Barleyswine

(not my picture)
We finally did it. I know they've been open for a year, but Greg and I had always promised that we'd go together. It took us this long to actually set a date and follow through with it.

Worth. The. Wait.

We had six people in our party, and our wait was right at an hour and a half. To kill time, we went over to La Feria for a margarita, some chips, and a sampler platter of taquitos, nachos, and jalapeño poppers - a truly great way to destroy your palette right before a great meal, but I digress!

Typically, they recommend that each diner order three entrées because their portions are quite modest. Thanks to our pre-gaming, we left quite content after seven entrées and two desserts between the six of us. Those guys are putting out some beautiful plates of food and they look even more beautiful than they taste (the plates of food, not the guys). I was able to resist the urge to photograph EVERY SINGLE PLATE of food that hit the table as that results in quite a bit of ribbing from fellow diners. I'll do my best to recall the plates. I should have taken a picture of the menu. Anyhow, the reason you're here: 9 plates of food

Grilled Pork Belly
We started with the off-the-menu item of grilled pork belly, grapefruit, peanuts, and brussels sprouts. The belly with the brussels and grapefruit was fantastic. There was a good bit of char on the pork and it contrasted nicely with the acid of the grapefruit. I found the peanuts superfluous. A great start.

Sunchoke Velouté
Next up was the other off-the-menu item: a soup made of sunchoke, with a slow cooked farm egg, salsify, goat cheese, and sunchoke chips. Their was a very pronounced cumin/curry flavor in there somewhere that, to my taste, overwhelmed the rest of the dish. Otherwise, I think it would have been pretty tasty.

Gulf Shrimp
This seemed to be the consensus favorite of the evening. Two, head-on, grilled gulf shrimp over hominy (with which I'm now in love), and a shrimp foam. This is one of the one's I wish I had photoed because with those shrimp heads poking up, it was gorgeous. I happily crunched the meat out of the face of that shrimp *droooool*. It was killer.

Spicy Goat
This plate resulted in mixed reviews, which was unfortunate because it may have been my most anticipated dish. I was hoping for a nice solid piece of goat. What we got was (totally an educated guess here) braised goat formed into a patty and grilled - less than breath-taking, visually. It was served with a cauliflower and a purée of, I believe, cauliflower as well. All together, the bite was good. By itself, the goat lacked a little to be desired. Greg likened it to "moist beef jerky" and I could not disagree with him.

Duck
Green lentils on the bottom, seared duck breast, duck confit sprinkled throughout, crispy duck skin, radish, pickled radish, and curry/cumin makes a return visit. This dish was really nicely put together. The flavors all meshed well (aside from that pesky cumin flavor), but I found my piece of duck a tad on the chewy side. Otherwise, tasty.

Scallop
As a rule, I'm not a big scallop guy. It's got to have a really nice GBD sear on it. This one did. But that wasn't the highlight of the dish. The spicy braised pig cheek was aces. You will see pig cheeks here in the future. The only drag of this dish was the sweet potato purée, which was curried. See a theme here? The raisin relish on the plate was a revelation - who knew pickled (guessing) raisins would be so delicious?

Brisket
As you can imagine, I was stoked for this dish. I mean, how often do you see brisket on a small plates menu? If you answered, "never", then you'd be correct. I'm just gonna let you take in this picture for a minute.













I know, right? Brisket, over a barbecued baked bean purée (great idea btw), coffee barbecue sauce, smoked potatoes, dehydrated onion rings, sliced cornichons, and frisée tossed in slaw dressing. With such small servings and so many people, the idea is to get a piece of everything on the plate in your mouth, all at once, to create that "perfect bite". Do that on this dish? And it's summertime backyard barbecue in your face. Wow. Really killed it. Was the brisket as good as mine? Shut your face - no way, but the composed plate together was insane. Upscale BBQ achieved.

Beet Cake
Beet cake, tapioca, goats milk ice cream. The cake itself tasted kind of like a spice cake, until beet came and ran all the other flavors out of town, proclaiming its dominance. That was a beet cake, fa sho. The goats milk ice cream was yummy. The tapioca and the rest of the garnish around the plate was interesting, but not really wowing. I appreciate the technique.

Pumpkin Cheesecake
I should just leave you with the photo below, because a simple qwerty keyboard with nothing but letters can't possibly do it justice. I'll try though.













Pumpkin cheesecake, wattle seed cream, pistachio, and rum caramel. It's what every pumpkin cheesecake in the history of man wishes it could be, but knows it never will be. And yea, that's a tempered dark chocolate garnish that says, "chocolate".

All in all, I'm so glad to have finally eaten here. I will DEFINITELY go back when the menu changes and I highly recommend going with four or more people and pre-gaming a bit so you can tour the menu and get your money's worth.

I'm cooking a five course tasting menu for some friends this weekend and my buddy Mike Beech is doing beer and wine pairings for each course. This is going to be a blast and I can't wait to share it with y'all. Stay tuned!

Red Wine Garlic Sausage

I LOVE that clip. Every time I made sausage at school or work, all I could here was that song - "Mañana (Is Soon Enough for Me)" by Jackie Davis. And now I get to hear that tune at home! As you may have seen from fb posts, I received the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid and a sausage stuffer and today, it set out on its maiden voyage!

STEP 1:
Cube a nice, fatty, 5# pork butt. Season it with minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Into the freezer to get super cold, but not quite frozen.

STEP 2:
Grind it with components that have been placed in the fridge, into a bowl, that is chilled. RULE #1 of making sausage is to keep your meat and equipment as cold as possible. This results in the most desirable consistency in the sausage.

STEP 3:
Mix it with the paddle attachment in the KitchenAid. As it mixes, slowly add cold red wine. This adds flavor, moisture, and aids in the emulsion. You could stop at this point and make the sausage into patties or cook it crumbled like ground beef in a spaghetti sauce, like we did last night. OR continue to step 4.

STEP 4:
Stuff it in hog casings that have been soaked in room temperature water for ~30 minutes and rinsed.

STEP 5:
Eat it.

And hopefully, I'll be taking down my own venison this weekend to turn into more sausage!

A few more experiments with the grinder and stuffer, then I'll graduate to dried and cured sausages. That'll be fun.

A Turporken Christmas Miracle!

Much to my brother Seth's shigrin, I've rejected the name "Chiporkey" and gone with "Turporken" for the Christmas Eve creation I prepared for dinner last night. I wanted the name to relate to the more well-known "Turducken". So why not just make a Turducken you ask? Duck's are expensive, but most importantly, it's been done.

The Components:
First thing first, the stuffing. I've never been much of a stuffing guy, but the stuffing we used to put in the turkey sandwiches at Haddy's was pretty tasty. I decided I'd closely replicate that: baked some cornbread, rendered some bacon, sauteed red onion and celery in that bacon fat, combined all that with halved white grapes, chicken stock, thyme, rosemary, and sage. Stuffing done. Set aside.

Next up, I trimmed and seasoned a pork tenderloin, and wrapped it in bacon. Set aside.

Then, I pounded out a couple of chicken breasts. Set aside.

Then I had to get them bones outta that turkey! The idea is to separate the skin from the breast without tearing it, then remove the wings, cut the breasts off the carcass without removing them completely, then cut down the backbone, releasing the carcass from the meat. I failed at this task. I mistakenly removed the breasts completely. At that point, I knew I would just have to reassmble a Frankenturkey, as Jerry so eloquently put it. With the breasts off, I clipped the skin off (still in one whole piece), removed the leg quarters, and discarded the carcass. Then I deboned the leg quarters, leaving them in whole pieces of meat.

The Assembly:
Now it's time to assemble the beast. Lay out 5 pieces of butcher's twine parallel to each other on a board. Lay the boneless leg quarters, skin down, on top of the string, next to each other. Layer with stuffing. Next, the pounded chicken breasts. Stuffing. BACON-WRAPPED PORK TENDERLOIN. Stuffing. Turkey breasts. Pull the reserved piece of skin over the breasts. Tie it up! Put it in a pan, jam the wings in next to it, and it should look like this:


















Plastic wrap it and see you in the morning! >> Morning. Oil and salt and pepper the top. It goes into a 300 degree oven for about 6 hours. When it comes out of the oven, it. looks. glorious!

Turporken:













I did not have my 10.5" Togiharu on me, so I went with the ol electric knife and man oh man.













All of the flavors of all of the animals combined was just delicious. Now, had I been able to keep the bird in tact, it would have held together a little nicer, but the flavors were on point.

This was my first meat amalgamation, but will not be my last!

PS. I got a sausage stuffer for Christmas and the BB&B gift card I got should get me a grinder. It's about to be on like Abe Froman (the Sausage King of Chicago).

"Live" Blog III: Big Finish

So my "live" blog turned into a midnight blog, an afternoon blog and a next day blog. Sorry about that. But, boy howdy was that a TASTY dinner! We started the evening off with some cheese, which is technically wrong - as the fat in the cheese will coat your tongue and mess with your taste of the meal, but I digress. A couple of the cheeses were tasty, but the one from France was stanky. Waaaayyy to stinky for us. Accompanying the cheese was a sort of "amuse-bouche" that my mom told me about: 1/3 of a jalapeño or fresno chili topped with, get this, peanut butter and drizzled with chocolate. What a bizarre sensation. Sweet, smooth, hot, crisp, all at the same time! A nice bottle of prosecco washed down the whole thing.













And as it turns out, the pork rinds worked out pretty good! The bourbon didn't come out to strong in the salt, but they were tasty just the same.













And now for the main event. The reason you're all here. The dinner:













Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Shallots













I trimmed the ends of the sprouts, and shaved them on the mandolin super thin. I rendered out some tasty bacon until it was crispy. When we had finished our cheese course, I fired up the pan with the bacon grease in it, added just a touch of duck fat, tossed in the shallots, and tossed in the sprouts. As soon as the sprouts became aromatic, I seasoned them with a touch of salt, added the bacon and plated them up. Tasty.

Guinness Braised Short Ribs with Caramelized Onion Risotto













Good gravy. I don't mind saying that this may be my best work yet. To get you up to speed, the risotto had been par cooked [sautéed a super fine diced onion in butter and oil and salt, added the carnaroli rice (superior to arborio) until it became fragrant, deglazed with white wine, then added stock one ladle at a time until it was one ladle short of done, and spread it on a sheet tray] so when it came time for dinner, Elliott got some more stock hot, added the cold risotto, caramelized onions, tons of butter and parm and stirred until it was the right consistency. That went on a platter.

I had already strained out the braising liquid from the ribs and reduced that to a sauce. The ribs were being held warm in the crockpot. I got the sauce hot again and mounted it with a copious amount of butter. The ribs went into that, got glazed, and got put on top of the risotto - with more sauce on the side.

Natalie and Elliott had brought a lovely bottle of red that matched very well with the meal. It was a great time with great food and great friends.

See you for the Christmas Dinner Blog!

Live Blog II: Prep

It looks like the pork rinds are gonna be a game time decision. They're not quite dry yet. The anticipation mounts.

On the other hand, the prep has begun!

The Brussels sprouts are shaved.













The onions are caramelized.













The risotto is par cooked (because I don't want to spend 30 minutes stirring while my guests are here).













The bacon is rendered.













The short ribs are seared and in the crock pot with veal stock (bought the glace from Central Market), browned mirepoix, thyme, garlic, and Guinness.













We decided that we'd also need a salad, so I'm gonna whip up an old standby: herb spring mix with toasted almonds, orange supremes, goat cheese, and an orange and red wine vinaigrette. I've got the vinaigrette done and the orange supremed. Now it's lunch time for me, then some quick Christmas treats, a shower, and the big finish!

Live Blog I: Chicharones?

Arguably the most valuable technique I learned at Haddington's was how to make pork rinds from scratch*.

I've got a few pals coming over tomorrow night for dinner, and for months, I've been promising them a killer dining experience. Natalie loves short ribs. Check. Elliott loves risotto. Check. Saul and Melody LOVE pork. Check. So I'll be preparing for them Guinness Braised Short Ribs over Caramelized Onion Risotto with Bacon and Shallot Shaved Brussels Sprouts.

But then there's the matter of that piece of frozen pig skin that I removed from the pork picnic I smoked and pulled for Swine Operation. As previously mentioned, I learned how to make pork rinds at Haddy's. The skin gets boiled, the fat scraped, and then it gets dried (it's drying now). NOW, assuming it dries completely without the help of restaurant quality vent hoods, I should be able to just fry it up, salt it, and crunch it!

Whilst I'm experimenting, I figured, why not experiment with a flavored salt to sprinkle on the rinds? This is another technique we [briefly] used at Haddy's. Soak some salt in a liquid. Dry it. Grind it. Eat it. In this case, the liquid is bourbon.

I also knocked out a chicken stock for the risotto.

Stay tuned as the adventure continues!

*if this works, AND is as delicious as the ones we made at Haddy's, it will be my go to "show up at a party with a snack" snack.

Coriander Cod

In an attempt to eat somewhat healthier on as many occasions as possible, we decided to have fish for dinner. I wanted to mix it up a little from the standard salt and pepper baked fish with lemon. So, I pounded some coriander and peppercorns in the ol mortar and pestle and added lemon and lime zest. I rubbed all but 1 tbsp of the mixture on a lovely piece of Alaskan cod, sprinkled it with salt, and baked that for about 15 minutes at 350º.

Whilst (MIKE) the fish was baking away, I fired up a side of couscous and that's where the rest of the rub went, along with a nice knob of butter. Now, all I needed was something to nestle in between the bed of fluffy, coriander and citrus scented couscous, and bright, flaky cod. How about sautéed zucchini and squash ribbons with onion, garlic and chili flake? Okay! (just use a peeler to make super thin "ribbons" of squash and zucchini).

Now, as a general rule, I like my food "dry". That is to say that I prefer a lighter amount of dressing, or sauce, etc. However, at the behest of my lovely wife to ensure that this particular dish did not end up too dry, one last touch was necessary. I squeezed the lemon and lime into a small bowl, scraped the remnants out of the mortar and whisked that with some olive oil for a quick vinaigrette to drizzle over the top and around the plate.

It was quite delicious!













Based on what I'm guessing I'll get for Christmas, I should have some cool new stuff to share soon. Stay tuned!

Green Chili Stew.0

So I had some leftover green chili stew from the other day (that I had left in the crockpot over night) that was just sitting there, looking lonely. What to do? How about throw a chicken breast in the ol George Foreman, chop that up and toss it in with that stew, wrap that up and put it in a low oven for a couple of hours? But then, what to do with that concoction? Well, lets use some of the masa that we put in that stew to make corn tortillas, top it with shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes and shredded pepper jack to make delicious

Green Chili Chicken and Pork Tacos:













A true leftover treat! I've got a few special products in the works for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully some of them will come to fruition! Stay tuned.

Evergreen Chili Pork Stew

Today, we decided to start some Shaffer Family Christmas Traditions. It started with a drive out to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm, where we cut down our own tree (with my fingers crossed that I'm not allergic SPOILER ALERT: I'm not). We got the tree set up, then paused the decorating to get dinner started.

I hammered out a quick chicken stock. While it was simmering, I browned off some cubed pork shoulder roast and tossed it into the crockpot. Then browned off some onions and garlic, added masa flour and got that nice and toasty. All the while I had some Hatch chilies (saved in the freezer since late summer) roasting in the oven with a couple of jalapeños. I then deglazed the onion/masa mix with some stock and added that to the pork. The chilies got stemmed and seeded and pureed and added to the crockpot. Simmer.

Back to the tree. I've never strung popcorn and hung it on a tree before, so I decided to do that. For about 30 minutes. It's quite a task, but it did make it on to the tree along with plenty of orange and white ornaments. While we trimmed the ol tenenbaum, we fired up "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" - classic! You can head over to my facebook page to see how the tree turned out. Just the right amount of school pride, class, and tinsel if you ask me!

Right about the time we finished that, the stew was done!













Garnished with pepper jack, tortilla strips and fresh cilantro, it was quite nice. There was a decent heat that built as you ate it. The pork could have gone just a little longer. SOLUTION: It's now back in the crockpot on low until I wake up tomorrow. Should be almost disintegrated into the broth by morning. Yum.

So "Shaffer Tree Day" has now been cemented into our book o traditions. Cut down a real tree, decorate it, simmer a green chili pork stew, and watch a Christmas movie. Gitty up jingle horse, pick up your feet!

Tastedbuds Got Runover by an Antelope

I learned two things today. 1: Do not try to coordinate 12 people from 2 cities to eat at 1 restaurant on South Congress (especially when 10 of those people have never been to said restaurant (especially when said restaurant has a less than conventional style of seating and taking your order)). 2: Antelope is delicious.

My pops and stepmom were heading back to Prosper (North of Dallas) today from SA and I thought I'd be a good little food tour guide and have them meet us (me and the Mrs. + Seth and Lucy) at Hopdoddy for a burger. Six people would not have been a challenge. I get the call when they're half way up, that they are bringing 6 more people. Woohoo. In the end, it worked out and we got tables near each other and everyone had a spectacular time and loved the food. So that's all that matters.

Now to the subject at hand - Broken Spoke Antelope













Antelope patty with an ancho chili mocha spice rub, roasted garlic aioli, tobacco onion strings, tomato, spinach, and cherry-rosemary chutney (ordered it on the side and promptly slathered my burger in it).

This thing was absolutely killer. The antelope had a slight game tinge to it (which I like) and all of the flavors were complimentary. The spice rub was not overpowering, the onions added a nice texture, and the chutney had a nice sweetness/earthiness thing going. Overall, probably my second favorite burger that I've had there. I mean, how can you top the "Terlingua"? It's a Frito pie on top of a burger!!!!

I can't wait to go back and continue my quest to conquer their whole menu - excluding of course the turkey, veggie, and seafood options - those ain't burgers ;)

ALSO - stay tuned for the upcoming venison blog. My brother-in-law Tobes McGobes shot TWO doe yesterday and they are currently being processed for backstrap, ground, jerky, and 1 hind quarter. Those will make some tasty viddles, y'all!