Cooking On The Border
Forager Hank Shaw brings new border cookbook to Austin sotol distillery

Borderlands is all about food along the U.S.-Mexico border.
James Beard Award-winning author, chef, and forager Hank Shaw is visiting a unique Austin-area distillery to promote his new cookbook, Borderlands. Shaw will be at Desert Door Distillery in Driftwood on Friday, November 7.
Borderlands has a strong connection to Desert Door because it explores the U.S.-Mexico border, including the areas where sotol grows — Desert Door's specialty. The event will set guests up with two drink tickets for cocktails inspired by recipes from the book, plus a signed copy to take home. There will also be food for purchase from local trucks.
This is Shaw's sixth cookbook, offering 125 recipes and nearly 300 photographs, according to a press release. It presents recipes from Texas and Northern Mexico, as well as "every area along our shared border." The recipes include range from the "approachable" to the more specialized.
Some recipes readers can expect to see include:
- Fish tacos
- Chimichangas
- Carne asada
- Discada — a mixed-meat stir-fry
- Mollejas — sweetbread
- Empalmes — a lard-dipped tortilla sandwich
- Caldo de queso — a Sonoran soup with potatoes
- Cactus salad
- Nopales navegantes — cactus soup, often with a poached egg
- Mushroom Tacos
- The Death Bed Taco — a personal birthday treat from a friend
Since Shaw is widely known for foraging, this book features recipes using wild foods like mesquite, wild greens, native pine nuts, Texas ebony, and cholla, says the book's official description. Game and fresh fish are also on the table.
For those who haven't tried Desert Door's cocktails, they can usually expect a twist on a classic featuring sotol, which has a gently smoky taste that lands somewhere between tequila and mezcal. We don't know exactly what Desert Door is planning for the Borderlands event, but the promotional imagery shows what appears to be a Tex-Mex twist on a martini.
Desert Door is located at 211 Darden Hill Rd. in Driftwood. The event runs from 6-7 pm. Tickets ($65.53) are available via Eventbrite.
