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2007 |
By Austin Lawrence : Published for AG July 2007 Louisiana Purchase
What was once a rundown, hole-in-the-wall joint with tacky wall art and shaky service has become a charming, if not romantic, Galleria neighborhood boutique restaurant with a vine-covered patio, stellar service, a classy vibe and superb menu. Gone are the sagging ceiling and yard sale items. Instead, upscale, for-purchase art adorns softly painted warm-red walls to complement the hardwood dining room floors. It all makes for a cozy, welcoming surrounding reminiscent of Old World bistros. In just 12 months, executive chef and owner Michael Scott Castell completely revamped the restaurant, spending $225,000 to renovate the place. It shows just about everywhere you look, too. He said he changes out the art every three months; this quarter’s offering is an emotional, candid African photography collection by Houston’s Carlyle Thompson. Themed “A Story to Tell,” and including shots such as the large black-and-white photo of a man leading four camels down a dusty, waterside path, the thought-provoking imagery give Bistro Toulouse an elegant and smart atmosphere. Jazzy piano music plays as a backdrop during the lunch crowds, and the lights dim as the sun sets. Perfect for dates, family occasions or just a night away from the kitchen, Bistro Toulouse is the type of clean, fashionable, unpretentious haunt you wish you had down your street. And it is … but only for the well-off residents of Tanglewood. Tucked away behind a strip mall on Woodway and Chimney Rock, Bistro Toulouse gets 80 percent of its customers from the affluent neighborhood. They’re the lucky ones – but the secret can’t last forever. Raised between Louisiana and Chicago, food is in Castell’s blood. He was peeling shrimp and sweeping restaurant floors at age 14, and for the last 23 years, he’s lived, breathed and, well, cooked the restaurant lifestyle. In 2001, he achieved the ultimate culinary distinction – executive chef – and spent two years at Saltgrass and another at Paulie’s before opening his own eatery. “I’m happy we survived our first year,” he said. “It’s a tricky, little restaurant. For starters, it’s hidden. The old place went downhill pretty badly, and we had to fight that reputation.” The New American-themed menu, heavily influenced by French-Creole Cajun spices, is diverse, expansive and nearly overwhelming. The lunch options include down-home favorites such as macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese, while presenting unique alternatives like a smoked oyster po’ boy or portabella mushroom sandwich called the “Lousy Hunter,” named after Andy Rooney’s description of a vegetarian. The dinner entrees are nothing about which to laugh, however, with options such as the Côte De Veau (Veal Rib Chops), Chicken D’été (pan-roasted breast, stuffed with pesto and lemon), and Zucchini Shrimp Coulis (sautéed wild America shrimp wrapped in zucchini). Castell’s is a “scratch kitchen,” meaning he makes all the ingredients fresh, by hand, each day. The only thing he doesn’t make himself is the bread, which he buys from the French Riviera Bakery about five blocks away from Bistro Toulouse.
Why mess around when you have a Cajun in the kitchen? The crawfish cakes came out with a crisp, flaky texture and were warm and soft inside. The three cakes (each a little bigger than a silver dollar) were served on a champagne vinaigrette rémoulade, which is a tangy, spicy, whole-seed-mustard-based sauce. Fantastic is what it was. Our waiter, a perfectly attentive gentleman, tipped us off on a hidden (and delicious) way to get the most out of the authentic New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp. “Dip your bread in the barbecue sauce,” the waiter said. Wow. Served with spinach, red peppers and onions, the shrimp are soaked in a beer, Worcestershire and lemon emulsion, perfect for flavoring your bread. Probably not exactly a heart-healthy snack, but you can do some extra sit-ups later. For entrees, per Castell’s recommendation, I had the grilled cheese sandwich. He said it would be one of the best I’ve ever had … well, with apologies to my mother, who makes a mean grilled cheese, Castell was right. Served like a Panini, it indeed was perhaps the most unique grilled cheese I’ve enjoyed. The Applewood-smoked bacon and tomato confit with the smoked Gouda and Danish Havarti cheeses gave the everyday sandwich an unforgettable flavor.
It was a great lunch in a relaxing atmosphere. I was already thinking about a post-meal nap when Castell came back with one last menu suggestion – and a guarantee. “This is the best banana pudding you’ll ever have,” he said. “And you can quote me on that.” Once again, Castell was on point. Served in a large wine glass, the rich, creamy pudding had five layers – pudding, banana slices, more pudding, more banana slices and more pudding, topped with whipped cream. It was utterly decadent … and it sent me into a deep food coma about 30 minutes later. It takes a little work to find Bistro Toulouse – it’s probably a 10-minute drive from the Galleria mall – but once you’re there, you quickly realize that Castell has turned an off-the-beaten-path dive into a true hidden treasure. Go find it. You’ll thank us later. In The Box • In 2004, Executive Chef Michael Scott Castell received The St. Regis, Houston Scholarship (co-sponsored by Central Market and My Table Magazine) to pursue his culinary studies at the Art Institute of Houston’s Culinary Arts Program. Selected by the prestigious James Beard Foundation, it was one of the largest scholarships offered. Castell graduated with honors. • Alison Cook, the esteemed Houston Chronicle restaurant critic, once wrote, “Chef Scott Castell does not pussyfoot around when it comes to flavors.” • Bistro Toulouse offers catering and allows patrons to bring their own wine to enjoy with dinner for a nominal corkage fee. Executive
Dining March 16, 2007 Bistro Toulouse seems to believe it's possible for a French restaurant to be too French in Houston. The menu features such French bistro staples such as salade niçoise, steak frites (steak and fries) and Orangina soda, but it also includes such all-American fare as buffalo burgers, root beer and banana pudding, and the kitchen puts some Yankee spin on a few classic French dishes. Tucked away on Bering Drive just off Woodway, behind a Sweet Mesquite, Bistro Toulouse opened in 1989 as Café Toulouse. The restaurant went through several owners before Chef Michael Scott Castell, a graduate of the Art Institute of Houston, took it over. After doing some remodeling and overhauling the menu, they reopened under the current name in July 2006. The happy alliance of France and America is established curbside. The entrance is framed by a leafy bower that suggests a comfy country inn. And etched in Bistro Toulouse's front window is a famous poster by (who else?) Toulouse-Lautrec celebrating the legendary can-can dancer Jane Avril. A solid French foundation
is laid by the complimentary appetizers: a basket of baguette slices and
a saucer of unpitted olives. The salade niçoise -- a heap of greens
laden with olives, green beans, chunks of red potato and wedges of seeded
tomato, all thoroughly but not overly moistened with a tart vinaigrette
-- would make a lovely lunch. France and Texas made a happy marriage in another appetizer, goat-cheese fritters made with cheese from the Lone Star State. Here, small spheres of goat cheese are battered, deep-fried and served with jam-like fig syrup as a dipping sauce. The tang of the cheese and the mellow sweetness of the syrup harmonize addictively. Chef Castell has Louisiana roots, and Creole crawfish cakes are an irresistible tribute to his home state's French connection. This down-home version of crab cakes was partnered with a mustardy remoulade spiked with champagne vinaigrette. Castell's lamb version of steak frites is a nifty take on that no-frills meat-and-potatoes pairing. The star attraction is lamb cooked to the done-ness you want and slicked with a luscious red wine and butter sauce. The fist-size chunk of meat had a membrane bisecting it, but it was tender, succulent and well worth the effort of a little whittling. To my surprise, the frites were cut into bite-size bits rather than long, skinny ribbons (think roasted potatoes). I missed the standard version, but the tangy house-made ketchup definitely helped me accept the substitution. The benefits of slow cooking were also on delicious display in the beef short ribs braised in Cabernet. The meat fell off the bone, and the pan juices were ambrosia. The truffle mashed potatoes and al dente green beans that accompanied them were rather nondescript, but by no means a disgrace. Other entrées showcased the kitchen's creative juices. Chicken Mure takes its name from Crème de Mure, a blackberry liqueur. In this dish, a thin slice of tasso (ham from Castell's native soil), some Havarti cheese, and a few basil leaves are tucked into a chicken breast that's sautéed and served with a blackberry glaze. The sweetness, which should appeal to those who love chicken wings and waffles drenched in maple syrup, is counterbalanced by a square of onion-fennel gratin and a vegetable medley that contained some strips of ever-so-slightly bitter eggplant. Bistro Toulouse's quest for innovation left me behind when it came to zucchini-wrapped shrimp. I had to admire the care it took to neatly encase wild Gulf shrimp in thin sheets of zucchini and cook them on a skewer without charring the squash. And I'm glad I had the kitchen replace the onion-fennel gratin with gnocchi slathered with tarragon pesto. But the end result was bland, slightly undercooked crustaceans overshadowed by a side dish. One of Bistro Toulouse's always-amenable servers, who dent wine sales but attract many bargain-minded BYOBers on Wednesday nights by providing their uncorking services gratis, explained that a little extra flour (to keep it from falling too quickly, I speculated) is what turns a chocolate soufflé into a chocolate souffleau. But instead of a slightly stiffer soufflé, what I got, baked in a coffee cup, was one of the tastiest chocolate cakes imaginable. I was also a bit surprised by the pumpkin-seed crème brûlée. The dish consisted of a dome-shaped, flan-like, pumpkin-free custard atop a praline-like sheet of caramelized sugar studded with pumpkin seeds. Eaten separately or together, both were splendid. Having as much of an American pedigree as a French family tree, Bistro Toulouse's deep-dish, soft-crusted tarte tatin was basically an apple pie worthy of a county fair blue ribbon. And serving banana pudding in a wine goblet lent this home-spun treat some long-overdue respect. So, is Bistro Toulouse a nice place to eat? Mais oui.
Shrimp
makes a splash on summer salads
Added
July 3 2007
(Jun. 18) The average American now eats more than 4 pounds of shrimp per year. That’s not a lot compared with the consumption of beef or chicken, but it’s an increase of about 60 percent during the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s even a significant jump from the 3.4 pounds eaten on average in 2001, the year that shrimp dethroned tuna as America’s favorite seafood. Chefs, naturally, are responding to the demand for shrimp with creative new preparations. And this summer, they are taking the form of salads. “Everybody does shrimp salad with mayonnaise and celery,” says Michael Scott Castell, chef of Bistro Toulouse in Houston. So instead he indulges his own love for tarragon. “Tarragon is one of my most favorite herbs to use, and outside of foodies, people don’t know what it is,” he says. He uses the herb to infuse Champagne vinegar, which he uses, along with white wine, to deglaze a pan of sautéed scallion whites. He reduces that, adds heavy cream, reduces it some more and then whips up the sauce with butter. He sautés peeled and deveined extra-large shrimp in that sauce, which also is the salad’s dressing. He tosses field greens in it, wilting them a little. He garnishes the shrimp with tomato confit, which he makes by slowly cooking peeled and seeded Romas in olive oil infused with rosemary, tarragon, basil, thyme and garlic. The warm salad is $9. Castell says the relatively thick sauce invokes the feeling of traditional mayonnaise.
Chefs across Long Island, N.Y., are combining their summertime customers’ love of shrimp and desire for salad with another trend: the bold flavors of Asia. At The Beacon in Sag Harbor, N.Y., chef Sam McCleland serves a chopped salad of romaine and radicchio with crispy shrimp and peanut-ginger dressing. He makes a dressing of teriyaki, honey, orange and lemon juices, sesame oil, peanut butter, ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, and grape seed oil. He lightly dusts 21-25 count shrimp in flour seasoned with paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and deep-fries them for about 45 seconds. “Anyway people can get shrimp, I think they like it,” McCleland says. “This is a very nice, light, summertime salad.” Not far from The Beacon, in Southampton, N.Y., chef Douglas Gulija of The Plaza Café, marinates shrimp in fish sauce, yuzu juice, scallions, minced lemon grass and chives emulsified with grapeseed oil. He then grills the shrimp and serves it over a salad of shredded Napa cabbage, mango, jícama and fried won ton chips. Gulija says he serves that salad at receptions in Chinese to-go containers and that it’s a big hit. When he offers it on the menu, it sells for $15 to $18. At The Gatsby in
Islip, N.Y., chef Craig Attwood uses coconut milk, reduced a little with
lemon grass and kaffir lime leaf, in his vinaigrette, which also has tamarind
paste, sweet soy, fish sauce and lime juice. He finishes the sauce with The sauce dresses a salad made of mango and pineapple sliced lengthwise on a mandolin—“almost like a shoestring French fry,” he says,—tossed with watercress and endive.
He blanches the shrimp in a strong court bouillon flavored with lemon grass, lime juice, white wine, coriander seed, pink peppercorns, cardamom, star anise and salt and mixes them in as well. He wraps ribbons of cucumber, also sliced on a mandolin, around the salad. “The flavors blend well together,” Attwood says. At Alison at Blue Bell in Blue Bell, Pa., chef Alison Barshak brings Mexican flavors to her shrimp salad, serving it with a salsa fresca of diced white onion, plum tomatoes, Serrano peppers, tomato juice, cilantro, lime juice, black beans and salt. She marinates all of that together and layers it with guacamole and peeled cooked shrimp. She finishes it with a squeeze of lime and a sprig of cilantro for garnish, and serves it with tortilla chips. “We were serving it in a glass as a Mexican shrimp cocktail, but all the glasses broke, so we put it in a bowl and people liked it better, and they started calling it a salad,” Barshak says. “It’s like the kind of thing I like to snack on at the end of the night. I love shrimp cocktail, and this has a little more personality.” At the suggestion of a guest, she changed the name from “Mexican” to “Southwestern,” and sales picked up for the salad, $11.50. Chain restaurants are putting their own twists on shrimp salads, too. Casual-dining giant Applebee’s Grill & Bar recently rolled out the $8.99 California Shrimp Salad as part of its “Grilling Fresh with Tyler Florence” campaign.
For the salad, grilled shrimp is mixed with avocado, bacon, black olives, hard-boiled eggs and grape tomatoes. That’s all tossed with creamy avocado dressing and served on Bibb lettuce. Applebee’s management says the dish “is a new take on coastal grilling.” “It’s fresh, colorful and aromatic,” they say. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang’s China Bistro offers a shrimp salad for which the crustacean is marinated, battered, wok-fried and tossed with seasonal greens, candied papaya, grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, herbs and pine nuts in a spicy creamy dressing made with spicy Sriracha sauce, $9. Pei Wei Asian Diner, P.F. Chang’s fast-casual sister chain, had a $7.95 Thai Dynamite Shrimp Salad as a limited-time offer. For that dish sweet soy, Sriracha and fresh lime flavored the shrimp, which was tossed with baby greens, long beans, Japanese cucumbers and Thai basil.
FOOD FEATURE: Hot potatoes By BRET THORN
(Apr. 23) No one would dispute that Americans love potatoes, but attacks from health advocates on the beloved starch and its most popular preparation, the French fry, have taken their toll. The United States Potato Board says that in-home potato consumption has dropped by around 15 percent since 1990. Restaurants have not seen such declines—and few chefs foresee any major shift in the way people eat—but as new trans-fat regulations bring the fat content of French fries to people’s attention, chefs are exploring other ways to serve potatoes that allow customers to feel indulgent but not like absolute gluttons. Others are finding that if they cast their fries in a more healthful light, sales can even go up. Ina Pinkney, chef-owner of Ina’s, a white-tablecloth restaurant in Chicago, says that enough of her customers are concerned about trans fats that it can affect sales. She said diners shied away from ordering her fried chicken until she mentioned in the newsletter that she sends to customers that she was frying it in trans-fat-free oil. “All of a sudden the fried chicken started to sell,” she says. Fears of trans fats did not keep people away from her fried potatoes, however. “Everyone bought the French fries; they didn’t care,” she says.
However, once she switched to an oil that not only was free of artificial trans fats but also was high in oleic acid, which is considered heart-healthy—and once she told her customers about it—they started buying more fries. In fact, she says, sales of fries are up by 20 percent. Pinkney says that the latest generation of trans-fat-free frying oils has a much longer shelf life. The oil she uses now lasts 75 percent longer than the previous variety, and she thinks the new oil also makes her French fries crispier. One semi-indulgent potato preparation at Bistro Toulouse in Houston is “loaded potatoes Anna.” Chef Michael Scott Castell explains that traditional potatoes Anna are sliced and then, without rinsing them, are brushed with clarified butter, seasoned, layered in a skillet and baked. The starch that isn’t rinsed off helps to bind the potatoes together. “Otherwise it will just fall apart,” he says. Castell’s “loaded” version includes trappings you more likely would find on a baked potato, including lardons, Cheddar cheese and chives. He says that despite the name and rich appearance, the dish is lighter than it might seem. The potatoes are brushed with a very thin layer of clarified butter—just “to make them glisten,” he says—and the other fixin’s are used sparingly. “If you actually load it, the potatoes never stick together,” Castell says. Another popular item is his chicken and potato “pizza.” He slices Yukon golds and mixes them with olive oil, rosemary and garlic, lays them out on a sheet pan and roasts them. He brushes a cooked pizza crust with olive oil, basil and garlic, adds the potatoes and then tops it with four ounces of chicken breast, red onions and “some Cheddar cheese, just to kind of hold it all together.” The pizza is put back in the oven to brown before being served. Instead of mashed potatoes, Castell has a dairy-free side dish of truffled smashed Yukon gold potatoes. He smashes boiled potatoes so that some chunks remain and mixes them with house vinaigrette, chicken demi-glace and truffle oil. “The house vinaigrette is there for an acid more than anything else. It’s not heavy like mashed potatoes,” he says. “That dish meets the desire for mashed potatoes, but it’s a little bit different. It’s lighter and actually somewhat sweet because Yukon gold potatoes are sweet and a little buttery in texture.” Castell
said that aside from “one guy who didn’t quite understand
them,” the smashed potatoes have been well-received.
In fact, his customers have requested lighter items, even though what they think is lighter isn’t necessarily so, he says, noting that when people ask for dressing on the side of their salads they often eat more dressing than if the salad had been tossed for them. “Or they think pasta’s lighter than potatoes,” he adds, when in fact regular white pasta can have more calories than potatoes, and both are primarily starch. Potatoes can give a sense of indulgence to dishes that actually are good for you. “There’s the perception that potatoes are carbs and carbs are bad, and that’s not necessarily true,” says Brandon Cook, executive sous chef of the culinary research and development department of The Cheesecake Factory. He says the 120-plus-unit dinnerhouse chain “loves lots of butter and cream on potatoes,” but they have found other things to do with potatoes in their menu’s weight management section, which was rolled out between December 2006 and February 2007. Every menu item in the section has fewer than 590 calories. “Potatoes by themselves taste great, and you can prepare sauces and use potatoes as vehicles for those sauces,” Cook says. Currently, he uses potatoes in a seafood salad in Cheesecake’s weight management section. Inspired by the traditional Niçoise salad, the dish has greens, green beans, kalamata olives, potatoes, red onion, capers and hardboiled eggs dressed in a low-calorie vinaigrette made with vegetable stock and minimal oil. The salad is topped with either seared albacore tuna or “oven-poached” salmon. “Sometimes we want something a little bit lighter,” Cook explains. “And when those salads were in development we didn’t want to feel that we were depriving ourselves of anything.” The result has been good. “We’re seeing a really nice response,” he says of the weight management items. “They’re doing quite well.” David Litchman, founder of Pockets, a 10-unit chain in the Chicago area that specializes in whole-wheat sandwiches and promotes itself as a more healthful alternative to typical fast food, says about 10 percent of the restaurant’s orders include baked potatoes. For $3.99 the potatoes can be topped with three ingredients, including Cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella or feta cheese, as well as spinach, jalapeños, olives and other healthful items. For the chain’s entire 18-year history, the most popular combination has been broccoli, bacon and Cheddar, but Litchman says that customers have changed what they order in recent years. “I do think that people are being a little more conscious about the toppings they’d put on a salad or a potato,” he says. “I think it’s most important that they enjoy the food experience, [but] knowing that they can eat healthfully is definitely a plus.” Susan Goss, chef-owner of West Town Tavern in Chicago, says she doesn’t see her customers ordering more healthfully. “We get our share of people who order a house salad with no dressing for dinner, but for the most part people want to go out to indulge,” she says, and they continue to demand big portions. However, she has noticed that her customers, though ordering whatever they want, are eating less of it. “Waiters will bring back dishes that are half eaten, because [the customers] want to take the rest home,” she says. She’s seeing more sharing, too. Goss points out that potatoes can be a boon to dieters, because they are low in fat and add weight to the plate. “You make a dish seem heartier and more bountiful, so you can serve a little less, which subtracts calories,” she says. Her best-selling fish dish comes with potatoes. It’s a trout—“skin on, head off, tail off”—with a sauté of fingerling potatoes, braised baby artichokes, oven-roasted tomatoes, asparagus and a sauce of Chardonnay, chicken stock “and a little bit of butter.” She boils the fingerlings until tender and then chills them. As the trout is sautéing, she adds the potatoes and braised artichokes, along with black, brine-cured olives. The roasted tomatoes are added at the last minute and “just break down and become part of the sauce.” Goss advocates using firmer potatoes, like fingerlings, for sautéing. “Any time you’re going to prepare potatoes not in a purée form, it’s always better to use firm, waxier potatoes,” she says. Jeff Gaetjen, chef of Colvin Run Tavern in Vienna, Va., serves marinated, grilled Yukon gold potatoes with his whole roasted snapper. He slices them a quarter-inch thick and simmers them in just enough salted water to cover them. “If you cook them too fast, they fall apart, and sometimes if you use too much water they cook unevenly,” he says, adding, “they cook more evenly in a shallow pot.” After the potatoes are cooked, he tosses them with salt and vinaigrette.
He also makes a hot, German-style potato salad, for which the potatoes are tossed with hard-boiled egg, grilled sausages, bacon, scallions, celery, Dijon mustard and olive oil. He uses regular baking potatoes for potato cakes that he serves with leg of lamb. He par-cooks the potatoes halfway in their skins and then peels them, grates them and adds chopped garlic. He forms them in a cake and fries them in olive oil. Traditionally, he says he would use butter, but some of his customers are concerned about eating more healthful fats. “People come in with a lot of healthy requests,” he says. “Probably once or twice a night you get people who want things that are low-fat, or vegetables that are steamed.” At Anthos, a new Greek-inspired fine-dining restaurant in New York, executive chef Michael Psilakis uses a bit of poached potato in his five-bite raw “meze,” which features five bitesize fish preparations. “I think every Mediterranean country has a potato-and-flaked-fish salad,” he says. For his, he poaches sliced potato in a spicy Cretan olive oil with savory and garlic. “The potato cooks for so long, it’s really kind of enriched with that grassy, green olive oil,” he says. He tops a small, quarter-inch thick slice of the potato with an equally small piece of lightly smoked black cod and garnishes it with mint and spicy red pepper. The combination will remind people of traditional fish-and-potato salads, he says. Psilakis also makes a variation of a traditionally healthful potato preparation, skordalia, which can be made from many starches, including moistened bread. The key is to load it up with garlic—garlic in Greek is “skordo.” The starch is then whipped with olive oil, vinegar and sometimes other ingredients, such as parsley or nuts, and eaten with grilled fish or meat or spread on bread. At Psilakis’ more casual and more traditional restaurant, Kefi, also in New York, he boils and rices the potatoes and then makes an emulsion with them, wine vinegar, raw garlic and olive oil. At Anthos, he starts his version of skordalia by braising leeks in white wine, vinegar, verjus, Champagne and stock. He adds boiled, riced potatoes and raw garlic and emulsifies it with Canadian sheep milk yogurt.
“It gives it a really nice tang that you associate with sheep milk, and it gives it that lemony, acid kind of flavor, and the garlic also comes through,” Psilakis says. He passes this soupy mixture through a food mill to make “a really, really silky smooth soup.” Separately he poaches cod in olive oil, flakes it and tosses it in anchovy vinaigrette with capers and herbs. He makes a quenelle of finely diced beet and puts it in the bottom of a bowl. He adds the cod salad and pours the soup around that. “There’s actually not much fat in there,” Psilakis says. “There’s no butter, no heavy cream.” The yogurt gives the dish “a velvety tongue” similar to what you would get by adding cream, he adds. In Los Angeles, Jean François Meteigner, executive chef of La Cachette, uses yellow, pink and purple fingerling potatoes, which he steams or boils and then peels and rolls in olive oil, garlic, parsley, salt and red pepper. He might also leave their skin on, brush them with grapeseed oil and finish them in the oven. He then seasons them with salt, pepper, garlic, chervil and a little olive oil. He buys the heirloom fingerlings locally. “The little pink ones have the same color as red potatoes on the outside, but the inside is like a light purple-red. It’s very cute,” says Meteigner, noting that they look beautiful in bouillabaisse. He will cook different varieties together, except for purple ones, which he says are starchier and take longer to cook. The purple ones also have thicker skin and tend to dry out. Sometimes he’ll make a gratin of those potatoes with olives and lamb stock. “It’s fabulous, and the potatoes get very, very creamy,” he says. Bernard Guillas, executive chef of The Marine Room in La Jolla, Calif., uses crimson fingerling potatoes as part of his salmon dish. He slices the pink-colored potatoes in half, steams them and then tosses them with herbs, fleur de sel, crushed Malabar pepper and a bit of grapeseed oil.
He quickly oven roasts them at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for about eight minutes “so they kind of crunch a little bit.” The potatoes go in the bottom of a bowl and are topped by salmon that has been crusted with minced, sautéed abalone mushroom, which Guillas describes as a cross between an oyster mushroom and a porcini. The crust goes on the flesh side of the fish, which is seared and then flipped on to the skin side to render out some of the oil and crisp up the skin. On top of the salmon are slow-roasted tomatoes, a thin roll—“like a cigarette”—of Serrano ham, and micro pepper cress seasoned with salt, pepper and a little truffle. The sauce is a reduction of veal stock and Viognier flavored with a little truffle oil and chopped fresh truffle. Guillas notes that his customers’ eating style has changed. “I have changed, my customers have changed,” he says. “Everybody wants to have a good time, but they also are paying more attention to their eating habits.” He says that doesn’t have to be bad for your bottom line. After seeing that diners were not finishing the 7 1/2 ounces of protein he would put on a plate, he cut it down to 6 ounces. His grain timbales that once were 3 ounces are now 2 ounces. Guillas says a meal in a restaurant “should be a journey.” People should share some appetizers, have a main course, a little cheese and then some dessert. “It should all be in perfect balance when it comes to portion size,” he says. He says that philosophy is one reason dessert sales have gone up in his restaurant, including his two $12 “dessert trilogies.”
THAT’S THE SPIRIT By MARY VUONG It's almost St. Patrick's Day. Got your beer stein? Check. Now, how about a measuring cup? That's right. Today, we're cooking with the brew that Americans swill so happily, especially come March 17. Beer magnifies and enhances the flavors of food, perking up a recipe without dominating it. It's like a spice, although "a little bit different, in that it doesn't necessarily add a punch,'' says Jaime Jurado, director of brewing operations for the Gambrinus Co., which last year produced about 350,000 barrels of Shiner beer. Some brewers incorporate spices in their creations, so "it makes sense to taste the beer and think about the seasonings,'' says Lucy Saunders, author of Grilling With Beer (F&B Communications, $22) and the Web site www.beercook.com. Roasted garlic, rosemary and nuts, such as walnuts and hazelnuts, go well with stout, a dark ale. Jeff Foresman, executive chef of the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa, approaches beer almost the way he does salt. He adds salt to beef stew, for example, to develop its flavor, but his goal is not a salty-tasting stew. The same is true of beer. The U.S. beer market in 2006 sold $87 million worth of taxable beer. The industry produces 209.7 million barrels a year (that's the equivalent of more than 69.3 billion 12-ounce bottles). The Brewers Association reports small breweries made about 6.65 million barrels in 2005, a small but growing fraction of the market. Common beer dishes include beer-can chicken and mussels steamed in beer. Beer-battered foods are favorites, too, but be careful which kind you use; a stout will turn the batter gray, Saunders says. "You really have to know a little about how beer behaves."
A little here and there Foresman sneaks beer into chili and cheddar-broccoli soup. He whips it into butter, garlic and herbs to smear on steak, chicken, pork or fish, and whisks light-bodied beer into vinaigrettes. "I think it's fun to be drinking a beer or two while you're cooking with it," he adds. Beer works well with meats and in marinades and sauces. Jurado mixes it with water to cook medium or long grain rice and also black beans (adjust the beer-water ratio to your taste). You can substitute a hoppy pilsner in recipes that call for a bit of vinegar, suggests Brock Wagner, brewer-founder of Houston's Saint Arnold Brewing Co. Saint Arnold produced
13,600 barrels last year. As a microbrewery, it is part of the fastest-growing
sect of craft beer. Earlier this year, Wagner attended a dinner featuring Saint Arnold beers at Bistro Toulouse. When chef Michael Scott Castell presented lamb chops brined in Fancy Lawnmower, a German-style Kölsch, Wagner thought, "Oh, this is all wrong." But it wasn't. "It just worked beautifully," he says. The floral notes in the light beer played off the herbs on the lamb, and the slight hoppiness cut the meat's richness. Handle hops with care Hops in beer impart a pleasantly bitter flavor. But be careful about reducing beer over heat, especially if it's a very hoppy variety. "You just end up concentrating the bitter ... flavor," Wagner warns. If you do boil beer, skim off the bitter foam that rises to the top. A lightly hoppy beer like Saint Arnold Texas Wheat can take the heat. The beer dinner was Castell's first. He plans about four a year, between wine events. Though 98 percent of alcohol sales at his restaurant are wine, he says, "I just like to educate people about beer." The Houston-born chef didn't fully appreciate the brew until he lived in Wisconsin, where beer culture is big and bratwurst in beer is a tradition. In honor of Oktoberfest, Castell roasts brats in Shiner Bock, then slices and scatters them on a pizza with sauerkraut, red onion and cheddar. Foresman in San Antonio created a Shiner beer dinner earlier this year for wine judges. For the dessert course, a warm, flourless chocolate torte with a liquid center, he added a quarter cup Shiner Dunkelweizen, a dark wheat beer. It didn't affect flavor but lightened the texture. At both dinners, the chefs paired their dishes with the beers used in them. "I've found it's almost better to match the flavors" than to pair opposites, as you might with wine and food, Castell says. Beer with beer dishes An exception is dessert. Castell baked a spice cake with Saint Arnold Winter Stout. Had the seasonal Spring Bock been available, its sweeter, caramelized notes would have been a superior accompaniment. "Beer pairs wonderfully with food," Wagner says, especially in Houston, where locals favor bold, spicy cuisines. "Beer will hold up the bold flavors, yet it also has a lot of delicate and nuanced and complex flavor compounds." The carbonation can lift flavors to a new level, too, from a thick cream sauce to intensely roasted peppers, Saunders says. Don't get beer lovers started on the traditional marriage of wine and cheese. "Wine does not go with cheese very well," Jurado insists. He prefers blue cheese with a malty lager, English cheddar with an Indian Pale Ale and feta with a crisp pilsner. The spectrum of flavors in beer is much greater than what you find in wines, Wagner says. So if beer goes so well with food, why does wine get all the glory? Marketing, Wagner replies. "Beer historically has done a lousy job" of selling itself as a serious beverage. People associate it with hot dogs, pizza, buffalo wings, bikini-clad women, juvenile humor, sporting events — nothing that suggests you stop and appreciate the drink. NEW ORLEANS-STYLE BARBECUE SHRIMP Recipe adapted from
Michael Scott Castell, chef-owner of Bistro Toulouse. Arrange spinach in a rimmed plate. Set aside. In a small pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Sauté onion, bell pepper and garlic until tender over medium-low heat, about 4 minutes. Raise heat to medium, season shrimp with salt and pepper and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to a bowl. Deglaze pan with Shrimp Barbecue Sauce. Simmer until the sauce has reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining butter, swirling the pan. Return the sautéed shrimp to the pan, then pour everything over the spinach. Serve with French bread. Makes 1 serving. Shrimp barbecue
sauce: Mix all ingredients until combined. Store in refrigerator until needed. Note: Castell makes shrimp demi-glace by reducing a stock made from shrimp shells, vegetables and water. You can buy prepared demi-glace at well-stocked grocery stores. It will be very salty, so use it sparingly.
Bistro Toulouse Cuisines: American,
Classic European Critic pick:
From briskly dressed salads to molten goat-cheese fritters with fig jam,
chef Scott Castell brings big, Louisiana-inflected flavors to his American
bistro fare. Don't miss crawfish cakes in mustardy rémoulade, the
splendid lamb frites or the storybook patio - shrouded in a junglelike
vine - that's perfect for lunch or brunch. A BYOB option with $10 corkage
mitigates a young wine list that's not yet steady on its feet. Reader rating averages:
We hate compiling
this annual “best” list. By its very nature, it makes a permanent
judgment of the best-ness of an industry that is constantly in flux. Not
only will the list be obsolete by the time it’s printed, but it’s
utterly subjective. Unlike sports with their endless statistics, say,
there’s no way to quantify what’s best in any given restaurant.
Sigh. BISTRO TOULOUSE, 5750 Woodway at Bering, 713-977-6900. The space that was formerly Cafe Toulouse reopened with a new owner, new look and new menu as Bistro Toulouse. Chef Scott Castell calls his menu New American and offers sandwiches, salads and “fitness plates” at lunch and more serious items (e.g. lamb frites, steak frites, short ribs) at dinner. It’s a quintessential neighborhood spot, a tiny bit upscale and completely comfortable. $$
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Added July 28
2007 
It’s
been a year since Café Toulouse closed its doors, went up for sale,
was purchased and re-opened as Bistro Toulouse. It’s
safe to say: More than the name has changed.
A
friend of mine and I stopped in recently for lunch, and the friendly Castell
met us with open arms and gave us the run of the menu. I wasted about
two seconds ordering two appetizers – the Creole crawfish cakes
and New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp.
My
friend had the grilled chicken salad, tossed in a house vinaigrette with
cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes and goat cheese. “It was terrific,”
he said. “I love a good spinach salad, and this one absolutely makes
the grade.”
Added July 28
2007 
Added April 26 2007
