Subject: Recipes

• Cookbooks: Getting Cheesy

  January 25, 2007

• Turkey: The Day After

  November 24, 2006

• Kimchee Spree

  October 15, 2007

• Turkey: The Day After

  November 24, 2006

• Kimchee Spree

  October 15, 2007

• Summer Drinks: Greek Frappe

  June 19, 2008

• Okra Time with Texas Caruru

  September 4, 2008

• A Short History of Shrimp Grits

  Shrimp grits started out as a seasonal fisherman’s dish of shrimp cooked in bacon grease served over creamy grits in the Low Country where they were also known as “breakfast shrimp.” The simple seafood breakfast became an iconic Southern dish after Craig Claiborne wrote about it in the New York Times in 1985. The shrimp grits that fired Clairborne’s imagination came from Crook’s Corner restaurant in North Carolina. The chef there, Bill Neal, started out with a French restaurant, but

  November 16, 2008

• Recession Recipes: Bread and Butter Jalapeños

  Our pickled pequin post drew a comment from Jim Sherman, a regular reader who said: "I don't bother with heat when pickling peppers. When I pickle just about anything except radish or carrot, I do soak the veggies overnight in a Kosher brine to draw out as much water as possible, and then dump them in whichever vinegar I'm using. "Since the seasons (both pepper harvest and Christmas) are upon us, those cute little shaker bottles of Pompeii red wine vinegar filled with small hot peppers make re

  November 25, 2008

• Hot Squash Soup

  On cold mornings, I like to turn on the oven to warm up the kitchen. I know you're not supposed to heat your house with the oven. That's why I try to stick something in there so I can claim I'm actually cooking. Roasting a couple of heads of garlic is a good idea--you can always use roasted garlic for salad dressing or something. It's easy to do. You cut off the top ends of the garlic heads, put them in an ovenproof dish, pour a spoonful of olive oil over them, then roast them until they're br

  December 4, 2008

• History of Texas Chili--Without Beans

  Chili con carne was introduced to America by the "Chili Queens," women who served food in San Antonio's Military Plaza as early as the 1860s. Chili stands were also common in Galveston and Houston; they were the taco trucks of the 1800s. Tamales with chili was the most common order--beans were often added. Laborers counted on the chili vendors for a quick meal. Adventurous eaters loved them. And the upper classes tried to chase them away or get them shut down. Chili con carne is not an impo

  December 10, 2008

• Chess Pie: A Southern Tradition

  Chess pie is one of those forgotten vestiges of old Southern culture, like RC Colas and Moon Pies, that hasn't yet been snapped up by nouveau foodies and made trendy again, as has been done with greens, grits and pork fat. It's all for the best, really.  Chess pie isn't supposed to be trendy.  It's supposed to remind you of your grandmother's house, the warmth and the soft smell of pie crust in the oven, of afternoons spent talking with family and without a TV or other distractio

  December 29, 2008

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Redux

  Few American culinary inventions have been experimented on, analyzed, tested, and dissected more than the humble chocolate chip cookie. Myriad variations in recipe, presentation and technique have been exhaustively documented. As a home cook I tend to be a traditionalist. So I call for a return to the recipe that started it all: the original Toll House Inn recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

  January 2, 2009

• Happy New Year Grilled Oysters

  What goes better with cold Champagne than hot grilled oysters? Also known as barbecued oysters, they are made by putting a fresh shucked oyster on a gas grill and spooning in some melted butter and garlic--you can add parmesan if you like. It was Drago's in Metairie that made char-grilled oysters famous. Jimmy G's on Sam Houston Tollway in Houston does a great job with them too. Gilhooley's does them over a pecan wood fire-that gives the oysters a great smokey flavor. 12 fresh-shucked oysters 4

  December 31, 2008

• Football Watching Food (No, Really)

  Okay, nice joke J.C., you totally had me. Although I should have known something was up since nobody makes their own corny dogs (except maybe Jay Francis). Don't look for any Super Bowl recipes from me. The spirit has gone out of our great national guacamole-eating holiday since the NFL started suing everybody for infringing on their trademark. Bars and restaurants can't have Super Bowl promotions without paying a fee to use the name. That's like Hallmark demanding a cut of your Mother's Day B

  January 30, 2009

• Real Deal Q: Barbacoa de Borrego

  This is some awesome barbecued lamb. It's the result of a fairly complicated process--a hybrid of braising and smoking. But I figure this is the season for a challenging barbecue recipe, what with the Rodeo BBQ Championship coming up and all. I figure Houston barbecue enthusiasts are ready to show off their stuff. (I coulda been a contender!) The smoky-flavored, falling-off-the-bone tender meat this recipe yields is even better than the stellar barbacoa de borrego at Gerardo's Drive-In Groce

  February 10, 2009

• Berry Simple

  August 10, 2000

• Time Capsule

  August 17, 2000

• Wagyu Beef

  Where to get it, how to cook it

  December 29, 2005

• Mixing It Up

  March 10, 2005

• Canine Cuisine

  Pound-for-hound, some of the best doggone dishes around

  February 3, 2005

• Sex, Death and Oysters

  March 25, 2004

• Venison Recipes for Gourmet Environmentalists

  November 6, 2003

• Front Page News

  Otilia's Sangria

  November 7, 2002

• Stirred and Shaken

  Dancing Marlin's Bloody Mary

  January 11, 2001

• The New Q: Smoke-Braising

  Photo by Robb WalshThere's no reason that you have to choose between braising and barbecuing. While working on a new backyard barbecue cookbook, I discovered that the two techniques can be combined with awesome results. Start off by smoking or grilling the meat. Next, prepare a braising liquid in the kitchen and bring it to a boil. Put an oven-proof roasting pan on your grill directly over the hot part of the fire. Carefully add the hot braising liquid to the pan on the grill and return it to a

  June 4, 2009

• Cooked Oyster Season: Big Easy Erster and Artichoke Soup

  The weather has turned warm and I have stopped eating raw oysters. But the oyster season isn't over yet. I bought a gallon of shucked oysters from Croatian oysterman Misho Ivic down in San Leon and I am cooking up a storm with them. Go buy yourself a couple of pints of shucked oysters and see for yourself. Just make sure you know what kind of oysters you are buying. Some grocery stores in Texas sell shucked Pacific oysters and some sell Gulf oysters. Pacific oysters are fine, but Gulf oysters

  May 12, 2009

• Benjy's Chocolate Cake Recipe

  Photo by richhumofairThe huge, fudgy, pecan-studded glory that is Benjy's chocolate cake is a Houston tradition. And Benjy Levit, whose second restaurant opened this year on Washington Avenue, can actually say that his cake is "just like Mom's," because, well, it is his mom's. She actually does bake every chocolate cake served at both Benjy's - that's about eight cakes a day, he says.

  June 16, 2009

• Dharma Cafe's Accidental Blueberry Coconut Pie

  Photo courtesy of Martin LaBarYou know when you "accidentally" eat all the leftover pie? Well, accidents sometimes bring about new pie too, as John Gurney and Susan Ralph of Dharma Café can tell you. While trying to bake a chocolate cake from a recipe in pesky metric, the measurements became lost in translation and Susan was left with a mess of sugar and eggs. Instead of throwing it away, John swooped in with some extra ingredients because, "In my mother's eyes, wasting food was a sin - an ab

  June 24, 2009

• Fleming's Chipotle Mac n' Cheese

  Creamed spinach, iceberg wedge salad, and macaroni and cheese are old steakhouse favorites, long served to us alongside our ribeyes. It wouldn't be Texan to say we like them more than the beef, but that creamy, cheesy pasta with the newfangled breadcrumb topping does something naughty to us. James Cole, chef-partner at the River Oaks location of Fleming's Steakhouse, adds some spice to his recipe. The recipe, after the jump.

  July 16, 2009

• Max's Wine Dive's Texas Haute Dog

  The Texas Haute Dog is a signature dish at Max's Wine Dive, where the American classics are given some of those gourmet touches we're so fond of. Like Grandma always said, the secret is in the venison chili (or was it the onion strings?). The recipe, after the jump.

  July 23, 2009

• RDG Bar Annie's Shrimp Meat Balls

  In the wake of Café Annie's closing, Robert Del Grande has taken up the chef's hat again. Just a bit further down Post Oak, the RDG Grill Room, Bar Annie and the BLVD Lounge are now all serving a variety of small plates and entrees at different price points. But even in a new place, Chef Del Grande is using an old trick to please diners: meat on a stick. Of course, this recipe calls for shrimp instead of hot dogs. The recipe, after the jump.

  August 6, 2009

• Khun Kay Thai Café's Summer Lettuce Wrap Recipe

  When Supatra Yooto and Kay Soodjai opened the Golden room in 1982, they originally had a mostly Chinese menu. The Thai items increased as the cuisine gained popularity in Houston. When I first visited the restaurant some 20 years later, I had a whole red snapper and heard Soodjai say that the decorative wooden house they had posted outside the restaurant had been stolen again. With this long history behind them, the owners decided to start over with a fast-casual concept. The recipes are all the

  August 13, 2009

• Julia's Bistro's Plantain Crusted Snapper

  Photo by Pink Moose​We love mangoes here at Eating Our Words, and as summer comes to an end, we're panicking and glutting ourselves on them before it's too late. So we think it's perfectly reasonable to share two recipes with mango in two weeks. In fact, you're welcome. This time, we've got a Latin-fusion red snapper recipe, courtesy of Julia's Bistro. The recipe, after the jump.

  August 20, 2009

• Recipe: Bistro Don Camillo's Croque Madame

  Photo by tastybits​As it turns out, it's not just Americans who eat fatty comfort food; the French do it too. The Croque Madame, like the Croque Monsieur, is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, but it also has an egg. This recipe comes from executive chef Ryan Hildebrand from Bistro Don Camillo, which opened a year ago and serves the food of Nice, France. The recipe, after the jump.

  September 3, 2009

• Cooking Up a Storm: Shrimp and Corn Chowder

  ​ When I fell in love with the shrimp soup at Mama's Cajun Cuisine, I knew just where to go to get a recipe. Cooking up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans is one of the most well-thumbed cookbooks on my bookshelf. This instant classic, written by Times-Picayune food editor Judy Walker and veteran cookbook author Marcelle Bienvenu, was nominated for a James Beard cookbook award last year. The book got started after Katrina when Judy Walker found hersel

  September 10, 2009

• Crisper Drawer Cast-offs: Broccoli and Cavatelli

  Photo by Robb Walsh​Fresh broccoli used to lie around in my crisper drawer for a long time. That's because plain, steamed broccoli is so tedious to eat. A couple of months ago, I bought some cavatelli at Nundini's, even though I had no idea what to do with the weird-shaped pasta. I Googled cavatelli recipes when I got home, and I came across the awesome combination of cavatelli and broccoli seasoned with garlic and red pepper. It's was ridiculously simple to cook. Cavatelli looks like

  September 14, 2009

• Easy Risotto: An Oxymoron?

  Photo by Robb Walsh​My friend Paul Howell makes risotto all the time. Pumpkin risotto and mushroom risotto are two of his favorites. I have always found the labor-intensive stirring and adding of liquid required for perfect risotto a little tedious. But Paul introduced me to the pressure cooker method. For my first attempt I tried a dark purple beet risotto. I doubted that the pressure cooker could produce the creamy consistency of a really great risotto, but I was pleasantly surprised.

  September 16, 2009

• Ruggles' Triple Delight Jumbo Cookies

  ​The decorate-a-cookie-for-free option available to little kids at Ruggles Bakery has always made us jealous. Luckily, now we can make our own. These chewy, toffee, chocolate, coconut cookies are one of the special Dessert of the Day selections that come around from time to time. They're big enough to share - and as adults, we know how to. The recipe, after the jump.

  October 2, 2009

• From Rice to Potatoes: How to Switch Gears and Become a Cooking Contest Winner

  Photo courtesy of the U.S. Potato BoardCheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps​Okay, so William "Trey" Smith went to Rice University, where he graduated in 2006 with a degree in economics. Following a not-unexpected career path, he enrolled in law school at the University of Oklahoma. Along the way, however, he found he liked his avocation better than his planned life's work. The son and grandson of accomplished cooks (his grandmother Vita Espinosa introduced him to Santa Fe flavors) and a coo

  October 7, 2009

• Lucky Strike Lanes' Corn Hash with Shrimp

  ​ Lucky Strike Lanes' first Texas location has come to the Houston Pavilions. This bowling alley-cum-bar-lounge hails from Hollywood, where the original location houses vintage fixtures from Hollywood Star Lanes of The Big Lebowski fame. The concept is hip and edgy, which explains why, instead of pizza, Lucky Strike cooks up items like corn hash with shrimp. Whether the Dude would have abided by that menu choice is an unanswered question. The recipe, after the jump.

  October 12, 2009

• Crisper Drawer Cast-offs: Cauliflower Casserole

  ​I'm trying to get invited to John Seaborn Gray's house for shepherd's pie. I'm betting it tastes great. His Shameless Chef column reminded me of Andrew Schloss's cookbooks Almost From Scratch, Homemade in a Hurry and Cooking With Three Ingredients. Schloss's premise is that great chefs don't cook from scratch -- they have assistant chefs who make the master sauces, roast the peppers, and chop the veggies for them. Schloss encourages home cooks to use canned soups and prepared ingredients

  October 21, 2009

• Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

  ​This week I baked vegan cinnamon rolls. Before I started the project, I envisioned myself exhausted at 2 a.m. with my arms and forehead coated in flour, waiting for dough to rise for the second time before baking. I had never baked with yeast before and was anxious about an I Love Lucy-style dough-monster disaster. Lucky for me, the cinnamon rolls were in the oven by ten, and my apartment smelled like the Keebler elves' tree house. Baking with yeast turned out to be an awesome experience.

  October 21, 2009

• Crisper Drawer Cast-Offs: Stuffed Artichokes

  ​If you love artichokes, but want to cut down on the nutritional benefits, you can dip them in mayonnaise or melted butter. That's what I used to do -- until I encountered the artichokes at Mint Café, a hip little Lebanese restaurant that went out of business last summer. The artichokes there were covered with an olive oil, garlic, parsley and lemon juice dressing that made the vegetable taste spectacular. I reluctantly abandoned my beloved mayo and started using the olive oil garlic dre

  October 23, 2009

• Tamale Pie

  ​I wanted to try his canned tamale casserole, but I can't get The Shameless Chef to invite me over for dinner. I run into this problem all the time. Who wants to cook for a food critic? So absent canned tamale wonderfulness, I came up with my own quickie tamale casserole. I took a recipe from The Tex-Mex Cookbook and simplified it. I used two packages of Pioneer Cornbread Mix and a cup and a half of chili. You make the cornbread mix according to the directions on the package, only you us

  November 13, 2009

• Thanksgiving Recipe: Coca-Cola Habanero Potatoes

  Photo by Tambako​I'm on vacation in Southern California now -- I'll be back in Houston resuming the donut patrol soon. But since everybody is getting ready for Thanksgiving, I thought I'd dig up a few recipes from one of my first cookbooks, Nuevo Tex-Mex, which I wrote with David Garrido, and share them for the holidays. The book offered some ambitious variations on old classics, like this twist on roasted potatoes. The sweet and hot potatoes in this recipe taste incredible with roast tu

  November 17, 2009

• Thanksgiving Recipe: Ancho Chiles Stuffed with Sweet Potatoes

  Photo by smashzSoaking the ancho chiles in warm water.​This is my favorite side dish with roast turkey. The idea here is to spoon some sweet potato puree into some dried ancho chiles that have been soaked in warm water to make them pliant. Then you put a medallion of goat cheese on top and stick the stuffed chiles in the oven and warm them up. It's an awesome presentation, and the ancho chiles give a really nice flavor to the sweet potato if you eat them together. But I have noticed that w

  November 18, 2009

• Thanksgiving Recipe: Pork Chops in Apple Butter Mole

  Photo by Jasmine&Roses​Calvin Trillin has lobbied to replace the Thanksgiving turkey with spaghetti carbonara --something to do with Columbus being Italian, I think. In the Tex-Mex Cookbook, I pointed out that Juan de Onate and his Mexican pioneers held a Tex-Mex thanksgiving in El Paso decades before the Pilgrims ran into Plymouth rock. So there's plenty of precedent to skip cooking turkey. Here's a lovely pork chop recipe for Thanksgiving. The sauce was inspired by my father, who

  November 19, 2009

• Thanksgiving Recipe: Cranberry Yogurt Ice Cream

  This isn't cranberry yogurt ice cream. But this is how we imagine it should be served.​Whenever I buy fresh cranberries to make cranberry sauce, I end up with too many of them. They aren't cheap, and they usually go to waste in my refrigerator. If you have ever popped a fresh cranberry in your mouth, you know why nobody eats them raw. If you have an ice cream freezer, you can use this dessert recipe to make ice cream with some of the extra cranberries. You can also vary the recipe to us

  November 20, 2009

• Mini Thanksgiving

  photos by Liana Lopez​If you don't have to entertain an entire family for Thanksgiving dinner this year but still want to have a feast, here's the recipe for you. This is all you need to make a mini-Thanksgiving dinner for up to four folks. Okay, our recipe is not exactly turkey but it is poultry, it's stuffed and it's tasty. Not to mention, it won't take all day to make, and you can avoid that tryptophan trip to la la land afterwards. Instead of the typical 10 - 15 pound turkey, here's our

  November 20, 2009