“The Texas Cowboy Cookbook,” by Robb Walsh (Broadway Books, $17.95)
Traditional Texas cowboy fare consists of beef, beans and biscuits, right?
That doesn’t quite cover it, as you’ll discover in Robb Walsh’s new book, “The Texas Cowboy Cookbook.”
Walsh’s latest, published this month, follows his popular “The Tex-Mex Cookbook.” Both are packed with history and research, anecdotes and interviews, and are generously illustrated with archival photos.
In “The Texas Cowboy Cookbook,” he introduces characters such as Rosa Maris Hinojosa de Balli, the first “real Texas cowgirl,” and Bill Pickett, the first black cowboy to gain renown on the rodeo circuit.
While many might assume that the cowboy era was ushered in through Mexico, by vaqueros, it was the Spanish who introduced cattle to Texas in 1540. A two- page spread in the book is a photograph of cowboys on horseback herding cattle that one might assume was from the American West – but it is actually an 1890s shot taken in flat, grassy region of Spain.
Walsh, a longtime food journalist and former food editor, is a practiced hand at writing and testing recipes. Those you’ll find in “The Texas Cowboy Cookbook” tend to be clearly written, short and uncomplicated.
“The Texas Cowboy Cookbook” offers quite a bit about food and Texas history, but also insight into an American institution with some basis in fact – but a healthy dose of myth as well. | Bonnie Walker, San Antonio Express-News
Calabacitas con Carne
From “The Texas Cowboy Cookbook” by Robb Walsh. Makes about 12 cups.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds pork loin chops, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cans Ro-Tel tomatoes with chiles
1 cup diced onion 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups fresh sweet corn kernels, cut from cob (about 2 ears)
2 pounds summer squash (zucchini, tatuma or yellow crookneck), cubed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
Directions
Heat oil in large, deep pan over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Drain off fat and stir in tomatoes and chiles, onion, bell pepper, garlic and cumin. Cover pan, decrease heat and simmer about 30 minutes, until pork is tender. Stir in corn, squash, salt, pepper and oregano. Cover pan again and let squash simmer another 45 minutes.
Using a wooden spoon, work the mixture forcibly to break up the squash and create a thick sauce. Serve hot.
Serving suggestion: Serve on hot, flour tortillas.
Approximate nutritional values per serving: 180 calories, 20 g protein, 15 g carbohydrate, 3 g dietary fiber, 6 g fat, 50 mg cholesterol, 460 mg sodium.
