Estilo Americano – el inicio

Estilo Americano: In Mexican movies, scenes where our heroes burst onto the scene with guns drawn and blazing. I hope to emulate that in my cooking.

A new series — South Texas fusion cooking

Today I begin a new series of cooking posts. These are techniques and recipes that I’ve developed over the years, kicked into overdrive during the recent WuFlu Lockdown Foolishness, and energized by one of my lifestyle advisors.

What it is

If you just read the recipe titles, you might just skip over the recipe, “Ah, that’s just the same old chicken/bread/salad/cocktail recipe that everyone’s been flogging for years.” I have lots of those, but that’s not what I’m posting. Instead, I’m sharing twists, tweaks, and techniques that make recipes simpler (usually), tastier, quicker, and easier to clean up.

What it is not

In a word, trendy. I don’t care what Everybody Else is eating, drinking, or talking about. I like what I like, and everyone else can go impregnate themselves.

Culinary trends that I despise include

• anything made with bourbon, like BBQ sauce, cookies, cake, or cocktails. For Pete’s sake, give it a rest.
• pumpkin spiced anything — pumpkin spice deodorant anyone? Again, give it a rest.
• soft, chewy cookies — when did everyone start having their teeth fall out?
• fakey “poor people” food, like creamed corn or macaroni and cheese — these aren’t delicacies, they’re the crap you eat when you’re broke and scrounging the cupboard for one of those “I’ll eat anything, I’m so hungry” meals
• dipping everything in some cheap-ass sauce. Recently a young lady was stabbed to death in a dispute over some McDonald’s sweet-and-sour dipping sauce — really? If the food were any good, it wouldn’t need to be slathered in sauce (I’m lookin’ at YOU, wannabe BBO pitmasters).

My Inspiration

Living and dining out in South Texas, as well as the occasional faraway vacation, has provided me with plenty of inspiring sources. For example, one afternoon watching Paul Prudhomme on New Orleans TV (in my hotel room across from his restaurant, no less) taught me enough technique to fake my way through all kinds of southern cooking. Of course, living in San Antonio pretty much marinates you in Tex-Mex and Texas BBQ cooking, and short road trip to the coast shows you how seafood is done right (NOT breaded and fried) in Corpus Christi.

A Quick Sample

Ginger Lime Dressing

I picked this one up at a Japanese-style bistro while on a ski trip to Squaw Valley The Palisades one spring. This is great for a garden-style coleslaw, either served straight up or as a sandwich dressing:

• 1/2 teaspoon crushed fresh ginger, covered with
• juice of a lime, and
• 1 cup of plain yogurt

Mix it up, and add sparingly to your slaw.