Texas Home Cooking
Page 48
Hill Country Peach Fuzzies
A few of these on a summer day, and you'll feel as ripe and fuzzy as the peaches you're peeling.
2 ripe medium peaches, peeled and pitted
6 ounces fresh orange juice
6 ounces vodka
2 ounces peach brandy
8 ice cubes
Serves 4
Put all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until the mixture is slushy. Pour it into tall glasses, and serve.
Sangria Suprema
On his 1973 album, Viva Terlingua, Jerry Jeff Walker told the world, "I love that sangria wine just like I love old friends of mine." Sangria makes a rousing party punch, especially this top-drawer rendition.
1 bottle decent red wine
Juice of 3 oranges
1 unpeeled orange, sliced
Juice of 2 limes
1 slice unpeeled lime
1½ cups triple sec, or 1 cup triple sec plus ½ cup lime liqueur
½ cup brandy, preferably apricot
2 cups club soda
Ice
Serves 10 to 12
In a punch bowl, mix together the wine, juices and fruit, and liqueurs. Just before serving time, add the club soda and ice. A block or ring of ice will last longer than cubes. Stir the sangria, and serve it in cups or glasses.
* * *
The Junior League of Dallas was leading the city to sophistication as early as 1935, when its Cook Book discussed the etiquette of serving wine with meals.
* * *
TEXAS BEER
German immigrants began coming to Texas in large numbers in the 1840s, and beer wasn't far behind. When Charles Nimitz—grandfather of Admiral Chester Nimitz—opened his frontier hotel in Fredericksburg, he thought it only natural for the establishment to have its own brewery as well as its own bakery. Residents of the town undoubtedly appreciated the idea every bit as much as did Horace Greeley, Robert E. Lee, and other famous Nimitz Hotel guests.
Scholz's Garden, the grand old Austin watering hole, has been serving beer since it opened as a German private club in 1866. About the same time, in San Antonio, the City Brewery built a small plant that became the headquarters for Pearl Beer in 1885. Under the leadership of Otto Koehler, Pearl purchased its formula from a brewery in Bremen, Germany, that called its product "Perle," after the pearl-like bubbles that rise in a glass when the beer is poured.
German and Czech farmers around the small town of Shiner started another Old World brewery in 1909. To make the kind of beer they wanted, the founders secured the services of Kosmos Spoetzl, a Bavarian whose family had a recipe dating back several generations. To this day, the Spoetzl Brewery makes its Shiner and Shiner Bock beers with the same formula, performing most tasks by hand and using one of the smallest commercial brew kettles in the country.
Both Pearl and Shiner survived Prohibition, when many other breweries died, by changing temporarily to other products. After Otto Koehler's death, his wife Emma guided Pearl through the tough times until that night in 1933, just 15 minutes after the repeal of Prohibition, when more than one hundred trucks and twenty-five boxcars loaded with beer rolled out of the plant down a San Antonio street full of cheering people.
Within the next decade, the Lone Star Brewery joined Pearl in San Antonio, setting up business in the landmark building that now serves as the San Antonio Museum of Art. That rounded out the trio of major local beers Texans enjoy today, but it wasn't the last nod to German brewing influence in the state. In recent years, the Dallas Brewing Company, a new microbrewery, began re-leasing a series of barley-malt beers made under the traditional German Purity Law, established in 1516. The German brewing heritage is still strong in Texas after 150 years, and it's likely to thrive at least that much longer.
* * *
The outlaw Sam Bass earned a good reputation in Texas because of his unfailing generosity. When he robbed stagecoaches, Bass allowed passengers to keep one dollar apiece for their dinners, and he always treated any new acquaintance to a drink.
* * *
TEXAS WINE
Texans have made wine since frontier days, but they have always had trouble getting respect for their efforts. One visitor in the nineteenth century complained that the local handcrafted wild-grape wines were "sour enough to pucker up the mouth of a cannon." More recently, when the state's modern wine industry started production, unappreciative outsiders labeled the results "Chateau Bubba."
The derision probably reflected some truth in the past, but it obscures just as much reality. The same Spanish priests who introduced vineyards in California also cultivated grapes in Texas by the eighteenth century. We don't know anything about the quality of the mission wines, but it's evident that some later European settlers, particularly Czechs and Germans, were accomplished home vintners. They developed ways of making decent wine from native mustang grapes, and they passed their techniques along for several generations up to the present.
The same lowly Texas wild grapes they used actually saved the French wine industry around the turn of the century. When an epidemic of a plant louse called phylloxera attacked vineyards everywhere, T. V. Munson of Denison, Texas, found a solution by grafting French vines onto disease-resistant local rootstock. Munson is still a hero in both Bordeaux and the Napa Valley.
By the beginning of Prohibition in 1920, there were at least sixteen commercial wineries in Texas. Only Val Verde in Del Rio reopened later, and it remained a lonely operation until the 1970s, when the national wine boom inspired a revival of production in the state.
The first bottles from the new wineries may have been more appropriate for Communion than dinner, but they improved quickly. At the San Francisco Fair and Wine Competition in 1986, of the 1,955 entries, Texas's Llano Estacado 1984 Chardonnay won one of the eleven double gold medals awarded, and the Pheasant Ridge 1983 Cabernet Sauvignon took one of the fifty-four gold medals. Both of these wineries continue to make some superlative selections, along with some lesser ones, and so do Fall Creek, Sainte Genevieve, Sister Creek, Moyer, Messina Hof, Slaughter Leftwich, Grape Creek, and a growing number of other producers. "Chateau Bubba" has become "Chateau Beaucoup."
Y'All-Come-Back Desserts
Of the world's four great cuisines—French, Chinese, Italian, and Texan—only the last-named requires a single knife and fork.
Jerry Flemmons, Plowboys, Cowboys and Slanted Pigs
Some fancy Texas restaurants today will give you new silverware for dessert, but traditionally you licked the gravy from your fork and dug it immediately into a piece of pie. More like a consummation than a separate course, dessert was the diner's denouement and the cook's curtain call. You didn't question whether it was wanted or needed, only what was available. From the beginning, Texans embraced an immense range of sweets. All the early cookbooks in the state devoted half their pages to desserts, offering complete chapters on subjects such as puddings, pastry, confectionery, ices, custards, brandied fruits, and fancy dishes, the last covering everything from meringue to macaroons. More recent cooks honed their specialties but never lost the sugar lust. In a nation known for its sweet tooth, Texans still take the cake.
Good-'n'-Gooey Peach Cobbler
When it's peach-picking time in Texas, a fresh-fruit cobbler is easily the most popular dessert around. Don't confuse the dish with the flaky-crust pies that some people call cobblers. A real Texas peach cobbler has an abundance of juicy fruit and a sweet, biscuit-like batter topping that's crunchy on the surface and doughy inside.
FILLING
12
to
14 (about 3½ pounds) ripe medium peaches, peeled and sliced
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
¾ teaspoon powdered ginger
¾ teaspoon vanilla
BATTER
½ cup unsalted butter
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
<
br /> 1 cup milk
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, optional
Makes a 9-by-13-inch cobbler
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a bowl, mix together all the filling ingredients. Set the filling aside to draw out the juices. Cobbler filling should be a bit juicier than that of most pies.
While the filling sits, melt the butter in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, either in the oven or on the stove. In another bowl, make the batter: Stir together the flour, sugar, and baking powder, and add the milk. Mix until lightly blended. Spoon the mixture evenly over the melted butter. Don't stir it—that would preclude the development of crunchy edges. Pour the peach filling evenly over the batter.
Bake 45 minutes. As the cobbler cooks, the batter will ooze up and around the fruit, creating a moist, golden brown crust.
Serve the cobbler warm. If you're a certified hedonist, top it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Variation: A strawberry-and-rhubarb filling also makes a great cobbler. In place of the peach filling, combine 1½ pounds rhubarb (cut in 1-inch chunks), 2½ to 3 pints strawberries halved), ¾ to 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons ground anise seeds, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, and the zest and juice of 1 medium orange.
* * *
Spanish settlers brought peaches to Texas in the sixteenth century, when they planted trees at their missions. Today, the state is one of the leading peach producers in the country, harvesting about twenty million pounds of fruit annually.
* * *
Apple-Pecan Strudel
With a name that is German for "whirlpool," strudel should resemble just that, with ring upon ring of paper-thin pastry enveloping a fragrant fruit filling. You can buy strudels at many bakeries, particularly in central Texas, but even if you have that opportunity, it's fun to fix your own on special occasions. This is an updated version of a turn-of-the-century Tex-Czech recipe.
dough (enough for 2 strudels)
¼ cup unsalted butter
½ cup hot water
1 egg
1 tablespoon cider vinegar, preferably unrefined
2½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
FILLING
8 cups peeled, thin-sliced tart apples (about 6 apples)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup raisins
1 cup graham cracker or vanilla wafer crumbs
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Serves 12
Make the dough: Place the butter in a bowl, and pour the hot water over it, stirring to melt the butter. Add the egg and the vinegar, and mix in well. Add 2 cups of the flour and the salt, and stir until a sticky dough forms. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup flour on a pastry board, and knead the dough on it for about 5 minutes, until the extra flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and shiny.
Divide the dough in half, flattening both portions into 4- or 5-inch rounds. Refrigerate or freeze one round for later use. The amount of remaining dough may not look like enough to encase the filling, but it will. Cover it, and let it sit in a warm place. Some cooks put it in a bowl set in a second bowl of warm water; others use a barely warmed skillet. Allowed to rest, the dough becomes soft and pliable.
While the dough is resting, make the filling: Toss the apples with the butter in a large bowl. Add the remaining filling ingredients, and mix well.
Get ready to stretch the dough: Clear a table, and cover it with a thin smooth-surfaced dish towel. Sprinkle the towel with flour. (The towel eventually helps support the paper-thin dough.) Plan to work quickly once you get going. Center the dough on the towel, and pat it out as thin as you can by hand. Then put your hands under the dough, and start stretching it out from the center. Some people prefer to use their fingertips for this; others use their knuckles. We start with our fingertips, switching to the knuckles when the dough is thinner and can tear more easily.
To pull the dough evenly, you'll need either to turn the towel around periodically or to make your way around the table, whichever is easier. As the dough gets successively broader and thinner, you'll be able to tell where it still needs stretching by looking at it—if it's translucent, it's thin enough. Try to avoid tearing the dough, as it is difficult to patch. The edges will be thicker, but you can pull them thin or trim them off. You should end up with something resembling a rectangle at least 18 by 24 inches.
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Grease a baking sheet.
Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Brush the dough, still resting on the towel, with about 2 tablespoons of it. Cover the dough completely with a single layer of the filling. Using the towel for support, begin rolling up one of the rectangle's longer sides jelly roll-style. If you ended up with tears in the dough concentrated in any one area, try to roll the strudel so that they will be hidden within it. Roll the strudel up snug, but don't make it extra tight, because it needs some room to expand while baking. Pinch it closed as you go to help hold in the juices.
When the strudel is rolled up completely, use the towel to transfer it from the table to the baking sheet positioned nearby. Form the strudel into a horseshoe to fit on the sheet. Brush it with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter, and sprinkle it with the sugar.
Bake the strudel for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° F, and continue baking for an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned and just crisp. Let the strudel rest for at least 20 minutes before you cut it.
Serve the strudel warm in thick slices.
* * *
Technique Tip
If you have a food processor with an adjustable slicing blade, you can save yourself a lot of time in preparing the apples. Our Braun, for example, can make cups of apple slices a half millimeter thick in a flash.
* * *
* * *
Texas horticulturists call Baxter and Carol Adams the Adam and Eve of the state's apple industry. They left Houston before the fall of the temple of petroleum, as Baxter puts it, to launch love Creek Orchards on a two-thousand-acre Hill-Country ranch. Their dwarf apple trees produce pesticide-free fruit with up to 40 percent more sugar than apples from colder climes. See "Mail-Order Sources" ([>]) for ordering information.
* * *
* * *
Technique Tip
The process of stretching the dough isn't as difficult as some books make it out to be, but it does require patience. For both the dough and the filling, thinness is essential. It makes the pastry light and flaky and the filling dense and juicy. If you don't want to deal with the dough, you can substitute store-bought phyllo pastry, though the texture will differ a bit. Follow the package directions for its preparation and layering, substituting graham-cracker or vanilla-wafer crumbs for the bread crumbs or corn flakes called for between layers.
* * *
Perfect Pecan Pie
Now a national favorite, pecan pie developed out of an old Southern dessert, molasses pie, when corn syrup became widely available at the beginning of the twentieth century. Perhaps Texan or Louisianan in origin, it spread rapidly throughout the pecan-growing states in the South and then followed the supermarkets to other areas. This recipe is influenced by John Thorne, editor of the wonderful Simple Cooking newsletter and a former Texas resident, who came up with the method for making the filling so lusciously dense.
1 cup dark brown sugar
⅔ cup cane syrup, preferably, or ⅓ cup light corn syrup and ⅓ cup unsulphured dark molasses
¼ cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons bourbon
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2
to
3 tablespoons half-and-half
2 generous
cups pecan pieces
Unbaked single Flaky Pie Crust ([>])
Whole pecan halves
Makes a 9-inch pie
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the brown sugar, syrup, and butter together with the bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Continue heating the mixture to the boiling point, stirring frequently. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat, and let the mixture cool.
In a bowl, beat the eggs with the half-and-half until they are light and frothy. Add the mixture to the cooled syrup, beating until the mixture is well incorporated. Stir in the pecan pieces. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Top with a layer of pecan halves. Bake the pie 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Serve the pie warm or at room temperature.
* * *
Technique Tip
Although pecans can be found year-round, you can save money by purchasing large quantities in the late fall, shortly after harvest. If you store unshelled nuts in a cool, dry place, they will keep for up to a year. Shelled nuts last just as long when they are refrigerated or frozen.