Austin Food Journal

As the Food Network continues its slow slide towards mediocrity, lets turn our attention to more inspired food TV. An anonymous tipster alerted me to Gourmet’s ‘Diary of A Foodie’. I have seen previous episodes of this series and it is worth a watch.

I could have also titled this post, “What My Baby Wants, My Baby Gets”. She signed-off on the roasted squash tortellini, poached in chicken stock, with fried herbs. I mixed the pasta dough much longer than I usually do (thank you, Kitchenaid). I think it improved the texture. I also used a new spice mix: coriander seed, fennel seed, red pepper and garlic. Two thumbs up.

Standard house salad (always a pleaser): romaine, tomatoes, goat cheese, red onion, pecans, tossed with a honey mustard vinaigrette.

Meyer lemonade. Thinly sliced lemons, scant sugar and boiling water. Stir, count to thirty, add ice. Crazy blue glass optional.

My version of Migas; eggs, Anaheim chilis, caramelized onions, fried tortillas, cheddar cheese and salsa. Serve it with a campfire burned flour tortilla and you’ll be good-to-go.

Rural Texas at it’s best: fried okra. I remember eating them for lunch in first grade. (I thought they were weird Tater Tots). I bread them with flour, corn meal, garlic salt and chili powder. Fry them in peanut oil and dip them in some of that spicy ketchup that was made for the Po-Boy.

To mark Fat Tuesday and a tip of the hat to the Big Easy, I broke out a Fried Oyster Po-Boy. It’s audacious to think that I could reproduce this sandwich. I believe that you actually need to be standing in the Quarter to have it taste correct. But, it was a valiant effort and pretty much in the ballpark. Cornmeal battered oysters, home made spicy ketchup and coleslaw.