3rd Issue Celebration at Prohibition Supperclub & Bar: Local Farmers Bring Top Ingredients To Local Dinner
Beef heart and pork tongue are items you don’t often see on a menu. It is a crying shame: If they were cooked the way they were for Edible Houston’s Be Local dinner at the Prohibition Supperclub this September 15, I think even the die-hard “I don’t eat no offal” meat eaters would be converted. Who knew pork tongue would be so utterly delicious? It could be that this pork tongue was particularly well prepared by chef Matt Wommack. It was fork-tender, flavorsome, and very well matched with a rich mole, countered by the acidic crunch of pickled kale and yellow squash. It could also be that this wasn’t just any pork either. This was the good pork from Black Hills Ranch who also supplied the meat for the third course: hand-cut pure pork topped with fried quail egg and hearty green lentils. Chef Randy Rucker sourced beef heart from 44Farms, cooked it until soft and delicious, and then processed it with spice, chili, liver, and rice into a boldly flavored boudin, served with charred cabbage and smoked mustard. Beef heart boudin should definitely be on the menu at Bramble!
The produce used throughout the meal, from charred okra to roasted acorn squash, came from Three Sisters Farms, a sustainable, organic fruit and vegetable farm near Needville.
Each of the four courses was matched with local brews by Karbach. Chef Ben MacPherson’s coconut-creamy soup of snapper and sweet potato greens (a winner soup) washed down with Love Street, Karbach’s clean and crisp straw-yellow German-style Kölsch. Bramble’s Randy Rucker’s spicy boudin with smoked mustard lifted the bitter notes in the Hopadillo IPA and proved a good match. The meaty Cotechino, a rough-cut cured and then cooked pork sausage and its hearty lentils was a dish by Karbach’s chef Joseph Stayshich. It went lovingly well with the Krunkin Pumpkin. It is a beer made with pureed pumpkin and all spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. That may sound like the beginnings of a pumpkin pie yet the brewer struck a balance, and the result is an unusual fall beer. Finally, Matt Wommack’s raved-about pork tongue with roasted acorn squash, mole, and pickled kale and yellow squash came paired with the Bourbon Barrell Hell Fighter Imperial Porter – quite a mouthful, and so was the beer. Aged in oak barrels with both Madagascar and Mexican vanilla bean, this hefty 11% porter is a chocolate-dark beer with bold notes of coffee, chocolate, bourbon, and said vanilla.
The setting in the theater of the Prohibition Supperclub is unique and a treat in itself with its soaring high ceiling and style preserved to resonate the age when this building first thrived in the 1920s. Still, it was the opportunity to experience four distinctive, memorable dishes cooked by four different chefs using the produce and meat from local farms like Black Hills Ranch, 44 Farms, and Three Sisters Farm, and paired with the craft beers from local brewer Karbach, that ultimately made this a night to remember.
