Vday2

As adults, we find ourselves missing those halcyon years when Valentine's Day was just a Halloween knock-off with no pressure and lots of processed sugar. And though our palates may have matured since our younger days, we wondered what might happen if we challenged a few brave chefs to incorporate some favorite teeth-rotting sweets of February — Red Hots, Nerds, and SweeTarts Hearts — into appetizing dishes. All we have to say is, we wish we had run into these dudes on the playground. 

The Contender: Rian Wyllie of Lone Star Taco Bar 
The Ingredient: Red Hots
The Dish: Red Hots Spanish blood sausage with apple puree, Red Hots mustard, and Red Hots pickled fennel

The dude behind that barbacoa taco you can't stop eating at Allston's tequila-bar heaven turns out to be a bit of a Red Hots savant. This is odd, since Wyllie admits he doesn't even love them much at all. Given this knockout dish, we think he might be in denial.

Wyllie first shaved down the candies using a microplane to incorporate them into the blood sausage, allowing the cinnamon flavor to stand in for more typical spices. He then boiled down another batch of Red Hots and blended the result with Dijon mustard, dry mustard, and cayenne pepper to form a sauce. Finally, he topped off the whole shebang with crispy pickled fennel, dyed translucent red with Red Hots that were plunked into the brine.

The heat coming off the plate smelled of hearty wintertime sausage, blasted with an intense cinnamon edge. Not only did the mustard mysteriously maintain the flavor profiles of both liquidated Red Hots and spicy Dijon, it carried the dish — pulling out the spice of the sausage and weaving through the cool apple-puree base.

1  |  2  |  3  |   next >
Related: 14 clip-and-send Valentines from the ladies of Paint Pens in Purses, 14 new Boston restaurant and bars opening this fall, 9 hotly anticipated budget-dining openings for 2012, More more >
  Topics: Food Features , Valentines Day, Lone Star Taco Bar, food features,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY CASSANDRA LANDRY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   DIY DRINKING: HOUSE-MADE INGREDIENTS ARE RAISING THE BAR  |  March 12, 2013
    "When I moved to Boston," UpStairs on the Square bar manager Augusto Lino explains, "it was uncommon for bars to have anything house-made beyond a large container of vodka filled with pineapple on the back bar."
  •   FRESH BLOOD: MEET BOSTON’S NEW CULINARY MUSCLE  |  February 21, 2013
    Whether behind the line of a critically acclaimed kitchen, holed up in a basement pumping out some of the best nosh in the city, or braving Boston’s pothole-filled roads to bring you ass-kicking bites, these chefs are fast becoming ones to watch.  
  •   THE STEEP ASCENT OF TEA CUVÉE  |  February 13, 2013
    We've all been told that once upon a time, angry Bostonians dumped three shiploads of English tea in the harbor to protest taxes, but let's be real here — it was probably just really shitty tea, and they were doing what any of us would do when continually plied with subpar beverage choices.
  •   BEE’S KNEES TAKES FLIGHT: CHEF JASON OWENS READIES HIS GOURMET GROCERY  |  February 04, 2013
    "There was a bit of a setback with the wood for the floors," Jason Owens says, a facemask hanging from his neck and a trucker hat perched on his head, his easygoing Nashville drawl rising above the sound of electric saws.
  •   THE CHALLENGE? TURN VALENTINE’S CANDY INTO HAUTE CUISINE — NO DESSERTS ALLOWED  |  February 04, 2013
    As adults, we find ourselves missing those halcyon years when Valentine's Day was just a Halloween knock-off with no pressure and lots of processed sugar.

 See all articles by: CASSANDRA LANDRY