Austin Locavores Unite Around Seven Courses of Pig

There's a snap in the air here - actually, an unseasonably cold one - which means it's time for the food artistes at Dai Due to break out, and then break down, a whole pig!

You may remember us attending Dai Due's Whole Hog Boucherie dinner last year, after Husbear spent a day learning the tricks behind pig processing from Jesse at Dai Due.  Well, those crazy folks are at it again.

Though Dai Due held all sorts of wonderful food events this year, a confluence of laziness and our own scheduling irregularities meant we hadn't attended a single one.  What the hell, right?  It took out of town visitors coming in specifically for this event to get us to finally commit.

Anyway, in a repeat of last year, there we were in the late afternoon at Rain Lily Farm, holding an aperitif, watching a chicken riding a goat, wondering what lovely pigginess Dai Due had in store for us.

This chicken hopped from goat to goat, but managed to stay on as long as it wanted to.(Note: this chicken made my month, possibly my adult life. Holy balls is there anything more awesome than a chicken riding a goat?! -L. Pants)

Things got off to a mellow start.  We ran into several people we know, and chatted about the chicken jockey, the bite in the air, and OMG THE ELECTION YAY!

A deliciously refreshing aperitif got us started off right.  This apple ratafia was made with Texas chenin blanc, Treaty Oak rum, homemade ginger beer, and Gala apples.  Perfect for fall - we might have to jack the recipe for Thanksgiving.

Unsurprisingly, Husbear was drawn directly over to where Jesse manned a large fiery grill.  The sausages probably aren't being shown in their most appetizing light, here, but this is a great idea for grilling large amounts of them!  (When it's homemade, I suppose you have the option to refrain from making links.)

I, of course, toddled straight to the welcoming charcuterie spread and piled my plate with terrines, pates, boudin blanc, head cheese, and rillettes, along with accompaniments - pickled green tomatoes and beets, olives, sliced bread, and mustard.

To be perfectly forthright - everything was better than last year.  That's really not to talk any smack about last year, at all, but it's obvious that these guys have honed their skills in the intervening time.  They're really much closer to having everything perfected, and the logistics down.  I mean, look at that tenderloin terrine!  (This must be why they're selling out in mere moments lately.)

I heard raves about the head cheese, which was certainly delicious, though I preferred the perfect fall combination in the liver and apple pate.  I could have eaten a plate split evenly between the pickled green tomatoes and marinated beets, too... but that would have left me with nowhere for the soft boudin blanc or the moist porky rillettes!

So many choices, so much upcoming food.

By this time, we'd all found our assigned seats and plopped down in them.  One of the reasons these Dai Due meals are so much fun is the whole communal aspect of the feast - almost everything is served family style, and the people there all tend to be excited about local food - so there's somewhere to start your conversation!

Well, now that I've said things are served communally... the soup isn't.  There, you got me.

This soup was just yummy - creamer pea with a chorizo garnish.  Meat as garnish was a nice idea, for one thing because we'd be eating so much of it over the course of the meal!  The pea soup was creamy with nice earthy flavor, and the light spice of the chorizo matched well.

Two quick shoutouts at this point - one to Kim, Paul, Jayne, and Scott, for letting us jump in on their fun wine pool (we appreciate it, guys!) and providing wonderful conversation as always.  Such a treat to see Jayne again, and to meet Scott!

(Dude, I don't know what these spots are.  Presumably my camera needs a deep cleaning of some kind.)

Second shoutout, to our little tripod.  These food pictures would not be possible without you, gorillapod - it was completely dark out there by the time the first course was served!

There was a short break between the soup and the next flurry of delicious porks, which was fine - the conversation flowed and the wine poured and we all sat back and admired the setting.  Love the long tables!

But oh, what a next pork it was - grilled poblano sausages with slow-roasted shoulder, served with slow-cooked apples, turnips, and butternut squash. 

Great idea!  It's fun to try different varieties of pork on top of each other like this.  The shoulder was tender and fell apart, the sausage's spice played nicely off the sweet apples, and below all that was tasty delicate squash and lightly bitter turnips.  A great fall dish, wonderful for the cool evening.

In my opinion, though, it was blown out of the water by the next pork - spit-roasted loin with lettuces and garlic vinaigrette. WOW.

The lettuces seemed to be mostly of the bitter-ish varieties- spicy baby arugula and the like, and they were just so slightly wilted by the warmth of the succulent loin resting on them.  Oh, was that meat GOOD!  Not a hint of dryness (I heard tell of a 24 hour molasses brine), just perfectly seasoned, garlicky, sweet pork.  I only took one slice.  Dammit.

Are you going to laugh at me when I tell you we had three courses to go?  Please realize these were servings for 6 people or so.

Next up - Mr. Popularity Hisself, Red Wine Braised Belly with Cabbage, Sweet Potatoes, and Apple Chutney. 

Definitely good, in terms of fatty pork happy times.  The sweet potatoes and cabbage were done just so - my preference would be for a little less cooked, but that's just me - and the apple chutney was a tart, cool flavor boost.  I was still thinking about the spit-roasted pork loin, though.

The last (!) pork of the evening, hot boudin with cracklin cornbread, greens, and chili vinegar, arrived to many oohs and aahs.  My expectations were high for this one, probably because I will fight tooth and nail for greens with chili vinegar - plus, the dish piled high looked so appealing!

Well, uh... the cornbread was great, with chewy little pork bits BAKED IN, and the greens were wonderful and powerfully green.  I would have been happy with just those two things.  The boudin, on the other hand, was dry.  Too bad, because the flavor was there!  I think I just happen to prefer it poached - when poached, boudin is crazy moist, and you actually eat it by squeezing it out of the casing onto saltines (or into your mouth, if you're Bubba or you're driving.)

All of this food having disappeared, we were lucky to have some time before dessert!  I nursed a large cup of wonderful locally roasted, rich coffee as conversation hopped and swirled.  What fun times!

Dessert turned out to be bizcochitos, which are apparently a New Mexican anise-flavored cookie (I had to research that when I got home), served with grilled grapefruit.  The cookies were perfect with my coffee, crumbly and just lightly sweet... and I didn't try the grapefruit, for a stupid reason.  I didn't have a plate. (Husbear tried it, and said while the idea was sound, it seemed like perhaps some pork had been left on the grill - and he's not so much into porky grapefruit.)

I hope we don't wait another year to experience one of these bacchanalias of local, seasonal, delicious flora and fauna.  It's a wonderful, rare experience to share fun food and good times with new people. 

Matter of fact, the December schedule just came out... perhaps I should go peruse it before all the spots are snapped up?

Thanks, Jesse and Tamara, for showing us and friends such a great, Texas time!

Dai Due's website, updated often, is found here.  Check for new schedules!

Comments

[Karin]

Great post and pictures!

Also, Bruce suggests that the only way a chicken riding a goat could be cooler is if it were a vampire chicken riding a robot goat.

[Boots in the Oven]

Thanks! And I think Bruce is right. That would be too cool.

[Albany Jane]

If I got to see a chicken riding anything, that would have been money well spent.

I may also have to snag that ratafia idea - sounds appetizing!

[Boots in the Oven]

Ooh, Albany Jane, I think the idea would work really well up in New York - you guys get such great apples! Glad you liked the chicken... it's an enterprising one, apparently.

[maryn]

Is that the maroon bob you tweeted? It's excellent!

[Boots in the Oven]

Aw, thanks, Maryn! Yes, the very same.