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Featured Chef Robb Walsh
Bio
Robb Walsh, a food writer with a flair for Texas culinary history, has penned numerous popular cookbooks, including Are You Really Going To Eat That?, The Texas Cowboy Cookbook, The Tex-Mex Cookbook, and The Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook. His latest book, Sex, Death, & Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour chronicles Walsh's global travesl to find the ultimate oyster. His writing has been recognized with multiple James Beard Award nominations and two James Beard Awards in 1996 and 1999.
Walsh has also been the head restaurant reviewer for The Houston Press for almost ten years and writes the Eating Our Words food blog. He was a food columnist for Natural History Magazine, and a radio commentator for National Public Radio, covering food and culture around the world on Weekend Edition, Sunday. Walsh was also the Editor-in-Chief of Chile Pepper Magazine and the Food Editor of the Austin Chronicle in the '90's.
Walsh has written food features for national magazines and newspapers including Gourmet, Saveur, Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Ecotraveler, and Texas Parks and Wildlife.
For more information on Robb Walsh, visit
robbwalsh.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com.
Interview
Why are you called the "Indiana Jones of food writers?"
Lianne Hansen gave me that title because of my fondness for finding obscure foods in out of the way places. Like durian in Thailand, barnacles in Chile, and goat head soup in Jamaica. A lot of those stories appear in my essay collection, Are You Really Going To Eat That? Reflections of a Culinary Thrill-Seeker.
Of all the cookbooks you've written, what's your favorite and why?
The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recips in Photos was a true labor of love. I wanted the rest of the world to understand that Tex-Mex is not about a bunch of gringos messing up Mexican food. It's America's oldest and most popular regional cuisine.
What attracts you to the cuisines of Texas?
Tex-Mex and Texas Barbecue are like rock n' roll and jazz, expressions of American folk culture that get more respect in the rest of the world than they do at home.
You write restaurant reviews as well as cookbooks. How are restaurants influencing home cooking?
Most of the time, restaurants provide a model that home cooks emulate. In the case of Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue, I developed recipes by going to the restaurants and watching the owners, cooks and pit bosses practice their art.
What do you like about using a pressure cooker?
Speed is the main advantage of a pressure cooker, of course. But in hot climates like Texas and South Asia pressure cookers have an added attraction - there's no heat escaping. You can cook without steaming up the kitchen and making the house hotter.
What are your favorite dishes to make in a pressure cooker?
Beans are my number one pressure cooker food. I just made a big pot of plain beans. I used some for baby food, some for a soup and then fried some up with bacon grease for refried beans.
What tips do you have fro someone using a pressure cooker for the first time?
Don't overdo it with the water. It's not going to boil away.
What food trends do you see today?
There's a lot more philosophizing about food than there used to be.
What are your top three favorite foods?
Can't begin to choose.
What's your next culinary project?
The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook, scheduled to be released in May 2010 from Broadway Books.
More Info
Filet Mignon with Beet Risotto and Gorgonzola
Makes 8 servings- 8 small filet mignon steaks
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 medium-sized beets
- Half cup olive oil
- 2 cups chopped beet greens
- 2 tablespoons wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups chicken stock
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Gargonzola cheese to taste
- Salt and pepper the meat and rub with garlic. Store in the refrigerator until twenty minutes before you are ready to eat.
- Cut off the tops of the beets and reserve the greens. Snip the tails. Wash the beets being careful not to puncture the skin. Put the cleaned beets in a steamer basket in the pressure cooker. Add 2/3 cup of water. Place the lid on the pressure cooker and cook for 25 minutes on the second red ring. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Slip the skins off the beets. Chop the beets into fine dice and reserve one cup. Puree the remaining beets with the chicken stock and reserve.
- Rinse the beet greens in several changes of water until all grit has been removed. Chop the greens finely.
- In the pressure cooker, heat the olive oil, then saute the greens until soft. Add the Arborio rice and stir until all the grains are coated with oil and translucent. Add the wine and vinegar and stir until it has mostly evaporated.
- Add the chicken broth and beet mixture and stir. Put the pressure cooker lid on the pot and bring it to the second red ring and cook for 5 minutes.
- Transfer pan to sink and run cold water over the top. When the pressure has been released, remove the top and return the pot to the stove. (You can hold the risotto at this stage.) The risotto will be very runny - cook on med-high heat 4 or more minutes longer, stirring vigorously intil the desired consistency has been achieved. Stir in reserved cubed beets and salt and pepper to taste.
- Grill the steaks to desired doneness. To serve, put a mound of risotto and a steak on each plate and top with a disk of gorgonzola.
