What are Nevada's local specialties?

Question

I know it's kind of an odd question but we're doing regional cuisines in the US and I was wondering what Nevada is known for. What are common dishes? Local specialties?

Thanks in advance! :)

Answer 1

Big Blue Sky gave a good answer as to what the historical specialties are.  

These days, you can still get good sourdough bread here.  Most restaurants that have a choice of breads include it in their list.  The big cities like Las Vegas and Reno have almost everything, especially Vegas with it's catering to guests from around the world.  You'll especially find a lot of Mexican, Italian and various Oriental places.  There are also a number of Greek and Japanese restaurants though not quite as many.  In my mind, the best restaurants in Vegas are some of the Italian ones.  There are everything from simple little pizzarias that make N.Y. style hand tossed pizzas all the way up to the really fancy ones where the waiters wear suits and bring you a dessert tray and wine list and a selection of appatizers and after dinner coffees.  Some of them even have  specialties that you won't find in the chain restaurants like veal, eggplant, calamari, various imported sausages, hand made sauses you won't find in the grocery store etc.  

I live in Las Vegas and with all the places I have to choose from, I probably go to the little Italian place on Tropicana and Sandhill more than just about any other.

Answer 2

BASQUE



Food is an important part of the culture of Basque Nevadans. The Basque homeland is located in the region straddling Spain and France. In the late 19th century, Basques began emigrating to the western United States to find work. Many of the men became sheepherders, a job that required them to spend long stretches of time alone with their flocks in distant valleys and mountains. To provide a friendly refuge, Basque hotels cropped up in many of Nevada’s rural ranching communities. A Basque hotel was a place where the beds were warm and the conversation was lively and in Basque. A sheepherder could pick up the mail with news from home, read Basque newspapers, and, of course, eat. Meals were served family-style, meaning everyone in the hotel ate at the same table and passed around large platters of food.



Basque Vegetable Soup

Soak 1 pound white pea beans and ½ pound dried peas overnight in water (unless they are the quick-cooking type). Next day, drain and put them into a deep kettle with a meaty ham knuckle, 2 bay leaves, an onion stuck with 2 cloves, and 3 quarts of water.

Cook 1 hour and taste for salt (if ham is salty, salt will not need to be added). Cook until beans are tender and drain, reserving liquid. In bean liquid cook 6 potatoes cut small, 4 sliced carrots, 4 diced turnips, 5 cut-up leeks, 6 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon thyme, 1 bay leaf. When tender, add 1 small shredded cabbage, the beans and peas, meat from ham bone, 12 sausages. Cook until cabbage is just tender and soup very thick. Serve with cheese and bread. Serves 6 to 8.



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COWBOY



When many people think of Nevada, they think not only of glamorous hotel-casinos but also of the wide open spaces of a state that is one of the last frontiers in the American West. Out beyond the bright lights of the cities is the state’s cattle country – thousands of square miles and home to cowboys who are the real thing. Since cowboying is hard work, buckaroos have developed their own unique style of cooking that is suited to a sometimes primitive and harsh environment.

Modern Sourdough Starter

½ package (1-¼  teaspoons) active dry yeast

½ cup warm water

2 cups flour

2 cups water

2 tablespoons sugar

Stir together yeast and ½ cup warm water. Let stand until yeast has dissolved. Combine flour, 2 cups water, and sugar in a gallon-size earthenware crock. Add yeast mixture and beat well. Cover with cheesecloth and let stand in a warm place for about 2 days. Never cover the crock tightly as the starter needs to breathe.

To keep the starter active, add one cup of warm water and about 1 cup of flour after each use. Remember to use wooden utensils and crockery bowls or other non-reactive metal utensils and containers when working with sourdough. For best results, your sourdough should be replenished at least once a week.

Sourdough Hotcakes

2 cups Sourdough Starter

1 cup flour

Water

2 beaten eggs

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter or cooking oil

1 tablespoon baking soda

The night before making hotcakes, put the starter into large crockery mixing bowl. Stir in the flour and enough water to make a medium batter. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight. (Remember to replenish your starter with 1 cup flour and 1 cup warm water.) In the morning, stir in beaten eggs, butter or oil, sugar, and baking soda. Let rise for a few minutes then drop batter onto a hot griddle. Cook until golden brown, turning to cook both sides. Serves 6.



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NATIVE AMERICAN

Nevada’s native people, the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe, became adept at finding ways to survive in the region’s sometimes harsh environment. Their diet took advantage of the available resources, including nuts, grasses, fish, fowl, and game. Any variety in their diet came from game and a few foods that could be dried and stored, such as pinenuts.

Pinenuts

“Every species of pine has edible nuts. The main factor which makes some species preferable is the size of the nuts. For illustration, try collecting lodgepole-pine nuts. If you are even able to shell one, your dexterity compares well with a chipmunk’s. The one-leaved piñon, on the other hand, has the largest nuts of any pine. They are among the most profuse and easiest to collect, and they are easy to shell and taste good. They were once the staple food of the Paiutes who lived on the east side of the Sierra. Piñon nuts are one of the few wild foods which is collected in quantity and sold commercially.” – From “Wild Food Plants of the Sierra” by Steven and Mary Thompson (1976).

Spinach Greens Salad with Pinenut Dressing

½ cup chopped pinenuts

¼ cup salad or olive oil

3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

1-½ quarts broken pieces crisp, fresh spinach

½ teaspoon salt

Dash of nutmeg

¼ teaspoon grated lemon peel

Combine pinenuts, oil, vinegar, lemon peel, salt, and nutmeg. Mix with spinach.



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MINERS

Any cookbook about Nevada must include miners’ recipes. Mining was largely responsible for the settling of Nevada in the mid-1800s, and emigrants came from all over the world to work in the mines. Many, such as the Welsh and Cornish miners, had previously worked in the mining industry in other countries.

Queenie’s Cornish Pasties

4 cups flour

1-½ teaspoons salt

6 ounces suet

¼ pound lard

Sprinkle of water

1 potato (for each pasty)

1 onion (for each pasty)

½ pound sliced round stead (for each pasty)

Butter

Mix 4 cups of flour with 1-½ teaspoons of salt. Chop 6 ounces of suet very fine, adding some of the flour to keep it from sticking and chop it into the remaining flour along with ¼ pound of lard. Add just enough water to hold it together. Divide dough into 4 parts and roll each one into a square about 12 by 12 inches. Make one pasty at a time. Have some round steak sliced thick and chip it into pieces the size of a silver dollar. Allow ½ pound per pasty. Also allow 1 potato and 1 onion each.

Slice the onion thin and grate or chip the potato. On top of the pasty, a little left of center, put a layer of the meat chips, on top of the dabs of butter. Now add slices of onion, then a layer of grated potato. Sprinkle salt and pepper on this. Then add another layer of meat, more butter, ditto onions, ditto potato, salt and pepper. Now the pasties are folded in half, the edges moistened and tucked in, with the tops slashed for steam to escape. Pat top with melted lard and some canned milk or with a beaten egg (optional) and put them into a large pan, well greased. Bake at 400 degrees until well browned and for about 1-½ hours.