The Texas Birthday Feast

My sister Lee just had a milestone birthday, a great reason for us to gather in the Texas Hill Country. Aaron and I offered to cater her party so she could enjoy the day without work. Actually, we volunteered Sue and Jenny, my sister-in-law and niece, to cater as well; they’re both good cooks and good sports, so jumped right in. It turned into a full family event as my brother Dave stepped in to help, and Larry, Lee’s husband, manned the smoker, helped us find things in the kitchen, and (perhaps most importantly) bought a lot of wine. Cooking was a day-long event so it wasn’t rushed, and Lee’s huge kitchen allowed all of us to work together and have plenty of elbow (and knife) room. Cooking with family was a real pleasure, as much a party as the main event later that evening.

We put together a menu to accommodate varying taste preferences, food allergies, new year’s resolutions, and lack of resolution. The idea is to have a lot of different, simple salads, vegetables, meats, and starches in separate bowls to allow people to build their own experience, so a big salad, a meat-fest, a few nibbles, or whatever. The flavor profile can vary easily with spices, so the plan works for Spanish, east or south Asian, French, etc. Lee requested Mediterranean, so we used cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, and a lot of garlic in the veggies. Manchego, hummus and baba ganoush rounded out the nosh.

Texans love meat, and Aaron and Larry went all out, making beef tenderloin on the smoker, lamb stew, and marinated, broiled shrimp. Aaron will have to blog separately about the beef, but it was quite the production, involving a large outdoor multi-chambered smoker, low heat, and a fair amount of manly consultation throughout the afternoon. On the veg side, we made orzo salad with feta and tomatoes, couscous with caramelized onions and raisins, cooked spinach with garbanzos, a salad with spinach, oranges and red onions, a tomato salad, spicy carrots, and zucchini with raisins. It was a nice mix of hot and cold, spicy and savory, carbs and greens.

I asked people through the evening what they liked best on the buffet, and it seemed evenly split between the tenderloin, shrimp and lamb. There was a lot of ecstatic groaning over the meat dishes, and not many leftovers. One woman, bless her heart, raved about the tomato salad; the salads, particularly the orzo, green salad and couscous, were a hit. We could have had fewer kinds of salad, and I’m not sure people knew what to make of the zucchini and carrot relishes. As for me, the spinach and garbanzos, heavy with garlic and coriander, was the winner.

One final note on the meets-all-desires menu. For dessert we made small bites rather than cakes, again with the idea that it would be easy for people to compose their own plate with a little or a lot. We made little turnovers of walnuts in puff pastry, chocolate chili bites (which Aaron and Larry helpfully tested throughout the day), and a melon-berry salad. When we were cleaning up, Jenny started to package the remaining chocolate bites, and someone quickly grabbed the plate back from her so they could keep nibbling. Obviously a hit.

Road trip dining

Our road trip through the Southwest featured carbs, mostly from diner breakfasts and Mexican restaurants. Comparisons of green chile and cheddar omelets (me) and corned beef hash (Aaron) across state lines didn’t break up the monotony as much as made a game of it, and we had a few standout examples. Aaron says the hash and biscuits at Harris Ranch in the California valley were hands-down the best of the trip. The Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona, gets a nod for grilling the chiles for the omelet, and a diner in Blythe, California made a pattern on top of the omelet with a sliced square of Kraft American cheese, earning the honorable mention for the chef. You have to appreciate cheese art.

In the midst of all the sameness, two meals featured sauces that were interesting and well-deployed within the meal, enough so that these would have been noteworthy even in a foodie mecca like San Francisco or Manhattan.

Roka Cafe in Bisbee offered a risotto cakes with grilled vegetables and three sauces, a savory habanero, a basil puree, and a mild smoked chile cream. Habanero sauces are often sweet and hot, but this was savory with a vegetable stock, and medium-spicy. The basil sauce was pesto-like, but without cheese and just the barest touch of roasted garlic so it didn’t overpower the freshness of the basil. The chile cream wasn’t made with cream but had that consistency, so was smooth without heaviness. The spice level was low, so the flavor the chile and smoke came through without mouth heat. A generous portion of bite sized pieces of roasted carrots, onions and green beans were served over the sauces as a bed for the risotto cakes. Each sauce was tasty on its own, and the combination so good that I pushed the risotto cakes out of the way to make a meal of the underpinnings.

Trinity restaurant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, is an anomaly in a town full of barbecue-pizza-fast food joints. I’m usually not a fan of pasta primavera, the token vegetarian dish in far too many restaurants, but it was welcome that night when compared to the only other veg option in town, potato salad and coleslaw sides at a barbecue joint. Plus, Trinity used fresh vegetables rather than canned so the pasta tasted okay. A pleasant surprise, though, was an appetizer of fresh local goat cheese with chipotle-blackberry sauce. The sauce was made either with fresh berries or with good quality, not-too-sweet preserves, so had a powerful berry taste which was terrific with hot, smoked chile to flavor it. The sauce had a real kick--no shyness with spice here--and was delicious with the cheese.