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Monthly Archives: January 2011

Driskill Grill on This Weekend’s Radio Show

Posted on January 27, 2011 by John DeMers

HOUSTON Saturdays and Sundays 4-5 p.m., NewsRadio 740 KTRH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

SATURDAY: We broadcast from Austin this week, with a flavorful update on one of our favorite restaurants in the state capital – the Driskill Grill. Certainly trading on the charm and history of the Driskill Hotel, the restaurant remains worthy of both awards and regular visits. We do a food tasting with the chef and general manager. In our Grape and Grain segment, we taste the wonderful bubbly produced by Champagne Pannier with Terence Kenny, a New York guy who’s made a lot of his life and livelihood in the wine regions of France.

SUNDAY: In today’s show, we trek down to the unlikely culinary destination of Alvin, for a dining adventure a lot of Houstonians are raving about. Joe Schneider and Chef Jason Chaney join forces to tell us how it’s possible to do a locally grown, often-organic seasonal scratch-cooking menu in a town that, well, hasn’t seen too much of that. And we chat about the new Golden Age of Cocktails with King Cocktail himself, Dale DeGroff.

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

We broadcast from Austin this week, with a flavorful update on one of our favorite restaurants in the state capital – the Driskill Grill. Certainly trading on the charm and history of the Driskill Hotel, the restaurant remains worthy of both awards and regular visits. We do a food tasting with the chef and general manager. In our Grape and Grain segment, we taste the wonderful bubbly produced by Champagne Pannier with Terence Kenny, a New York guy who’s made a lot of his life and livelihood in the wine regions of France.

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Recipe for Tuscan Beef Stew

Posted on January 26, 2011 by John DeMers

For stew
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, cut into medium dice
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 pounds stew beef, such as boneless chuck, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups dry red wine
8 sprigs fresh thyme
3 medium tomatoes, halved
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For polenta
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups vegetable stock or broth
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal)

In heavy, large saucepan over moderately high heat, heat oil until hot but not smoking. Add onion, carrot, and celery and sauté, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add beef and sauté, stirring occasionally, until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add wine and thyme, stir well, and bring to boil. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper, then lower heat to moderately low, cover, and simmer, stirring every 15 minutes, until beef is tender, about 2 hours.
While beef is simmering, make polenta. Pour olive oil into large serving bowl and swirl to coat. Set aside. In heavy, large pot over moderately high heat, bring stock to boil. Lower heat to moderate and slowly add polenta, stirring constantly. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until polenta thickens and pulls away from sides of pan, about 10 minutes. Transfer to oil-coated serving bowl and keep warm. To serve, when beef is tender, use tongs to remove tomato skins (if desired) and thyme sprigs. Transfer stew to large serving bowl. Serve polenta alongside. Serves 6.

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Bistro Alex on This Weekend’s Delicious Mischief

Posted on January 20, 2011 by John DeMers

HOUSTON Saturdays and Sundays 4-5 p.m., NewsRadio 740 KTRH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

SATURDAY: We trundle out to one of the most intriguing restaurants to grace West Houston, with its busy Energy Corridor, in a long time. At Bistro Alex, Alex Brennan-Martin brings the stylish City Center development all the charm and quality that Houston has been tasting at our own Brennan’s for more than 30 years. We also, in our Grape & Grain segment, taste and talk about some terrific wines from the Spanish region of Rioja.

SUNDAY: Continuing a bit of “location, location, location” from our Saturday show, we set about exploring the melting-pot cuisine of Singapore by way of a restaurant at City Centre called Straits. You’ll taste Chine and Japanese flavors in these dishes but also Indian and several other cuisines, all because of immigrants who’ve called the place home for hundreds of years. In our Grape and Grain segment, we poke our nose into the strange saga of Mexican mescal, which is kinda like tequila except it’s not. Let’s just say that the mescal sold as Scorpion does not have a worm at the bottom on the bottle.

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

We trundle out to one of the most intriguing restaurants to grace West Houston, with its busy Energy Corridor, in a long time. At Bistro Alex, Alex Brennan-Martin brings the stylish City Center development all the charm and quality Houston has been tasting at our own rendition of Brennan’s for more than 30 years. We also, in our Grape & Grain segment, taste and talk about some terrific wines from the Spanish region of Rioja.

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Recipe for Grilled Tomato and Jalapeno Soup

Posted on January 19, 2011 by John DeMers

3 to 4 fresh jalapeños

15 ripe Roma tomatoes

1 extra-large sweet onion, sliced into large rings

3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped

Extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 2 limes

1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon Creole seasoning blend

Slice the jalapeños in half, cut off the stems, and remove half of the white veins and seeds. Grill the tomatoes, jalapeños, and onion until well charred on the outsides. In a large soup pot, lightly simmer the onions, tomatoes, jalapeños, and garlic with a touch of olive oil and 1 ½ cups of water for 1 to 2 hours. Puree with a stick blender and strain. Add lime juice and season with salt and Creole seasoning. Serves 4-6.

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To Eat in Alvin: A Foodlover’s Pilgrimage

Posted on January 16, 2011 by John DeMers

By JOHN DeMERS

After a life blessed with dinners in Provence and Tuscany, and also in the likes of Finland, Morocco and Brazil, I finally got around yesterday to eating in Alvin. And the meal, as they say at le Guide Michelin, was definitely worth the special trip.

That comment, of course – like every other rave or at least positive consideration recently published about The Barbed Rose – has a fair amount of tongue-in-cheek. Yet whenever that carefully placed tongue gets in the way of eating this food, it’s time for it to get out of my way. The restaurant, named after owner Joe Schneider’s mother, Barbara Rose, is doing most things you’d expect in a suburban, Outside the Loop commercial setting, from offering express-lunch specials to keeping the wine markup low. But when you move from what Schneider is charging to what executive chef Jason Chaney is cooking, you’ll scratch your head and decide this can’t be the same place.

Yes, there are burgers served at the Barbed Rose, offered not only as your choice of quarter- or half-pounder but spilling out into a more casual space outside. Still, it’s hard to get more casual and comfortable than the Barbed Rose itself. There are jacketless and collarless shirts in the dining room on this day, plus three unapologetic cowboy hats, kept on. Young servers, mostly trying to remember their OJT from the day before yesterday, do their best as ambassadors of food that’s unrelentingly local, seasonal, organic and, most importantly, laboriously created from scratch. When a restaurant produces its own ketchup and mustard, you know you’re not in Kansas (or indeed Alvin) anymore.

Terrific starters at the Barbed Rose include the crispy alligator bites with Crystal (Louisiana hot sauce)-bacon aioli, the even better country fried oysters with thick-cut bacon and pickled jalapenos, and a nice, super-thin spin on fried onion strings with chile peppers. Since The Barbed Rose opened a few months back, an entire religion has sprung up around Joe’s Gumbo, something of a departure for a burly Jewish guy originally from New York but super-downhome with its Deep South crackling-as-croutons nonetheless. It may be some of the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted; it certainly will be the best rice and gravy.

Chef Jason offers many things, including many steaks – The Barbed Rose subtitles itself “Steakhouse and Seafood Co.,” trying to be helpful and persuasive at the same time. The steaks are terrific, seemingly all hailing from small, artisanal ranches here in Texas, seasoned and cooked with immense care. We love the “filet and fries” (when was the last time an eatery in Alvin offered “composed dishes”?), but we also love the texture fest of the BBQ Shrimp and Grits, made with blue-corn, stone-ground grits from a mill powered by water instead of electricity. Best desserts within these walls are the Grand Marnier cheesecake and the bananas Foster bread pudding.

Joe Schneider, who used to run officer’s clubs across Europe when he was in the military, is a man with a vision - which he hopes will revitalize Alvin’s historic downtown in the months and years to come. He thinks his town is more than ready for a restaurant that does all the things it already loves but just does them a lot better. We salute him for that.

Photos: (top) a quarter-pound burger with caramelized onions, (center) the fried gator bites, with seared scallops waiting behind them.

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Radio Guests for Houston and Austin

Posted on January 15, 2011 by John DeMers

Ribeye at the new TQLA in Houston

HOUSTON Saturdays and Sundays 4-5 p.m., NewsRadio 740 KTRH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

SATURDAY: We check in with a hip new adventure in Southwestern and Modern Mexican dining, a place that keeps its vowels silent as TQLA. This means, and is pronounced, Tequila, of course, and they have a whole bunch of selections behind the bar to go with some really interesting food. Also, in our Grape and Grain segment, we talk and taste our way through the oh-so-dark wines of the southwestern French region of Cahors.

SUNDAY: Now that Carnival season is officially upon us, we could head for New Orleans. But this year we head for Brazil, by way of a nifty new restaurant in downtown Houston called Samba Grill. Fact is, we never could Samba but we sure can enjoy the South American cuisine served in this fun but sophisticated atmosphere. We also use our Grape and Grain segment to explore a phenomenon that has shown considerable growth in recent years, wine tourism. We know wine tourism can take many forms, from California to Australia to right here in Texas, but we’re in favor of all of them.

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods

We check in with a hip new adventure in Southwestern and Modern Mexican dining, a place that keeps its vowels silent as TQLA. This means, and is pronounced, Tequila, of course, and they have a whole bunch of selections behind the bar to go with some really interesting food. Also, in our Grape and Grain segment, we talk and taste our ways through the oh-so-dark wines of the southwestern French region of Cahors.

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Recipe for Brazilian Feijoada

Posted on January 15, 2011 by John DeMers

In honor of our radio broadcast this weekend from Samba Grill in downtown Houston, we offer our version of Brazil’s national dish.

2 cups (1 pound) black beans, rinsed and picked over

3/4 pound pork butt or shoulder, trimmed of fat

6 ounces slab bacon

1/2 pound smoked pork sausages

1/2 pound hot Portuguese sausage such as linguica

1 or 2 pounds ham hock or shank, cut into 1-inch rounds

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 to 4 ounces dried beef carne seca, minced (optional; see Note)

Seasonings:

3 garlic cloves, minced and sauteed in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

6 green onions, including tops, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

Large handful of chopped fresh parsley (about 1/2 cup)

2 bay leaves, crumbled

1-1/2 tablespoons dried oregano, crushed

Salt and ground black pepper

Chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

Soak the black beans overnight in water to cover by several inches. Drain. Place the drained black beans in a saucepan and add water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the beans are tender, 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Add additional water as needed to keep the beans covered. While the black beans are cooking, prepare the meats. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Dice the pork butt or shoulder and the bacon into 1/2-inch cubes. Place the pork, whole sausages, and bacon in a large baking pan. Roast until well done. The sausages will be ready after 35 to 40 minutes and the other meats after 45 to 60 minutes.

Cook the ham hock at the same time as the meats are roasting. In a saucepan, combine the ham hock rounds and onion with water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until tender, about 1 hour. Remove the ham hock rounds from the water and remove the meat from the bones, if desired; set aside. Or leave the rounds intact for serving alongside the black beans. Strain the cooking liquid into a bowl. Add the strained onions from the liquid to the beans. Add the cooking liquid to the beans if needed to keep them immersed.

Once the black beans are almost cooked, check to make sure there is plenty of cooking liquid in the pot. It should be rather soupy at this point. Stir in the beef carne seca. Cut the sausages into rounds and add them and all the other cooked meats to the pot. Then add all of the seasonings to the pot, including salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 30 minutes, or until the beans are very tender. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or parsley just before serving.

NOTE: Using dried beef adds complexity to the richness of this dish, but its inclusion is optional. If dried beef isn’t available at your butcher, Armour makes a ground compressed dried beef sold in 2-1/2-ounce jars. Soak it in warm water to cover for 15 minutes to rinse off some of the salt. Serves 8.

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Brand-New Luke on SA’s Riverwalk

Posted on January 15, 2011 by John DeMers

By JOHN DeMERS

I just got back from San Antonio – from the tourist-crazed Riverwalk, no less. And I just sampled and recorded a radio show at something I figured I’d never live to see: a restaurant not only good enough but serious enough about its culinary mission to lure SA locals into the nightly fray.

Chef John Besh, a friend from my New Orleans days and now quite the Emeril-Lite TV star, is renowned for his Crescent City successes going back to Restaurant August. Places like Besh Steakhouse, the original Luke and even his fresh-eyed spin on the old La Provence in Lacombe across Lake Pontchartrain have expanded and solidified his personal fan base, his personal brand. And after the traumas of Hurricane Katrina, the guy could have done worse than penning a mammoth cookbook about his lifelong love, titled My New Orleans.

His first venture outside Louisiana steers true to the original, which was an inexplicable tribute to a cuisine most diners in New Orleans and elsewhere hadn’t given a moment’s thought. Here, in the world of gumbo, etouffee and blackened everything, was a serious chef‘s take on German-French Alsatian food. In San Antonio, the new Luke “explains” (as much as great food ever needs an explanation) its menu with a nod to the heavy German influence in the Texas Hill Country.

Located within the also-new Embassy Suites Hotel, Luke is a kind of double-barreled brasserie: two stories of food and drink that stop short of oom-pah-pah but nonetheless serve up fun with the straight face you’d expect from a Frenchman sharing his foie gras. The whole thing is open to not only the San Antonio River and the Riverwalk but to itself. All food is prepared on the second floor, in a tirelessly moving open kitchen under the care of New Orleans Besh veteran Steven McHugh. That means waiters and trays are always on their way up and down the broad staircase. They all seem to be in excellent shape.

One of the best hot apps is the fried Texas quail with buttermilk ranch (no one ever failed to make friends in Texas by bringing more ranch dressing), while crab bisque wrestles with shrimp and sausage gumbo for best soup from the distant shore of the Sabine. I somehow missed my chance to sample my life’s first flammnkuchen, that famed Alsatian onion tart with bacon, Emmenthaler cheese and caraway. Great reason, as they say, to go back to Luke.

An excellent German-French entrée choice is the choucroute garnie –in some places, even in Alsace itself or in those reverential brasseries of Paris, mostly sauerkraut (which is okay with me). At Luke the dish celebrates Big Meat the way Dallas celebrates Big Hair. When all this is over, surely with a couple of Texas craft beers you haven’t tried before, you won’t have any room at all for dessert. Get the cheesecake in a jar anyway. Its clever presentation of Humble House mascarpone, red wine-stewed berries and Graham cracker crust will knock what little’s left of your socks off.

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Recipe for Il Sogno’s Osso Bucco

Posted on January 5, 2011 by John DeMers

Il Sogno, San Antonio

In honor of this weekend’s radio show featuring our interview with chef Andrew Weissman of Il Sogno, we serve up his rendition of the Italian veal shank classic.

¼ cup vegetable oil

8 (2-inch-thick) center-cut pieces of veal shank, bone in

3 cups dry white wine

3 onions, diced

3 carrots, diced

½ cup garlic cloves, peeled

1 quart chicken stock

1 (15-ounce) can San Marzano or other crushed tomatoes

1 bunch fresh sage

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. In a large roasting pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it starts to smoke, then add the shanks until they are caramelized top and bottom. Remove the meat from the pan and deglaze with the wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the onion, carrot, and garlic. Return the meat to the pan. Pour in the chicken stock and enough water for the liquid to cover the bones. Add the tomatoes, sage, and bay leaves. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook in the oven for 4 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone.

Once meat is cooked, pour the pan juices into a separate pot and reduce by about a half over high heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve each osso buco in a warmed bowl, ladling liquid and vegetables over the top. Serves 8.

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The 25th Annual Sandestin Wine Festival

Posted on January 4, 2011 by John DeMers

I just got back from Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort on the white sands of northwest Florida. You sometimes hear this area called the Panhandle, and other times the Emerald Coast – a description of the clear blue-green waters reflecting sunlight up from the sand. And some folks call it the Redneck Riviera, though it’s definitely a case of “smile when you say that, boy.” Now that the threat of the BP oil spill has left the beaches as pristine as ever, this stretch of coast around Destin has plenty to smile about.

No, it wasn’t swimming weather yet, by any stretch of my imagination. But it was sunny most of the time, and it did allow me to check on preparations for the 25th annual Sandestin Wine Festival. I have attended this weekend of wine on the beach in the past, and I love it. One time I was even one of the judges who decided which awards would go to which wines, a hard job that certainly also was a treat. And with the new nonstops Southwest is running from Houston Hobby to the new airport outside Panama City, the festival should be more alluring to Texans than ever.

The 2011 Sandestin Wine Festival runs Thursday April 28-May 1. For more information on the program of wine dinners, wine and food seminars, grand tastings and retail purchase opportunities, get in the habit of checking www.sandestinwinefestival.com.

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