at least 12 hours. Note: Lime water is caustic and should be kept out of reach of kids and pets. Make sure to leave it covered and out of reach.
The next day, drain and rinse the corn at least three times in a strainer—you need to remove every last trace of lime. Put the corn in a mixer with the paddle attachment and mix slowly for about 5 minutes. (This helps the husks to loosen.) Return to the strainer and rub off the husks while running under water.
When you’re ready to make the corn nuts, rinse the prepared kernels. Boil them for 30 minutes, or until slightly overcooked. Rinse and dry very well (in a salad spinner or on paper towels).
Heat oil in a medium pot to 375°F (190°C). Fry the kernels until the bubbles subside, about 5 minutes, then remove to drain on paper towels. Season with salt and nacho spice.
