Pastrami Beef Ribs are Interstellar’s Spin on Classic Texas Barbecue — Smoke Point

- Great Texas BBQ will always be based on the Texas trinity. You should always have great brisket, you should always have great

ribs

, and you should always have great sausages. But if you're going to evolve in a market as dynamic and competitive as Austin, you'll want to be able to add some new elements. So I think the idea of ​​making a more composed dish is fun. We serve some mole short

ribs

and season the back with our mole spice mix. It has all the

classic

ingredients in a mole, it's just prepared in powder form and this is definitely one of those dishes that we're coloring outside the lines of traditional

barbecue

.

The fact that we are sautéing meat and making a composed dish automatically lets people know that we are not following the standard path. It is as if we were serving a

barbecue

dish composed with sauce. In Texas they don't sauce meat. This is our version of mole. I just think it's better to always be honest with people if you take a little freedom with the dish. Then tell them it's like, "Hey, this is our version of the mole." It's not traditional. (upbeat music) So, you know, when we start the day, at 4:00 a.m. m., our morning boy arrives.

We usually still have a good bed of charcoal from the night cook going. So the idea is to go in, open it up again, get the oxygen back in there again and then remove that bed of coals and put some new logs in there. And then, immediately, the fire reignites. That's why I also like records like this. We like the crust. Helps form a

smoke

ring. So we're also looking for a variety of wood, pieces that burn a little cleaner and a little faster. It is quite curious that the door has become synonymous with the restaurant.

Depending on the weather and how things are going, sometimes I just close it like this, because I just want to get a little bit of airflow in. Other times, I just button it up a little bit, because I want to catch it, like maybe the wind is coming from this direction, so I want to force a little more air in there. It's a trip. Deep down, we are builders of fire. That's what we do. Right now, we're cooking all of our quick-cooking things. We're talking about anything that can be cooked and served the same day. We have our St.

Louis ribs here, so we're basting them now. We'll drizzle it with a mixture of vinegar, Worcestershire and a few other ingredients and that's one of the things we look for when we're cooking. That goes back to my time as a chef. Whenever I add an element to a product, the idea is to add some type of layer of flavors. We will close them again. What I learn from my time running high-end restaurants is to just treat it like every day. We're going to go in and do our best to work as a team, create good camaraderie and an environment where hopefully everyone on the team can excel, which means the food will be even better for the customers.

Today we will show you how we make our

pastrami

beef

ribs. We get nice plate ribs or super thick plate ribs. They are put in a wet brine to cure them and get that

classic

pastrami

flavor and essentially it is what we call corned

beef

brine. A lot of these things are very classic and resemble a brine of meat with corn. We like to add the vegetables, allspice, peppercorns, thyme. All of that comes together to create that classic pastrami flavor. These guys have been in the water for a while. Warren will season them with our pastrami dressing.

So this is Warren. He is also affectionately known as Wardog. He is my right hand here at the restaurant. - Call me Warren Peace, the Warren G, the Regulator. Then all of a sudden it was Wardog and then that just rolls off the tongue better I guess. We will sprinkle them into the hole of the plate. We'll skim some of this off or it will tend to be a little salty and there won't be any salt in the dough. You would think the fatty part of the breast would be delicious. You get some chunks of this.

You really have something there. I mean, you just want to curl up and take a nap after eating one of these. It is simply a gelatinous paradise of wealth. Take them here and then we'll rub them down. It can get a little isolating here at times. So I've had some great conversations with everything I've got in the hole. I salute the breasts and open them. I'll say, "Hello gentlemen, how's your night going?" And sometimes they even respond to me. It depends on how long the shift is. And when the brisket starts talking, I think it's time to go home. - Beef ribs are a staple at Texas barbecue restaurants.

So how do we address that standard Texas element and make it our own? We decided to make it a beef short rib with pastrami. So take this great classic cut, still

smoke

it, but apply a different flavor profile in a different spice blend to create a newer beef rib dining experience. Once they turn a really pretty color, we'll wrap them loosely in aluminum foil. It kind of steams them up. We care about the entire menu, from brisket to pickles. Everything matters here. One of the dishes that I think really defines us is our smoked scalloped potatoes.

Then scalloped potatoes are a dish. It can be called as gratin. It's basically a layered potato dish. So we used a russet potato. Nothing special, because it makes the best gratin potatoes. They are russet potatoes, cream, parmesan and salt, pepper and garlic. Funnily enough, I think we're more popular for scalloped potatoes than probably almost anything else. (Laughs) People talk about accompaniments on the same level as meats. I think that's one of the things that really sums us up, because we wanted to create a menu where not only was the barbecue great but the sides were great too.

Throw everything there unceremoniously. This is finished with a little parmesan on top. This helps create a really nice crust, almost crust-like, if you will. People have said that this dish is the closest thing to vegetarian barbecue, because it's rich and delicious like brisket and has a great crust and crusty exterior when it comes off the smoker. - That's one of the side dishes I can curl up with and eat. I mean, I'm like a goldfish with that. I'll eat it until I turn around and float. (laughs) When it comes to performing the classics here, I mean you have to have your shit together.

You can't serve poor brisket. You have to nail it to be taken seriously in this city. - So what's up with these things today? Good sir. - Wow, that's huge. - This is like a whole cow. Stay, stay there. Do not move. They will jump. - Before doing anything, you want to make sure you have the breast down. It has to be solid as a rock. You can't have mistakes in it. It has to be moist, juicy, tender and tasty. It has to have a good crust. - It's time, guys. Is that what you've been waiting for your whole life?

I like to put the very large ones back, and many times we go with four breasts, but I think we will do them with three. My ADHD nature doesn't like doing repetitive things, and even though I cook brisket every day, there's always something that seems to be different. At dinner last night I left here at 11:30. Everything turned out great. The night before it was raining and I left here at one o'clock. I was getting stressed and had visions that the whole cook was ruined. We'd have to close the next day, because when I'm the last one to touch them, it's still every day that stresses me out.

So every time John rolls one and cuts it, I'm always there and I'm like, How was he? How was the? Alright? - The breasts look good, Warren. This is a relaxing time for me and it's a nerve-wracking time for Warren. - Well, I just want them to be good. - It's always like Christmas, man. Santa brings me brisket. When you do a good job with the basics, you've hopefully created good will with your clientele, because they know well, "These guys killed it with brisket and that special sounds pretty intriguing." I should try it. Well, then we'll run out of this moist brisket around one.

Slant is what we judge ourselves by. Like we don't really care that much about the wet side. It is the lean side that is more difficult to cook well. So when we taste the brisket and determine if we like how we cook it, we always taste the lean side, not the fatty side. And that is our goal every day. Like minding my business, making good Texas barbecue. And then when we had the opportunity to play outside the lines a little bit. - I call this Enforcer. When the fire is giving me problems, I light that sucker and it will certainly change the attitude of the wood.

And then we can go here and give this a little boost if you want. - When it comes to cooking with live fire, it is much more fun than working in a restaurant. I don't think I can ever go back to a situation where tickets were showing up in some random cave where we were cooking and slaving over a hot stove. So it is a much more relaxed and rewarding style of cooking. Let's prepare our banana cream cake. The idea behind this dessert was to take a classic barbecue dish, like banana pudding, and make it our own.

That's why we want to fill the bottom of this cake with a good layer of banana, so that you get banana flavor every time you bite into the dessert. We're trying to present a menu that speaks to classic Texas barbecue from a chef's

point

of view. Because of my experience running American fine dining restaurants in the past, whenever I cook something, I simply rely on my past experience and knowledge. To finish with dulce de leche. And this is an ingredient from my childhood in South Texas and it is our banana cream pie. I think people really enjoy it.

I tell them this is a laptop, so you go toast style and just smash it. It is not a fork and knife dish. It's much more fun if you eat it with your hands. - Alright guys, do you know what time it is? It's around 10 o'clock, so we want to leave here at 10:30. Do you think you can do that? Give these ribs about 10 more minutes and wrap them again and they will bring them. - These are our St. Louis ribs. The St. Louis rib is similar to a pork rib. However, a full rib will be larger and a little wider.

It will have thinner sections where the meat drains and St. Louis is basically a section cut out of that. Therefore, it is a slightly nicer cut than the whole rib. This is actually my favorite time of day, when all the moving pieces finally come together and we can just sit back and enjoy lunch service. How are you guys doing? - Fairly good. - What can I do for you today? There are a lot of great barbecue restaurants run by guys who have only done barbecue. We come at this from the perspective of living in restaurants, having worked in many restaurant situations, and having many different experiences.

While maybe some of the other guys who we hope to be one day just all they've done is barbecue. When we decided to switch to barbecue, a lot of people said, "Why are you doing that? We don't need more barbecue places." For me, running a barbecue is as natural as running a fine dining restaurant. It was a really easy transition for me, but people were surprised that we decided to get out of our lane and do something different. I love barbecue. (upbeat music)