Barbecue

I got to enjoy the cooking of Chef Lou Lambert of Lamberts Downtown Barbecue in Austin, Texas, on two nights during my recent visit to Austin for the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual meeting. The first night was a celebration for his new book Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook (thanks Lisa Ekus), and he was back again for the closing night cookout on Boggy Creek Farm, a tremendous organic urban farm in Austin. Here’s Lou with his co-author June Naylor.

I love brisket. I’m from Kansas City originally, so I grew up on it. My mom made a fantastic brisket and I’m always trying (often unsuccessfully) to duplicate it. But I must say I had some of the best brisket in my life in Austin. Lou Lambert knows how to do brisket. Here’s the recipe for his famous coffee-rubbed brisket.

Lou Lambert’s Coffee-Rubbed Roasted Brisket

Lambert adapted the recipe for his famous smoked, coffee-rubbed brisket for the home kitchen by roasting the brisket rather than smoking it. You can see him make the recipe on the Secret Ingredient cooking show on the Whole Foods blog.

Coffee rub

2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup chili powder
1/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup medium ground black pepper
1/4 cup finely ground dark roast coffee

Roasting the brisket
1 beef brisket, 4 to 6 pounds
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
2 yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
1 1/2 bottles (18 ounces) dark beer

Method

For the rub, combine brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper and coffee in a medium bowl. Stir to combine well.

Preheat oven to 275°F. Rub the brisket all over with coffee rub and set aside for 30 minutes. Store leftover coffee rub in an airtight container at room temperature. Arrange carrots and onions in the bottom of a roasting pan. Set brisket on top of vegetables. Pour beer over brisket and roast, 3 to 5 hours, until brisket is tender and falling apart. Allow about 45 minutes per pound of brisket. When the brisket is done, you should be able to separate the meat into shreds easily with a fork. Remove meat from roasting pan and let rest 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour the pan juices and vegetables into a saucepan. Skim the fat off the top of the juices and discard. Slice meat across the grain and arrange on a platter. Serve juices and vegetables with meat. Yield: 10-14 servings.

Nutrition facts per serving

Per serving brisket (About 9oz/247g-wt.): 420 calories (90 from fat), 11g total fat, 4g saturated fat, 58g protein, 16g total carbohydrate (2g dietary fiber, 10g sugar), 100mg cholesterol, 610mg sodium Per serving coffee rub (1 Tbsp/11g-wt.): 40 calories (0 from fat), 0g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0g protein, 9g total carbohydrate (less than 1g dietary fiber, 7g sugar), 0mg cholesterol, 410mg sodium.

Lou also made this corn pudding at the cookout. I sure hope this recipe is in his new cookbook (which will be published in the fall). This was quite amazing too!

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Tagged as: Austin, barbecue, Big City Cookbook, Big Ranch, brisket, Lou Lambert, Texas

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043008_onedishinapan It’s been called the year of the home cook. Increasingly, families are foregoing restaurant fare and staying at home for meals. In fact, in-home cooking is fast approaching a 25-year high, according to the NPD Group. But things have changed. Home cooking looks different than it did during the past two recessions when prepared meals and frozen entrees ruled. This time around families are more likely to cook from scratch, according to Information Resources Inc.’s Competing in a Transforming Economy webinar. The IRI data indicates that 53% of consumers are cooking from scratch more frequently — sending sales of sauces, spice blends, marinades and seasonings soaring.

Elizabeth Sloan reviews these trends in this month’s Food Tcchnology. She says consumers are attempting to prepare restaurant-style foods at home and are looking to these prepared sauces and seasonings to build maximum flavor flexibility into their family meal routines. As consumers turn to one-dish meals, casseroles, woks and crock pots to stretch less-expensive cuts of meat, Sloan predicts that we’ll see more sauces and seasoning mixes tailored to specific preparation methods and appliances. With an increase in “cooking enthusiasts” in this country, look for finishing, hot drizzling and high-end dessert and spirit/wine-based sauces to get more attention, she said. Other ”saucy” trends:

Bread dipping sauces (other than oils), appetizer sauces,especially for fish/shellfish, and healthier versions of classic continental sauces such as Bordelaise
Local artisan and varietal sauces, and sauces designed by celebrity chefs or high-end restaurants
Upgraded soups for cooking, such as chanterelle or porcini mushroom cooking sauce

In an effort to sample the world of foodservice flavors at home, consumers are redefining convenience food, looking for products that assist with flavors (e.g., marinating sauces or rubs), according to the Hartman Group’s Reimagining Convenience Food report. Sloan writes that U.S. consumers are most likely to look for American regional flavors in their sauces and marinades, but expect sauces coupled to international regional cuisines, such as Brazilian churrasco sauces and Argentinean chimichurri sauces to be the next wave.

soaked_slathered_seasoned This summer, now that grilling season is in full swing, expect to see a greater demand for grill-specific marinades, sauces and rubs. The variety of ready-made grilling sauces is exploding, but I tend to make my own. My favorite new guide is the book just released by my good friend Elizabeth Karmel called Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned: A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill. I encourage you to check it out this summer. It includes 400 creative recipes for marinades, brines, barbecue sauces, glazes, mops, salsas, dipping sauces, pestos and tapenades for foods on the grill. It truly opened my eyes to the possibilities of a sauce.