I've tried the recipes from Spears restaurant here in Fort Worth, and they are really great. He can do things with beans that would make Jack love them! Chef Grady Spears rounds up hearty ranch-style recipes in 'Cooking the Cowboy Way' By LAURA SAMUEL MEYN
http://www.star-telegram.com/food/story/1682205.html#tvgSpecial to the Star-Telegram
Fort Worth cowboy chef Grady Spears’ latest cookbook, Cooking the Cowboy Way: Recipes Inspired by Campfires, Chuck Wagons, and Ranch Kitchens is hitting shelves Tuesday — months after the opening of his eponymous Fort Worth restaurant, Grady’s. Like the new restaurant, the cookbook is a variation on the cowboy theme, with hearty portions of rich, honest food — a collection that draws from Spears’ many years of restaurant experience, his always-relaxed cowboy style and his palpable respect for the rancher and the cowboy way of life.
"Without farms and ranches, we have no food," Spears says. "I’ve always had a passion for the rancher, the most hardworking, pioneering human being you’ll find."
While his many restaurant roles and cookbooks have built a career centered on cowboy cooking, Cooking the Cowboy Way (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $29.99) is also something of a departure for Spears: In the book, he goes beyond Texas to explore cowboy cooking all over North America, from Homeplace Ranch in Calgary, Alberta, down to the Bellamy Brothers Ranch in Darby, Fla. Spears, who worked as a cowboy in West Texas before falling into the restaurant business, used his many connections and forged new ones to visit far-flung ranches, cooking with the owners and gathering cowboy recipes and stories along the way.
Co-author and longtime collaborator (and Star-Telegram contributor) June Naylor joined in on the research trips, as did photographer David Manning. The result makes for good cooking as well as good reading, telling the story of each cowboy outpost through words, recipes and photographs that present authentic vignettes of life on the ranch.
"It’s easy to bastardize the cowboy way of life; people think it’s neon signs and saddles hanging, and it’s not," Spears says.
The food tends to be accessible, hearty comfort food made with fresh ingredients, many of which are locally sourced.
From his early days of cooking, Spears says he learned to use fresh, local ingredients. These days, his mother is putting in an herb garden behind the new restaurant for the kitchen to draw from.
While compiling cowboy recipes from his many ranch trips, Spears tapped another local resource: The Nutritional Sciences Department at Texas Christian University, whose students tested every recipe in the book. "They would send back notes, and we’d retest," Spears says. "They gave an unbiased look at it — I was amazed at how detailed they were."
The resulting recipes in Cooking the Cowboy Way include such dishes as Blackened Grouper with Orange Remoulade, Candied Bacon With Goat Cheese, Asparagus and Portobello Enchiladas in Chipotle Cream, Porterhouse Steaks with Wildcatter Steak Rub, and miniature sweet-potato pies, aptly called Little Yammers.
"Rural people cook rural food; there’s no trend line to it," Spears says. "We might fancy something up a little bit, but it’s simple, basic, stick-to-your-gut comfort food."Buy the book at local bookstores, at Amazon.com and at Grady’s Restaurant, 2443 Forest Park Blvd., 817-922-9980;
www.gradysrestaurant.com.
John’s Ancho Strip Steaks
From John Elick of Lonesome Pine Ranch, Bellville
Serves 4
4 New York strip steaks (about 10 ounces each)
3 to 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 ancho chile, stemmed and seeded
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1. Prepare grill to medium-high heat. Wipe steaks dry with a paper towel, then rub with vegetable oil.
2. Place ancho chile in a food processor and pulse until it’s finely shredded. Combine ground chile with brown sugar and salt in a bowl to create the rub and, using your hands, coat the steaks.
3. Over medium-hot, ash-covered coals, grill steaks to desired doneness, 11 to 13 minutes for medium-rare (an internal temperature of 145 degrees). Turn once during cooking.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 544 calories; 23 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 63 grams protein; 133 milligrams cholesterol; 2,952 milligrams sodium; trace dietary fiber; 39 percent of calories from fat.
Tom’s Ranch Beans
From Tom Perini of Perini’s Ranch, Buffalo Gap
Serves 6 to 8
1 pound dried pinto beans
4 ounces salt pork
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 jalapeño, sliced
(optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
1. Rinse beans and remove any stones or dirt. Cut pork into thin strips and rinse.
2. In a large pot, combine beans, pork, garlic, salt and chili powder, and cover with water. Boil over medium heat until beans are tender, about 2 hours. Add hot water to keep beans covered if necessary.
3. When beans are tender, add jalapeño and cilantro. Allow beans to sit for about 30 minutes to absorb flavors before serving.
Speed up the process by soaking the beans in water overnight. Then drain before beginning the cooking process, adding fresh water.
Nutritional analysis per serving: 411 calories, 16 grams fat, 50 grams carbohydrates, 18 grams protein, 16 milligrams cholesterol, 295 milligrams sodium, 19 grams dietary fiber, 35 percent of calories from fat.
