Author: nick

Menu Items

Small Plates:

  • Brisket Confit tacos on Oaxacan tortillas, puya salsa macha, avocado and pickled onions
  • burrata, lemon garlic broccolini, carrot confit, balsamic reduction
  • king ora salmon sashimi (torched brown sugar cure), honeydew melon, pine nuts, morita dashi, tomatillo + shio koji + morita paste
  • saffron butter seared XL sea scallops with mole verde and charred king oyster mushroom
  • same as above with carne guisada sauce
  • saffron butter seared XL sea scallops with garlic & pancetta cream sauce over rice with charred mushrooms
  • masa roux tortilla soup with queso fresco and pancetta
  • smoked cabbage with pears, pork belly and blue cheese dressing with pine nuts
  • butternut squash and leek soup with cheese
  • Sushi-grade Hamachi tostadas with mango, jicama, lime granita and morita salt
  • Summer Squash carpaccio with garlic confit, endive, salted honey, roasted beets and apple
  • Brown sugar cured hamachi with fried hibiscus flowers, hibiscus salt, mango, jicama, charred lime
  • melon curry soup with coconut milk dollop, okra, basil leaves and lemongrass
  • tamarind quail legs
  • watermelon, shrimp, shallot, jalapeño, jicama ceviche
  • bavette tartare with balsamic reduction
  • fried scallop taco with pear + shallot + jalapeño relish
  • A5 with blue corn tort, salted jicama, and red mole
  • cochinita consomme
  • sous vide pork tenderloin, carrot habanero tamarindo salsa, burn onion salt, taco
  • seared 1/8th’d zucchini, on romesco, ricotta dollops, shaved parmesan, truffle oil

Entree Options:

  • Wagyu hanger steak with 17 ingredient mole rojo
  • Halibut en papillote with champagne beurre blanc and lemons
  • 3 Hour Pork Tenderloin, morita mole, sage butter
  • cod veracruz over whipped cauliflower
  • Cold smoked then sous vide steak with chimichurri
  • pork slayer chops
  • smoked tomahawk
  • sous vide filet mignon at 135 for 1 hour, pat dry, coffee rub, hard sear with butter over it. Serve sliced with chimichurri paste

Desserts:

  • Lyonnaise chocolate mousse with crisped arroz con leche
  • Honeycrisp cobbler with homemade whipped pecan ricotta
  • Sweet corn tres leches with cinnamon coconut milk, strawberries, and pistachio cream
  • Pan de maiz with merengue
  • conchas + gracias shot
  • pais de genes, plantain ice cream, salted mexican crema

Apple Pie

Crust:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 sticks butter, cut into small squares and chilled
  • 1/4 cup ice water

In a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse in 1-second bursts until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle the ice water over the dough and pulse in 1-second bursts until it just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather any crumbs and pat it into 2 disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.

Filling:

  • 2 tbps butter
  • 2 1/2 lbs of pink lady apples cored & cut into slices
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbps flour
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 egg, beaten

Melt butter in pan/pot over medium high heat and all the apples. Stir till coated and cook. Once warmed through add in spices, salt and sugar. Lower heat and let run for 6 minutes. Then sprinkle flour and cornstarch and mix thoroughly into the pot. Stir pretty continuously for 5 minutes, it should thicken up. Turn heat off and add in apple cider vinegar. Once mixed pour into plastic bowl and leave uncovered to cool completely.

While cooling, set oven to 425 and place a baking sheet inside. Remove one of the disks, whichever looks larger and roll out to fit over your pie dish. Fit your pie dish and then place in the freezer.

Roll out second pie crust to be the size needed to cover the top of the pie.

Once the filling has cooled, pour it into the now frozen crust. Cover with 2nd piece of dough and crimp edges with fork. Make sure to cut 3 or 4 steam vents. Brush over with egg wash and sprinkle roughly 1 tbsp of sugar over the top.

Baking:

Place pie on hot cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 425. Then reduce temperature to 375 and cook for an additional 35 minutes. Remove and cool for about two hours.

Charro Beans

  • 1 lb pinto beans
  • 8 cups water
  • 12 garlic cloves
  • 2 knorr caldo de pollo cubes
  • 4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 3/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 medium white onion
  • 1-2 jalapeños sliced
  • .71 lbs salted pork (thick slicked)
  • 12 oz negra modelo

Slice and sear .71 lbs salted pork (skin removed). Slice thick and sear in 1 tbsp olive oil. Remove seared pork belly. Add in diced onions & sautee. After onions are satueed add in diced garlic (smashed with salt). Add in cumin & corainder plus bouillon. Cook. Add in 2 sliced jalapeños. Cook. Deglaze with 12 oz negro modelo. Boil. Add in beans. 8 cups of water. Slice pork thing (think bacon) and add back in with fat drippings. Simmer with lid on for 4 hours.

Visit Boquillas

5am came cold. There’s lines to wait in, coffee to drink, and a mountain of enchiladas on the other side of the alarm, so I’m awake. I don’t know what people in Alpine do for work, but as I drive through the three stoplights out of town I come to the realization that it doesn’t start before 6am on a Saturday.

Just across the border from Big Bend sits Boquillas Mexico, which has occupied them mind of anyone that has prodded West Texas looking for something. There’s been songs written about it, myths surrounding it, and nostalgia piercing every sentence committed to paper describing it. Is it the remnants of how things used to be? Is it an oasis in the desert with lovingly made enchiladas? Is it essentially a Chuck E. Cheese existing solely to separate you from your money while appealing to your lowest common denominator senses? Answers are never as straightforward as you would like.

For now I only have enough brain cells firing to know there’s only one destination this truck has ahead of it that matters. With my addiction riding shotgun I squint for the sign through the bug riddled windshield.

The glow of V6 cafe, Marathon Texas, god save my soul. It’s a north star guiding light holding my thread of sanity in a bitter cup I want to melt into. The barista looks frantic. There’s 4 of us in the coffee shop and she says the rush is about to hit, that I’m the whitecap you see on an approaching wave before it crashes down on you. While I have just enough caffeine in me now to be curious about what “being in the weeds” in Marathon looks like, I’m fine missing the show. She’s already my best friend and dealer this morning and I don’t want to give her the chance to fall off that pedestal. A few hills, some dust, and a shifty border crossing are all that stand between me and where I want to go. I push the truck forward towards the empty long stretch of road between here, and there.

No cell reception and the sun breaking over quiet mountains is a surefire sign that I’m on the right path. The first sign of life is a group of 8 people that missed the V6 turnoff and look like if you checked their pictures from the last 5 days you wouldn’t see a wardrobe change. Like us, they’re standing in the cold outside of a wood box ranger station waiting for the door to open and the overnight permits to get released. A meandering basecamp check-in, permit purchase, and glove box PB & J puts us still on time for Mexico. This is an 8 hour journey for a 5 minute rowboat ride reward. Back in the truck and down the road we’re now parked in a dirt lot outside the U.S. customs office. Two guards argue with a woman about the legality of her dog seeing Mexico and wave us through. We’ve given two friends a break from their week of camping, so our rowboat reservation is a 4 top now. We walk down the dirt path to the river reading placards describing this unofficial crossing, which only makes one curious about what an official crossing is.

Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be getting a passport stamp.

Four minutes of walking and two stories later we’re at the river and the scoreboard looks fixed. It’s a $5 roundtrip to cross 20 feet of river. I don’t think there’s much of a Plan B since the water looks like the color of Swiss Miss hot chocolate and I don’t see Wonka anywhere in sight. Onto the boat, paddles over the side, row. Ten good moves and we’re across and confronted with the Boquillas board of tourism.

No we’re not. We’re approached by donkey handlers looking to give us a $10 donkey ride for 100 meters. Pass.

Boquillas is dusty. There’s no way around it. It coats your every interaction. Every step towards town introduces a new spoonful of dust sugar to the insides of your soles. My walking companion has less concern with the dust and more concern with the amount of mushrooms he no longer has. “Cuantos años tu” breaks up my mind drift as I hear, before I actually see, six John Wayne’s passing me on my right trying to impress their donkey handler. The handler looks back at them like a poker player seeing his mark. “Treinta”.

Boquillas has three industries of commerce. Two restaurants, ten stalls selling the same apron, and a bar that should remain closed.

Jose Falcon, table for 4, looking at the river. I get what Robert Earl Keen was talking about in “Gringo Honeymoon” now, and my cynicism evaporates with each view of the water. The guy playing the beaten down guitar may as well be Elvis. My companions haven’t seen humans in a week so they’re a bit overwhelmed by the cruise ship and “one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor” crowd now swimming upstream into the restaurant but I chalk it up to mushroom fringe effects and continue paddling on my wave.

Enchiladas Montadas por favor.

Enchiladas Montadas. Seeing it arrive on the table it’s as if someone was in my kitchen in Brownsville with my mom and I as a kid trying to make enchiladas. Try as I might I could never roll them right and always cheated with toothpicks, so instead I would stack one lightly fried tortilla on top of one another. Tortilla. Chicken. Tortilla. Cheese. Tortilla. Chicken…like the ratatouille of a 7 year old border town kid’s dream. Jose Falcon sees my tower of gluttony and raises it by smothering it in salsa verde and a fried egg that could bring you to tears. Life is so good and I am so transfixed on being 7 again I order a Mexican coke while beers are clanked. Oh that real sugar don’t you play with my heartstrings like that.

“Cuantos años tu” even arrives and are given the “best seat in the house” by their now full time well-tipped handler. This guy could sell them dust at this point.

Tab paid I float out. I believe everyone else followed. What happened next could only be described as my “getting braids on the Cancun beach” moment. I spot a bar that looked suspiciously like a place I would like, walk inside, and watch a bartender pour me a shot from an unmarked bottled. I’m charged before tasting, and ingest everclear with a splash of vanilla. Sotol, it was not. If I had any internal open wounds they are now disinfected. I reassemble what’s left of my hollowed-out body, follow the dusty trail back to the rowboat, slosh across, and walk past the phone booth sized U.S. customs office.

Boquillas, what you choose to enjoy, and what you choose to ignore, will always tell you more about yourself than about the place.

Jalapeño Soup

  • 2 tbsp EVoo
  • 5 Jalapeños (2 ribs included)
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup heavy cream

Sweat the onion in the oil, then add the garlic and sweat for a few minutes (don’t brown). Next add and sweat the jalapeño for 5 additional minutes.

Using the butter and flour create a roux, add the salt, chicken stock, and onion/garlic/jalapeño mixture. Bring to a boil and thicken. Remove from heat and blend then put back into the original pot and add the dairy until fully thickened.

Pork Loin

  • Preheat oven to 375.
  • 2lbs pork loin with a good looking fat cap and minimal tendon appearance. Cross stitch the fat cap to allow for rub & garlic penetration.
  • 4 cloves of garlic mashed into paste (no salt), pressed into fat cap gaps.
  • Salt, pepper, brown sugar & coffee rub mixed and used to season the top and bottom.
  • Depending on size, cook for approximately 50 minutes to 1 hour until center is 145 degrees.
  • Serve with sour cream + salt + horseradish.

Rising Mezcal Sun

What good is a good Friday night meal without a good Friday night drink?

This drink is dedicated to growing up on the border of Mexico, while at the same time recognizing that I had no idea what a good drink tasted like back then. Scotch and apple soda? Sure. Dr. Pepper and Malibu Rum? Obviously.

Nowadays I’d like to think I’ve got a bit more sense. Or at least I’ve gotten better at my hobbies. So without further delay here’s a mezcal drink that will earn you some points and make you think you’re a better salsa dancer than you really are.

Ingredients:

  • Mezcal (For the price, I like Vida)
  • Fresh lime wedges
  • Fresh orange/tangerine wedges
  • Agave syrup
  • Topo Chico
  • Mexican powdered spice (Trechas, Tajin, etc)

I think a mason jar is the perfect size for this drink. In a pinch you can also use a small glass cup. Let’s just say keep it between 8-12oz.

Rim the glass using an orange wedge and the mexican powdered spice. Peel the orange or tangerine and drop it in. Fill it up with ice about 3/4 of the way. Pour in about a tablespoon of agave. A little more if you like sweet drinks, a little less if you like mezcal. Pour in 1.5 oz of mezcal (aka either one big shot or a shot and a half).

Fill with Topo Chico.

Pinch in the lime juice from a small lime wedge. Stir it up. Surprise your friends with how much they actually like Mezcal, and at how well you dance.

Note from the editor:

I’m actually not a huge fan of dropping my lime wedge into the drink. On a pretentious cooking note – there’s a ton of bitterness in the white part of the rind. Also, you can’t control how much lime juice gets into the drink if you just dump the whole wedge in. On a “oh come on man” note – I worked as a bartender growing up, believe me, you don’t want the lime dropped in there.

Massaman Curry

This stuff is delicious and the story behind it is even better.

I got this recipe from a ship captain while living on a sailboat off the coast of Thailand. No….seriously.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons Massaman curry paste
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 -2 cartons Coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon Palm sugar
  • 1-2 Chicken breasts
  • 1 Sweet onion
  • 6 (ish) small organic yellow potatoes
  • Roasted peanuts (unsalted)
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 head of Cauliflower
  • Salt, pepper, paprika

The cauliflower is my own personal addition. It adds flavor, depth, and a sweet and salty bit. Let’s go ahead and knock it out. It’s 5 extra minutes of work and you’ll be thankful later.

First, turn your oven onto broil. Roughly chop and dice half a head of cauliflower. Turn it into small cubes and spread it evenly across a a cookie sheet. Toss some olive oil, salt and pepper on top of the cauliflower. Once the broiler is going strong, throw the pan in. That’s it. Done is 15 or so minutes (you want the edges to have browned and crisped.

Onto the curry:

Fry 3 tablespoons of the curry paste in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Get this going really well and keep mixing. You want to combine the paste with the olive oil so it doesn’t separate or break down the line. Once they’ve become friends, add in a drop (about 2 tablespoons if you’re being exact) of coconut milk and a tablespoon of thai palm sugar. Bring all of this to heat.

Once this comes to heat drop in your cubed/sliced chicken. Keep mixing, stirring, and cooking the chicken with all of the flavors of the curry you’ve developed. Once the chicken is 70% cooked pour in the rest of the coconut milk.

Once this is all brought up to heat, drop in the small yellow potatoes (roughly chopped), followed by the quartered sweet onion and a handful (1/4 to 1/3 cup) of unsalted roasted peanuts.

Slow cook this. You’re guide here is the potatoes, once they’re done you’re good to go. Add in the roasted cauliflower at the last minute. Combine, salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice with a slice of lemon on the side.