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(More customer reviews)We tried to visit the restaurant in Alpine, but couldn't make it work with our schedule. So I got the book. It was beautiful and the early recipes I made were great.
So I invited 18 friends over and made a dinner with 8 recipes (plus "sub recipes-- those that are within a recipe, like the Chipotle Cream Sauce. This seems to be very common in the book.)
The number of serious errors in this book are totally unacceptable. The only reason that the dinner was so good is that the basic foods are good, but the writing is very bad. The dinner would have been much worse if I didn't have experience as a professional cook. Below is a listing of some of the errors. Some of them.
We found basic errors in the recipes:
* The Cajeta is either wrong or poorly written. It calls for 4 cups of sugar and a cup of water, which you cook till the sugar dissolves. What happens is that the sugar absorbs the water or it evaporates, leaving you with crystallized sugar. Most recipes call for 2 quarts of cream and 1-2 cups of sugar.
* The Braised Cabbage had too much vinegar, or the instructions were in error. It calls for 2 cups of vinegar. This is supposed to cook off/be absorbed in 5 minutes. It is more like a soup at that point. The added sugar can't caramelize with that much vinegar.
* The Stacked Chicken Enchiladas ask for 2.5 cups of Tomatillo Sauce plus 1.5 cups of cream, which are mixed together, resulting in 4 cups of sauce. This is only used to dip the prepared tortilla into, nothing else. So there was about 3 cups extra. What a waste.
* The Stacked Chicken Enchiladas are assembled in "a large baking dish". No indication of how large. When it is all assembled it is put in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. There is no way that it could get warm through the center in that amount of time.
* The Pico Vinaigrette does not look like the picture. In the picture it is mostly white. In reality, with .25 cup of tomato juice and an equal amount of vinegar, it is red.
We found other problems with expressed yields. For example:
* The Chipotle Cream sauce says it yields 3 cups. However, the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of cream and some chiles. Not 3 cups.
* Some recipes don't give any indication of yields.
* Some yields are confusing. For example; the Creme Anglaise recipe yields about 4 cups and serves 8. It is used with the Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding Tamale, which also serves 8. Yet, the tamale recipe calls for only 2 cups of Creme Anglaise. Why the difference? If only 2 cups are needed, why not just make a recipe for 2 cups?
Some information would have been nice to have, although not critical. For example:
* It would have been nice to have volume or pound equivalents for those items that may have wide variations in size. This would include cabbage, onions, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, potatoes, limes, etc.
* I never saw a suggestion for a size of pan, casserole, or other container. That would have made assessing yields easier.
* None of the recipes seem to indicate whether or not it is recommended that the baking container be sprayed with oil. We did, but it would have been nice to know.
As I said above, the food was good. The dessert tamales were amazing. However, the authors and their editors either are very careless, or are more concerned about having a vanity-press item to market their restaurants.
this is my first review.
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Bold. Majestic. Storied. Texas. The Lone Star State has many traditions, among them its homegrown cuisine, which Texans have always been justly proud of, and which has been gaining followers--and respect--all over the country. The Reata restaurants have an honored place in this emerging culinary story. Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine tells the tale of one American family that, against the breathtaking backdrop of Texas, took risks, worked hard, and dreamed big. Today the pride of the Micallef family are its two Reata restaurants, the original location in the tiny West Texas town of Alpine, and its much larger sibling in Fort Worth. Reata pays homage to America's cowboys and the values they have come to symbolize by promoting the traditional ideals of integrity, generosity, and hospitality with an easy ambience, exciting dishes, and exceptional service. The Reata menus combine familiar Texas fare with fresh culinary trends, including signature favorites, like the pepper-crusted tenderloin, the golden chicken-fried steaks, and the tenderloin tamales. Adventurous cooks will want to try the buffalo rib eye and the smoked quail, as well as some of the more surprising pairings, such as the boar ribs with a Thai-inspired spicy peanut dipping sauce. And no Reata cookbook would be complete without the fiery jalapeño cheese grits or the unrivaled "Giant" onion rings. So if you can't drop by one of the restaurants and set a spell, Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine will give you a taste of Reata that's as big and bold as the state of Texas itself.
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