Friday, June 08, 2007

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JULY 28

CARNEROS CRAVINGS
With one foot in Napa and one in Sonoma, the Carneros district of northern California was long been recognized as a remarkable place to produce cool-weather grape varietals. And in popular parlance, that makes it a terrific place for chardonnay and an even better place to battle the “heartbreak grape,” pinot noir. Winemaker Jeff Stewart, who when we first met him was making wonderful pinot noirs at La Crema, joins us for a tasting of his latest handiwork at Buena Vista. Knowing Jeff, Buena Vista and Carneros, we are certainly looking forward to this tasting.

HOUSTON’S FRESH DAIRYMAIDS
Some of you may have seen these hard-working young women already, handing out samples of artisan Texas cheeses at the Midtown Farmers Market every Saturday. Dancing with their market schedules a little, we’ve lured Kendra Scott and Lindsey Schechter (www.houstondairymaids.com) away from their booth to take us through the cheese tasting they do so well. To hear them tell it, Texas is blessed with a host of great cheesemakers – smalltime, small-volume producers who specialize in big flavors instead.

HEALTHFUL TRAILS TO YOU
Doing what we do, we think approximately every 10-12 minutes of going on a diet. Far more effective (and far, far more pleasant) is having fitness chef Marcela Perez on the radio to give us suggestions of making our favorite dishes lower in fat, sodium and other things we have good reason to be wary of. Plus, Marcela is always fun to talk to about her business Marcela’s Meal (www.marcelasmeals.com). She makes healthy meals for Houstonians on a weekly basis and even delivers to their homes. We settle for her delivering to our studio!

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
LEMON-ROSEMARY CORNISH HEN

1 ½ cup olive oil
½ cup finely chopped fresh rosemary
¼ cup finely chopped fresh thyme
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
4 Cornish game hens, butterflied and pressed open
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped lemon zest
2 tablespoons Fleur de Sel or coarse-ground sea salt

Prepare a marinade by mixing 1 cup of the oil, rosemary, thyme, garlic and black pepper in a bowl, then spreading this all over the hens. Let the hens marinate for 1 hour. Saute the hens skin side down in ¼ cup olive oil for 5 minutes, then turn them and sauté 3 minutes more. Remove the hens, add the remaining oil and sauté the onion, carrot and celery. Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with the sautéed vegetables, then spread the hens on top. Sprinkle hens with lemon zest and roast for 20 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven. Transfer the hens to a serving platter and strain the pan drippings over the top, discarding the vegetables. Sprinkle with Fleur de Sel and serve. Serves 4.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JULY 21

We broadcast for our second week from the great old American city of Boston, beginning with one of its most famous chefs.

THE JOYS OF RIALTO
Jody Adams admits that her name doesn’t sound Italian – because it isn’t. But ever since her mother taught her the excitement of cuisines from all around the world, she has felt inspired and enlightened by this one in particular. After cooking beside several high-profile Italian chefs, Adams was ready some years ago to venture out on her own. Rialto, one of the nation’s finest and most creative Italian restaurants, is the result.

IRISH EYES ARE SMILING
Yes, and they may well belong to the doorman, the bellman and the front desk personnel. In Boston, clearly America’s most Irish city of all, there’s an elegant new hotel owned by the Jurys family of Ireland. In fact, in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Jurys is almost as well-known as, say, Marriott. In Boston, though, there’s the added pleasure of crossing an ocean without even crossing the street.

CHEESE FROM VERMONT
There’s just something dairy-like about the green hills – and yes, even the namesake Green Mountains – of Vermont. Or maybe it’s just that we were all raised on Ben & Jerry’s pretty-hippie-commune mythology. Nonetheless, with a lot of love and a lot of care, a dairy cooperative named Cabot is producing cheddar cheese that wins awards and gets shipped all over creation. And it just might be saving the family-owned dairy farm in the process.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
SUMMER SEAFOOD SALAD

1 cup fresh pineapple juice
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup ginger juice
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 serrano pepper, seeded
3 fresh mint leaves
15 fresh cilantro leaves
1 ½ cup peanut oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 large shrimp, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
2 pounds snapper fillet
1 pound fresh lump crabmeat
3 cups julienned jicama
1 ½ cups julienned carrots
3 scallions, chopped
2 cups hearts of romaine

Prepare the dressing to blending the juices, vinegar, garlic, Serrano, mint and cilantro until smooth, then slowly pour in the oil with the blender running to incorporate. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Grill the shrimp and snapper till lightly striped but not overcooked. Shred the snapper into bite-sized pieces with a fork. In a large bowl, combine the seafood, jicama, carrots and scallion with the dressing. Let sit 10-15 minutes. Arrange hearts of romaine on dinner plates as a base, then mound the seafood salad at the center. Drizzle with an extra vinaigrette. Serves 6.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JULY 14

We’re broadcasting this week from Boston, cradle of the Independence our nation just celebrated.

SITTING BY THE FIREPLACE
We spent a full school year in Boston in 1970-71, and there really wasn’t much worth eating – especially if your preferences run to the spicier sides of Tex-Mex and Louisiana cooking. Now, however, Boston is a first-rate and diverse dining destination. We get a status report from Jim Solomon, whose restaurant called The Fireplace in the Kennedys’ old neighborhood of Brookline serves up some of the best food we’ve anywhere lately.

A TOUR OF LITTLE ITALY
Little Italy is what the place is, but in Boston the locals call it the North End. Of course, the neighborhood goes back hundreds of years and started out British like every other neighborhood. But at some point, the place got poor and verging on seedy, and that meant it was perfect for immigrants. The Irish arrived first, but then the Italians took over for keeps. We take a walking food tour of the North End. Join us for a pastry and an espresso.

BACK TO THE FARM
Chef Peter Davis of Henrietta’s Table doesn’t kid himself – the rocky soil and icy climate of New England isn’t exactly the Garden of Eden when it comes to food products. Yet New England does some things incredibly well, starting with the seafood David likes to catch up near Gloucester himself and seasonal produce like corn and tomatoes as exquisite in flavor as it is shortlived. Davis talks about cooking the local and seasonal way in a region where that philosophy needs all the help it can get.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
STEAK AU POIVRE

6 well trimmed sirloin steaks, about 1 inch thick (8 oz each)
1 tablespoon salt
5 tablespoons wholes black pepper, coarsely crushed
3 tablespoons clarified butter
¾ cup cognac
1 ½ cup beef broth, fresh or canned
2 bay leaves
¼ stick butter, chilled and cut into ½ inch cubes
¼ cup heavy cream.
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved with two tablespoon cold water

Season the steaks generously with salt. One side at a time sprinkles each steak with the crushed black peppercorns, pushing them firmly into the meat with your hands. In a 12-inch cast iron or heavy-duty skillet, heat the clarified butter over high heat. Place the steaks in the pan (3 at the time) and sauté them 4 minutes on each side, or until they are done to your taste. Transfer the steaks to a heated platter and set them aside while preparing the sauce. Remove the pan from the stove, add the cognac, let warm for a minute, then ignite with a match. Pour in the beef broth, bay leaves and cream. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, whisk in the cornstarch and blend well. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the chilled butter bits one at a time. Strain the sauce with sieve over the steaks, and serve at once. Serves 6.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JULY 7

We’re broadcasting this week from San Antonio, focusing on interesting ways that the city’s Hispanic heritage in the New World constantly carries echoes of the Old.

RAMBLING AT LAS RAMBLAS
We’re predetermined top like any restaurant that reminds us of Las Ramblas, the lovely “Champs Elysees” of Spain’s Barcelona. Sunday strolls pasty cafes and through open-air flower markets are hard to forget. But we‘re particularly impressed by the VERY Spanish foods the Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk has chosen to drive the point home in its lovely Las Ramblas restaurant. We sit down with the chef to talk about the business of serving true Spanish food in this hotbed of Tex-Mex.

GRILLING AND CHILLING
Proving that the Riverwalk is much more than a collection of frathouse bars and barbecue (though we have nothing against frathouse bars or barnecue), the Caleza Grill serves a stylish mix of Spanish and other cuisine just a few steps along from Las Ramblas. It’s a stretch of a few hundred feet any card-carrying foodlover should be proud to call home. We join the chef at Caleza Grill for a tasting of signature dishes and very interesting wines.

HOME TO LOS BARRIOS
Home is what the place feels like anyway. Los Barrios is the one mandatory stop we have on any and every visit to San Antonio, letting us revel not only in a great family-run success story but in all those foods that make Tex-Mex the national cuisine of Texas. Diana Barrios-Trevino, a cookbook author who has actually cooked alongside Emeril Lagasse on national television, joins us for a sampling of her family’s versions of San Antonio classics.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
BAKED RED SNAPPER WITH STEAMED FENNEL

1 whole red snapper (4-6 pound)
¼ cup butter (melted)
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of two lemons
2 cups dry white wine
½ cup chopped onion
1 medium size carrot, peeled and diced
1 stalk celery, washed and diced
¼ teaspoon thyme
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons Chinese oyster sauce
1 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon flour
2 knobs fresh fennel
1 tablespoon salt
¼ cup olive oil

Cut off the stalks from the fennel, then cut the knobs in half, and slice very thin. In a 2 quart pot bring water to a boil; add the salt, olive and fennel. Cook for 5 minutes, drain the water and keep the fennel hot. Clean the whole snapper inside, leave the head on but trim off the fins and tail. Scale the fish and wash under running cold water. Score the skin with a sharp knife. Rub the salt inside and outside, and place the fish in a shallow baking pan and pour ¼ cup of melted butter over it. Combine the lemon juice, wine, carrots, celery, onions, thyme, oyster sauce and pour over the fish. Seal the dish tightly with cooking foil and bake at 375°F. for 35 minutes (depending on the size of the fish, you should be able to remove the meat from the bones easily).

Place the steamed fennel on a heated serving platter. Carefully remove the whole fish from the baking dish, and place on top of the fennel and keep warm. Strain the pan juices into a saucepan. Stir in the cream and over high heat bring to a boil to reduce to a bout 2 ½ cups. Combine 1 tablespoon of melted butter with one tablespoon of flour to make a paste. Wisk the mixture into the boiling liquid and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce is smooth and thickens. Pour the sauce evenly over the fish and fennel, serve immediately. Serve with new boiled potatoes.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JUNE 30

IN PHILIPPE’S KITCHEN
This entire show was born recently, when Chef Philippe Schmidt hosted a Loire Valley dinner at his Bistro Moderne. Having been wowed by the dinner, we decided to turn those wines and the kinds of foods served with them into a perfect summer show. We start where all great meals always start, in the kitchen. Surrounded by his cooks, Philippe walks us through all that happens there, as well as his fascination with brave new ingredients.

VALLEY OF THE LOIRE
Most people know at least a little about the lovely Loire Valley – it’s the place with all those chateaux, for starters. But even the centuries of wealth on display in its towering castles is nothing compared to the wealth displayed in its bottles of wine. As two wine people from the valley explain, the region may be best known for whites that fit perfectly into Houston summer – but the reds are a treasure more on par with those of Burgundy and Bordeaux than we might be tempted to expect.

MAKING IT BITE-SIZE
In Spain, there are tapas. In Italy, antipasti. In Greece and most parts of the Middle East, there are meze by many names. But in France, somehow, we forget about hors d’oeuvres. Or perhaps, after too many cocktail parties with lackluster nibbles, we don’t give the French contribution its due. All that is about to change with the new cookbook called “Bite Size: Elegant Recipes for Entertaining” By French chef Francois Payard. Payard, who help his friend Philippe with the Bistro Moderne wine dinner, tells us all about it.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
FRENCH PEAR TART

Pears:
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
3 large ripe Bosc pears, peeled, cut in halve, remove the stem and core
2 tablespoons lemon juice

In a 3-quart casserole, bring the water to a boil, add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon and lemon juice, simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pears and poach over low heat until soft. With a slotted spoon remove the pear halves and arrange cored side down on a wire rack to drain.

Pie Crust:
1 ½ cup cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ stick butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
4 tablespoon chilled water

Sift the flour and salt on to a working surface; add the chilled butter and vegetable shortening. Knead with your hands and add the water one spoon at the time. Gather the dough into a ball, dust with a little flour and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for one hour. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough and line a 9 inch fluted false-bottom pie pan. Line bottom with foil, and cover with two cups of beans to hold the foil down. Bake at 400 ° for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the foil and beans, and you are ready for the filling.

Filling:
1 pound almond paste, room temperature
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
¾ cup flour
½ stick soft butter
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups apricot jam
¼ cup kirsch (cherry brandy)

Place almond paste into a large mixing bowl. Using a rotary electric mixer combine one egg at a time with the almond paste. Add the sugar, vanilla and mix until nice and smooth without any lumps. Add the egg yolks and butter and blend well together. Using a wooden spoon, fold in the flour. Heat the apricot jam with the kirsch in a small pan over low heat. To assemble the tart, spread half of the apricot mixture in the bottom of the pastry shell. Arrange the pear halves in the tart shell like the spokes of a wheel, spread the almond paste over the pears and bake for 45 minutes at 375°, until firm in the center and nice and brown. Glaze the tart with the remaining apricot mixture. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JUNE 23

This week we broadcast from summertime San Antonio, where a song-and-dance folkloric show called Fiesta Noche del Rio has been packing ‘em in for more than 50 years.

THE REAL AMERICAN FOODS
It used to be a landmark brewery – you remember Pearl, don’t you? Thanks to some serious investment dollars involving an heir of the Pace picante sauce empire, the complex of buildings has given birth to a host of inventive enterprises, including a Center for Foods of the Americas. Today, we tour the facility and its professional cooking school affiliated with the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Needless to say, at these cooking classes, se habla espanol.

FIFTY YEARS OF FIESTA
Even before there was a Riverwalk in San Antonio, there was a Fiesta Niche del Rio – a show devoted to all the sounds of Texas but most importantly the colorful Hispanic singing and dancing that make the city so special. We talk to the director, choreographer and others who have kept the show running (and selling tickets) all summer for more than half a century.

TO THE PROMISED LAND
San Antonio is home to one of the nation’s most interesting dairy farms – well the corporate office anyway. The cows, of course, have their offices somewhere else – outside the city limits of San Antonio, amidst the wide open spaces of south Texas. But the special care given to these hormone-free all-Jersey cows and their milk has spread the reputation and finally the availability of Promised Land far beyond the borders of the Lone Star State.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
CRABMEAT AND AVOCADO SALAD

1 ½ pound fresh lump crabmeat
1 ½ cups mayonnaise
¼ cup bottled chili sauce
½ cup diced celery
¼ cup diced green bell peppers
¼ cup diced red bell peppers
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon English dry mustard, dissolved with a little water
4 drops Tabasco sauce
½ teaspoon salt
3 large firm ripe avocados
12 bibb lettuce leaves
2 large ripe tomatoes, stemmed and cut into wedges
3 hard cooked eggs, cut lengthwise into quarters
8 radishes sliced thin
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chive

Combine the mayonnaise, chili sauce, celery, peppers, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and salt in a deep mixing bowl. Whisk until all ingredients are well blended. Add the crabmeat and toss gently with a rubber spatula until the crabmeat is evenly coated. Cut the avocado in half, and with the tip of a paring knife loosen each seed. With a large soupspoon scoop out the flesh from each avocado half and place on 6 individual chilled salad plates. Spoon the crabmeat mixture into the cavities and arrange the bibb lettuce around the avocado.Garnish the leaves with the tomato wedges and hard cooked eggs. Sprinkle the sliced radishes and chives on top. Serves 6.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR JUNE 16

This week we broadcast from one of our favorite events anywhere, the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience…

THE NEW SUPERSTAR
As the TV-famed chefs of New Orleans’ global reputation – whether homegrown delights like Cajun-country’s Paul Prudhomme or adopted sons like Emeril Lagasse – get a bit older and more settled in their ways, a whole new generation is attracting our admiration. At the moment, the most successful of these is John Besh, with four wonderful restaurants in the New Orleans area and a love its culture, cuisine and people. We chat with John about the joys and sorrows of building an empire in post-Katrina New Orleans.

THAT BAREFOOT GIRL
As the summer months get hotter and hotter, at least some of the wines we love at other times in the year seem too intense, too heavy.We taste our way through the incredibly popular (and populist) wines of Barefoot with perky, blonde winemaker Jennifer Wall. It’s enough to make us want to hit the beach – not to mention pull our resurrected and remastered CDs of all our old Beach Boys albums.

THROUGH BRENNAN EYES
Houston knows the legendary Brennan clan – especially since their Brennan’s of Houston has been a success in these parts for more than three decades. But to get the real scoop on how restaurants are doing in the Crescent City, we sit down with Ralph Brennan. As the former president of the New Orleans, Louisiana and even NATIONAL restaurant associations, Ralph’s vision reaches a lot farther than the lovely “dueling oaks” across from his Ralph’s on the Park.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
MUSSELS IN GARLIC AND WINE SAUCE

4 pounds mussels
¼ cup minced shallots
5 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive
1 bay leaf
1½ cups dry white wine
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 ½ cups very fine julienne strips of carrots
1 ½ cups very fine julienne strips of leeks
1 ½ cups very fine julienne strips of root celery
3 tablespoons soft butter
3 tablespoon flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 drops Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
¼ cup freshly chopped parsley

Scrub the mussels well under cold running water. In a kettle heat the olive oil over moderately low heat, add the shallots, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, leeks, celery, and carrots. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes stirring the vegetable until crisp-tender. Add the wine, salt and ½ cup of water; bring the mixture to a boil. Add the cleaned mussels, cover the kettle and steam them in the vegetable-wine broth for 8 minutes, or until each mussel has opened. Discard any unopened mussels.

With a slotted spoon transfer the mussels and vegetables to a heated bowl, keep mussels covered. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve into measuring cup, and if necessary add enough water to measure 4 cups of liquid. In a saucepan melt the butter, add the flour and cook over low heat for 1 minute to make a roux, do not brown the roux.

Whisk the broth, a little at a time into the roux, whisking and bringing the sauce to a boil. Simmer the sauce for two minute; add the lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, and taste to your liking. Divide the mussels and vegetables into 4 heated soup plates, pour the sauce over each serving, and top with fresh chopped parsley. Serve with crusty French bread. Serves 4.