Fredericksburg Food and Wine Festival 2010

Santa Fe Eggs at Cottages at Limestone on Main B & B
Mussel Tomato (Potato) Leek Soup at the Nest

Rather Sweet cheesecakes
Saim Egg Rolls, August E's

Food and Wine Festival Crowds Chef Leu Savanh, August E's

Herb Scrambled eggs and vegetable hash, Cottages at Limestone on MainI was looking up cooking classes in Fredericksburg a while back and came across, "Grape Expectations Cooking School" and learned it was offered during the annual wine and food festival. We usually avoid going to Fredericksburg during the special events around the holidays but for some odd reason I proposed a trip for this weekend with our friends, Linda and Tom Collins, thinking we would have fun sampling the wines and enjoying the cooking demonstrations. Unfortunately, Linda and Tom were unable to come but we didn't mind going alone. We had reservations at the Cottages at Limestone on Main, a B & B owned by Carol and Joe, native Texans who lived in California for 25 years and worked in the TV and motion picture industry. They moved back in 2004 after a stay at the B & B they later purchased. We've stayed here before and enjoyed the gourmet breakfasts prepared by Carol Seminara, a former food stylist and cookbook author (Cottages at Limestone on Main cookbook).

The couple bring "breakfast on a silver tray" to the cottage and everything is made from scratch.

Our first morning we were served herb scrambled eggs, potato-vegetable hash, hill country scones, turkey sausage, fruit and yogurt topped with granola, fresh orange juice and tea.

She uses herbs from her garden and everything is cooked just perfectly.

Not to get ahead of myself, the night before, Friday night, we had reservations at The Nest, my all time favorite restaurant. I've written about it before on my blog in previous posts. Friday night I ordered the soup, always the best thing on the menu. It didn't disappoint and I enjoyed it more than anything else. A creamy mussel leek soup with whole mussels and thin slices of leek with excellent flavor. Funny, but the waiter insisted it was "tomato mussel soup". I questioned him about the fact that there was not tomato in the pale yellow soup but he refused to admit it was probably "potato" not "tomato". I ordered the special, a shoulder loin steak served with turnip mashed potatoes. It was so tough I couldn't eat it and sent it back. They took it off the bill but it was a letdown. Steve's Shrimp in Citrus Sauce was perfect. We had a complimentary dessert, chocolate tart. I couldn't believe it but the tart had been nuked in the microwave until it was the consistency of rubber and inedible to me. Steve managed to choke some of it down. What happened to The Nest???

We had also stopped at Rather Sweet Bakery earlier in the day. Rebecca Rather has gotten so popular that she has turned her operation over to who knows who and the quality suffered.

We used to go there and stock up on cookies and pastries to bring back with us. Now we might get a cookie or two. The photo above shows some small (4 inch) cheesecakes, not very fresh looking, for $5.95 each. I tried a turtle brownie bar and it tasted like a solid piece of baked brown sugar covered with chocolate. Not good. Rather Sweet Bakery is like a big tourist trap now and it makes me sad. We discovered it back in 2001 when it was a tiny hole in the wall with just a few freshly made giant cookies, triple chocolate, oatmeal, sugar--and all delectable. Mass production changes things.

The Saturday morning breakfast started the day off well. Off to the festival--and a long wait in line to purchase tickets. $20.00 for admission and 6 wine tasting tickets. I was most interested in the cooking classes so we set off for the big covered tent holding the classes. We were able to get a seat way back from the front so we could not really see what the chef was up to and there was no mirror or projection screen set up. The first demo was Leu Savanh from August E's. I have always loved August E's and was anxious to hear from him. The demo was for Thai style slaw and baby back ribs with lemon grass, garlic and galanga leaf. Let me just say right now, the cooking school is a joke. Basically people just pass out recipes and the chef tells how he makes the dish, samples are passed out and wine is poured. The "recipe" for the dish was even strange.

He says to grill the ribs and then put them in the oven at 300 degress for 3 hours and they will fall off the bone. They were tender, but very gray and unappealing in texture. The slaw had a dressing that called for a cup of sugar and a full cup of fish sauce, among other things. This dressing would have been awful made according to the recipe. Guess everyone who tries the recipe will figure it out. We left the cooking school tent and ventured out to the festival to try some wines. Every Texas wine was represented from Becker to Grape Creek to ones we had never heard of. We sampled a few but the long waits in line were no fun. We particularly enjoyed MacPherson's Viognier and Becker's Malbec. Browsing the various booths and vendors was fun when we could get close enough to see and we did pick up some delicioius hot sauce, Valtoro, made by a man from San Antonio. We sampled various tidbits from Opa's meats, lamb meatballs, and toffee. We tried another "cooking" demonstration later in the afternoon from Chrissy at CKC Farms. She is a young woman who started a goat cheese business at her family's farm in Blanco when she was a young teenager. Her story was in Edible Austin and other magazines. The goat cheese is amazing and very popular. Her cooking demo was merely adding a jar of their goat feta cheese in olive oil to a bowl of cooked pasta. Buy the $10.00 jar of cheese and you can make this recipe. Not too impressive. I was ready to go by this time and the wine samples were giving me a headache. Wine, wind, smoke in the air, and big crowds were having an effect on me. Back to the quiet B & B. Much later we went to August E's for dinner. I have memories of August E's back when it was in the original building a few miles away but it's since moved into town, modernized, gotten very big and very popular and like so many things here in Fredericksburg, has suffered. This seems to be a theme not just here, but in other places I love such as Santa Fe. Once the foodies discover, blog, review, and foodnetwork the place it starts to go downhill. Can't keep up with the crowds is my guess. Anyway, I did enjoy the Saim egg rolls, pictured above. A well seasoned pork filling, crispy egg roll wrapper, wrapped in lettuce leaves. One gripe though, the lettuce and cilantro were wilted and not at all fresh and very skimpy in quantity. They used to bring a place of lettuce leaves and cold, fresh cilantro. Steve's California roll with fresh crab was very good. Our entrees, the "special" filet and truffle fries was terrible. The tenderloin steak was tough! Of all steaks this cut is usually fork tender, but not so. We just sighed, ate what we could and got out of there. I have decided that Fredericksburg is no longer a food destination and I definitely don't ever want to be here during a festival. Weekends are crowded enough but an event weekend is not good.

Our morning to leave, Sunday, and Carol and Joe brought our breakfast. I was able to pry the secret ingredient for their delicious vegetable hash out of them but I won't tell you here.Carol was even generous and kind enough to bring me some of the secret ingredient. Our breakfast, again, was fanstastic. In fact, the two breaksfasts at Cottages at Limestone on Main were the best meals we had the entire time we were in town. Today she brought Santa Fe Eggs, a baked egg dish with corn tortillas, green chile, chicken, cream, and egg with melted cheese. It was really tasty and I will definitely make it at home. There was a really nice, moist coffee cake with banana, fresh fruit and fresh juice. Carol gave me the recipe for the Santa Fe eggs but I will not post it here since I believe she's working on another cookbook. But, I will share it with Linda Johnson because I think it would be a perfect dish for her breakfast group.

If you want the recipes from Cottages at Limestone on Main go to their website and order the cookbook. Better yet, come to the B & B!

Read more »

Taco Party

Steve invited his friends from work--Lockheed-Martin, for a casual dinner party.
He asked me to make steak tacos, a chile-spice rubbed steak in fresh tortillas with roasted tomato salsa, pico de gallo, and fresh guacamole. No problem with that menu. I decided to have a guacamole bar for appetizers, inside the house, and then go outside for the tacos. I wanted to serve them straight from the grill, like street food, so each taco would be hot and fresh. For dessert I was told I had to make my Mexican chocolate cake for Bonnie, one of his co-workers who really likes this cake. I also wanted to make another cheesecake. Alexandra, my daughter, cleaned up the patio and we bought some new candles for the tables. I hung some white Christmas lights and with the beautiful fall weather the patio was a great gathering place. I set up the big gas grill off to the side, added some hickory chips to the grill for good smoke flavor, and set up a large table next to the grill. On the table was my chef knife, a large cutting board and all the "fixings" for the tacos, including the salsa, shredded lettuce, avocado salsa, and a container for tortillas, silverware, plates and napkins. I used sirloin steak for fajitas, a cut available at Central Market, which is perfect for fajitas or tacos. I also used Central Market flour and corn tortillas. They make the flour tortillas daily so they are always good. The steak had been marinating for 6 hours in the spice rub and lime juice. It grilled beautifully and as it was resting I started grilling the tortillas right on the grill on a Mexican tortilla griddle. Each person got a freshly grilled tortilla and hot thinly, sliced steak. This was very casual way to eat but I wanted to food to be hot and fresh, the way you'd get it from a street vendor. Judging by the comments, everyone loved the food!

Menu:

Guacamole bar with guacamole, goat cheese with herbs, sweet and spicy pecans, applewood smoked bacon, pickled jalapenos, roasted tomato salsa, cotija cheese, homemade flour tortilla chips.
Green chile cornbread

Steak tacos
Beans with chorizo


Turtle cheesecake with salted caramel and Guittard chocolate

Recipes:
Guacamole
4-5 large Haas avocados, mashed roughly
2 cloves garlic, mashed to paste
2 T cilantro, chopped
2 T fresh lime juice

Goat cheese with herbs
8 oz plain goat cheese
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely minced
1 tsp fresh basil, minced
1 tsp fresh dill, minced
1 T finely chopped cilantro
1 T milk
Mix together, add 1/4 tsp Kosher salt or more to taste. Form into a round disk using plastic wrap. Chill until serving time.

Sweet and spicy pecans
2 cups pecan halves
2 T butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ancho chile powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
salt to taste
Melt butter in skillet. Add pecans, the brown sugar. Cook over medium heat until pecans are well coated and mixture has light carmelized. Be careful, it will burn fast if you're not watching.
Place mixture in baking pan and bake for 3-5 minutes in 350 degree oven.

Roasted tomato salsa
6-8 medium fresh tomatoes, stemed and cut in half
4 cloves garlic
1 onion, quartered
2-3 jalapeno peppers, split in half
Place a T of oil on a large sheet pan. Roast all in oven at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour.
Process in blender of food processor. Add 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, process again.
Season with salt and pepper.

Steak tacos
4 1/2 pounds sirloin for fajitas (or skirt steak)
4 tsp paprika
2 tsp ancho chile powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chipoltle seasoning (or chipotle chile powder)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 T vegetable oil
Mix all spices together, rub on meat, place meat in large zip loc bag and add lime juice and oil.
Place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Take out 1 hour before cooking.

Beans with chorizo
1/2 lb fresh chorizo
1 lb pinto beans, freshly made or canned
1 T vegetable oil
2 T ancho chile powder
2 cups Monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup or more vegetable or chicken broth
Mash bean and add broth to made puree. Set aside. Heat pan and add chorizo. Brown chorizo and cook until done. Set aside. Using same pan, add 1 T oil, then the mashed beans and chorizo. Mix and cook over medium heat. Add the cheese and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I am posting a photo of the turtle cheesecake but not the recipe at this time.

Read more »

Santa Fe Part 2

Cafe Pasqual's whole wheat pancakes
Cafe Pasqual's Huevos Montulenos

The Chocolate Smith Santa Fe

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sauce

Chile Relleno Papusa with flank steak

For our breakfast on the way out of Santa Fe we stopped at Cafe Pasqual's, one of our old favorite places. After a long wait we were seated at the community table, a large table of strangers, basically. That wasn't bad since most of them were from Texas and very friendly.

I love the Huevos Rancheros and have made Cafe Pasqual's version many times with great success so I wanted to try something different. I ordered the Huevos Montulenos, a dish from El Salvador consisting of eggs on corn tortillas topped with black beans, feta cheese and green peas, with roasted tomato japapeno salsa, green chile sauce, and served with fried bananas. Sounds strange, doesn't it? It probably could have been excellent but it was merely OK, and not really a flavor combination I like. Something about the banana eaten alongside spicy food does not do anything for me. As for the dish itself, I believe Cafe Pasqual's is suffering from being too popular. The attention to detail is missing--not hot enough, a little bland on the sauce, etc.

Past meals there were 10 on a scale of 1-10 but this was not close. Steve's whole wheat pancakes were very tasty, but then pancakes are hard to mess up. I have also made Pasqual's recipe for whole wheat pancakes at home and liked them (but the Tecolote Atole Pinon pancakes were better.) I am glad we were able to enjoy Cafe Pasqual's a few years ago when quality was better and that I purchased both their cookbooks and learned to make my favorite foods.

The evening before, we wanted to have one more New Mexican meal on our last night in Santa Fe although we had lunch at Tecolote Cafe earlier today we figured we would order something different at Tune Up. Steve order the Papusa with flank steak and a chile relleno and I had the enchiladas with chicken and green chile sauce. My enchiladas were good but a little too heavy on the chicken and not enough sauce. The sauce is my favorite part! Steve's papusa was the best thing we had. A round pocket of masa exterior filled with beef and spices, then browned until crispy on the outside, the papusa was really great. It was crunchy on the outside, savory and flavorful inside and with the roasted tomato sauce had all the elements needed to make it a unique dish.

Steve's relleno was also tops. We highly recommend the Tune Up Cafe for authentic food in a quirky place and at very reasonable prices (about 1/2 of Pasqual's).

Tomorrow morning we leave for Fort Worth and will stop at Cafe Pasqual's for breakfast and our last meal in New Mexico. I will have to face Sandra Kidd, my personal trainer, on Wednesday and this week of eating way more than usual. I will say we walked at least 1 solid hour each day for exercise, not just strolling the plaza, and I brough one 10 pound dumbbell with me. It was a little funny getting through security at the airport when they spotted it in my carryon.

My "two treat meals a week" plan has extended to two treat meals a day plan I'm afraid, but back to the routine tomorrow and I'll be just fine.

Oops, I forget to mention our stop at Chocolate Smith. Chocolate Smith is a small chocolate boutique in Santa Fe that specializes in gourmet dark chocolate. I fell in love with their red chile chocolate pistachio bark last time we were here so we stopped and sampled some of their chocolates. We picked up some of the red chile bark. Just imagine the taste sensation of the best chocolate combined with a hot red chile surprise. Remember, chiles cause a release of endorphins and chocolate is also associated with positive feelings. A great combination. We also tried some of their dark chocolate bark with toffee and tamari almonds. Yum... They have a website if you're tempted to order some of their chocolates but I am going to try to make some bark and some scrap cookies like Mouse Chocolates in Ouray for Christmas gifts this year.

Read more »

Day 2: Santa Fe School of Cooking and Bob Cat Bite

Green Chile Cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite

The best red chile sauce ever
Chef Michelle Roetzer and a student

I wasn't planning on taking a class during this trip since it was a last minute kind of thing but Steve urged me to sign up for one anyway since he knows how much I enjoyed the one I took last year. I signed up for the class, Chile Amor, taught by Chef Michelle Roetzer, a New Mexico native. Red chile from pods, green chile sauce, red chile sauce from powder, and corn tortillas were the dishes taught. Michelle gave a detailed history of chiles in New Mexico, and lectured extensively on agriculture and history as well. Of course I already knew there was a reason I love chiles and being reminded of the way capsaicin works, releasing endorphins and creating the sense of well-being and happiness I've experienced, was worth the price of admission.

I have already made all the dishes taught at some point over the years. Personally, I have not enjoyed too many red chile dishes and often found the red chile sauce to be bitter and too strong tasting. Chef Michelle told us the "recipes" given in the school handout were OK but she would show us how her grandmother taught her to make red chile sauce from the pods. I was all over that. There were stations set up for green chile sauce, red chile sauce from powder, red chile sauce from pods, and tortillas. I didn't post myself at any of them so I could wander around. There were plenty of eager amateurs who couldn't wait to roast chiles and peel peppers. I make green chile sauce a lot so I figured that would not be so interesting, however I did like her technique of blending half the green chiles and leaving the other half chopped. She also recommended using a corn flour/oil mixture to thicken it rather than a traditional roux.

I was interested most in the red chile from pod demonstration. Michelle's method involved removing the seeds and stems from Hatch dried chiles (red), a few Cascabel chiles, and a couple Ancho chiles. Then some oil was heated and the dried chiles were cooked in the oil for quite a while. The onions and garlic were added, then some water. After they softened they were pureed in a Vitamix blender. They were strained through a China cap and then put back in the pan. A few pinches of cumin, coriander and oregano and a little salt and voila--red chile sauce.

It was a little bitter so she added a generous amount of honey and some agave nectar. Truthfully, I was not expecting to like it but it was amazing! It was spicy, hot but not too hot, flavorful in a deep, mysterious way, and intensely satisfying. I must say I loved it and want to recreate it in my kitchen as soon as possible.

We sat down at our tables to sample the tortillas and all the sauces. We passed around the homemade corn tortillas (delicious, by the way), with some local goat cheese. The red chile from pods and a little goat cheese on a fresh corn tortillas were excellent. The green chile sauce was great, perfect texture and flavor, and the red chile sauce from powder tasted kind of flat next to the sauce from pods. Taking the class was so valuable, just for the red chile sauce lessons. Out of the class I found two other chefs who were very experienced and seasoned, yet they wanted to increase their knowledge of sauce making. I am always eager to learn from others so I will continue taking classes here whenever I'm in town. Of course, after the class I immediately went to my favorite chile store and bought a bunch of Hatch dried red chiles, cascabel chiles, and some Hatch chile powder which I use for lots of dishes back home. I also bought some blue cornmeal, ancho chile powder, and other fun things from the cooking school.

We decided to go to a place called Bob Cat Bite for dinner. This is one of those places always shown on Travel channel when they feature hamburger paradise. Their green chile cheeseburger is supposed to be one of the best. We thought a burger sounded good after all the tortillas. The place is a few miles from our hotel but not too far and it's a very old and small place. We had to wait for a table and there was a long wait for our burgers. They were half pound premium beef burgers on some good buns but the meat was very thick and there was a lot of it. The burger was so thick I could not take a bite of the whole burger at one time. Overall, it was pretty good but I prefer both Fred's Texas Cafe in Fort Worth or Alamo Springs for the best burger. Still, I did eat it so I can't really complain. Oink.

Read more »

Santa Fe Part I

Huevos Rancheros

Atole Pinon Pancake with jalapeno bacon

Our first meal was last night at the Tune Up Cafe. I didn't take any photos but we really enjoyed the meal. It is a place we've been before and the have been written up as one of the top places in Santa Fe. It's a humble, small, off the tourist Plaza area, place opened in an old gas station building (tune up....) by Jesus and Charlotte Rivera. Jesus worked at the very popular Pasqual's on the Plaza at one time along with Charlotte who waited tables. They opened Tune Up a couple years ago and it's been a great success. They have the traditional green/red chile dishes but since Jesus is from El Salvador there are some interesting and delicious dishes such as papusas (corn meal round stuffed with meat and vegetables) and Huevos El Salvadorenos, scrambled eggs with scallions, tomatoes, beans, panfried bananas and crema, served with corn tortillas.

I love their chile rellenos, not something I usually order but I make an exception when I come to Santa Fe. Steve had the Las Enchiladas with chicken and the green chile sauce was outstanding.
I'm trying to figure out exactly what was in it but it had a roasted, deep, hot, yet sweet flavor combination. This morning we drove to Tecolote Cafe, another highly recommended and famous cafe featured on Food Network. Bill and Alice Jennison opened Tecolote Cafe in 1980 with the goal in mind to have the best breakfast in town. Tecolote Cafe was named New Mexico's best breakfast in the Food Network Magazines 50 best breakfasts in America. The featured dish was their Atole Pinon pancakes. In fact, not knowing the Food Network fact, I ordered the Atole Pinon pancake for my breakfast along with the jalapeno bacon. The pancake was made with blue cornmeal, flour and other ingredients as well as roasted pinons. I loved it!
Steve's huevos rancheros had a spicy green chile sauce that was just perfect. We were very pleased with the Tecolote Cafe and plan to go back. They have a cookbook coming out soon and I'm sure I'll get one. Time to head to the Santa Fe School of Cooking.

Read more »