Editor’s Note: The passing down of family recipes is a cherished tradition in my home. We wanted to hear about some of the recipes that have been passed down in some of the kitchens around the RGV and the memories they evoke.
In South Texas, our families are big, loud, multi-generational and chaotic. What house can contain all that?
Once a party starts and all (and I mean ALL) the family gets together, there is the moment when everyone standing around indoors is invited to go outdoors (meaning your grandmother kicks you out of the house). Nieces riding tricycles, tios sitting in folding chairs holding a beer telling tall tales, your sister and her new boyfriend on the swing set…real family time happens in the backyard. A fire is lit and the carne asada begins.
When I lived in New York City, I didn’t get the memo that parties at home rarely happened in the big city. I invited a few friends over for dinner at my place, which was more than awkward in my one-room studio apartment. The space was cramped, and I had to move my bed out of the way so my friends could sit at the dining table. In fact, I think my bed became the buffet table for dinner. That dinner was a long time ago, and the specifics are fuzzy. The memory that hangs in my mind is the details of my friends’ faces. Since we were all packed so tightly into the studio space, there was nothing else to see but their eyes, ears, noses and toothy grins — FaceTime circa 1988.
The ambience of carne asada outdoors in Texas felt different from the city-style dinner party. With the outdoor carne asada, you help yourself to all that is offered. There are no limits of space or quantity: open bags of Doritos and potato chips on the picnic table, ice chests packed with sodas and beer, chilled tubs of potato salad or an electric turkey roaster on the porch keeping the arroz y frijoles warm…the quiet message of carne asada is abundance. Food enough for everyone and the luxury of time on a never-ending Sunday afternoon is what carne asada is all about. It is all yours for the taking.
For our homestyle carne asadas, my family really loves mesquite grilled pork ribs with my special Three Pepper Barbecue Sauce. I adore spicy barbecue sauce, and this one is loaded with garlic and dried chiles de arbol. The thick texture comes from sautéed fresh celery and onions, which gives the sauce a chunky heft that clings to whatever meats you are serving. I always make this sauce a few days in advance so the flavors have time to blend. Most importantly, I always have a batch ready when the kids come home. I know they will ask for it.
It is important that sometime and somewhere in their life a kid knows the feeling of unconditional abundance. So much in adulthood is portion controlled, from our salaries, our opportunities and the length of our vacations to how far our cars can go on one tank of gas and what we can accomplish during our days. But those golden Sunday afternoons of mesquite smoke floating to infinity and endless conversations are the best moments we can create for ourselves here in the Rio Grande Valley. Enjoy your time together
