Gulp, gulp, oink, oink. You could say that was certainly me at Chef Bryce Gilmore’s new venture Barley Swine. Chef Gilmore has earned critical acclaim and tremendous success with his food trailer venture Odd Duck. Having eaten there plenty of times, and dreaming of some of his concoctions when I went to bed at night, I was pretty certain Barley Swine was not going to disappoint. I love it when I’m right.
David and I went there with Luke and Lindsay, AKA Apron Adventures, on the restaurant’s first official opening night. Heck, I was even nervous for the restaurant but there was no need for the nerves, the food seriously, seriously rocked. Just to tell you how much it did, as we were walking in two guys said “Just order everything on the menu, it’s that good.” I did want to order the whole menu but we settled on: Potato fritters with goat cheese, leek, espelette; white bean soup, Spanish chorizo, flaked cod, olive; scallop, duck cracklin, cauliflower, green garlic, coriander; barley, foie gras, duck sausage, mushroom, sweet and sour onion; sweetbreads, garlic puree, almond, brussel sprouts, bacon. INSANE, all of them. I almost licked the sauce off the fritter, scallop and sweetbread plates. One small complaint, the soup came out lukewarm instead of hot. We weren’t sure if that was how it was meant to be served or what but it was still amazing.
For wine drinkers like moi, be warned that the wine list is limited. It’s not called Grape Swine now is it? The beer list is lengthier and I was told had a nice selection. I ordered the Troublemaker blend and thoughrougly enjoyed it. The space is super small and is all either community tables or bar seating so be prepared to get to know your fellow diners or the chefs! Overall, we loved our first visit and thank goodness it’s just down the street so we can go again and again and again. We’ll be back Barley Swine. Call me, mean it!
Sweetbreads...kidding. We forgot to take a photo but check out this decked out Christmas El Camino we saw on our way home. Oh Austin...Potato Fritters (Photo by David Kealey)White Bean Soup (Photo by David Kealey)Scallops (Photo by David Kealey)Barley, Duck Sausage (YUM!) and Foie Gras (YUMMMMM!) (Photo by David Kealey)
As one reader pointed out in my previous post this recipe was missing a few key items such as rolls, cilantro, cotija and tomatoes in its ingredient line-up – always read the instructions before heading to the store poodles. Regardless, I had pork belly sliders last weekend at the always-fantastic Odd Duck food trailer here in Austin and was dying to try and make pork belly on my own. Plus, this Midnight Tortas recipe featuring delicous pork belly had been calling my name for sometime anyway. I mean how can you beat a recipe from the food truck in Los Angeles, Kogi, from Best New Chef Roy Choi? He just looks like a muy badass doesn’t he? The only hitch was I would need to make the gentle belly in the convection oven/microwave that I already have a huge crush on, but was a little hesitant since we are only a few dates into our culinary relationship.
Chef Roy Choi
We stopped by our local HEB off of Oltorf and Congress and I assumed they would have pork belly given they have trotters, feet and cow tongue, but they had just run out of pork belly…sigh. I grabbed short ribs instead as I thought it would make a nice stand-in. Who am I kidding, I love short ribs but nothing replaces pork belly. David then recommended we go to Whole Foods Market to see if they might have the delicious pork product. I was loving David’s commitment to the mission at hand. Whole Foods did have some and then I suggested why not do the sandwich with pork belly and the short ribs – we both started drooling at the same time. Once again, you’ve got to love dating a fellow food lover.
I seasoned the pork belly and short ribs with smoked paprika, pepper and Herbes de Provence to follow along the lines of this recipe. I placed in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour and then cooked for another two or so at 200 degrees all on the high mix roast setting.
Pork Belly and Short Ribs Prior to Their Trip to the Convection Oven
After letting the short ribs and pork belly rest, I went on to split the bolillo rolls (love the local HEB so, so much for having these) and decided that since I had put my pinky toe outside the cooking lines why not just go all out lambs? I broiled the jalapenos and a hatch chile (’tis the season and nice call by David to add in!), let them cool, peeled and cut into thin strips. I decided instead of just mayonaisse to blend the juice of one lime, a pinch of cumin and mashed one avocado into the mayonnaise and then sprinkled in the cotija cheese – that way the bits of the crumbly cheese would stay on your sandwich and not on your plate. I also decided to keep the spinach fresh to provide a bit more texture to the sandwich and sliced the tomatoes. For the eggs, we don’t have a an application to cook the eggs stove top so I oiled a few ramekins, cracked an egg in each and placed one tablespoon of heavy cream to bake instead. I baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, which was a bit longer than we wanted but due to the cream in the eggs the whites looked not cooked through yet…they were and the eggs turned out creamy and delicious but the yolks were a little overdone. Key learnings with the new oven!
I shredded the pork belly and short ribs together and placed the jalapeno/hatch chile strips in with the meat. I smeared one half of the roll with the avocado mayonnaise then topped with the meat mixture. Next came the sliced tomato, fresh spinach, creamy eggs, a dollop of my cilantro salsa and then topped with the other half of the roll. Needless to say this sandwich was EPIC folks.
Midnight Tortas - Courtesy of Food & Wine (Anna Williams)
Another key learning from the convection oven, the pork belly turned out a little too crispy because I think I did it for too long, but the short ribs were perfect. Overall, I really liked this sandwich and would like to troubleshoot my mistakes for next time since the flavor combinations were delicious together and I could see this being a perfect tortas recipe to enjoy…well, maybe once in a blue moon given the decadence of it all.
If you have any tips or recommendations let me know and I’ll give this tortas recipe a try again. Oh, I almost forgot! I served this sandwich with this very simple but quite tasty Orange and Red Onion Salad and Red Pepper from Cooking Light. Great little side dish if I so say so myself.
Orange and Red Onion Salad with Red Pepper - Courtesy of Cooking Light (Randy Mayor)
