Farm to Table @LakeWayResort and Sustainable Food Center Autumn Harvest @LaCondesaAustin

A big thanks to Josey's and Chef Jeff Axline for having me over for dinner.  Eating local and sustainable is a pretty popular movement these days.  If you haven't heard of the reasons why you might want to start eating locally and sustainably, it is high time to get a move on it! Josey's is doing a weekly Farm to Table Dinner that changes every week.  The weekly dinner is at Wednesday Nights starting at 5:30 pm.  This meal is a steal at just $25 for locally sourced ingredients.  Take a look at the November 2nd menu. 

Chef Jeff Axline purchases the ingredients himself at the downtown Saturday morning market.  He goes incognito (sorta, not really) so don't expect recognize him quickly. 

The meal starts with fluffy biscuits with butter.  Nothing says Texas like warm biscuits. 

This salad was my sister's favorite part of the meal.  Grilled Texas Pears served with organic arugula, shaved Van Sormon cheese, French Breakfast Radish, Poached Farmer's Egg, and a Fig Vinaigrette.  The grilled pears was my absolute favorite part of the dish.  I love grilled fruit (pineapple, strawberries, and peaches), and these pears were no exception.  The pears were sweet and smoky which contrasted well with the bitter greens. 

The second dish was my favorite - Pan Roasted Copper Shoals Red Drum with baby squash, sweet peppers, green beans, tomato fumet, and sweet herbs.  Taiwanese cooking at home consisted of whole fish skin-on.  Living on the coast made having crispy skin on fish a regular dinner item when I was growing up.  It has somewhat of a comfort food quality for me.  I know, I have the most unusual comfort food preferences.  This fish skin was wonderfully executed and seasoned.  The red drum was from Copper Shoals Farm located in Palacios, TX.   

The dessert course was a rich version of a classic - Pumpkin Pie with House Made Buttery Crust served with Persimmon Mascarpone Cream and Persimmon puree.  Adding persimmon flavor to sinful mascarpone cream can only be good.  Did I mention that I love persimmons? 

If you're looking for another Farm to Table event, the Sustainable Food Center Chef Series Austin Harvest is right around the corner.  On Nov. 12th, you'll get to taste food from:

• Tyson Cole, executive chef at Uchi and Uchiko
• Andrew Weissman, executive chef of Il Sogno, The Sandbar, and The Luxury
•  James Holmes & Andrew Francisco of Olivia
• Shawn Cirkiel, executive chef at Parkside and Backspace
• Jason Donoho and Andrew Macarthur of Fino and Asti
• Todd Duplechan of forthcoming Lenoir
• Monica Glenn of Uchi Houston
• Rene Ortiz of La Condesa

I attended the Spring Bounty Series, and it was pretty fantastic.  If you want to  be amazing by local chefs and local produce, get tickets for Sunday, Nov. 12th.  You'll love it!

Southern Cooking at Josey's Grill and Bar at the Lakeway Resort and Spa

It seems to be spa season, and that's no complaint from me.  Being invited to partake in a tasting menu at the Lakeway Resort and Spa made me pretty giddy.  Chef Jeff Axline was playing host a the resort's restaurant, Josey's Grill and Bar.  It only took a glance at the menu to note that he takes Southern food seriously.  I would say that the style could be a cross of Paula Deen meets Charles Alderton and then runs away with the Antonelli's.  Butter meets soda (or pop) and elopes with cheese.  Let's get started on some food-pornorific photos by John M. P. Knox otherwise known as @windaddict/@hopsafari. The view outside from the windows is beautiful  First up was the cheddar and bacon buttermilk biscuits with Jeff's chili/bacon jam and whipped sweet butter.  The buttery, warm, and fluffy biscuits were oh-so-sinful that you'll be doing some serious time in purgatory.  I enjoyed the texture of this bacon jam more than others.  This one had tiny chunks of bacon as opposed to bacon chopped into tiny specks. Next up were the pulled beef nachos with house potato chips- Tillamook cheddar cheese sauce and a jalapeno avocado crema.   Think of this is a fancy pants version of nachos and cheese with meat. Jumbo lump crab cake with jalapeno tartar sauce with creamy slaw.  Jumbo referred to the size of the lumps of crab, not necessarily the size of the crab cake.  This crab cake was, well, wonderfully full of crab and not fluff. Quail is growing popular these days, and this Dr. Pepper infused fried quail is no exception.  It was sweet, smoky, flavorful with tender morsels of meat on the thin bones.  I think that the salad that came along side this dish, blue cheese potato salad with ancho/honey butter was a clear winner.  Even for a cheese and meat eater, this salad was pretty amazing.  I must say that this salad was actually my favorite dish of the night. A word of warning when you order this dish: make sure you split it with several other people.  This dish is so rich and creamy, you'll feel like you'll have cheese running through your veins.  It is quite literally loaded baked potato meets mac and cheese.  It includes maple rubbed bacon, scallions, and a potato chip crust.  I would have loved to try this with a nice brown ale or even an IPA to balance out the sweet maple.  This mac and cheese is not for the faint of heart. Here comes the soda again.  Gorgonzola grilled cheese-root beer braised short ribs with marinated tomatoes on artisan sourdough.  This could have been a stand alone meal.  Crunchy toasted sour dough bread, pungent gorgonzola, and sweet short ribs.  Yes,  I wrote a sentence with only nouns.  Drool.  And a sentence with only a verb and an implied noun. As if there wasn't enough meat, next up is a grilled petite Hereford beef filet mignon with roasted beers, fingerling potatoes, brussels sprouts, and red wine jus.  Eat meat now. And to tie to meal together, double chocolate bread pudding with slightly sweet whipped cream and butterscotch sauce.  I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but I ate all of my dessert.  That is a testament to the meal.  Thank you again to the Lakeway Resort and Spa, Josey's Grill and Bar and to Chef Jeff Axline for having us over for dinner.