…if what they want is GOOD food.

If you have any smoky chipotle black beans leftover, you might want to consider making this tostada — a dish that represents the marriage of two of my all-time favorite recipes.

Lucky enough to live only a short drive from the Napa Valley, I’ve had the opportunity to dine at Cindy Pawlcyn’s restaurants since I was a boy.  Having eaten amazing meals at Go Fish and Mustards Grill, the most memorable dish came on a visit to Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen for lunch when I first tasted her famous Rabbit Tostada.  Imagine tender, juicy chile-braised rabbit nestled on top of warm, earthy black beans and a crispy fried tortilla.  Finished with a refreshing salad of herbs, thinly sliced cabbage and tart feta cheese, quite simply, this is as good as a tostada can get.

The other half of this recipe comes from pioneering chef, Robert Del Grande and his restaurant, Cafe Annie.  While I still haven’t had the opportunity to visit the iconic Houston restaurant, I have made his signature bar staple, Black Bean Nachos with Red Chile Beef.  With each tortilla chip covered in the perfect amount of over five different flavor components, it goes without saying that these were the most delicious and extravagant nachos I’d ever eaten.  However, at a prep time of close to three hours, I haven’t gotten around to making them as often as I would like.

Hence, the Red Chile Beef Tostada was born.  Taking key elements from each dish, I’ve put together a recipe that pays homage to the very best of each chef.  Rich, meaty red chile beef fills in for the guajillo-braised rabbit in Cindy’s dish, whereas a black bean topped tostada and refreshing cabbage slaw takes the place of the bite-size nacho in Robert’s.  The result is too delicious to describe. You’re just going to have to try it.

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Once in a while I come across a dish so spectacular, so original that I can’t shake the flavor from my tastebuds. Such was the case when I tasted Pok Pok’s famous Fish Sauce Wings on a trip north to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Portland, Oregon. While I was warned beforehand about how delicious the iconic wings were, it wasn’t until after we finished our meal that I came to understand the seriousness of their claims — I was addicted. Simultaneously crispy and sticky, sweet and salty, these delectable wings pack more rich, umami flavor into each bite than most Vietnamese restaurants do in an entire meal.

As is usually the case when I have something amazing at a restaurant, I decided that I had to try to make them on my own. The problem, of course, was that I had no idea how to go about doing so. And then, Pok Pok was featured in an article in Food & Wine. It was like fate, only the recipe I was looking for was no where to be seen. Real disappointment set in. My sister had moved away from Portland, and it was starting to feel like I would never taste those salty wings again. Until Diners, Drive-ins and Dives decided to make a visit to the restaurant. As luck would have it, they decided to film Andy, the owner, whipping up a batch of their wings. To get the technique down, I re-watched the clip multiple times, and then I got to work.

Ironically, the recipe I’ve adapted here is actually from Food & Wine online and came up when I searched “Pok Pok wings,” though I don’t know which issue they originally appeared in. Applying the flavors listed with the method I gleaned from “Triple D,” I was able to come up with a fairly authentic composite. The wings were crispy and sticky, salty and sweet–the fix I’d been searching for for over a year. One craving satisfied, now onto the next. . .

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If there’s anything better than the perfect baked potato, it would have to be a twice baked potato. I’m sure everybody’s Mom, Grandma or next-door neighbor has a recipe for double-stuffed potatoes; afterall, if you can bake a potato and make mashed potatoes, you’re pretty much halfway there. See, it’s not so much about how you make them, as it is about what’s inside.

Having eaten delicious versions that included blue cheese, fresh herbs, roasted garlic and even wasabi, it wasn’t until a recent trip to Cowgirl Creamery that I became inspired to make a slightly more gourmet version of a recipe I saw on PBS’s, Cook’s Country.

It was a taste of Cowgirl’s housemade, light-as-air, herbed fromage blanc that set me off. While the Cook’s Country’s version saw the addition of Boursin cheese to their super-stuffed baked potatoes, the bright tasting, herb-packed fromage blanc seemed like it might be able to produce a more sophisticated version of the dish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of both Boursin and Rondelé cheese, but after eating it by the tub full on crackers as a kid, the lighter texture and slightly tart flavor of herbed fromage blanc seemed to taste a bit more grown up.

Needless to say, the end result was delicious. Topped with fresh chopped chives and a sprinkling of crispy bacon bits, the flavor was ironically reminiscent of savory sour cream and onion potato chips. So much for gourmet, I suppose. But what do you think? Is a homemade dish that recalls the flavor of your favorite packaged snack or fast food meal a good or bad sign? I’m leaning towards the former!

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