On Food & Culture
Here’s a Crock Pot beef dish that you can assemble before your workday and it will be ready by the time you get home. There are many unheralded culinary creations of working class people that rarely get the type of recognition given to expensive restaurant …
Tortillas de harina, wheat flour tortillas, have many variants along the Rio Grande and the US-Mexico borderlands. They are fluffy and pliant in the south Texas, northeastern Mexico region, while in Sonora they are super thin, almost translucent. New Mexico has its own delicious tortillas …
A couple of years ago I posted this recipe and because today the weather in Houston is a bit nippy, I find myself craving a hearty, hot, spicy seafood dish: Fra Diavolo! Clams and shrimp in tomato and red chile sauce. I like to serve …
Stereotypes appear both in food and film. Sometimes they are employed for humor or satire and at other times they are a pejorative representation of people and places. In this essay I will describe how some Tex- Mex food is stereotypic, how US films depict …
I muddle Hoja Santa to add flavors and aromas of licorice, anise and sassafras. Native to central and southern Mexico and all of Mesoamerica, this ancient plant is a member of the genus, “piper,” same as the Indian black pepper plant. It’s used to flavor …
This brussels sprouts dish is a prime example of how foods evolve in delicious ways through human migration and cultural crossings. This robust dish augments the unique flavor of the sprouts (make sure you get fresh ones) with two Texas native ingredients, pecans and Serrano …
Scallops Provençale: A quick, French country way to prepare these sweet, succulent bi-valves. I throw in vegetables that are lying around. I’m using the larger “sea scallops” here, but in our Texas, Mexico Gulf Coast we have only bay scallops (Argopecten irradians amplicostatus). They live …
The “Fricasé” of Latin America is the inspiration for this casserole. I take a slight turn away from the Carribbean and Bolivian flavor profiles, but keep the briny green olives and pimientos. In another post we will discuss the French basis of this dish and …
From time to time I scan my archives for dishes that I like to “reheat” and share again. I think you’ll like this recipe because the cakes are super light and crispy. Last Fall the chef at the Abilene Country Club prepared this for one …
In Texas, guacamole is omnipresent. There are as many recipes as there are bragging-prone hermanas and hermanos. I myself not being one to brag,, Ahem.., my recipe is based on 3 simple rules. 1. Purchase them Green and Hard. Rodolfo Fernandez is the top …