i'll cook if you clean up

Salt and Vinegar Potatoes and Green Beans

2011-05-10T14:57:00.007-05:00

I can take exactly no credit for this recipe or idea. How I never thought of it myself...I don't know, because I love salt and vinegar chips. This one comes from Sweet Amandine. It's so simple, and delicious. I used Maldon sea salt, as she suggested, and I used haricots verts instead of regular green beans. I also used white wine vinegar instead of red, because I realized too late that's all I had. I cut this recipe in half - the measurements here serve 6 people.

2 pounds of baby red potatoes
1½ pounds of green beans
2-3 Tbsps. olive oil
5 Tbsps. red wine vinegar
A copious amount of coarsely ground sea salt
Black pepper

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Wash and trim the beans, and set aside. Scrub the potatoes, dry them, cut them into small pieces, and toss them with the olive oil in a large bowl. Season with salt and a few grinds of pepper. Start with 3-4 generous pinches of salt and add more later on.

Dump the oiled potatoes onto a baking sheet and arrange them cut side up. I use a rimmed baking sheet so that the oil doesn’t slide off, and I line it with parchment paper for easy cleanup. Roast the potatoes for 20-25 minutes, until fork-tender. Hold onto that oily bowl. You’ll need it later.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Also, prepare your ice bath. You’ll want to use a bowl big enough to hold plenty of water and ice so that the temperature in there remains quite cold, even after you’ve dunked the hot beans. Add the beans to the boiling water and blanch for 1½-2 minutes. Immediately remove the pot from the heat, drain the beans into a colander, transfer them into the ice bath, and keep them there until you’re ready to toss them with the potatoes.

When the potatoes are brown, blistered, and cooked through, transfer them back into their original bowl. Be sure to scrape all of the oil that’s pooled around the potatoes into the bowl, too. Then, toss with the vinegar. Start with 5 tablespoons, and feel free to add more to taste. Taste, and add more salt, as needed. Dry the blanched and shocked beans, add them to the potatoes, mix, and serve immediately.

Chocolate Pudding Pie

2011-04-03T10:03:00.011-05:00

It's been almost 2 months...but I'm still here! Still cooking...though not cooking new, fun things as often...hence the disappearance. This whole job thing really gets in the way, ya know? It takes a recipe that's really worth it to get me into the kitchen for a couple hours, and taking photos - and this one was really worth it. Better late than never, right?

That is a slice of heaven - chocolate pudding pie. I've always called it chocolate pudding pie, because it's pie crust, pudding, and whipped cream. But the recipe I used called it chocolate cream pie. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter. What does matter is how good this pie was. You should probably make one. Right now. You can thank me later.

One warning - this pie has to set up in the fridge for 8 hours, so plan accordingly.

Recipe adapted from Flour cookbook (thanks Bub!)

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (62 to 70%), chopped
3/4 cup half and half
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter. Mix with graham cracker crumbs until evenly distributed. Press into a 9-inch pie dish. If you have a second pie dish, press it on top of the crumbs to flatten them out. If not, use your hands to evenly spread the crumbs and press them down. Bake for about 8 minutes.

Sprinkle 1 ounce of the chocolate on the crust and bake for another minute. Brush the melted chocolate over the crust. (The recipe says this will protect it from becoming soggy when you pour the pie filling in...but she used a regular pie crust so I don't think it's as necessary with a graham cracker crust. It does make a nice little hard chocolate layer in the pie, though.)

In a medium saucepan, combine the half and half and 1 cup of the cream and scald over medium-high heat (bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan, but the liquid is not boiling). Meanwhile, place the remaining 5 ounces of the bittersweet chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Place over (not touching) barely simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat. Pour the hot cream over the melted chocolate and whisk until thoroughly combined.

**Note: no picture here...because I was worried I was messing it up. I couldn't get the chocolate to completely melt into the cream, it looked like cream with lots of tiny chocolate flecks in it. I put the mixture back over the simmering water and it still wasn't uniform. But it turned out fine, so don't worry if it doesn't look perfect.

Place the egg yolks in a medium bowl, and slowly whisk in the sugar. Slowly pour the hot cream-chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar mixture, a little at a time, whisking constantly. When all of the cream-chocolate mixture has been incorporated, return the contents to the saucepan, and return the saucepan to medium-low heat. Cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan often to prevent scorching, for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon thickly. To test, draw your finger along the back of the spoon; the custard should hold the trail for a couple of seconds before it fills. (First, the mixture will be liquid and loose, and then it will start to get a little thicker at the bottom of the pan. As it continues to thicken, it will start to let off a little steam. When you see wisps of steam steadily rising from the pan, you know the filling is almost done.)

When the custard is ready, immediately strain it through a fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof pitcher or bowl, and stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour the filling into the chocolate-lined pie shell and refrigerate, uncovered, for about 8 hours, or until set, or up to overnight.

Fit the stand mixer with the whip attachment (or use a handheld mixer) and whip together the remaining 1 1/2 cups cream, the confectioners' sugar, and cornstarch until stiff peaks form. Pile the whipped cream on top of the chocolate filling, spreading it to the edges.

The pie can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. (You can also carefully, loosely cover it with tin foil if you don't have an airtight pie container.)

The recipe says to decorate the pie with chocolate curls (shaving pieces off a slightly warm slab of milk chocolate with a vegetable peeler), but I skipped that part because the grocery store only had really big, expensive pieces of chocolate. I was a little skeptical about making whipped cream with cornstarch, but it does need it so that the whipped cream doesn't get stiff when it's refrigerated. I can't even tell you how good this pie was...it didn't last long in our household.

Chard and White Bean Stew

2011-02-08T11:59:00.004-06:00

2 feet of snow on the ground and nearly subzero temperatures definitely call for a hearty stew. The high for tomorrow is forecast to be 8 degrees. 8! That should be illegal. There's nothing I love more in a stew than cannellini beans. Some members of this household - who shall remain unnamed - can be a little wary of "just soup" for dinner. Especially when it's vegetarian soup. But all I had to do was pull up the photo from smitten kitchen of this stew with a poached egg on top. Sold!

1 pound Swiss chard (can also swap kale, spinach or another green), ribs and stems removed and cleaned
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped shallots, about 4 medium
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
2 15-ounce cans white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup pureed tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Toasted bread slices, poached eggs, chopped herbs such as tarragon, parsley or chives or grated Parmesan or Romano to serve (optional)

Bring medium pot of salted water to boil. Cook chard (or any heavier green; no need to precook baby spinach) for one minute, then drain and squeeze out as much extra water as possible. Coarsely chop chard.

Wipe out medium pot to dry it, and heat olive oil over medium. Add carrots, celery, shallots and garlic and saute for 15 minutes. Barber warns not to brown them but I didn’t mind a light golden color on them. Add wine (scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pot) and cook it until it reduced by three-fourths. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, a few pinches of salt, freshly ground black pepper, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chard and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove thyme and bay leaf. Add more broth if you’d like a thinner stew and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as is drizzled with sherry vinegar. Or you can ladle the stew over thick piece of toasted country bread or baguette that has been rubbed lightly with half a clove of garlic, top that with a poached egg and a few drops of sherry vinegar and/or some grated cheese.

Paris - Odds and Ends

2011-01-31T18:28:00.010-06:00

Yes, the last post was my final post about Paris restaurants. But there were so many other snacks and tastes throughout the week I just can't leave out.

My first meal of the week included a butter and sugar crepe. I could eat one of these every day and never tire of them.

There are many Paul bakeries around Paris, and there was one right around the corner from us. It was a daily - and sometimes twice a day - stop for us.

The French like to add an egg to a lot of dishes. Sandwiches, fish, pizza...fine by me.

My favorite - stinky cheese.

And yes...this seems so ordinary, but this is the food I cannot stop thinking about. Yogurt. The yogurt in France is just so much better. I do love my Greek yogurt, but this one was really amazing. So thick and just a little sweet. The pack of four actually came with a recipe for how to make it yourself, which I really need to try.

Oh Paris...I hope I see you again soon.

Paris - Le Relais de L'Entrecôte

2011-01-25T10:20:00.007-06:00

I think this is my last Paris restaurant post. Funny, since this restaurant was our first dinner of the trip. I had heard of this place from my friends Amy and Seth who went last year, and then we happened to walk by it just a couple blocks from the apartment. Well, I say we walked by "it" - there are actually 3 locations in Paris. So we walked by one of them. Le Relais de L'Entrecôte is the steak frites place. That's all they serve, so that's what you're going to eat. With a few other things, of course.

So there's no menu. The waitress just asks how you want your meat cooked. And I'm pretty sure the whole table has to agree on one amount of doneness. She then writes it down on the edge of the paper tablecloth.

They start you off with a a salad of greens, walnuts, and a very mustardy vinaigrette.

And then, the main event. They bring out a big platter of steak and a big platter of fries and prepare everything on a separate table.

Thin slices of steak covered in a slightly creamy, peppery, mustardy sauce. I don't know what was in it, but it was really good.

And when you get to this point...

You do it all over again. They bring you another round of steak frites. They do have a dessert menu, and we shared profiteroles. But somehow - again - I didn't get a photo. I guess the sugar just takes hold of me when it lands on the table and all I can do is eat it. Oh well.

This restaurant was fun, boisterous, and perfect for the first dinner of our trip. We were all so excited to be there and a classic French meal was a great kick-off to the week.

Le Relais de l'Entrecôte
20 Rue Saint-Benoît, Paris 75006

Paris - Le Chateaubriand

2011-01-17T20:05:00.016-06:00

I do believe Le Chateaubriand was the crown jewel of our dinners in Paris. Part of that is due to the enthusiasm leading up to the meal. I read so many amazing reviews of the restaurant and of chef Inaki Aizpitarte, saw both showcased on the No Reservations Paris episode last September (I think), saw that it was placed on the 50 Best Restaurants list (at #11!)...all these accolades, plus the fact that it's a casual, modest, moderately priced place and not a hoity-toity restaurant had me really excited. And the waiting, waiting...waiting...and finally a reservation secured by Amex for us was like a little bit of Christmas morning before we left for our trip.

Here is the review from the 50 Best list. Yeah, I'm taking the lazy way out here but they describe Le Chateaubriand better than I could.

Le Chateaubriand breaks the mould of top French restaurants serving haute cuisine. Its classy, wonderfully inventive food would grace the tables of the swankiest venues the world over but is served instead in a simple bistro setting, complete with zinc bar, chalk boards and hard wooden chairs. Chef-patron Iñaki Aizpitarte always maintained he wanted to create a restaurant where his friends could afford to eat. So this is fine dining at its most democratic; the prices, together with the young, cool staff and the simple, unintimidating décor, draw an eclectic clientele and the atmosphere is all the better for it. Aizpitarte’s dishes are influenced by his Basque roots but also draw on his extensive travels. He has a particular penchant for deconstructing classics and reworking them, and also a focus on pared-back simplicity. There are plenty of bold, imaginative flavour combinations but many dishes employ very little ‘cooking’ – unadulterated, raw (and usually colourful) ingredients are a significant feature of his menus. A five course prix fixe menu changes daily. You get no choice in what you eat but it’s this system that allows Aizpitarte to keep his prices so low. Affordability and creativity together in one great neighbourhood restaurant, not to mention one of the best-looking brigades in the business. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Let's get to the photos, shall we? The menu (which is just a xerox on a piece of white paper) simply says "amuses bouche" to start with. First up, some little cheese and poppy seed puffs.

Second amuse bouche: ceviche, heavy on the fish water. Really refreshing.

Third: lentil soup.

Fourth: pouce-pieds. There is no English translation for what kind of seafood this is, because as far as I can tell they don't exist here. They are found on the Atlantic coast of Europe and North Africa. It literally translates to inch-foot, which doesn't tell you much, but I'm sure it's a play on this crustacean's size. They are quite small, and also kind of look like a toe. A little dinosaur or turtle toe. Basically you tear the outer dark covering off and it's like a little clam attached to the green claw part, which you then bite off.

Fifth and final amuse bouche: veal kidney. I know! Me? Eating veal kidney?! Yes. And it was very good. Tender, salty, with almost Thanksgiving-like spices.

And now onto the second course: a soup with foie gras and mushrooms. A very soft piece of foie gras and thin slices of mushrooms were placed in a bowl, and then a really flavorful mushroom broth was poured over it.

The third course, in my opinion, was the most spectacular. Line-caught pollack with a walnut cream, endives, and ham. Would you ever think to pair fish with walnut cream? Never. But it worked. The saltiness of the sauteed fish with the cream was perfect.

Fourth course was Limousin beef with potato crisps, sesame seeds, and chives.

And now, dessert. A choice of a true dessert, or a cheese course. If I remember correctly, my dad, my sister, and Peter had the cheese. I don't remember what kinds there were, but there were 3 - hard, blue, and soft.

My mom and I had the dessert. Which was actually two desserts. The first was an icy concoction of apple, mango vinegar, coconut, and pineapple.

The second part was chocolate and celery. I don't remember the exact make-up of the dessert, but I do remember I cleaned my plate.

And the very last thing - pineapple pieces covered in fennel seeds, and candy-coated fennel seeds. Strong flavor but very interesting combination.

The creativity level, and the flavors were off the charts. But maybe what impressed me the most was how attainable such wonderful food was. For a restaurant that's the best in France (at least according to the 50 Best list), you think of similarly ranked places in the U.S. - places like Per Se, or Alinea, or Daniel that yes, are unbelievable, but will also set you back a good amount. Le Chateaubriand's set menu is 50 euros. And an equally affordable wine menu (also xeroxed and stapled together). On the way there our cab driver said he's been there several times and loves it. There's definitely something refreshing about being able to experience such amazing and unique food in a relaxed, low-key setting. Bravo!

Le Chateaubriand
129 Rue Parmentier, Paris 75011

Paris - Les Fables de la Fontaine

2011-01-12T19:46:00.007-06:00

While researching Parisian restaurants, I decided we needed to go to a seafood place one night. And if you're researching where to have a great seafood meal in Paris it's impossible to not come across Les Fables de la Fontaine. I found a great review from lebestofparis.com, and these two sentences sold me on making a reservation here:

Freshness, above everything else, is key, as seafood from the Brittany and Normandy is shipped from the early morning’s catch each day. The menu changes by the season, with daily specials, though there are standard items, such as sole munière.

I started off with croustillants with langoustine, basil, and citrus emulsion.

For my main course I had...sole meunière. It can only be ordered for two people, so my dad and I shared it.

The picture is a little dark, but I wasn't going to let that beautiful piece of fish sit there for one second longer to take any more photos. It was a little crispy, salty, and lemony. Perfection.

Peter and Bub both had scallops with a nut crust, over a French version of mac and cheese, and of course butter and truffle oil. Of course.

For dessert we shared rice pudding with a little brownie and ice cream. Yes, that is all one menu item.

It's not an inexpensive place, as you might expect from a restaurant with a Michelin star, but not too bad and the fish was really fantastic. There are only about 8 or 9 tables in the entire restaurant. A wonderful, cozy, classically French seafood dinner.

Les Fables de la Fontaine
131 Rue Saint Dominique, Paris 75007

Paris - Fish La Boissonnerie

2011-01-11T19:48:00.000-06:00

Fish La Boissonnerie was one of the little restaurants we came across in our neighborhood (6th arrondissement) and decided to try it out for dinner on our second night there. Although, I guess it was already on our radar because it's owned by the same people as the wine store right outside our front door (La Dernière Goutte). It's a very low-key, friendly neighborhood spot with great, simple food.

For my first course, I ordered squash soup with chestnut foam. It was SO GOOD. A little sweet from the chestnut flavor, a little peppery, creamy, awesome. I would have licked the bowl if it was appropriate.

Foie gras and some kind of meat gelatin (??) for guess who.

I had scallops with haricots coco and lardons. So, I have never seen haricots coco in the U.S., but apparently they also go by the name of borlotti beans or cranberry beans. Judging by a quick internet search it seems that they are available, but a bit scarce. Although I guess I have never even looked for them in a store so maybe they're easier to find than I think. They are similar to a cannellini bean but a little smaller. And delicious with scallops and lardons.

Peter had a spaghetti and clams dish...

And my sister had salmon with a poached egg on top. An egg on top makes everything better.

To finish off the evening, I had a lovely dessert. You didn't think I would skip dessert, did you? I did, somehow, skip the picture. I could have sworn I took one but I can't find it anywhere. It was a chocolate terrine with red currants. Mmm.

Fish La Boissonnerie
69 Rue de Seine, Paris 75006

Paris - L'As du Fallafel

2011-01-10T08:34:00.000-06:00

I love a good falafel. Love. But this isn't just a good falafel. It's a great one. Fantastic. And it's no secret, just google "L'As du Fallafel" and you'll see all the reviews and praise.

You're walking down a cute, quiet street in the Marais and all of a sudden - BOOM! Falafel madness. You can eat inside, but it seems that most people get their orders to go and eat them standing in the street or just walking around, as we did. The deal is - there's a guy standing outside taking orders. You pay him and he gives you a ticket with your order. You get in line for the window, give them your ticket and they give you your sandwich.

There's the glorious window, with heaps of red cabbage slaw, cucumbers, and onions. They also serve the falafels with eggplant, tahini dressing and harissa.

I think I need a falafel after looking at these pictures. This place is especially good if you're looking for a late lunch because a lot of restaurants in Paris shut down at 2pm or so and don't reopen until dinner.

L'As du Fallafel
34 Rue des Rosiers, Paris 75004

Paris - Josephine "Chez Dumonet"

2011-01-07T11:23:00.009-06:00

Finally, finally - here are my Paris posts. I made three dinner reservations for the week we were there, leaving the rest of the nights open to stumble upon restaurants to try. This one was a heavily researched reservation. Here's a review I read somewhere, it was copied and pasted into my itinerary long ago so I don't remember where it came from.

Chez Dumonet should be declared a national monument, so well does it represent the old-world bistro. Its menu illustrates why I came to Paris in the first place: help-yourself marinated herrings with warm potato salad, potent boeuf bourguignon, crisp-skinned duck confit, pan-fried foie gras, monkfish with white beans, and some spectacular desserts such as a millefeuille big enough for three and a Grand Marnier soufflé whose architecture rivals the Eiffel Tower’s. I pray that Josephine will never change, with its 1930s light fixtures, white-linen-draped tables, and jokey waiters (who speak a little English). Just don't try to order your steak well done or ask for cream with your coffee, as the staff cannot bring themselves to commit such heresy against French tradition.

How can you NOT want to go there after reading that? Here's the funny part. They're closed Saturdays and Sundays. Can you even imagine? Try pulling that off in New York or Chicago. I don't think so. There are a lot of restaurants in Paris closed on the weekends. Luckily I was able to get a Friday night reservation.

Ok, let's get to the food. First up - smoked salmon. The French employ smoked salmon on the dinner menu a lot, which I appreciate. I love smoked salmon and I don't think it should be reserved for brunchtime with a bagel. Here it is served with a lemon, a creamy dressing, and a basket of toasts.

Peter's daily dose of foie gras:

And my sister's warm artichoke salad:

Ok, now this next course...may be the best thing I ate all week. That's a bold statement, but I feel pretty confident in it. Beef bourguignon with buttered noodles.

It was served in a little pot, and a dish of noodles on the side and you combine the two on your plate. That's only a half order which my mom and I both got. My dad had a full order. I can't even put into words how good it was. The sauce was very, very reduced so it was really thick. The meat had definitely been cooking all day, it was just falling apart. The carrots and pearl onions...mmm. Halfway through eating it I got sad because I know I'll never get to eat anything like this in the U.S. Here's the side order of potatoes we got for the table:

And last, but definitely not least, the Grand Marnier soufflé. You have to order it along with your dinner to give them enough time to make it. And they bring out two little glasses of Grand Marnier, so you can poke a hole in the top and pour them in. The French...they really do it right.

An amazing dinner, a very snowy walk back to our apartment...a perfect Parisian night.

Josephine Chez Dumonet
117 Rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris 75006

Bread Soup (Pappa al Pomodoro)

2011-01-02T08:49:00.003-06:00

On Christmas tree-decorating-night (which was much later than usual this year), I made bread soup. I didn't make it on Christmas tree-decorating-night last year, but the year before that I did. That was our last Christmas in New York, and that year we bought our Christmas tree with change. Well kind of...I happened to take my change jar to the bank that day, and used that cash to buy the Christmas tree. But one day I'll tell my grandkids "you know (shaking my finger at them)...when I was young, I bought our Christmas tree with change and ate bread soup for dinner." I think the bread soup/Christmas tree night will become a tradition.

1/2 cupextra virgin olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic
1 large white onion
1 14.5 oz. can diced Italian tomatoes
1 28 oz. can crushed Italian tomatoes
salt, pepper
1 quart chicken broth
4-6 cups torn stale bread (if bread isn't stale enough, toast in oven until crispy)
2 15 oz. cans cannellini or Great Northern white beans
10 basil leaves
parmesan cheese

Finely chop garlic and onion. Saute in 3 tablespoons olive oil in large soup pot for about 8 minutes. Add diced and crushed tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Add broth and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts bubbling turn down to a simmer and add beans and bread. Keep stirring as it simmers until it becomes a thick stew, about 10-15 minutes. Add more salt, pepper to taste. Serve in bowls and tear basil over top, drizzle more olive oil and add cheese.

Sugar Cookies

2010-12-30T10:19:00.001-06:00

I hesitate to call these Christmas cookies even though the recipe is from a very old Martha Stewart Christmas book, and they're decorated with red and green icing and red and green sprinkles, and we did make and eat them on Christmas...because they're really just sugar cookies. Don't limit them to winter holidays - egg shaped cookies with pastel colored icing for Easter, shamrocks with green sprinkles for St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, President's Day, the third Tuesday of every month...you get the point. A good cookie is a good cookie and should be enjoyed all year round.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar (recipe calls for granulated, but I used what I believe was non-granulated cane sugar and it was fine)
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add to the butter mixture and beat well. Add the egg, brandy, and vanilla and beat again until well mixed. Shape dough into two flattened rounds, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. and line baking sheets with parchment. On a well floured board, roll out dough until 1/8 inch thick. Cut into shapes and set 1 to 2 inches apart on sheets. Leftover dough can be rolled out and cut once more. Bake for about 10 minutes; do not allow cookies to brown.

Royal Icing

1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 large egg white
food coloring

Mix the sugar and egg white; divide among small bowls and tint each a different color. Spread onto cooled cookies.

Christmas

2010-12-29T16:28:00.004-06:00

Oh heyyyy! Yes, I'm still alive. It's been a month of Christmas, Paris, family...and unfortunately stomach flu and working two jobs. Ok, I know having two jobs is a good thing, but it doesn't leave me much time to do fun things like cooking and eating and writing about it. At any rate - I'm back, and I've got a lot to tell you about!

So let's start with the most recent, shall we? Christmas. It was a Chicago Christmas this year, which I am very thankful for, because if I have to travel again within the next two months it will be too soon. Remember that snow storm that destroyed travel across Europe a couple weeks ago? Let's just say we were some of the lucky ones.

This was actually my second time hosting Christmas (first time being in New York a few years ago), although my mom really pulled most of the weight in the kitchen. However, I did make Christmas breakfast which was very easy and if I do say so myself, very delicious.

A slice of toast from a big loaf of semolina bread, a couple pieces of San Daniele prosciutto, and a poached egg. Simple and really good.

My family's traditional Christmas dinner has become beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce, roasted potatoes, and a few other sides. This year we did asparagus and haricots verts. The tenderloin was really out of this world. We bought the meat from Fox & Obel, and it was fantastic. The recipe my mom uses is basically an herb marinade that can sit for a few hours up to overnight.

Herb Roasted Beef Tenderloin

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, or to taste
4-4 1/2 lb. trimmed beef tenderloin, patted dry and tied
2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

In a small bowl combine the olive oil, vinegar, herbs, garlic, and pepper. Rub the tenderloin with the mixture, wrap in plastic and chill for 2 hours, or overnight.

Arrange the tenderloin on a rack in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt to taste and roast in the oven at 500 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat reads 130 to 135 degrees for medium rare. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and let it cool, loosely covered, for 15 minutes.

Remove the strings, cut the meat into thin slices. 8-10 servings.

We used a 3 1/2 lb. tenderloin which was plenty for 5 people and a little bit of leftovers.

Horseradish Sauce

2 cups sour cream or 1 cup each low-fat plain yogurt and sour cream
1/2 cup peeled grated fresh horseradish or drained bottled horseradish
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients, transfer to a serving bowl, cover and chill until ready to serve. May be made one day ahead.

(The original recipe says to drain the sour cream in a piece of cheesecloth for 15 minutes, but....ehhh, we didn't do that.)

More Christmas recipes to come, and several reports on Paris to come as well!

Roasted Chicken 2.0

2010-12-06T08:06:00.007-06:00

A whole roasted chicken is such a comforting meal, especially when it's as frigid as it has been here in Chicago the last couple days. (Is it REALLY 9 degrees outside right now? I can't go to work today. I just can't do it.) The movie "It's Complicated" has been on HBO lately, we've caught bits and pieces of it over the last week (I did see the entire thing in the theater) and I think the meal that Meryl Streep makes for Alec Baldwin, when he doesn't show up, has been subconsciously working its way into Peter's brain because yesterday he bought a chicken and potatoes for me to make for dinner. But no green beans, or chocolate cake ingredients. By the way, can I please have the kitchen in that movie? Pleeeeease?

I did things a little differently than my usual way, just out of curiosity. I roasted the potatoes (and carrots and onions) along with the chicken, instead of separately. This recipe is adapted from one of Ina Garten's.

1 3-lb. chicken, rinsed and patted dry inside and out
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, any kind you like (but I think the smaller, the better)
3-5 carrots, depending on size
1/2 white onion
1 head of garlic
1/2 lemon
thyme (fresh or dried)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the potatoes into equal size pieces. I used fingerlings so I didn't have to cut much, but if you have bigger potatoes cut into about 1-inch pieces. Peel and cut the carrots into pieces, not too small. Chop the onion into large pieces.

Slice the head of garlic in half across the middle, not lengthwise. Save one half to go inside the chicken. Pop the rest the garlic cloves out of the other half, peel, and add to the vegetables. Toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper,and thyme and spread along the bottom of the dish.

Season the inside of the chicken with salt, pepper, and thyme. Stuff half of the head of garlic, and the 1/2 lemon inside the chicken. Truss the chicken - take a piece of kitchen twine a couple feet long. Flip the wing tips up so they are closer to the top of the breast. Put the center point of the twine at the top of the breast and holding the wings in place, bring it down across the back and make an X, and bring it back up by the legs and tie the legs together. It will kind of be a "figure 8".

Place the chicken, breast side up, on top of the vegetables. Season the top of the chicken with salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook for about an hour and 15 minutes, and let rest for 10 minutes when done.

The consensus? Delicious. How could a roasted chicken with vegetables not be delicious? However...I think I like the old way better. You end up eating a lot of more of the fatty chicken drippings this way, and I don't feel like they added that much flavor to the vegetables that it was worth it. Definitely not as healthy...plus the original recipe from Ina said to spread some butter over the top of the chicken before cooking. Obviously I skipped that part. I did like adding carrots and big pieces of garlic to the potatoes though, and I did like stuffing the chicken with lemon and garlic. So I'll probably continue to do that part of the recipe in the future. Don't forget to save your chicken carcass in the freezer to make chicken stock!

Sufganiyot (jelly donuts)

2010-12-04T20:24:00.014-06:00

I was looking around online for a Hanukkah cookie recipe, and I kept running into recipes for sufganiyot. Which are pretty much jelly donuts. And who doesn't like a good jelly donut? Although, my absolute favorite are maple donuts...which my parents used to bribe my sister and I with when we were little to get us to stop pinching each other in church. It worked.

Some methods are to make a sort of dough sandwich with jelly in the middle and fry it, and others are to fry a dough ball and then inject jelly. I went with the first method. This recipe is slightly adapted from the Children's Jewish Holiday Kitchen, by way of epicurious.com.

1 scant tablespoon (1 package) dry yeast
4 tablespoons sugar, plus extra for dusting.
3/4 cup lukewarm milk or warm water*
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter or pareve margarine, softened*
Raspberry (or strawberry, or apricot) preserves
Sugar
Canola oil for deep-frying
*Use butter and milk if serving at a milk meal, and water and pareve margarine for a meat meal

Mix together the yeast, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and the milk. Let sit to make sure it bubbles - it should look like it has a thick foam on top.

Mix flour, remaining sugar, salt, cinnamon, and egg yolks. Add to the yeast mixture. Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Add the butter or margarine. Knead some more, until the butter is well absorbed.

Cover with a towel and let rise on the countertop for 2 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator. The dough will double in size.

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut out the dough into rounds with a juice glass, or any object about 2 inches in diameter. Take 1/2 teaspoon of preserves and place in center of each half of the rounds.

Top with the other rounds. Press down at edges, sealing with egg whites. Crimping with the thumb and second finger is best. Roll out the dough scraps and repeat. Let rise for about 30 minutes.

Heat 2 inches of oil to between 350° and 375°. Drop the donuts into the hot oil, about 3 at a time. Turn to brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Roll in, or dust with sugar.

That's it! This recipe makes about 12 donuts. They cook very quickly in the hot oil, barely a couple minutes. And they're definitely best eaten right away...ok on the second day, but not nearly as good. They're kind of a cross between donuts and beignets. Other good fillings would be different flavors of jelly, or chocolate or vanilla cream, nutella, or dulce de leche. Mmm. Happy Hanukkah!

Thanksgiving - Vegetables

2010-12-01T22:52:00.006-06:00

First of all, I must say that I'm using the term "vegetables" very, very loosely. After adding butter and sugar and marshmallows, at a certain point I think these vegetables ceased to be vegetables.

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows

3 large sweet potatoes or yams (About 2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-1/2 inch chunks
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (dark or light is fine)
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1 cup mini marshmallows

In a covered saucepan, cook potatoes in enough boiling water to cover for 12 to 15 minutes or until just tender; drain and mash. Add brown sugar, cream, butter, cinnamon, allspice, and the scraped out insides of the vanilla bean - use a sharp, pointy knife to get all the grains out. Stir gently to combine. Transfer to a casserole dish. (this part can be done a day in advance)

Bake, covered in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until heated through, Remove from oven and top with marshmallows. Return to oven and bake 10 more minutes or until the marshmallows are golden.

The original recipe I was working off called for crushed anise seeds, black pepper, and more vanilla. However...I think sweet potatoes taste pretty good on their own so they really don't need a lot of additional flavor.

Here's the brussels sprouts hash recipe again, because it's just so good. I didn't get a picture of it though. You could easily cut down on some of the butter in this recipe...but why would you want to do that?

6 Tbl. (3/4 stick) butter
1/2 pound shallots, thinly sliced
kosher salt
2 Tbl. apple cider vinegar
4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 lbs. brussels sprouts, trimmed
3 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 cup water

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Saute until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Stir until brown and glazed, about 3 minutes.

Halve brussels sprouts lengthwise. Cut lengthwise into thin (1/8 inch) slices. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sprouts; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until brown at edges, about 6 minutes. Add 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons butter. Saute until most of the water evaporates and sprouts are tender but still bright green, 3 minutes. Add shallots, season with salt and pepper.

Funny thing...as I'm rereading this right now I realized I used brown sugar instead of regular. So you can go either way.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Thanksgiving feast. Delicious. Now I can move on to Christmasy chocolately pepperminty treats.

Thanksgiving - A Tale of Two Stuffings

2010-11-30T11:20:00.006-06:00

Stuffing seems to be everybody's favorite part of Thanksgiving, right? Stuffing and the pies. I made two stuffings because I cannot have a Thanksgiving without my Nana's meat dressing, but I wanted to do a more traditional bread stuffing as well.

I really like these stuffing guidelines on marthastewart.com. There are countless ways to make stuffing, and this lets you make it your own.

1 one-pound loaf of bread set out overnight (or 1 1/2 pounds cornbread)
4 cups (2 pounds) chopped vegetables
1 cup fresh herbs, predominantly parsley, sage, and thyme
2 cups or less liquid (or 3 eggs)
1 pound meat
Butter and/or olive oil
4 cups or less fruit, vegetables, and nuts
3 tablespoons seasoning

Basically you cook the meat, remove it from the pan and cook the vegetables in the same pan. Mix everything together in a bowl and bake in a glass dish for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Here's the breakdown of what ingredients/amounts I actually used.

1 one-pound loaf French bread, cut into cubes and set out overnight
1 1/2 cups white onion, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
1 1/2 cups leeks, diced
1/3 cup fresh sage, chopped
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 fresh thyme
somewhere between 1 and 2 cups chicken stock, add as needed
1 pound bulk sweet Italian pork sausage
2 large apples, diced
1 cup pecans, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

And now, for Nana's meat dressing. The key ingredient here is Bell's Seasoning. I had my mom bring some to me the last time she visited Chicago because I can't find it at my regular grocery stores here. I don't think it's too hard to find, she bought it at Kroger, but you can order it online too. This is the full recipe but I cut it in half.

4 lbs. ground pork
1 lbs. ground beef
2 onions, chopped
1/2 bud garlic, chopped
1/2 cup water
salt, pepper, celery salt to taste
Bell's seasoning to taste
chicken broth as needed
1/2 package of bread stuffing (herbed)

Cook everything except chicken broth and bread stuffing together on medium high for 4 hours. Add stuffing near the end, and add chicken broth as needed to keep moist.

Ok now, I didn't want to mess with the recipe too much, but I changed a couple little things. I used one whole clove of garlic for the half recipe I made. I also used plain French bread that I cubed and left out overnight to get stale. It was probably 1 1/2 cups worth. My mom usually makes this for Thanksgiving about a week ahead, freezes it, and lets it sit in the a slow cooker all day on Thanksgiving. She waits to add the bread and chicken stock until it has thawed out in the slow cooker. I made it the day before, refrigerated it, and also gave it the slow cooker treatment the day of. 4 hours seems like a long time for the meat to cook on the stove, but you want it to get a really nice dark brown color.

Thanksgiving - Desserts (Maple Pecan Bars, Apple Cake, and Pumpkin Pie)

2010-11-28T21:52:00.010-06:00

Ohhhh hey, remember me? You might not. It's been awhile. I almost forgot how to use this website thingy. Well, I'm back from the Great New Jersey Thanksgiving Adventure, and I'm back in one piece. The meal was a success. At least, I'm pretty sure it was. I didn't burn the house down, make anyone sick, injure myself, or wreak any other havoc. And I think I managed to make some pretty tasty dishes.

So, why not start with dessert? Going into the week, I was definitely planning on making a pumpkin pie. I was on the fence about whether I should do an apple cake or pecan bars. And in the end I decided to do both. It was kind of a gametime decision, I had enough time on Wednesday night to crank out one more thing, so maple pecan bars it was. It's kind of lame to write posts about Thanksgiving food the week after Thanksgiving, because what good does that do anybody? But a lot of these dishes are good for any holiday or occasion. Pumpkin pie, maybe not so much, but apple cake and maple pecan bars are good anytime. So let's start with the pecans.

Ever since I had that maple spice cupcake...oh no! I just realized I never posted a picture. Anyway, I had a delicious cupcake from Sprinkles that was a spice cake with maple icing, and I just couldn't stop thinking about that wonderful maple flavor. I figured - why not do a pecan dessert with maple instead of corn syrup? I found this recipe on Epicurious, courtesy of Bon Appetit.

Crust
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9x9x2-inch metal cake pan. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and egg yolk in bowl to blend. Add flour and salt; beat until moist clumps form. Gather dough together. Press dough over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of pan. Bake crust until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool.

For filling:
Combine first 4 ingredients in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until butter melts and mixture is smooth. Boil filling 30 seconds. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla, then nuts.
Pour hot filling into crust. Bake bars until filling is bubbling in center, about 15 minutes. Cool bars completely in pan on rack (filling will become firm). Chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.) Cut into 30 bars.

I didn't change anything except that I used salted butter. And I would like to note that it says to cut into 30 bars. 30?! From a 9" x 9" pan? Yeah right. That's got to be a mistake. Or I just like large servings of dessert. But really, I got 9 nice sized squares out of the pan.

Next up, apple cake. I had one pie dish to work with that was already taken up by a pumpkin pie, and honestly I was worried about making an apple pie because I've had some (not my Aunt Linda's) that were soupy and watery on the inside. And I wanted to try this new recipe from Dorie Greenspan's newest cookbook that my mom bought for me.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2-inch chunks.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it’s coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it’s evenish.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren’t any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.

I didn't change anything there either, except I didn't line the baking sheet with silicone or parchment. I don't really see the point since the cake is cooking in a springform pan. I also dusted the top with a little powdered sugar.

And last, the pumpkin pie. I wanted to make a really, really good pumpkin pie. When I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen for "silky smooth pumpkin pie", I'm not going to lie (ooo, a rhyme!) but I was a little intimidated. It's more work than your average pumpkin pie, especially since I wanted to make the crust from scratch, too. But I decided to take on the challenge. Straining the pumpkin mixture through a fine mesh sieve was a pain. But it was all worth it.

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk (I used 2 cups of half and half instead of one cup each of cream and milk)
3 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 cup drained candied yams from 15-ounce can (regular canned yams can be substituted)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out dough on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to make 12-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang all around pie plate.

Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of pie plate. Fold overhang under itself; edge should be flush with edge of pie plate. Using thumb and forefinger, flute edge of dough. Refrigerate dough-lined plate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Remove pan from refrigerator, line crust with foil and fill with pie weights or pennies. Bake on rimmed baking sheet 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights, rotate plate. Bake 5 to 10 more minutes until crust is golden brown and crisp. Remove plate and baking sheet from oven.

Make the filling: While pie shell is baking, whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolks and vanilla together in medium bowl. Combine pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in large heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to sputtering simmer over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Continue to simmer pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly and mashing yams against sides of pot, until thick and shiny, 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove pan from heat. Whisk in cream mixture slowly, until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl, using back of ladle or spatula to press solids through strainer. Re-whisk mixture and transfer to warm pre-baked pie shell. Return pie plate with baking sheet to oven and bake pie for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Continue baking until edges are set (instant-read thermometer inserted in center registers 175 degrees), 20 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer pie to wire rack and cool to room temperature, 2 to 3 hours. (The pie finishes cooking with resident heat; to ensure the filling sets, cool it at room temperature and not in the refrigerator.)

As you can see, the pie is adorned with dinosaurs, a dolphin, and a whale - courtesy of my nieces. Here's the pie crust recipe I used, it's better to read the original post with all her tips.

So there you have it. Thanksgiving desserts. More Thanksgiving recipes and photos to come throughout the week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-22T08:20:00.003-06:00

A few days early, I know...but this will be my last post until after the holiday. I'm off to cook a Thanksgiving feast (or part of one) for my in-laws. I kind of hate that word, I feel like sit-coms have given it a bad name. So I'm cooking for my husband's family. I'm attempting a pie, with crust from scratch, and probably the very fact that I'm announcing that ahead of time will jinx it...but hopefully not. I'm cooking some other dishes too, and I've got my little bag of things I'll need, ready to go:

Hopefully there will be no kitchen fires, injuries, foodborne illnesses, or other disasters. And most of all I hope...my food is good. Good luck to me. And good luck to you with whatever you're cooking! Happy Thanksgiving!

Kale and Chourico Soup

2010-11-19T09:36:00.002-06:00

I've professed my love of chouriço before, and I bought some again last time I was home in Columbus. This time I wanted to do a little more with it than make sandwiches, and upon researching Portuguese recipes I found kale soup. This recipe is from Emeril (he's from Fall River, so I trust that it's pretty authentic), with a few of my changes.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound chouriço sausage, sliced in 1/2-inch slices
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups chicken stock
3 cups kale, rinsed, stemmed, and cut into 1-inch strips
1 bay leaf
Pinch of crushed red pepper
salt and pepper

In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chouriço and onions. Saute the mixture for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and potatoes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and kale and bring the liquid up to a boil.

Stir in the bay leaf and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and ladle the soup into shallow bowls. Serve with crusty bread.

The soup really doesn't need a lot of flavoring besides the chouriço. I saw another recipe that included kidney beans and cabbage in addition to the kale, but I liked keeping it simple. Crusty bread on the side is a must.

Veal Ricotta Meatballs (not really)

2010-11-18T11:55:00.006-06:00

I'm Sad. With a capital S. I hate when things don't work. I really wanted to make veal ricotta meatballs for dinner last night, because I had them at Riccardo last weekend (as well as the first and only other time I've been there), and can't stop thinking about them. I decided to make some and it was a total flop. It really puts me into a funk when I cook something that's a complete failure. Ok, it wasn't a total loss, but not what I had in mind. And I hadn't even been plotting to make these very far in advance. God help me if the bûche de noël doesn't work on Christmas, I'll be crying in bed for days.

There you see the "meatballs" right after I put them in the pan. I use the word "meatball" loosely because, well... you'll see. I used this recipe and there were no comments complaining that there were mistakes in measurements or cooking times, which is often the case on the Food Network website. So I thought it was pretty safe.

Or not. There was just too much ricotta. I don't see how 1/2 pound of ground veal, an egg, and over a cup of ricotta could hold together. Apparently it worked for some people, but I'm at a loss here. So I'll spare you all the step-by-step photos I took, and typing out the recipe, because this is not a success story. It did make a tasty ragu, but I was really in the mood for meatballs. Sigh.

Maybe I should bake something to cheer myself up.

Chicago's Michelin Stars

2010-11-17T08:13:00.001-06:00

Oh man, I'm a day late on the Michelin news again. This time it wasn't me, the news was scheduled to come out this morning but someone got ahold of the results and leaked them early, forcing Michelin to move up its announcement by a day. The nerve. Anyway, the results are in.

3 stars:
Alinea*
L2O

2 stars:
Avenues
Charlie Trotter's
RIA

1 star:
Blackbird
Boka
Bonsoiree
Crofton on Wells
Everest
Graham Elliot
Longman & Eagle*
Naha
NoMI
Schwa
Seasons
Sepia*
Sixteen
Spiaggia
Takashi
Topolobampo*
Tru
Vie

Yay Chicago! I'm very lucky to have eaten at some of those amazing restaurants (starred). I was surprised that some places I thought were deserving didn't make it on there, but I guess that's the whole point...not everyone gets a star. It will be interesting to see who keeps their stars, gains, or loses next year.

Matzo Ball Soup

2010-11-16T08:01:00.003-06:00

I decided to make matzo ball soup for two reasons. Well, three if you count "it's delicious" as a reason. First reason is I've been eating it for lunch from Goddess at least once a week for the past month, and the second is because I wanted something nice and light for dinner after a wonderful weekend of friends visiting (*cough* cupcake binge *cough*).

I had never bought or cooked with matzo meal before. Matzo meal is ground up matza. And matza is made of flour and water. So there you have it.

This recipe is brought to you by Smitten Kitchen, with a couple very minor changes by me.

Matzo Balls
1/2 cup matzo meal
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons seltzer

2 quarts prepared chicken stock
1 carrot, thinly sliced

Mix all matzo ball ingredients in a bowl. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Bring 1 1/2 quarts of well-salted water to a brisk boil in a medium sized pot.

Reduce the flame. Run your hands under water so they are thoroughly wet. Form matzo balls by dropping spoonfuls of matzo ball batter approximately 1-inch in diameter into the palm of your wet hands and rolling them loosely into balls.

Drop them into the simmering salt water one at a time. Cover the pot and cook them for 30 to 40 minutes.

About ten minutes before the matzo balls are ready, bring prepared chicken stock to a simmer with the sliced carrot in it. Ladle some soup and a couple matzo balls into each bowl and serve.

My minor changes were: canola oil instead of vegetable oil or reserved chicken fat. The original recipe called for the option of chicken stock or seltzer in the matzo mixture, but I really liked the seltzer. The original also calls for fresh dill as a garnish. The whole thing took a little over an hour to make, but most of that time was spent waiting - for the matzo mixture to chill, and then for it to cook. So it's really not labor intensive. Also, I used half homemade chicken stock and half store-bought. Good stock is important since it's a very simple soup.

The Cupcake Chronicles

2010-11-15T08:32:00.002-06:00

Yet another seasonal flavor from Sprinkles - salty caramel. Sadly it's already gone, it was only around for about a week. You can actually see the fleur de sel on top of the icing. Mmmm.

Chicago's Bib Gourmands

2010-11-11T07:54:00.005-06:00

I know, I know. I'm a day late and a dollar short here. I do what I can. Michelin inspectors have been working their way through the Chicago culinary scene for quite some time now and will release the city's first guide next week. So we won't find out which restaurants received the prestigious "étoiles" for another few days, but they did release the Bib Gourmands yesterday. A Bib Gourmand designation means that the restaurant is Michelin's pick for good food at moderate prices. Here's their explanation:

"A Bib Gourmand rating means the restaurant is an inspector's favorite for good value. For $40 or less, you can enjoy two courses and a glass of wine or dessert (not including tax and gratuity)."

Maybe the best part...in the middle of the night before the Bibs are announced, Michelin chalks an outline of the Michelin man (named Bibendum) on the sidewalk in front of the restaurants selected.

Here's the list. Restaurants I've been to are marked with a *.

Ann Sather
Belly Shack
Bistro 110
The Bristol
Browntrout
Ceres’ Table
Cumin
deca
De Cero*
DeCOLORES
Frances’ Deli
Frontera Grill*
Gilt Bar*
Girl & The Goat*
Green Zebra
Han 202
Hopleaf*
Jaipur
Kith & Kin*
La Creperie
La Petite Folie
Los Nopales
Lula Café
Mado
Mexique
M. Henry
Mixteco Grill
Nana
Nightwood
Opart Thai House
Otom
Paramount Room
Perennial
The Publican*
The Purple Pig*
Raj Darbar
Riccardo Trattoria*
Smak-Tak
Smoque
Spacca Napoli
Taste of Peru
Thai Village
Twin Anchors
UrbanBelly
Veerasway
West Town Tavern

Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta

2010-11-08T22:25:00.006-06:00

Brussels sprouts make me think of a mom in a 1950's black and white sitcom, wearing an apron and trying to get her kids to eat them and the kids are pursing their lips and shaking their heads. And I was definitely one of those kids...but now, I love these tiny cabbages. I think brussels sprouts are experiencing a resurgence in popularity among vegetables. Serving them with bacon certainly doesn't hurt.

Serves 4-6
1 pound brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
3-4 tablespoons diced pancetta
2 garlic cloves, minced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook the brussels sprouts in salted, boiling water for 4-5 minutes, and drain. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the pancetta. Cook for about 5 minutes, and using a slotted spoon transfer to a plate with paper towel.

Add garlic to the pan and cook for a minute or two until starting to brown. Add brussels sprouts and pancetta to pan and turn heat up to medium-high. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brussels sprouts begin to brown. Salt and pepper to taste.

These are delicious. I promise. Some members of the household liked them so much they snatched one off the table when no one was looking and dragged it down to the floor to gnaw on it.

Pasta e Fagioli

2010-11-07T22:02:00.005-06:00

Even though it's not too cold out, I figured the first night of non-daylight savings called for a good, comforting hibernation type of meal. Don't get me wrong, I don't really enjoy the sun setting pretty much in the middle of the afternoon, but there's something about it getting dark so early that makes me just a little happy. Probably knowing the holidays are around the corner, and that soon the trees on Michigan Avenue and on my street will be covered in little white lights that I can enjoy on my walk home from work, and not feeling at all guilty about having no desire to go anywhere besides the couch on a weekend night. Get back to me mid-February and I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune. But on a Sunday when the sun set at 4:37pm, the Jets and the Giants both won, and there were steaming bowls of pasta e fagioli on the dinner table, what's there to complain about?

Serves 2-3
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 link hot Italian sausage (pork, turkey, or chicken - not already cooked)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 white onion, diced
4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 pound pasta - some sort of small tube shape
1 14-oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish
fresh basil for garnish

In a medium saucepan heat half the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the sausage link until browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove from pan and cut into slices, then cut the slices in half.

In the same pan add the rest of the olive oil, garlic, and onion and cook for about 3 minutes or until onion is softened. Add the sausage back to the pan. Add the chicken stock, tomato paste, and oregano and stir to combine. Make sure the tomato paste is incorporated into the stock. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a rapid boil.

Add the pasta and cook according to directions. When pasta is done remove from heat and stir in the cheese and beans. Serve with more cheese and basil.

I didn't take a lot of photos because the recipe is very quick, and because it's all pretty standard - chopped onions, heating up broth, grating cheese, etc. There are so many variations you can do - pancetta instead of sausage, sweet Italian sausage, no meat at all, no tomato paste, chopped Italian tomatoes instead of paste, red kidney beans instead of cannellini, purée half the beans in a food processor to make the broth thicker, use a sachet of herbs including a bay leaf, rosemary, and thyme...the list goes on. This version is a stew - somewhere between a soup, and pasta with sauce. The broth is thickened by the tomato paste, the starch from the pasta, and the cheese. Any way you make it, it's a "one pot" meal, can easily be doubled, and makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.

Spicy Fish Tacos with Avocado Crema

2010-11-05T07:54:00.007-05:00

As I was making these fish tacos last night, a memory popped into my head. Visiting my friend Lauren who lives in southern California, walking around Manhattan Beach, seeing Wahoo's - famous for their fish tacos, and thinking...eww. This was about 8 years ago. I can't believe what a picky eater I used to be. The thing is, if I had been forced to eat a fish taco I would have liked it! I guess it has to come naturally. This fish taco recipe comes from Bobby Flay. Well, part of it does - the green marinade part.

1 pound tilapia
1/4 cup canola oil
1 jalapeno, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime
big pinch salt

Combine chile, cilantro, lime juice, oil, and salt in a bowl.

Spread over the fish and let marinate in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Broil fish for about 4-5 minutes on each side, and break apart with a fork.

1 avocado, pitted and peeled
3/4 cup sour cream
juice of 1/2 lime
pinch salt

Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

I used crunchy taco shells. Garnish tacos with fresh salsa (I used mango) and crema.

The fish could be grilled instead of broiled, but you'll lose a lot of the jalapeno so I would recommend cooking it in foil. I liked the broiler so I could salvage the pieces of jalapeno from the bottom of the pan. I might use a serrano chile next time for a little more heat - it wasn't too spicy and I wouldn't have minded a little more heat.

Skate Wing

2010-11-04T13:29:00.009-05:00

Skate wing just sounds cool, doesn't it? It looks pretty interesting, too.

It really is the "wing" of a skate, which is a type of ray. Kind of strange, but very delicious. I wanted to make lamb kefta last night, but Peter announced that he was taking control of dinner (which really means he buys the food for me to make) and came home with skate, asparagus, and potatoes for mashed potatoes. Boys love mashed potatoes. I had never made skate before, but it's pretty similar to other white fish - it cooks quickly and only needs very simple flavors. And it's inexpensive, too - a little less than a pound cost about $7.

Serves 2
a little under a pound of skate wing
kosher salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
freshly squeezed lemon juice

The piece of skate I was working with was one big piece, so I cut it in half. Lightly salt both sides of the fish. Mix together the flour and paprika on a large plate.

Dredge the fish in the flour mixture, thoroughly covering both sides. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once skillet is hot melt the butter and add the fish.

Let the fish cook for about 4 minutes, and don't move it until you're ready to flip it over. It should have a nice golden color.

Let cook for another 4 minutes or so until the same golden color is achieved on the other side. Remove from pan, add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and serve.

Skate has the mild, light flavor of white fish but a little bit meatier texture. Not quite like lobster or crab, but definitely not flaky like cod or halibut or sole. Some of the recipes I saw suggested for the skate to be served with aioli, which sounds pretty good. And you can do almost any vegetable or grain on the side. I think skate will be appearing on my weeknight menus more regularly.

Spiced Potatoes with Fresh Herbs

2010-11-03T08:15:00.005-05:00

I feel like I have no time lately. No time! There's never any time! (Saved by the Bell reference? Anyone?) I don't have my usual queue of recipes bookmarked on my computer - I haven't even really had time to look for any. That's probably also due in part to being without a computer for several days...who knew tripping over a power cord to a 5-year-old computer would render it useless for days on end? Not me.

I think my busy life as of late is why the name of this recipe from 64 Sq. Ft. Kitchen spoke to me - Weeknight Potatoes. And because it calls for cumin. I changed the recipe slightly, the original calls for sweet paprika and the addition of a bit of harissa or other hot sauce. I was making two other things at the same time so I wanted to eliminate also making harissa, plus I only had hot paprika so I just used that for the spicy component instead. If you choose to go the sweet paprika and harissa route, mix the harissa in at the beginning with the other spices.

6 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 tsp hot paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven at 400F.

Peel and slice the potatoes into wedges or fries. Put them in a bowl, along with the olive oil, salt, black pepper, ground cumin, and paprika. Toss the potatoes to combine.

Arrange them in a baking sheet in a single layer and bake until golden brown and crisp on the outside, turning them over once, about 25-30 minutes.

Mix the herbs, garlic, lemon juice in a bowl. When the potatoes are baked, toss them quickly with the garlic infused herbs and serve.

Weekend in Columbus

2010-11-02T07:27:00.002-05:00

I'm back! My Monday absence can be attributed to a long weekend at home, a rare occasion that I was very excited to indulge in. I hadn't been home in almost 5 months! That may be the longest I've ever gone. And may I just stop for a second to say - is it REALLY November? Really?! I feel like it should be just a couple weeks after Labor Day. I'm so not ready for the onslaught of Christmas candy/gifts/trees/paraphernalia/tv ads/stuff in the mail that's about to happen.

Back to my weekend at home...first order of business - Jeni's. Obviously. That's a "trio" of heirloom pumpkin five spice, spicebush apple butter, and brown butter almond brittle.

Some flowers...and some foliage. Isn't that red leaf so bright and pretty that it almost looks fake?

A stop at my favorite pizza place, Rubino's. This place seriously has not changed since 1954. Not in a cute, vintage way - in a serious, time warp way. Linoleum floors, a few booths and tables, a pinball machine, fluorescent lighting...it's kind of the restaurant version of an old basement rec room. But I don't care, it's my hands down favorite pizza.

$6 for a small pepperoni. The crust is so thin and crispy, almost like a cracker, with a little cornmeal on the bottom. Not too much sauce or cheese, and mini pepperonis. I could have easily eaten that whole thing myself. We split one to share while watching football so it was just a mid-day snack.

A fire and some furry friends. Lots of quality time with my furry friends.

And a delicious Sunday night dinner. A side of brussels sprout hash and an apple crisp for dessert.

And a new recipe - whole wheat pasta with roasted eggplant, pepper, and garlic.

Ahh, what a great weekend.

Celery Root Soup

2010-10-29T08:21:00.003-05:00

This is a recipe I've had bookmarked for a year. A whole year. And I finally got around to making it this week. It's a nice, cozy, thick autumn soup made that's perfect for the chilly weather that swooped in this week (it's 31 degrees right now! yikes!). And this soup marks not one, but two firsts for me - cooking with celery root, and knowingly making a vegan recipe. Yes of course I've made plenty of all-veggie dishes, but this one calls for cashew cream instead of regular cream. One little warning - the cashew cream needs to be started a day in advance. I'll explain later.

First, a small lesson. Celery root (also known as celeriac) is a root vegetable, and a type of celery. It's not, as I thought, some underground part of regular celery. It was strange to cut into a brown root vegetable and smell celery. But don't be intimidated by these brown lumpy vegetables! Buy one at your farmers market and make this soup!

Here's what it looks like when you peel and chop it. I used a knife instead of a vegetable peeler, but the skin wasn't too thick so I think either would be fine.

Sea salt
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium celery roots, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 quarts faux chicken or vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 cup thick Cashew Cream
Freshly ground black pepper
1 unpeeled Granny Smith apple, very finely diced
Chive oil

Place a large stockpot over medium heat. Sprinkle the bottom with a pinch of salt and heat for 1 minute. Add the oil and heat for 30 seconds, being careful not to let it smoke. This will create a nonstick effect.

Add the celery root, celery, and onion and sauté for 6 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft but not brown.

Add the stock and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the Cashew Cream and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Working in batches, pour the soup into a blender, cover the lid with a towel (the hot liquid tends to erupt), and blend on high. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls. Place a spoonful of the diced apple in the center of each serving, drizzle the Chive Oil around the apple, and serve.

Here are the directions for cashew cream and chive oil:

Cashew Cream

1 cup whole raw cashews (not pieces, which are often dry), rinsed very well under cold water

Put the cashews in a bowl and add cold water to cover them. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the cashews and rinse under cold water. Place in a blender with enough fresh cold water to just cover them. Blend on high for several minutes until very smooth. (If you're not using a professional high-speed blender, which creates an ultra-smooth cream, strain the cashew cream through a fine-mesh sieve.)

Chive oil

1 small bunch chives
1/2 cup canola oil
Pinch sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Blanch the chives for 30 seconds in boiling water, then drain and chill in an ice bath. Drain, wrap the chives in a towel, and squeeze the moisture out. Place in a blender with the remaining ingredients and blend for 2 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Put the chive oil in a plastic squeeze bottle with a small opening or use a spoon for drizzling it on the soup.

Here's the original recipe by Tal Ronnen if you want to see it. I didn't change anything except the measurements for cashew cream, and some of the directions, because for this soup that's all you'll need. Actually, it will probably give you a little extra. And I skipped the chive oil and just added some fresh chives instead. This soup was easy to make, had a really nice taste and consistency, and I loved the addition of the Granny Smith apples. A great autumn soup.

Icebox Cake

2010-10-28T08:30:00.010-05:00

I love the simplicity of icebox cake. Chocolate cookies and whipped cream. Remember those commercials for Cool Whip, where they would make the chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with Cool Whip in the middle, sink their teeth in, and the Cool Whip would NEVER squeeze out the other side? Those made me so mad. Because seriously - we all know it would never work that way in real life.

Icebox cake became my treat of choice at Magnolia, and I don't think I've had it since I moved to Chicago. Not that I thought it was too complicated to make, because really - it's just cookies and whipped cream, but I guess I had been keeping it in the "treats best enjoyed when made by a professional baker" department in my brain. Where macarons and Napoleons currently reside. Here's some pictures of me with my good friend icebox cake circa 2008 (blonde hair, weird) at my friend Amy's apartment moments after Peter and I got engaged. Does life get any better?

So what triggered my decision to make icebox cake now was seeing Ina Garten on the Today Show a couple days ago making a chocolate chip cookie and mocha whipped cream version. It looked amazing, but I wanted the classic version. I hoped Smitten Kitchen would have a recipe for the perfect thin chocolate cookie that's needed for this cake, and of course she did.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl.

Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices 1/4-inch thick (thinner if you can without the dough crumbling, closer to 1/8 of inch).

Place them one inch apart on the lined sheets. Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. They should crisp as they cool, if they stay very soft they need to be cooked a bit longer. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Whipped cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
about 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Put a metal bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer at least a half hour before you make the whipped cream. Beat the cream with a mixer on high speed for several minutes, until it reaches the right consistency. Add vanilla and confectioners sugar and mix on high speed just for a few seconds. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary.

And now...time to make the cake. I actually cut the cookie recipe in half, and made half as much whipped cream, so I could get a mini cake. Lay the cookies out to form a rough circle on a plate of cake tray. I broke mine in half to get a small circle.

Spread an even layer of whipped cream on top with a rubber spatula or knife, and keep building with layers of cookies and whipped cream.

Keep building until you're out of cookies and whipped cream. I had a little extra whipped cream so I spread it around the sides of the cake. Totally optional. Crumble an extra cookie over the top, or use some chocolate shavings. Mine's a little lopsided...

Store in the refrigerator overnight to give cookies enough time to get soft and cake-like.

And that's it! The taste was pretty much identical to the icebox cake at Magnolia. That's all due to the cookie recipe. The cookies are really good on their own, great for making little sandwich cookies with some icing. But in my opinion, they're best in icebox cake.

Mushroom Stock

2010-10-26T21:50:00.007-05:00

Why do you need to know how to make mushroom stock? Well, you don't. Chicken stock is just fine, unless you're a vegetarian, and I usually end up using store-bought chicken stock because homemade needs to sit overnight. However...any kind of homemade stock is better than store-bought, and mushroom stock is really quick - only about an hour. Plus, I had the biggest mushroom I've ever seen and I needed to do something with it.

That thing was about 7 or 8 inches wide. I got it at the farmers market from Nichols when I got the Hen of the Woods. The guy told me what it was called, but all I caught was "druid" and my internet searches for "druid mushroom" just turned up a lot of weird video game stuff. I asked when I went back to the market the next week and they said it was a saddle mushroom. Ohhhh. So - I can now officially tell you it's a Dryad's Saddle mushroom. Not a druid mushroom.

Here's the recipe for mushroom stock, exactly as it appears on epicurious.com. Dryad's Saddle mushrooms are a bit hard to come by, but if you have one chop it into pieces and replace both the shiitake and white mushrooms with it.

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 leek top, chopped and washed
4 garlic cloves, in their skin, crushed with the side of a knife blade
1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
2 small carrots, chopped
6 parsley sprigs, coarsely chopped
3 fresh thyme sprigs
2 fresh marjoram or oregano sprigs
2 fresh sage leaves
2 bay leaves
9 cups cold water

Pour just enough water into the stockpot to start the onions cooking. Add the onion, leek top, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, and salt.

Give the vegetables a stir, then cover the pot and cook gently over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cover with 9 cups cold water.

Bring the stock to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Pour the stock through a strainer, pressing as much liquid as you can from the vegetables, then discard them.

I ended up using it to make a mushroom risotto, but of course it would be good for soup or pretty much any recipe that calls for chicken stock.

Friseé aux Lardons (and how to poach an egg)

2010-10-25T22:13:00.012-05:00

Oh, pardon moi. This is a fancy French salad. Très fancy. The cooking class I recently attended at The Chopping Block simply called it "bistro salad with homemade croutons". But when I arrived at the class and saw the ingredients - hello, old friend! It's one of my favorite salads from a restaurant in New York that closed (Le Gamin). Frisée lettuce, lardons (bacon pieces), vinaigrette, and a poached egg on top. Peter reminded me that their version had some sort of blue cheese crumbles (I think Roquefort), but this version has croutons which I think I prefer. So I'm going to call it "frisée aux lardons" because when this salad and I first met, it was at Le Gamin and that's what they called it. Seriously...does it get any better than a salad with bacon and a poached egg?

That's one head of frisée lettuce. It doesn't look very big when it's tied up in a tight little bundle at the store, but one is plenty for two people. Breaking news. I have just learned, via the internet, that frisée is baby curly endive. And the recipe from cooking class calls for curly endive. So I think you would be ok using either.

Serves 6
croutons:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cups French bread (about 1/2 baguette), day old, cubed into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place oil in a large mixing bowl. Add bread and toss thoroughly with oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place bread on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. (It's ok if your bread isn't a day old, it's going to get just as crispy in the oven).

salad and dressing:
4 bacon slices, cut into lardons
1 shallot, finely chopped
2-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
6 eggs
1 head curly endive (or 2-3 heads frisée), cleaned and cut into big pieces
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Heat a grill pan or saute pan over medium heat with a little grapeseed oil or extra virgin olive oil. Add the frisée and wilt just a bit on all sides to soften the lettuce; it should only cook for about a minute total. Cut into smaller pieces.

Place bacon in a cold skillet and heat over medium heat until just crisp. Add shallots and gently sauté until aromatic, about 1 minute.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and scrape pan bottom to loosen the browned bacon bits. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add more vinegar if necessary, or a little olive oil if it's too tart.

To poach the eggs: fill a large, shallow pan with water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low to drop water to poaching temperature (barely simmering - almost no movement but steam rising). Add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to water. Crack each egg into a small bowl and right before you pour it into the hot water, stir the water so it's gently swirling around the pan. Cook the egg until whites turn white and yolks just begin to cook, about 4-6 minutes. Yolks should still be soft. Keep the water gently moving throughout the cooking time. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon to drain excess water.

While the eggs are poaching toss frisée and croutons in a large bowl. Add the warm vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.

Taste and season further as needed. Portion servings into individual plates or bowls and serve immediately topped with an egg.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the presses. Do you SEE that poached egg? I did that. Me. A big girl poached egg all by myself. Poaching an egg was what I was looking forward to the most in the class. I had tried before, and actually think I was doing it right but it just seemed wrong. In those pictures above, especially the first one, it looks like the whites are spreading all over the place. That's normal. I guess I expected it to look like a perfect poached egg while it was still in the water, but it really doesn't look like that until you take it out. One tip is to use the freshest possible eggs. Don't use eggs that have been in your fridge for a couple weeks, apparently the whites thin out too much.

I have to admit, I didn't give this salad 100%. I was making two other things at the same time, one of which was a first-time recipe. I forgot all about the croutons until it was way too late, and I should have grilled the frisée a little longer than I did, but all in all I was happy with the vinaigrette, the poached eggs, and the salad as a whole. I cut the recipe in half and it was just fine. It is a pretty easy salad though, everything can be done in advance (not way in advance, but before you cook the rest of your dinner) except mixing the dressing into the frisée and poaching the eggs.

Halloween Dog Parade

2010-10-24T22:22:00.018-05:00

I know, I know. Another non-food related post. I'm sorry, but this one is just to good to sit on any longer. If there's one thing I love more than cooking, it's animals...and animals in cute costumes. This morning was the Halloween parade for Tails in the City, a cute little dog store right on my block. Last year I stumbled upon it (how could I not, it's literally right outside my front door), but this year I knew it was coming and brought my camera.

There were the usual spooky costumes: a devil and a bat. And of course pumpkins.

Sniff party!

A shark, some flowers, a princess (?), and some Bears fans.

A ballerina dog...I don't know how she felt about that leotard.

Food dogs! Hot dogs, an ear of corn, a bunch of grapes...and a farmers market.

This guy kept trying to shake his cape off.

PUPPIES! A ladybug bulldog, and a Robin Hood yellow lab.

Plain pug.

And, in my opinion, the three most creative costumes. A jockey:

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in a little jail suit with a tiny wig, and a "For Sale: Senate Seat" sign.

And...Lady Gaga.

Images of Fall

2010-10-22T07:59:00.011-05:00

It's Friday! And I've got some fantastic photos of fall, foliage, and farmers market. That's an alliteration. See, I do remember things I learned in high school!

No recipes today. I did make a mushroom stock last night that I'll share with you next week, but for now I just want to share these photos.

I actually had time to spend at the market this week, inside of my usual quick break from work to grab things for dinner. It was so nice to wander around and really take everything in.

Only one more week of markets left this year. Sniffle.

I really don't get tired of fall. Winter - I'm over it after New Years. Summer - I'm always sad to see it go, but tired of the hot weather. Fall could stick around forever and it would be fine with me.

Cranberry Orange Scones

2010-10-21T08:17:00.001-05:00

Scones often get a bad rap. They have a reputation of being similar to a hockey puck. Too dense, too sweet, too buttery...the list of grievances goes on. I've had some bad scones in my day. And some good ones. I saw a recipe in the New York Times for classic scones, along with a corresponding article by Mark Bittman which begins by saying that scones in the U.S. (vs. those in England) are often weighed down by too many extra ingredients like fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc. He appreciates a simple, light scone. As do I. I thought - I need to make these. So I did. But...I did the unthinkable and added extras.

I know, I know. It's against everything the article says. As you may know, I like cranberry orange things. Cranberries are in season! Only a couple farmers markets left! I had to seize the day! Besides, I have all winter to hibernate in my apartment and make plain scones with a side of butter and jam. Here's the original recipe. And, with my additions:

2 cups cake flour, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup heavy cream, more for brushing
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons orange zest
1 pint cranberries

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the flour, salt, baking powder and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Add the egg and cream to form a slightly sticky dough. Add the orange juice and zest, and just mix until incorporated. The dough should start to form a big ball in the food processor. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour, but very little; it should still stick a little to your hands. Remove dough from food processor and put into a mixing bowl. Mix the cranberries into the dough gently with your hands until spread evenly throughout.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and press it into a 3/4-inch-thick circle and cut into 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or glass, or cut into 8 equal triangles.

Put the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. If you made circles, gently reshape the leftover dough and cut again. Brush the top of each scone with a bit of cream and sprinkle with a little of the remaining sugar.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the scones are a beautiful golden brown. Serve immediately.

I think I ended up baking them for closer to 13 minutes. The original recipe yields 8-10 scones, so since I ended up with 8 they were a little bigger.

Light, fluffy, and tart. I used a lot of cranberries. You could easily use less than a pint and be fine. Half or 3/4 would do it. But, I like a lot. Just make sure you do a good job of incorporating them into the dough so you don't end up with some very cranberry-ish scones, and some less cranberry-ish.

Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Garlicky Bread Crumbs

2010-10-20T09:04:00.009-05:00

And anchovies. The New York Times didn't include anchovies in the title of this dish, but they're in there...important to mention since they're probably a deal-breaker for some people.

I used rainbow chard instead of regular Swiss chard, and it made the dish look so vibrant and pretty. The red leaves colored the onions red, too. All the ingredients are in season right now - the chard, garlic, and onion all came from the farmers market. Pasta, bread crumbs, and anchovies were from the store. And best of all, this dish incorporates a whole pound of dark, leafy greens.

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
5 anchovy fillets
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2/3 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for drizzling
1 yellow onion, halved from stem to root and thinly sliced crosswise
Kosher salt and pepper
1 pound Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped
1/2 pound whole-wheat pasta, such as fusilli

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add 3 anchovies to the skillet; cook until melted, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute.

Stir in the bread crumbs and toast until golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Wipe the skillet clean and return it to a medium-high heat. Add the oil, the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes.

Chop the remaining 2 anchovies and add them to the skillet. Cook until melted. Add the Swiss chard, a handful at a time, and cook until wilted, about 4 minutes. Cover and keep warm.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain well. Toss with the chard mixture and bread crumbs, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.

I didn't change anything from the NYT recipe except to use rainbow chard instead of regular green Swiss chard, which really doesn't count as a change. Not that I didn't expect this dish to be good - why would I make something if I didn't think it would be good - but I didn't expect it to be THIS good. I made it in the early evening, before going out to dinner, to eat for lunch over the next few days. But when I tasted it, I couldn't stop eating it. The saltiness of the anchovies and the sweetness of the onions work so well together. If you really, really can't stand the thought of anchovies, I would add parmesan cheese or maybe even some pancetta to make up for the lack of a salty ingredient. But I liked the anchovies. This one's a keeper.

Hen of the Woods Mushrooms

2010-10-19T08:26:00.007-05:00

My mom, dad, Peter and I were walking through the Division Street farmers market last Saturday, just with the intention of picking up a couple peppers and onions. But then my mom spotted this at the Nichols Farm tent:

A hen of the woods mushroom. That picture doesn't even do justice to how big it was. The mushroom man (complete with a mushroom pin on his flannel shirt) told us that hen of the woods mushrooms taste like veal, and that Charlie Trotter charges an extra $25 to put them on a steak. So we decided to try some and the mushroom man hacked off a chunk for us. He also told us to eat the whole thing, not just the petals.

I also learned (from the internet, not the mushroom man) that hen of the woods get their name because they look the feathers of a hen sitting on a nest. Their season is September and October. And they grow at the base of dead or dying oak trees, and sometimes maple trees. I'd like to know who the first person was that saw one growing on a dead tree and decided they should eat it.

Sadly we didn't get around to trying them while my parents were still in town (we were busy with a trip to A Tavola, a cooking class, and lots of football games), but I did get around to cooking them last night. I did something kind of similar to my chicken with chanterelles recipe, but a little simpler.

I chopped almost the whole thing up, except the end of the stem, and sauteed it in the pan I used to brown the chicken, along with a little butter, 1/4 cup chicken stock, salt and pepper. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.

Once the chicken was done I added the juices from the roasting pan (so don't add too much salt initially because this adds more), and served the mushrooms over the chicken. With a little parsley.

They really did have a richer taste than most mushrooms. Very tender but firm enough to keep their shape, and perfect with just the simple sauce of butter and chicken stock.

Cooking Class at The Chopping Block

2010-10-18T08:54:00.002-05:00

Last Christmas we (my dad, sister, and I) gave my mom cooking classes - one with me in Chicago, and one with my sister in Boston. Yesterday we finally, FINALLY got around to doing it!

There were a few different choices at The Chopping Block this weekend, and we decided on "The Basics: Brasserie" class. Here's the menu:

Bistro Salad with Homemade Croutons
Steak Au Poivre with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Vanilla Crème Brûlée
Skills covered in this class include: Making a Custard Base; Caramelizing Sugar; Poaching Eggs; Making a Warm Vinaigrette; Selecting Beef for Searing; Using Fresh Cracked Spices; Deglazing; Cooking with Alcohol; Making a Pan Sauce; How to Tell When Meat is Done.

Those are some of my favorite dishes, especially the salad - which I didn't know would turn out to be frisée aux lardons. And I was very excited to work on my egg-poaching skills (or lack thereof).

That's the spread at the end of the class. We cooked for about 2 hours, and then got to enjoy our lunch.

Here's the salad. One of my absolute favorite dishes is (I should say "was") the frisée aux lardons from Le Gamin. I can't post a link to it...because it's closed. Brings a tear to my eye. Le Gamin was this tiny little French restaurant in New York, on Houston between MacDougal and Sullivan. They had rotisserie chicken roasting right outside their front door on the sidewalk in this outdoor rotisserie cabinet thing, with potatoes lining the bottom soaking up all the chicken drippings. The best chicken I've ever had. Amazing ratatouille, and a wonderful frisée salad with bacon and a poached egg.

And I successfully poached an egg. Actually, I successfully poached 4 or 5 eggs. Hopefully I'll be able to do it again at home.

We made steak with a pan sauce of cognac, cream, butter, mustard, and chicken stock. And garlic mashed potatoes.

Last but not least, crème brûlée. The custard was very easy to make, and right before we ate them we got to use the blowtorch.

I lit my napkin on fire. Oops. It was so, so good. There's few things more satisfying than taking that first crack into a crème brûlée.

Sorry the pictures aren't great, they were all taken with my phone. I'll post the recipes for each dish once I successfully recreate them at home. The class was fun and really easy, there were only 12 of us (the maximum for the kitchen we were in) so it wasn't a big, crazy group. There are several other classes they offer that look like fun so hopefully I'll return to try another one.

Vegetable Lasagna

2010-10-15T08:05:00.007-05:00

It's Friday. Oh man. I'm too tired to think of anything witty to say. It's my 7th day of work in a row, and I'm ready to get this show on the road so I can have a few days off. So...today I present to you - veggie lasagna!

This is pretty much identical to my meat lasagna recipe. Except this time I used a little less cheese. I didn't measure it, but after looking back at the first recipe I know I definitely didn't use a cup and a half of ricotta. Probably a cup. So a little less pesto too.

Sauce:
olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz. can chopped Italian tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup hot water
1 Tbl oregano
1/4 cup red wine

1 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow squash, diced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 pint cremini mushrooms (or equal amount portobello), sliced
1 package lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
4 Tbl pesto

If your lasagna noodles require boiling, set a large pot of water to heat up while you prepare the sauce and veal.

Get the sauce going first - this can simmer while you do everything else. In a medium saucepan heat up some olive oil and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the red wine and let the alcohol reduce for a couple minutes. Add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and water. Stir until smooth. Add the oregano and let simmer.

Heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and some salt and pepper. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften. Add mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes or so until vegetables are completely cooked.

Boil your lasagna noodles. I didn't have to cook my noodles, but some recipes say to lay cooked noodles on a damp kitchen towel to keep them from sticking to each other. You could also drain them and add some cold water to the pot to keep them from sticking, and from continuing to cook in the hot water. Just make sure to pat them dry before layering into the baking dish.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the ricotta and pesto in a bowl. Add a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish, to keep your first layer of noodles from sticking. Add a layer of noodles, not overlapping. Next spread some of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle mozzarella, then parmesan, then some of the vegetables, and lastly spoon some sauce over everything. Then start over - noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, vegetables, sauce. Keep layering until the dish is full and you've used all your ingredients. For the top layer I did just noodles, then sauce and the cheeses on the top. Lightly cover with foil and cook about 35 minutes. Take the foil off and put under the broiler for just a couple minutes at the end, to brown the cheese on the top. **If your baking dish is really full to the top, put a layer of foil under it in the oven to prevent any spillover from dripping onto the oven.

Look at all those layers of cheesy vegetable goodness. Oooo yum, I'm so glad I have some left for lunch today.

Sauteed Kale

2010-10-14T08:14:00.002-05:00

With garlic! And bacon. Just whisper the word bacon, and it's still a very healthy vegetable side dish. Not to get all nutritional and scientific on you, but you know those ANDI score signs they have hanging around Whole Foods? It's some sort of ranking about which foods are healthiest for you. And kale is #1. First place! Obviously it makes me feel nice and healthy to eat my leafy greens, but even better to know that I'm eating the champion of vegetables.

1 bunch kale
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 slices bacon
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper

Rinse kale, cut ribs out and slice leaves into strips or smaller pieces. In a large skillet with high sides cook bacon until crisp. Let bacon cool on a plate with a paper towel. Pour out bacon grease except 1-2 tablespoons. Cook garlic in the pan until light brown, just about a minute. Add kale to the pan and slowly mix with tongs until all wilted, about 3 minutes.

Add chicken stock, and cover with a lid but with room to let steam out. Let cook for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan, mix with crumbled bacon, and lightly salt and pepper.

Salted Caramels

2010-10-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

I was all ready. I read the recipe several times over. I read all of the comments. I put the laptop on the kitchen bar so I had I could quickly reference the directions. I bought a candy thermometer. I found some nice French butter. I even measured everything out in advance and had it ready to go. I actually put on an APRON.

And then...I ended up with this. Hard as a rock.

Seriously, I still don't know what went wrong. I mean...I do know what went wrong, but I was at a loss. The recipe I was following said to let the caramel get up to 310 degrees. Which I did. I watched the thermometer like a hawk. Maybe I let it rise a couple degrees above 310, but nothing drastic. So I made the caramel again. The same day, right after the failure of the first batch. Rarely do I immediately try something again if it doesn't work out, but I was really determined to figure this out. And I got the same exact result. A solid bar of caramel hard enough to pull the fillings out of my teeth (but that didn't stop me from trying to eat it).

I noticed the packaging on the thermometer had a list of various types of candies, and caramel was listed at 245 degrees. I checked some other recipes, and they all said 245. So why this one said 310...I really don't know. Many of the comments were from readers who tried and succeeded with the 310 degrees. I so wanted to be one of them, but it just wasn't happening. Some of the other recipes I checked out called for adding water, so I figured - if I'm going to try this a third time, I need to change it up.

This recipe is from Ina Garten. I will preface this by saying two things. First, the caramels didn't turn out perfect but pretty close, and a tremendous improvement over my first two attempts. Second, I noticed after the fact that one of the comments corrected some measurements in the recipe - this person had also watched the episode when she made these and wrote that it should be 1 1/2 cups sugar (instead of 1/2 cup), and 1 cup of cream (instead of 1 1/2 cups). While I haven't yet tested the recipe with these measurements they sound about right based on the fact that I couldn't get the sugar mixture dark enough (needed more sugar), and the finished product was a little light in color (too much cream).

So with that being said, I'm still sharing my experience with the not-so-perfect-but-edible-and-very-delicious caramels. This is the recipe exactly as I made it - Ina's recipe (with "incorrect" measurements), and a couple very small changes I made.

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan (or loaf pan) with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides. You can also use an 8-inch square silicone baking pan coated with cooking spray.

In a deep saucepan (6 inches diameter by 4 1/2 inches deep) combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to boil until the caramel is a warm golden brown color. Don't stir - just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!

In the meantime, bring the cream, butter, and 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel to a simmer in a small pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat, set aside and keep warm.

When the caramelized sugar is the right color, slowly add the cream mixture to the caramel - it will boil up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan, let cool for a few minutes and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Refrigerate until firm.

When the caramels are cool, use the parchment paper to pry the sheet from the pan (or carefully flip the silicone pan inside out) onto a cutting board. Starting at 1 end, roll the caramel up tightly until you've rolled up a quarter of the sheet. Cut the sheet across and then roll the second quarter tightly. You will have 4 logs. Sprinkle the logs lightly with fleur de sel, cut each log into about 10-12 pieces. Cut parchment papers into 4-inch squares and wrap each caramel in a paper, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator or at room temperature.

The end product was a little softer than what I was imagining, but the taste was great. I've been storing them in the fridge to keep them a little harder. Once I get the recipe perfected, these will be a great gift around the holidays. I'll write another post when I try them again with the new measurements.

Stromboli

2010-10-12T08:16:00.002-05:00

Have I told you how much I make pizza? I make it a lot. Sometimes as much as once a week. On average, about three times a month. The dough is so easy, it makes great leftovers for lunch, and it's a good way to use up bits and pieces of things in the fridge like leftover veggies or different kinds of cheese.

Like all recipes I get really comfortable with, it was time to play around a little with this one. Stromboli apparently started in Philadelphia, but how does anyone really know these things... All you need to know is that it's pretty much a pizza rolled up. It's a baked roll of dough traditionally filled with pepperoni (or other Italian cured meat), cheese, peppers, onions, and olives. But my inner Kevin McAllister wanted it plain. Ok, not plain cheese, but just cheese and pepperoni.

I'll give you the pizza dough recipe here again, instead of just linking to it, because seriously - if you haven't tried making this dough yet you need to. It's from Smitten Kitchen.

1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil
cornmeal
1 egg (not for dough, for eggwash to brush on dough)
pepperoni, cheese, or whatever you want for filling

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl where you had mixed it, dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.

Dump it back on the floured counter, and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes. ( If you want 2 strombolis - or pizzas - just double the recipe and cut the dough into 2 equal parts here.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough until about 1/4 inches thin, and approximately 8" x 13". I didn't roll it out as thin as I do to make a regular pizza, but close. Layer whatever ingredients you want for your stromboli onto the dough, leaving about an inch border on all sides.

When you roll out the dough it doesn't have to be a perfect rectangle, but try not to make it a totally irregular shape so it's easy to roll up. Brush eggwash along one of the borders (I put it on the long side at the top of the photo). Start rolling with the side opposite the eggwash. Roll evenly but not too tight. Seal the end with the eggwash.

Bake on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal for 20 minutes. That's a mini baking sheet, the stromboli isn't really that big. Remove from oven, brush more eggwash over the top and sprinkle some grated cheese on top - parmesan, asiago, mozzarella, whatever - and bake for 5 more minutes. You could even put it under the broiler for a minute to get it extra crispy on top.

As you can see, mine busted open. It doesn't really matter, it all gets sliced up anyway. Not sure if I rolled it a little too tightly, or if there was an air pocket in there. Let it cool for a couple minutes then slice it up.

Perfect for an appetizer. Dip the slices in a little marinara sauce...delish. Maybe next time I'll add more than pepperoni and provolone. Or maybe not.

Arugula Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

2010-10-11T08:31:00.005-05:00

This is modeled after one of my favorite salads from Patsy's. Mmmm, a pizza with mozzarella, basil, and tiny pepperonis and one of these salads. The perfect delivery order.

Serves 4
1 package baby arugula
about 8 sundried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
about 8 slivers of Parmiggiano-Reggiano

dressing:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

To make the dressing mix all ingredients except olive oil. Slowly pour in the oil while whisking to create an emulsification. Pour over the arugula and toss to mix. Add tomatoes and cheese on top.

The basic rule of making a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar. So if you want to make a lot more dressing, or any other type of vinaigrette, just remember the 3:1 ratio.

The salad at Patsy's also had endive and radicchio, which I forgot about until just now while looking at their menu. So add those if you want...or not. I had to buy a new package of sundried tomatoes and bought a bag of them instead of a jar with oil. I think the ones kept in oil are better, but it's a personal preference.

The Cupcake Chronicles

2010-10-10T18:03:00.006-05:00

Add one more to the list. Caramel apple. Spiced apple cake studded with Granny Smith apples and a caramel cream cheese frosting. Actually, add two. I had another carrot cupcake earlier in the week.

Am I really supposed to be able to resist these seasonal flavors? Especially when they put cute "Boo" stickers on the bag.

Sweet & Salty Sticky Ribs

2010-10-08T09:28:00.013-05:00

Are there any better words to describe ribs than sweet, salty, and sticky? I had never made ribs before, but slow cooking something in the oven just sounded so delicious yesterday. I'm not going to claim these are the "best ever" or "authentic bbq" or anything like that, because I'm sure people in parts of the country like Memphis, Kansas City, and Texas where bbq is a religion would say otherwise. But they were really good and without a classic bbq sauce which is what I was aiming for. This recipe is adapted from Alton Brown.

1 slab pork baby back ribs
4 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Braising liquid:
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped

In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place the slab of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Sprinkle each side with the dry rub and pat it into the meat. Pile most of the rub on the top side of the ribs. Refrigerate the ribs for a minimum of 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Place the ribs on a baking sheet. Gently open the foil on and pour the braising liquid into each foil packet, under the ribs.

Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency.

Brush about half the glaze onto the ribs. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly.

Pour the remaining hot glaze over the ribs. Slice into 2 rib bone portions.

I served the ribs with braised kale, and mac & cheese. Kale recipe to come later. And I cheated with the mac & cheese. The ribs were really, really good. The spice rub made a nice sticky crust that and was a little spicy. They were so easy because there's really not a lot of labor involved, and you can leave them in the oven from 2 1/2 hours up to 4. I did a little over 3 hours and they were pretty perfect. Definitely use heavy duty aluminum foil, it's obviously stronger and much wider. The regular stuff wouldn't have held up. You could also finish the ribs off on the grill instead of under the broiler. This recipe would definitely make for a great Sunday afternoon football meal.

Planning for Paris

2010-10-07T09:01:00.004-05:00

Ok people (all 3 of you reading this), I need your help. I'm going to Paris in 2 months! I'm so freakin excited. I literally think about this trip every 5 minutes. It's my happy thought before I fall asleep...picturing myself walking down the street in a very cute and fashionable outfit, speaking my perfect French. Ok, well I still have a couple months to work on that last part. I can't believe I was a French minor and now I can barely squeak out "Je voudrais un pain au chocolat, s'il vous plaît".

So here's where I need the help. As you might have guessed, the thing I'm most excited for - the food! I'm deep in the throes of restaurant searching. When we went for our honeymoon last year, it was a bit of a hectic time leading up to the trip. Planning a wedding and a cross-country move while working 10 hours a day didn't allow for much time for in-depth restaurant research. Of course I didn't go into our week in Paris completely unprepared. We made a couple reservations in advance, including Chez L'Ami Jean which did not disappoint. Some other favorites were L'Enoteca, Le Petit Marché, and L'As du Falafel. I would gladly go back to L'Ami Jean, but I want to try some new places this time.

I've been doing lots of studying with this:

And this little guy has been helping too:

And Chowhound, and a couple other sites.

Here are some I've got on my list. If you've got any feedback on any of these places, give it to me straight - good or bad.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (I've already booked a Saturday night res. Thinking this will be our one blow out meal).
Le Chateaubriand (working on getting a reservation...fingers crossed.)
Le Comptoir du Relais (I know, I know...everyone and their mom wants to go here. I tried and failed at reservations so I'm hoping to go for lunch one day.)
Josephine - Chez Dumonet
Spring
Les Papilles
Le Troquet
La Régalade
Huîterie Régis
La Pâtisserie de Rêves

I don't want to make reservations every night, but just a few. But I do want to have lots of places in mind so when dinnertime comes around we're not aimlessly wandering the streets. There will be 5 of us so it's going to be a little harder to just walk in and find a table than if we were a group of 2.

So, love or hate any of those restaurants? Any other places I shouldn't miss? Got a favorite patisserie I need to know about? Besides Pierre Hermé and Ladurée...those are a given. And the cheese. Oh, the delicious French cheese. That may be what I'm looking forward to the most.

Ok now, don't all leave comments at once. The site may get overwhelmed.

Stuffed Peppers

2010-10-06T08:17:00.009-05:00

The farmers markets are coming to an end. This makes me want to cry a little. When I made my usual Tuesday lunchtime stop at the Streeterville farmers market I asked the woman at Scheeringa how much longer they would be there. "Hopefully 2 weeks." Noooooo! Because "hopefully 2 weeks" also means "maybe 1 week". I'm really going to miss my weekly dose of fresh local produce, and croissants from La Provence. See you again in June... I really need to look into a CSA for this winter.

One of the goodies that's been at the market for the past few weeks is peppers. Green, red, multi-color, purple, hot and sweet. I actually planned (surprisingly) what I was going to make before going to the market, so I picked up 6 small peppers for this recipe. This one comes to you from Smitten Kitchen, with a couple little changes on my part. I'll give you her recipe straight up, then explain my additions.

vegetable-oil cooking spray
1 1/4 cups fat-free chicken or vegetable broth
2/3 cup couscous
4 extra-large or 5 large bell peppers, mixed colors
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 oz zucchini, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
6 oz yellow squash, quartered lengthwise then sliced across thinly
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 oz crumbled feta cheese (about 1 cup)
3 tablespoons tomato paste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, add the couscous, cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Cut the stems and top half inch off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Place peppers upright in a baking dish and roast them for 15 minutes or so, until they soften, then remove them from the oven until the filling is ready.

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onion, zucchini, yellow squash, fennel seeds, oregano, and salt.

Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Remove from heat and stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas and tomato paste. Using a fork, scrape the couscous into the skillet and toss with the vegetables. Stir in the crumbled feta.

Fill peppers with the couscous mixture. Bake 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

I skipped the vegetable oil spray. Minor change, but the peppers were fine without it. I also made a whole box of couscous and used about half of it, which was still double what the recipe called for. But I meant to do this, I wanted to have extra filling. The zucchini and squash I had were bigger than 6 ounces so I used all of those, added a bit more fennel seeds and oregano, and I added more tomatoes and tomato paste but the same amount of chickpeas and feta. So all this equated to leftover filling, which I will eat for lunch today. I also added about 1/3 cup pine nuts. And I didn't mix everything together in a skillet, but just in a mixing bowl because I had way too much to fit in the pan.

The peppers were great and very pretty, but I think in the future I would rather just roast the peppers longer and cut them up and add them to the couscous mixture. They didn't really get as soft as I would like them. But all in all, I really liked this side dish. It was very easy and makes for great leftovers.

Le Colonial

2010-10-05T08:09:00.008-05:00

I can practically see Le Colonial from my window. It's right around the corner and I've probably walked by it dozens of times. It's not that I thought it wouldn't be good, but it's in the direction where I won't walk after a certain time on weekend nights (the Triangle. shudder.) and we don't do a whole lot of dining out during the week. So finally, fates collided and Peter and I both had an entire day off together. Actually now that I'm remembering the day, it wasn't the whole day, but most of it. Still pretty darn good.

We decided to have a lunch date, and even though he really wanted to take me to Urban Belly I didn't feel like getting the car out and then worrying about all the check engine lights and impending inspections and failed emissions tests going on in our vehicular life right now, because I haven't had a car since 2004 and really don't know all these things you're supposed to do and rules you're supposed to follow and tests you're supposed to have done. Feet and subways are a much easier way to get around. So we walked a block to Le Colonial and took them up on their lunch deal.

That, my friends, is pho. "Hearty oxtail soup with rice noodles, beef tenderloin slices, and aromatic herbs." What is an oxtail you ask? Or maybe you don't ask. But I did. Unlike sweetbreads, oxtail is exactly what you think it is. The tail of the cow. It's most often slow-cooked or braised, or used for a soup stock (as it was here). The broth was really tasty, and I added about half of the hot and sweet sauces they gave us. Maybe a little more of the hot. The red is the hot one, and the dark is the sweet.

For the next course we shared three things. Soft salad rolls of shrimp, rice vermicelli, lettuce, bean sprouts, & aromatic herbs in rice paper, with peanut plum dipping sauce:

A salad of grilled salmon with pineapple, grape tomatoes, cucumber, & pineapple vinaigrette:

That was all we got with the lunch special, but I also wanted to try the fried rice because one of my coworkers sometimes has it for lunch and raves about it. So we ordered a side of chicken fried rice, which ended up being more like a huge pile. Fine by me, we had plenty of leftovers to bring home.

Everything was really, really good. We finished all the dishes except the fried rice. I loved the salmon and pineapple salad. Anything with pineapple in it, especially if it's a little bit warm...yum.

So here's the lowdown. Le Colonial is a French-Vietnamese restaurant. It's a little on the fancy side, mostly because of the neighborhood and the clientele. I'm sure it's a scene on weekend nights, but for lunch it was just perfect. We even got an outdoor seat in the front of the restaurant. Their lunch deal is $12 for two courses (choices of a couple different soups, salads, and spring rolls). A pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Le Colonial
937 N. Rush St., Chicago IL 60611

Orange Cranberry Cookies

2010-10-04T08:00:00.003-05:00

Oooo I love baked goods with citrus. Hazelnut almond cookies (with orange), lemon olive oil cake, lime ginger cookies from Pistacia Vera, orange butter cookies from Amy's Bread, lemon cupcakes from Sprinkles...ok, you get the point.

This is all kind of funny because I do not like citrus fruit. Ok, actually I like clementines, but that's about it. Grapefruit, no thank you. I've never been an orange eater, which is really a shame because growing up we had a beautiful orange tree that gave us hundreds of oranges. My parents gave them away to everyone on our block, because who could possibly eat hundreds of oranges. Especially when your kid is a picky eater and won't touch them with a 10-foot pole. I was on a strict grilled cheese/Eggo waffle/buttered pasta diet when I was little. My mom likes to tell me sometimes how funny it is that I now eat everything, especially raw oysters.

Back to the cookies. Citrus lends such a delicate flavor to cookies and cakes, not at all sour but just a bit of something unexpected rather than a plain sugar cookie or vanilla cupcake. I saw the cranberries at the farmers market before I knew I wanted to make these cookies. I considered bread, muffins, and scones, but I hadn't made these cookies in awhile and thought they could use a little change with the addition of some seasonal fruit.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pint cranberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in orange juice and zest.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture.

Add cranberries and gently mix in with a rubber spatula, so to not break them.

Drop by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

These cookies are really soft and cakey. So after about a day in an airtight container, they get a little bit moist and sticky. They are definitely best eaten the day they're made, but I've never been one to turn down a day-old baked good.

Orange glaze is a nice addition, however it's a bit temperamental. I found that out the hard way after bringing them on a 2+ hour train ride in a ziploc bag. The glaze doesn't fully harden, so they were kind of a mess at the end of the trip. If you're planning on transporting these anywhere I would skip it entirely, or if possible wait to glaze them until you're at your destination. Here's the glaze recipe:

2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine ingredients and put into a ziploc bag. Cut a tiny bit of one of the corners off the bag and drizzle over the cookies.

So I didn't do the glaze this time. I wasn't bringing the cookies anywhere, but I wanted to just add the cranberries and call it a day. All this talk about citrus-flavored desserts is reminding me that I want to try making a key lime pie...

Sunday Breakfast

2010-10-03T09:13:00.004-05:00

Sometimes, you don't need to write a lot. Pancakes with apple butter. Mmmm.

Peanut Butter Cookies (and Ice Cream Sandwiches)

2010-10-01T08:16:00.016-05:00

I had this idea stuck in my head: peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwiches with concord grape ice cream. PBJ! I know there's a million peanut butter cookie recipes out there, but the one I really wanted to make was from a cookbook I had when I was little, that my golden retriever Emily chewed up and my mom had to throw away. I had pretty much given up on ever making that recipe again, but I happened to find a used copy of the book on Amazon!

$7 and 3 days later, it was mine. Ahh, the wonders of the internet. It was fun to flip through the recipes I hadn't seen in almost 15 years (eww, I'm old). Peanut Butter Capers are what I had in mind:

Since it's a recipe for kids it's easy, quick, and delicious. I actually cut it in half so I got 18 cookies instead of 36, but here's the full recipe:

1 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Turn oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl mix shortening and peanut butter with a wooden spoon. Add sugar and brown sugar. Stir until mixed.

Add eggs and vanilla. Stir until mixed.

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir into peanut butter mixture until well mixed. Use your hands if you need to.

With your hands, shape the dough into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass and make a crisscross mark with a fork.

Bake in the 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until light brown on the edges. Let cool on a cookie sheets 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 36 large cookies.

These cookies are great on their own...but I had something else in mind.

I scooped flat pieces of the concord grape ice cream and layered them to make the sandwich cookies.

Then I wrapped each one in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer.

But not before trying one!

Yum. My grape ice cream could have been a little more grapey, but overall I was pretty happy with the final product. Homemade ice cream sandwiches are so easy to make, and of course you don't have to use homemade ice cream which makes it even easier. Maybe next time I'll try peanut butter cookie and chocolate ice cream sandwiches...

Chicken with Chanterelles

2010-09-30T10:26:00.011-05:00

One of my favorite meals I had in Paris, just about a year ago, was chicken with mushroom sauce at Polidor. Nothing fancy, just a really great lunch of chicken breast, a thick mushroom sauce, and fries.

The dish at the restaurant just had a mushroom sauce, but no whole mushrooms. I saw these chanterelles at the farmers market and thought I could try to make my own version.

Serves 2
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 shallots, minced
1/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 cup chanterelle mushrooms
1 tablespoon cream
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Rise the chicken breasts and dry well. Season with salt and pepper and brown skin side down in the skillet.

Bake the chicken in a baking dish for about 30-35 minutes.

Melt butter in the same skillet used for the chicken. Add the shallots and cook over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Add the white wine and let it cook down for a couple minutes to burn off the alcohol. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken stock to the pan. Slice chanterelles lengthwise and add to pan.

After a few minutes lower the heat. As the mushrooms cook continue to add the rest of the chicken stock a couple tablespoons at a time. After the mushrooms have cooked for about 10 minutes add the cream and flour. Stir to combine thoroughly. The flour should thicken the sauce to the point that if you scrape a line through the liquid down the middle of the pan it should take a few seconds to fill back in.

Keep the sauce on low heat until the chicken is done. Put the chicken onto plates, and pour half (or all, if you like) of the juice in the baking dish into the sauce.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over chicken.

I think it was pretty close to the taste I remember. The original was a little thicker, probably more butter and flour, but I didn't want to go overboard and make it too rich. And I liked the addition of the whole mushrooms. If chanterelles aren't available any other kind of wild mushrooms should be fine, as long as they're cut into small enough pieces. This dish turned out really, really well. I'll definitely be making it again!

The Cupcake Chronicles

2010-09-29T21:15:00.007-05:00

Ok, I seem to have developed a bit of a problem. In the cupcake department. The problem is...I can't stop eating them. Not just cupcakes in general, cupcakes from Sprinkles.

I already wrote about Sprinkles once, when they opened. I thought - great new cupcake place, just a block away from my apartment and couple blocks from work, I'm sure I'll eat them once in awhile. But the thing is...the cupcakes are just so darn good I can't stay away. Living in New York, I was over cupcakes. I mean, as much as one can really be over cupcakes. I didn't think about them and crave them all the time like I do with Sprinkles. I've already aired my grievances with many NYC cupcakes - too much frosting, frosting is too sweet, cake sometimes isn't too fresh, and some of the places have just become more of a novelty and a tourist destination.

But Sprinkles cupcakes are just pure perfection. The cake is always moist and fresh, not too much over-the-top sugary icing, and they have different seasonal flavors - some lasting just a week, some nearly a month, some for a whole season. For example, my newest favorite is vanilla hazelnut chocolate. Vanilla cake with hazelnut chocolate icing. And it was only around for a week! How could they?!

Another part of the "problem" is that they do a free cupcake almost every day. All you have to do is look on their Twitter feed or Facebook page and learn what the secret word is, then be one of the first 25 (or sometimes 50) people to say the password and you get a free cupcake of their choice. For example: "Last day of summer! First 25 people to whisper “autumn” at each Sprinkles receive a free pumpkin adorned with a fall leaf!"

Peter told me he thinks I'll eat 100 over the next year. That seems a little drastic, but I did start keeping a tally since he said that. Here's my current standings. Lots of halves because sometimes I get two different flavors for us to share. This probably isn't something to really be proud of.

Carrot: 2 1/2
Vanilla milk chocolate: 1
Dark chocolate: 1
Lemon: 1/2
Key lime: 1
Vanilla: 1/2
Cinnamon sugar: 1
Red velvet: 1/2
Chocolate coconut: 1/2
Vanilla hazelnut chocolate: 2
Pumpkin: 1/2

Homemade Ice Cream - 2nd Try

2010-09-28T21:15:00.016-05:00

My first attempt at ice cream wasn't a total disaster. The flavor was good but it was too icy. I don't have an ice cream maker, which isn't a big deal, but I don't think I did a good enough job of breaking up the ice cream during the freezing process. I also used a recipe without eggs and with more milk than cream which contributed to its less-than-creamy consistency. Higher fat content makes ice cream creamier, so I used eggs this time, and more cream than milk. How strange, more fat = better taste.

Success! The second attempt was much better than the first. It's hard to say whether the ingredients or the process made a bigger difference, but I'm quite certain both changes were necessary. Plus I didn't feel like conducting a high school science experiment with a control and several variables to find out which ingredients and processes had exactly which effect. Nerd alert.

Ok, before I get started - have you ever eaten a concord grape? I hadn't. I like green grapes better, plus concord grapes have seeds which is pretty annoying. But seriously...I tried one before I started making the ice cream, and wow. I'm not kidding, they taste like grape Jolly Ranchers or Blow Pops. I always thought grape candies were gross exaggerations of what real grapes taste like, but not in the case of concord grapes. If you've never tried one buy some while they're in season, or just sneak a taste of one while you're at the farmers market or grocery.

Concord Grape Ice Cream

1 cup pureed concord grapes
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
5 egg yolks

Put a glass or metal 9" x 13" baking dish in the freezer. Puree the grapes in a blender and pour through a fine mesh sieve to discard seeds and big pieces of skin. The puree will be pretty thick, so use a spoon or soft rubber spatula to work the puree through the sieve.

Heat the cream and milk in a saucepan until just starting to boil. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Beat the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. After the hot cream/milk has cooled for a few minutes, add to the egg yolks by the spoonful while stirring.

This is called tempering the eggs. Basically you want the cool eggs to be added to the hot liquid, but if you just pour them in they'll cook very quickly and become chunky. So by adding the hot liquid bit by bit you slowly warm them to the point where you can add them to the pan. Add enough cream, spoon by spoon, until it's about equal parts egg yolk and cream. Then add the egg and cream mixture back to the pan and stir until combined.

Reheat the cream/egg mixture over low heat for about 5 minutes, until hot throughout. Add the vanilla and the grape puree and stir to combine.

While the cream mixture reheats, prepare an ice bath - a larger bowl with ice water, and a smaller bowl resting in the ice water. Pour the mixture into the smaller bowl and let cool for about 20 minutes.

Pour into the frozen baking dish and put on a level surface in the freezer.

The first time I made ice cream I waited 45 minutes before breaking it up for the first time, and then at 30-minute intervals after that. I learned that my freezer is very strong so this time I let it freeze for 30 minutes, and mixed it up at 20-minute intervals after that.

Don't be shy when you're breaking up the ice cream. Use a plastic spatula, and really get in there and chop it up, then smear it against the bottom of the dish. You're not going to mess it up by totally destroying the work the freezer has done - that's the whole point. An ice cream maker keeps the ice cream moving (very slowly) while it freezes so ice crystals don't form.

After mixing the ice cream up about 5 times every 20 minutes (or 30 minutes depending on your freezer), scoop it into a tupperware and let it finish freezing. So you're looking at roughly two and a half hours.

I give it a good to very good rating. The consistency was much improved compared to the first time. As for the flavor...I probably could have used another half a cup of grape puree and a bit more sugar. I didn't want to go overboard on the sugar since the grapes are already pretty sweet, but it did need a little more. Last time I made pumpkin spice ice cream and the flavor was perfect: 1 cup unsweetened pureed pumpkin, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice. Mix the pumpkin and the spice together and add when reheating the cream after adding the eggs. And I used 2/3 cups of sugar that time. I'm sure I'll have more posts about different flavors in the future now that I've found a basic recipe and process that I like.

I didn't stop with making the concord grape ice cream...just wait until you see what I did with it!

Alinea

2010-09-27T10:50:00.017-05:00

I don't know where to start. How do you describe the most amazing meal of your life? We went to Alinea last night for our anniversary, and I can confidently say it was the best dining experience I've ever had. Sure, it's the best restaurant in Chicago. The best in the U.S., and the 7th best in the world according to this year's ranking's by Restaurant Magazine. Obviously it's going to be an unbelievable culinary experience. But it was also FUN. The staff was as professional and accommodating as you would imagine at a place of this caliber, but they were also laid back and made our experience so enjoyable.

I told myself going into this that I was only going to take 2 or 3 pictures, just to document a couple of my favorite courses, but it didn't work out that way. I couldn't help but take more, but I was using my phone so the quality isn't great. You can find really beautiful photos of a meal at Alinea on ulterior epicure's Flickr page. The photos were taken in 2006 so the menu was totally different, but you can still get a sense of the precision that goes into each course.

Here's the stats:

3 1/2 hours
21 courses
10 wines
7 servers (maybe a couple more, I lost track)

First of all, they don't give you a menu until the end of the meal. You don't have a choice anyway (unless you have food allergies), so I think they want to keep up the element of surprise and show. Let's look at some pictures! First up: edible cocktails. The one in the front was a Pisco sour, the middle was cucumber, gin and mint, and the last one was cherry with bourbon. I'm simplifying the descriptions they gave us.

The Pisco sour reminded me of a frozen, wet meringue. It was very cold and a little chewy but still light. The second one was a cube of cucumber infused with gin and rosewater and topped with tiny mint leaves. Really refreshing. Bourbon isn't my favorite, but I liked the combination with cherry in the last one.

Skipping over a couple courses, here's the "tomatoes" course. Heirloom tomatoes with freeze dried powders of different ingredients you would find in a caprese salad, and a few extra. Parmesan, mozzarella, balsamic, onion, red pepper, onion, pine nuts, and bread crumbs. And croutons infused with thyme.

This was one of my favorites. The very first thing they brought when we sat down were two pairs of chopsticks propped up at a 45 degree angle by a little metal clip. Pinched in each set of chopsticks was a sheet of rice paper, hanging down like a flag, with colorful bits of vegetables trapped in the rice paper. We were told they were decoration for the table, until a later course when we would be eating them. So here's that course: build-your-own spring roll with the rice paper, curried pork belly, and garnishes which you can see on the glass plate. Black salt, cucumber, crispy garlic, curried mango, lime segments, daikon, onion, hot sauce on the spoon, then a couple cashews, greens, and a dressing with sesame seeds. I wish I could go even more into detail here but I honestly can't remember every little thing.

This course was so incredible that I have to share a picture, but it's very dark so I apologize. It's pheasant breast, green grape, and walnut lightly fried in a tempura batter and skewered with an oak twig. The leaves on the oak twig were briefly lit on fire then blown out but still smoking to give the aroma. The whole thing is propped up in a little metal holder. Amazing.

The "hot potato" course was the only course I expected going into the night. It's been on the menu for awhile and all the reviews I read raved about it. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the photo. The dish that the soup is in is just a couple inches wide. The little bowl contains hot potato soup and you lift the bowl up, then pull the pin on the side out to release the cold potato, black truffle, butter, and parmesan into the hot soup and take it all down in one gulp. The biggest item on the pin is the black truffle draped over a piece of potato, but obviously the picture isn't great. Here's a much clearer photo taken by ulterior epicure.

This was the second to last course - one of the desserts. Earl grey was the predominant flavor. Earl grey cookies, the curly things are caramelized white chocolate, and the other flavors were lemon and pine nut. Oh and that pillow the dish is resting on? It's an inflatable pillow filled with earl grey cream tea scented air, so when the dish is placed on the pillow it releases the scent. I think I'll try to make this one at home. Ha!

Last course. Flavors: chocolate, apricot, honey, peanut. So the server asked us to lift our water glasses off the table, and he spread a grey silicone (I think) sheet over the table. Then this appeared at the edge of the table:

We knew something was going on, we just weren't sure what. A few minutes later one of the chefs appeared at our table and got to work. First he placed the two tubes towards the middle of the table. They are actually open on both sides, but he poured about a half inch white liquid in each so the liquid was directly on the table. He then spread dried apricots, an apricot puree, milk chocolate, honey infused milk, peanut nougat, and chocolate and peanut crumb around the table. I use the word "spread" but he was really creating an incredible masterpiece of a dessert in front of us. I don't remember which happened first but the last two parts were removing the clear tubes and somehow the liquid had hardened into a custard and stayed put. He sprinkled sugar over the top and torched it to make creme brulee. And the last element was freeze dried chocolate mousse (all the dark pieces in the middle) which arrived at the table smoking like dry ice.

See how the milk chocolate spots are square, and the milk/honey spots are round? I was completely mystified by this because I was watching the guy like a hawk the entire time and he poured both the exact same way. I asked him and he kind of shrugged it off as though it was a secret. But when the table next to us had the same course I heard him say they change the elasticity of the liquid so it spreads into different shapes. Ohhhh, ok. I do stuff like that at home all the time.

And then...it was over. Starting with peeking into the kitchen upon walking into the restaurant (it's very open and right by the entrance) and ending with a work of art for dessert spread across our table...three and a half hours of amazing tastes and flavors. Every dish tasted good. That sounds like a silly thing to say, but I genuinely loved every course. Flavors that you think wouldn't be good together all worked in perfect harmony, for example one of the earlier courses with steelhead roe, coconut, licorice, and pineapple. You think - how could those flavors possible work together? But they more than work together, they were perfect.

At the very end they bring you the menu (which they let you keep) so you can look back over everything you've just enjoyed. It's too small to read here but if you click on the picture it should be big enough to see everything. The bigger circles indicate a bigger course, and the smaller circles were small bites or just a taste of something. The lighter print under some of the courses are the wine pairings. We did the wine pairings...I didn't even mention them, there was so much else to talk about. We were really on the fence but I'm glad we did the pairings.

The whole night was truly amazing. A once in a lifetime kind of meal. Alinea is definitely classified as molecular gastronomy, but I didn't feel like the whole thing was a crazy science project. Everything was unbelievably creative both visually and in taste. And one of the craziest things - Chef Grant Achatz was diagnosed with Stage 4 tongue cancer just a few years ago. Can you imagine...a chef of that caliber not being able to taste his food? Miraculously he had treatments that allowed him to keep his tongue and he's since regained his sense of taste. You can read more about his story here.

Alinea
1723 North Halsted St., Chicago IL 60614

36 Hours in Chicago

2010-09-25T08:56:00.003-05:00

This weekend's "36 Hours" in the Travel section of the New York Times is Chicago! Here are some of the food-related suggestions:

Gilt Bar
Xoco
Girl & the Goat
Longman & Eagle
Terzo Piano

The three I haven't been to (Gilt Bar, Xoco, and Longman & Eagle) are all definitely on my list. My very long list. So much to eat in this city...

This reminds me, there was a "36 Hours" about Boston not long ago, and a short article about Columbus recently. Take a look.

Calumet Fisheries

2010-09-24T08:06:00.006-05:00

Earlier in the week we took the car out (sounds like no big deal, but our parking spot is not by our apartment) to go apple picking, and whenever we take the car out we try to take advantage and go to places that are otherwise too difficult on public transportation or too expensive in a cab. So...Calumet Fisheries, here we come.

CF is on the south side of Chicago, on 95th Street by the Calumet River bridge. The bridge was up when we arrived, kind of cool. Peter has been once before and wrote a little something for me, but now it's MY turn.

Before going in we took a peek around back at the smokehouse. They smoke all their own fish right in there.

It's not a big place. Just a counter to place your orders, some fryers in the front room and a bit more of a kitchen in the back. No seats, no bathrooms, just get your fish and go find somewhere to eat it.

Here's a better look at the menu:

We ordered a half order of fish chips (NOT fish & chips), a half order of fried clams, and a quarter pound of smoked shrimp. There's plenty to look at while you wait for your food, including a wall pasted with lots of recognition from various websites, newspapers, tv shows, etc. I like this sign on the wall:

This one's not bad either:

That's right folks, Calumet Fisheries won a James Beard Award this year. As legend has it, the owner had to look up who James Beard was when he found out.

And of course there's the breaded seafood ready to fry and the smoked fish to admire.

Order's up! Time for a picnic on the hood of the car.

We could have sat inside the car to eat, but it was kind of warm out. Plus we saw some other people doing the same thing and it looked like a good idea. Here are some close-ups of our spoils. Fried clams:

Smoked shrimp:

And the fish chips:

I know this place is known for their smoked fish, but if I had to pick a favorite - if someone was holding a knife to my throat demanding that I choose one type of fish that I liked best at Calumet - I would say the fish chips. They were very lightly breaded and white and flaky on the inside. The smoked shrimp were amazing though.

I should note that besides the typical menu, hours, and directions pages on their website they also have pages for James Beard, Anthony Bourdain, and Blues Brothers. Anthony Bourdain visited Calumet while filming his Chicago show (last season I believe). And part of Blues Brothers was filmed right at that bridge. Any place that smokes their own fish, has won a James Beard award, has been paid a visit by Bourdain, and has been a part of such a great movie...is more than ok in my book.

Calumet Fisheries
3259 E. 95th Street, Chicago IL 60617

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

2010-09-23T08:44:00.013-05:00

Apple butter does not actually have butter in it. Very tricky, apple butter. You had us fooled. What else do you have up your sleeve? Turning from this...

into this?

12 small apples (or about 8-9 medium apples)
1/4 cup apple cider (cider is preferred but juice is ok)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Peel, core, and chop the apples into slices. Don't worry about them looking pretty, just as long as they're all roughly the same size.

Put the apple pieces into the slow cooker, spread evenly. Pour the cider over the apples, and sprinkle each of the dry ingredients and the vanilla evenly over the apples.

Cook on high for one hour, then cook on low for 8-10 hours (I was ok with 8 hours, but if your apples are bigger you might need 9 or 10). Stir every few hours. Here's what I had after 2 and a half hours:

After 5 hours:

After 7 hours:

And at the end. You can see on the left side I started mashing the apples up with a fork. Just take the back side of a fork, or a potato masher and crush the apples while in the slow cooker. Or you could scoop them out into a bowl and do it, but I wanted to do it in the slow cooker in case they ended up needing to cook a little more.

Some recipes say to put the apple mixture into a blender (or use an immersion blender) once they're done cooking, which you certainly could do, but I wanted my apple butter to be a bit chunky.

Spread on a roll/croissant/biscuit/pancakes/potato latke. I used only 3/4 cups of brown sugar, but many recipes call for a lot more. I didn't want mine to be overly sweet, and the variety of apples (Gala, Golden Delicious) I used were already pretty sweet. If you use apples that are more tart, like Granny Smith, you probably want to add more sugar. You can do a combination of brown and granulated sugar, too. Apple butter can of course be made without a slow cooker, but this way was so easy. Plus, it makes your house/apartment smell good all day!

Apple Crisp

2010-09-22T07:53:00.001-05:00

What to do with 5 little freshly picked Jonacrisp apples, and a very cute red baking dish from P.O.S.H.? I think an apple crisp is in order. A very petite one.

The blueberry crisp I made last month turned out to be a really good one. I think I made it two more times within the few weeks after that post. Cutting the recipe down into 1/3 was the perfect size so that I wasn't eating leftover blueberry crisp for days, so I used the same measurements again for the apple crisp. I think the baking dish I used was 7" x 7", but I believe the more standard size is 8" x 8" which would work too. Here's the recipe cut down into 1/3 since I've already posted the full version.

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
5 small apples, peeled and cored
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cold butter, cut up, substitute margarine
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Cut the peeled and cored apples into equal size pieces, roughly 1-2 inches.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, stir granulated sugar and cornstarch until blended. Add apples and lemon juice; stir to coat evenly. Spoon apple mixture into glass or ceramic baking dish; spread evenly.

In same bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and pecans. With fingers, mix until coarse crumbs form. Crumble over apple mixture.

Place sheet of foil underneath baking dish; crimp foil edges to form a rim to catch any drips during baking. Bake crisp 35 to 40 minutes or until top is browned and fruit is bubbly at edges. Cool on wire rack 1 hour to serve warm or cool completely to serve later. Reheat if desired.

I added pecans to this version, but they are totally optional. A side of vanilla ice cream, however, is not optional.

County Line Orchard

2010-09-21T08:18:00.006-05:00

Apple picking is one of those classic autumn activities. Including, of course, all the things that go along with apple picking - cider, donuts, caramel apples, tractor rides, and throw a few pumpkins in for good measure. I don't get the I-forget-that-nature-exists syndrome in Chicago as much as I did in New York, but it was really nice to get out of the city and breathe some fresh country air for an afternoon.

After much research, I found that County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana is the closest to downtown Chicago, has cider/donuts/goodies, and is open on Mondays.

We paid our $1 admission, got our bags for collecting apples, and jumped on the tractor ride.

The driver explained to us what was currently ripe and what wasn't ready yet. Good for picking - Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Gala, Jonathan, Jonagold, and Honeycrisp. Not ripe yet - Fuji and Suncrisp.

There's a cute little sign in front of each row of trees indicating the variety, time period of ripeness, and a row number.

So...what should we pick? Hmm.

We picked about 15 apples, equal parts Gala, Golden Delicious, and Jonagold. Here's some pretty Golden Delicious. The tractor driver told us to look for just a tinge of red to know that they're ripe.

There were lots of beautiful flowers along the way, too. A field of sunflowers, plenty of mums, and some wildflowers mixed in with the apple trees. See the bee in there? Bzzzz.

Next up, pumpkins. How fun is this pumpkin house?

I got a small pumpkin, and a little white and orange striped pumpkin. And one other mini pumpkin jumped into my bag, too.

Last but not least, the treats. They had the basics I was looking for - apple cider, and apple spiced donuts. They also had pies, kettle corn, jams, honey, marinades and dressings, breads, and I'm sure plenty of other things I didn't even see.

Here's my delicious apple spiced donut with cinnamon and sugar. Perfect end to the day. Now, time to make something with all those apples...

Pasta alla Norma

2010-09-20T09:11:00.007-05:00

Pasta alla Norma is apparently named for the composer Bellini's opera "Norma". Who knew? It's a Sicilian pasta dish made up of tomatoes, eggplant, basil, and ricotta salata. My favorite version of it is from Mario Batali's restaurant Otto, and he uses bufala ricotta instead of ricotta salata. Bufala ricotta is hard to find, and the traditional version of the dish calls for ricotta salata, so that's what I used.

Serves 3-4
1 medium eggplant
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14-oz. can chopped Italian tomatoes
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound pasta (cavatelli or penne)
10 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
ricotta salata for grating

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Dice the eggplant and saute in the olive oil until it starts to brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Heat the other two tablespoons of olive oil in a pot big enough to hold the sauce and pasta once done. Add the minced garlic and cook for a few minutes until fragrant and starting to brown just a little. Add the tomatoes and red pepper (1/2 to 3/4 teaspoons, depending on how hot you want it). Heat the tomatoes for about 5-10 minutes, long enough to mix the garlic and red pepper flavors into the sauce. Add the eggplant and keep on low heat.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted, boiling water. I used cavatelli but penne is the typical pasta shape for this dish. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the sauce. Top with fresh basil and grated ricotta salata.

Two things - to chiffonade basil, stack the leaves in a pile and roll them up lengthwise. Cut the roll into thin slices, and you'll have thin strips of basil. Sounds fancy, but it's very easy. And ricotta salata - it looks nothing like regular ricotta. It's much drier and crumblier, almost the same consistency of feta. And it's salty, so it works really well with the flavors of the tomato, eggplant, and basil.

Wonton Soup & Scallion Pancakes

2010-09-17T08:16:00.009-05:00

I hardly ever make any kind of Asian food. The recipes often call for a lot of ingredients I don't have on hand, I don't have a wok, and I'm not too familiar with some of the techniques. But for some reason wonton soup sounded so good the other night and I found a recipe I thought I could handle. And then I started thinking about scallion pancakes. I don't think I'd had them in well over a year...so why not give it a try? Soup first, here we go.

This recipe is from Emeril, with a couple of minor adaptations:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil or canola oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions, plus 3 tablespoons finely chopped
10 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 pound ground pork
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
About 30-40 wonton wrappers, thawed if frozen
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced baby bok choy
1 cup sliced shiitake mushroom caps

In a large saucepan or soup pot heat the oil over medium high heat until hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the garlic and 1 tablespoon of the ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the 1/4 cup of sliced scallions and the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low so that the broth just simmers. Allow broth to simmer for at least 20 to 30 minutes while the wontons are being assembled.

In a small mixing bowl combine the remaining teaspoon of minced garlic, remaining tablespoon of chopped ginger, 3 tablespoons of finely chopped scallions, the pork, egg yolk, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and crushed red pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Working on a flat work surface, lay out a few of the wontons. (Keep remaining wonton wrappers covered with plastic wrap.) Fill a small bowl partially with cool water and set aside. Using a teaspoon measure, place a heaping teaspoonful of the meat filling in the center of each wonton. Using your fingers, lightly wet the edges of the wonton. Bring 2 opposite corners of the wonton together to form a triangle and enclose the filling, pressing edges firmly around the mound of filling to eliminate any air pockets and seal. Moisten opposite corners of the long side. Curl moistened corners toward each other, overlapping one on top of the other, and press the edges together to seal. You should now have a rounded stuffed wonton with a triangle poking up at the top. Assemble the remaining wontons in the same manner. When the wontons are all assembled, set aside.

Add the sliced baby bok choy, and mushrooms to the broth and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Using your hands or a slotted spoon, gently add the prepared wontons to the simmering broth. Increase the heat slightly so that the broth returns to a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally (very gently), until the wontons float and the pork filling is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

The scallion pancakes were...good, but kind of a hassle. They really weren't that hard to make, it's just that the dough was kind of sticky and annoying, and the whole thing was too much work and mess for what I was hoping would be a quick, easy appetizer course. I don't think I'll be making them again any time soon, but I'll show you a picture of my finished product and point you toward this recipe if you want to try it. She did a much better job of documenting each step of the process with photos.

They were pretty tasty dipped in soy sauce. As for the soup, the wontons were great. The broth needed some salt added, since it calls for low-sodium chicken broth and the only salt in the recipe is the soy sauce mixed into the pork in the wontons. But I was surprised how easy the whole thing was, even making the wontons. The only advice I would give is to make sure the wontons are sealed because when you fold the bottom two corners in sometimes the edges pop open. And also - his recipe called for 1/2 cup of sliced bamboo shoots, but I skipped those and added another 1/2 cup of mushrooms. Yum!

Homemade Ice Cream - 1st Try

2010-09-16T09:08:00.009-05:00

I'm writing "1st try" because, well, this was the first time I tried to make it and I'm going to try it again soon. Never having made ice cream, I looked around for some recipes. There are SO many different options - ice cream, sorbet, gelato, eggs, no eggs, custard-style, Philadelphia-style, cream, whole milk, half and half...jeez. My head was spinning. And the kicker: I don't have an ice cream maker.

I used a recipe without eggs. Basically it involved heating up a mixture of whole milk, cream, sugar, a bit of honey, and the flavor - I wanted to make pumpkin spice, so I used some canned unsweetened pureed pumpkin, and some pumpkin pie spice. I'm not going to give the recipe yet because I wasn't completely happy with the outcome - it's a bit icy. I chose a no egg recipe and after reading more on ice cream making I think eggs will help make it less icy and more creamy. Also more cream and less milk. So hopefully next time it will come out creamier and then I'll be willing to share the recipe.

In the meantime, I'll show you how the ice cream was actually made, because I won't change the method for freezing it without an ice cream maker. Once you're done heating up the cream, mixing all the elements together, and cooling them off, pour into a large baking dish (metal or glass) that's been in the freezer for at least half an hour.

Put it into the freezer so that the dish can sit flat and the mixture will freeze evenly:

Yes, those are frozen Peeps in the bottom left corner. Once the mixture goes into the freezer, let it sit for 45 minutes and then take it out and break it up with a spatula.

After the first time, keep breaking it up every 30 minutes until it's pretty solid.

Pretty easy, right? When it's getting too hard to break up and it's looking like ice cream, scoop out into a tupperware, put a layer of plastic wrap over it so it's touching the ice cream, and then of course the lid.

As I said, I'm going to change the recipe a bit. But I also realized my freezer is pretty strong so I think I could break up the ice cream at 25 or even 20 minute intervals instead of 30. That's really what an ice cream maker does anyway - breaks up the mixture as it's kept cold to prevent ice crystals from forming. I only had to break it up 3 times I think, and from everything I read it should have taken a little longer. But the pumpkin spice flavor was really good. Not bad for a first try, but it definitely needs some work.

Black Bean Burgers

2010-09-15T10:04:00.011-05:00

I have a newfound love for veggie burgers. Until not too long ago, my only perception of veggie burgers was of a dried out, mealy, grainy brown patty. My dear friend and long-time roommate (sorry Jess!) used to eat them for breakfast - no bun, no cheese, no ketchup, just a heated up veggie burger with a little salt. Blech.

I think the first one I had was at Third and Hollywood in Columbus, probably a year or two ago. Theirs is a corn and black bean burger, I believe with cheese and guacamole. I haven't had it awhile so my memory is a bit foggy. After I saw a veggie burger post on Mark Bittman's website I knew I should try to make my own veggie burgers, and after a little more research I found a black bean burger recipe from the Washington Post a couple years ago. Here's my adaptation:

Makes 6 burgers
2 15-oz. cans black beans, with no salt added
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs
2 large eggs
4 scallions, both white and green parts, minced
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Drain one can of beans, and put in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chunky.

Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add remaining whole black beans (drained), plus bread crumbs, eggs, scallions, cilantro, garlic, cumin, oregano and red pepper flakes and mix until well combined.

Form 6 patties, about 3 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick. Place patties on a plate or tray and chill for 15 minutes so they can set up.

When ready to cook, remove patties from refrigerator and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a little bit of oil (canola, vegetable, whatever) in a large skillet over medium heat and add burgers once the pan is hot.

Cook for about 4-5 minutes on first side or until well seared and with a flipping spatula, turn onto second side and allow to cook for an additional five minutes.

Serve immediately with toppings: I used pepper jack cheese and guacamole.

Mmmm. First off, I will say that these burgers were spicy. But I like them that way. Use 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper if you want them to be milder. Also, the "dough" or whatever you want to call it was pretty soft and mushy, so to say that I formed the patties seems a little silly...more like I grabbed a handful and squashed it into the palm of my other hand and slapped it on a plate. The refrigeration part is definitely necessary to get them to firm up a bit, but even after that they need to be handled pretty delicately - scooped off the plate with a spatula and carefully laid into the pan. Don't even think about trying to cook these on a grill, there's no way.

Definitely a good recipe for an easy, healthy dinner. And I didn't cut it in half so that I could have extras to freeze. Yay leftovers!

Baby Meatballs

2010-09-14T08:20:00.003-05:00

In the East Village of Manhattan there's a place called Lil' Frankies, a wonderful Italian restaurant with little tiny baby meatballs. Miniature food is always fun - mini cupcakes, little pizzas, pretty much any passed hors d'oeuvres, and obviously baby meatballs. Lil' Frankies uses theirs on pizza, and in a rigatoni dish. Oh, yum. Just writing this is making me crave them again. Good thing I have leftovers.

I used the same meatballs and sauce recipe as I always use, with a couple very small changes. I didn't make the sauce in the pan I used to brown the meatballs this time. I also used equal amounts of ground beef, veal, and pork (1/3 lb. each), and I used pecorino romano instead of parmesan. Get your sauce going first, keep it on simmer, then get started on the meatballs.

They were so small I didn't have to do much to form them, just pinch off a bit of meat and press it into sort of a round shape. I'm guessing here, but I probably made about 150 meatballs. I know, it sounds like a lot, but I think I did three and half plates of about 35-40 meatballs.

Heat up a big skillet with 2 tablespoons each of canola oil and olive oil, and add the meatballs with enough space so that none of them are touching.

They browned quickly since they were so small, and almost completely cooked through by just browning them on both sides for a few minutes. When done, add them to the sauce and put a lid on the sauce at this point.

When all the meatballs are done, add a little red wine to the pan and loosen all that good stuff that's stuck...

And add it to the sauce.

Cook a pound of rigatoni in salted boiling water, drain, and add to the pot with the sauce and meatballs. Serve it up with some freshly grated parmesan. Because there were lots of little meatballs the meat-to-sauce ratio was on the meaty side. I thought it was good that way, but you could easily up the sauce by 50% or even double it.

I actually thought the baby meatballs were easier than regular sized meatballs. There's less room for error in cooking them and worrying if they are too dry, too moist, won't stick together, etc. They cooked very quickly in the pan so I didn't have to worry about whether I let them simmer in the sauce long enough to cook through. And besides...who doesn't like little baby meatballs that get stuck inside of rigatoni?

Paella 2.0

2010-09-13T10:54:00.008-05:00

I made paella a few weeks ago, and it was good...but not great. I used my biggest skillet, long grain white rice, and I bought some chorizo from the butcher counter at Whole Foods. I don't know if they mislabeled the chorizo, or put the wrong spices in it, or what...but it wasn't working. And I thought - if I'm going to do this again, I need to do it right. Go big or go home!

I bought a proper paella pan, Spanish chorizo, and Calasparra "Bomba" rice from La Tienda. No messing around this time.

I had been using long grain white rice because it was the best option at the store. Even though arborio rice is short grain I didn't want to use it because I thought it might make the paella too creamy and risotto-like. But the Bomba rice is short grain and expands perfectly without being sticky.

The chorizo was so good and spicy. It's cured so I just threw it into the pan along with the shellfish.

And obviously, the pan made a big difference. It's bigger than my skillet so it allowed everything to be properly spread out, especially since I added chicken this time so there was even more in the pan. The best part - the crust on the bottom, called the socarrat. You can see a nice chunk of it in the foreground of this picture.

Yum! The paella turned out really, really well this time with all the proper ingredients. And I used a hot Spanish paprika which made everything nice and spicy. The chicken was a nice addition - cooked in the oven, chopped, and added along with the shellfish. I also added a little 2 ounce jar of sliced piquillo peppers. Except for the nice steam burn I gave myself on a couple of my fingers, it was a perfect meal. Here's the recipe.