Pancetta-Wrapped Peaches on the Grill

Ripe, run-down-your-chin juicy peaches, wrapped in pancetta with a basil leaf and grilled just long enough for the pork fat to melt into the peach and crisp up around the edges and the peach sugar to caramelize.

This. Is. A. Flavor. Bomb.

You put it in your mouth and take one bite and it's almost too much to be able to process. You will lose yourself for a moment. Or two. This is smack your hand on the table and moan good.

And yeah, the bed of arugula underneath makes for a perfect peppery bite in contrast to all that decadence. And there's a dressing of peach-infused white balsamic combined with basil-infused olive oil that you could drink up by itself. (I discovered the oil and vinegar at Con' Olio.)

But the warm, juicy peaches and the salty melted pork fat. Whew!

Don't make this for just anyone. Make this for someone you are serious about because they will be serious about you after one bite.

You could do these as an appetizer, with one peach half per person on a little bed of arugula. Or be gluttons, like we were, and have several on a larger salad as your dinner. Because, really, what are you going to serve after this?

Nuff said. I'm not overselling. Go and try for yourself. Quick, before the peaches are gone. (Get organic ones so you can leave the skins on. They hold together better on the grill that way.)

Tip: keep the pancetta in the fridge until you are ready to assemble, it's easier to handle when it's still cold.



Grilled Peaches with Basil and Pancetta

3-4 organic peaches
6-8 slices pancetta
one bunch basil
6-8 wooden skewers

2 tablespoons basil-infused olive oil
2 tablespoons peach-infused white balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt

vegetable oil

two large handfuls of arugula (or arugula and spinach)


Soak the skewers in water for about 30 minutes to keep them from burning on the grill. Drain and set aside.

Get your charcoal-fire or gas grill going. (We've also done this on a grill pan over the stove.)

Cut the peaches in half. One half should let go of the peach pit fairly easily. For the other clingy half, slide the point of a paring knife around the edge of the pit and just slightly under it until it releases from the pit. Do this with all of the peaches and set them on a plate.

Take one peach half, lay a basil leaf over the well in the center, and wrap a slice of pancetta around it tightly, until it overlaps. Repeat with the remaining peach halves.

Take the remaining basil, stack the leaves on top of each other and slice them or roll them up and snip into slivers with kitchen shears. Set aside for serving.

Run a skewer through the peach halves about a quarter-inch from the surface of the cut side. Repeat with one or two more peach halves on the same skewer. Push them up next to each other as close as they'll go. Brush or rub a little vegetable oil on the cut side and the back side of the peaches.

Brush or wipe the grill grate with vegetable oil.

Place the skewers on the grill with the cut side up (round side on the fire). Grill over medium-high heat for about five minutes. Flip over and grill another 2-3 minutes on the cut side. Remove from grill.

Put a large handful of arugula on each plate. Sprinkle with the leftover bits of basil.

Remove peaches from the skewers and serve over the arugula. Drizzle with the dressing and serve warm.


Serves... well, you decide how many. (We'd have this as dinner for the two of us.)

Adapted from Food & Wine.

Spanish flavors for World Cup partying

I'm still bummed that the U.S. didn't make it into the World Cup final this weekend. But the big match-up between Spain and the Netherlands still promises to be fun spectating and has me craving Spanish flavors. Got me thinking that it might be time to make some more gazpacho and paella.



It's the perfect time of year to make the most of the fresh veggies at the farmers' market in this recipe for gazpacho from The French Laundry. I've blogged about it before, but thought this weekend would be a good time to make it again. It's really easy to make but requires a little planning — the secret to the big flavor here — you put all the veggies in a pot together overnight in the fridge and then blend them together the next day. It's amazing how much more flavorful the end result is after that time in the fridge. And be sure to make the balsamic glaze as well. It brings out all the sweetness and flavor in the gazpacho.



If you're having folks over to watch the World Cup this weekend, this grilled paella makes the perfect party food. We had it as part of an incredible feast put on by our friends, Joanne and Larry. The recipe they used first appeared in The New York Times, but I'll always think of it as their paella and remember making it in their backyard. They used chicken, chorizo, shrimp and clams, but you could use whatever meats you like. The recipe is actually fairly simple, it just takes a bit of prep a paella pan and a grill. But it's so worth the effort.

For more Spanish flavors, check chef José Andrés web site, Jose Made in Spain. These flavor combinations make my mouth water:

• Cabrales blue cheese with apples and olive oil
• Cauliflower with olives and dates
• Cold soup of Idiazábal cheese with wild mushrooms
• Galician-style chicken empanadas
• Manchego with tomato, thyme and walnuts
• Mahon cheese with quince paste
• Sautéed green beans with garlic and Spanish ham
• Seared piquillo peppers stuffed with roncal cheese
• Seared tuna belly with sesame seeds and piquillo peppers

Recipes for all of those can be found here.

Al Pastor Tacos for Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May) is coming up and in Austin, that's a good excuse for a Mexican feast. The holiday celebrates the Mexican army's win over the French in a battle in 1862. In the U.S., especially Texas, it's a celebration of Mexican heritage.

Pork al pastor is traditionally cooked on a rotisserie like a Middle Eastern shawarma. It's roasted with a piece of pineapple on top to baste it as it cooks. The best al pastor has tender, juicy meat with crispy, lacquered outside bits. My favorite part of al pastor is that texture paired with the distinct flavor of pineapple.

We've been working our way around town, whenever we hear a tip or recommendation of a good al pastor taco somewhere in Austin, whether it's from a restaurant or a little taco trailer. So far, the best we've tasted have come from Al Pastor on Riverside or Piedras Negras on Cesar Chavez at Pleasant Valley. If you've got a favorite in Austin, leave a comment, we'd love to try it.

But we've also been experimenting at home. I clipped a pork kebab al pastor recipe from the sorely missed Gourmet magazine and we've been tinkering with it as our base. They take boneless pork shoulder, cut it into cubes, skewer it with pineapple and onions, and then grill it with a pineapple basting sauce. It's served with a tangy salsa of roasted tomatoes and onions combined with more of the pineapple basting sauce to form an incredible pineapple salsa.

We've experimented with this recipe quite a bit. We ended up wanting a lot more of the basting sauce and salsa so we've increased those quantities. I like having leftovers of the salsa. It has a bit of vinegar in it which means it keeps well and it's great on grilled fish or even corn tortilla chips. It's incredibly refreshing. As it heats up outside, I start to crave a tangy, zippy, fresh salsa. That's the taste of summer in Austin. And this one has become my favorite.

We've tried making this with different kinds of meat — pork shoulder, which requires a fair amount of prep to cut down into bite-sized cubes and as a shortcut, with big, fat boneless pork chops, which were faster to trim. The pork chops turned out to be too lean though. You need some fat to keep the meat moist so you can blast it a bit at the end to get that crispy texture you want on the outside.

This is a damn fine al pastor. But in the pursuit of perfection, we're going to keep experimenting to fine tune the texture to achieve the crispy edges we're looking for. Next time, we're thinking of trying pork butt instead. We'll debone the roast, slice it open lengthwise to get more surface area and then grill it in a large piece instead of cutting it into chunks. After it's seared on one side, flip it, brush with the basting sauce, then later, flip it again, and baste the other side. When it's cooked through, shred it, then if you like it really crispy, reheat and sear the shredded meat again before serving. A lot of prep, I know. But this is all in the service of a masterpiece. Tonight, we were trying the pork chops, so the meat was cut into small cubes so that it would cook quickly and not dry out. The meat was tender but we think it needs more fat to hold up to the blast of heat it needs to get some good crispy edges.

We also added a bit more chile. We like the smokiness of chipotle, so we used that. Chipotle powder is easy. But if you like some other dried chile, use that. The original recipe called for three dried chiles de arbol. If you use dried whole chiles, you'll want to heat them over medium heat in a dry skillet to toast them about 30 seconds on each side. Also, we have Mexican oregano growing in our garden. It's great for seasoning taco fillings, beans, you name it. You can substitute dried.

Note: Early on, we also tried marinating the meat in the pineapple basting sauce and while it imparts great flavor, the citrus essentially cooks the meat while it's marinating and destroys the texture. It just turns to paste. So don't do that!

Whether you cook it as kebabs, in a big piece and shred it or on a rotisserie, this is some good eating. Serve it on fresh corn tortillas with the pineapple salsa, some cilantro, roasted onions and pineapple and you'll be feasting.



Al Pastor Kebabs

Pineapple Basting Sauce and Salsa
1/2 white onion, peeled and sliced in half
1 + 1 teaspoon chipotle powder, separate
1 whole pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of fresh Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
32 ounces canned fire-roasted tomatoes
6 tablespoons water
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Broil your onion half on your grill or under the broiler for about five minutes on each side, until it's softened and charred.

While that's cooking, make your pineapple basting sauce. In a blender, combine one teaspoon chipotle powder, pineapple, vinegar, oil, garlic, oregano and cumin. Pour into a bowl and set aside. Hang on to the blender, you're about to use it again. You don't even have to clean it out though.

When the onion has finished roasting, put it in the blender. Add the tomatoes, one teaspoon chipotle powder and water. Blend until smooth. Add cilantro and 3/4 cup of the pineapple basting sauce. Blend again to combine.

For the meat
2 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 large white onion, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 fresh pineapple, cut into 1-inch chunks

To serve
chopped fresh cilantro
lime wedges
fresh corn tortillas (approximately 16-20)

Prep your grill (medium-high heat). If you're doing kebabs, toss the pork in the remaining pineapple basting sauce. (Don't do this ahead or it'll ruin the texture of the meat.) Then immediately thread the pork, pineapple chunks and onions alternately on to skewers.

Grill until cooked through about 15 minutes, flipping them over about halfway through.

To serve, steam the tortillas in a damp kitchen towel in a microwave for about 1-2 minutes until steaming. Serve kebabs on the warm tortillas with pineapple salsa, cilantro and lime wedges.

Adapted from Gourmet.

Flatbreads with Halloumi, Tomatoes and Mint

We were a little late getting our tomatoes into the ground this spring and so are just now being treated to a bounty of orange, red and green fruits. We've been eating them in everything while they last. It's really heating up out there — 106 degrees yesterday — so our tomato days are numbered since they probably won't keep flowering in this heat. While we can, we're greedily eating them like candy by the handful and in any other way we can think of. This is one of my favorite and one of the easiest ways to enjoy them, especially those sweet little Sun Golds and Sweet 100s.



Using your favorite flatbread — I usually use pitas — you can either grill or toast this little Mediterranean pizza for a perfect snack, appetizer or light summer meal. I've been making this for years, after seeing it on an episode of Nigella Lawson's cooking show. It was perfection from the first taste and I've been making it this way ever since. That same episode introduced me to halloumi cheese. Halloumi is firm, mild, sheep's milk cheese made in Cyprus. The fun thing about it is that you can grill it and it's high melting point keeps it from oozing all over the place. It is a bit salty though, so I sometimes soak it in water for a few minutes before using and that takes it right out.

You can find halloumi at most cheese counters. In Austin, I usually buy it frozen from our Middle Eastern market, Phoenicia. It's about half the price there of Central Market or Whole Foods. I buy several at a time and keep them in the freezer. They thaw in minutes. I also get fresh pitas when I'm at Phoenicia. Like fresh tortillas, they are so much richer in flavor when freshly baked.

I have a big mint plant out in the herb garden and I use it all the time. But this little pizza uses dried mint and somehow here it works magic when roasted with the tomatoes. The softer flavor of the dried mint goes all sweet when heated and really compliments the cherry tomatoes.

This is one of those things you make on the fly and don't really need measurements for. Each regular-sized pita makes enough for one as a main dish snack or two or three as an appetizer. Make as many as you like.



Flatbread with Halloumi, Tomatoes and Mint

whole, fresh pita breads or flatbreads
halloumi cheese
handful of cherry tomatoes
olive oil
dried mint

First, remove the halloumi from the packaging and place in a small bowl. Cover with water and soak for 3-5 minutes to remove excess salt. Drain and then chop or crumble into bite-sized chunks.

Slice cherry tomatoes in half and sprinkle over pita.

Scatter halloumi chunks on to pita as well.

Drizzle with olive oil. Then sprinkle with a pinch of dried mint.

Toast under broiler or place on hot grill until the tomatoes are softened and bubbly and the cheese is golden around the edges.

Slice into quarters and enjoy!

Adapted from Nigella Lawson.

Field Trip: Snow's BBQ -- the best in Texas?

Last summer, Texas Monthly did a round-up of the 50 best barbecue joints in Texas. Now in Texas, "barbecue" usually means beef, or more precisely, brisket. I grew up in the South. (Folks in other parts sometimes get confused and include Texas in "The South." But Texas is a whole other thing.) Where I grew up, bbq meant pork. And that, in my opinion, is as it should be. My first true barbecue love will always be pulled pork, preferably with some mustard sauce. But that's just me. Around Austin and Central Texas, we are in the center of Texas bbq territory.

Many of the spots mentioned in the Texas Monthly list were familiar names. But one, only an hour east of Austin, and garnering the top spot, was completely unfamiliar. It is Snow's in Lexington.



This should explain why we got up before 7am on a Saturday morning to meet up with a friend and make the trek to Lexington in search of... THE. BEST. BBQ. IN. TEXAS.

Snow's is only open on Saturdays. One of the guys manning the pit told us he'd put the brisket on around midnight the night before. It smokes all night and is ready when they open at 8am. They sell beef brisket, pork, sausage, ribs, and chicken until they sell out. Sometimes that's at 10am, sometimes closer to noon.

If you're going to drive an hour for barbecue — before you've even had breakfast — you want to make dang sure that there's going to be some meat left when you get there. So we hit the road a little before 8am and started making our way out there. We dawdled around, making a pit stop for the dog, getting a little lost in Lexington, and then like the gawking tourists that we were, taking some photos. By the time we got in there, it was probably around 9:30ish. Lucky for us, it was a slow day and there were only a few cars in the lot and one or two tables with folks tucking into some big ole plates of meat next to the smokers. We went in and ordered one of (almost) everything. You can get combo plates with two meats, cole slaw, potato salad, onions, pickles, white bread and beans for $10.95. You'll be given a squeeze bottle of sauce in an old Ozarka water bottle to take out to the picnic tables with you.



We tried the brisket, ribs, pork and sausage. I had to fend off greedy fingers to get any photos before it was demolished. You have to be mentally ready to eat four kinds of smoked meat before 10am, but we were up for it.

As I mentioned, bbq for me, is really about pork. Lucky for me, since I don't live so close to the epicenter of Carolina-style bbq, my husband makes what I've always thought is the best smoked pork with mustard sauce I've ever had. (And that wasn't even one of the top 10 reasons why I married him.) So I'm an admittedly hard sell when it comes to Texas brisket. But now I get it.




Snow's brisket is by far the best brisket we've ever tasted. Hands down. Their pork was very tasty, although a little fattier than I'd like. The ribs were good and the sausage just OK, a little dry. We ran out of steam before trying the chicken. Of the sides, even though I'm not a big mayo-style potato salad lover, theirs was very good. It went perfectly with the smoked brisket. The beans and cole slaw were good, but you're not there for that. You're there for the brisket.

The brisket was luscious. It had the perfect lacquered crust on the outside, moist, very tender meat with just the right amount of smoke. Their sauce is a light, vinegary red sauce, thin and tangy. It adds just a shot of tangy sweetness to the meat without in any way competing with it. I'm also not an eater of white bread, but there's no other way to go here. A piece of brisket on white bread, with or without pickles and onions – your choice, with a splash of vinegary sweetness.

It was damn good. Fall apart tender, with those smoky, crusty, crunchy bits wrapped in a soft, squishy piece of white bread to soak up all the juices. Oh yeah.



The story behind Snow's is almost as good as the brisket. The pitmaster is a 70+ little lady named Tootsie, who moonlights behind the smoker. During the week, she's a custodian for the local school district. She and her husband owned a meat market/butcher shop/bbq joint in Lexington for 20 years. She helped Snow's owner, Kerry Bexley, design the pits and still works them today. That's her in the photo.



Are you hungry yet? Snow's is in Lexington, Texas, about 50 miles east of Austin. Take 290 east to just past Elgin, then make a left towards Butler and Lexington.

And, oh yeah, take a cooler. You're gonna want to take some more home with you.

Snow's BBQ
open Saturdays only
8am until sold out
516 Main Street
Lexington, TX
979.773.4640

Pancetta-Wrapped Asparagus with Citrus

Asparagus. Wrapped in pancetta. And grilled until the pancetta shares it's juicy porkiness with the asparagus and then crisps up. Top that with a little orange dressing and a spinkle of thyme. Nirvana.

We made this recently as a side to go with some grilled fish. But this is one of those things you could sit down in front of a platter of and go to town. It's that good.

Aside from the big flavor, this is really easy and quick to put together. You'll want the biggest, fattest asparagus you can find. Otherwise, those little pencil-thin spears will turn to charcoal before the pancetta gets crisped. If you use the really big spears, they'll be perfectly cooked, with just a little snap left by the time the pancetta cooks and crisps on them on the grill.

You can even wrap the pancetta around the asparagus ahead of time (up to the night before) and keep them in the fridge. Three tips: be sure to wrap the pancetta around each spear as tightly as you can; refrigerate the wrapped spears for at least 30 minutes to an hour before grilling -- they won't unravel that way; and use skewers to make sets of two asparagus spears each for easier turning on the grill. We ran two skewers, spaced about an inch and a half apart, through sets of two asparagus spears, inserted horizontally. That way, you can grab the skewers and quickly flip them over. Much easier than chasing the individual spears all over the grill. I also noticed that when my husband tried putting in the skewers, the asparagus spears kept breaking apart. Instead of shoving them in with brute force, try twisting the skewer as it goes in. Didn't take as much effort and I didn't break a single spear that way.

You could probably also skip the skewers and just roast these under the broiler or in a grill pan for almost the same effect.

The dressing or "citronette" goes together really quickly with only orange zest and juice, mustard, olive oil, and salt and pepper. The thyme gets sprinkled over the top at the end.

This would be great at a party as a finger food or goes well with anything grilled.

I thought two pounds of asparagus would leave plenty of leftovers when served for four people. But we scarfed these up, so be prepared.


Grilled Pancetta-Wrapped Asparagus with Citrus

2 pounds large asparagus spears, ends trimmed or snapped off

3/4 pound very thinly sliced pancetta (one slice for each asparagus spear)

zest and juice of one large organic orange

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste (remember the pancetta is salty)

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, stripped from stems

bamboo skewers


Ahead of time (the night before or at least 30-60 minute before grilling), wrap each asparagus spear with one slice of pancetta. Wrap as tightly as you can. You can even wrap your hand around each finished one and give it a little squeeze to sort of glue it together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to grill. Before grilling, insert the skewers, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart into sets of two asparagus spears each.

Make dressing: combine the orange juice, mustard, and olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk together.

Grill the asparagus over moderate heat on the grill until the spears are slightly tender and the pancetta is crisp, about 5 minutes. Use the skewers to flip them.

Pull the skewers from the asparagus and serve on a platter. Drizzle the dressing over the top and sprinkle with thyme.

Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6,(depending on how greedy you are).

Adapted from Mario Batali in Food & Wine, May 2008.