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Taqueria Arandas Number 5

Taqueria Arandas #5 is a Jalisco-style taqueria just south of Oltorf on 1st Street. I grew up eating Jalisco-style tacos in Chicago, and this place makes me feel right at home.

The menu is big, and you can get breakfast or lunch all day. Someone brings you salsa and warm chips as soon as you sit down. I occasionally get tacos, but my absolute favorite is the avocado tostada. It's smeared with beans and layered with what's probably half an avocado, plus lettuce, tomatoes, Chihuahua cheese, and a big dollop of tangy crema.

They're less than three bucks, and at that price, two people can get in and out of there with a full meal and a couple of beers for under $15. Their breakfast is an even better deal. Plates with eggs, papas, and tortillas are around three bucks.

The food arrives shockingly quickly too. Often, I'll spy the waitress heading toward my table, and I think she must be coming back to ask a question when she's actually carrying my food over.

One word of caution for vegetarians: the bolillos used for the tortas are made with lard. That made for a very sad Mr. M. when he found out.

But my avocado tostadas still make me very, very happy.

Taqueria Arandas #5
2448 South First Street, Austin

Silken Chocolate Corn Chip Pie

At  a recent potluck, the host (my lovely friend at Green Door Hospitality) requested all the guests bring a sweet dish. She provided the savory dishes.

My mother-in-law makes a silken tofu pie that's really delicious; made with just a few ingredients, it's surprisingly rich and satisfying. I've also had vegan chocolate pudding at a couple of potlucks, and liked it a lot.

I knew there would be at least one vegan at the party, so I wanted to make something she could eat. Then I remembered another friend is gluten-free, and I wanted to make something for her too.

So instead of my usual graham-cracker crust, I tried something new: a tortilla chip crust. I looked for recipes online, but didn't find any. So I ended up crushing up the chips finely in my food processor and adding sugar, coconut oil, and a bit of water to bind it. When the texture looked sandy, I pressed it into a pie plate and baked it until golden, about 15 minutes.

While it cooled, I made the chocolate filling. It's a deliciously creamy mixture of melted dark chocolate, silken tofu, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and salt.

The tofu really thickens the whole thing up and makes it very much like a chocolate-mousse pie.

I was surprised and really happy with how well it turned out. The salty corn chip crust went really well with the chocolate, and it didn't get bogged down by the mousse.

Definitely delicious.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Tortilla Chip pie
Crust:
2 cups finely ground tortilla chips
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon sugar

Filling:
2 cups good-quality dark chocolate chips
One package silken tofu (my package was 16 oz, but many are smaller)
3 to 4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch pie plate. Put all the ingredients for the crust into the food processor and pulse until well combined. Add water and pulse until the mixture just comes together. Press the mixture into the pie plate and bake for about 15 minutes, until slightly golden. Cool completely.

Wash the bowl of the food processor before making the filling. In a large glass bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second bursts on half-power, stirring after each burst. Put the tofu in the food processor and process until very smooth. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and salt and pulse to combine. Add the melted chocolate and puree until smooth.

Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Tacodeli Lunch

I eat a lot of tacos. Really, I love tortillas and hot sauce, so if I can have those, with some tasty fillings between them, I'm very happy.

Tacodeli, which now has 3 locations in Austin, is one of my absolute favorite places to get them.

I can't speak to the deliciousness of their meat tacos, but their vegetarian options are stellar. On weekends, they serve breakfast tacos all day, with lunch starting at 11. So on weekends, choosing only two (my usual portion) is not easy. They have tons of ingredients, and they're all very fresh and flavorful. It's tough to pick just a few.

Usually, I start with their excellent roasted portabellos, and go from there. Seriously, they're thick cut, juicy, and earthy. Their eggs are really good too. They're from Vital Farms, a sustainable, happy-chicken-raising operation, which I definitely like.

At lunch, there are two mushroom-based tacos: the Space Cowboy, with corn, peppers, fresh guacamole, and queso freso; and the Frontera Fundido Portabello, with onion-and-poblano rajas and Jack cheese. I love them both, but I go more often for the Space Cowboy.

Then there's the Heather, one of my favorite tacos served anywhere. It's got smooth black beans and crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, and its crowning glory: a big slab of griddled queso fresco.

They don't mess around with the guacamole here, either. It's obviously fresh, and they pile on plenty.

The Papadulce is another frequent choice. It's got roasted sweet potatoes, corn, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a sweet-spicy sauce.

And everything is even better when topped with their Salsa Dona, a creamy jalapeno sauce that's pretty spicy, but super-flavorful.

We get Tacodeli for lunch or brunch once or twice a week, and if they were open for dinner, I'm sure we'd be there twice as often. The food is fresh, local when they can get local ingredients, and pretty cheap for two people to have lunch.

Vegetable Pot Pie

It's been warm in Austin, but last week it was a bit chilly. Chillyish. And when it's warm, I miss baking so during last week's kind of chilly weather, I made a pot pie.

I'd seen a recipe on The Kitchn for a chicken pot pie with a poured biscuit crust. I prefer biscuits to puff pastry, so this seemed perfect. I only had to modify the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand, some seasonal vegetables from the market.

Instead of The Kitchn's veggie blend, I used: carrots, onions, Jerusalem artichokes, Japanese turnips, cremini mushrooms, and shelled edamame. And in place of the sherry, I used 3 tablespoons of vinho verde.

I also used coconut milk in the crust recipe, and almond milk in the sauce recipe, since that's what I had on hand.

The result was crazy good. We ate it for days, even on the warm evenings, and it was just as a pot pie should be: savory, warming, and very comforting.

This one's going into regular rotation during our non-summer weather.

Miso-Glazed Brussels Sprouts

Oh man, I love Brussels sprouts. Even as a child, they were one of my favorite vegetables. My mom used to get the frozen ones that comes packed in a butter sauce, and eventually switched to growing them in her large backyard garden. I had never seen anything like the giant stalks with the little sprouts popping out all over them.

Now they’re super trendy on restaurant menus in Austin. I’ve been enjoying them at East Side King (at the Liberty), and at Uchiko for quite a while, just to mention two places. And their preparations are much more piquant than the simple roasted-with-butter one I usually make at home.

Today, I tried something new, a piquant Brussels sprouts recipe of my own. With a bunch of ingredients I had on hand, I whipped up a quick sauce that I glazed the panfried sprouts with.

Holy cow, they were good. The sharp sauce was a great complement to the strong flavor of the vegetable. The Brussels sprouts came through all earthy and sweet, and the sweet-sour-salty-spicy glaze matched it perfectly.

 Miso-Glazed Brussels Sprouts

2 teaspoons white miso (this is really mild)

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 T. brown sugar

¼ teaspoon red chili flakes

Juice of half a lemon

1 Tablespoon sunflower or safflower oil

1 pint Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, halved

Whisk together the miso, soy sauce, brown sugar, chili flakes, and lemon juice. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the Brussels sprouts. Try to get them cut-side down, to help maximize the browning of the cut inner leaves. After about 3 minutes, flip one over and check for browning. If it’s well browned, from the center to the outer edges, stir and keep frying for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until they’re just beginning to get tender. If it’s not yet browned all the way across the cut side of the sprouts, keep cooking for another minutes before beginning to stir.

Turn the heat off and pour the miso mixture over the Brussels sprouts. Stir to coat and serve.

Carrot Tarragon Soup

This weekend's downtown farmers market was small. All the venders lined just one street, and I was a little worried there wouldn't be much to be found.

I was glad to be wrong. There were plenty of folks with fresh fruit and veggies. I got a beautiful bunch of carrots from Bar W Farm, and couldn't wait to use them.

Coconut, to me, is one of those foods that can make almost anything delicious. The creamy, tropical flavor is one of my favorites. And I thought it'd go really well with the sweet, juicy carrots.

Lick Ice Creams, in South Austin, has a carrot-tarragon flavor that I adore. It's sweet and a little herbal, and really nice and creamy. That inspired me to try tarragon in my soup.

Though it used only a handful of ingredients, the soup was a success. It was earthy and creamy, with the delicate anise flavor from the tarragon shining through. Next time, I think I may try orange or tangerine juice in place of the lemon, just to switch things up.

Carrot Tarragon Soup

1 can coconut milk (the full-fat stuff)

2 Tablespoons roughly chopped tarragon, divided

1 Tablespoon sunflower or safflower oil

1 pound carrots

2 cups vegetable stock

Juice and zest of half a lemon

Salt, to taste 

In a small pot, combine the coconut milk with 1 tablespoon of the tarragon. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it begins to simmer. Turn the heat to very low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the tarragon steep in the milk.

Meanwhile, chop the carrots in bite-size pieces. (This is just to increase the surface area of the carrots. They'll be pureed at the end, so don't worry about them being attractive.) In a large saucepan, heat the oil over high heat. Add the carrots and a pinch of salt and cook until they're beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. 

Add the vegetable stock to the carrots, and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk, add the remaining tarragon, and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and puree the soup with an immersion blender. Stir in the lemon juice and zest and serve.

Onion Rolls

Early in our relationship, M and I had a pretty good Saturday morning routine. We'd walk to the Urbana Farmers Market nice and early. There, we'd load up on organic produce, then head over to Mirabelle and load up on pastry.

Mirabelle makes excellent pastries and breads, sweet and savory. One of my regular indulgences was their onion roll. It's a slightly sweet yeast dough rolled around sweet cooked onions, tangy cream, and crunchy poppy seeds.

We haven't lived in Urbana for years, and I've only seen the onion rolls at Mirabelle. With the onions, cream, and poppy seeds, it definitely has an Eastern European flavor to it, which isn't in abundance in Austin.

I thought of the onion rolls a few days ago, and I had to have one, so I took a shot at a recipe.

I made a no-knead pizza dough recipe, which has turned out to be pretty versatile. Then we spread the rolled-out dough with Full Quiver Farms neufchatel cheese and sprinkled on sauteed onions and poppy seeds and rolled it up cinnamon-roll style. (We made another roll with sauteed apple, crystallized ginger, and brown sugar.)

Then we sliced the rolls and let them rise before baking until golden brown with some melted butter brushed over the tops.

The rolls were perfect. The dough was browned on the outside and nicely fluffy and chewy on the inside. The onion filling was creamy, sweet, and satisfyingly poppy.

Onion Rolls
This is a full recipe for onion rolls, though I made half onion, half apple. For the apple-ginger filling, halve the filling ingredients for the onion rolls and substitute with 1 chopped and sauteed tart apple,  2 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger, and 3 tablespoons brown sugar.

Dough for 1 pizza
2 tablespoons safflower (or other vegetable) oil
2 large onions, sliced
8 ounces neufchatel
1/4 cup poppy seeds
3 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook until very soft, but not browned. This can take 10 to 15 minutes. Set the onions aside to cool.

Roll the dough into a large rectangle. Spread the neufchatel on the dough, going all the way to the edges. Sprinkle the onions and poppy seeds over the cheese. Roll up the dough like a cinnamon roll, starting with one of the long sides of the rectangle. Place seam-side down and cut into 1.5-inch sections.

Preheat the oven to 375. Place the rolls on their sides, almost touching, in a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Remove the towel, brush the melted butter on the tops of the rolls (if using), and bake until golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Fried Tofu

 

We eat a lot of tofu in this house. I'm a big fan of the stuff, cooked or uncooked, and I love the texture that frying imparts to tofu.

But I have an aversion to deep-frying, for a few reasons:

1. Deep-frying is scary. Hot oil can burn skin pretty easily, and it can splatter and splutter everywhere, making a mess.
2. It's expensive. We try to cook with good oils, and it feels wasteful to use quarts of oil to cook one dish. 
3. If the temperature's not right, your food can get greasy. Who wants that?

So we panfry. Panfrying also gives the tofu a nicely chewy exterior, and it uses much less oil than deep-frying does. It can still splutter, especially if the tofu goes into the pan wet, but it's not too bad.

Fried Tofu
1 tablespoon sunflower or safflower oil
1 block extra-firm tofu, chopped however you want it in your finished dish

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tofu to the pan in a single layer and cook, without stirring, for a few minutes, until the underside turns golden brown. Stir with a heatproof spatula and cook some  more, stirring occasionally, until the cubes are mostly browned on all sides. This can take about 10 minutes. Sometimes a side or two of the tofu doesn't get browned, but it's not really a big deal.

Serve with any sauce, or add to a dish like a stir-fry or stew.

Oven-Roasted Broccoli

 

We watched an old episode of Good Eats the other day. The show focused on broccoli, one of my favorite vegetables.

Broccoli season has arrived in Austin, and I got a huge two-pound crown from Harvest Time Farm Stand at the farmers market on Saturday morning.

Alton Brown's recipe for  Oven Roasted Broccoli looked wonderful. I roast broccoli a lot at home, and we usually eat it dressed with just olive oil, salt, and chili flakes. This recipe has toasted bread crumbs and cheese, making it heartier and good for the cold snap that just came in.

I made the recipe with a few modifications. There was no panko in our pantry, so I made fresh bread crumbs in the food processor and toasted them in the oven. I also added lemon zest and juice to the finished recipe. Then each bowl got topped with a fried egg and a few roasted tomatoes.

It turned out really well. The broccoli was still a bit crunchy, and the bread crumbs and cheese gave it a deep nutty flavor. The original recipe calls for either Cheddar or Parmesan. I used Cheddar, but I think I'll try Parmesan next time. The Cheddar, while delicious, didn't get distributed evenly in the broccoli, gathering in chunks. Don't get me wrong; the clumps were salty, crunchy, and delicious. But I think the Parmesan may coat the broccoli more evenly.

Fall-Time Escabeche

I love all kinds of pickled vegetables. And with all the great produce we get in Austin, I find myself making pickles pretty regularly.

Growing up, I ate a lot of Mexican food at a little neighborhood taqueria in Chicago. The place, called La Fiesta, is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (and has been for as long as I can remember).

When you sit down there, nice ladies bring out a basket of chips with a bowl of salsa and a bowl of escabeche, a spicy and sour jalapeno and carrot pickle. A few other places in the neighborhood put in other vegetables, like cauliflower, but I always chose La Fiesta because of their spicier version, as well as their giant burritos (which NEVER have rice in them).

And in Austin, this is the season when carrots and jalapenos are ripe at the same time. And because cauliflower and onions are also in season here, I put those in too.

First, I chopped all the vegetables up. I could only get tiny carrots at the market, but they were sweet and tender.

 

Then I sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil. I got a couple of jars together and put a few peppercorns, a few coriander seeds, and a little bit of dried oregano in each one. (Normally, I'd add a bay leaf or two to each jar, but I was out.)

I made a brine with water, vinegar, and salt and heated it to dissolve the salt. Then I packed the veggies into the jars, covered them with the brine, and slapped a couple of lids on them. When they were cool, I stuck them in the fridge, where they'd start curing.

 

I'll find out in a couple of days how it went. The hardest part is waiting. For the flavors to really come together, it takes at least a few days, but really, it's better after a week or so. It's got to be refrigerated, since the jars are unprocessed, but they seem to keep for a few months. I have a jar in the fridge from earlier in the season (sans cauliflower), and it's really delicious.

Escabeche
This is more of a guideline. You can use whatever vegetables are available, and flavor the brine with different spices. But for me, it always has to have at least carrots and jalapenos.

4 cups bite-size vegetables 
3 to 4 jalapenos, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar (I used mostly cider vinegar, with a little bit of white vinegar.)
1 heaping teaspoon kosher salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon oregano

Saute the veggies and jalapenos in the olive until just beginning to become tender, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the water, vinegar, and salt, stirring until the salt dissolves.

Divide the bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and oregano between 2 pint-size jars. Pack the vegetables into the jars and pour the brine over. Cover the jars with lids and allow to cool to room temperature. Let it sit in the fridge for at least a few days before eating. They should last a few months, but they usually get eaten much quicker.

Bouldin Brunch

 

Last weekend, we went to Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse for brunch. It's a place we go to a lot. It's in the neighborhood, the food is really good (plus pretty healthy and all vegetarian), and the staff are nice.

We usually go for dinner, and tend not to even try brunch. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, the place can get pretty crowded. But we decided to chance it, and walked on over. The host told us we'd have to wait about 20 minutes, and we decided that'd be okay. It would have taken us at least that long to walk back to the house, get the car, and drive somewhere else.

So we got one of those goofy little buzzer things and went outside. Our table was ready in about 5 minutes, which was a really nice surprise.

We got the special, which was biscuits and gravy, and a tofu-broccoli salad. The salad is something I get pretty often.

Biscuits and gravy

Tofu and broccoli salad

The biscuits and gravy were really satisfying. The biscuits were light, and the mushroom gravy was rich and savory. The salad was great. I love the salty, sesame-flavored broccoli that's cooked but still nice and crisp. They also put on a ton of sunflower sprouts, which are really fresh and nutty. And the garlic-tahini dressing is earthy and comforting.

To drink, I tried the Kool Keith, made from two shots of espresso and chocolate syrup, over ice. The drink was served in a pint glass, making it much bigger than I expected, but it was sweet and refreshing. And caffeinated.

We'll still be back for dinner probably a lot sooner than we'll be back in for brunch, but I would definitely try it again.

Micheladas at Hotel San Jose

We've been experiencing a little cold snap here, with morning temperatures around 40 degrees. It sort of broke today. Well, it was still 40 degrees in the morning, but it got up to almost 80 this evening. The weather is weird here.

Last Thursday, I saw that the chilly weather was on its way, so I took my sweetie out for a drink at the patio bar at the Hotel San Jose.

Hotel San Jose is on South Congress, and the bar is in a little quiet courtyard next to the pool. The atmosphere outside is relaxed and chic. Tucked away from the noisy avenue, it's slightly secluded and feels fancy.

It's great to sit along the perimeter under the grapevines that canopy some of the tables and people watch (and pooch watch on the dog-friendly patio).

We've never been inside the hotel, but it looks really nice. And kind of expensive.

We each ordered a michelada, a salty-spicy beer cocktail. The San Jose's michelada is delicious, with lots of fresh lime juice and cracked black pepper.When you order one, a glass arrives with ice and the michelada mix, which you pour the beer into.

Salty and spicy

Served over ice, it's an excellent drink for a warm summer (or fall) evening. And at $4 for a michelada made with Modelo, it's not extravagant, even at the semi-swanky hotel.

Passion Vine

When I was in Peru this February, I ate a lot of granadillas, a kind of passion fruit. The flavor was so sweet, floral, and tropical, I knew I'd miss them when I got back home. And because a single passion fruit can cost at least four bucks at the grocery store (when you can get them for about a fifty cents a pound in Lima), I definitely didn't want to buy them.

I found a Texas Maypop plant at the Great Outdoors here in Austin. The Maypop is a native Texas variety, named because they pop loudly when stepped on.

I planted the vine, which was pretty small, in the backyard in early March and trained it on a tomato cage. Now in October, the vine has really filled out. It sends our shoots that can grow a couple of feet in a single day.

And the flowers it produces are gorgeous. They're big and weird, with purple and green petals and something that looks like an alien popping right out of the middle.

Crazy alien flower

A couple of weeks ago, I went outside to tuck the new tendrils behind the wires of the tomato cage, and I was shocked to see a fruit. I'm not sure if it's going to taste good, or if it's going to produce more than just the one, but I can't wait to see what happens.

First Maypop

Early Fall in Maine

 

We went to Maine a couple of weeks ago to attend the beautiful wedding of a very sweet couple. Because we'd never been to the state, M and I stayed s few extra days in Portland to see the city. And eat some food.

The first thing we did was check out the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth. Afterward, we dunked our feet in the Atlantic and watched a few dogs fetch sticks from the waves.

At a farmers market, we found some ground cherries, a treat I hadn't had since I lived in Madison, Wisconsin, several years ago. These were much more flavorful and piquant than the mellow fruit I used to eat. Ground cherries look a lot like gooseberries, but they're much sweeter. They have a papery skin, similar to the skin on tomatillos, that you peel back before popping the fruit in your mouth and popping the fruit, and then the little seeds inside, with your teeth. It's pretty fantastic.

Later, I had a glass of local blueberry mead on the patio of Portland Lobster Company while enjoying some live music on the dock. Warm for Maine, the 70-degree early evening was refreshing and gorgeous.

We had done breakfast at Hot Suppa, an excellent little diner. I had some baked Cheddar grits with an arugula salad and eggs. I love grits, and I've got to try to recreate this.

 

Between Portland and Rockland, we stopped by Beth's, a huge farm stand in Warren. They had these incredible bottles of grape juice with whole grapes inside. And of tons if other produce. But check out the grape juice!

And if course, we stopped a cute little chocolate shop. Sweet Marguerites had some unusual but delicious flavors like sweet potato caramel and fig and port. We bought a box of five and are them pretty quickly.

Roasted Baby Eggplant

Cute little things.

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables. That said, eggplant season is so long in Austin that I often get tired of them by the fall.

But when I saw these sweet baby eggplants at the farmers market, I had to try them.

Roasting is always a good option when I prepare eggplant. It's super simple and it brings out the natural succulence of the eggplant, making it sweet and juicy.

      

Here's how I made them:
1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise.
2. Toss them in a big bowl with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
3. Bake them at 375 for about 30 minutes.
4. Eat with your fingers. (It's hard not to, really.)

Green Corn Project 2012 Fall Festival Tickets on Sale

The Green Corn Project's annual Fall Festival is October 28th. Green Corn Project aims to increase access to affordable, sustainable, nutritious food. Entirely volunteer run, the organization does this by installing organic vegetable gardens in folks' backyards, and at schools, community centers, and shelters.

Put on at Boggy Creek Farm, one of Austin's favorite urban farms with friendly farmers and gorgeous chickens, this festival will the fourth one I attend, and it keeps getting bigger each year.

During the festival, chefs and restaurants set up around the front yard at the farm, cooking demonstrations are out on the back porch, and there's a silent auction in the barn. With live music and lots of good food to eat, it's an excellent way to spend an afternoon and a bargain for a fundraiser like this at $35.  Tickets are here.

Delicata Tart

I had several delicata squash on the counter, and some really nice butter in the fridge, so it seemed like the perfect time to make a squash tart.

Delicata squash are beautifully striped and mildly nutty in flavor. They're similar in taste to butternut or acorn squash, and take very well to roasting. Here's what they look like when you roast them and take a scoop out of one to taste it:

We cook a lot at home, and I couldn't believe the effort-to-deliciousness ratio in this dish. It was super-easy to make, and I did it all with ingredients I had on hand. The old man and I ate it for dinner, then for breakfast the next morning with scrambled eggs and green-chile yogurt sauce. I took it to the office and ate it cold for lunch. All good. All very good.

Here's what I did:

After roasting three medium squashes, I removed all their flesh and mashed it with my hands. (Yes, that happened. I forgot the potato masher had broken, strangely enough, and the fork was just too slow.) Then I mixed in two small onions that I'd caramelized in butter, one farm egg, a good handful of grated Parmesan, a few big spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, and salt and pepper.

I prepared a butter-rich tart dough, pressed it into the pan, and baked it.

Before

And after

Then I crumbled a few ounces of blue cheese in the baked tart shell, spread the filling on and baked it until set.

Then I went nuts waiting for the thing to cool. But man, it was worth it. The crust had a wonderfully nutty brown-butter flavor, which went perfectly with the sweet squash. And the piquant blue cheese added really good saltiness. 

Delicata Squash Tart
1 recipe tart dough
3 delicata squash
1 tsp. vegetable oil
2 T. butter
2 small onions, thinly sliced
1 oz. Parmesan, finely grated
1/3 c. Greek yogurt
1 egg
Salt and pepper
3 oz. blue cheese

Prepare and bake the tart dough. Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. (You can bake them like pumpkin seeds, or discard them.) Rub the oil on the cut sides of the squash, and place face-down on a baking sheet. Bake until easily pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes.Remove from the oven, but leave the oven on.When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the skins into a medium mixing bowl and mash until mostly smooth.

While the squash is roasting, caramelize the onions: melt the butter in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until well browned, stirring often (this can take 30 minutes or more, but the flavor is worth it).

Add the onions to the squash, then stir in the Parmesan, yogurt, egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Crumble the blue cheese into the bottom of the tart shell, then spoon and spread the squash mixture over it.

Bake in the center of the oven until set, about 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, slice, and serve.

Papalote Taco House

 

You can find good food in unexpected places in Austin. In other cities I've lived in, strip-mall restaurants were usually best avoided. 

Here though, strip malls are perfectly good (sometimes really good) places to find restaurants.

Papalote Taco House, which shares a block with a ThunderCloud Subs shop, looks kind of surf-y on the outside, and has very good tacos inside.

For a small place, they have some excellent vegetarian options. Their tortillas are store bought, but the corn tortillas are simple and nice and corny. 

I don't think I've ever left the place without eating one of their Tortas de Coliflor tacos. The tortas are little cakes of cooked and mashed cauliflower mixed with cheese, fried and coated with a bittersweet guajillo chili sauce. Topped with a little bit of shredded cabbage, queso fresco, and a sliver of avocado, they're salty, sweet, spicy, and a little bitter. 

And though the guajillo sauce is spicy, I can't resist a little bit of their green sauce.

Tortas de coliflor and hongos y epazote tacos

The Mushroom y Epazote taco is earthy and rich, with lots of chewy hominy. (I like to mix the red and green sauces on this one.)

A Tumble of Tomatoes

My very sweet friends at Beyond the Green Door recently stopped by and brought us a package of their garden bounty - fresh Roma tomatoes.

A couple of months ago, I saw David Lebovitz's recipe for Oven-Roasted Tomatoes. They looked great, but I don't grow tomatoes, and they're rather expensive at the market. So I hadn't tried them yet. This garden gift gave me the opportunity to roast my own.

I loosely followed David's directions, omitting the herbs and pepper and increasing the garlic.

I sliced the tomatoes in half, cored them, and tossed them with some good olive oil, sea salt, and lots of sliced garlic.

Then I lay them neatly cut-side down.

I baked them for over two hours, and ended up with this: A tangy-sweet and deeply flavored pan of tomatoes.

They were great on their own, with simple bread and butter, and on sandwiches with baked tofu.

Thanks, guys.