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Dover Sole poached in Vermouth with a Shallots Butter Reduction. Peas (green), Potatoes (white).
I had to make the potatoes twice. I started the first batch and realized I didn’t have enough butter to finish them. I tried another fat: olive oil. Nope. Just not the same. A quick run to the grocery store: potatoes, butter, heavy cream. Properly made mashed potatoes, there is no substitute. If you see a mass of us taking up rusty spatulas in anger, fear not. You are not the target. Unless you are Anthony Bourdain. The highest paid food blogger in the world. If you weren’t watching, tonight was the season opener for No Reservations: Grenadine Islands. Congratulations Uncle Tony, you win. You are King of the Food Bloggers, you pellet-headed weasel. I hope the sand in your shorts grinds your tender bits to dust. I must say, the new camera work is choice, though. 5D’s? 7D’s? Not sure what they are shooting with, but the super sharp focus-pulls give the scenes a hipper snap. P.S. What’s up with the dance club montage closing scene? Did your marketing group notify your staff that the new hot demographic are disenfranchised Justin Bieber fans trying to hunt down a rave party? Next week’s show focuses on the Heartland. Obviously, they folded in Austin. (Really?) I guess middle America means “not San Francisco or New York”. No matter. Perla’s, the trailer crowd and others get the NoRes nod. Stay tuned. Respecting the craftsmanship aside, don’t think for a minute that if I had to name a medium-rare donkey steak after someone, Tony would be represented on the menu. Keep soaking up those rays Tony. No Reservations : Travel Channel : New shows Mondays at 10pm
Gulf Coast Snapper, Grilled Local Corn (suspiciously early in the season and suspiciously worm free), diced tomatoes with Cheddar and Tomatillo Salsa. The filling is bright, flavorful and straightforward to make: pan-seared fish fillets, grilled corn til it is almost done and dice the tomatoes. The salsa is raw: combine eight or ten tomatillos in a Cuisinart with a cup of diced white onion, three garlic cloves (peeled) and salt to taste. Assemble the rolls, sauce the plate, sprinkle with cheddar and place under a broiler til the cheese gets melty (it’s a scientific term). Splash some sour cream on top and crown with a grilled lime. Is it just me or does that sauce look like hair gel from the 1990′s?
Be wary of the lady who starts to tell you her corn doesn’t have worms because she sprays… Oh!, scratch that, picks the worms off by hand? Surrre. Do you think I was born on a leap year? Thank God I have Jim Rockford on speed dial. Dear Austin Restaurants: Stop Hoarding Seafood. The prices don’t need to go up yet. Just when Austinites are leaning toward better eating habits, cloudy economic forces push us back to the McNugget lifestyle. We know British Petroleum spilled the oil. We know British Petroleum are idiots. We know that the oil is not drifting into Texas fishing grounds. We know that the oil is not affecting most deep sea fishing. We know that some restaurants are hoarding in anticipation of a seafood shortage in the gulf of Mexico and that is driving prices up. We know you are buying gulf seafood en masse because you are worried about the prices rising. We know it’s all sitting in your deep freeze getting covered in frost. At the moment, nothing has changed along our coast. If the wholesale prices had gone up for real, great. Beat us up. I’ll still bite. But, if you are raising your prices on speculation, I would rather have a BP executive served up on a platter. Believe me, I prefer to eat the shark that bit me. Don’t know if you knew this, but Central Market just had Big Eye Tuna on sale for $9.99 a pound. That’s like $400,000 off the normal price (approximate). I didn’t write about the sale because I am selfish. The most dangerous situation a person can get in is standing between me and tuna. Pictured above are Big Eye Apps with coleslaw, mango, ginger tamarind sauce and sesame seeds. I ate all of them. Salt, pepper and a quick sear. Careful. You’re drooling. For the tamarind sauce: Put a cup or so tamarind in a bowl with 1/2 cup boiling water, and let soak for 30 minutes. Mash the residue and extract as much tamarind essence as possible. Put tamarind water in a pan along with 1/2 tsp cornstarch, mix well and bring to a boil. Cook for a couple minutes till the consistency gets to where you want it. Turn off heat and stir in ginger shreds (restrain if you want). The majestic spectacle that is the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival has just come to an end. It capped off the Sunday Fair like a soggy exclamation point stuck in the Driftwood mud. The Fair seemed to lean more towards the wine end of things, with the Friday night Stars across Texas being more of the local restaurant scene. My highlights from all the festivities were the ceviche from La Condesa, mussels from Uchi, meeting Dr. Kracker, Annie’s chocolate caramel dessert and the guy from Pine Ridge winery who hit on my wife. Knowing what I know now, next year, the Stars event (even with the $ premium) will be my main target. Although watching snappily dressed women fall face first into mud-soaked straw can amuse me for hours, I’ll stick closer to town.  |
   
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