We started seeing the first of this season’s squash blossoms last week and Ben is looking to get more in today.  They are a  yearly treat that we generally don’t see until May and they’re coming early this year.  Don’t miss them – see you soon.

bon appetit,

murph

PS - Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll – we really appreciate you taking the time to support us.

During the many years I lived on the right coast, the single thing I missed most about home was the idea of evening. It was my (not terribly original) observation, that up there in the northeast corridor, the major break in day tended to be lunch.  Afternoon was then followed rather unceremoniously by nighttime.  Here in central Texas, we have these long slow luxurious evenings – and never more so than during this brief window between winter such as we have it, and the heat of summer.  When I was homesick for Austin in those years – I would imagine sitting out on the porch during a fine evening such as the one we’re having as I write, sipping a glass of wine or a cold beer, contemplating a what to make for supper, not getting in any kind of rush, and enjoying the company of folks who understood what to do when the day was done.

So I hate to over saturate you with email, but the light was so beautiful this evening that I got Kenny to throw together tonight’s bruschetta with garlic scapes so we could get a shot of it out in front of the shop. Garlic scapes are the not quite flowering tops of the young green garlic plant – these were grown at Angel Valley and they are seriously beautiful beyond description.  For the bruschetta, we grill our sour rye, rub it with garlic and drizzle it with Texas Olive Ranch’s “Arbequina” extra virgin, and top it with white beans, baby arugula from Boggy Creek and Animal Farm, the scapes, and Parmigiano-Reggiano.  We’ll have them for about 10 minutes – come get some.

bon appetit,

murph

I’ve been thinking about the whole “spring chicken” thing.  As the proud co-parent of 9 egg laying chickens (that’s 9 birds in total y’all – there are no hens that can lay 9 eggs at a time), I suppose I should know something about this.  In popular syntax, “spring chicken” strictly evokes the negative.  ”SHE’S NO SPRING CHICKEN” means she’s an old fart.  This is generally not held to be a particularly good thing, or as one of our regular customers suggested to me the other night:  the real trouble with middle age is that it doesn’t last.  But enough with the uplifting motivational portion of this email.

At TFB, when we say “Spring Chicken” we’re talking about actual chicken… and how we’ve decided to prepare them during these beautiful warm sunny spring days we’re experiencing before things really heat us and we hit that 5 month stretch of 100+ (i.e. next week).    This year, we’re doing a riff I on some chicken I can vaguely remember eating, or being told I ate when I was still a mere spring chicken, and traveling about the Middle East with my parents.

As I recall, we would venture out into the great Iraqi desert from our home in Bagdad, in our old white lemon of a Chevy station wagon.  Hoping this rather angry and uncooperative vehicle would not leave us stranded in  some desperately empty corner of third world, we would push on to a roadside motel/oasis memorably named “H4″ and in yet another demonstration of proof once of the existence and omniscience of and all powerful and loving God who cares  - whew! – we usually would eventually cross the mountains through Syria and arrive a day or two later, alive, in the Paris of the Middle East, the grand and beautiful city of Beirut.  There we would stay at the St. George Hotel, where we would spend lazy afternoons on the patio overlooking the vast blue expanse of Mediterranean Sea and eating the most amazing garlic encrusted roast chicken that I’ve ever tasted (with, if memory serves, tart goats milk yogurt and black sea beluga).  OK – cards on the table.  There might be a bit of embellishment in this description – after all I was only 5 – but that’s how I like to remember it.

Anyway, when we started thinking about moving away from the modified coq au vin we’d played with over the cooler months, this chicken was what came to mind.  We’re rubbing our Dewberry Hills birds with tons of fresh garlic and serving them with spiced yogurt and the first new potatoes that are just coming in from Boggy Creek along with pale white Kennebecs.  We’re dressing these tubers up with Texas EVOO and sherry wine vinegar to make a fine warm potato salad to accompany the dish.

Finally, in addition to the Spring Chicken, we’ve got a bunch of really beautiful spring vegetables driving the menu for the next couple of weeks, but get come eat soon, because like middle age – these won’t last.  Spring is ever so brief here in central Texas making the arrival of this spring produce is rare and precious.  We’re getting beautiful alliums of all kinds – spring onions, green garlic, baby leeks, and garlic scapes.  We’ve made green garlic pesto for crostini; sautéed green garlic with herbs for homemade tagliatelle; and oven roasted leeks and spring onions to pair with fish.

Bon appetit,

murph

Dear Friends,

When I was 5 years old in 1966, the Beattles had just released their classic album Revolver. (It was both more psychodelic and far more rock and guitar influenced than either of their previous couple of efforts – the brilliant and poppy Rubber Soul, and Yesterday and Today now remembered primarily for the “butcher” cover shot – a picture of the fab four in white butchers’ jackets covered in decapitated baby dolls.)

But I digress. In 1966 I lived in Bagdad with my parents. We had a copy of this Revolver with the boys looking ever so cool on what those of you over the age of 40 will remember was known as reel to reel tape. Reel to reel was like a film projector. The tape had to be threaded through the playing apparatus and onto a receiving wheel. The thing was very sexy and just damned difficult to operate. I was probably staring at that thing – on one of my long afternoons playing alone in that big white adobe looking house with a flat rooftop garden – wishing I could figure out how to make it play Taxman or Eleanor Rigby, when I overheard my mother running out into the street excitedly calling out that she would be right back.

What had triggered this pavlovian response from her was the guy who sold lettuce – big heads of fresh romaine lettuce to be exact. He would come down our street calling out “khus, khus!”. “Khus” (pronounced more like KHOSS or HASS) means lettuce – specifically romaine – and this guy would pull a wagon full of it during a few short weeks in the winter – the only time is was cool enough to grow in that hot dry place. Not really all that far removed from our situation here in Texas, (I mean if you leave out that we can go to the local supermarket and buy some quite pretty but not always deeply tasty heads of your choice, strait from the central valley of California, or Mexico or wherever).

Please Note – I did try to clear the spelling with my father the linguist, but he was out of pocket – so nonetheless… what I have to say to you this week is KHUS! KHUS! We’ve got gorgeous big heads of delicious local romaine in from Boggy Creek, and we’re making Ceasar salad while it lasts. We’ll use Coyote Creek egg yolks, macerated Ortiz (Spanish) anchovies, Texas Olive Ranch extra virgin Arbequina, Italian Reggiano Parmesan, and Texas French Bread ciabatta croutons. Better get here soon while it lasts.

bon appetit,

murph

WHEN I WANT TO KISS GOD

When
No one is looking

I swallow deserts and clouds
And chew on mountains knowing
They are sweet bones

When no one is looking and I want
To kiss
God

I just lift my own hand
To

My

Mouth

Hafiz.

Kara & Austin will entertain, – for menu and details, see below.

Our Valentines Day Dinner will feature two separate seatings.  The first will seat between 5:30 and 6pm.  The second will seat right around 8pm (or as soon as we can get the dining room re-set) and will feature the music of Kara Bliss & Austin Haller, per the flyer above .  At this time, I believe we have tables available for the early seating, but probably only one or two for the later seating.  With that in mind, please contact us soon – through the reservation tab on your right – and let us know if you would like a table.

The dinner is a 4 course prix fixe menu and the price is $50 per person (exclusive of applicable sales tax and gratuity).  Please remember that we are byob (with corkage is included in the $50 prix fixe), and feel free to bring wine or beer.

MEZZE
Mixed Local Vegetables and House Pickles

SECOND
Market Salad, WaterOak Chevre Crostini
or
Warm Seafood Salad

MAIN
Pea Shoot Risotto
or
Drum Normandie
or
Braised Pork Shoulder, Chard Gratin

DESSERT
Butterscotch Budino
or
Dark Chocolate Tart

GROUPON – a number of folks have inquired about using a Groupon voucher for this event.  The Valentines dinner is one of the very few special events that we exclude from our Groupon promotion.  We apologize for any inconvenience. Groupon purchasers are welcome to redeem their Groupon on almost any other occasion.

It’s Wednesday – a perfect day to let us cook.  We re-upped our chicken supply from Dewberry Hills this morning and our rather modern interpretation of the French classic – Coq au Vin – featuring a roasted half poussin, will be back on the menu tonight.  Check the menu on your left (styled “dinner menu”) to see what else we’re serving.

Come eat!

Wow.  Its the last day of 2011.  I can’t believe it.

Its been a great year for Texas French Bread.  While there is always much to improve upon, over the course of the last twelve months I think we’ve gotten a little better at what we do.  And we’ve seen our business grow.  Thank you for supporting us.

Murph is still on vacation in Mexico, but I am plugging away in the kitchen getting ready for dinner tonight.  We are working on a special New Year’s Eve salade compose (say that in your best French accent) with roasted wintery things like kohlrabi and squash, sauteed kale, blanched chard stems and arugula.  The rabbit terrine is done, the beef daube resting, the winter salad lettuces washed; the cheeses have been portioned, the lemon tarts baked.  And we went for broke on one entree: tonight we will have porchetta.  We have taken a whole pig from Richardson Farms, handed it off to Ben Runkle of Salt & Time to be dressed and stuffed with herbs, lemon zest and garlic.  And now it is slow cooking in our oven.   I can’t wait.

We are no longer taking reservations for tonight but walk-ins are welcome.  I’d love to find you a seat.  If not tonight another time.

All the best & happy new year,

Ben

*******************

DECEMBER 31, 2011

AMUSE BOUCHE
Black eyed pea crostini

FIRST
Rabbit terrine, chicken liver pate, pickled texas onions

Cured salmon, beet salad, creme fraiche

Winter squash, kohlrabi, arugula, chervil creme

SECOND 
Catalan seafood soup

Porchetta, white polenta, kale

Daube of beef, fingerlings, carrots, orange, olives

THIRD
Winter market salad

DESSERT
Chocolate torte

Armagnac prune tart

Citron tart

Butterscotch budino

3 cheeses from Antonelli’s

$55 per person – byob, corkage inclusive

Choose 1 from each course / $10 supplemental to add  cheese course