SHOW & RECIPE FOR NOV. 10

ROOM TO GROW AT LA VISTA
Seems like just a few short years ago, the Houston eatery called La Vista was known as “that place you bring you own wine” – one of the few, in fact, that didn’t punish you for doing so with exorbitant “corkage fees.” These days, not only is owner Greg Gordon perfectly happy to sell you “his” wines if you prefer, and not only has he sprouted a new second location, and not only has he started serving lunch instead of dinner-only – he has one of those wine-themed private dining rooms that his fans are lining up to reserve.

NEVER TOO MUCH PIZZA
That’s our opinion, and it seems to be Anthony Russo’s opinion as well. While most things wouldn’t get very far in Houston on the strength of mentioning “New York” in their name – picture that wonder we’d call “New York Barbecue,” for instance – the tag definitely works for pizza. The style of pizza formed in Little Italy there as much as a century ago has become the standard for pizza in America. Sorry, Chicago. And Russo is now opening his 20th location of his New York Pizzeria in Houston to prove it.

A YEAR AT SEA
When the Oceanaire Seafood Room opened a year ago in the Galleria’s a’borning Restaurant Row, looking for all the world like an elegant 1930s ocean liner, it was easy enough to make jokes about a seafood restaurant company based far inland in Minneapolis. But thanks to the hard work of executive chef Trevor White, we here on the seafood-rich Gulf Coast have learned in the past 12 months to take Oceanaire very seriously. Trevor joins us in the studio to tell us all about the things he’s learned from us.

THAT OLE ‘GYPSY’ SPIRIT
In her lifetime, Gypsy Rose Lee became an American cultural icon – not bad for someone who was sort of a stripper. Out of her life filled with flash and dazzle came at least one musical filled with much the same, and that is the latest production at the Hobby Center from the ever-ambitious Masquerade Theatre. On today’s show, we’ll discuss the joys of “Gypsy” with artistic director Phillip Duggins and one of the show‘s stars, the incessantly dazzling Rebekah Dahl. We asked them to maybe send us a stripper, but then decided: No, that’s that other guy’s radio show.

THUNDER HEART BISON FAJITAS

1 pound Texas bison skirt or flank steak
Juice of 3 limes
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 large onion, sliced
1 large green bell pepper, sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
Prepared guacamole
Prepared sour cream
Prepared tomato salsa
4 corn or flour tortillas, warmed

Using a mallet, pound the meat to about ½ inch thick, then place in a plastic bag with the lime juice, salt, garlic powder, chili powder and black pepper. Seal bag and marinate in the refrigerator about 8 hours. When ready to grill, caramelized the onion and bell pepper slices in a pan with a little olive oil. Remove the meat from the marinade and grill over mesquite goals to about medium rare, 2-3 minutes per side. Thinly slice the meat. Serve the bison slices atop the caramelized onion and bell pepper, with chopped tomato, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and warm tortillas on the side. Serves 6-8.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR NOV. 3

A TIME-FREE ZONE
The Texas Renaissance Festival may have a specific period in its name, but that doesn’t keep employees and casual celebrants from tiptoeing through about 500 years of extremely vague history. Still, one guy at the festival who tries NOT to is chef Charles Prince. As the man in charge of the bawdy King’s Feast at the RenFest each year, Prince spends a good deal of his time researching which foods and drinks were enjoyed when. It’s only after they’ve passed historical muster that this chef lets himself (and his guests) start having fun with them.

BEER LOVERS DELIGHT
At any Renaissance festival, you’d expect something billed as a “beer tasting” to get pretty wild, in a room filled with ham-fisted lords and cleavage-ridden ladies knocking back brews less than likely to be distinguished. But after a recent rethinking, this is no longer the case. The daily beer tasting actually supplies attendees with solid information on beer itself – you know, yeast for fermentation, malts and hops, that sort of thing – as it travels through fascinating different brews from England, Wales, Belgium and Germany. We do the tasting ourselves in today’s Grape & Grain segment.

IN THE MARKET FOR A MEAL
First and foremost, the Texas Renaissance Festival is a festival, and that points us toward row after row of food and drink vendors. In today’s show, we wander about tasting things – one of our favorite activities on earth – and settle in to chat with a pair of cooks who’ve parlayed their cooking into an annual gig. Ligia Giles, known as the Empanada Lady, has been hawking her delicious Latin-flavored wares here for 31 years, while relative newcomer Rhonni DuBose has turned her Queen’s Pantry into THE place for breakfast on the colorful fairgrounds near Plantersville.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
THE KING’S SALT-CRUSTED PRIME RIB

4 pounds beef prime ribeye
¼ cup chopped garlic
½ cup kosher salt
4 tablespoons fresh or dried rosemary
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 ounce extra-virgin olive oil

Dry the roast completely with a paper towels. Combine salt crust ingredients then rub a few tablespoons. of this mixture into the surface of the roast. Place roast on a wire rack in a 2 inch deep roasting pan. Cover roast with the remaining crust mixture on top and sides of the piece try to spread evenly and leave the bottom bare of the crust. Roast in oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. the garlic should brown a bit. Reduce oven temperature to 300 F and roast until the roast reaches an internal temperature of 125 F. about and 1 ½ hours on a 4-5 Lb roast about a half of a prime rib. Larger roast of 8-12 Lb. takes about 1-hour more. Allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

Chef Charles Prince says: “The roasting of beef is a simple process that we tend to make difficult with formulas for cooking times that many times result in the roast being over cooked. Internal temperature is the best guide. The crusting is added before cooking. If you leave the crust on overnight the salt will begin to “corn” as in corned beef - the flesh takes on a pink hue from the salt. This can be a good or bad thing. It makes the finished product more forgiving in the color for presentation. The drawback if left overnight is that even if overcooked it will keep a pink color. Patrons who prefer their meat ‘well done,’ with no pink color, can be a problem.”

SHOW & RECIPE FOR OCT. 27

PIZZAS FROM CALIFORNIA
One night about 20 years ago, we found ourselves hungry in Beverly Hills – and wandered into the very first California Pizza Kitchen. Loosely inspired by the kinds of things Wolfgang Puck and his ilk were doing – putting anything and everything on a pizza – CPK grew to a powerful national restaurant presence, with a frozen pizza line in your supermarket. For the recent opening of CPK in River Oaks, we sat down with founders Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfeld to talk about the whys and wherefores of great pizza.

BACK ON THE BUS
Well, OK, more like a luxury RV, actually. That’s what Fred Noe of Jim Beam and its higher-end bourbon brethren was doing when he poured through Houston recently. He was celebrating National Bourbon Month, naturally, but also paying homage to the fact that Texans buy more of his best stuff than anybody else in America. With a bit of a tasting, as is our habit in the Grape & Grain segment, we get Fred to tell us all about what makes a great bourbon – and just why bourbon from his neck of the woods in Kentucky is the Great American Spirit.

“INTER” AND SIGN IN, PLEASE
Most people know William Shakespeare wrote some really famous plays, and quite a few people have heard whisperings that maybe things were not always what they seemed – that maybe somebody else wrote those plays, etc. Yet not too many of us know or understand The Bard well enough to concoct a “Da Vinci Code”-style thriller around the mysteries – called “secrets” by the marketing department, of course - that have attached themselves to Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and the rest. Our final guest today is the author of the terrific new mystery “Interred With Their Bones.”

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
SMOKED SAUSAGE QUESO

3/4 pound Texas smoked sausage
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped red onion
½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
3 cups heavy cream
2 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack
2 ½ cups shredded Pepper Jack
2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
½ cup chopped green onions
Tortilla chips

In a food processor, pulse the sausage into a fine crumble. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the sausage over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper, stirring until caramelized, 4-5 minutes. Add the cream, reduce heat to medium and whisk to incorporate. Gradually add in the cheese, stirring until melted and incorporated. Thicken with the dissolved cornstarch. Garnish with green onion. Serve in a bowl with tortilla chops. Serves 10-12.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR OCT. 20

COWBOY MAGIC WITH BEEF
In cowboy-crazed Abilene (in fact, in the tiny village of Buffalo Gap just outside it), Tom Perini has been cooking true to his roots as long as anybody can remember. And in addition to his destination Perini Ranch Steakhouse – a “real joint,” he calls it - Tom has a peculiar habit of catering dinner parties as far away as Washington and even in Europe. We sit down with this master of the modern chuckwagon and hear all about what it takes to cook Texas food both downhome and a few thousand miles removed from it.

NEW BOOK OF VINEYARD CUISINE
Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo have been two of the icons of the Texas wine industry from the beginning. Their Messina Hof label (the name combines their family hometowns in Sicily and Germany) is likely to show up in any setting that welcomes wine from the Lone Star State – and to hear Paul and Merrill tell it, there’s more such settings all the time. In today’s Grape and Grain segment, they report not only on the state of Texas wines but on their brand-new cookbook from Bright Sky Press.

ONLY IN AMERICA
Around Texas towns like Albany and Abilene, there is the standard-issue presumption of a rugged all-Americanism going back generations. Indeed, several local ranch family histories show precisely that. But one of the area’s most beloved restaurant families actually left Iran when the Ayatollah-types took over and started on the long road to – well, West Texas. Today, two generations of the Esfandiarys cook and serve some of the best chicken fried steak and all its culinary kin you’ll ever lift to your lips.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipes…
BRISKET-STUFFED 1015 ONIONS

10 large Texas 1015 onions
1 pound smoked beef brisket, shredded
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon sage
½ teaspoon ground red pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

Peel the onions and boil in salted water about 10 minutes, then drain reserving the water. Cut the centers from the onions to create shells. Heat the shredded brisket in a sauté pan, adding the garlic and seasonings. Stir over medium heat about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the bread crumbs. Spoon the brisket stuffing into the onions and set in a shallow baking dish. Add enough of the reserved onion water to cover the bottom of the dish. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven until onions are tender, about 45 minutes. Serves 10.

SHOW & RECIPE FOR OCT. 13

Delicious Mischief is broadcasting this week from New Orleans…

GALATOIRE’S IN A NEW AGE
In all of tradition-heavy New Orleans, there is perhaps no other restaurant so tradition-heavy, from its recipes to its service style to its table-visiting clientele, as Galatoire’s in the French Quarter. But in the two-plus years since Hurricane Katrina, even an institution like Galatoire’s has been forced to reinvent itself.

MEMORIES OF GRAND ISLE
For many who grew up in New Orleans, especially in those simpler times between the end of World War II and the Kennedy assassination, there are few memories as warm as those of summers at Grand Isle. Restaurateur Joel Dondis has made that the name of his newest eatery, and he has adapted and adopted the recipes to make the nostalgia stick.

TROPICAL LATITUDES
Chef Dominique Macquet grew up in the tropics – the isle of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. So a few years back, when he felt the need for fresh inspiration at his French Quarter restaurant called Dominique’s, he found it in memories of blue water and white sand. His new cookbook “Dominique’s Tropical Latitudes” is all about looking back in order to move forward.

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe…
DOMINIQUE’S LEMONGRASS PANNA COTTA
WITH PASSION FRUIT PUREE

1 quart heavy cream
1 ½ cups whole milk
½ cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean
2-3 stalks lemongrass
4-5 sheets unflavored gelatin
½ cup prepared passion fruit puree

Lemon Filling:
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ¾ sticks unsalted butter
8 egg yolks, beaten
1/3 cup cornstarch

Bring the cream and milk to a boil with the sugar, vanilla bean and lemongrass, then remove from heat and let flavors infuse for 1 hour. Bring back to a boil. Soften the relatin in 2 cups cool water and stir into the hot mixture until completely dissolved. Strain into a container with a pouring spout, and then pour into martini glasses. Refrigerate until set, 4-5 hours.

Meanwhile, make the Lemon Filling by heating ½ the sugar with all the lemon juice and butter until the butter melts. In a bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks with the cornstarch and remaining sugar. Add this to the mixture over heat, stirring continually until thickened. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Use to fill cleaned egg shells and serve alongside the panna cotta. Top the panna cotta with passion fruit puree. Serves 6.

OUR REVIEW OF VIN

Bayou Place in downtown Houston is very popular with film buffs, who often vote the Angelica their favorite set of screens. And the development sits in the middle of prime real estate for the performing arts, just about equidistant from the Alley, the Wortham, Jones Hall and the Hobby Center. Sadly, unless you count Hard Rock Café as your favorite dining destination, Bayou Place hasn’t rung many culinary bells lately. All that is in the process of changing, however, and we think the new restaurant and wine bar spelled Vin is a major part of the change.

If you want to pronounce Vin correctly, just pretend there’s an “e” at the end – for yes, it is pronounced “vine.” That’s a pretty cool name for a wine bar, unless people walk about all day rhyming it with “sin,” or more appropriately, with “zin.” Zinfandel is only one of many well-chosen and often-quirky wines sold by the bottle or, better still, by the glass at Vin. If you’re really in a hurry to make the start of a show, you might drop in for a glass of wine and one or two of the appetizers. The kitchen can react quickly to requests placed under deadline – and they’ll be honest if this or that dish can’t be done. On the other hand, get downtown early enough for a full dinner and you’ll have to park only once. You’ll find yourselves in a stylish, sexy, tending-toward-Asian dining room, gazing at a menu with more than its share of curiosities and surprises.

Tucked away within all the great bottles and Chef Jared Estes’ sprightly New American-with-splashes-of-Deep-South menu, Houston has a business reason to be proud of this place. The developers of Bayou Place are looking at Vin as a “test case” for their multi-use projects in other American downtowns. As Houston eats, therefore, so eats the nation. Based on one recent fly-by before a movie and then a full-bore, multi-course dinner experience, downtown America may await a splashy red-and-black evening-out at its very own Vin in the near future.

As though knowing there would be “fly-bys” on the way to this or that performance, Estes has served up an unusually long and varied list of appetizers, including some things that (based on similar chefs we know) are probably among his personal favorites. There’s a foie gras starter (not described in detail because it’s “today’s interpretation”) and another made with the current chef’s rage, pork belly. The later is a hot-sweet delight that’s chile-crusted then balanced with figs, dates and pistachios. Still, what we like best about Vin’s menu starts to crop as early as the appetizers: a passionate effort to incorporate comfort foods from the South among dishes that seem to hail resolutely from someplace resembling California.

Best bets from among these delightfully “upscale redneck” classics include shrimp and grits, the single most beloved dish of the Carolina Low Country, and a very nice quail – sitting there in all its Texas hunting-season glory but given twists by roasted sweet Walla Walla onions (try to get the Texas 10/15s, chef), gorgonzola and local honey comb. The list of must-try starters doesn’t stop there, though. Check out the glorious agnolotti – bigger, plumper versions of ravioli in a parmesan broth with thankfully-not-too-much black truffle oil – and the grilled (not batter-fried) calamari, taking the strange form of the Tuscan bread salad called panzanella. Lastly, you shouldn’t leave without the “Hot Pot,” a loving spin on those Chinese dumplings, in a kind of consommé with several crispy tempura shiitake lying about.

When it comes time for a main courses, seafood lovers might go with our recommendation: oat-crusted scallops with truffled corn orzo and what Estes is billing as “miso mostarda.” We have no idea what that name means here, but the addition of a pungent mustard sauce is as delicious as it is unexpected. The mandatory salmon comes creatively outfitted, from its oyster mushrooms to its Jerusalem artichokes to its light, mildly Cajunized tasso broth. Diners on a red meat-quest at Vin should go for either the filet, which tastes lightly smoked in addition to perfectly broiled, and sits beneath a smoked rock shrimp with a side of (enjoy the quotation marks) “mashed potatoes and gravy,” or perhaps the lamb strip loin. These last tender strips would be wonderful enough by themselves, but they’re even better sprinkled with Mexican cotija cheese and the crunch of pickled jicama.

On the night we went to Vin, there were six desserts available – and we did a tasting of all six, as can you. Dessert portions are smallish, perhaps an issue in side-of-cake-loving Houston; but the pleasures can be pretty intense. Our favorites included the unusual-sounding gingered strawberry and apricot goat cheese crisp (don’t argue, just enjoy) and the bittersweet chocolate and Grand Marnier “cobbler” with butter brittle. Some of the language seems invented to sell, but the tastes and textures of dessert at Vin are often marvelous. You know, maybe if you can’t make it in before your show, you can still swing by for dessert and a glass of wine after. It’s a thought!