The Homesick Texan Cookbook [Hardcover]

Lisa Fain (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 13, 2011

When Lisa Fain, a seventh-generation Texan, moved to New York City, she missed the big sky, the bluebonnets in spring, Friday night football, and her family’s farm. But most of all, she missed the foods she’d grown up with.

After a fruitless search for tastes of Texas in New York City, Fain took matters into her own hands. She headed into the kitchen to cook for her friends the Tex-Mex, the chili, and the country comfort dishes that reminded her of home. From cheese enchiladas drowning in chili gravy to chicken-fried steak served with cream gravy on the side, from warm bowls of chile con queso to big pots of fiery chili made without beans, Fain re-created the wonderful tastes of Texas she’d always enjoyed at potlucks, church suppers, and backyard barbecues back home.

In 2006, Fain started the blog Homesick Texan to share Texan food with fellow expatriates, and the site immediately connected with readers worldwide, Texan and non-Texan alike. Now, in her long-awaited first cookbook, Fain brings the comfort of Texan home cooking to you.

Like Texas itself, the recipes in this book are varied and diverse, all filled with Fain’s signature twists. There’s SalpicÓn, a cool shredded beef salad found along the sunny border in El Paso; Soft Cheese Tacos, a creamy plate unique to Dallas; and Houston-Style Green Salsa, an avocado and tomatillo salsa that is smooth, refreshing, and bright. There are also nibbles, such as Chipotle Pimento Cheese and Tomatillo JalapeÑo Jam; sweet endings, such as Coconut Tres Leches Cake and Mexican Chocolate Chewies; and fresh takes on Texan classics, such as Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket, Ancho Cream Corn, and Guajillo-Chile Fish Tacos.

With more than 125 recipes, The Homesick Texan offers a true taste of the Lone Star State. So pull up a chair—everyone’s welcome at the Texas table!

Praise for The Homesick Texan Cookbook

“You don’t have to be a homesick Texan to appreciate Lisa Fain’s evocative, unpretentious prose and her accompanying seriously delicious (and easy to make) recipes.”

—Ed Levine, founder, SeriousEats.com

“Finally, the voice and the down-home Texas cooking I love on the Homesick Texan blog is now between hard covers! Lisa Fain has an original voice, and I love her food—completely accessible, honest, and delicious.”

—Michael Ruhlman, author of Ratio and The Elements of Cooking

“The sometimes funny and sometimes poignant memories of this seventh-generation Texan pining for the cooking of her homeland bring The Homesick Texan Cookbook to life. Lisa Fain's move to Manhattan has given Texans everywhere a great new resource for surefire recipes and Lone Star lore.”

—Robb Walsh, author of Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook and The Tex-Mex Cookbook

“Written with equal parts humor and tenderness, Lisa Fain’s book makes it easy to imagine your kitchen lies deep in the heart of Texas. Her enticing recipes for a wealth of toothsome Texas favorites prove once and for all that nothing soothes the homesick soul like good old Texas
cooking.”

—Rebecca Rather, author of Pastry Queen Parties

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lisa Fain is a seventh-generation Texan; her formative years were spent on the outskirts of Houston, with crude-oil tanks and barbecue stands nearby; her summers were spent outside Dallas, driving a tractor, picking black-eyed peas, and shucking corn at her grandparents' farm. At the age of 25, she moved to Manhattan for work. In 2005, she began the Homesick Texan website, which has won many awards and has grown to 175,000 unique visitors per month. This is her first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (September 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401324266
• ISBN-13: 978-1401324261
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1.1 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional

More About the Author

Lisa Fain is a seventh-generation Texan who currently resides in New York City. When she's not on the hunt for chile peppers, she writes and photographs the popular food blog, Homesick Texan, which has been named one of the top 50 food blogs in the world by the Times of London and Best Regional Cuisine Food Blog by Saveur. It has also received recognition from The New York Times, Bon Appetit and Gourmet. An active member of Foodways Texas and The Southern Foodways Alliance, Lisa is also a certified barbecue judge.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone will be homesick for Texas Cuisine September 13, 2011

By carolyn haynes

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have several books Texas/tex-mex cuisine, and love the recipe notes and photos in this cookbook. Growing up in texoma, I love these dishes that have been perfected by Ms. Fain on her blog. The apps are fab especially the chipotle pimento cheese and I have tried the pies which are fantastic. I can't wait to cook through the entire book.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Texas, coast to coast September 21, 2011

By Jay L. Fain

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

From common roots in Texas, Lisa went east to NYC and I went west to Oregon. However, we all have a yearning for chicken fried steak, King Ranch casserole, migas, etc. The day the book arrived I made the Tex-Mex Meatloaf with Chipotle-Tomato Glaze. Delicious! Next up was the pico de gallo. Perfect! The stories bring the recipes to life and the photography is beautiful. The Homesick Texan Cookbook not only makes you want to cook, it makes you want to head for Texas at the first opportunity.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sunday Night Supper: Kid-Tested Jalapeno Mustard Roast Chicken October 30, 2011

By Laura Zinn Fromm

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this book! Every recipe works and works beautifully. I've been cooking from it ever since I bought it a couple of weeks ago and have written about it twice for Patch. I can't say enough good things about her green chile chowder and her jalapeno mustard chicken (Patch review below.) Thank you, Lisa Fain! I can't wait for your next book.

If you're interested in reading more about this book in Patch, go to these links:
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Sunday Night Supper: Kid-Tested Jalapeno Mustard Roast Chicken

I spend too much money on books, particularly cookbooks, which are usually hard-covered and filled with beautiful, colored pictures. If I don't cook from them right away, I never cook from them and then they sit like expensive art books on the shelf. A few weeks ago, I bought Lisa Fain's cookbook, The Homesick Texan, and was determined to get my money's worth from it. (The book lists for $29 and Amazon sells it for $17.59.)

Ever since that book landed on my doorstep, I've been reading Fain's poignant and vivid essays about growing up Texan. Because most of her recipes aren't all that complicated, I've actually been cooking from the dang thing.

This week, I decided to make her jalapeno mustard chicken, which calls for honey, yellow mustard, lime juice, ginger, garlic, cumin, jalapeno and cilantro. I'll just admit right now, I'm a cilantro junkie. It makes me high and I look for reasons to smell, chop and eat it. Fain writes that she made this recipe, which calls for a half cup of cilantro, for her friend who was homesick for Texas. Her friend said it was the best roast chicken she ever ate. The only problem is that Fain recommends that the chicken sit in its marinade for eight hours. That's a long shift.... But the marinade isn't hard to make - you dump a bunch of ingredients in the food processor, cover the chicken with it and go about your day. The main ingredients are cheap and easy enough to buy and keep in your fridge until you're ready to use them, so you just have to make this recipe on a day when you'll have time in the morning to think about what you'll be eating that night.

For me, yesterday was that day. The night before, I took a roasting chicken out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to defrost. Unfortunately, I hadn't bothered to look at how much it weighed. It was over seven pounds and the recipe called for a 3-4 pound roaster. Fortunately, I had enough cilantro, honey, mustard and garlic cloves to double the marinade. The chicken was $1.99/pound. If we had leftovers, so what? Two points to Mom for making two dinners at once.

Fain says the secret to success for this dish is to butterfly the chicken, remove its spine and lay it flat on a roasting pan, a process she calls spatchcocking. This, she writes, "is just a fancy way to say 'cut out the backbone and lay that bird flat.'' "

If you're from Texas, and you know about hunting, removing the backbone of your dinner probably sounds easy enough to do. But I'm from New Jersey and have never hunted or deboned anything in my life. And the thing about a seven-pound roasting chicken is that it looks like it once had a life. It may be headless but it's the same weight as a new baby, and looks about as helpless. I removed the roaster from its plastic wrap, put it on a cutting board breast side down, stared at it, and couldn't bring myself to remove its spine. It seemed too cruel. So I made the marinade (took about ten minutes), spread it all over the chicken, covered it with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge and went for a walk with my neighbor. I told her about the chicken and my fear of crippling it.

"You should have asked the butcher to do it at the supermarket," she said. Oh yeah, the butcher. I'd forgotten about him. You shouldn't.

Eight hours later, I screwed up my courage, took out a poultry knife and a fork, and cut the spine out of its back. I felt like a hunter, instead of a gatherer, and it felt pretty good. I put the chicken in the oven. The whole house immediately started to smell delicious. Two hours later, it was done. I let the chicken rest a bit, made some pasta, chopped up raw vegetables and called for my kids. It was 5:45. My friend was coming over later that night to have a cup of tea while her daughter took a lacrosse clinic in town, and I had to get my older son to and from the geometry tutor before she arrived. We had to eat quickly. I started to carve the chicken and told my younger son to call for my older son. My older son either either didn't hear him or ignored him. Finally, I started to yell.

My older son sauntered into the kitchen in his boxer shorts. "I'm not hungry," he said, yawning. "Civilized people don't eat before 6 p.m." If you have a teenager and it's the end of the day, you know they are either famished or up to no good. I glared at him while I carved. "When someone makes you dinner, you sit down and eat it."

My kids started to bicker. I brought the chicken to the table. They dug in. I waited for their reaction.

"Oh my God, this is shamefully delicious," my older son said. "Can you perpetually have a bowl of this sitting in the kitchen? This is friggin' delicious."

"Can you make this every night?" my younger son said. He reached for the platter. "This sauce is amazing. Can I have more?"

Yes, they really said all that. This chicken is the best chicken any of us ever ate. It would have gone well with the frisee salad I meant to serve, but we were so busy gobbling up the chicken that I forgot about that. We finished the meal in great moods. While we were cleaning up, my older son kissed and hugged me. My younger son started to sing. "Laura Fromm, she is the bomb..." Before I sicken you any further, let me just say, this chicken is the bomb. Make it tonight. Read more ›

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out recipes! September 13, 2011

By Jerry Dennis

Format:Hardcover

Have been using her recipes from the Homesick Texan blog for years. Cheese enchiladas are excellent.
Beginners will be the most pleased!
[...]

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tex-Mex done right September 17, 2011

By J. Hastings

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Living in Chicago I my culinary hero has been Rick Bayless and I started to look down on Tex-Mex with it's Frito Pie, etc. But the last few years I've been reading Lisa's blog and I've realized Tex-Mex is a classic American cuisine as authentic and rich as Cajun or Creole. The recipes are simple, easy to find ingredients, and without a doubt good eats. I'm honored to have Lisa's book on the shelf with Rick Bayless, and I know he would be too.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Praise from a "Texan" Arizonan... September 15, 2011

By John Lesko

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been reading Lisa Fain's blog for quite some time and lot of her recipes have become family comfort food standards around here (Chipotle Mac and Cheese w/Bacon). Some (puffy tacos?) may have even gone a little ways towards convincing my now-wife that it would be worth marrying me. We eat pretty well around here, and a lot of credit goes to The Homesick Texan.

I haven't gotten to any of the recipes in the book yet, but I did read the entire book the day I got it (yesterday). I have no doubt it will be everything Ms. Fain's blog is and more.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the book, love the author... September 19, 2011

By J. Phillips

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

...very disappointed in the binding quality. I, too, have a brand new pre-ordered copy of Ms. Lisa's book. While browsing through the book, about half way through, the binding of the bottom half of the page does not hold, and the pages nearly fall out of the book. I have contacted Ms. Lisa about this, and she is deeply and sincerely apologetic. She suggests returning and replacing the book via Amazon. She's seen the other reports on Amazon about this issue and is working with her publisher to find a solution.

Now, with that out of the way, being a homesick Texan myself, I was so excited when I found Ms. Lisa's blog! Then I found out she was releasing a cookbook?! I couldn't wait to buy it (it's the only item I've ever pre-ordered) and I don't regret my purchase (even with the binding issue, which I am confident the parties involved will do everything in their power to correct). My husband is going to be so fat, full, and happy on this gem of Tex-Mex cooking that I now possess! I can't wait to buy a copy for my cousin & his wife, who are stationed in Tennessee, and only ever get to come home to Texas once every year or two! I may not try every recipe in this cookbook, but you better believe I'll be working my way through to trying ALMOST all of them! Thank you, Ms. Lisa!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Texas Food September 29, 2011

By Bubbadog

Format:Hardcover

I ordered this book on the date of publication because I have subscribed to the Homesick Texas website for years. Ms. Fain understands the pride Texans take in the wide diversity of products available to us in the Lone Star State. I made her refried beans and they were better than any others that I have eaten, and I've eaten my fair share. The chicken fried steak is exactly as my mother made it. What more could one ask for? She connects the food of her youth with all the emotions one feels from being Texan, either born here or moved here as quickly as possible. This is a great cookbook.