Cinnamon-Basil-Black Pepper Ice Cream

We came to know Aaron Gonzalez when he was the chef at Pike’s Place in Pipe Creek. He has now taken over the space, just off Highway 16, and rechristened it Backyard Bistro.

He has teamed with Blanca Cruz, a fixture on the local dining scene for the last few years, for the venture, which combines Hill Country cuisine with Mexican favorites.

One item on the menu that he has carried over from one restaurant to the other is his Cinnamon-Basil-Black Pepper Ice Cream, an irresistible combination of flavors that is quite easy to make if you have an ice cream maker.

Backyard Bistro is at 167 Panther Ridge, Pipe Creek, and is open 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday. Sunday brunch is 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday.

The restaurant is offering a three-course prix fixe meal for $20, or $17.95 for early bird dinners.

Call (830) 535-4094.

Cinnamon-Basil-Black Pepper Ice Cream

6 basil leaves (minced)
3 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a saucepan, heat the basil and cream to a simmer. Remove from heat. Add sugar and whisk in the vanilla, cinnamon and black pepper. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until cold. Finish in ice cream maker, using manufacturer’s instructions.

From Aaron Gonzalez, Backyard Bistro

Lemon Sweet Potatoes

At the recent San Antonio Cellar Classic, those who got past the vast array of wines found themselves faced with two similar sweet potato dishes that were simple yet sublime.

Yet the road each chef took to get that dish to the table was different, even if the end results mirrored each other.

Jesse Perez of the upcoming Arcade at the Pearl Brewery served his lemon sweet potatoes as a foundation for flank steak with a chimichurri sauce. To make the sweet potatoes, he roasted them in a convection oven at 400 degrees for 90 minutes until they were tender. Then he puréed them with lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and a little cream.

A handful of tables away, Stefan Bowers of Feast, 1024 S. Alamo St., had a similar recipe but a different approach. He roasted his sweet potatoes for 10 hours at 200 degrees. “Sweet potatoes loved to be cook slow and low,” he said. Then he added lemon juice, salt and a touch of cream.

The choice of cooking the sweet potatoes is yours — you could use a crock pot, if you wanted — as long as they’re tender. The beauty of this recipe goes beyond its simplicity. It has no added sugar, and it doesn’t need any. You’ll taste for yourself how naturally sweet these bright and colorful tubers really are, perfect for fall dinners including that great sweet potato day, Thanksgiving.

Zedric’s Herb-Roasted Chicken

Do you love roast chicken with crispy skin? This recipe from Zach Lutton of Zedric’s Healthy Gourmet to Go is an easy way to get just that.

You can vary the herbs to suit your tastes. I tossed in a tiny bit of tarragon, dill and sorrel to taste.

The real secret is to use the best chicken you can find. Lutton uses Vital Farms, which is from the southeastern side of Austin. Any naturally raised chicken should have the flavor you’re looking for.

Zedric’s Herb-Roasted Vital Farm’s Chicken

1 whole Vital Farms chicken
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more, divided use
1/2 cup of a blend of Italian parsley, chives and thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 carrots, peeled
2 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 pint of chicken stock or broth
1/2 cup flour

Stuff the herbs under the skin before roasting.

Preheat oven to 400.

Take the chicken and run your hand in between the skin and breast to make space for seasonings. Take the olive oil and blend with the herbs and garlic to form a paste, then season the chicken’s cavity and breast with salt and pepper. Once seasoned add the paste inside the cavity and outside in between the skin and breast and also on the skin.

Take the celery, carrots and onion and toss them in a mixing bowl with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Take a small sheet pan and spread all the mirepoix across the pan. Lay the chicken on its back. Place it in the oven for 1 hour. Check the temperature with a meat thermometer to make sure it is cooked to 165 in the deepest part of the breast.

Let the chicken rest on a cutting board, and take a strainer over a small sauce pot and strain the cooking juices into the sauce pot. Bring the liquid to a simmer, and slowly sprinkle the flour across the liquid (this is called the singer method) and stir to incorporate until it becomes the consistency of sand. Take the stock or broth and slowly add while stirring the roux. The final product will be a sauce that will be really nice with the chicken. Make sure that the sauce simmers for 15 minutes to allow the flour to cook out.

Makes 1 chicken.

From Zach Lutton/Zedric’s Healthy Gourmet to Go

Tapa Tapa’s Watermelon Poprocks

Are you looking for a fun, fresh and blessedly easy dessert this summer? Take a tip from Rudolfo Martinez, who operates the Tapa Tapa food truck at Alamo Street Eat Bar, 609 S. Alamo St.

Martinez, one of the crew in the truck wearing a “Not Rudolfo” T-shirt, has made a great many fans in the past year with his Watermelon Poprocks dessert, a simple creation that would take no time for you to make at home.

All it takes is some cubes of watermelon, which you can even buy already cut up, plus a few fresh mint leaves. Then top the mix with Poprocks, that childhood favorite that explodes on the tongue with an effervescence that is whimsical  and welcome. That’s it.You’ve got a simple treat that’s actually quite complex on the tongue.

You won’t want to add the candy until each individual serving is ready to be eaten. In other words, don’t sprinkle the Poprocks over the whole bowl of fruit and let it sit. The candy will get get soggy and lose its sparkle.

I hadn’t see Poprocks in stores for years — that is, until recently, when I found them at Spec’s, which is now at 5219 DeZavala Road as well as 14623 I-35 N. That means you can make this carbonated candy-crowned confection any time you’d like — and without having to turn the oven on.

Or you can just head to South Alamo Street and order up Martinez’s terrific fish tacos or 9-cheese macaroni and follow it with a taste of summer that’s light and perfectly refreshing.

Two Step's Seafood Scotch Egg

Chef Steve Warner of Two Step Restaurant and Cantina, 9840 W. Loop 1604 W., has given Scotch eggs a makeover. Instead of rolling the eggs in sausage, he has created a seafood coating that mixes salmon and shrimp together.

Two Step’s Seafood Scotch Egg

¼ pound fresh salmon fillet
1 ounce smoked salmon
¼ pound black peeled tiger prawns
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon salt
4 medium eggs, soft-boiled for 6 minutes
¾ cup flour seasoned
2 medium eggs beaten
¾ cup bread crumbs
1 quart vegetable oil

Dice salmon fillet, smoked salmon and tiger prawns, then chop finely. Mix together with chives and salt. When mixed, place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Peel soft-boiled eggs, being careful not to break. Take seafood mix out of the fridge and divide into four equal parts.

With wet hands, mold seafood mix around soft-boiled egg, making sure that the mix is equal thickness around the egg. When all eggs are covered with the seafood mix, place in the fridge on grease-proof paper for 30 minutes.

In three separate containers, you should have;

• Seasoned flour
• Beaten eggs
• Bread crumbs

Pass the seafood scotch eggs from flour to eggs then to bread crumbs.

Heat the oil in a fryer to 160 degrees. Put scotch eggs into the flyer and cook until golden brown. Take out and put into an oven tray and finish in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 3 minutes.

Take out of the oven, cut in half and serve with green salad and caper relish.

Makes 4 eggs.

From Steve Warner/Two Step Restaurant and Cantina

El Rey Chocolate Silk Custard

Two Step Restaurant and Cantina, 9840 W. Loop 1604 N. (at Braun Road), is celebrating Valentine’s Day with a dessert that’s guaranteed to melt any chocolate lover’s heart. Chef Steve Warner’s El Rey Chocolate Silk Custard is a type of flan with the mysterious density of chocolate added.

Warner uses El Rey Chocolate, the Fredericksburg chocolate company that produces world class chocolates. They help make this a treat that would be welcome any time of year.

For more information on Two Step, call 210-688-2686 or visit twosteprestaurant.com.

El Rey Chocolate Silk Custard

1/4 chocolate liqueur, divided use
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided use
3 cups heavy cream
2 cups El Rey 58.5 percent dark chocolate
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Set out 6 soufflé cups. Pour 1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur into each cup.

Over a low flame, melt 1/2 cup sugar to the hard crack stage. Pour 2 tablespoons of the melted sugar into each of the cups.

Over a low flame, bring the heavy cream to a steam. Add the chocolate and the vanilla. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, yolks, remaining sugar and remaining chocolate liqueur. Then temper the eggs with the chocolate and egg mixture.

Put the chocolate custard into the soufflé cups. Place the cups into a water bath and bake until the internal temperature of the custards reaches 185. Remove from the water bath, let cool, and refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, heat a thin knife in boiling water. Run around the edge of each custard. Upend each custard on a plate and serve.

Makes 6 custards.

From Steve Warner, Two Step Restaurant

Two Step Restaurant has a whole menu of margaritas.

At Two Step Restaurant and Cantina, 9840 W. Loop 1604 N., chef Steve Warner offers up some hearty Texas fare, including fork-tender chicken-fried steak, as it’s called on the menu, fried catfish, bacon-wrapped pork loin and barbecue, all in a building that was fashioned around two 19th century landmarks.

To wash down that food, he has a full menu of margaritas to suit every taste. And he has shared a couple of recipes.

“The key to all our margaritas is the fresh squeezed juice,” says Adrienne Muñoz, who is Warner’s wife and manager of the restaurant. “We tried several options of store bought, non-pastuerized juice and the flavor just isn’t the same.”

If the limes are too bitter for you, add a touch of agave nectar to provide balance, she says.

For more information on Two Step Restaurant, click here.

El Jefe

This is the cantina’s best-selling margarita, Muñoz says.

1 1/4 ounces Gran Centenario Reposado Tequila
3/4 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce Grand Marnier
1 1/4 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice

Add tequila, Cointrea, Grand Marnier and lime juice to an ice-filled shaker. Shake until cold. Pour into a chilled margarita glass rimmed with lime and salt. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Makes 1 cocktail.

From Steve Warner/Two Step Restaurant and Cantina

Two Step Restaurant is on West Loop 1604 North.

The Silver Spur

This is the staff favorite.

1 1/4 ounces Espolon Silver Tequila
1 1/4 ounces Cointreau
1 1/4 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice

Add tequila, Cointrea and lime juice to an ice-filled shaker. Shake until cold. Pour into a chilled margarita glass rimmed with lime and salt. Garnish with a slice of lime.

“The key to all our margaritas is the fresh squeezed juice. We tried several options of store bought, non-pastuerized juice and the flavor just isn’t the same.”

Makes 1 cocktail.

From Steve Warner/Two Step Restaurant and Cantina

Pan de Muerto, from Mariana Oliver at Marioli.

When it comes to Dia de Los Muertos, Mexican Le Cordon Bleu chef and Marioli owner Mariana Oliver doesn’t do boring.

In the glass display cabinets bursting with pastries and cakes at Marioli, an upscale delicatessen in Stone Oak, white chocolate sugar skulls adorned with bright pink and marigold flowers peer out at customers.

But unlike most traditional sugar skulls seen in Mexico, Oliver’s skulls are filled with chocolate frosted flakes that are only revealed when the skull is cracked.

“I thought it would be more tasty than (a hollow skull),” Oliver said.  “The skulls are very traditional in Mexico.  Every store has them.  But Americans are intrigued; they come in and tell me how cute and pretty they are.  It’s like they’ve never seen them—because they never have!”

The celebration of this Mexican holiday takes place on Nov. 1 and 2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. As the day approaches, bakers and confectioners throughout the city will prepare the traditional treats and bread.

Along with loaves and mini loaves of traditional pan de muertos, sweet bread with bones embossed on top, the sugar skulls come in white and regular milk chocolate at Marioli.   The skulls are decorated with brightly colored sugar flowers ranging from pink to marigold.  A set of 10 skulls takes Oliver four hours to complete, from pouring the chocolate mold to filling the skulls and decorating them.   She often comes in as early as 8 a.m. and leaving at midnight to complete around 20 skulls a day, along with the other treats sold at her store.

Candied skulls, merrily decorated for Dia de los Muertos celebration.

The colors make the skulls much prettier than the plain skulls often seen in Mexican stores, though Oliver had a more significant purpose.

“Dia de Los Muertos is a big celebration in Mexico,” Oliver said.  “We celebrate our dead loved ones by creating a shrine with their favorite things and everything they loved to eat.  You’re supposed to lie a path of marigolds so (the spirits) can find their way home.  I think that’s my way of bringing people home.”

While some people purchase the skulls for party centerpieces, Oliver hopes they’ll use them for what they were made for—eating!

“Eat them!” she laughs.  “It’s a lot of work not to enjoy it.  First enjoy it with your eyes, then enjoy it with your tongue.”

In addition to holiday pastries such as pan de muertos and sugar skulls; Marioli offers traditional Mexican dishes such as tacos al pastor and enchiladas.  The sope, a thick corn tortilla topped with refried beans, shredded chicken and Monterrey Jack cheese with lettuce and freshly drizzled Mexican cream is very popular, as is their lasagna.

“It’s an eclectic mix—we have sandwiches, traditional Mexican dishes and French pastries,” Oliver said. “It’s very different, but it works.  It’s like a Mexican deli!”

For more information about Marioli or the sugar skulls, visit its location at 18730 Tuscany Stone Suite 2103 or call (210) 496-1111.

A Pumpkin Pot de Crème at Luke.

Steven McHugh of Lüke on the River Walk, 125 E. Houston St., has created a seasonal dessert that is rich and rewarding on several levels.

First, it includes the great flavor of freshly roasted pumpkin, which is far superior to the canned product. (Though you can use the canned version if you run out of time.) A second appeal is the fact that he uses no sugar in the recipe; instead, it is sweetened with maple syrup.

It’s also easy to make. Best of all, the dish tastes great with a magical blend of warm spices, cream and pumpkin infusing each airy bite.

Pots de crème (French for “pots of custard”) are a traditional French dessert and are lighter than custards such as flan. You can serve these beauties in ramekins, coffee mugs or anything that will hold the custard. At Lüke, each is served in a jar with a clamp lid.

Pumpkin Pots de Crème

1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup milk
¾ cup maple syrup
½ cup pumpkin, roasted and puréed
7 each egg yolks
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ vanilla bean
½ teaspoon spiced rum

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a sauce pot, bring cream, milk, maple and pumpkin to a simmer over moderate heat to combine. In a mixing bowl mix egg yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla bean and rum together. Slowly incorporate the cream mixture into the egg mixture while continuing to whisk. When completely incorporated, strain mixture.

Pour the mixture into 3-ounce ramekins and bake in a water bath for 45 minutes or until a pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. (For directions on how to cook with a water bath, click here.)

Makes 6-8 sevings.

From Steven McHugh/Lüke

Max's Wine Dive Truffled Ranch Dressing

This dressing has been served on special occasions at Max’s Wine Dive, 340 E. Basse Road, and it’s a great way to dress up your ranch dressing. Pour it on salads  or use it as a dip for crudités. Or indulge yourself: Grab a spoon and dig in.

It’s a perfect fit for Max’s, where fried chicken and Champagne go so well together.

For more information on Max’s Wine dive, call 210-444-9547 or click here.

Max’s Wine Dive Truffle Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon chopped black truffle shavings (see note)
2 teaspoons white truffle oil
2-3 dashes of Tabasco

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic powder, dill, parsley, basil, chives, oregano, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, truffle shavings, truffle oil and Tabasco in a bowl and mix well.

Note: If you can’t find truffle shavings, try a little extra truffle oil to taste.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups dressing.

Source: Max’s Wine Dive