By June Naylor
At the beginning of March, the next chapter in my life as a cookbook author took a big leap forward, as photography began on what I hope will be a pretty wonderful book. In December, chef and restaurateur Louis Lambert and I signed a contract with Ten Speed Press to produce the cookbook Big Ranch, Big City, which the publisher plans to have in stores in the fall of 2011.
Even though the ink has been dry for a couple of months, I’m reticent to talk about a book until you can see that it’s underway. When our photographer and friend Ralph Lauer began shooting the photographs, I could really feel this big project taking flight.
The book’s subtitle, “Modern recipes from the Lambert’s bunkhouse and urban kitchens,” gives you a better understanding of the book’s intent. Big Ranch, Big City brings together Lambert’s life as a ranch kid from West Texas (his family owns seven ranches out there, with some dating back seven generations) and his classical training at the Culinary Institute of Americ in New York.
Before returning to Texas Lambert worked for Wolfgang Puck at Postrio; in Dallas he worked at Café Pacific, and he’s worked at the Reata locations in Alpine and Fort Worth. Since then, Lambert has owned a number of restaurants in Austin and Fort Worth.
Today you can taste his cooking at Lamberts Downtown Barbecue, at two Jo’s Hot Coffee establishments in Austin, at Lambert’s Steaks Seafood Whiskey in Fort Worth and at Dutch’s Hamburgers, also in Fort Worth. In the cookbook, we’re focusing primarily on the food at the two Lambert’s locations, which Lambert calls “Elevated Ranch Cuisine.” It’s fine cooking blended with the comfort foods Lambert grew up on.
Fans of Lambert’s restaurants will tell you that his cooking is sensational, full of extraordinary flavor and texture. It’s pleasing to look at, too. Combine good food with the welcoming aesthetic you find at his restaurants, then add the dramatic visual touches that Ralph is capturing in West Texas — ranch scenery that unfolds clear across the Big Bend region of Texas — and we aim to have a cookbook that you’ll enjoy both reading and cooking from.
We’ll include roughly 40 food photos in the book; the rest will be scenic images from the Texas badlands. The photos on this page are from our photoshoot a couple of Sundays ago. We were at Lambert’s in Fort Worth, shooting biscuits and our pecan-smoked salmon.
It’s just the first taste of something that promises much more.
June Naylor is State Fare Editor of EscapeHatchDallas.
While we aren’t ready to divulge recipes yet from the Big Ranch, Big City cookbook – they’re still in refinement stages, as the book isn’t in bookstores until fall 2011 – we can share a recipe that Lou Lambert wrote for my recent cookbook with Grady Spears, Cooking the Cowboy Way. We produced our Big Bend chapter out at one of Lou’s ranches near Marfa, Texas; this is a recipe Lou made and we photographed on site. It captures Lou’s food sensibilities just perfectly.
It’s a goody, so enjoy!
SMOKED-BRAISED SHORT RIBS
This rib recipe combines two of Lou’s favorite cooking techniques, smoking and braising. The trick is to keep your barbecue pit at a constant medium temperature of about 325 degrees F. To do this, Lou keeps a second pit or fire box going nearby to burn oak logs down to coals so that he can simply add these wood coals to the pit while he slow-smokes or braises in the pit. If you don’t have time to tend a fire pit, Lou says to just cook these “bad boys” in your oven and enjoy the tender richness of a properly braised beef short rib. Most beef short ribs have about 8-inch rib bones. Tell your butcher that you want the slabs of ribs cut down the middle on his meat saw to end up with slabs with about 4 inch rib bones.
Serves 8 to 10
Rub:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground coffee
6 pounds beef short ribs, split in half
1/4 cup olive oil
2 medium onion, roughly chopped
6 stalks celery, roughly chopped
4 large carrots, roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
5 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 (12-ounce) bottles dark beer
Combine the rub ingredients in a bowl; set aside 2 tablespoons for later use. Liberally season the ribs with the rub and allow to sit 15 to 30 minutes prior to cooking.
Prepare a gas or charcoal grill. Over a hot fire, sear seasoned ribs on each side about 2 minutes until crispy and golden. Set aside.
In a large dutch oven or heavy soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and stir until the vegetables soften just slightly and have a little color. Add the tomatoes and stir. Add the ribs to the pot and push into the vegetables. Sprinkle the reserved 2 tablespoons of the rub mixture and pour the beer over the mixture. Bring to a simmer. Place the pot in barbecue smoker or a 325*F oven and cook, uncovered, about 4 to 5 hours, stirring every 45 minutes to an hour.
If the mixture becomes dry or the ribs look really dark, add a little water or simply cover the pot. Cook until fork-tender. Remove from the fire or oven and allow to cool a little. Skim grease from the meat and transfer the ribs to a serving terrine or platter and pour the vegetables over the meat. Serve.