Longtime Houston food critic, author, and salsa pioneer, Robb Walsh, skips all the roasting and hard labor involved in some salsas and shows us how the taco trucks do it – quick and simple, with a few fresh ingredients thrown into the blender..

oh and by the way: Robb has a new book out called The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook.. Be sure to check it out!

Music in the Kitchen: Favorite Recipes from Austin City Limits Performers

When Austin salsa music legends, Beto and the Fairlanes, were asked to submit a recipe for the newly released “Music in the Kitchen: Favorite Recipes from Austin City Limits Performers”, they of course chose the best salsa in Austin – Our own Chappy’s Green Salsa!  Thanks Beto!  We are honored to be included in the book.

Other recipes include My Morning Jacket’s “Quinoa Eggs with Cheese, Please!”, Willie Nelson’s “Willie’s Tequila-Mango Salsa”, and Joss Stone’s “Veggie Lasagna.” You’ll find the recipe for Beto’s favorite – our famous green salsa on page 25.. [amazon link]

Wow! Somehow this slipped past our habanero rubbed eyes, but it was just called to our attention that our very own CHAPPY’S Original Green Salsa was awarded honorable mention in the Individual Green Sauce division of this year’s Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival.

This is our 2nd honorable mention award in 4 years of competing at The Chronicle Fest, to go along with our two 1st place champion awards at Joby’s Hot Sauce Contest. – so we’re feeling somewhat validated and definitely movitated to make the podium next year…

after the jump: the full list of Individual winners from 2009:

Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival 2009
Individual – Judged Division – Winners

Red Sauce

• 1st Place: Twyla Wick*
• 2nd Place: Michael Hutchinson*
• 3rd Place: Robert Heady*
• Honorable Mention: Heath Garcia (Hurst), Eileen Fuessel (Hutto), Maria Estela Flores, Michael Rypka, Rita Huffman, John Cunningham, Marlo Cooper, Jacob J. Serda, Mark Wayne Choban, B&R Salsa, Chris Samarripas, Adam Wear, Rene Moreno

Green Sauce

• 1st Place: Karen Kessel*
• 2nd Place: Gary Peifer*
• 3rd Place: Brett Appolito*
• Honorable Mention: Eric Reyes, Célangé Santiso, Bobby Nall, Kala Uprety, Dustin & Evan Bozarth (TacoTown.org)

Special Variety

• 1st Place: Burt Friedman*
• 2nd Place: Jim Hoppers*
• 3rd Place: Carol Castillo* (Dallas)
• Honorable Mention: Austin Shockley & Caleb Dawson, Russell & Mattie Lewis, Shane Crawford, Patty Tomasco, Melonie Canga, Jason Parsons, Sonya Miller, Andrea Christi Michelle, Célangé Santiso, Michelle Hardy

The Lazy Salsa Susan!

originally posted on october 4th, 2007
Down on South First.. in a little strip center, next to the sushi karaoke joint, just south of Stassney.. its called Evita’s Botanitas.. I have no idea what a botanita is and I never met Evita either.. nonetheless, and moreover, this place is not messing around. On my two visits, the food was way above average.. spectacular in a down-home kinda way..the decor inside is gaudy, full of momentos and various nick nacks from over the years.. it reminds me of my cuban grandma’s house. theres a wall full of plaques and awards, letting you know they’ve been to the proving grounds and they brought back gold a few times..

the salsa’s are creative and unique.. they bring out 6 varieties on a nifty little 2-tiered platter..I zeroed in on the black bean salsa and mixed it with the salsa verde.. plenty of combinations for your expirimenting pleasure (6*5*4*3*2*1 = 720, isnt that how you do that?).

Chicken Verde Enchiladas

the menu is well-rounded… plenty of seafood, and entree-type dishes. you get to choose between different types of rice and beans.. the cilantro-lime rice is outstanding.. the chicken verde enchiladas’ are best-in-town contenders.. the chimichangas are heavenly..Chappy will be back for more research soon.

the staff was very friendly and accomodating on my 2 visits… and being its such a small restaurant.. you just feel… grandma’s house.. grandma’s.

the prices seem a little steep when you’re first browsing the menu, but dont worry…this place isnt over-priced.. you will know why when you taste the food.. everything I tasted seemed to be fresher and more flavorful than most mexican food in Austin.. we get used to these restaurants selling us shitty produce, cheapo meats.. it doesnt have to be that way.. there are still places out there that cook food with love and use quality ingredients.. places that give a shit.. Evita’s Botanitas is one of them.

Evita’s Botanitas [map]
6400 S 1st St Ste B
Austin, TX 78745
(512) 441-2424
http://evitasbotanitas.com/

The Score:
Atmosphere: 8
Food Quality: 9
Salsa: 8
Price: 7
Service: 8
Total: 80%
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bernie's Agent Orange salsa with a twoeightnine twist: blood oranges.

Taco Town reader & New York resident twoeightnine decided to make his own batch of Bernie’s Agent Orange Salsa – with a twist – He substituted Blood Oranges for regular ones.  Nice call!  Dude said it was money on chicken taco.  “Very fruit forward,” he said…

Um…That’s good cuz we don’t do fruit backward around here.

here’s the updated recipe :

• 1/2 lb of Habanero Peppers (or less- be careful)
• 2 whole-peeled Blood Oranges
• 2 whole orange bell peppers
• 4 whole carrots
• 1 cup of chopped Mango
• 1 cup of chopped Papaya
• 1/3 cup of diced ginger
• 3-4 Tablespoons of salt
• 100% Agave Tequila – add to taste – we used Sauza Hornitos – get the 750ml and just pour it in until you get a nice consistency.
• Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

So this was the newest batch of crap to come out of Bernie’s factory.  The crew went to Fiesta to get ingredients to make our sauces and salsas for Joby’s 3rd Annual Hot Sauce Contest (big props to TacoBlob for actually funding this project because i couldn’t, but whats new?). I didn’t really like the selection at Fiesta.  Furthermore, I wanted this sauce to be organic so we went over to Central Market and spent twice what we would have at Fiesta.  Buttfuckit, it was worth it.  The habaneros at CM were HUGE and pretty much the best looking ones ive ever seen.  They were from Holland….it was destiny.

After grabbing all this shit i went and got some tequila from the liquor store which was fun to use and shoot at the same time.  However, i needed more liquid in this sauce so i had to use almost the entire pint of tequila. Plus, I wanted to use it as a preservative for all the fruit and stuff in the sauce.  I usually use white vinegar but wanted to steer clear of it this time- cuz vinegar adds a totally different taste.

Ladies: meet me at Benders

After tons of blending and much deliberation on the sweetness and heat, Bernie’s Agent Orange Sauce was done…until Cabeza de Taco informed me that it needed salt…good thing, because i meant to put that in there and totally failed.  So, I added quite a bit of sea salt and it was much better.  Still, as i figured, it was just too hot for the wusses casting the votes down at the contest.

I was really pleased with the overall taste of it, though.  Its very tropical right away.  As far as the heat is concerned- the habaneros really didn’t punch you in the face right away, which was nice.  However, they did hang out and party on your tongue for about half an hour after eating just a little bit.

Overall, i was stoked that it came out OK.  I liked the idea of sitting down and trying to think of everything that was orange that could go into this sauce, as that was my theme from the start.  Next time i will just take it down a notch on the habaneros for all the pussies out there.  I thought it was called a HOT SAUCE festival…

Thanks to all who came out and supported Joby’s Hot Sauce Fest. Taco Town took home the first place price for a the third year in a row! Chappy’s green sauce didnt win this year, it was the dark horse, dboz’s pineapple-habanero concoction that won over the crowd in a field of over 20 entries.

His sauce was a fresh, all organic mix of pineapple, guava, lime, cilantro, habanero peppers, and one item that will remain his secret. All adding up to a tropical fiesta for the mouth that earned him 1 year of glory.

the winners:

• 1st Place – DBOZ
• 2nd Place – Joby’s mom
• 3rd Place – Kem Watts
• 4th Place – Angela Hodges

more pics after the jump..

Sunday November 11th, 2008 • 2pm
Grego’s Place • Lockhart, TX (map)

This Sunday Afternoon, The Bozarth’s own Chappy’s Green Sauce will go for the three-peat, and there’s sure to be more challengers than ever.  There’ll be some acoustic tunes, grilled meat, and other shenanigans.  Feel free to bring the kiddos and friendly animals.  taco Town encourages everyone to get into the action, create you own salsa, pico, relish, compote, drizzle, etc…make it hot, make it mild, make Neil mad.  Just be there, gringos.

Official Rules: Register between 1pm and 3pm.  Bring at least 1 pint of sauce.  No meat or cheese in the sauces please. You must be present to win.  Secret ballots will be cast by all attendees.  Prizes will be awarded to the top three vote-getters.  Winners will be announced at 5:30pm

- cabeza/