Franklins BBQ - Everything's better in a trailer (Oklahomans excluded)

For Austinite bbq lovers, the few options in town meant treks to Luling, Lockhart, Taylor or Driftwood.  There are a few in town I like (Rudy's, Ruby's), but none that just flat out impress across the board.  Until now.  It may not look like much, but Franklin's is quickly gaining a reputation among BBQ aficionados.  I gathered up the Royal We (Fall 09 Bowling Champs) Thursday to try it out and walked away extremely impressed (and overweight).

My litmus test for good bbq is the standard 2 meat test: brisket and sausage.  Between the 4 of us we ordered 1.5 lbs brisket, 1 lb sausage and 1lb pork ribs.  The owner, Aaron, provided us with some charred caps to munch on while he cut everything up.  Amazing.  The guy should somehow market just the ends (muffintop ala Seinfeld). It was all amazing.  The brisket was one of the best I've tried, 10 out of 10.  The sausage and ribs were both 8 out of 10.  My only knock was there just wasn't a sauce there that I really liked.  The expresso sauce is good and a very different idea.  The sweet sauce was ok and I'll have to try the pork sauce next round with some pulled pork. 

We all walked away very happy with this nearby lunch option soon to make it into the rotation.  On one hand, I liked the fact that we walked right up with just a few folks in line and had our run of the place.  On the other hand, its criminal to keep a place like this secret and Aaron seems like genuine good people.  So, next chance you get, give it a go.  Its just north of Dreamers (on 35 frontage road).  If you pass Chicas Bonitas, you've gone too far.  (35 and Concordia).

And now, food porn:

The establishment

 

The Order

El Brisket

Los Ribs

BBQ Lunch, Serious Business

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

So, apologies for the blog hiatus.  Between the holidays, the National Championship game and Vegas, there wasn't much cooking going on up in our kitchen.  However, this will be a multiblog week so really, try and contain yourselves.  Onto the grub.

For those that don't know me, I'm a carnivore of the highest order.  The few entries I've made were chalk full of meaty goodness.  Every now and then I feel the need to get away from that and bring some veggies into the mix (its rare, but it does happen).  So when I filled out our Greenling order this week I grabbed way too many butternut squashi, some sweet potatoes (a regular in our box) and a few yukon gold potatoes and went to town.

1 lb butternut squash
1 lb sweet potatoes
2 small yukon potatoes
1 small onion
6 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp minced ginger

This was a pretty easy recipe, but most of the work was turning this:

into this:

One workout at Gregory Gym this afternoon, the second in the Huebner Kitchen dicing up all that fun.  The rest went by quickly.  Throw the onions in with some olive oil in a large soup dish for about five minutes until tender.  Then add the ginger, sit back and enjoy the smell (but only for 1 minute):

 

Then in goes the rest of the veggie goodness (and chicken broth).  Turn the heat up to get it simmering then cover and turn it down to medium for 45 minutes or until the ingredients are soft enough to blend.  Use a blender and smooth everything out into an even consistency (left ours with some small chunks) and then put it back on the heat for another 15 minutes or so while you put together this super easy salad:

lettuce
sliced pears
blue cheese
chopped walnuts

dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp apple vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp lemon juice

throw it all together and here's what makes the wife smile: